Brady (or Squirt as he has asked to be called), is very close to getting up on two skis. Not the fancy Airhead "easy ski trainer" that we bought and took to the lake for just that purpose. He's almost getting up and skiing on 2 real skis. Here's the Airhead. Looks easy, right?
Learning to ski is hard. You have to sit in the water with these 2 long very boyant things attached to your feet by a little bit of rubber. You need to keep those bouys under your body, facing up and down until the boat pulls you out of the water. The waves make it difficult to keep those skis under control while you prepare to get up. A ski, and leg, will go this way, or that way. You'll fall on your side before you know it, submerging your head in the water. And that's before you get the rope from the boat. As is customary, there's always someone willing to help the young upstart in the water to help keep everything together for you.
You could fall for any of a number of reasons. The boat goes too fast and pulls you forward and out of your skis. Maybe you have your skis underneath you, but too far and you end up with a little too much water entering your bathing suit. If your skis start to plane out, maybe you lean to one side or the other and fall to the side. Or maybe, just maybe, you can get up on the skis, but forget to stand up. Success is hard, and that makes the process difficult for a kid who could easily just hop around at the end of the dock with Aunt Patty (but that's another story).
Now, it takes a good many tries to get up and feel comfortable. This was Brady's, I mean Squirt's, 12th try. He's almost got it!!!
The team up there, Aunt Patty, Amy, Mom/Dad, and the rest of the crew have agreed/decided Brady needs to try 6 times a day. If he is able to stay up on 2 skis, and then cross the wake 2 times, and some other criteria, then Brady will be the "youngest kid to ski" in Pansing/Plummer history. His helpful great Aunt Patty, his father, and a couple others are log jammed at 7 years old.
Regardless, if they keep trying, he will get up and then everything will change. Once you are up on skis, it feels like you are going 1,000,000 miles an hour, or as fast as the boat can go. The wind is pushing against you, and the fun starts. Go hop the wake. See if you can cut really hard and jump the whole thing. If you slalom, or ski on one ski, see how hard you can cut. See how parallel to the water you can make your body. See how fast you can shoot across the wake without tumbling out of the ski at 60 mph on your head, hip, shoulder, or anything else that happens to hit the water. You get to go fast, and that experience for a little boy or girl is a game changer.
Growing up in Minnesota during the summers, the 3 Plummer and 2 Pansing boys (each 1 year younger or older than the last) would spend hours and hours skiing every day. We would take off first thing in the morning (maybe between 10-1PM), and we would only come home when we needed more gas for the boat, for our bodies, or to pick up the next implement of speed and thrillseeking. There were always new tubes, kneeboards, and other boating gimmics, but skiing was the staple. You went faster, could jump things, and could ski all over the lake; and we did. When we were young, you literally could ski for 30 minutes without thinking about it. Now, the driver and other anxious/excited skiers wouldn't let that happen, but it could go on forever. For perspective, I can now ski for about 5 minutes before my body gives up and rebels. This leads to letting go of the rope (a good outcome) or an ass-over-tin-cups fall that I will feel for months.
Anyway, keep it up Squirt! One day you'll be rockin' the turns and spraying the pontoon boat with a rooster tail making your mom and dad very angry, and proud, just like I did. You can do it!!
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