Ha ha. Karl's screen name "working on the speedo tan" made me think of my first year at training camp. I shared an apartment with Aly, Matty B., Howes and Karl. Those guys would not stop talking about their white Speedos. So this morning, I pulled out the photo album and there it was... the gay speedo tan picture they made me take... that was...what? like seven years ago? They have numbers written on their arms because they'd just finished the Smith-Tracey triathalon (which Karl won) - Howes was #666, Karl was #68 +1 and Matty didn't have a number because he thought they were "homos for writing on themselves with lipstick."
At first, Aly and I weren't too happy about being put in the same apartment as a bunch of adolescent boys but I have to admit, it turned out okay. Well, aside from Matty and Howes nearly being shot by the Brevard County sheriff and the 3 of them blowing up palmetto bugs in the living room with firecrackers and how many hours it took to clean up after dinner because they used water guns to wash the dishes... Oh yeah, and then there was the night they took off in my convertible and tried to pick up Hooters waitresses by hanging around the parking lot until they finished their shift...at 1:00am.
But on the flip side, they taught me to surf, cleaned up the dinner dishes, managed the palmetto bug infestation and I didn't miss my son so much while he was away in Costa Rica. They made me laugh a LOT (oh my god, that whole scene with the two sheriff's cars kicking up dust and bottoming out as they sped across the soccer field??? That is some funny stuff!). I couldn't paddle worth anything that year but 1999 definitely ranks as my best training camp ever.