Things My Kids Taught Me This Summer

Ok, this could be a whole esoteric discussion about children and how then enrich your lives - but it's not. This is more basic - skills my kids have taught me this summer that we can photograph: namely, wakeboarding. As a girl child of the 70's and 80's who was not allowed to skateboard, despite the fact that her brother was allowed to (that's a whole other "rant," as JO calls them), I never did get the hang of "two feet moving together tied to one object." I can roller skate, I can ice skate, I can ski - both water and snow - but don't tie my feet together and ask me to have any kind of coordination. Not going to happen.

Tied to this "what my kids taught me" is the tangential fact that kids today experience way more than "we" did. My adventures took place in my neighborhood and the woods beyond, and once a summer, at the beach. My kids have lived abroad (ok, so did my siblings, but I didn't), swam with dolphins, spent weeks on a sail boat, and been on a back-stage tour of the Supreme Court, just to name a few. I think today's kids miss out on the simpler things that made my childhood special, but, again, that's another "rant." Fact is, good or bad, my kids are way more worldly than I was at their age. Which leads me to the wakeboarding.

My daughter's favorite summer camp is soccer - sleep away, day camp, whatever. If it's soccer, she's there. Even in 100 degrees, she's having fun. It's an affliction - one that I share BTW. So my son wanted to go away to camp, too. His affliction? Wakeboarding. Most camps are in florida, don'tcha know, not exactly cheap to get to, nor easily accesible if he has an "accident" (not uncommon in his life) and needs a trip to the hospital. But we finally found one close to his Aunt's lake house. It was slightly pricey, but we took the plunge. Afterall, we've had this "wakeboarding boat" for two years - or it is three - and we thought we should step it up a notch. We were able to "test" the camp before sending him off by sending both kids out for a day lesson with the camp director. My daughter, who had wakeboarded all of 15 seconds prior to camp, came back a solid boarder - even learing "switching" (going from left foot forward to right foot forward") simple, but this was still an amazing feat. (ha ha get it feet/feat?)

So off goes my son for a week with this nationally ranked "dude" from wakeboarding magazine to learn some tricks and, please God, hopefully come home in one piece. The camp naturally was out of cell phone range, so we received sporadic calls from the boy. (Yes we had a landline number for emergencies, but they were on the boat 12 hours a day, so what's the point of calling the landline, which would have been embarrassing to the boy anyway?!). He quickly picked up the Wakeboarding lingo and reverted to calling his mother Dude. I gathered from the bits I did get that he was learning a lot and having fun. He came home without a single trip to the hospital. Amazing.

So it's weeks later, and we're all on the boat together finally. It's time to show me what I paid for. The boy delivers - seen above "catching some air" and below doing a 360 spin. Awesome. He's in control and totally comfortable. And he showed some maturity by opting not to learn how to flip on this first trip to camp. Then the girl gets on the board and reminds me how awesome she is. She gets up in a heartbeat and switches with ease. And darn, she looks so good, too. (see below)

So here comes the dare - c'mon mom. We'll show you how. First they get my friend who is hugely athletic and cool and a mom to try it out. Of course C gets up and is awesome. (see below) Not to be outdone - my slightly competitive nature - I get in the water and strap that piece of fiberglass to my feet. Good thing I'm in the water so they can't see me sweating. I happen to know that once I get up on this thing - if in fact I get up - I will have absolutely no control and will do a lovely face plant. I have tried this once before, it took 16 million tries to get me out of the water and on my feet (tried as a result of a lost bet with my son), and once up I couldn't do a thing. And the pain in the legs was immense.

Get up I do - a few pointers learned at wakeboarding camp get me up on the first try. My son has taken the fins off the bottom of the board, making "switching" easier. I watched a video with the kids while at the lake house about "toe side" and "heel side" so I've figured out why I couldn't move the board the one and only time I tried this insanity. I now know that I have to somehow lean over my toes without submerging in order to go from left to right (right to left is easy - you just lean back on your heels). The video people make it look so easy. But wait. I remember watching my daughter, who rides "goofy" and realize that if I "switch" then I can always just lean back on my heels to go from one side of the wake to the other. But the finless thing gets me - I have no idea how to "slow down" so I am switching and kareening wildly from one side of the wake to the other. I try to stay within the wake so that I don't have to go over the waves while maintaining balance and not submerging. HA I am quickly completely out of control, swinging like a wild pendulum from side to side, alternating between screaming in fear and laughing with joy. This is FUN! If only I could pause to figure out how to control even one of my movements. And for some reason, my legs don't kill me half as much as last time (could be the marathon I'm training for or just that I have a better stance).

Back safely on the boat, my son calmly says, "Mom, if you just lean forward a little, you won't go so fast you know." Now he tells me.

So here's photos of the wakeboarding fools. And that's what I learned this summer.