Back in the cold

Even though the temperature just

dropped from 33 degrees celcius to around 10 degrees here, with a water temperature that I don't even want to know, I want to continue skiing like I was. Staying true to our tradition, the season was opened on Kingsday, which is the 27th of April. This was quite soon after I got back, so I wasn't necessarily prepared for the freezing cold water and especially not the icey wind on my face. Normally to open the season everyone gets to ski a quick round for free. This is really just one up and down, and since I started skiing here, I do always value my sets here. Thus, I took my tour up and down the lake. I had decided to go on my trick ski, because along with the lovely temperatures there was also a really strong wind, so the waves on the lake were pretty high. Going away from the starting dock I had the wind in my back, therefore this wasn't nearly as cold as going back with the wind blowing in your face. Even better was that the wind blew extra water in my face, so despite my best efforts to not get wet by starting from the dock and not falling, I still got my face wet and cold.

Today, 3 days after opening the season, we also had our first kids training. I am not home in any of the weekends before I leave for university, except this one, so I wanted to go and see everyone. I was on the lake for most of my day, and even though it wasn't a sunny day at a clear blue lake without wind, I still think lake days are the best days. Being in the boat, behind the boat, in the water, on the water, skiing and helping others ski, are still some of the best things I can think of to be doing. The lake was extremely windy and at the starting dock the waves reached almost to my knees. Luckily, on the far side of the lake there was a couple of meters sheltered by the trees, so that's enough space to go skiing. I decided to go out on my jumpers first for some drills, because I wouldn't have to go in the water for this. It was cold, because my jump suit only covers half of my legs, but I didn't plan on going into the water, so it was oke. I did a dock start, did my drills and landed on the dock again. Luckily this didn't get me very cold, so I could prepare for my trick set. This time, I couldn't do a dock start, though I was going to fall in the water at some point any way. I started my set from the boat at the far side of the lake, because the water before that was insane. I tried to keep my hair as dry as possible at the start, and I could benefit from this a couple of minutes. That was until I started practising my 540 wake turns and I dove head first into a wake eventually. After this I realized that it wasn't in fact that cold if you just don't focus on it, so I had a really good set. I'm very happy I skied, because when I saw the water around the dock, I was really discouraged. I was told that I would be happy I skied after my set, and happy I was. Hopefully the wind will die down the following week so that I can also get some slalom sets in.

To finish off my day at the lake, I was

able to go into the water with my puppy and get him to swim. Afterwards it was time for him to get used to the boat, because he'll be around it a lot ;). He did great in the boat, so I guess the next step is to take him on my ski's!