#ItWasn'tMe

I thought the answer was obvious, but your messages asked, "Why aren't there pictures of you water skiing in you blog?"

Al and I have been a couple for a really, really, really long time. Relationships survive decade after decade because of friendship, communication, commitment, discretion, lying, and deceit. Really. That established, I ask you, what man in his right mind would voluntarily point a camera at an older woman in spandex who is romping about without makeup and with hair plastered this way and that across her head?

Al is a wonderful photographer. His old Nikon with its collection of monster lenses is propped up as a decorative piece in our living room. He will take pictures with my camera if pushed, but, for the most part, he manages to avoid the activity. He understands that the sensible response to most relationship-challenging situations is "It wasn't me..."

That said, we are still water skiing. The lake is warm. It is still in the low 70s at dawn. Life, as they say, is good.

Click restart now...

The water is 87 degrees. The air temperature at dawn is in the 70s. I don't want summer to end. But fronts are beginning to drop into north Florida. They stall and dissipate, but in October they become more numerous. More telling, the summer pattern of warm moist winds from the south is weakening. Sixty percent of our annual rainfall comes in June, July and August. October is a transition month into Florida's dry season.

We still head out at dawn if there is even the faintest chance of skiing. But we are spending more time biking now. (Our first bike event is next weekend, a metric century in Inverness, Florida.) It has been a great summer for us for water skiing. Al is pleased with his improvements. I'm very happy with mine. (My speed across the wakes  is approaching Al's.) There are so many more things I want to work on.

Can I click restart and reboot summer?

NSFW

We got out skiing twice this week. We had a bunch of days of bad wind and rain as a front stalled just north of us. The dawns were glorious, though.

Dawn reflected in the boat wake as we ride down Catfish Creek to the lake.

A silver and pink dawn. All it needs is a flamingo.

Skiing the morning of the silver and pink dawn.

Fall? I Don't Think So.

I was reminded by a neighbor that it was fall. We laughed about "fall" being a rather meaningless season here. Florida has two seasons: summer and a few months of fall/winter/spring.

Has the weather changed any recently? (Nope.) Do you need a sweater in the morning or evening? (Nope.) Is it fall in our slice of  Florida? I don't think so. Maybe I'll deal with calling it fall after the autumnal equinox (September 22). That makes a little sense to me. Not much, but a little.

September is still water ski season. We got out water skiing 4 times this week. At dawn this morning the air temperature was 75 degrees and the water temperature 85 degrees.

This is not sweater weather.

A school bus hauls the local kids off to town and school. I'll grant that it is no longer summer for the school kids.

The lake water is warm and so is the air.

The lake at dawn is still a skier's dream.

And we are finally dealing with lots of water.

Water level in March 2012.

Water level in September 2012.

Bonus Day!

The weather gods smiled on us and gave us a bonus ski day. We woke, grabbed coffee, put Lucy the cat on her leash, and headed out for her pre-dawn walk. To our happy surprise we found that the wind was still good for skiing. We were on the lake by sunrise for our bonus ski day. (Three cheers for the weather gods!!!) We were cruising home before the wind changed direction, increased in speed, and lake conditions deteriorated.

Our neighbor was already out fishing. This guy is one of our favorite people, always upbeat and interesting.

Al was good to slalom.

My legs were too tired from yesterday, so I had a "toy" in the boat, a disc.

The disc is a lot more fun than the usual pull toy. You can do all sorts of things on it while being easier than skiing.

Not Much of a Week for Water Skiing

We got out skiing this morning. It will be our only day skiing this week. Some weeks the weather gods are with you, some weeks they aren't. So we just went out this morning and totally skied ourselves silly. After all, it's why we live here.

August Ends, Hurricane Season Ramps Up

Statistically hurricane season ramps up in mid August heading towards the peak in mid September. Our weather this week has been active but not because of any tropical system. A front dropped into the Florida peninsula from the north, stalled in north Florida, and caused some real deluges here. Because we ski at dawn, we were able to salvage four days of skiing from an otherwise bad week for lake activities. That made us pretty happy as a tropical system (Isaac) will affect our weather next week. The center of the hurricane is predicted to be almost a hundred miles to the west of us, but the systems are huge. The effects here will still be significant. That means no skiing for most of next week, but maybe we'll be able to ski at the end of the week.

Summer's Midpoint

The third week of August. Two and a half months of summer lie behind us. Two and a half months of summer lie ahead of us.

