That’s what I’ve been feeling like lately – in more ways than one.

But I’ll just write a piece on one particular thing – wakeboarding.

*grin* Yea you heard me. I’ve been doing –that- sport… or attempting to, more like.

See, I’ve heard Adeline wax lyrical bout the sport for ages… usually with a bemused smile, as her antics are wont to bring on. She’s one of the best storytellers you can ever come across – embellishments, confusions, flurry of hand actions and all. Indeedy. :)

Never did I think that I would actually get to try out the sport – not in the early days anyway. ;)

But try it I did – tried it throughout the November weekends (save for one, which I sorta got out of, due to unforeseen circumstances :P). And man, is it a payyyyynnnnneful sport to pick up. Not unlike snowboarding, for that matter.

Nowadays, Sundays work out to be like so:

Act 1:

7:10a.m. – Insistent knocks on my bedroom door, amidst “Wake up!” demands.

7:30a.m. – Emerge 3 bleary-eyed Parkvillians at the car park lot of 212 The Avenue. All flop to their respective seats in the car, with rumblings bout the weather.

8:00a.m. – Arrive at the Home of the Holey Hi-4. “WASSSSSUUPPPP??!!” (it’s usually too early for me to cope with this, I tend to sit this ritual out by hiding in the car.)

8:30a.m. – Two cars pull off to the destination of choice – waters of either comfortable warmth or calmness (both traits having to be mutually exclusive, of course)

…

Now – I was going to write out a whole chronology of events here. Thank your lucky stars that for reasons of time and laziness, I decided not to do so. :) Rather, I will just give my brief (cough) summation over the past 3 weekends…

1st Sunday (7/11) – ‘twas my virgin attempt at wakeboarding. And true to the spirit of my impeccable timing and luck, I had to choose a 13-degree day to learn a sport that involved a lot of water-plunging – a LOT. And trust me, at that temperature – oversized wetsuits don’t really help much a’tall.

Result: Didn’t really learn to stand properly that day – was pretty good at squatting on the board tho, apparently. ;) … all done with clattering teeth, and my skin in an attractive shade of blue.

Also resurrected that age-old habit of mine, which I buried years ago – or so I thought. Shrieking.

Guess impending plunges into cold water somehow tear them out of me… along with bleeding hands. ;) Gah. :/

Got to see Addy and Lem in action though – and there’s nothing quite like watching your friends perform sports… and looking damn fine while doing it too. ;) Adeline looked like a gazelle in the water compared to yours truly… and as for Lem, let’s face it – he was bloody good for his 2^nd attempt out in the water. What do you know – was actually proud of the guy. ;)

And of course, the day wouldn’t have been complete without Adeline suffering a minor hiccup of an accident – in the form of a wakeboard dropping on her head. No biggie. ;) It sure looked (and sounded) painful tho.

… so much so that I had to stifle the laughter till later, when I could confirm that Lem shared the same thoughts at me at that point. ;)

2^nd Sunday (21/11) - Same lot, same group – and I stood up on my 1^st try! :) :) Tragedy was that my two friends there were too busy squabbling to see my first success. If only I could attribute this to my subsequent falls. ;)

But the joy of learning how to stand properly was quickly extinguished, upon the discovery that I wakeboard... slanted. See, I could stand, I could wakeboard – I just couldn’t bloody stay behind the boat.

Somehow, that feels so typical. :p

Lem and Adeline spent the rest of the day trying to master jumps across the water – whereas yours truly tried desperately to stay within the wake. Sigh. :P

Everyone in the boat was hugely supportive though – cheering loud and long each time I managed to stand up. Tho I must say – there were a coupla times where I fell whilst trying to make out what they were saying between their flailing hands and frantic waves. :p

Oh, and we had a cameo appearance by The Spitter – and indeed, the folklores were true. She did wakeboard beautifully though - almost good nuff to excuse the yellowed toenails, weird speech, bad jokes and tendency to well… flop all over the boat.

Almost.

And ... event of the day? Mind you, this one had First Aid Kits pulled out, people crowding at the end of the boat, cameos craning their necks to see what was going on.... aye, Adeline injured her left hand... think she whacked it against the wakeboard or summin. The bruises on her wrist looked pretty impressive from where I was sitting (back inside, where I could just watch everyone fluttering around)... but not nearly as impressive as how the Cameo managed to extrapolate Lem's Hokkien comments over some minor slip-ups (or down, rather).

That - and her continual guffawing throughout the day over that joke that, honestly, had passed it use-by period a coupla hours ago.

Argh.

3^rd Sunday (28/11) – I managed to wakeboard! :) :) And straight too, mind you. Heheheheh… doesn’t matter that I suck, I’m still happy. :)

But I had a super traumatising experience to deal with then too... it nigh drove me mad during those few moments in the water.

Bloody hell - I had a collision with a dead fish.

It was terrifying, I tell you. It was practically the size of Moby Dick, in terms of dead-fish-size. You know what I mean. It was HUGE. It had bits of red on it and everything.. prolly decomposing flesh. :( And it was floating on top of the water. Towards me.

All the people in the boat were trying to work out (with me) what exactly it was... and the moment they saw it clearly, they started yelling their realisation to me.

Imagine - me bobbing up and down helplessly in the water in a lifejacket, with a wakeboard strapped to my feet. Unable to move. With a dead and decomposing Moby Dick floating slowly towards me.

Suffice to say, I went catatonic. Tried to go underwater, but the lifejacket was too bloody effective. Crescendo of screams increasing with with DD Moby approaching. And finally - shutdown mode, with eyes and mouth shut, and limbs rigid - all ready to meet my impending doom.

... then I felt the bump. After which I went ballistic again, and started to kick with all my limbs. Prolly screaming too.

So much for regaining my calm. :P

After which - I dictated Hi-4 to keep me AWAY from DD Moby... at which he did a meek "Okay".
....

Lem had some strange lunch to attend to, so he could only come in the morning. The bugger managed to land a 2-wake jump tho – with his whoop and fist in the air attesting to it. Cheers abounded in the boat too. :p

Addy also managed to land most of her jumps too, which was bloody good. ;)

Oh – and we all got tans…

A day of success for all. :) :)

---

I don’t know when I’ll next be wakeboarding… cuz time seems to be working against me here. ;) Exams… then competitions, etc making all other weekends unavailable.

Ah well.

No doubt if I go again – complaints will abound.

So – watch this space. :)