YOU Magazine, SA
If the grey suit and calculator don't get you noticed step up to extreme accounting
The breede River has never seen anything like it. Anglers on the banks almost dropped their rods as the accountant shot past them, knifing through the watare behind a speedboat on a wakeboard, neat as a pin in his grey business suit, his tie flapping over his shoulder as he nonchalantly punched numbers into a keyboard.
He can only guess what people must have throught of him that day, says a grinning Keet Van Zyl, the first "extreme accounting" champion in South Africa and the world. "Maybe they thought the taxman was doing an audit on tax write-offs. I could swear I saw liquor bottles being hidden away here and there," jokes Keet, a chartered management accountant and investment expert at Investec Private Bank.
He admits to having a couple of beers inside him on tge Breede River the day he combined "the adrenaline and excitement of accounting with the everyday routine of extreme sport" - as befitting an extreme accounting kind of guy.
Actually Keet is half serious about the sport that originated partly from extreme ironing and partly as a result of the misconception of accountants. "The image of us out there is we're total nerds. But we have personalities and a sense of humour too - not only brains." There's somethign close to emotion in his voice.
YOU know you're a dyed-in-the-wool accountant when you wear braces with your belt; your three favourite suits are blue or grey; no one ever tells you your tie is cool; the notes in your wallet are face-up and arranged in order of value; you call your friends and neighbours clients; and you find the company of actuaries and engineers stimulating. All typical accountant jokes. Then there's this one: what's the difference between a lawyer and an accountant? The accountant knows he's boring...
Keet says his biggest rival was Colin Robertson of the Netherlands who went snowboarding in his suit with his cellphone, laptop and calculator ("off piste with the board report"). But the degree of difficulty of Keet's entry gave him the upper hand. Instead of getting into the water and waiting to get pulled up, he got the boat to sweep him directly off the jetty in a "dry start" and could therefore stay practically dry throughout the accounting process...
Keet believes he had his first experience of extreme accounting when he was studying at Stellenbosch "with the lovely winelands around me as the chief risk." He grew up in Vereeniging on the banks of the Vaal River ans has been skiing since he was 12. He took up wakeboarding five years ago. In a sense, extreme ironing made him become an E_A.
"A friend who loves scuba diving showed me a picture of a guy ironing his shirt underwater. Little did he know he'd set the theme for his own stag party. The guys and I surprised him at Cape Town International Airport with an iron, a board and a few crumpled shirts. He then had to take part in five forms of extreme ironing. Unfortunately he broke a bone in his foot when he went to iron on the cliffs of Sir Lowry's Pass so he had to iron his next item in Hermanus Medi-Clinic.
"His wife will probably forgive us any day now... Anyway, after that I went in search of new excitement and found it in extreme accounting..."
His prizes for scooping the E-A world title are an iPod and a few "accounting gadgets". After the overseas media caught wind of his feat Keet is now one of a rare breed of people - a famous accountant. He hopes E-A will raise the profile of accountancy and show young people the job can be exciting. So what's the best thing about the profession? "The analysis of figures as an instrument for making sound investment decisions." Well, hold us back.
Just one more question: is work really done during E-A? Oh yes, E-A is great for calcultaing things, "mostly how quickly you lose height as you approach the ground or water".
YOU Magazine, South Africa, 21st April 2005