Boating memories with Dad

I never saw this thread till today. A great Fathers Day Read.   My Father is still with me at 92 now, so I am very fortunate.   Mom and Dad skied and loved it, our family owned a ranch that was under what is now Folsom Lake. The Ranch was bordered by two rivers, the North and South forks of the American River.   The land was condemed so the Lake could be built. As the Lake filled they would go out to the old Ranch with friends and spend the weekends water skiing. This was before too many children came along and was around 1953 or 4.   My dad wanted a boat badly but my conservative mother held the purse strings tight, she had to with 5 children to care for.   So dad and mom quit water skiing before I was of age to learn.   My Aunt got a boat when I was around 10 and taught me and my brothers how to ski behind her tri hull with a 4 cyl inboard Volvo package.   It was great in our book we were skiing.
My older brother bought a 13'9" Javalin with a 75 Evenrude on it.   The boat was rated for about 30 HP so it really rode low in the rear. ( we sank it a few times ).   He was 7 years older than me and always needed an observer so I was able to ski nearly every weekend.
Young guys won't really appreciate the effort we made to ski.   That Javelin would pull you out if you drug behind it for 100 or 200 Yards, you had to drag one leg for extra lift and you needed to hold your breath as you dipped your head down on the front of the ski to have less drag.   One of our ski buddies weighed about 250, big strong guy. To pull him up our observer had to crawl out to the nose of the Javelin and hang your head and shoulders over the nose till the boat planed out.   Not sure it was legal back then and I know it has not been legal for at least the past 30 years but we did it every time he skied. Once up it would pull you any speed you wished but you had to learn to drag forever to get up.   Great skill to have as every other boat was much easier to ski behind.
I bought my first Nautique in 1982, a 1978 model and loved it.   Got my dad to ski only once, he skied after taking 32 years off.. He showed us he could still do it and even went on a single and did really well but would never do it again.   I think he was about 60 at the time (younger than I am now) and probably hurt for a week after this run but he never said a word in complaint but never skied again.   He did have 5 hernia operations at about the same time, that would discourage most I think.
Boating/water ski trips has been a staple in my family and i hope it continues with our kids and grandkids.   Funny my children have never expressed any interest in buying a boat, one has always been at our home and available so they are not motivated at all to own one. To all of us spoiled on how great a Ski Nautique pulls you remember us old fogies that had to learn behind boats with zero power.   Long Drags, Dock or Beach Starts we had to be good at these or stay on the dock. You have not lived till you pulled in about 20 foot of rope in coils laying beside you and yelled hit it and try to time your push off to match the boat finally pulling the rope tight and jerking you off the dock or beach.
Once learned it is really not a hard skill but those first ones made your knees weak as you watched to boat taking off and your rope coils feeding out.
Thanks for this thread it was a great read. Happy Fathers Day to all.
Mark

Dad, what have you done to me!!!

Pop was a firefighter, motorrhead, and generally a prankster. Summer of 1968 he got me good. At the West end of Donner Lake, Ca. Dad, Mom, me, sister all in 16' Dorsett runabout w/75 Evinrude. If anyone knows Donner, they know of the whitecaps that come up mid-day, often forcing the lake patrol to order boats off the lake. Our place was mid-way to East end, and Pop bet me I couldn't ski back in the rough. I gave it a good shot, fell about halfway, stubbornly refused to lose, ended up pulling my right shoulder out of the socket. I think my Dad was still laughing as he popped it back into place. I ate left-handed for about a month.

Over 50 years ago, I can still see him chuckling at me.

Thanks for the memory, Dad.

Great Googly Moogly.... Gary is right. I feel old. Lifelong friends made just because of a mutual love for a ski boat. So cool to see this toddler of Cali ski Bud grow up before our eyes. Hope your packing BKH cause both your ladies are just beautiful. Seems like yesterday when this little girl Aspen was hamming it up at GL jumping off the platform saying "Watch Me!"....now it's "Toss me the keys Dad"! Thanks for sharing Brian.

Way to go Brian making us feel old. Before I even went on the next page to see Larry’s post I showed Aspen’s picture to the wife - she wanted to know what happened to the baby    

Wow, Brian. Hard to believe we've been gathering here this long, isnt it?

