Take The Plunge

Just recently on the breakfast show, we took up something later in life, tried something new. It’s something neither of us have ever done before, and for me it involved an area I’ve never been good at.

Wakeboarding!

This is in a sport I’ve never dabbled in, needing a level of coordination and balance. In the past I’ve done a surf lesson, and in the hour-long lesson I never managed to get up on the surfboard despite less than a foot wave. The strength needed to explode up onto the board, flexibility and balance when up, I just couldn’t coordinate it all.

Skateboarding was something I had a lot of friends at school doing, but I couldn’t get the hang of it, and fortunately stopped before breaking wrists, ankles and doing ACL’s.

When my son had a crack at wakeboarding at a friend’s birthday party a few years back I was proud as punch to see him do a lap on his third attempt, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to match that.

I was right. My first two attempts were so bad when I fell off, I could still talk to the lady at reception. Someone could have offered me a bit of pizza, I had fallen off so close to the start they pretty much could have passed it to me.

Two tries down and the Me Vs Kaley challenge was looking very one-sided. Fortunately, things clicked a little on number three and I ended up over near the gymnastics building side. I don’t know who was more shocked, the Wake House people or me. I’d kind of forgotten what to do to avoid the jumps and as I approached one a little bit of panic set in.

My son got around in three, but for me the fourth attempt was close, but not as good as him. There was a little bit of swearing from me as I stacked it just metres from the “finish line”, nearly there, but not quite.

So, taking up Wakeboarding later in life, I give the tick. If you’ve never tried it before, take it from someone hopeless at this kind of stuff, you’ll have fun and enjoy the challenge.

Scotty

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