Wakeboarding

Yesterday a friend took me wakeboarding for my first time. When he invited me, I was under the impression there would be the four of us and a few other people. The few other people turned out to be eight other people. So 12 people who barely knew each other were crammed onto a boat for 6 hours. For those who didn't know, once upon a time (sophomore year, actually) I was thin. Not a toned sun-goddess, but still pretty thin. That was about the last time I felt entirely comfortable stripping down to a swimsuit and hanging out in cramped quarters with a bunch of strangers for 6 hours. So I kept a t-shirt and board shorts on over my swimsuit for awhile. But it was hot (91F) and the water around the boat was much cooler so eventually I shed the shirt and jumped in. But the shorts interfered with my movements so eventually I shed those too. And eventually I was having way too much fun swimming and wakeboarding and watching Brad wakesurf to care about showing off my pudgy belly or flabby arms in a swimsuit. Instead, I just had a really good time. I even managed to complete the first three steps in beginning wakeboarding:

1. Squatting up on the board.
2. Standing up on the board.
3. Face planting in the water.

Brad offered to let me wakesurf but I was too scared to try it the same day I tried wakeboarding. And then I kicked myself later. So someday I hope to have a similar starting list for wakesurfing, but not today.

While I lived near the Columbia for the summer I learned people had developed many ways to follow a boat on a board. And there were enough fanatics out there that companies made boats specially designed for dragging people on boards. Which led to more ways to for people to follow a boat on a board. Here are a few I've learned about:

Wakeboarding - Sticking your feet in booties attached to a board and then holding a rope while a boat drags you along.
Wakeskating - Wakeboarding, but no booties, just high grip material on the board.
Wakesurfing - Follow the boat by surfing in the wake with no booties and no rope.
Kneeboarding - Just like it sounds.