Unbelievable Premeditated Maneuvers Rolling Stones - It's Only Rock & Roll You know those moments when someone pulls off some unbelievable premeditated maneuver and everyone just stands there awestruck? It can be anything from someone tossing a coin and catching it in their shirt pocket after a bounce off the side off a bottle from an impossible angle during a conversation about duck decoys. At the other end of the spectrum it might be Robbie Knevil's super hyped jump over the Grand Canyon. When these often trivial events are accomplished the individual executing the task is left with a feeling of confidence and high esteem. When they are failed one could find him/her self humiliated or dead. During a summer party at a lake up north about ten of us were taking turns water skiing as we usually do. Water skiing is fun and on a hot day very refreshing as one usually end up in the water somehow. Most of us are pretty average behind the boat. A few of us can do a couple of hapless tricks on the trick skis but otherwise we just play a game called kill the skier. This involves the driver accelerating to the maximum boat speed and whipping the skier from side to side until he or she goes down in a horrible crash. We all laugh very hard, do a quick injury check and then taking the next person out. It is never as bad as it looks cause, hey your landing in water? The spot we usually pick for skiing is a large cove at the south end of the lake. It is free from waves as there is very little wind in there. No waves = perfect skiing conditions. The cove is surrounded by some sporadic little sandy beach areas and the rest of the shore line is loose shrubs. The entrance is at the north end of the cove and at the south end there is a narrow river that opens up to the most southerly part of the lake. Our group had occupied the best and largest of the beach areas. This spot was perfect for skiing and swimming as the sandy bottom dropped off to 10 feet deep at about 5 feet from the shore. By mid afternoon all ten of us had taken a couple of spins behind the boat and it was time for our host Scott to take his turn. Scott weighs in at about 130lbs and has a slightly more extensive collection of tricks On a good day he'll get a little cocky behind the boat and .... put on a show. On this day he chose to start backwards out of the water and continued with an impressive display of jumps and spins. We on the beach were oooing and aawing left and right then I noticed Scott signaling one of us from behind the boat. I ran down to the edge of the water to hear him as he passed buy, "get me a beer" he shouted. The boat did a large circle before beginning his approach. I ran and grabbed an ice cold beer from the cooler. I opened the beer and waded up to my knees in front of the beech. Arm out stretched with a bottle of cold beer in hand. Scott approached, this moment was calculated and the stage was set for Scott's unbelievable premeditated maneuver. First the boat past with that mid range growl and the soft plashing as the hull cut the water. Mike was driving and Bruce was spotting all was going well. Scott's approach looked perfect. The sound of the skis cutting the water was all we could hear. Everyone on the beach was silent. Scott's arm lifted and he extended his hand to the beer at about five feet before my hand, it was going to be a glorious moment. For a split second it was. He took the beer cleanly from my hand and raised it in the air. The cheers from the beech started as we continued to watch. That moment of showboating on Scott's part deprived him of the time he needed to turn. Scott skied directly into the shrub laden shoreline. Of course he had let go of the tow rope but held onto the beer (priorities!). As he went in we heard him clearly because he was only ten feet away from us. He ouched, ooched, cussed and cursed as, branches snapped and leaves shook. Then silence fell. I started to swim over to this nasty point of entry when I heard "I'm alright". Scott crawled out of the mess covered in cuts and scrapes and raised his beer in the air. There was a hell of a lot of laughing through the rest of that day and week end. This story has been the source of some great laughs over the years and it may have humbled Scott. However I'll bet if we suggested we try it again tomorrow he'd be into it.