Tag: Water Skiing

Out of the Sound Booth

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It’s nice when they let me out of the sound booth during the ski shows… Here’s some proof that they actually do let me ski on occasion. They let me ski my favorite act, conventional doubles. It’s not much, but I’m on the water. I’m 3rd from the left in the first picture.

Now if I can only convince them to let me do part of the opening barefoot act. I even have a way to work it into the theme.



These photos are from Jim’s Photos.
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Dusted Off the Jump Skis

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This past weekend I dusted off the jump skis, strapped on my helmet and hit the ramp for the first time of the year. Not a good set, but not too bad either. 3 for 8, landing my last two. I realized something as we were going back past the jump on my way to do jump number 7. When your learning to jump, they tell you three things.

Knees.
Trees.
Freeze.

A little bend in the knees. Look at the trees (horizon). Freeze – hold your position.

It really is that simple. But what I realized is I wasn’t doing step 2. I wasn’t looking at the trees. Once I made that correction, my last two jumps were much better. Still not great by any means though. After having just looking through the pictures, my skis are coming apart and I really need to resist the water on my landing. I still relax too much in the air. I also noticed I’m pulling up on the handle and that is probably generating a lot of the slack in my rope. I need to lock my elbows into my sides. So I need to work on my execution of step 3 as well. Knowing this, hopefully my next set will be better.

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Summer is Here!!!

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It appears that summer is finally here. Yes, finally here. The weather last week seems to have finally pushed spring out and summer in. Last week featured a variety of crazy weather. Storms pretty much daily. Mad-City managed to get in our practices between storms, downpours, etc, but dodging bolts of lightening just isn’t that fun. Wednesday’s practice was cut short because of some severe weather that moved through. Thursday’s was delayed due to storms moving through.

Friday, summer began. Beautiful weather, hot, clear, blue skies. Saturday, just like Friday. Our practice Saturday morning was very likely our warmest practice of the year so far. The air temp was already in the 70s. A very nice change from the 50s and 60s we had been practicing in. Sunday, was just hot and humid. We put out a good show, but nothing special since our practice up to this point had been limited.

Then on Memorial Day, I played uncle. I took my sister and her family out to the lake. We taught Anna, my seven year old niece, how to ski. She got up on the boom on her first try. The first two times she skied I dragged along side of her on the boom so she was a little more comfortable in the lake. The third time, she went by herself and did great. Next time she wants to go on the short line. Both of my nephews also skied, but they had both gone before.

All in all, a good Memorial Day weekend to kick off summer.

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Storm Clouds

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Crazy weather! Yes, August 18th of 2005, we had some extreme weather move through the area. But, being die hard skiers, we decided to wait out the storm. So after the downpours were done, we suited up and did some skiing. Overhead we had blue skys and calm wind. Looking south from our ski site, across the lake, we could see some amazing storm clouds. Little did we know that while we were skiing, Stoughton was being hit by tornados.

The photo above is what I took with my camera phone that night.

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Wisconsin Weather

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Gotta love Wisconsin weather. Yesterday, not great, but about 70 degrees, cloudy, calm winds, great waterskiing weather for the spring. The lake was calm and smooth as butter.

Today, maybe a high of 50, 25+ MPH winds, and now, there is definitely some snow mixed in with the rain.

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Two-a-days

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Did my first two-a-day of the year today. Took a good long ski set at lunch and then did some more skiing that night. Lunch we had great water. Nailed a nice long one foot across the bay. At night, the wind had shifted and increases a lot, and basically sucked. Still good to get a couple more runs in though. Now I’m beat.

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How to feel good about loosing $50

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Or “Can you leave your wet suit and thermal shirt on the sun deck and take off in your boat and have them still be there when you get to the dock?

The answer is no.

Tonight, I hit the lake with John and T-Bell for a quick set in the evening. John took a slalom set out in the main lake. I took a few foot runs in the bay. Actually managed a couple decent one-foots, but nothing significant. It was just nice to get out. The weekend weather didn’t cooperate much, windy, cool, cloudy, scattered showers, you name it. But Sunday was OK, 60, partly sunny and windy, but do-able.

