On the street

Waterskiing

As a child I was a fish. I loved being in the water as much as possible. I never really learned how to swim, though, partially because the one time my mother enrolled me in swim class was a slightly traumatic. I did fine through the swimming portion of the class. Then came time to jump off the diving board. We all lined up in our life vests and one by one, like little lemmings, climbed the ladder, walked to the edge and jumped. Not me. I froze. I barely got up the ladder, let alone to the end of the board. And there I stayed until the instructor picked me up and tossed me over. Seriously. She threw me in. Is that really a way to teach a terrified child how to get over her fear of heights and jumping into deep water? I don't think so. The next and last time I went off a diving board was in high school when jumping at least once was a requirement for getting an "A" in gym.

Needless to say I'm still not much of an adrenaline junkie. I don't do waterslides or rides and I've never once tried to waterski or jetski or do anything in the water at neck braking speeds. When I interact with the water I like to do it from the safety of a boat.

But that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate people who do like these types of sports. At times I'm even jealous. That's why it was such a neat experience to hang out with members of the Five Seasons Ski Team Thursday night.

Their season is at it's tailend, with only a couple of Labor Day shows before they pack up their equipment for the season. So, many members of their team had left for college already. Still there was a strong showing Thursday. Skiiers defy stereotyping. They ranged in age from 6 to 40+, some were high schoolers others were Rockwell Engineers. All loved skiing. They practice three days a week in the summer. A fourth night is always a show. And that's all in addition to tournaments. The Five Seasons team is one of only two competitive teams in Iowa. Comparatively there are something like 35 in Wisconsin. Organizers told me that the sport is most popular here in the Midwest. Only a few teams from the coasts compete. Still, I was surprised to hear that right here in Cedar Rapids we have a team that recently took 8th in the nation.

Unfortunately Mother Nature didn't make Thursday's performance an easy one. The team had to cut all jumps out of their show because the river was at flood levels. That also meant that the river was running much faster than normal, making all of their stunts difficult. Still they put on a good show. And I'll definitely have to go back another time to see the team when the river is behaving.   |    Login or Join to Post Comments