Summer Time!

Alright, for the most part, Brian and I have had a pretty laid back summer. He just started a new job at the beginning of July making time off a little hard, and my busy time at work starts the end of July lending NO TIME OFF there, so seeing that September is here and Summer's gone I figured I'd post the few fun times we had.
As tradition has it, our youth took a lake trip this summer that I went along on. It was a ton of fun...(except the burning nose from all the water I inhaled..oh, and the burning skin after my sun screen washed off...) One of the leader's brought her husband along to drive the boat and he is a crazy good wake boarder. I figured if I was gonna learn to wake board, it wouldn't hurt to learn it from the best. I wish I took some video because he was doing flips and 360's...it was cool. So, I get all brave and head out with a bunch of youth wanting to learn to and the closer it got to my turn, the more the pit in my stomach grew. In fact, when it was time for me to strap in, my legs were shaking so bad I could hardly get the booties on. Whew, just thinking about it makes me a little nervous. Anyway, off into the water I went with great instructions: keep your arms close to your chest, turn the board as you get going and easy peasy, you'll pop right up.
Well, first try...the rope snapped right out of my hands. I don't think I was quite ready. Attempt number two...I got a three second ride being pulled through the water...Number three...well, the rest of my attempts were basically the same--with me inhaling more water every time I fell back. By the time I was safely in the back of the boat again, I realized what the problem was. I hate having my head go under the water. Naturally growing up at the beach I love the water...but I never did the surfing of boogie boarding thing. Sun bathing was my specialty. On occasion when we were insane enough we'd go out and jump the waves and feel them lift us high off the ground...but never did I put my head under the water. As I got ready each time on the wake board, I felt myself pull hard to try and get up and at that pivotal moment where you straighten up, I would whimp out, knowing that if I straighten out too much, I'd been falling uncomfortably forward face first and not calmly on my back.
It was terribly embarrassing because truthfully I don't like to try new things unless I am confident enough that I will succeed at least to a small degree. But no, nothing...I wasn't even close to getting up once. And thanks to a patient driver and passengers I tried for a good while before giving up...(also something I don't normally do..) I had tried wake boarding once awhile back when I was 15 or so at my annual youth lake trip so I figured I was a little more coordinated--not the case.
Anyway, despite the embarrassment, it was a good time. We all had lots of fun..and one of these days I'll be brave enough to give this wake boarding thing another go and get my head good and soaked.




This first one I was ready freddy...all smiles and confident that THIS time for sure I would get up...but, as this bottom picture shows the only thing I got better at was the splashing...hmph!