Foolish? Risky? Foolhardy? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But I had to do it anyway. When my friend said, “Wanna try?” I realized I did. I wanted to do something utterly new. Something completely out of my comfort zone. Something that up until that moment I would have said, “What? Are you outta your mind? No way!”

So I put on a bathing suit. Wriggled my feet into the black rubber cups mounted onto those blonde wood blades. And rolled myself off the dock just like they used to do in Flipper. Well, almost.

Ski tips up. Rope between the skis. Hold tight but keep a bend in your elbows. Stay in a crouch. Like you’re sitting in a chair. Let the boat do the work. Right. Before I knew it that yellow nylon rope was unfurling faster than the rogue shark in Jaws. And I was…was…

Gidget I was not. In fact I never made it up. Not even to chair sitting, much less standing. Almost did it on my third try. But you know what they say about almost, horseshoes and hand grenades. Nothing about water skiing in that phrase. I will leave the ignominies at the bottom of Lake Placid. Suffice to say that even though Martin took plenty of pictures your imagination will do just fine.

I hoisted myself back onto the dock. Actually I swam over to the wooden steps but “hoisting myself onto the dock” sounds mas macho, doesn’t it? Sore from stem to stern, waterlogged and slightly disoriented without my specs, I was nevertheless exultant. Success hadn’t been about getting up or staying up. From the minute I said, “Yes, I’ll give something completely new and outlandish a try” success was already mine.