The Wisconsin Skier

Water-skiing!

When I was younger and there was about 40 pounds less of me I was a fanatic about water-skiing. I would ski as often as I could, and got to be fairly good at it, but never had the chance to measure myself objectively.
I am not the most athletic person. When young I was very slim and had a metabolism that let me eat gargantuan amounts of food and not gain an ounce. I was physically active when young, but such action was not well coordinated. So, when I started trying to water-ski I had a hard time getting up. Part of it was fear.

Eventually, I did get up and the fear turned to enthusiasm. My brother and I quickly advanced to the point where we would ditch a ski and slalom. I have never seen a slalom course set up on the lake where this was taking place so I could never get a good measure of how good I was or compare myself to others. One lake I skied on did have such a course but I did not enter or ski the course, can’t recall the reason.

I remember one summer weekend skiing around home on Long Lake with some of my high school buddies (Lee Radtke, Chad Kiekhaefer, and Randy Sheehan). These guys were serious and accomplished athletes and I was Les from Funky Winkerbean. Chad & Lee did just fine water-skiing. Randy Sheehan had a harder time of it. Long Lake was in full algae bloom so the water was a definite green color. Randy is a red head. I can still picture him being pulled behind the boat with that red head of his surrounded by a green bulge of water. I can’t recall if he did get up or not.

Eventually, it was my turn. I put on my life-jacket, jumped in and took the rope. I got myself situated, and gave the go signal. It was hard getting up, the boat was a little underpowered but I did get up. I skied on two skis for a while and then I dropped a ski. Unfortunately, the boat’s power was not up to that and I had a harder time finding the rear cup, actually, I never did find it. When they got the ski and picked me up, they were all amazed at my ability to do that. Funny thing was, I was kinda upset for not finding the cup, but we all admitted the boat was underpowered.

In the years since those days I have not water-skied all that much. In fact, it has been a long time since I’ve dropped a ski and certainly a longer time since I (deep water) started on one ski! Last summer, after a day of cutting, hauling, and splitting fire wood we all changed into our water gear and broke out the water skis. I was wearing contact lens something I had never done while water-skiing. I wondered if I was going to be able to get up. I did, I sat back a little longer than I used to and I stayed right behind the boat. I whooped and hollered, the boat people could hear and I am sure the people on shore could too! Unfortunately, we ran into a convergence of multiple boat wakes and I crashed. I closed my eyes so I did not lose my contacts. I then tried to get up twice after the crash, but my legs had had it. I got back in the boat and we returned to shore. It was great to be back on those boards and to be able to see while doing that.

With the biking I am doing my legs should be better able to handle the load and there is probably about 10 pounds less of myself too, and it could very well be 15 pounds less!