I was the last to ski and once I got back into the boat, I pealed off my suit and shirt and just left then on the sun deck and proceeded to dry off and change as we idled back to the main lake. Once past the bridges, I was now dry and had forgotten that my stuff was still on the back of the boat, and not actually in the boat.

T-Bell passed the no-wake buoy and took off. About half way back to the landing, we hit a good wave, John’s water flew all over, and (unbeknownst to me) my suit and shirt probably flew off the back off the boat.

We get to the landing, trailer the boat, everyone starts handing stuff out of the boat, wiping it down, putting things in their vehicles and mine. Five minutes later we’re all ready to leave. I hop in my truck and drive home.

I get home about 630. I’m tired and hungry, so I just back the boat into the garage and go inside to start cooking some dinner. While cooking and eating, I start watching a show. I finish dinner and then finish the show. Its now about 730 and I head outside and get everything put away. I unhook the boat, put the truck in the garage and start emptying the it. Find my shorts and gloves. No suit, and no shirt. I hop up into the boat and check… No suit, no shirt.

Call John… Did you happen to grab my wetsuit? Nope.

Call T-Bell… Left a message about if she had grabbed my stuff… still haven’t heard anything yet.

Then I call John back and we decide to head down to lake to look for it. I grab a dry pair of shorts and life vest, just in case we see and it is floating out in the water a ways. I’m foolish enough to jump in with floatation when the water is cold and do some skiing, but not so stupid as to take a swim at dusk when I don’t have flotation on.

Now it is after 8 and the sun has been set for 20 minutes or so and it is getting pretty dark. John starts from the north end of the shoreline where we think it may be on and probable had about 20 minutes of looking in before I started from the south end. I walk about 100 yards of the shore, and who’d a thunk it, I see a wetsuit floating right along the shoreline. I grab a big stick and fish it out of the water. Needless to say, it stunk.

We finish looking, but there is no sign of the shirt.

So, realizing I may have lost both a $200 wetsuit and a $50 thermal shirt, coming out with only losing the $50 shirt feels pretty damn good.

One other thing, this is a mistake I’ll never make again.

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Good Friday

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Good Friday was a great day here in Madison. 85 & sunny isn’t unusual in Wisconsin, but it is in April. Friday after finishing up work, I met up with some friends and hit the water for an afternoon of skiing. And when we made a way into Monona Bay, we found water that was 58 degrees. And 58 degrees, although still cold enough to make you go “damn, this is cold” when you get in, it is warm enough that you can leave the dry suit at home. So Friday, I took the first run of the year with just a barefoot suit on. Free at last. Dry suits are great for their purpose, but they are damn uncomfortable to wear and pain to put on and take off. Now if we can just get the wind to cooperate so we can get some nice calm water.

And a word of advice, don’t drop a 4×8 sheet of 3/4 inch plywood your foot. It hurts.

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Didn’t Drive My Boat

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Last Sunday when I went out skiing with T-Bell and Amy was the first time my boat has been to the lake and I didn’t drive it. Typically, I’ll end up taking the boat off the trailer and putting it back on at the very least, and usually end up driving while someone else skis. But Sunday, Teri did the trailoring and drove while I footed. Since she opted to skip the cold and somewhat windy conditions and Amy was just along to spot, there was nothing that demanded that I drive the boat. It didn’t hit me ’til we were heading back to the landing that it was the very first time since I bought the boat in June of 2000 that I hadn’t driven it while at the lake.

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Lunch Runs

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Yesterday I managed to head out for a long lunch on the lake. I can really only head out about once a week for a lunch run, but they are always worth it. Granted the weather didn’t fully cooperate, but it was still fun to get out on the water and get a quick set in over lunch. In a few weeks, when the water is substantially warmer, these will be even better. There won’t be any need to deal with dry suits and all the other crap that comes with skiing in cold water. I admit the dry suit is instrumental to skiing this early without getting sick, but that doesn’t mean I have to like using it.

This is by far the most I’ve skied this early in the year and hopefully it’ll pay off in summer. Get the kinks out now while the water is still bitter cold.

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