The French Connection: How I Spent the 4th

The 4th of July is the time to spend with family on picnics, grilling out or if you have that special someone to hangout with and watch some fireworks.

Not me.

I spent it with my brother at his best mate's house. We went to a lake where I went jet skiing and wakeboarding for the first time. I didn't have anything else planned, so I took his offer.

First thing was wakeboarding. I watched Adam and Nick go first. I have never done anything on the water so I was a little nervous. I'm great doing things on my feet like dancing and jumping, but if you put wheels or something else under my feet, I lose control.

Adam of course knew his stuff. He went side to side of the boat and did some tricks. I thought, hey this could be easy. Then my brother went. It took him not even 5 seconds before he went splashing into the water. One time he even lost the wakeboard from his feet.

Great.

Then it was my turn. The guys were taking bets at how times it would take before I got up on my feet. Lucky for me, I got up on the second try, then of course not too soon after that splash! For my first time I thought I did pretty well. Only fell in maybe six times on the first pull. Adam and Nick were proud. Nick even took several shots and even video taped some of it.

Next was the jet ski. Now this should be no problem. All I have to do is sit on this thing and ride off! Nick first took me around the lake to get the feel for the speed. Satisfied we switch spots and I was the driver. Excited I put the key in, gave a little tug on the gas and off we went.

What a rush!

This was much easier and more fun! I went around the one side of lake at great speeds. Nick told me to not get too close to shore so I had to turn around. With the open water in front me I jacked up on the speed. We had to be going 50 maybe 60 mph before I did the most stupidiest thing I could do in jet skiing...

letting go of the gas completely.

Next thing I knew, Nick was flying off to the side of me and before I knew what was going on, I went sailing into the water. This hurt.... A LOT. I fell right on my neck and my body was all twisted when I went into the water. I never felt pain like this before. Thank god for lifejackets. As I came to the surface, Nick asked me if I was ok. I said yeah... just give me a minute. Then we broke out laughing. I held up my arm to show that the key was still on me. We saw that the ski ended up about 50 feet from us.

We swam over and climbed back on with Nick in the driver seat this time. He gave it a couple tugs, no go, it was flooded.

Great.

Looking at the dock it was a good 500 meters away. We swam and pushed the ski all the way back to the dock. Nobody saw us until we pushed the ski back.

After that I was done flying on the water for the day. Getting extremely sunburned was the next best thing for me. My shoulders are now started to peel.

Even though I had a little disaster with my first experience on the jet ski I had a lot of fun. I met some people, drank a little, and had a lot of laughs. Sadly though I didn't catch the fireworks at night. I was so exhausted that I ended up in bed by eight!

Well I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! Mine was sure was interesting and I won't forget it!