Tow sports are ranked and respected according to how hard it is to
stand up while doing it. Therefore, a single ski is the hardest and
most respected, then it is either wake boarding or two skis and the
underachieving little brother is the knee board. I think the knee
board was intended as an accessible and fun tow sport for children
and the handicapped but I embraced it and loved when we got to go out
knee boarding. First we would get the populist water weenie out of
the way and once all of those victims were sufficiently whiplashed we
would bring out the big guns. A yellow knee board that I could launch
from the shore or the water. My dad would tow me for as long as I
wanted around in big circles and figures eight while I would steer
back and forth jumping off the wake. Well, what felt like jumping off
of the wake. I could turn and ride backwards, I could even spin 360
or whip myself across the wake when we were close to shore and time
it so I could cruise to a stop right on or near the beach. It was my
favorite part of summer. I always wanted to get other people involved
so they could learn how and then see how much better I was at it than
them but no one seemed to really care. Once we even got my mom, a
very reluctant adventurer, to give it a try she failed to plane and
the nose of the board dipped under the water and instead of letting
go of the tow rope she held on for what seemed like a minute with her
face making a pretty great bow wave in front of it. Her panicked face
plowing through a wall of water struck all of us in the boat as very
funny and we joked about it for quite a while.
