Wakeboarding 101

After my first full, uneventful week back at work in a life void of visitors and housemates, I began to envisage a rather dull February and was certainly in need of a fun weekend to cheer me up. Luckily, Andy was on hand looking for buddies to go wakeboarding with him on Saturday morning; it’s one water sport I’ve never tried and I was keen as a bean to have a go!

He picked me up bright and early and we drove along a sparkling Swan river to his parents’ place in Applecross to grab the boat. As I expected after getting to know Andy, his parents were very laid back and friendly and I drank coffee and chatted with his Mum while he and his Dad loaded the boat onto the trailer. The Michaels (Smerilli, Andy’s friend from school, and Challenor, a chemistry PhD student on Team Lindy who works in our building) turned up at 9:30 and the five of us (Andy, Andy’s Dad, Challenor, Smerilli and myself) drove up to Heathcote Reserve Yacht Club, which is pretty much directly opposite the club where I used to sail with the Billinghams. Once we’d got the boat into the water, it was just a short (and very bumpy thanks to Andy going a little heavy on the throttle) ride to the little cove that they usually board in.

Perth's skyline from our spot on the South Bank

First to show off his skills was Andy’s Dad. As well as the wakeboard, they have a surfboard, skim board, uniski and all kinds of other treats, and the surfboard was definitely his forté. Seeing a 62-year-old man negotiating the wake with ease and getting air all over the place was very impressive and I can only hope that I’ll still be getting in the water at his age! Andy was of course excellent on the wakeboard, to the extent that he was giving us beginners tips while doing 360s and all sorts. Ridiculous. Challenor had his “first go” with remarkable success (he’d obviously done it before, liar) and before I knew it, it was my turn.

Observation number 1: I’m not sure how many chicks can rock the ‘bikini and life jacket’ look, but I’m definitely not one of them. Observation number 2: There were jellyfish everywhere; they didn’t sting, but they were highly abundant and some were bloody massive. Not very pleasant when you’re minding your own business and one slimes down your back or up your leg. Gross. Most importantly: Observation 3: Wakeboarding is a lot harder than it looks. I was absolutely terrible! There’s an awful lot to think about; you’re lying on your back in the water with the board angled diagonally with one foot up, then you have to try and stand up while keeping your hips and shoulders at right angles while holding onto the rope and trying to negotiate the waves coming from the back of the boat and it was all just too much. I did a lot of falling off into the jelly-infested waters, but it was a lot of fun nevertheless and I did manage a few stand ups, however short and pathetic they may have been! I blame my lack of success on wakeboarding being similar to snowboarding, whereas I’m most definitely a skiier through and through. After the train wreck that was my first attempt at wakeboarding, I had lots of fun and a little more success on the surfboard; you can lie down or kneel up on it while the boat’s going at full speed, which is pretty exhilirating! It felt very odd holding onto a rope while surfing though.

As my go finished and Smerilli got into the water, I had a chance to lie back, crack open a beer (apparently the Stevensons do not go out on the water without an Eski full) and soak up the gorgeous weather. I feel this was where my expertise really came into play!

With our hair still wet and our faces still salty, Andy and I said goodbye to the others and drove over to a cute little Italian restaurant for lunch with the gang. The occasion? Alex, token Asian and all-round lovely guy, leaves UWA next week to do the next 18 months of his PhD with some collaboraters at the University of Tasmania. His constant happy mood will be sorely missed, so we decided to give him a nice send-off on his last weekend in Perth. There were seven of us in total: Alex, Andy, Me, Ryan and his girlfriend Rhianna and Marcus and his girlfriend Silk. I'm incredibly lucky to work with such a great bunch, the food was awesome and, for a group of such well-educated people, we talked about a lot of stupid stuff.

We all parted ways and, on the way home with Rhi and Ryan, we made the decision to get Alex a nice watch as a going-away present, so the plan is to meet up tomorrow to go and pick one out. That and a visit to the beach to make the most of this beautiful weather will probably be my Sunday done and dusted before another week commences.