Wakeboarding Part II

Last time on Thoughts From A Recovering Cynic:

It happened so quickly I barely had time to think. Next thing I knew I had slammed into the water head first. My body completed a full 360 rotation with the board coming out of the water. After my head had surfaced it took only a second to get my bearings and realize what had happened...  

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Instinctively I raised my right hand – it's the sign we use with water sports to signal that you're ok. But the reason I had lifted my right arm was because I wasn't able to move my left. If fact, I had lost feeling in that arm altogether and there was a warm pain moving down the left side of my shoulder and back.

There wasn't any point in panicking. I was clearly not bleeding and no bones were protruding. And how bad can one really get hurt from water?

My left foot had come lose from the wakeboard while somersaulting across the water and so I used my right arm to unstrap my right foot. I sat there, suspended in water by my life-jacket, thankful for such an invention.

The boat returned to pick me up and my friend who had been spotting asked "You ok?". I shook my head and said "No". I started to swim towards the boat, but realized that the left side of my body (from the waist up) felt paralyzed. I wasn't able to feel or control it. Swimming with half your body paralyzed is shockingly hard to do so my friend tossed me the rope and I grabbed onto it while he pulled me in.

Getting into the boat proved to be much more challenging than I expected. I figured with one arm, and my dominate arm at that, I should be able to pull myself into the boat.

Nope.

Both my friends had to help in order to secure me into the boat where they gingerly removed my life-jacket. One of my friends remarked "Ohh. Yeah. You dislocated your shoulder."

For a split second there was a rush of relief. I had feared I had somehow broken it.

They sat me down and we headed to shore.

The festivities on land had continued and laughter and joyous cries of little ones could be heard in the air. As we approached for docking a few friends on a jetski asked if everything was alright. I'm not sure if I responded or someone else, but if words didn't convey it, perhaps the drop of my left shoulder did – things weren't ok.

We got on land and went looking for the one person who could help us the most – a nurse. She took one look at my shoulder and said "No. I can't fix that. He's going to need to go to the ER."

ER? Seriously? Can't I just move my arm back into place somehow and it be all ok?

I attempted to just move my arm. A sudden jolt of pain ran down my arm, through my shoulder, and down my back.

Nope. Not moving it into place myself.

My friend Dan quickly volunteered to drive me to the ER and as my friends accompanied me to his car I passed a few attendees who were curious as to what happened. After explaining, one attendee said "Should you call your dad? He's disloacted his shoulder many times before hasn't he?"

It was true. My dad had dislocated his shoulder a pleathura of times.

I said "Yeah. I can call him. Just not with my left arm."

I knew if I could still make jokes I was going to be ok.

As I approached my friend's car, my dad happened to be just arriving and came to find out why I was hunched over and surrounded by people. I explained to him what had happened and he said he would meet me at the ER.

I was slowly helped into Dan's car and we headed to the hospital.

Dan, who had dislocated his shoulder but a year ago asked "Do you want me to drive carefully to avoid bumps or faster to get there sooner?"

At this point my arm was throbbing and relief was all I wanted. It was frozen in an awkward position and I just wanted it to be relaxed.

"As fast as possible" I said.

Little did I know the pain I felt at that moment was but a taste of what was to come.

....to be continued

Wakeboarding Part I

Last Saturday I found myself attending the celebration of Justin Daniels' graduation from high school. The festivities were held on the water and with the weather being such a beautiful accompaniment to the day, water activities were a must.

I sat enjoying the refreshing breeze, watching as several enjoyed the water on jet-skis, and surrounded by kids darting about, happily jeering as they ran in and out of the water's edge. Besides being completely picturesque, it really was the perfect day to be out on the water — wakeboarding.

Two of my friends offered to take me out on the boat — one driving, the other spotting — as I attempted to warm up this year's season of wakeboarding.

[NOTE: For those of you who don't know what wakeboarding is, it's like snowboarding on water.]

I was prepared to catch many an edge and have what I expected to be some pretty fantastic face-plants. I told my spotter he should video my first run of the season because he was no doubt going to catch some hilariously painful face-plants.

See with wakeboarding, it's almost inevitable that you will catch an edge at some point. Kind of like Russian Roulette really. It's just a matter of time. And being the first run of the season, it was guaranteed.