Summer in rural Florida is hot and humid, languid and long. Sipping coffee under a blanket of stars in the early dark hours of the morning, listening to crickets and watching bats sweep around the palm trees. Dawn water skiing on the lake. Afternoons reading on the back porch listening to the breeze in the palms and the gentle whirring of the ceiling fans. The soft smell of the humid air as it blows across the waters of the creek and canals. Quiet evenings watching a few hours of TV. Summer in rural Florida is the stuff of daydreams and fantasies. There is a feeling of being suspended outside of time.

This week we skied five times. We have skied hard each day, coming home with muscles exhausted and trembling, but feeling exhilarated and content.

No Risk, No Gain

I watched videos of  my recent ski runs and saw something I didn't like. It was being too cautious. Caution can be a good thing. (One doesn't want to be stupid.) I'm skiing because I really enjoy skiing. Unless your skills and abilities grow, things get dull after a while. And to improve at skiing, you must take risks and push yourself just a little beyond your comfort level.

I took a fall last year in which I snagged my foot on a binding. It really, really hurt, and much seriously bad language ensued. Watching the videos I saw that I was unconsciously skiing to prevent another bad fall. This week I promised to push myself and take some risks out there.

It was a great week for skiing. At dawn in August the air and water temperatures are both in the low 80s which is just about perfect. Of the seven days, we skipped one day on account of wind and took a road trip to the Gulf coast instead of skiing another day. That gave us five days of skiing. I met my goal. I took a really fabulous fall and came close several other times. (Note to self: It was lots of fun!)

The clouds make for a pretty dawn.

Al getting ready to ski.

Al does water ski "wheelies" by skiing on the back tip of his ski.

This is the way to start the day.

A Tale of Two Cameras and Capricious Weather Forecasts

The old camera on the pylon camera mount.

Skiing videos are wonderful tools. You can see what you are doing right. You can see what you are doing wrong. But this summer I hadn't been able to get a watchable video. Despite lots of tries, muttered bad language, and hateful looks at the idiot camera. The problem was my new camera. The video was fabulous...until I clamped it on the ski boat's camera mount. Then the video was bumpy and blurry, totally useless. I tried a number of modifications to the mount, but nothing helped. I finally accepted that its image stabilization was not as good as the old camera. My old camera was a Canon PowerShot A540 and the new one a Nikon CoolPix S6100. This week I dug out the old camera and mounted it on the pylon mount. Voila! We were back in business. So now I take two cameras out each ski day: the PowerShot for video and the CoolPix for still photos.

The weather forecast this week was spot on for temperature and rain chances. Wind direction and speed? Not so much. We went out to the lake to ski four mornings, but we only skied two of those days. The days we go out to the lake only to find the wind a problem, well, it is frustrating. But we head back, put the boat away and head out on our bikes or whatever strikes our fancy. It is the good part of being retired. Tomorrow is another day.

Al uses a sophisticated method to check wind speed and direction.

The weatherman said no wind at dawn. But there was the beginnings of mild chop.

Wednesday was beautiful dawn with minimal wind.

The full moon was in the west this week before dawn.

The moon above our canal as we head out to the lake.

An Old Florida Morning

I have always enjoyed the phrase used to describe Florida of before development: Old Florida. It's a pretty little phrase, but also quite humorous since Florida is home to such a large population of retirees. The phrase simultaneously brings up images of Florida wilderness and grey-haired golfers and fishermen. I was playing with some pictures I took on the way back from skiing today. I decided to make one look like an Old Florida morning from those postcard photographs of the 50s and 60s. Pretty, huh? No wonder memories sometimes seem nicer than the present.

A Beautiful Ending for July

We were out skiing four times this week. Conditions were excellent. Dawn had minimal wind and temperatures around 80. The water as always was warm.

We learned to slalom ski using traditional slalom techniques. A few years ago we learned the West Coast slalom technique. If you ski, you know what I am talking about. If you don't, I won't bore you with a discussion of differences. All that is really relevant is that the technique allows for very rapid acceleration and cuts. This week we were working on our use of the technique. Al tweaked his form to increase the speed of his crosses. I worked on my turns, trying to improve them while controlling the acceleration towards towards the wake. (This technique can easily give me acceleration that my hands can't handle!) We both felt very good about our progress.

July still has a half week to go, but we'll be taking the next couple of days off for recovery time. The chance of tropical systems interrupting our water skiing increases during the next two months. The weather people say the developing El Nino will tamp down systems in the Atlantic, but we'll see. The systems are so huge they only need to slide withing several hundred miles of us to bring big weather to our area. I'm looking forward to a couple of good bike rides this week. And I think I may even finish a few of my annual indoor summer chores! (Or not. Life is short, and chores are boring...)

Ski day 1: These clouds at dawn foretold the big rain event we had later in the afternoon.

Ski day 2: Clear blue skies at sunrise.

Ski day 3: Another clear morning with a very light wind.

