Enough with winter already...

Well I'm now OH for TWO in the recreational activity department... If you remember from a few posts back, I spent a most enjoyable day out skating with a friend recently but had it end with an embarassing wipe-out. Then yesterday, what began as another super-fun winter outing came to a tragic close as well. Okay, 'tragic' might be an exaggeration... but bear with me...

The day was overcast but only -5C, and the winds were perfect for my snowkiting abilities. I was cruising along over Slack Slough on my 11m kite, feeling great, and I slowed down for a turn at (unbeknownst to me) probably the only spot on the entire pond that was not frozen... Before I knew it - SPLOOSH!! I was thigh-deep in gross, stinky, brown slough water. It caught me completely off-guard, and at first all I could think of was how mad I'd be if my kite launched me and ripped off my skiis - they would be unretrievable from the muck. So I flagged out my kite and sat down, only to sink through the slushy surface even further.

I struggled for a minute to get my skiis off my feet and then crawled back towards shore dragging the Turbo 3 behind me and sliding my boards along in front of me. As this was happening, I was waving and yelling to Todd (he claims 'Screaming like I was dying!') to NOT come out this far - all I could picture was a whole pile of us wading around in the slop. Anyway, within about thirty metres the ice was solid again and I got to my feet and sloshed back to the car. My boots and socks were soaked, my long underwear and inside my ski pants were soaked, my gloves were soaked... basically my day was done. Not to mention how bad I stunk! Peee-ewwwww!

So home I went, while Todd and Pete and Darryl and Shawn rode uneventfully for several more hours. How's my luck!!!?

Oh well. I think I'm ready for winter to be over anyhow, so I'm actually not that choked about the whole incident. It was more funny than anything, and fortunately there weren't alot of spectators at that point - unlike the day at Bower Ponds! Hee hee!

Hopefully this will be the last post involving snow and sub-zero temps for awhile. The forecast is calling for sunshine and highs of 8 degrees C this week - I say bring it on!! Yay for summer!

Cheers!