My water acrobatics

Whenever someone asks me, hey, you wanna go to this place, abc, or do this thing, xyz, I hardly think about what/where/why before jumping with joy and saying, Yesss!

This one happened about 6 months ago...

I can't swim, I took lessons, but am one of the few freaks who forgot all of it after a few years.
So last summer, a friend of mine, John, asked if I wanted to go water-skiing, he has a boat and all, will be fun. Nah, no swimming required, you'll be fine, he says. Who else is going? No plans yet, lets ask the others. John and I used to work together...we walked around the office, asking others. We got 5 more folks willing to go.

Coool...so I go home, tell hubby about the plan. He has a great fear of water. Big time! (My dad told us he was arranging a floating mandap at our wedding, and my fella goes, heck no, I am not coming to your wedding, take my picture and marry it. It all went ok though, he had asked John, mentioned above to come to the wedding...just in case he needed someone to save him ;)

But I digress...so I tell him about the plan, and he says, NO. You ain't going! You'll drown! But...but...but...John said it will be ok, I want to go, I want to go, I want to go. Ok, fine, WE will go, I am coming too, he says! Mighty brave of him!

So the big day arrives, 9 of us go to the lake, John gets his boat. He has brought his niece, Christine, along as well to help him, since all the others were first-timers, none of us had water-skiied before. John makes two trips, I was on the second trip. Water-skiing takes a lot of skill. You wear the board on your feet, its pretty heavy. Then you get into the water, sort of lie down with your feet and head out of the water, and hold this rope thats attached to the boat. Boat starts moving, and you have to stand up! If you can't, you gotta let go of the rope, otherwise you get dragged around. So you are sort of stranded in the water, while the boat circles around you, while you try to grab the rope again. And then you try the whole thing again!

(John!!!! How come you didn't explain all of this before!!!)

So...I was on the second trip. So there's John and Christine, another gal, S, my hubby was there, just to watch and take pics, and there was one more guy, A.

Christine does a bit of a demonstration for us. Man, she was awesome!!! Like a mermaid rising out of the water. Totally amazing. Then John does his demo, shows up a few stunts, making it all look so easy. We all feel very confident after seeing these two.

A goes first, tries to ski, gives up after 5-6 attempts. Then S goes. She got in the water, and panicked. John got scared, and jumped in to save her, with hat, glasses, t-shirt and all. Hubby comments, John, its ok, you don't have to jump, she's not dying. A comments, John, your hat...its floating away (all this while S is still struggling, and listening to all these comments!) John realizes he's lost his hat, saves it first, then brings S back. S is ok after a while, and tries to ski, does pretty well, but gets tired after a while and comes back. And then she accosts the commentators...was very very funny :))

Ab...bachi main, my turn. I hate cold water, I hate water on my face, and I had kinda forgotten all this when I agreed to this plan! Seeing how S had panicked upon contact with the water, John suggests I get on my life-vest and get in the water, get familiar with it, then come back and put on the ski. Sounds good. I get all geared up, say my buh-byes to all, some folks even say, so long, dear, was nice knowing you. I climb out of the boat into the water.

Holy hell, this is COLD!!! And there are waves in this darned lake. And...these waves are kinda taking me away from the boat. The boat suddenly seems very far away, and HELP!!!! SOMEONE BRING ME BACK PLEASE, I AM FLOATING AWAY!!! The folks on the boat are enjoying the spectacle, taking pictures and videos and all that. Finally Christine comes to rescue me, with a HUGE grin she asks me, you don't swim, do you? Ummm...no. John said it was ok, I didn't need to. She laughs, tries to drag me back, but I'm too heavy for her, bahut mehnat kiya, finally I got back to the boat. There's pictures of me being dragged around, but NO, you don't get to see them! Hubby has this smirk on his face as I get back, done? kar lee skiing? Shall we come back tomorrow?

John was really disappointed that I didn't even give it a shot, I didn't even put on the skis. But I did have fun, and thats whats important, methinks.

He is still hopeful that I will make some more progress the next time :)
Well....we'll see about that :o)