Ode to Ageing Skiers

I thought I'd take a break from politics and write about something that's personal to me. Water skiing! 

Here's a great pic of my daughter water skiing into the sunset! (She is not however, who I'm referring to in this post)

I just turned 64 last week and celebrated with my family and some cottage friends up north at our cottage. One of them lent us a portable karaoke machine and we sang, ate and drank on our dock. It was a blast.

The point is, I'm no longer young. Now when I get injured or sick, it seems to take forever to recover. So prior to every cottage season I get anxious about one of my favourite past times: water skiing. My wife and late father in law taught me how to ski when I joined their family in my twenties. I had never had the chance to water ski before. In fact until then, I had never seen a cottage that was on the shore of a lake with a boat! I fell, what seemed like hundreds of times before I finally got up on 2 skis. Then I proceeded to fall another hundred times before I got up on one ski and finally learned how to slalom ski. The more my wife and friends laughed at my spectacular falls and after drinking half the lake, the more I was determined to learn this sport and excel at it. By the time I hit 30 I was a fairly good water skier.

We are on a small lake called Dark Lake which is about 1 km long and less than half a km wide. Thankfully it does connect to the much larger Lake Muskoka through a small channel. 

When the stars line up -Ie. no serious injuries, the boat works, my wife (an excellent boat driver) is available and up to it driving, a spotter is available (one needs another person in the boat besides the driver to watch the skier),  the weather is good, the lake is calm and there are no other boats on the lake, I just might have the ski of my life. But as I age, the stars seem to rarely line up. Mostly it's me. Every year I develop more issues. This year it was tennis elbow on both arms (no I don't play tennis so I don't even know why I have this) and breathing issues. My knees have been shot for many years now. I tore my ACL on my right knee years ago and have 2 metal screws holding it together. I think the screws are loosening up now so when I ski hard or ski on choppy water they hurt even more. 

I know I'm not alone. I have a few friends that are also not young anymore who also love to ski. We all share the same concerns. One of them I've yet to mention is lake etiquette. This happens so often to many of us. We get ready to go skiing. We get the driver, the spotter, setup the tow rope, life jacket, water ski and gloves ready. In my case I wear a double boot ski which takes a bit of extra time to put on. Since we are old farts, it's a good idea to stretch prior to ski in order to avoid injury. I am usually exhausted before I even put my ski in the water!  So just when we are ready to begin our wild ride on the water at good speed, an exhilarating ride that typically lasts no more than 10 minutes, another boat magically appears on the water shlepping kids on a tube or maybe some sea doers pop up out of no where running circles on our little lake. So we wait patiently on our docks hoping that they will quit soon and give someone else a chance to enjoy the water (us). But it rarely works out that way. They are having too much fun to realize that maybe someone else wants to use the lake if only for 10 minutes. So quite often we either try to ski somewhere else (ie. in a quiet bay in the larger Lake Muskoka) or we simply give up. Sometimes (I've done this before out of rage- not a good idea), I've gone skiing amidst the mayhem. What usually ends up happening is that I have a terrible ski. The waves caused by the tube riders or other boats make my ability to cut back and forth and get into a nice slalom rhythm, impossible. Rarely do they get the message that they don't own the lake. My knees hurt more and more injuries are likely. 

Is there a solution? I doubt it. Some of us are considering publishing and distributing a short list of rules for lakeside etiquette. An example might be to take the tube rides and sea doers out in the big lake. Another might be to wait 10 minutes after towing someone in order to give someone else a turn. Yet another would be to drive in the same direction as any other boat(s) that might already be on the water. Believe it or not I recall way too often on a busy summer long weekend watching 2 boats going in one direction and a third going in the opposite direction. This is a recipe for disaster! One might think this should be a matter of common sense yet this happens so often it's hard to believe. I also know the psychology of many cottagers. Especially ones that are new to the lake. They have a limited time frame to use it and by gosh nothing is going to stop them form enjoying every minute of it. 

Many of us elders have tried to talk nicely to a cottager who needed to understand for safety sake what the required lakeside etiquette is, only to be told in few words exactly where to go. 

But water skiing is like golf. I'm a typical, average player (if that). I don't get out that often but when I do I enjoy myself. I can't forget learning the game not that many years ago. My first couple dozen shots either went a few yards forwards or worse, a few yards backwards. Eventually though I finally hit the ball high and kind of far and more or less in the right direction. It reminded me of watching a professional golfer hit the ball. (It was nothing like a pro though, believe me.)

Video of me water skiing on our little lake

That's what draws us back to the game. That one good shot is what we remember. Hopefully we forget the dozens of terrible shots we made. The same holds true with water skiing. Despite all of the hurdles we face (especially us ageing skiers) like the ones I already mentioned, when the stars line up and we manage to ski on glass like water and have some of the best cuts ever with large rooster tails, our eyes light up and the adrenaline kicks in. Those skies at sunset flying over the boat wake at sun set, looking at the beautiful purple and orange colours reflecting on the water as we criss cross over it are memories that are etched in our minds and call us back for more.