Tag: Water Skiing

The Water is Still Damn Cold

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Another nice day in April in Wisconsin, another cold day on the water. I made the second trip of the year to the lake and took my second set of the year and the water is still cold. It has warmed from two weeks ago when it was 37 and now it is a toasty 42 degrees, which still isn’t all that warm. Add in the fact that the air temp was maybe 60, it just isn’t that warm. But it is still fun to get out there and do a little footin’.

The conditions today weren’t the greatest, there was a pretty strong south wind which pretty much manages to turn most of the lake to crap for footin’, but we did find a couple of somewhat calm areas. Now if we could get the fishermen to stop driving around it would be better. We found a calm spot and still had to deal with random rollers.

Personally, I can’t wait until the air and water are warm enough to allow me to take those nice early morning runs when the lake is both calm and vacant. We’re suppose to have a nice warm week, so hopefully that’ll get the water just a bit warmer. Right now, 50 would be nice.

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37 Degree Water

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Today was the day. Boat was already to go, sun was shining, temperature was a balmy 48 degrees and the wind was calm. Everything that makes for a beautiful day in March.

So this afternoon I headed to the lake with Bugsy, Adam and Holly in tow, ready to hit the water. I was pleasantly surprised that there was a dock already in the water, it makes it much easier to launch the boat when the water is cold.

And cold it was, a brisk 37 degrees. I suited up in my wetsuit, heater shirt, sweat pant and shirt and a dry suit on top of all of that. Since I was the fool that managed to convince Bugsy and Adam to go skiing in March, I decided to set the example and went first.
Now one would think that getting into the water when it is that cold would be difficult. It’s actually not to bad. You just ease yourself in, making sure to keep your head dry. You sit and float with head, feet and hands sticking up above the water, trying to keep them warm. Finally, the rope comes tight, I yell “Giddy up” and the boat takes off. This is where it really starts to get cold. The ice cold spray has now completely coated my face and I plant my feet and stand up. Now, the spray is out of my face, but my wet face is in the air in the 42 MPH wind. That is the coldest part. Wind-chill. It sucks. Then when you’re done and back in the water, your hands and feet start to go numb as you make your way back to the boat. Although there is something to look forward to in the boat. A cooler full of hot water to stick your hands feet in.

Needless to say, I got up, first attempt, and had a decent first run of the year. Had a decent one-foot, albeit a brief one, during the run. Well worth the effort.

And in case you didn’t realize, 37 degree water is cold. And I managed to beat last year when I waited until April 2nd to hit the water.

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Hitting the Ramp

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Took my first jumps off the ramp earlier tonight. 3 for 3, skied away from them all. Took the first jump at 28mph and then the other two at 30. I had been waiting to pull my jump skis out of the basement until my knee that I injured last fall stopped aching continuously, and it hit my about a week ago that my knee hadn’t been aching for a while. Granted for the last week or so my shoulder has been VERY sore, and the jumping didn’t seem to help that, but no falls and me knee still feels fine makes me happy. Now I just need my shoulder (and ribs) to get better.

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My Crazy Summer Schedule

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Here is a little overview of my life in the summer…

Saturday – June 25 – Up at 515 to be at ski practice by 6am. Barefooting at 610. Injured at 612. Couldn’t move my right arm for most of the day… Skiing in four highs later that morning. Four highs weren’t bad, but the transfers where they stood on my injured shoulder, extremely painful. Practice finishes up at 230. Decide to take the ski team truck to Janesville today. Make it half way there and it the clutch burns up. Spend 2 hours waiting for a tow truck. Get back to Madison and load all equipment from trucks into the trailers. Get home at 830. Eat supper. Complete voice-overs and music mixing at Midnight and go to bed…

Sunday – June 26 – Wake up and my shoulder is in extreme pain. Reaching to turn off the alarm clock was excruciating. Leave for Janesville at 7. Arrive by 8. Ski at 1215. Nearly died of heat running sound on black top in 95 heat which felt like 120 where I was located. Load up all equipment. Stop for lunch. Make it back to Madison. Setup for night show. Head out after show. Get home at 10pm.

Monday – June 27 – My day “off” – Up at 530 to be on the water by 6. Home at 930. Change oil in boat. Head to lake at 1145 to go skiing, again. Back at 330. Eat snack, watch Family Guy. Go to ski site for practice at 6. Home at 930.

Tuesday – June 28 – My easy day – Go to work, go to practice, head out. Home at 10.

Wednesday – June 29 – Up at 545 to be skiing at 630. Done at 830 and go to work. Finish work at 545 and go to practice. Home at 10.

Thursday – June 30 – Just like the 29th. Except Home at 10, go to get gas for boat and then get boat ready for Friday. Bed at midnight.

Friday – July 1st – Up at 7. Get boat and truck loaded up and ready to go. Go to work. Very long and busy day at work. Get call saying my third, and then my second can’t make it just before I leave work. Make some calls, no answers. Head home. Finally get a call to be a third for some friends so I drop my boat off and go skiing. Re injure my already injured shoulder while barefooting at a far to slow of a speed. Get home. Head out. Bed at 1am.

Saturday – July 2nd – Wake up 8 to go skiing with the Family. Get home at noon. Take nap. Go to Rhythm and Booms. Assisted on another fine parking job. Watch the fireworks from ground zero. Booms over at 1030. Back in car at 1100. In a bar at 1120. Can’t do much better than that. (BTW, the live music broadcast quality sucked. The booms were picked up by the mikes and broadcast as well. Not sure what they were thinking putting the orchestra under the fireworks and not thinking they might have some audio difficulties. The pre-show music by Sandy something. Really bad. And I mean really bad.) Out at the bars till bar time. Get some food. Home at 4am.

Sunday – July 3rd – Head to parents for mom’s b-day. Go to ski show. Watch WOTW. Go to bed. Easy day and early night.

All the while, my shoulder is still very sore, waking up is not something that is nice to do… it involves reaching for my alarm clock with the arm attached to my bad shoulder. It hasn’t gotten any easier the entire week.

Summers only a hundred or so days long and try to make the most of the days that have nice weather…

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