One and All,
Here's a water ski ride story for those of you that have plenty of time on your hands to read the following 1800 or so words !
My slalom ski ride at lake Lotawana yesterday turned out to be pretty short. It was a trial run and my crew and I wanted to get in
at least 4 hours of skiing and we did that so it was not a total failure. But the plan
was, that if all went well, that I would continue to ski and see what
happened. Ideally, if all conditions were perfect, we were hoping that perhaps I could equal or better my own slalom ski
record of 13 hours. I skied that on the Lake of the Ozarks when I was a
teenager.
On this ride I
had power bars to eat and SPF 45 lip balm stuffed into the sleeves of my rash-guard Lycra
"Rash Guard" shirt. I changed boats and drivers every 3 hours by taking a ski
handle from the arriving boat and dropping the handle from the previous
boat. The arriving boat would clip a bottle containing a mixture of
Gatorade and water to the handle so that I always had plenty to drink.
Most of our planning and rehearsals worked just great.
The crew in Bob Cantrell's boat was
B.O.B. as driver and Pat Dwyer handling
communications. The crew in my boat was Tim Dwyer as driver and Greg
Fortin for communications. This crew was just unbelievable in all the great planning ideas they devised over the last week or two and their competence in all things nautical and related to skiing and just about every other subject. Bob Cantrell carried out the crew swap trials for my idea of using one tow boat and vetoed it for a number of very good reasons. He also provided his beautiful Ski Nautique boat as one of the two r tow boats we utilized. Greg Fortin devised the idea of trading boats which was key. Pat Dwyer was instrumental in developing and perfecting the handle transfer method. Tim Dwyer devised an ingenious resupply method that utilized a cooler strapped to a knee-board which was launched from the tow boat. I would ski next to the knee-board getting food and drinks or other needed items out of it's cooler and when I was finished he would reel-in the knee-board and attached cooler back into the tow boat. I didn't ski long enough to use it yesterday but it worked in our practices.
Tim also convinced me that I needed to carry as little as possible to maintain the highest strength to weight ratio.
Every one in my crew came up with much needed items for the ride including waist pouches, booties, gloves, etc.
Many others contributed items also. I had a Walkie-Talkie hung around my neck
in a waterproof bag for communications and I could transmit and hear
with it still enclosed in that bag. Thanks Amy and Scott Valmassei for the Walki Talkies and the water proof bags for them. Thanks to Lori Foulke for the "Tillie Hat" I wore and thanks Lisa Lala for loaning me hubby Bob's soft red and black ski handle.
I used a slalom ski made from Luan wood that I designed and made myself years ago while working as Product Development
Director at Cypress Gardens Ski Company.
We had coolers containing food
and drinks in the boats for me and the boat crews and 20 five gallon cans of
gas at C-59 where they refueled and rested. The two boat crews
communicated via cell phones. Each boat was equipped with
tow rope releases, a dry-erase board in case the Walkie Talkies failed, work gloves, a tool kit, extra ski ropes, sunglasses, sunscreen, hats, a clip board and pens and even a manual with detailed information on weather conditions, sunrise and sunset tables, fuel consumption charts, phone numbers, and reminders.
The two Ski Nautique boats each used 5
gallons of gasoline per hour at 23 to 26 miles per hour boat speeds.
We had estimated 5 gallons per hour but allowed for up to 8 gallons per
hour consumption by making our boat changes every 3 hours.
So my crew was totally prepared to go 15 hours.
I
started this ski ride at 5:45 AM on Monday August 13th, 2007 and knew,
according to Association
rules, that I had to end it at 30 minutes after sunset which was
about 8:45 PM. That would yield a 15 hour slalom ride which would be
a very long slalom ski ride for Lake Lotawana conditions. I think
however that the 2 ski water ski record is something 60 hours but they
generally utilize harnesses on those endurance runs so there hands are
free and take breaks along the way. I don't consider any of that
cricket. I wore a harness but only connected it once momentarily just
to try out the means Scott Valmassei had developed of attaching it to
the ski handle. I don't even know if there is an official slalom ski
record but I was only trying to see what I might be able to do at my age compared to what I could do when I was a teenager.
When
I began skiing conditions were perfect with 79 degree F air temperature
and 89 degree F water temperature, glass-calm water and no other boats
on the lake. The water was absolutely oily slick. The first two
hours of skiing was great fun and I was really enjoying it by cutting
back and forth, toying with the wakes and, later, feeling the hum of
tiny ripples in the water through my slalom ski.
The dawn sky was a wonder of pink in the East. The sun came up deep
red and quickly shifted to orange, gold and on to silver. A little
later the view of the tow boat with the silver rising sun above it and
the boat silhouetted in the sun's brilliant silver reflection on the
water was glorious for several laps while passing in front of R block
and beginning the turn South into the main arm of the lake.
My
front ski binding blistered my feet within the first 2 hours so I knew
right away I wouldn't be going all day. I really wanted to stop about
8:30 AM but each time I was ready to hang it up I would pass someone on
a dock cheering me on or taking a photo. So I would say to myself,
"Well they walked down to the dock to cheer me on so surely I owe them
one more lap of the lake." This went on for hours. By then my teeth
were hurting from gritting them for so long because of my foot pain.
I managed to get my foot out
of the front binding and put it on top of the binding which got me by
for awhile longer. Eventually the lake got rough and windy and many
wake-board type boats pulling tubers appeared so I had to put my foot
back into
the binding to survive the waves. The pain from my front ski binding
finally got to me and I fell in some rough
water at 1:30 PM while attempting the delicate procedure of getting my
front foot back out of the binder to put it on top of the binder. By
then I was also tiring seriously from a total lack of long
preconditioning slalom ski rides. So I ended up only going 7 hours
and 45 minutes.
So my crew was prepared to easily go 15 hours, but as time proved, I was only prepared to go 7 hours and 45 minutes.
The weak spot were in my own planning and testing in that I decided to
use another ski. I replaced it's rear binding with one tested for
endurance but had not tested it's front binding for endurance. Also
of importance was the fact that I was not able to get any prior long
distance ski ride conditioning.
As a teenager I rehearsed for my 13 hour ride by skiing 3 hours
straight every weekday morning and 3 hours straight every weekday
afternoon for a couple of weeks in a row. Of course gasoline costs a
bit more today ! Also those I ski with are not able
to pull me skiing for 3 hours straight in the mornings and another 3
hours straight in the afternoons as they all have jobs, school age children, etc.
But that kind of preconditioning is the kind of training that's
required for a long distance slalom ski ride, especially at my age. Actually the longest ski ride I've had all summer is about 15
minutes so, as it proved, out, I was definitely not in shape for a 15 hour ride.
So
that's the whole story of what turned out to be a pretty short slalom ski
ride. I felt good after the slalom ride so went down to ski club practice later in the afternoon at the Missouri Yacht Club.
I
decided to take the day off from skiing today and will begin skiing
again tomorrow. I did drive a tow boat to pull 3 children and an adult water skiing this
morning though just for fun. I won't try another long distance slalom ski ride this year unless I can arrange for some really serious preconditioning slalom ski rides.
I'm attaching a photo of me on my ride yesterday taken from a deck high above the lake so you can see my protective garb necessary when spending so many hours out under the August summer sun. Thanks Lisa Lala for that photo.
I'll be 66 soon so just feel absolutely blessed to be here at the Lake, still able to ski a bit, and to have friends like those on my crew, those in the Ski Club and all of those who cheered me on from docks, boats and along the dam each time I passed by them. Thank you all. You're the best anywhere. I've traveled most of the world so I speak from experience concerning our friends at Lake Lotawana.
Don Thomson