Slalom Baby, Slalom!

The heading for this post is meant to be said with a lateral lisp, like Sid the Sloth, from Ice Age, from whom that quote comes!
I have become a fairly competant water skier on two skis, and had got to the point that I could ski with such ease and not be challenged at all (not even get my hair wet!!). Which meant that I could either be happy with that, or push myself. So I chose the latter. Slalom skiing was the obvious next step....
I did research on Slalom skiing by chatting to people I know who can slalom ski, and was advised to buy a rope which helps to support your single ski as you are getting up. So, having purchased said rope, it was time to put all the advice (sometimes conflicting!) into practice.
My first attempts a couple of weekends ago were fairly disasterous, ending with a spectacular wipe out which left me with a pulled muscle in my left leg, and a fear of high speeds and falling.
However, as my big 4-0 is looming, and I had set it as something to accomplish before then, I had to pluck up my courage and try again.
This past weekend we had my brother-in-law Gary with us, who is a champion slalom skier and a good teacher to boot. He gave me one extra piece of advice that I had not yet heard and when I put it into practice..... success! OK, it took me 3 tries to get up, and 2 more spectacular wipe outs, but I got up, stayed up and let go when I was ready to (about 1 minute after getting up - it is so exhausting!!).
I tried again the next day, and got up again on my 3rd try. This time I even went outside the wake!
My poor old body feels like I have gone through the wringer, but the sense of satisfaction is quite something! I think that once I am able to get up more efficiently, I could actually start to enjoy myself. A huge part of it is conquering my fear of high speeds (the boat has to go much faster for a slalom skier) and falling. Seeing as I had the wipe-out of the weekend and survived, perhaps I'll get there eventually!
What I feel obliged to mention is that Carl also decided to try it. And of course got up, stayed up and is already looking like a pro. Grrrr!!!!!
Sorry, no pics!