I have come from the sublime beauty of the ancient forest to the ridiculous circus of Queenstown, the birthplace of the bungie jump. This week’s winner of the absurd activity award goes to the flyboard. This contraption is a board which is strapped to one’s feet. It has two water jets, pointing downwards. It also has a large umbilical cord connecting it to the engine of a jet ski. All of this is in the water. When an accomplice on the jet ski revs the engine, the jet ski doesn’t move much but the object of ridicule rises up out of the water and hovers a metre or two above the surface, for as long as the person can manage to balance on the jets of water.
Watching someone on the flyboard reminded me of an article I read a while back. It was commenting on the fact that young people, in the UK at least, are having less sex these days. The author conjectured that this was because nowadays there is so much entertainment. In the age of internet and smartphone, nobody is bored anymore. The implication was that in the less entertaining days of yore, much sex was happening simply out of boredom. And now we can add the flyboard to the ever-growing list of entertainments.
If I’m going to be distracted from sharing the joy of sex with someone, I choose the sublime forest any day.
