Conference vicki::boats

    
    	I took my 11 year old son down there about a week after I entered
    .0, I think it was June 17th.  We bought an hour and got an honest
    hour on the water.  My son had never tried skiing before so Ed did
    a simple exercise with him leaning his back against a tree and pulling
    him with a leader line saying, "Just stand up, DON'T come forward,
    DON'T stand up until I tell you to.  Now, remember this when we're
    in the water."  Then we went into the boat and he did it on the boom,
    came up first time, didn't crash until he was told to let go.  He
    came up twice more on the boom, then went to a 5 ft leader line
    on the boom, came up first time without any problem.  I think he
    did two more on the short leader then went to 75 ft and came up
    first try, but he was getting tired and crashed as soon as he got
    to the wake.  I took a turn, it took a few tries to get up on one
    ski while holding the boom, but I made it eventually.  I found it
    even tougher to come up on the short leader line, I think I made
    it 2 times out of 5, by which time I was tiring and Jason was recovered
    and ready to go again.  He managed to get up and stay up behind
    the boat this time, didn't crash til he went outside the wake, next
    time he managed to get out and in again on one side but lost it
    on the other side, not bad for a first day out, and he learned to
    yell, "Hit it !".

    	The next week-end I took my 12 year old daughter for a similar
    shared lesson, same routine but she was a bit timid and didn't make
    quite the same progress, though she did get up on the short leader
    she never made it behind the boat.  For some reason it just wasn't
    working out for me, I just couldn't get up on one ski beside the
    boat until Ed and Norm switched over, then I got EXACTLY the same
    directions from a different voice and it worked, I think Ed fed
    me more power too.  I got up on one ski ONCE behind the boat in
    maybe 9 tries that day, Bah !  I think I've solved that problem
    now.

    	They make a good team, driver and instructor working well together,
    pace the instruction to the progress, work well with kids, sensed
    when I  "wasn't hearing"  and switched roles, gave lots of
    encouragement and positive reinforcement.  $100 well spent.
    I'm trying to schedule another lesson now.
    
    	Reg
    

   I took my daughter and her friend to an hour of Waterskis Plus skiing lessons
last night.  Within the hour he had my daughter up on the 5ft rope off the boom
and the other girl up on the 75 ft rope.  My daughter had floundered trying to
get up most of the summer and the other girl had never tried skiing before.

   I concur with Reg in (re .1) that it was money well spent.  I got an hour +
for the $50 we spent.  When Ed wasn't getting through to my daughter he switched
with the driver and Norm seemed to do more coaching and less coaxing with her.
The words were basically the same, just presented a little differently. She was
up the next try.  It was great to see them work together to get the job done.

  Their office moved this summer. They are now closer to the center of Spencer
and right on Rt9.  It looks like they converted an old service station.

Al

PS  Nice boat!!!!!