Dear Princess,
Technically it was a WaveRunner, but you didn’t fully appreciate the difference between brands and insisted we call it a jet ski when the topic was discussed on the car ride home.
In any case, we went on our first jet ski ride this summer and it didn’t quite start out as planned.
Now, I had previously rented a jet ski from this boat rental place on Lake Lewisville before so I knew their routine when I took you and I knew which part of the lake I wanted to stay in so that we could be safe. Lake Lewisville is a big lake with big boats, and I wanted to make sure you had a good experience.
I have always found solace on the water and have always wanted to live on the water and boat regularly, and it’s always been important to me that you get the opportunity to grow up on the water as well. It’s so relaxing and fun so I wanted to make sure you had a great first experience.
We went through the motions and they assigned us the nice blue one that you wanted. It was fancy. In fact is was so fancy that when we got on and they pushed us out into the water, it immediately flipped over and dumped us in the lake. So much for first impressions. At least I know you’d had fun on a boat before this.
On the flip side, as they say, I suspect you will remember this experience for years to come.
Naturally we had our life jackets on and you’ve been swimming in a lake before so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but we were definitely not planning on going for a swim. Also, I’m super glad I had put my shoes in storage and my phone in the jet ski because otherwise, it would have all gotten wet.
You swam to the platform and they got you out of the water and I pushed the jet ski back to the dock and finally got out of the water myself.
And then they gave us a new jet ski. A green one.
You got right back on the green jet ski and I think you were a little nervous, but for the most part you were ready to go. This time we pushed off and floated like we were supposed to and at the time, none of us knew why the first one flipped on us.
Around the dock where the water was nice and smooth you were calm, but once we got out side the docks with a little more waves, you started to get nervous and scared. You were safe of course, holding the handlebars, and I was sitting right behind you so I knew you would be fine, but you did not like going slow in the no wake zone.
Once we got past the no wake zone and could go faster, you had a total blast. You only wanted to go at least 15 mph. Slower than that and you would get nervous. Or if we had to stop and float for a minute you would get nervous, but once we were zooming around you loved it.
It was pretty choppy though so we couldn’t go too fast all the time or we would have been bouncing around too much and you might have bonked the steering wheel, so I did have to go slow for some of the trip.
We also learned that you need a ponytail if we’re on a jet ski because your hair was blowing in my face the entire time and gave you lots of laughs as I’d spit your hair out of my mouth from time to time.
All in all it was a fun trip and I think you really enjoyed it. We went late in the day to avoid too much sun and after about an hour you started to get sore from sitting on the jet ski and decided you had enough and we returned to shore.
And that was your first ride on a jet ski.
Oh, and as it turns out. The people who rented the blue jet ski before us dunked it under water and sank it. It was still half full of water. Apparently the employee who set us up had not been told that they still needed to drain it.
For me, it was a nice reminder: No plan survives contact with the enemy. Something to remember throughout life. Gotta learn to roll with the flipped over jet skis and still go have fun.
Love,
Daddy
P.S. A nervous first time boater asks the captain, “Do boats like this sink very often?” “Not too often,” came the reply. “Usually it’s only once.”
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