Joke :

When I first woke up today and took a look outside I have to admit that the prospects for a day of extreme urban sporting fun wasn’t all that great. Rain and drizzle were the dominant prospective of the day and I have to admit that I was hesitant to leave.

However, as always a little perseverance seemed to have paid off as I had an absolute blast, despite of the bad weather.

Even though there weren’t too many people walking around –can you blame them if storm winds are chasing the grounds, every activity there was an immediate feel of community and more importantly motivation. None of these professional and amateur sportspeople let the weather get to them so why would we? Not only that, but the location was beautiful. Everything taking place in the shadow of the MAS.

Me being the tardy girl I am, I was pleasantly surprised to find my co-blogger Bram already busy on loads of activities. Not only is he an early bird, he’s a smart bird too because he got a dry parcour to test out with minimum people around.

Bram :

First I went to the largest miniramp of Europe, cause I wanted to skate when it was still dry… There were a few BMX riders and skateboarders testing this great ramp. I cannot help it, but when I see a skating spot like this, I had to try it for myself! After 30 minutes, I wanted to try other activities, so I went on my way to try one of the many adventures provided by the organization.

Next stop was the freerun-trail. The people gave me a good explanation, which I didn’t really turn out to need but I can imagine it was helpful for other first-timers who were willing to take a chance on the parcour. Before I did this for a first time, I was lucky enough to have some trampoline experience. Not only that, but freerunning is perfect add to my skating experience on rollerblades. I basically do the same thing they do, but on 8 wheels instead of my 2 feet. I gave it my best try but seeing as the instructors did saltos against walls and jumped over incredible hights, I left the real tricks and show to the professionals.

Joke:

After putting my stuff away I had some time to do some of the activities that everyone could try before dabbing my hand at wakeboarding, something I was lucky enough to get a chance to do because of this blog. The weather of course was a factor and so I decided to first take a slide down the snowy sloap they had put up in the shadows of the MAS.  Now I am not much of a wintersport person so I was super glad to see old school sleighs at the ready. Just had to plop myself down and enjoy the short but thrilling ride over the snow. Bram of course joined me and it was hilarious to see two grown people having as much fun as the little kids going down.

Bram & Joke:

Soon it was time for us to put on the wetsuits and head for the cold,  cold waters of Bonaparte dock (which turned out to be quite agreeable when suited up in a decent wetsuit). Neither of us had any experience with Wakeboarding so we were pretty nervous just getting on the little rubber boat that brought us to the ponton with the cable line. Bram was the first of us to try the experience and it turned out to be a whole lot harder than any of us could have expected. Bram being the athletic one of us, he was sure that he would be able to do a salto in no-time. Sadly, no such luck. We were pretty much on even grounds for the bigger part, though getting the hang of standing up came a little easier for Joke than it did for Bram.

The saddest part was how fast time went as soon as you got on the board. We both got one or two tries and that was it, but it was enough to get both of us excited to try it again as soon as we get the chance.

The hot shower afterwards was the best reward we could have gotten and the only way to get rid of Bram’s blue lips and shaking limbs.

The experience was priceless and it begged to come back next year to see what’s up.