One night, while looking out of the window in my parent's house, I saw the reflection of a pond. I asked Dad what's located there. He replied, "Cable ski park!"The location used to be a man made lagoon for swimming. But the lagoon gradually lose its popularity and had been closed. Recently, it had been converted to this cable ski facility.
What is cable ski? Well, it is water skiing, where the people are tow by a cable instead of boat. I had a first hand look at the facility on an after dinner stroll. The pond was about 40m long and 10m wide. An overhead cable system was been held up by four beams. The riders would pull on a pulley dragged along by this overhead cable. There were wake boarders, knee boarders and even a guy on water skis. Some were beginners, just happy with making turns, while others were doing acrobatic stunts.
I decided I wanted to try cable ski before I leave. So this morning, I went to Ski 360 Degree. An hour's session cost $36 and included life vest/knee board rental and some "basic" instruction.
Basic instruction was an understatement! The guy in charge of rental equipment was impatient and unfriendly:( After handing me a knee board, he had me kneeled on the board and showed me how to strap myself in. Then he told me the most important thing was to get out of the water and protect myself from others if I sank. I was to tug my elbow in during the start, straighten my hands once on water and placed the pulley on my left when turning left. There's no right turn in this cable ski park.
I asked about how to signal myself coming in. He impatiently told me to go between the white floats if I had finished my time on the water, or go between the pink floats if I wanted to continue.
On this morning, the pulley machines were being maintained, so I had to wait an hour before my first run. I kneeled down in my board, saw the ready signal turned green and was feeling pretty nervous. I got into position, felt a good jerk on the pulley, hung on tight and was immediately pulled onto the water!
On the water, I could really feel myself float. I relaxed a little and straighten my hand. At 58km/h, the board felt faster than what I saw on land. I held on tightly.
I was able to make it pass 3 turns. On the fourth turn, I felt the pulley slowed down significantly, then quickly sped up. This jerking motion of the pulley caught me off guard. The pulley slipped out of my hands and I sank.As I was getting out, a young Indian lady behind me had also sank. She told me this was the furthest she had gotten, so I was feeling pretty good about myself. I figured if I hung on tight enough, I would be able to make a full round.
On my second run, I was not as lucky. On the first turn, I sank. I tried holding on hard, but was unsuccessful.
On the third pass, I had gotten over the initial adrenaline rush. I was more aware of my form and controlled myself made it through the first turn. I pulled my arms in a little during the turn and that seemed to really help.
However, on the second turn, I felt the board slowed down significantly. As a result, I felt the board leaning forward. Then the pulley sped up. Since the top of the board was in water, the water resistance pulled on the body too much and despite my best effort, I was unable to hang on.
Due to prior arrangement and the fact that the start was delayed my almost an hour, I decided to call it a day. Also the mid-day sun was also shining brightly and I was a little tired.
However, water skiing was a lot of fun! I told my parents if I lived nearby, I would do it more. Cable skiing, however, may be boring after a while, since there's only turning in one direction.
