That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Hit the water yesterday. Nice weather, but a little breezy. We (7, Beau and myself) tried to avoid the wind by hitting the lake early (10am), but still no luck.

I left the dry suit at home and wore the wet suit to brave the 50 degree water. Just cold enough where when you jump in, you go, damn this is cold, really cold… and then you kinda get use to it.

Still no major accomplishments or feats to document, other than getting my wet suit on over my barefoot shorts and thermal shirt – it fit fine the night before without the barefoot shorts and thermal shirt, I zipped it up myself without any difficulties.

Really, it wasn’t this difficult the night before. It zipped right up.

Managed to do 5 back to back barefoot runs, all fairly short as we cruised the south shore of the bay, the only calm spot of water.

And I wonder why it felt like I had a face full of water on some of the runs?

7 tried out his mad wake boarding skillz, but really didn’t stay up long enough for us to get any good pics. Here he is doing a step off since he didn’t want to ride around on his ass all day trying to do a deep in the cool water. And yes, he is sporting a dry suit.

Beau tested his old school jet ski out in the main lake and braved the 45 degree water. It is with great difficulty I admit to helping a jet skier get out on the water. Can’t believe I let a mosquito loose on the lake.

My antics of making silly little mistakes that are water skiing related in the early spring continue. Last year I left my wet suit and thermal shirt on the sun deck and nearly lost both of them. John and I managed to find the wet suit floating on the shoreline about 2 hours later.

On Tuesday, I was pumped to go skiing. I had just returned from a business trip and while I was on it, my buddy Dale kept messaging me about how nice the weather was back in Wisconsin, commenting about how the lake was glass calm. Needless to say, I was anxious to get on the water, so while flying back on Monday I managed to round up another skier and the game plan was set for skiing on Tuesday.

Although the morning started with glass calm water and a temp near 60, by the time we hit the lake after work, the temp was still about 60, but the wind was now about 15 MPH out of the NE. The water was no longer glass. And to top that off, the docks weren’t in the water yet. That meant I’d have to launch the boat and then swim out to it after parking the truck. Not fun in the cold water. Just as T-Bell and I are ready to head out and launch the boat, Dr. Sandy rolls up on her blades. We manage to talk her into backing the boat in and parking the truck (it wasn’t difficult) and that saved me a swim in the lake. Needless to say, this made the trip just a little bit better. So we quickly rush and put the boat in the water.

After cruising for a couple minutes to let the engine run up to temperature, we headed to the bay looking for calmer water (this requires a slow idle through a no wake zone). We then cruise around the bay, checking to see where all the crew teams were and where the UW-Ski Team was. We stop and chat with them a bit and then head back to the bridge to set up for the first run. All the while in the bay, I had noticed the boat was taking off just a bit sluggishly.

Then T-Bell chimed in… “Why is there water coming up through the floor?”

I glance down to where I keep the plug and it is sitting there and not where it should be, which is in the bottom of the boat. I turn off the engine, turn on the bilge pump, open the engine cover, and there is water up to the level of the floor. After a little twisting and turning, I manage to get the plug in and then we wait. Wait for the water to get pumped out of the boat…

A few minutes later, the water is just about gone so I grab the handle and hop into the water, ready to go. A couple quick runs later I’m ready to let Teri take her turn.

Now Teri is notorious for talking the talk about going skiing in cold weather and cold water, but on a night like tonight, with the wind thrown in, I thought she might wuss out. But she went. She takes a few runs, trying some tumbles and then calls it a night. She even commented that the water wasn’t that cold. I then take one more run until I to finally fall when we get to the rough water. Tired, and now cold, we call it a night.

And yes, back at the dock I had to jump back into the water, swim to shore to get the truck.

Here are some pics from the evening of cold weather skiing…

Nothing special, just me footing…

Nothing special, just me footing… again…

I’m the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

T-Bell in the Driver’s Seat

A Blurry T-Bell

One of T-Bell’s Runs

First set, T-Bell tries a tumble… didn’t quite make it all the way around.

T-Bell and Me – Dry Suits don’t do much for my figure

The Keg has been Tapped. The Water Ski Season has Begun…

Game On!!!

After scouting the Madison lakes late last week, it became evident that they weren’t going to open by this weekend. They are close, but not there yet. They weren’t going to cooperate with me breaking when I begin my ski season. My deadline was Monday the 26 and the lakes weren’t going to be open by then.

I did find out that Beaver Dam was at least a little bit open. Their show site was open, and that was about it. Just past the show site the ice was looming out there. We launched the boat and suited up. Weather was in the 60’s, sun was shining, wind was calm, but wasn’t sure on the water temp. It did still contain ice, so it wasn’t warm. Although the weather was good, fog still loomed over the ice.

Mike took the first run, braving it in a barefoot suit over a long wetsuit. Had to be cold. I took the next. I eased into the water, grabbed the rope and away we went. Here are some pictures.

Here I’m doing my best “Stay Puff Marshmellow Man” impression.

See the ice float just behind me? I’m pretending to be an ice cube right now.

Surprisingly, being in the water isn’t the really cold portion of skiing in the spring. The coldest part is when you’re up, face is wet, and you’re moving 40+ MPH. The wind chill is horrible.

Still hanging on…

Next up was John. He provided some spectacular falls that everyone wishes we had on video.

Finally, Erich from Beaver Dam took a leisurely slalom run.

And one final comment… None of us were sure what the brown stuff floating in the water was. We saw the stuff clinging to bottom and floating up from the bottom, but no idea what was. It did turn the normally white spray from the boat brown.

Mike and I took a second run each. I should have some video footage of that soon.

Here are some final shots of the lake and ice…

The water was glass calm.

For all of the pictures from the ski set, you can get them here:

2007-03-24 – Skiing – First Time on the Water in 2007