16 July 2008

My arse has taken a pounding and I have ripped my ring*...

Finally got to play with the donut behind the boat on Saturday. Kev and I took it out in the fjord in front of the house and it can only be described as a lot of fun and just a little bit scary. We ripped the donut on the first attempt but then figured out how to rig it properly. The fjord is fairly small but its possible to get up to about 25 knots, then with a tight turn, the (un)fortunate at the end of the rope is getting up to about 35-40 knots (60km/h) – at that point falling off can go one of two ways, you either skip across the water and end up laughing or you plant into the water and stop dead! In which case it hurts! We were out for about 2 hours and came in feeling fairly battered but highly entertained.

Sunday morning Sandy and one of his mates (Rich) came around to borrow a climbing guide. Given the weather was crapping out they were easily persuaded to stay and play boats and rings instead of cragging. Katharine was also back so the five of us headed out into the fjord.

Sandy was up first and he was the man, the king of the ring! It was almost impossible to throw him off and required creating a big wake and then cutting back across it several times. He set the stage on his first run and and improved on successive goes. Rich and Katharine were less skilled but seemed to enjoy themselves. Rich had some great leaning moves on those fast corners looking like a sidecar rider.

When it was my turn I suddenly realized my arse was hurting a lot from the day before. Just skimming across the water hurt like hell. I survived two goes with a fairly spectacular wipe out at the end before I had to quit. My body feels like I have been playing ice hookey! Fantastic fun, this is why I bought a boat!

We then had a barbi, used the hot tub and made the most of the Lair. A great weekend.

Video below shot on a regular camera and knocked up in windows movie maker (which is, to quote the great Grant Farquar - shitte but free). Anyway you get the idea...


*Another old friend of mine from Liverpool disappeared for several days before stumbling back into his house at 3am. The next morning he emerged from his bedroom and said much the same thing to his flat mate! I don’t think there was any boats involved in that case.

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