Financial Times Weekend Magazine

All the rage in accounting

Inspired by extreme ironing, accountants are embracing their wilder side in an effort to remedy an extreme image problem. By Barney Jopson

Keet van Zyl is on crutches, with two screws in a broken ankle and a plaster cast up to his knee. He has had to swap a 4x4 pick-up for his mother's automatic so that he can keep driving - and for all this trouble he can thank his profession.

Van Zyl, 30, is an accountant and a trailblazer in the profession's most far-fetched branch: "extreme accounting". The South African gets his thrills from skimming across rivers and down mountains while wearing a number cruncher's sensible suit and tie with a laptop under his arm. "It combines the adrenaline rush of accounting with the everyday routine of extreme sporting activity," he says on the phone from Cape Town.

But Van Zyl's enthusiasm got the better of him. In an experiment with dirt surfing - riding a skateboard with monster truck wheels across rough terrain - he hit a rogue mound, initiating a tunble that "snapped my ankle right off". He will be out of action until the end of the year.

The sponsors of Extreme-Accounting are CIMA and CODA, an accountign software producer, which have put their weight behind the nascent craze as part of a struggle to scotch the image of the dull accountant...

To gain official recognition, it is not enough to ski, skydive or rock climb with the appropriate accounting apparel. Participants must have their photo taken and submit it with a witty caption containing one or two acounting puns...

Before his accident, van Zyl did marginally better with words and deeds. From a "dry start", he carved his way down the Western Cape's Breede River on a wakeboard, being swept straight off the jetty by a boat to keep his suit and laptop pristine. "I had to readjust the tie the whole time because it kept getting wrapped round my neck. I didn't want to end up half drowning with it throttling me." He survived to write the caption - "avoiding sunk costs" - and was crowned the first extreme accounting world champion.

Thus van Zyl, who works for Investec Private Bank, became an afable ambassador for the sport. He does, however, tend to drink off message. "I'm not sure whether it's left or right brain ability, but I think it's absolutely true that some accountants have a little more of the boring side than the creative one," he says. "Unfortunately, 80% of my fellow accountants are not doing much for the image."

Financial Times Weekend Magazine, 23rd July 2005