I jumped in the water in an attempt to quickly acclimate to the freezing temperatures. And although cold, it was a complimentary contrast to the heat of the day's sun.

So there I was. Sitting in the cold water. Holding tightly onto the rope. The rope had just pulled taught and my friends in the boat were looking at me, awaiting my signal to take off. I was close to shore and it was the first run of the season for me. In fact, it was the first run for anyone behind the boat this year. So in a way, I was christening both the boat (since it's engine rebuild) and the season. I also knew people would be watching from shore to see if I would make it out of the water on my first attempt.

I hadn't wakeboarded behind a boat in 3 years. I couldn't remember how the pull worked. Being towed behind a jet-ski is vastly different from that of a boat. Not only can a jet-ski pull you out of the water quicker, but the wake of a jet-ski is quite small — which means you are less likely to catch an edge resulting in a faceplant.

There was no point in sitting in the water any longer. I gave the signal. I heard the low rumble of the boat as the motors began to roar and felt the resistance of the cold water as I slowly began to rise.

I was fortunate enough to lift out on the first try. I'm not going to lie. It felt good.

It took merely seconds to realize that the wake of the boat was far greater than that of the jet-ski. I knew that if I was going to go "over" the wake, I would need to jump it. Not a big deal. That's really the point of wakeboarding after all.

One thing you must know is that when I jump the wake, I hold onto the rope with only one hand. This allows my other hand to be free for stability. I use the opposite hand of the direction I'm jumping. So if I'm jumping the wake to the left, I hold it with my right hand. If I'm jumping to the right, my left.

I started off simple. Small jumps. Nothing fancy.

I landed them. I felt good.

So I did the next logical thing. I made the jumps a little bigger.

I was 60 or so seconds into my run when as I jumped the wake to the right, I landed, but my weight was too far forward. Instead of catching a toe or heel edge, I had caught the front tip — perhaps the worst place to catch an edge.

It happened so quickly I barely had time to think. Next thing I knew I had slammed into the water head first. My body completed a full 360 rotation with the board coming out of the water. After my head had surfaced it took only a second to get my bearings and realize what had happened...

...to be continued.

The Little Girl I Never Knew

Today began like any other day in the office. My Classical music station on Pandora played in the background as I sat and sifted through emails, enjoying the quiet slow start to my day. 

Around mid morning I received a phone call from my dad. After my initial salutation it was chillingly clear that something was wrong. Before I even knew what it was my heart had quickened because I knew this phone call involved death. I didn't know who though. My mind was racing, going through names, faces, trying to think of who or how someone I knew could have died.

It took only a few seconds for him to relay the news. My cousin and her husband had lost their first and only child this morning to what appeared to be SIDS.

I had never met my cousin's little girl. Her name was Audrie and she was born on April 6 of this year. My cousin had married in the fall of 2012 and both her and her husband were excited young parents who loved this little girl so very much.

Over Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to spend it with them and my extended family, and my cousin, she was probably the happiest momma ever to be. Such a young and eager expecting momma - practically having to practice self-control in anticipation of meeting her little girl.

My cousin had only two months to mother and love Audrie. And mother and love she did.

I honestly don't have a box for all of this. Although close with my cousin and extended family, it still seems like just a horrible rumor - that this tragedy could not have actually befallen my young cousin and her husband. Married not even 2 years, to lose such a treasure so young, to begin your married walk together with such loss, I don't understand. I don't even know if I can sympathize. It's just too... too tragic.

This doesn't happen to people I know. I've heard about SIDS. It happens to... you know... other people. People that are a statistic. People I know, family, they don't lose their 2 month old little girls.

But the reality is, death is no respecter of persons. 

Yet even amidst the tears that my cousin, her husband, and my entire extended family share - there is a hope in Jesus Christ. My cousin and her husband fiercely love the Lord. Her family does too. And through such great loss, there is an assurance that Christ remains in control even when everything else feels like it is completely out of control.

My family is grieving. My cousin and her husband have a hard road to walk ahead of them. Our whole family has a hard road to walk ahead of us as we stand side by side with my cousin, her husband, and her family over this next season. But I have a confidence that somehow, and honestly I don't know how, but somehow, God is going to redeem this.

Death is an enemy. A tragic, horrific enemy. But in Christ there is life - eternal life.