Some families play board games. Others go to the movies. A certain family goes to Disney. But Tim Lehman’s family has a more unusual tradition: they waterski.
Lehman has been skiing since he was very young. When he was three or four years old, his mother would pull him along in shallow water, and at seven, he learned to ski off the back of the boat. He followed in the wake of his mother, father, and older sister, who inspired him to try the sport. Lehman remembers summers spent skiing with the whole family at his grandparents’ lake cottage.
Over the years, Lehman has branched out and become more adventurous, finding new, more exciting ways to ski. These included doing tricks with jumps and turns, using only one ski, and going completely barefoot. Lehman recalls one incident from his teenage years when he and a friend tried skiing with everything they could find. “We skied on canoe paddles… frisbees… chunks of wood we found… pieces of plastic…” Another time, he tried skiing in a drainage ditch. Though he may not be as young as he used to be, Lehman still makes a point of going barefoot once a year. He says he wants to continue this tradition until he turns 60.
Lehman admits that skiing isn’t for everyone. He’s found that “anyone who’s halfways athletic” can ski, but that more specialized athletes may not be ready for skiing’s unique challenges. Some types of skiing are more dangerous than others. Lehman says that skiing in a lake is safer than skiing in a river because rivers often contain floating debris; his worst waterskiing injury happened when he hit “something” while barefoot skiing in a river. Barefoot skiing is usually painful when a skier is new to the activity or is out of practice, as the water can bruise their feet.
Despite the difficulties that skiing may involve, Lehman and his family enjoy going out in the boat and spending time together. For Lehman, the thrill of skiing on the water is second to the quality time he gets to spend with his loved ones. He hopes that he might one day persuade his wife to ski. “I made this rule… that any woman I married would have to learn how to ski first. But I made an exception.”
~Rachel A. Schrock