Into the Woods

For some people summer ends after Labor Day.  Others go by the autumnal equinox on September 21st.  For those who wakeboard on Webster Lake (well, Lake Chagogmanchagogchubungagoggamog to be precise), it’s the last day of wakeboarding when we take Sean’s boat out of the water.  Today, October 22 was that day.

The air was about 55 and the water not much warmer.  After wrestling with the boatlift and dock sections for over an hour, Sean, Rouben and I finally had all the various parts safely out of the way of the winter ice pack.  We then set out for one more more trip around the lake.  I was freezing before I even started to wakeboard.  Before getting in the water, I filled my wetsuit top and board shorts with warm water from Seans onboard shower to ease my passing into the fridged lake. It didn’t help much.  After 3 seconds, the cold water seeped into my skin.  Fortunately Sean pulled me out 15 seconds later and I was treated to some glassy water with no other boat wakes to muck things up.  After about 10 minutes of riding, I felt my feet getting numb so I dropped the rope.  I scrambled into the boat as fast as I could and let more hot water from the hose run through my wetsuit. It probably saved my life.

After loading the boat onto the trailer, we headed back to Sean’s cottage for beers, steaks on the grill and baked potatos. A trurly perfect end to the season…