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12-09-2009, 09:45 AM | #1 |
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Crazy water tricks
There was a very interesting picture in the Gallery that showed a water skier landing on a beach. It would have broken all sorts of rules today but it was taken in the 60's. So I thought it would be fun to talk about all the crazy things we did on the water and in boats in the days before 150' and other inhibiting rules. So I'll start:
1. Water skiing without getting wet. Rope slacked and jump start off the dock and then time your landing to sit on the dock in the end. 2. Water ski long jump contest - whip your skier hard into the beach and measure how far they fly and land on the beach. 3. Build various skiing apparatus like planar boards out of old doors, chairs on planar boards, planar boards with hydrofoils (that one totally destroyed itself on first try) 4. Boat jump contest - Drive boat at continuing higher speeds and jump out. Winner is last to chicken out (I think winning speed was around 40mph but the injuries I attained has clouded my memory) 5. Bury ski rope on beach and hide in woods with skiis on and wait for your Mother and her friends to sit in their usual spot on the beach. Then bring boat in to pick up end of rope and take off. Watch the ladies fly! Then get grounded for two weeks. There was so many more but I thought I would let others share. Have fun but don't let your kids read this stuff. |
12-09-2009, 09:53 AM | #2 |
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If only the bones would still take the abuse.
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12-09-2009, 09:54 AM | #3 | |
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Quote:
And that's why I voted Mitt in the 1/06/08 NH presidential primary.......go Mitt go!
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12-09-2009, 10:22 AM | #4 |
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OMG. I thought we were the only ones to do the "bury the rope in the sand" trick........
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12-09-2009, 10:49 AM | #5 |
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funny
I love reading stuff like this...things we all did "back in the day". It was good fun, although highly irresponsible, and possibly dangerous.
And then I wonder why many poeple (including members of this forum) go all into a hissy fit, when todays teens, do the same type stuff, only with a modern day twist. I site as my example the thread a while back on the skimobiles skimming the lake in July. Dangerous? Of course. Irresponsible? Obviously. But no different. In 20 years or so, those kids are going to ask each other "hey, remember the day we skimmed the lake on sleds, and got busted for it? Man, what great memories". Same deal. |
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12-09-2009, 11:48 AM | #6 |
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What - I'm not supposed to do these things anymore???
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12-09-2009, 12:06 PM | #7 |
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SA...LOL. Too true. But I don't think my 1974 John Deere 300 could make it 30 feet on the water.... Well maybe I could skim a pot hole if it wasn't too big.... I wonder if that sled is still around. Probably dust by now.....
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12-09-2009, 05:07 PM | #8 |
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Boards
What is the name of the board? Wood aquaplane, planar boards, Water board are some of the names. Do you know any others?? I can not remember what we called them but not these names? They were also sold commercially.
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12-09-2009, 05:29 PM | #9 |
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I remember my cousin hounding my uncle for months to let him ski bare foot because he knew he would be great at it. Eventually, my dear uncle gave in and let the lad have his way. That was a spectacular fall. Needless to say, the subject never came up again.
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12-09-2009, 06:01 PM | #10 |
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I use to start barefoot off of Governors Island Bridge back in the 80’s and 90’s. We would get there very early in the morning before the fishermen. I also started off of Black Cat Island Bridge once, which was a hard landing. Maybe some day my kids will be trying it!!!
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12-09-2009, 08:32 PM | #11 |
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The early days of parasailing ...
Some of the favorite stories in this house revolve around by brother-in-law many many many many years ago bringing his own brand of parasailing to the lake. This involved several people in the boat, a very long rope, and a fool standing on top of the boathouse with a parachute. The boat would speed up, the rope went taught, the fool went flying, and when it was time to stop somebody in the boat cut the rope with a knife, and the fool with the parachute would come floating (read crashing) down. This went on for quite some time (until there was no rope left, and the boathouse railing was broken) until logic, reason, and sore bodies prevailed.
This family has been on the lake for a long time, and the stories of tomfoolery are endless. When we all get together, and the "memories stories" start, we laugh so hard we're crying and holding our bellies. Oh how times have changed. *sigh*
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12-09-2009, 09:05 PM | #12 |
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Dock Landings/ Take offs
My sister and I still have some great laughs when we recall the times of our skiing take-off and landings on the dock when the water was still too cold to get in. My Uncle always pleaded with us not to land on the dock although he felt OK for us to take off from it. Well as luck would have it one day my sister mis judged her release and came into the dock too fast and straight on. She looked like a seal coming out of the water and sliding down the length of the dock. The battle bruises on her legs took all summer to go away and she quickly lost all interest in dock landing from that moment on.
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12-09-2009, 10:24 PM | #13 |
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Those were the days, my friends
...we thought they'd never end. My Father made a surf board (which is what we called it) out of a marine plywood material... quite fancy, actually. He was very much the athlete and acrobat and we would pull him around Blanchard island while he was standing on his head the whole while! He could also stand on his hands while walking down a flight of stairs.
