Lets go skiing now, everyone go skiing now
For our last day in Singapore I decided I wanted to go on the Ski 360 attraction. This is water skiing (or wake boarding) in a circle, without a boat, on a man made lagoon, with jumps for tricks. I love water skiing. I am also reasonable good at it. This adventure seemed like a hell of a deal too. For less then $30 I could ski for an hour. I can’t imagine having the energy to ski for an hour. Andrew was feeling under the weather, so his job was to take pictures and run me the water bottle.
To start, water skiing on a fake lake not pulled from a boat is very different from water skiing behind a boat. At first I could not get up on two skis. I have been able to get up on two skis since I was 8 years old. It was a little humiliating to be back at square one. Once I figured out how to get up, then I had to learn how to turn, I almost always fell at the first turn, which meant that I gather my skis, swim to the end of the water, and then hike back to the starting place, my feet bare, on the hot cement and try again. Andrew would run me water at this stage. Then I would start again. After one particularly, umm, enthusiastic connection with the water I realized a few things: 1. That hurt 2. My skiis were very far away floating from each other and me
3. My bikini was no longer on me (thank god for life vests), and then I quickly realize the fourth key item: The next guy was coming at me quickly. The girl getting me ready said, “just dive down if you see someone coming at you.” Oh OK. The catch is that I am wearing a robust life vest that is design to prevent me from being able to dive down. As it happened the next skier was a skilled dude out there practicing his tricks. I didn’t need to worry, he could avoid me easily, but it took me a minute to realize I was OK. Since I was back to square one I found myself doing what I did as a kid when I was learning to ski: I started talking to myself. I rediscovered that saying, “don’t fall” actually works.
3. My bikini was no longer on me (thank god for life vests), and then I quickly realize the fourth key item: The next guy was coming at me quickly. The girl getting me ready said, “just dive down if you see someone coming at you.” Oh OK. The catch is that I am wearing a robust life vest that is design to prevent me from being able to dive down. As it happened the next skier was a skilled dude out there practicing his tricks. I didn’t need to worry, he could avoid me easily, but it took me a minute to realize I was OK. Since I was back to square one I found myself doing what I did as a kid when I was learning to ski: I started talking to myself. I rediscovered that saying, “don’t fall” actually works.
I finally made it around the whole lagoon and Andrew got a picture. I was very proud of myself. The guys running the system cheered, I smiled proudly and promptly fell at the next turn. Even though I technically had 15 minutes left of time, I was done. I was as red as a beet from the heat and my whole body ached.
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