The Recreational Event

Every three years our extended family gets together at the beach in our Uncle Jim’s home. Uncle Jim is one of those successful movie stars who hit it big in the 1970’s and 1980’s and has since retired and is living the good life. He owns a huge epic-movie like white villa by the beach and I must point out that this is only one of his several villas and homes.

Talk of living the high life. Anyway, we all love visiting my uncle’s house, not only is the place laden with goodies for everyone, he is a generous guy, it affords some of us the rare treat of enjoying water sports. Having been brought up by the beach until my parents split and then we had to move away, my family is particularly fond of this recreational event because it gives us a chance to revisits our old water-based fun.

A water sports pro

As mentioned earlier, I was literary born and brought up by the beach until I was about twelve years old. After my parents messy divorce, I went to live with my father in the city and I have always yearned for a chance to live by the water. Having been brought up by the ocean, I am very good at and very fond of many water sports.

My trophy cabinet is testimony to this and I have surprised many people with my extraordinary skills even in extreme water sports such as wakesurfing and also in my ability to grasp even newer water sports such as wakekiting. One of my favorite water sports is wakeboarding, I can manage to pull many extraordinary tricks in this sport; a feat which has enabled me to bag quite a number of trophies from competitive sporting events.

A frustrating day

The last time we attended the tri-annual recreation event at my uncle’s beach house, I had a rather frustrating day at the beach. As usual I could not wait to unpack before got my wakeboard and rushed to the sea with my siblings. My uncle owns a specially modified powerboat and we usually take turns to ride the wake or motor the boat.

I am usually one of the favorite water sports heroes in the entire extended family and some of the younger kids are rather awed by my prowess in the sea. On this particular day, I was very excited because I had just bought a new wakeboard and I was really looking forward to try it out.

It was a short board and although I had always used long boards, a friend of mine and fellow water sports enthusiast had recommended that I should try out a shorter board and experience the fun. There was only one problem that he had not pointed out. Apparently, using a smaller board makes the rider feel lighter, spin faster, and seem more aggressive, but also makes clean landings more difficult.

On the other hand, using a larger wakeboard lends a slower and smoother style. As I was using a smaller board, I impressed everyone with my spins but every time I tried to get back on the wake I tumbled and crashed. After three tries and crashes, I gave up to the disappointment of my massive young following. Anyway, after rushing to the sports shop the following day and acquiring a long board, I still impressed my fans and reclaimed my status as the family’s water sports’ hero.