And now a word
from our sponsor
Ah spring break
That annual period
ol rebirth so long
considered a sacred
ritual a chance to
relocate drinking
partying and neg
lecting classes on
our campuses to
drinking partying
and neglecting
classes in wanner climates me simplest ot pleasures
But m case you haven't noticed, this beloved respite
from the collegiate grind has been tainted It has gone the
way ol Christmas, the Fourth ot July and the Super Bowl,
becoming unmercifully shamelessly commercial
You can t just escape and do your own thing anymore
Most ot what you went to escape from is right there wait
ing for you over/ealous sales pitches, endless pandering,
corporate pressure
For example the hotel I stayed at in Clearwater Fla . a
couple years back showcased beer-sponsored swimming
contests tor vacationing students (the maiority ot whom,
last I heard were underage) Now. I've got nothing
against sipping a brew in the shallow end ot a nicely heat
ed kidney-shaped swimming pool But it used to be we
students had to find ways to drink on our own. all the
while hiding from hotel folks intent on avoiding damaged
property No more Goodbye, fastidious, bash-busting
hotel manageis and the thrill of the chase Hello. “Chug A
Beer. Swim a Lap" night
It's worse than buying pumpkins in July or marshmal
low [aster eggs in December Nowadays MTV hits the
airwaves with a series of spring break-related bacchanals
in eaily February and winds things down sometime
around Labor Day For weeks on end. perky VJs put off
their inevitable futures as Time-Life records salespeople,
stalking Florida beaches tor vacationing students to inter
view You know. |ust your typical college kids — guys
w 11 u vt* Wdiiucicu m iiuiii uif :>ci ui me ouiuiica lummcr
cial and women showcasing the latest in dental floss
apparel You see them on campus all the time
It it wasn't spring break, it would be another occasion
nr hnlidav II there's money to be made it'll be soon
sored ( Coming up next on MTV — It's the
annual Arbor Day Wet Shrub Wearing Contest1")
But I do not blame big business tor trying to
squeeze Generation Xers out ot Mom and Dad s
dough (It’s certainly not our own money We
wandering souls of X can’t even attord our own
name, let alone reasonably priced $9 Fort
Lauderdale shot glasses )
All this commercialization upset me initially,
but then I said to myself "Hey. there s free beer.
iihinnilnnr hiLmic ifohiiirhani miontw I rtin not
into this Heck, I like volleyball as much as the next guy ’
Why complain? So corporate America is infatuated with
our attention and our patronage Fine Let them come
Wine us dine us We ll eat their food drink their beer and
saunter around in our wet T-Shirts
It's either exploit or be exploited so go on and horde
freebies while you can, or one of these years you'll gradu
ate and wish you had
See you at the MTV Arbor Day compound ■ Connell
Barrett. The Insider. Bowling Green State U.
ft a rvoMt sunny sf 4*4 rMdart, 13% My
(800)6U-VIEWSext63
12 * 1'- MilK4/ifU*
Von Deserve
a Break Today:
Just don't
make It
your leg
Life is short. X.u.ition li.ml. \t le.ist (his is
\vh:1t .1 "lowing ihiiiiIki ol lolle^e students
li.txe t.iken lo he.ill. Xml to the slopes, .m
.mil mount.tins.
hot' them. the ide.il \ .te.it ion i^oes .iho\e .mil
!>e\oml |iis( spending .1 week imilei the sun (or
under t In inllneni e).
SPRING
BREAK
'34
Whether you call them dare
devils, thrill seekers or extreme
athletes, one thing is certain
They won’t he calling you.
Instead, the\ II lie
miles away, rat
ing down a
mountain, navi
gating under a
giant sail or
\u miming M) feet
under the sea,
exploring the
ocean floor.
I his sprint;
Break, Brian Smith, a tumor at
Cornell l'., will rent a sailboat
out of (Coconut Cirove, Fla., anil
sail to Paradise Island solo
" I here is such a sense of free
dom heme out alone on the o|>en
mean," he sa\s “It’s so lilierat
mg I here's nothing for miles.
That's ins idea of spring Break
getting away from all the Busy
hustle of school."
For Mike (iueriera, a senior at
the l of Colorado, Denver, the
ideal sprint; Break is a little tilt
fercnt 1 .ike Smith, he pets the
hell out of Dodge, hut he prefers
being above sea level. Ciucricra
often spends his breaks extreme
skiing, last t ear at Crested Butte,
Colo.
“ I'hat’s the most hard-core ski
ing I had done, ever. I hiked past
the lift for 20 minutes, to about
11,000 feet, sidestepping up a
hill. It’s ustialh very tight,
flanked by roe ks and trees It's
tight lumping turns that you have
to do or get hurt .”
The l>est part - " I he comhma
tion of incredible speed and
knowing that you have to make
these turns that you’ve picked
out for yourself,” he says
For f hssa Randall, a senior at
the C. of North Carolina, spring
break is often s[*ent climbing up
a mountain instead of coming
down. Randall, an avid hiker and
soccer player, flew to New
Mexico tor break two vears ago
to climb at Cochin Mesa.
“It’s a challenge to be on a
sheer wall,” Randall says “First,
lust to stay there, and then to go
up the face, even it you don't .top
out the climb. I’d rather he out
side in nature and not with
hordes of people, doing some
thing athletic instead of |ust sit
ting around.”
Randall says her onlv Intel with
the s|»ort is the difficult) of tak
mg photographs while trying to
climb. And the results aren’t so
good either. "When urn get tour
[photos) back all you have are
these /’Mgr butt shots."
And then there’s the rush of
being airborne of falling
10,000 feet to your spring break
destination, as students from
Syracuse l . and Cornell l do
through l inger Lakes Skydiving
in New York.
W In would students opt tor a
parachute and goggles over swim
trunks or a bikini? “You’re seeing
skydiving more and more, m
movies and on television and
more and more people sav, 'lee/.
I’d really like to trv that some
time,’" says John King, who owns
and operates Finger I .ikes
MAM HTSTHOai COllFGlAT£ 'iMIS Tf{
Skydiving. Anil tor some
believe it or not — it's .1 wax to
5 fill tl 11 a graduation requirement
“A few tears hack, a group of stu
dents were one pins cd credit
short of graduating, and so du \
showed up here, took a pimp and
had me fill out some forms.” I he
students made the jump success
fully, and got their diplomas.
Of course, skydiving isn’t tool
proof. “There is always .1 possi
hilitv of severe injurx and death
with skydiving,” King s.ns, “hut
that’s part of the attraction "
But you don’t have to pimp out
of an airplane to fear tor \our
safety. Hie beauty of an extreme
s|>orts break is found m the 111am
ways you can endanger yourself
Like, sav. heading south of the
border to catch some waves
Mike Phares, surf club presi
dent at Pepperdmc l , recalls
some unexpectedly ham spring
break moments in B.i|a. Mexico
"We’ve gotten caught h\ fed
eralcs for sleeping on the l»each,
anil we had to pax them off,"
Phares saxs “We had one gux go
over the falls on the waxes and
»c thought he cracked his head
o|K-n ."
Of course, you can always look
death and dismemberment in the
face right in the good ole l S of
V, lighting approximate)) one
zillion of vour spring break col
leagues for tree giveaways in
Daytona.
But keep m mind the words of
Willy l.ornan in l)eaib oj a
Salesman: “The world is an oys
ter. But don’t crack it open on a
mattress." Ora beach blanket. 0
Il\ Biijn S.iIsIk t”. / be Cornell I hilly Sim, ( orncll l .
JUWUrr/HMMIT 1M4