My brother (Mike), Andy, and I went out on my parents’ lake to do some skiing. The lake was a little choppy, although I think my brother insisted that it was glass earlier and we could have gotten in some good skiing had I not dawdled. Since it was choppy, my brother and I weren’t eager to barefoot so we decided it would be a good time for Andy to learn how to ski (with skis). I jumped in some skis to show Andy how it is done. I was just hoping I could get up on skis since I’m no longer accustomed to wearing them. I gave Andy a quick tutorial and then it was his turn. He got up his first time on the boom, then he got up his first time on the boom with a 5-foot rope and then he got up his first time behind the boat. I was pretty impressed! Here is what Andy said about his skiing experience on his blog (aolson.us/blog):
This weekend I met my girlfriend at her parents’ place to do some water skiing. She and her brother love to barefoot ski. I had never skied before at all, and thought I’d give it a shot. While summer hasn’t really arrived in Minnesota yet, the temps have been consistently in the 60’s & 70’s, the water in the shallow lake was comfortable. We headed out on Saturday afternoon after taking my pickup to her dad’s shop to fix the driver’s side power window (two of the four nuts holding the motor on had come off, allowing the motor to bounce on and off the track). It was a 20-minute fix, a real relief after having too many instances of much needed auto repair in the last year.
Once we got on the lake, I talked her into getting out on the skis first. Since she usually barefoots, she hadn’t been on a set of skis in years. She did well enough to show me how it’s done though, and when it was my turn, I got right up. I started on the boom, with no trouble. Then I tried skiing with a 5-foot rope attached to the boom. No problems with that either. They tried some barefooting, and then we headed in for a late lunch. We went back out, did some tubing (not my thing at all), and then back on the skis. Before we quit for the day, they put me on the long rope behind the boat. This is where they were sure I’d take a few spills before getting up. Nothing to it though, I got right up then too. I think I was just born to ski!!
