Water Skiing

I remember the first time I went water skiing.   My parents, myself and my cousin, Kathy were on vacation at Lake of the Ozarks.  I don't remember my sister being around so I must have been about 7 years old and Kathy was a year older than me.  Dad rented a boat, which was a lot of fun but Kath & I wanted to water ski and since Dad and Mom never skied they had an instructor teach us.

Did you ever just know or have this sense in your mind that without any doubt you were going to love to do something without ever having tried it?  That's how I felt about water skiing (also snow skiing), which gave me great confidence and determination.  The ski instructor gave some shore training explaining exactly what to do, how to bend our legs, when to stand up, why we needed to keep our arms straight, etc.  I listened intently, almost like I was in a trance consuming every bit of information.

Now that we had the land instruction we were ready for the real thing.  I was the first one up and the instructor was in the boat now giving a few tips and words of encouragement.  We were told not to be discouraged if we didn't get up the 1st time or at all because it took coordination and balance, which may require practice.  I was a small kid so at age 7 my weight couldn't have been much more than 50 lbs, which made it easy to pull me out of the water as long as I could maintain my balance.  I can't give you a blow-by-blow account of first experience other than to say I got up on the first try, skied for what seemed like 20 minutes (in reality it was probably more like 5 minutes), didn't fall not even once and felt absolutely great.

My cousin was next and she was very competitive plus being a year older she always expected to be the tallest, fastest and best.  My cousin Kath was more uninhibited than me so that seem to lighten up the mood and always make vacations together (and there were many) more fun.  Kath was not a wimpy, prissy girl she was a spirited kid and always fun to be around.  Now I don't recall how well my cousin did on maiden water skiing voyage, I only remember that mine exceeded hers, which was a great feeling.

It was quite a few years before we got to go water skiing again until I was a teenager and my parents bought a boat and a lake lot.  It then became my passion and my sister (Rose) had also took great pleasure in the sport of water skiing.  We skied every chance we could and spent many hours on the water becoming very accomplished and confident skiers so much so that I water skied even with a cast on my arm. 

I had fractured a small born in my arm while playing sandlot football when I was age 20, since it was a small fracture it didn't bother me much so ignored it until I went through basic training (Army National Guard).  After I returned home from my training with a cast on my arm, a doctor told me I needed surgery to fix this old fracture that was not healing properly.  I had the surgery and was given a fiberglass cast, which was breathable and wouldn’t get damaged if it got wet.  I could take a shower with it, which was great even though the cotton sleeve got wet it would dry pretty quickly.  Hmm, so I thought if it’s ok to get the cast wet then why can’t I water ski, I know that’s not logical thinking but I was 22 years old at the time so my logic was influenced by my desires. 

Now I kind of believe that God gives you some undetermined number of free passes by looking out for the young when they make stupid or risky decisions and protecting them from injury.  The thing is no one knows how many of the free passes we each have so be careful.  Anyway, I skied many times that summer without injury and I’m sure I used up a number of those safety tickets but I am wiser now.  I have included a couple of pictures of myself skiing with my cast, but as they say don’t try this at home.

We introduced many friends and family members to skiing and all of them skied well and even though their enthusiasm may not have been the same as mine, we had tons of fun and enjoyed each others company.