Act 16: Skiing Trials and Tribulations

Backwater Gamblers are a water ski team. They put on two free shows each week that act as their practices for the competitions that they compete in all summer. They have jumpers, pyramid teams, two and three person groups that do gymnastic/cheerleading-esque lifts and turns, and girls that do fancy ballet-like things like turning around on their skis and holding the handle with their foot. It’s all very impressive and fun to watch.

The downfall is that they only have a few boats and there is a decent amount of downtime between acts. Actually the downtime isn’t the problem, but what they fill it with. It’s a little skit that continues throughout the whole show. It’s a radio station (the sound equipment work nicely for playing appropriate music during the ski acts) and three people pretend to be a station manager, DJ, and call operator. These people try so hard to keep you entertained and keep it funny and interesting, but the script is really ridiculous. I think the downtime would be better filled by music and possibly interviews with the skiers that aren’t setting up for the next act. That’s my idea!

The one things that I couldn’t get over while watching the show was how incredibly jealous I was of them. I am insanely jealous of everyone who can water ski. I just can’t ski. CAN NOT. This is one of the major failures of my life. Not kidding.

My mom and her siblings grew up on the water and some of them were on a water ski team. They were awesome. For most of my childhood we had a newspaper clipping from the 1950’s hanging on our fridge; a picture of one of their pyramids. Also as a child, my family had a boat and water skiing was a big deal. We were always out skiing, tubing, or knee boarding. In fact, my parents still live near a lake and this is still the norm when I go home.

The first time I remember trying I couldn’t have been more than 5. I remember trying to start off the dock and I remember people being in the water with me teaching me what to do. And I remember not being able to figure it out. My sisters and cousins got up and pretty soon they were slalom skiing or skiing two at a time and weaving back and forth around each other. Not me. Never even really got out of the water.

This continued until… well… about 4 years ago. That’s when I stopped trying. Because after you spend nearly 20 years of your life trying to do something and failing miserably and then minutes later watching others do it effortlessly and have a blast, it gets frustrating. I do still have visions of going home one future summer and deciding to try again. In the vision I finally get up out of the water and ski, fulfilling a life-long desire and eliciting beaming smiles of pride from my family…

It’s good to have goals.