Ski day 4: Clear sky with a gentle wind from the south.

Gear

I've gotten email asking if we use special gear as older skiers. The answer to that is a big YES. While you don't become frail just because you've reached retirement age, you are probably not as strong as you were when you were in your 20s. But you probably have more money than you had back then. For a few bucks, there is gear to help you past about any issue that comes with aging.

Your choice of skis makes a big difference. Al skis on a very high performance ski with hard boot bindings. I  would kill myself if I used a ski like that. My ski is a good intermediate ski with a soft boot binding in front and an adjustable toe strap in back. It is responsive and makes decent turns but it is a lot more stable than Al's ski. I also have an emergency back-up ski. It's a wide body slalom ski, designed for big guy skiers who are way heavier than me. Why do I use it as a back up? Well, it isn't that quick on turns, but that wide  ski really pops you out of the water like a cork for deep water starts. And, like I said, it is as stable as they come. If I'm having problems with my arthritis, that ski will let me get out behind the boat for some slow but fun swerving. (Happily, it has been a master bath wall decoration for a number of years. But it is there if I need it.)

My basic gear always includes ski goggles. First, my goggles are tinted and act as sunglasses. Second, they are a lifesaver if you fall and do a "face plant," which means your face hits the water flat and hard. Without goggles, you will certainly have a face ache, and a head ache, to beat all. With googles, you maybe get a nose and/or a mouth full of water--but no raging pain. Young skiers endure the pain of a hard fall with a laugh, usually sorry only that it wasn't caught on video for YouTube. Older skiers are happy to be skiing and never want more pain than necessary.

Clincher gloves. See the strap in the palm and the wrapped wrists?

My gloves are the most important part of my older skier gear. I wear Clincher gloves. A dowel in the finger tips is attached by a sturdy strip of webbing to the strap-wrapped wrist. A lot of people my age have arthritic hands like me. These gloves minimize strain on the fingers and forearm by transferring the pull of the handle directly to the long bones of the arm. I was told they were originally designed for young skiers who had not yet developed the grip strength needed for skiing. But, if you have arthritic hands (or if you just don't have a lot of grip strength) these gloves are GOLD. (By the way, there are several versions of these gloves made by different companies using a couple of different designs. The choice of designs seems to be just a personal one.)

Clincher gloves. The dowel  at the finger tips and palm strap transfer the pull to the  long bones of the arm.

We got out three times this week. We had great conditions. We gave ourselves an extra recovery day. Recovery takes longer as you get older. If you haven't recovered and you push yourself too hard, you just end up with an injury (sprain, strain, or tendonitis) that can mess up your whole season. So one perfect for skiing day we stayed off the lake and took a nice little road trip instead.

Ski day 1: High humidity and lots of cloud energy--great skiing at dawn, but rain later in the morning.

Ski day 2: A perfect summer dawn.

Ski day 3: 82 degrees and gorgeous at dawn.

Retirement Living in Spandex and Lycra

We retired to water ski and ride bikes. Banish thoughts of fashionable resort wear. This is a retirement focused on your time in unforgiving spandex and lycra. Not the most flattering style decision for those of retirement age, but the clothes and gear come with the fun.

Cycling actually has the best style choices for retirees. Cycling has always encompassed a wide array of enthusiasts. All ages. Men and women. There are many varieties of cycling (commuting, touring, road, mountain, etc.) and each has somewhat distinctive gear and clothing. It is pretty easy to dress so you feel not only comfortable but fashionable.

Water sports? Not so much. Gear and clothing are designed with the teen through young adult in mind. You need to get creative to find clothes and gear that work for the physique (and personal style) of a retiree. Graphic designs that are favored by college students may or may not suit the personal style of people who can remember going to Janis Joplin concerts, wore bell bottom jeans and love beads, and owned original vinyl Bob Dylan, Cream, and Jefferson Airplane albums in their youth.

There are lots of swim suits, to be sure. But the swimsuit you might love for a day on the beach, sitting by a pool, or taking an easy swim, well, that suit might not be the one you want to wear if you are possibly going to hit the water at skiing speeds. Trust me. I can tell you this from experience.

My gear is a mix of things. A board short from Billabong. Very retro-looking full coverage top and bottom swim suits. A tankini that I had specially altered to assure it would stay in place under extreme conditions. And running knickers and a long-sleeve rash guard for days that are too chilly for a regular swim suit, but too warm for a wet suit. (I cannot tolerate chilly. Or at least I don't tolerate it gracefully. Same thing.)

I would recommend my lifestyle to anyone who wants a very active retirement. Glamour? None. Fun and excitement? Lots.

And it's never boring.

A sense of humor is required for skiing as an older adult: you are going to look silly!