Oh sure, you could just bathe in that beautiful creek, but sometimes there isn’t a creek available. Image: Geyser/Kickstarter
Doing stuff outside is wonderful, isn’t it? The open sky, the fresh air, the cool water on hot skin, the ache in your muscles after a long day of beating yourself up. If there’s blood, sweat, salt, and/or dirt involved, it’s probably because you’re doing something fun. It can get difficult, however, if you’re a person who has a life outside of blood, sweat, salt, and/or dirt, since blood, sweat, salt, and/or dirt are often frowned upon in offices, restaurants, and most places with ceilings. Let me give you a short example:
I have a van that sits in storage in Mexico. It’s full of surfboards, wetsuits, and spearfishing gear. It’s got a bed, a stove, and fridge that works well enough to keep beer cold. It generally starts and moves forward and backward, which is fantastic, so there’s basically everything one could ever need. After a month on various beaches, however, one does begin to feel a little… ripe. No amount of swimming in the ocean can compete with a hot, soapy shower, and as much as I enjoy months on end with salt on my skin, campfire smoke in my hair, and the ever-present scent of gutted fish on my hands, a good scrub is necessary every now and then. I have a plan involving a six-foot length of black eight-inch PVC, a Schrader valve, and a showerhead, but who knows when I’ll get around to doing that. Every now and again, I’ll go and shower the sludge off at a friend’s place so I’m able to go into town for more rum, glass bottled Coke, and limes without resembling Pig Pen from Charlie Brown.
Hola! Tienes jabón?
This is where the little showering gadget—which, by the way, I have not tried nor have I spoken with anyone from Geyser—you see below might come in handy. It holds about a gallon of water, which, according to the write up, lasts for 7-15 minutes of vigorous scrubbing. “Our testers found that around seven minutes is the ideal length of a refreshing shower,” the creators write, “and that flow rate will use up to one gallon. The lowest flow rate that makes good progress with dishes/gear/etc. will last around fifteen minutes per gallon.”
And since no one ACTUALLY enjoys a butthole-puckeringly cold shower, the Geyser comes with a heater that plugs into a 12 VDC power source. It does take a long time, though—from 15 minutes to 35 minutes. If you’re smart, you’ll just heat up some water on your stove at home (or in your sweet Mexico van) and pour it in before you head out into the wild blue yonder.
See more about the Geyser System on Kickstarter.
The Geyser portable shower system might be what you’ve been looking for, you filthy animal.
