Archives for July 2011

This last week Kerry and I were in Canada for our best friends wedding at Balsam Lake, Ontario. While there we got to play in boats on the lake and after my success knee boarding the other week I was up for giving anything a go.

I’d never wake boarded, even when I had two hands and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to pull up with one arm. After 2 attempts trying to hold on to the rope and failing it was third time lucky. With a slightly slower start I was able to keep hold and pull myself up and thanks to my years of snow boarding I was off to the races. What a blast!

Certainly tiring with only one arm, so for my next goes I donned my prosthetic hook to take some of the load, which helped greatly.

Then from wake boarding, to wake surfing – something entirely new to me. I was familiar with wake boarding, but I’d never heard of wake surfing.

You use a mini-surf board, your feet aren’t attached to the board and you need a wake boarding boat that has balast tanks to generate a huge wake…which you then surf.

You hold the rope and pull yourself up as the boat starts, then once the wake is established you surf it and drop the rope.

It’s wild, you’re actually surfing behind the boat as it motors along at 10 miles an hour or so.

You can watch the video below to see me in action…not bad for someone who’s never wake surfed before!

At the weekend I got to do something I’ve never tried before…knee boarding.

Now I’ve water skied a few times, prior to losing my hand and figured trying to get pulled up on skis behind a boat with just one arm might be a bit tough so had written off the idea of doing anything much beyond being towed around on an inflatable donut.

Well that’s before I discovered knee boarding…Kerry and I had joined some friends, who are avid water skiers, on a boating trip and as they merrily skied away I got talking to one of their kids who mentioned they knee boarded, “what’s that I asked?”

Basically it’s a bit like a boogie board (for any surfers out there) that you lay on while the boat tows you along and as you pick up speed you work your way up on to your knees and can then play around behind the boat similar to a wake board, I guess.

Sounded like something I could do so I gave it a shot and on my first attempt managed to maneuver myself up on to my knees (after much jiggling around). From there I worked out that by leaning (thanks to my years of snow boarding) I could direct the board across the boat’s wake…way more fun than just sitting behind the boat.

A most enjoyable experience, if somewhat tiring on the one arm. I’ll have to experiment rigging up some webbing or something so I can use my residual limb to take some of the strain, or maybe next time I’ll try it wearing my prosthetic. I’m looking forward to my next opportunity to knee board and it was just as well I got up on my first try since as I lost balance the rope went slack and then jerked, dislocating my shoulder…fortunately it’s an old injury so it jumped straight back in again…nothing a few days of rest won’t take care of.