Yesterday was our first day out on the lake this season. Our neighbors Dan and Brandee graciously offered to take our family along with them for the day to Lake Susan in Chanhassen. We packed some snacks and drove to the lake.
Dan can barefoot water ski. He is amazing. I think the kids were in such awe of him gliding across the water on his back, belly, and bare feet that they would have been fine watching him all afternoon. It was a pretty awesome sight. I have never seen anyone barefoot before and it was nothing short of impressive.
Since he does this often, he has all sorts of gear. This mean that all of our kids were able to try barefoot skiing, water skiing and slalom skiing. They had the time of their lives...well, at least Breezy and Avery did. Benny was content to watch from his front row bench seat on the boat.
Avery is gearing up for her first experience as a barefoot water skiier. She was so excited to do what her friend Madi can do. Isn't that wetsuit adorable?
Dan attaches a rope to the boom and the kids use it like a swing. They sit their bottoms on it and put their feet into the water. It is such a cool piece of equipment as it allowed this little girl to be oh so proud of herself after bare footing.
They also have this piece of fancy equipment. It is a waterski that is attached at the top. It teaches the kids about how to balance on the water before attempting skiing behind the boat with only a tow rope and separate ski's. Even Bria joined in the fun and she was hilarious on this thing. She wanted to ski all day long!
Of course Avery had to give it a whirl as well. I think she preferred bare footing to this, but she did great nonetheless.
Avery also attempted slalom skiing off of the boom. Dan had his work cut out for him when it came to this stuff...yowza! He spent close to 40 min in the water with Madi and Avery trying to get them up on this single ski. None of us were that surprised when his right forearm seized up on him and stuck in a closed position as he tried to open his truck door. Thankfully, it loosened up again and he was able to drive home just fine.
This was my first time EVER getting up on a single ski. I have tried to slalom numerous times in the past but to no avail. Each time I would get up on two, drop one and balance for a while. Then, as I attempted to insert my back foot in the ski, I would bite the dust. Dan and Brandee both told me exactly what to do in exactly what order and boom! I got up on one ski no problem. I even went in and out of the wake. It was an extremely exhilarating experience :)
Breezy, my adventurer...she LOVED bare footing too. I was so impressed by this little tootsie. 4 years old: water skiing:check, bare footing:check!
Watching Brandee slalom was so fun. She is amazing at it. She skied for twice as long as I did and she is so good at it. She looks completely at ease and comfortable on one ski. It is what inspired me to give it a try.
We ended the day the way we started it...with Dan the man showing us his amazing skillz. If you ever get the chance to see someone barefoot, do it. You will not be disappointed.
Thanks to our wonderful neighbors who treated us all to an incredible experience!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment