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.
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