RIGA- "Hit it!"The tips of my skis werepoking out of the water.Looking between them, Icould see the driver of theboat nod in recognition andturn toward the dashboard. Iheard the engine spring tolife and felt the slack on therope running from the boatto my handlebars tighten. Asthe skis lifted me out of thewater a wake started to forminto two small moguls ofwater to either side of me.As the boat towed meaway from the docks I quicklyremembered the basics ofthe sport. I pulled off to oneside of the wake and unsuccessfullytried to imitatesome of the graceful turnsthat I had watched IvarsIldens, manager of SturisWater Sports Center, performjust a few minutesbeforehand.
The smallsprays of water coming frommy skis formed rainbows inthe sunlight. Feeling my confidencegrowing, I decided tocut back across the wake andtry to get some air.Immediately after I fell Itried to open my eyes andrealized I was underwater. Itdoesn't particularly hurt tofall on water skis, but it canbe disorienting for a few seconds.The water was cold,but the wetsuit I'd been lentby the company kept me surprisinglywarm. The boatpulled back around and 'safter making sure I still worea big smile after the fall 'sIldens put the boat back intogear so I could finish myride.As a sport, water skiingis just starting to take holdin Latvia. Sturis is one ofbetween five and 10 companiesthat offer water skiing,and most of those companiesare for members only.As a result of this, on asunny day the lines at Sturiscan last as long as an hourfor a few minutes on thewater. "Normally I only havetime to go skiing myself inthe morning," Ildens said.Most of the customers 'sabout 80 percent 's areLatvian, but the companyalso gets a lot of people fromthe other Baltic states andWestern Europe.
There still aren't manygood water skiers in Latvia;there is only one person whois able to compete on theEuropean level. Nevertheless,enthusiasts of the sporthave started organizingwater skiing festivals in thepast few years. One of theregulars at Sturis told methat these festivals drawsome of the best skiiers inEurope. "They say that theylike it [the conditions] herebest. Other places have toomany boats and there is notsuch good shelter [from thewind]," he said.What makes Sturisunique is that it is the onlyplace in the Baltic states thathas a hydrofoil. A "foil" islike a small surfboard with aseat on the top and a long finon the bottom. When theboat gets to a certain speed,the meter-long fin causes theboard to rise up out of thewater."Riding on the foil feelslike flying.
On skis or aboard if the water is roughthen the ride is rough, butwith this [the foil] it doesn'tmatter because there is notany resistance against thewater," Ildens said. As Iwatched him ride the foil, itwas easy to see how it couldfeel like flying. Not only didthe ride look smoother, hewas also able to launch himselfhigh into the air 's atone point he even did aback-flip.I had only been waterskiing a few times before,and had not tried for manyyears. I was worried that Ihad forgotten everything butIldens assured me it wouldbe fine. "Even after 15 yearsyou can still do it, it is notsomething you can forget,"Ildens said. "It's like learningto ride a bicycle."Ildens said that for thosewho have never water skiedbefore, getting started is notvery difficult and almostanyone can get up on skis ora wakeboard after only a fewminutes of trying. "I can getanyone up on a board or skisin 10 minutes. With the foil itis a little different though,with that I can make noguarantees," he said.
A friendly warning tothose looking to strap someskis on their feet and hit thewater before the summerdies out: it may be easy to getup on the skis, but the sportis not as easy as it looks. Tenminutes on the water willleave an inexperiencedskier's arms and legsexhausted by the effort andhappily sore the next day.
Sturis Water Sports CenterLocated on the A10, 4.5 kilometersfrom the bridge over theLielupePrices from 10 latsfor 10 minutes
www.udensklubs.lv