My grandpa, uncle, and dad all owned speedboats at some time, my uncle had a seventy something SN. (before the 2001) Dad was a fisherman, but took the time to teach us kids how to ski behind a 14" rowboat with a 20hp outboard. Eventually he bought an IO and a tube to pull. He never liked going fast on the tube, and just pulled the tube dead straight when he drove. Before the speedboat he and I went fishing on lake Erie with that rowboat and 20hp Johnson. Later that IO was damaged by fire when the neighbor's house burned down, and was sold for about a hundred bucks. Now I've got kids of my own, two and four, and I want to take them out on the boat.

Thought I would bring this thread up top on what would be my Dad's 83rd birthday. Gone 15 years now. Still miss him. I've been making a lot of boating memories with my own daughter lately. She has been doing a little bit of competition Slalom skiing, and I'm her primary practice driver.

If you have any boating stories with your Dad (or Mom) throw them up.

Have a good day out there on the water.

BKH

Spent three days this week at waterski camp with my daughter. She's learning some surface tricks, made it through the mini course, and got a couple balls in the full slalom course. I think we will do some practice today, Father's Day. BKH

Thanks for bumping this one up Dave..... You beat me to it. Jim, that picture I took of you wasn't planned but man is it spot on...Second Fathers day I've been without mine so its kinda tough. Have Tamara with me today so I might just have to hit the lake later today.

Happy Fathers Day Boys!....... Call your Dad today if he's still here and tell him you love him. Spend it on the lake with him if you can!


lfskizzer and his wife Jessica were here for the Masters Ski Tournament so I took em' out on the lake. I asked Phil to drive while I skied with Tamara...... Jess grabbed the camera and took a few. Still have daughter Sydney missing from this pic but I've been wanting to do this for a long time.

Lots of memories.......Gone to soon, would have been great to get him out of the old Starcraft and into the Correct Craft for some skiing fun and new memories. With that being said, the stogie would of had to stay on the dock.

[/IMG]

My Dad passed away 2 years ago and I really miss him. He was never a big "motor boater" but he loved to sail. We had a Hobie Cat 18' catamaran for many years.

When my slalom skiing turned serious, my Dad bought me a training boat. It was an older inboard V-Drive "tunnel hull" made by Carina. 460 Ford power. Then Dad bought us a Chev Suburban to pull the boat around. He gave me a charge card for the local service station so that I could put gas in the boat and Suburban.

Dad let me off work at 3:00 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday so that I could practice at the lake. When the 460 needed work, Dad paid for a rebuild.

My Dad got on that boat only once. He showed us that he could ski (2 skis) and we were all impressed.

My Dad's sister was a single Mom and didn't have much money. Dad made sure that I took my cousins out regularly on the boat. He wanted his nephews to have similar experiences as his boys had.

It's getting hard to see the screen. Something seems to have gotten into my eye.

JQ

Tim: I like the "one for each"...my son has already called dibs on my dad's century...

I too think of my Dad everytime I get in the boat especially when I wear the now infamous Red/White boating shirt posted here that belonged to him. I didn't used to but now that he's gone he's there with me. I am still trying to do something with my two girls that he and I never got the chance to do. SKI TOGETHER! Make it happen guys! I still have yet to get the Dad and both daughters behind the boat ski as I'm always pulling them and no one around to pull us when I do have them both home these days. Maybe subliminally that's why I have two CC's....One for each daughter when I'm gone so that they will always have a little part of me everytime they step foot in a boat that we've spent loads of time in and to continue a family tradition of time on the water.
So cool to see in person and on the site of Father/Son & Father/Daughter (or both) ski runs and the closeness it makes that relationship. Thanks for starting this thread 10 years ago Brian and its so cool to see how Aspen has grown into the sport.

Well, 10 years now since I started this thread. Today my Dad would have been 80. He's been gone for 13 years. I won't be boating today as I'm on a business trip, but our boating time is increasing as my daughter get's older. She is now on Slalom Ski, Rides a wakeboard, does double and triple skis with her friends. She even pulled me out of a 10 year hiatus, and I've been on a water ski as often as my back will allow me. I think about my Dad almost every time we go boating.

A lot of new members to this site over the last 10 years. If you have not yet shared a story of boating with your Dad, please do. I bet you will be glad that you did.

BKH

Bump.

Happy Fathers Day to all. Make some good Memories tomorrow.

OMH