“Drop It In, Dry It Out” — insert immature sexual innuendo here…?

BHEESTIE BAGS –

It seems like I dredge through approximately 35 million emails a day. Most seem to be about “check out our hot new product!” or “skiers will love this!” and my personal favorite: “Need a Boost? Cheap Viagra — Click HERE”.

Well, you eventually learn to just laugh a bit and press delete. But once in a while, something catches your eye and interest. When I received an email about Bheestie Bags, I’ll admit my response was something along the lines of, “jesus… Adam Yauch should sue…”, but when I read the first paragraph, I decided to shoot a message back. Basically, the Bags are designed to save your PDAs, phones, iPods, etc that you drop in the snow, get super-condensation poisoning from your jackets, or if you’re like me, lose your Blackberry in a pitcher of beer… more than once.

The idea is pretty simple — offer an airtight system that will slowly suck out the moisture from your saturated device, and return your formerly soggy piece of hardware back into the essential machine it once was. Pretty fool-proof actually, just drop the item into the bag, seal, and wait a few hours. For completely soaked phones, etc, a few longer will do the trick.

After I emailed the company back, I received a complimentary Bheestie Bag in the mail. It looks kind of like the packages that astronaut ice cream comes in we all bought at the Boston Museum of Science as kids. Not really knowing what to do with it or how to test it (potentially soak and effectively throw away a new iPod if the thing didn’t work… no thanks), I tossed it in the backseat and kind of forgot about the whole thing.

A few weeks later, Ma Nature decided to dump 18 inches on Stowe — and the hiking boots came out. Blackberry in the pants pocket, I began the long haul up Gondolier to the summit. Greeted by miles-long post-holing and presumably 40 mph+ downward winds, it was an intense experience, but well worth it, as always. The ride down was amazing, but when I got to the car, my Berry had completely shit the bed. The cold winds, snowy hands, and condensation from the cold/hot changes had killed the poor girl. I was screwed, not too psyched on having to buy yet another PDA from the jackals at Sprint…

I suddenly remembered the Bheestie in my backseat, and pulled ‘er out. Ripped open the top, dropped in the phone, and sealed — having admittedly less than complete faith in this system.

Lo and behold, less than two hours later, my Blackberry was dry, woken up, and working good as new. Kind of shocking, but the product actually works. I went from potential Sprint groveling to elated pow-riding recaps with the kids. Can’t beat that.

I don’t do this often… but I’m going to fully back the Bheestie Bag. If you rock the hills with and iPod, phone, PDA, etc — these Bags are almost a necessity. Buy another 400 dollar iPhone or a $20 dollar insurance program in a bag? No brainer, in my mind.

They’re available online at www.bheestie.com, and will run you $20. Best part — if used properly, should last you a couple season of drunken PBR pitcher-diving.

- Adam