If you’ve been following my blog every day through my #2021Twenty you’ll have seen that the last two days are actually physical and activity goals of my boys that I’ve adopted as my own goals seeing as they can’t accomplish those goals by themselves. Today however is all about me.
I have lived by Okanagan Lake (arguably one of the most popular lakes in the country) for over a decade now. It wasn’t more than a year of two after moving here that I witnessed probably the most fascinating and captivating thing I’ve ever seen. In fact it had drawn a crowd of well over one hundred people watching in awe. It was the Okanagan's first flyboarder.
It was this combination of a surfboard and a futuristic hoverboard. But then an incredibly powerful jet pack was attached under each foot shooting water down at 300 horsepower and sending the rider up to 70 feet in the air. This guy was flying, diving, spinning, flipping and just having that time of his life. I immediately vowed I would try that someday.
Years have gone by and I’ve gotten older. It didn’t look like it would ever happen. But then last year for my birthday, my brother bought me my first flight. I had been going to the gym for three months by then and it just motivated me to work even harder to get back into top shape.
Finally, this past August I made it happen. It was one of the top three moments of my year. It was incredible. I wondered if I would even be able to get out of the water, but not only did I get into the air after about 10 minutes… by the end I had made it up to about 15 feet and did a basic 360 spin.
As with most good things, the experience came to an end far too quickly. But I was hooked. All I could think of as I rode back to shore was when I could fly again. So, it was an easy decision to add this goal to my #2021Twenty. The goal is to just ensure I go at least once… but I’d like to try to go three times this year.
If you’re by the lake this summer and you see some crazy daredevil doing flips 70 feet above the lake on a flyboard… that’s probably some 22 year old college jock showing off. Look directly below him… that blubbering old man trying to get his boots underneath himself will likely be me. But don’t wave or stare for too long. It’ll probably distract me and I’ll crash.