Rain Dance

Our next door neighbors apparently gave up on using their ski boat for a while. Their last job before heading home to Miami was to put their storage cover on their ski boat and park it in their garage. It looks like they will make do with pull toys and their jet skis for a while.

It's hard to say whether the low lake levels or the high gas prices were the culprit. Ski boats are gas guzzlers, to say the least. We only use ours for ski runs, but many people use theirs more as run-abouts for cruising the lake and hauling family and friends about on pull-toys. Since the weekend people need to drive from the coast to get to the lake, they already are spending a fair chunk on gas before they fill up their boat(s).

We'll see what people say as the season progresses.

The weather hasn't been favorable for us to hit the lake. It has been windy, and the lake is choppy even in the early morning hours. Al continues with his projects. He's added gutters to three sides of the boat house so that his dock stays neat and tidy. There are also gutters now above driveways, walkways and doorways. I'm happy since there are no ugly downspouts with the installation design. (To each their petty hangups. Al hates drip lines on docks, driveways and walkways. I detest downspouts.)

We watch the weather with great expectation. Time for rain to christen the new gutters. Otherwise, I truly fear that I will soon see Al dancing a rain dance out on the dock.

Wake Boards

In the mid 80s, a California surfer crossed a surf board with a water ski and called it the Skurfer. It was the dawn of what was to become wake boarding. The Skurfer did not have bindings, but early on it got foot straps. It was thick and very buoyant. It had a monster fin. It was pretty tame compared to today's wake boards, and because of the buoyancy and the one-size-fits-all straps instead of bindings, it required a lot of finesse to do much of anything on it. But it was new, and it was fun. You had a pretty fair chance of taking a showy fall every time you took it out on the lake.

By the mid 90s, the boards were compression molded and much, much thinner. They still had footstraps, but a heel strap was added which helped some. There were multiple fins on the tail of the board, but they were considerably smaller than in the 80s. The graphics were much much better. This board cut better and was more maneuverable.

Finally, by the late 90s, wake boards took on the appearance of the boards that are around today.

Our original bubble gum pink Skurfer from the 80s is hung on a wall below our last wake board.

The 90s version hangs above our front door.

We decided to give up wake boarding a few years back. Wake board tricks can be quite high impact. We plan to keep skiing for many, many years to come. One bad landing on a wake board can do very, very bad things to ankles and knees, things that older skiers like us can't really afford. Some things are best left for younger skiers!

But I sure am glad we got our fill while we could. It is fun.

Red Plaid Water Skis

Of the vintage water skis from Al's mom's cottage, the ones that get the most comments are the red plaid fiberglass combos. Red plaid. No joke. Red plaid. The best guess on these is that they are Kimball skis from the early 60s. They are 65" long. The slalom ski has a tapered tail and a metal fin. The other ski has a squared end and a long wooden fin. And they are red plaid!

60's Preppy? Oh, yeah....

Vintage Hydro-Flite Willa McGuire Trick Water Skis

In our kitchen, above the door leading to the garage, hangs the vintage wooden Hydroflite combo. These are finless trick skis, but each ski is 59 inches, almost the length of a slalom ski. They were called "banana peels" back when they were new in the 50s.

Al fondly remembers doing deep water starts--backwards, no less--on these water skis.

We've had other trick skis over the years. Our last pair, purchased in the 90s, got recycled into an outdoor table on a camper. But other water skis, early versions of what became wake boards, took their place on our boat, so the trick skis were abandoned to the "old gear" bin.

By now you are seeing a trend. Our home is decorated with old water skis. There are rules for this collection, though:

1. Only water skis we actually used can join the collection, and
2. For newer skis, only one of a type can be kept.

Why do we need these rules? Well, you get a lot of water skis over the years. New things get tried. Favorite skis get old. All collections need editing, or they become just a jumble of clutter...

Vintage Thompson Water Skis

About 15 years ago Al and I took a road trip up to Al's mom's lake place. Al's grandfather originally built the place, and Al had spent all the summers of his childhood there. During the visit he chanced upon the water skis he had learned to ski on. They dated back to the 50s and 60s. While Al is normally not sentimental about stuff, it was clear that these skis were different. So when he asked if we could use them somewhere, it seemed the skis needed to find a home with us. Not to ski on as that would be the water skiing equivalent of running with scissors. The bindings were shot, an invitation for an emergency room visit.

Since our decorating style was casual, we decided to use them as wall art.

The vintage Thompson combo skis now hang in our kitchen. The slalom ski of the pair has a huge metal fin. The other has dual shallow wooden fins. These skis are stable, to say the least. But that stability comes at a very steep cost: they turn slowly and with all the excitement of a cruise ship. The logos, on the other hand, are fabulous. Pure atomic mid-century modern design. Very, very cool.

The Thompson combos were not the only vintage Thompson items from the cottage. There is also a Thompson disk. It is large. It has no grips or padding. It was a favorite ski toy of the era.

At first we were puzzled about what we could do with it. Then it hit us that it was the size of a table. We scoured some local thrift shops for a base, settling finally on base from a sturdy mid-century patio table. Shortly after that we chanced upon 50s metal and curved wood dinette chairs being thrown away. We cleaned them up and upholstered them in canvas from an old jet ski cover. Thus we acquired our screen porch dining table and chairs.

In my next posts I'll show you the rest of the skis from the old cottage.

Almost There

It's early morning, and I caught Al organizing water ski gear. There are still pre-skiing prep jobs to do, but it warms the heart to see the gear moving into their ski season places.