Following on with our watery weekend theme this weekend we have been towed behind boats on boards and biscuits!

Half way through the week I received an email from one of the directors at work saying that as part of the Christmas do this coming weekend he would be getting his boat out along with one of his friends and taking us all waterskiing. Now, having felt the coldness of the water during last weekends diving I was pretty sure that we were going to need more than a pair of board shorts to keep us warm in the water but I was assured by Jade that the water around Littleton was a lot warmer than the water further north due to the fact that the cold flow from the Antarctic does not make it into the bay around Christchurch and the water will be a balmy 15 degrees or so. Balmy! It was at this point that myself and Katie bought ourselves some full length wetsuits!

So we turned up nice and early at Littleton harbour and jumped into one of the two boats that were waiting for us. We were heading out across the harbour, around the bay to an Island called Quail Island. This is also known as leper island to the locals, as, when there was an outbreak of leprosy the sufferers were sent out to the island to die and/or be buried. Upon arrival the water was nice and calm and not as cold as expected but still not balmy though, and, to our delight we were the only people on the beach. No day-trippers, no other boaters and best of all no people with horrible flesh wasting diseases!

Then came the choice of how we wanted to be towed through the water. There was the traditional water skis - one on each foot. There was a monoski - from what I could work out One foot in a huge ski and the other would probably flap uselessly behind you. There was a board that you kneel down on and strap yourself ontto. A sea biscuit which, in this case, is not a famous race horse but an inflatable ring that is towed behind the boat with you precariously perched on it and finally the wake board. This is like a snowboard but wider with bindings so your feet are strapped. I had decided even before we got there that I was going to have a go at the wake boarding.

So I put on my wetsuit, covered my feet with washing up liquid and squeezed myself into the bindings. Luckily I had some help in the water from someone who knew what they were doing and they set me up behind the boat with the T-handle in my hand. I had to remember knees bent and arms straight with the board perpendicular to the back of the boat. When I was ready I was to shout to the boat who would then give it full throttle pulling me along and building up a wall of water under the sideways board until there was enough to pop the board up flat at which point I was to turn my front foot 90 degrees and I would be up and wakeboarding.I sat in the water got my legs in as far as possible arms straight. I shouted to the boat. The boats engine roared. I felt the water build up under the board.I fell flat on my face. I floated around waiting for the boat to circle back to give me the rope!This happened about 5 times. Each time I would get some more advice as to what I had done wrong and why most of my orifices' were fast filling up with water. Then, on the 6th time everything clicked and I was up. Admittedly it was more like bambi on ice rather than hardcore wakeboarding but I managed it. By the end of my session I could turn and cross the wake comfortably, get going from a water start each time and to my amazement I couldn't grip a single thing as I had pulled all the tendons in both forearms!

Next it was Katie's turn. I think she may have been watching my frustration from the shore and decided that all the struggling with the board was not for her. She was going to take the easy option and take the sea biscuit out for a spin. She waded out a got herself firmly planted, sitting in the ring. The boat took off at high speed in a straight line pulling a fluorescent pink doughnut behind with a surprisingly quiet Katie on top. I was just commenting to one of my colleagues on the beach that I was surprised that Katie wasn't making any noise when the boat flipped a tight turn, accelerating the florescent pink doughnut to break-neck speeds and it was then we heard Katie's trademark scream louder than the accelerating V8 boat engine. After 15 minutes or so of being thrown this way and that way sometimes in and sometimes out of the sea biscuit Katie appeared back on the shoreline with a huge grin on her face.General tiredness and lethargy set in around 1pm and we packed up the gear and headed for the mainland. We had a meal planned for the evening and would need to rest beforehand. I was rather worried that I would not be able to grip a pint glass so resting of the drinking muscles was high on my list.We really enjoyed ourselves out on the boat and Katie wants to try the boarding at some point so as we are virtually neighbours with my boss he is going to give us a call next time he heads out with the boat (usually every weekend in the summer) and we get to go along for free!