Water Skiing and Freezing in Waterton

by Lester Ann Hyde Jensen

When Gayle was on his mission in Denmark, I went to Waterton with his parents and some of their friends and spent a fun week there. Clarence and Irene Bowden were among the friends that were there. They had brought their boat.

We were all water skiing on Waterton Lake. I had done some water skiing before and thought I was pretty good at it. I was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt when they asked me to go for a ski around the lake. I thought that was a good idea and didn't bother changing into a bathing suit as I was surely not going to fall off the skis. 

We started off around the lake. Irene Bowden was driving the boat and for some unknown reason she slowed down so much I was about to fall into the water. I signaled for her to go faster and she responded by pulling the throttle back so far that we took off like a shot. The speed pulled my feet right out of the skis and I did a nosedive into the water. Only the waters of Waterton Lake can be as cold as that water was. When I came up for air, I was gasping from the cold so deeply that I was forgetting to breath. I had to actually talk to myself. 

"Slow down. Breath in. Breath out. Again."

After Irene finished laughing at me, she circled the boat around to pick me up out of the water. I was so cold. I think my muscles were frozen. I tried and the people in the boat tried to help me, but I could not for the life of get my leg up over the edge of the boat. I could not pull myself up out of the water. After several failed attempts, they just towed me to shore. I was more embarrassed. I don't think I have been on water skis since.