Vacation: Wake Boarding

I'm still catching the blog up on some vacation things.  I've wanted to share 

to remember, but I've been a little lazy.  It takes a long time to upload all the pics. 

You may or may not remember, but we recently bought a boat.  It has a wake board tower and we've been having fun learning to wake board.  I learned to ski when I was about 19 years old and have probably only been water skiing about 10 or so times since then.  Skiing, however, is like riding a bike and you never forget how to do it (at least I don't).  

While I'm definitely NOT a good wake boarder, I do know how to get up on a wake board.  It's particularly easy to learn when you learn at a ski ranch and then VERY easy when using a wake tower.  

So when we went to my sister's lake house during vacation we took our boards and gave everyone the opportunity to try it.  Nicholas was eager to show of his skills so we let him go first.  

I kind of chuckled to myself when Nicholas got up right away.  I thought to myself, "he makes that look way too easy."  

You have to understand, this kid is 60 pounds.  It's nothing for the boat to pull him out of the water.  My sister's boat doesn't have a wake tower (which makes getting up SO MUCH EASIER), but it honestly makes no difference for someone Nicholas' size.  

Nicholas had a lot of fun and gained a lot of confidence.  This is only about his 8th time going and he's already getting a little cocky. 

He loves to do the sprinkler... 

... and smack his butt (who knows why) while boarding. 

The point is, Nicholas makes it look easy and I think that had everyone in the boat very excited to give it a try.  After all, if an 8 year old can do it, then they should be able to do it too right?  

My niece Abbey and nephew Andrew both gave it a try, but there aren't any pictures from that day for some reason.  Abbey gave it a good solid effort and managed to stand up, but lost control and fell almost right away.  She was really good though, so I know with some more practice she'll get it.  

My nephew Andrew is 200 pounds of solid muscle.  Getting him up out of the water proved to be a bit more of a challenge.  He gave it an awesome effort.  Despite being able to muscle through a lot, he just couldn't get up.   

I should say NONE of these people know how to ski either.  So they're new to everything.  They're definitely at a disadvantage.  When I first learned I think it took me 100 times to get up the first time.  With all the people waiting to board, we just couldn't give every 100 tries.  

Frank (my niece's boyfriend) was next.  He's tall and skinny, but probably still had a hard time with his board sinking due to the angle of the rope (no tower).  Again, a solid effort.  

My sister was next and she was super determined to get up.

She's definitely strong, 

and was able to muscle through a lot, 

but this was as far up as she made it.   Again, all she needed was a little more time.  

My niece Genna was next and she weighs just over 100 pounds.  She definitely had that as an advantage over the boys.  After only the third try she did this.... 

...and eventually this, 

and this.  

Of course it all ended in this.  

My, equally as small, niece Emily was also able to get up and going.  

She had the problem of not knowing what to do once she was up.

But I think getting up is the real battle and she did a great job.

Everyone commented that it wasn't as easy as they thought it was going to be.  Perhaps we shouldn't have let Nicholas go first.  Little kids always make everything look so easy.

I have to admit, even I had my fair share of trouble getting up.  It was a LOT, LOT harder without a wake tower.  You have to use a lot more muscle and fight it much more.

I got up though and managed to do the sprinkler too (you're not the only one that's got game Nicholas).

I also managed to get over the wake, which had been proven to be difficult for me up until this point.

 I was so proud of myself.

Getting BACK across, however, was a little more difficult.

I chickened out...

... and ditched.  

 I got a lot more comfortable as time went on.  I could move back and forth over the wake.

Sometimes better than others.

I had so much fun just the three turns I got and managed to improve a lot in a short period of time.  I'm excited to keep learning and see what I can do.  I'm also up for any tips anyone has out there as everyone around me knows less than I do.  haha

It takes a lot of patience to learn to ski or wake board and there were a lot of people trying.  So I give props to Amy and George (our spotter and driver) who never once complained about the many drops and turns and never got a turn to try themselves.  Thanks for putting up with all of us.  I hope you had at least 1/10 as much fun as all of we did!

George Not Pictured....  haha