In every meerkat colony, somebody draws lookout duty. That meerkat stands up tall on his back legs, stares at the horizon for hours and yells when he sees trouble. The Meerkats collection belongs to the lookout who took that job description and made one small change: he found a horizon with waves on it. Windsurfer Meerkat is still standing tall and still watching everything, he is just doing it on a board with a sail, a pint and I've Got This… Hold My Beer arched right over his head.
Standing watch, meerkat style
He is balanced upright on a bright yellow board, feet planted, the exact posture every meerkat learns as a pup, except now the ground under him is moving. He has on dark sunglasses, a loud red beach top thrown open over a white one, and blue board shorts, with his striped tail sticking out behind him for balance. His sail is a triangle of sunny yellow, red and blue, bent full with wind, and he grips the boom with one paw like he has done this his whole life. He has not. He started this morning.
The pint stays dry
The other paw holds a golden beer with a proper foam cap, lifted up and out to the side, well clear of the spray. Blue water churns and splashes around the board in loose watercolor strokes, and the whole scene has the feel of a vacation postcard that somebody's funniest cousin mailed home. His expression is pure focus mixed with pure delight. Somewhere back on shore, the rest of the colony is standing in a little row on their hind legs, watching him go, and every one of them is wondering why they did not think of this first.
For the one who keeps an eye on everybody
This design belongs to the friend who always knows where the whole group is, the one who counts heads at the beach and keeps track of whose turn it is to grab the next round. It is for the watersports fan, the windsurfer, the lake house regular and the person who tried a new board sport on vacation and has not stopped talking about it since. It is for the meerkat fans too, the ones who can watch a nature show about a colony for hours. Picture your person standing a little taller than everyone else, scanning the crowd with a drink in hand and a grin they cannot hide, and you already know. The lookout has spotted something on the horizon. Good news: it is the next wave.
Written by Liam. Thanks for reading.
