On vacation we engaged in numerous fun sports that ranged from beach volleyball, football, boating, skiing, soccer, to water polo. We sometimes cruise on the lake while we also fish for sport. All the fishes caught were normally returned back to the water since it was just for the fun of it.
On this particular day I drank myself beyond my personal limit and was out earlier than the rest. Waking up the following morning with bright sunshine gave me joy as I ruminate on how the night went before my cousin, Tara banged in unsuspecting.
“You could have knocked you know,” I said while I tried to cover my body the more. She, however, was not paying attention to my protest as she forcefully removed the cover cloth and shouted: “let’s go skiing man!”
The word skiing released me into an ecstasy mood. I’ve always love skiing, either for competition or for the fun of it, the later of each I preferred the most. I quickly dressed up and followed her out, but as we stepped out of the lounge, I remembered I’ve not set my eyes on any skiing befitting boat since we arrived. At least I’ve never seen where any of the boats we used for cruising and fishing were used for waterboarding or skiing before.
“Wait for Tara, which boat are we going to be skiing with?” I asked curiously. I know she was not too into skiing which means she lacks the experience of it. “We will use the jet boat” she replied convincingly. “Jet boat for skiing; I’ve never heard of that” I protested.
“You do now. I’ve read about it online and watched videos of its skiing experience. Besides, I heard the locals telling some guys they use it for skiing here. It’s the closest they have to ski boats; don’t forget they are mostly fishermen. They only use the jet boats for basically to catch fun” she confirmed.
“Let’s say you are right, but how is it done, because its shape and even its wake is not just suitable for this type of sport,” I asked
“Let’s try it first” she suggested. “We’ll watch a couple of videos together and see if we can follow whatever they do there.”
We indeed watched the videos, and I confirmed jet boat could be used for skiing, but I still could not get how. I was sure there would be some manipulation before getting on. We could not search online thoroughly for steps if there were any because we wanted to be done with the skiing before the family morning meeting. We knew already we’ll miss the prayers. It won’t go well with granny but we were there to catch fun, so it worth it.
We got two jet boats and volunteer drivers. There was no watchman, so we were going to watch for each other. She was going to ski some kilometers away from where I’ll ski to prevent any form of collision. We were not the one driving, and so we wanted to be careful. After putting on the ski, I got into the water and was getting to hit it, but Tara seemed to be faster as she has already started skiing while I was trying to settle. She skied for few seconds before she lost control and eventually lost the rope. I laughed at the incident thinking she fell because she was a novice when it comes to skiing. While her driver was getting back to her, I got myself ready and shouted: “hit it!”
The moment the rope tension was strong enough to pull me, I positioned myself, and I was already skiing in less than no time. The first problem I encountered, however, was with the water the boat was splashing into my eyes. I held on and tried to resist it, but it wasn’t making the experience fun-filled. I eventually got discouraged even though I held on until we stopped. The other thing that got me discouraged was the swaying of the boat and of course the rope, which clearly resists and contradicts my movement. My driver noticed I was discouraged and told me we caused it. “We caused nothing man, this boat is not suitable for skiing” I responded.
“You could say that,” he said. “But we use it for skiing here, and there has been no issue so far.” “How did you do it then and why didn’t you teach us earlier?” I asked. “You looked like a pro, and you never ask. It’ll be rude of us to start teaching you what you know. Anyway, about the swaying and the movement, you must learn how to manage it because there’s really nothing you can do about it, except you, of course, install stuff like cobra jet fins.
That can help a lot, but it’s not something you can easily found here. The one you can control is the water splashing. Your ropes are too short for skiing with a jet boat. Those are some of the ropes we normally use here” he pointed to some old looking ropes. “I know you think they are old; yes they are, but very strong as well” he concluded.
We took their advice and decided to use the longer ropes. I also determined to work around the movement because I wanted to enjoy the experience the way they enjoy it. We got back to the water, and in less than no time, I was already skiing, this time faster than Tara. She eventually got up too, and we both enjoyed the experience.
The drivers were right about the long rope because the issue of water splashing into my eyes was out. Even the so-called funny movement I complained about earlier is not occurring anymore. Although, I guess that was largely due to the driver rather than my skill. One thing I took note of was the fact that the movement was not fast enough for competition.
We can, therefore, conclude that jet boat is good for skiing when the intention is for the fun of it, but never for competition. With my experience in skiing, all I’ll say is whatever boat you lay your hand on, just consider some few factors like the rope length and enjoy yourself skiing to the fullest. Don’t also forget to be safe whenever you are trying to have fun so you can have it another time.