[Stylist] writing prompt/ skiing

[Ericka]

Oh my Chris! Losing your shorts water skiing seems like the ultimate embarassment. 

I’m not as adventurous but do like cross country skiing and hiking. Canoeing is great too. Here in WI one motorcycle group teams up with Lions clubs to offer blind a biker experience. That might compete with your stories. I’ll try to write something about my lbiker days”..

Ericka Nelson

> On Oct 7, 2019, at 11:09 AM, Chris Kuell via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hey Vejas,
>  
> Not to disagree with Ann, but I think ‘hurts’ is a relative term. For perspective, I’ll tell you that the first time I went snow skiing, I was sighted and went with some college friends who pretty much abandoned me at the top of a tall Vermont mountain. I skied, sort of, and fell, all the way down the mountain. At the end of the day I couldn’t really ski well, and I’d fallen at least 100 times. The next day I felt like I’d been hit by a truck and run over, and then the truck went into reverse and backed over me again for good measure. I hurt.
>  
> It was a few years before I worked up the courage (or the stupidity) to try snow skiing again. This time I was invited by a nice young lady who actually took the time to give me a few lessons so I could slowly make my way down the easy slopes without falling too often. And it was fun. In time, with practice, I grew to be what most would call a good skier. I hardly fell at all, and when I did it was usually because I was going too fast or didn’t steer myself around the big bumps in time. I loved skiing fast—it was a thrill that I miss terribly.
>  
> I went blind in my 30s, and some friends insisted I could still ski. I went a couple of times, but the problem was that the ski instructors insisted I go slowly and carefully. This makes sense, but to me, it also took all the fun out of skiing.
>  
> Then I met a guy named Alan Galobek, who at the time held the world record for blind water-ski jumping. He’s totally blind (like me) and back in 1998 he was water skiing, went up a ramp and flew in the air 66 feet before landing—and he did so without falling. Since then I know someone has gone further. Anyway, Al started a non-profit organization and gathered volunteers to teach blind and other disabled people to water ski on Lake Zoar in Connecticut. And that’s where I learned to water ski. They had a great set-up in that at the back of the boat there was a boom, which is like a broom stick sticking out of the side of the boat at the very back. The first time you go, you get in the water and you hold that boom, and there’s a sighted instructor at the back of the boat who talks to you and makes sure you are in the right position. As the boat starts to go, the sighted person coaches you on standing up, bending your knees, leaning forward or back, and so on. So it’s great for learning the hardest part of water skiing.
>  
> Next you move to a 6 foot long lead and ski behind the boat. Again, if the coach shouts you can hear, and you learn how to get up and steer from right to left and back. After that, you ski with a 30 foot rope just like any other water skier. And to me, it was soo much fun. I asked the driver to go faster, and I skied at about 35 miles per hour, which seems like 100 miles per hour, and it was thrilling. When I fell (and I did fall) it sort of slaps you, true, but I thought it was so much fun, and so much softer than hitting the hard ground. My one cautionary note is if you ever water ski, wear a snug fitting bathing suit. Once when I was going fast and wiped out, the force pulled my shorts off and had I not hooked my foot in time to save them, I might have had to really shock the bystanders who were watching us on shore.
>  
> Chris
>  
>  
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