Did I ever tell you about the time I lost my shorts while tubing?
Thursday, June 26th, 2008We were at Hillsboro Lake near Hillsboro, IL. One of my Uncle’s friends had a boat and invited us to go out on the lake with him. The boat couldn’t hold all of us, so we took turns riding in the boat and riding on the inner tube being pulled by the boat. I had never been on anything pulled by a boat before so I didn’t really know what I was in for. When it was my turn, my Uncle’s friend instructed me to keep my knees up out of the hole in the tube. He didn’t want me to get stuck in there and potentially drown or get hurt. He also instructed me that if I wanted to go faster to wave my hand because he would be able to hear me shouting to “go faster”.
There were some girls with us who were some how associated with my Uncle’s friend, maybe niece’s or daughter’s of a friend. I was about 14 when this happened so I was well aware of girls. I wanted to act cool, so when it was my turn on the tube I didn’t do the standard lay down like superman thing. That would have been safe and boring. I decided to try to stand up on the tube and “surf” it. As we started going, I realized standing up wasn’t going to happen, so I just sat with my butt in the inner tube hole and lounged like it was an easy chair. I was going for the look of effortless comfort while being pulled at 30 miles an hour on an old inner tube across the lake. This didn’t last long as it was very difficult to keep my butt from slamming on the water and possible pull me into the tube. I decided to move into the boring superman position. I was getting tired of trying to look cool…it was hard work fighting the inner tube.
As I moved around I ended up on my knees and sure enough my knees fell into the inner tube hole, just as my Uncle’s friend warned me. I fought to get my knees out of the hole, but couldn’t. So I waved to my Uncle’s friend to stop the boat and started shouting to slow down so I could reposition. To my suprise, he didn’t slow down. He started going faster. The girls in the boat were giggling and waving. I was struggling not to fall into the inner tube hole and get sucked through by the force of the water hitting my thighs. I kept waving and the boat kept going faster (just like he promised).
Finally I succumbed to my lack of strength and my knees fell through one last time. The force of the water started to drag me into a v shape and I got worried I would get stuck. I decided that I would simply get my feet down enough to slip into the hole and let my entire legs dangle in the water. It would hurt a bit, but we were heading back to shore, so I wouldn’t have to endure it for long. The moment I got my feet through the hole my legs shot behind me. The back of the tube came out of the water. I now had a giant inner tube belt and the back half of it was sticking up in the air. Seconds later my worst nightmare came to life.
My swim shorts were sucked from my teenage body by the force of the water. I didn’t know what to do. I was already embarrased because my attempt to be cool had reveiled that I was really a big dork. I could live with being thought of as a dork, but to be served the humiliation of being branded as “the naked dork” was just too much. I managed to keep the lowe half of my body in the water so that no one could see that I was in my birthday suit. The girls kept waving a giggling at me and I just gave a weak smile and tried to be cool about the whole thing. Then I started thinking “hat was I going to do when we got to shore?” I couldn’t just walk out of the water? I had no shorts!
As we pulled close to shore everyone was remarking on how funny it was watching me squirm around on the tube. It was a big laugh for them. I just kind of mulled around in the water for a few minutes.
“Hey, come on up and get something to eat.” My Uncle beckonded. “I’m sure your hungry after that show.”
I was stuck. Naked in the water. Nothing to do but relay the truth to everyone. I meekly said, “I lost my shorts.”
“Yeah, you almost did. I’m suprized you still have them after falling into the tube.” My Uncle’s friend was laughing. “You just kept waving for me to go faster.”
“No. I was waving for you to stop. I lost my shorts.” I was embarassed. “I’m naked.”
Silence for two seconds. Uncontrolable laughfter for two minutes. Embarassment for the two days left in our camping trip.
Note: Don’t every try to impress girls with an inner tube, because if you end up naked, you’ll just look like a tool.