Precy St. Martin - Weekend at the lake

Hey all, So I am now Trying REALLY hard to keep this here blog slightly updated!!

So I think that I had mentioned that on the night of Julia's 18th birthday that her host Aunt and Uncle had asked us if we wanted to go to their other house for the weekend which is very close to a lake. Did I mention that they have a boat!! and a wakeboard and skiis and also a wakesurf board..yes thats right! We also drove to the lake in their mercedes!! ha ha it was pretty unreal.. Well I'm just going to show a bunch of photos cuz that is WAY more fun and easier!! So here goes!


This picture is of the back of Jean-Marc and Genevieve's other house, the one in Precy St. Martin. We were about 10 minutes from the lake. Their house was so nice, they had alot of Haribo (which is french candy) here, and as it is completely peanut free (Julia is allergic to peanuts) we ate alot of candy.. ha ha good times though. They have 2 beloved dogs that they brought with us, you can see them laying on the deck here. They are both real old though and Jean-Marc said that the Vet doesn't even know how the older of the two is still going.. eek.?! The really neat thing about their house here was that pretty much all the windows were full length so they were also like huge patio doors!! It was really nice, Jean- Marc and Genevieve were so so incredibly nice to us, it was a great weekend!





Pic of me infront of a sign coming into Precy St. Martin. Julia and I went for a walk around town the first morning we were there, just for something to do while Jean-Marc went for a run. And wow what a nice little town, so very french and cute! It is a relatively countryside little village and I really really enjoyed it here. There were fields and forests and flowers and trees and more fields... it was really great to have some space!! - can you tell i'm from the farm? ha ha




Funny, random pic of Julia and I...at the house in Precy.



Ha ha, yeah I'm pro! lol Just jokes! but no, this is me wakeboarding at the lake. I thought at first it would be hard but then again not too bad because I have snowboarded before...well it is really not that similar to snowboarding! ha ha It was real fun though, harder for Jean-Marc to explain to me because I ride goofy and he and Genevieve are both regular. So for me I had to do everything backwards of what he had shown us... Anyway it was really awesome though, I got up the second time, after finally realising that I should not be starting with my arms full extended - duh!! ha ha




Me wakeboarding again!! It was soo exhilarating!! Very fun and awesome, Jean-Marc and Genevieve were really patient and great with Julia and I. The hardest part for me was hanging on to the bar, it really started to hurt after awhile. Jean-Marc wanted me to try some tricks but I figured for my first time that I'd just stick with the basics, back and forth, back and forth across the wake, lol.




Me in the fairly freezing cold water!! The weather here is rather rainy, kinda dreary alot...so it is not really hot ever; hopefully in the summer. As you can see, we wore wet suits and gloves, which was good because once in the water, when your body went numb basicly, the wet suit kept you warm! Nah but really once you got in the water, and after the shock, it was really not that bad...Alot of fun!






This is wakesurfing! er...the start of it! ha ha The wakesurf board has nothing to hold your feet like the wakeboard, so it is all a balancing act with the water...Once again, I ride goofy and wakesurfing is done on the left hand side of the boat...of course, had to be more difficult for me!! lol So to get up you have to (for me) place your right foot on the board and your left knee to brace yourself and then push the back of the board with your left hand so that you can position your left foot (hope that makes sense)...anyway it is rather difficult as all the while you are fighting with keeping this board the right way in the water, you are still being pulled by the boat. So you are being dragged through the water, trying to position your feet. However once you get it, it is soo easy to get up!! It's just like a rhythm, every time do the same thing.. and actually it becomes the real easy part of wakesurfing! Oh yes and in this pic. I realise I look ridiculous, but you have to start with your knees very bent - ok!?! ha ha




This is the next step, staying up! ha ha Not that bad though... however because I ride goofy, I had to traverse across the wake to get to the left hand side of the boat, where you are to wakesurf...So this pic is of me coming at the wake, and going to cross it. The board has like grippy material on it so that your feet don't slide off, but it is still difficult to move the board - takes alot of balancing and weight transfering.





And the final step! ha ha here I am on the left hand side of the boat and Genevieve is sitting on the edge ready to take the rope. So essentially wakesurfing is just that! 'Surfing in the wake of the boat'... So once you get infront of the wake, right behind the boat you have to use your weight shifting to keep going and you give the rope to the person in the boat. This is the insanely hard part - I found! Jean-Marc was unreal at it though!! I could do it sometimes, I would have Jean-Marc hold the majority of the rope and I would hold a knot on the other end and only pull on it when I needed to...It was difficult, to shift your weight "just" right so that you were going the same speed as the boat, infront of the wake without having the type of the board go under!! Ha ha I hope that all makes sense!? Anyway it was such a blast!! I was soo determined to do and I did!! (for short periods of time ) but non the less I did it!! he he!



I have to say that this occasion was one the rare occasions in my life where I actually was really gratefull that I had "tree trunks" for legs and had some muscle on me. Because without my huge legs and arms, I am not sure that I would have been able to manage it!! lol I felt sorry for Julia, she is a danser, (they are muscular too!! ) But her arms just couldn't do it, she never got up on the wakesurf board, but she did finally manage the wakeboard though!! She was hilarious, and we had alot of fun that weekend!