Water Sports Like Skiing Rock
Although I have tried a lot of different water sports like wakeboarding, I will always have a special fondness for my first. When I was 15, I went out water skiing for the first time. I was a little bit unprepared for it, to tell you the truth. As a matter of fact, I probably would not have done it at all if I had not been pressured into it.
My uncle was kind of a macho guy. He always believed that the boys needed to show off to prove how brave they were. I was not a very strong swimmer at all, and was a little bit scared of open water. The idea of getting on water skis was absolutely terrifying to me. Nevertheless, I tried it because I wanted him to respect me.
No matter how terrified you are of water skiing, you always expect to be able to really stand up the first time. This is not the case. The first few times you put on water skis, as a matter of fact, all you are going to do is fall. You will fall and fall again, swallow gallons of water, and end up exhausted, bedraggled, and frustrated. This is the same when trying to get up on a wakeboard. This is twice as true if you have an uncle like mine, someone who believes that you should figure it out yourself and will laugh at you when you make mistakes. Nevertheless, I kept on waterskiing all afternoon, angry at him for making fun of me and determined to succeed. By the end of the day, I could stand up. I wasn't exactly a slalom water skiing champion or anything, but I felt like I was really getting the hang of it.
Since then, I've been pretty serious about it. For a few years, I was actually contemplating getting into professional slalom skiing. Slalom water skiing is a demanding sport, but if you are one of the best there is opportunity for sponsorship. It takes a lot of work, and a good bit of natural talent.
It turns out that I was good, but I simply wasn't quite that good. Still, it has been a great recreational activity for me. I have even started to make a sideline repairing broken water skiing and wakeboarding equipment and reselling it. I love all water sports like surfing, wakeboarding, jet skiing, windsurfing, and sailing, but as I said, nothing compares to my first. I'll always remember the first time that I proved to my uncle what I could do.