I am ashamed to admit this, but one early summer morning several of us stole a Stop sign from Barnard Ridge Road in Meredith, and in the middle of the night we proceeded to nail it into the blinking buoy at Marker 52. We laughed ourselves silly the next day as we watched many boats creeping through the channel and actually coming to a halt at the stop sign. That stop sign is long gone, but every time I drive by Barnard Ridge I think back to that night so many years ago.... with a little twinkle in my eye. |
12-10-2009, 10:39 AM | #14 | |
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great
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12-10-2009, 12:20 PM | #15 |
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We used to ski from the dock or swim raft all the time when we were kids. Seemed to be the norm back then. Beach landings as well. I never really liked to try the dock landings, too much potential for bad things to happen.
Hard wooden dock=bad Soft beach sand=better
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12-10-2009, 12:59 PM | #16 | |
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12-10-2009, 04:12 PM | #17 |
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Always took of skiing from the end of the dock or skipping in 6" of water to get up. That was easier on the arms. Better though was when Dad pulled 8 skiers a once with one spotter. It was legal back then, mid 60's. The boat couldn't pull all 8 out of the water, only 5. Two other boats pulled the other 3. They all lined up and transfered to the end skiers, who had 2 ropes. Pretty stupid but I didn't know any better. 150' rule....HA!
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12-10-2009, 07:44 PM | #18 | |
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12-10-2009, 10:06 PM | #19 |
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We use to ski through the channels in and around Green's Basin. We called them narrows back then. No one cared what we did. We also had the wide wooden surf boards with ropes that we would stand on a go behind the boat. We also use to go horn pout fishing with drop lines in the 50's and 60's.
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12-12-2009, 06:57 AM | #20 | ||
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OK, Folks...Add 'Em UP!
After the first occasion, I never much cared for the "multi-skiers thing". There was never really anywhere to go after getting ski-borne. You could pull up on your towline and switch places with others, but to avoid collsions with each other, that was it. (Except it was kind of fun to all go one direction, panicking the boat's operator!)
My single-best specialty was being towed by my teeth! Alas, without my glasses, I couldn't tell that my friends never saw that one performance—and my gums got to aching afterwards. Quote:
After reading this—which followed the reading of Pineneedles' account: Quote:
I accounted for ladders, staircases, bicycles, attics and automobile hand tools, but I can't trace a single one to stunts on the Lake. Have I stumbled onto the elusive definition of "Using Common Sense on the Lake", or is this Forum's collective scarrings a good source for the "grist-mill"? |
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12-12-2009, 09:10 AM | #21 |
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The old days.
Taking off from the dock or beach, coming on to the beach, barefoot skiing. on and on. laws are outlawing the fun we had.
I even talk to a the folks who's daughter is the world champion wakeboarder. They move from the Wolfeboro area to Lake Norman NC. They move just because of the laws. It is very difficult to train under the current laws. There is a championsip waterskier on Rocky Pond in Belmont. They say the MP is rarely on the pond and he can practice his tricks without worrying about breaking the laws. I guess there will never be a champion from lake Winni anymore
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12-23-2009, 09:38 AM | #22 |
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Beach Landing a Water Skier
On Sabbatia Lake in Taunton MA I was able to bring our 16' tri hull into our cove and whip it out into open water, accelerating the skier towards the beach with enough momentum to step out of the skis and not touch water much above the ankles. If you've never ridden in a tri hull, they slap in rough water but they can carve a square corner. I did once come in a little too quick, launching my brother with skis still attached onto the sand! The skis stopped, but he didn't.
We also did a lot of tubing back when tubing meant using a large truck tire tube, complete with its protruding valve (late 60's-early 70's). We took great pleasure making decreasing radius turns at full throttle (boat speed 35-40 mph) with the tuber literally being at a near 90 degree angle to the gunwale of the boat at the end of a 100' tow rope. When you flipped (which happened often at speed) the water seemed as hard as concrete. Flipping one off - the tube that is, was a sport all in itself. I once dislocated my shoulder after getting flipped. We shouldn't be alive today........ |
12-26-2009, 09:39 PM | #23 |
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Oh The Memories
I love all the water ski stories. My favorite memory is skiing though the Black Cat bridge. We always skied around Black Cat, then one year they built the bridge. When my father took us to Center Harbor, one of us would ski over and the other ski back. Well my brother skied over and as we can back it was getting dark. As we approached the bridge, I was expecting my father to stop and pick me up. He just kept going, so I tried to stay straight behind the boat.On we went, right through. Unfortunately the MP was sitting on the other side of the bridge. He was not amused. He let us go after he yelled at us for awhile. He seemed more upset that it was almost dark, then the fact we had come through the bridge.
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12-27-2009, 08:52 AM | #24 |
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There was a small marsh/swamp about 1/2 mile from our house and I used to love to make a sudden turn, decelerate and drop one of the kids right in the weeds(with the snapping turtles,alligators and snakes) as I used to tell them. I can still hear their screams.
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