Nabeeha Qadri: Hello and welcome to the sixth episode of Never Again with Nabeeha. Today I’m with my guest:

Elliott Hazzard: I’m Elliott Hazzard.

Qadri: And what is your grade and pronouns?

Hazzard: I’m a [ninth-grader] and I use he/him pronouns.

Qadri: Okay, so, Elliot, what is something you would never do again and why?

Hazzard: Okay, so a few summers back, I was in Canada … with my family and I was on a lake and my grandma was , “Oh, we should have someone come on a boat and they do water skiing and all this fun stuff.” And I was like, okay, that sounds fun. And so then they came to the lake and I tried water skiing. And so first there’s a pole off the side of the boat that you hang off of and practice before you have the long string. And so I did that and I was like, this is fine. It’s kind of hard to keep my balance or whatever. And then they were like, okay, now we’re going to do the shorter string. And so then I did that And then I hit this wave and I just completely flew and jumped and I wiped out, I swallowed so much water and I couldn’t breathe. And it was actually insane. And, I’m scarred from that.

Qadri: For people who don’t know what water skiing is … could you describe it?

Hazzard: Yeah. So you have a rope or a bar attached to a boat and then you have these flipper things that you kind of use to catch waves and then they speed up and you kind of hold your hands out and then kind of glide along the waves with the flippers.

Qadri: And then you mentioned the long and short string, what’s the difference between the two?

Hazzard: Yeah. … So, the long string would be for when you’re really good and you can go kind of all over the place with the short string is for when you’re practicing getting good at it. So yeah.

Qadri: Okay, so after you fell into the lake, did you try again?

Hazzard: No. It was kind of crazy. Definitely. I was a little scared, so I just kind of sat in the boat and just relaxed and I was like, okay, that’s enough for me. But yeah.

Qadri: Was that your first time waterskiing?

Hazzard: Yeah, it was my first time.

Qadri: Did you ever try it again after that?

Hazzard: No, but also, it was only a few summers ago, so I haven’t really got the chance, but maybe I will again one day.

Qadri: Who else was present while you were [there]?

Hazzard: Yeah. So my grandma set up the whole trip and it was my mom, my sister, my dad and my uncle and we were all just on this little boat in the lake.

Qadri: What advice would you have for kids who want to try out water skiing?

Hazzard: I would say, definitely you have to work your way up to the big thing. So just going in with an open mind, for sure. And then also one thing that made me feel worse, was that my dad was really good at it. He did it on his first try, all the way for twenty minutes.

Qadri: Was it your dad’s first time?

Hazzard: Yeah, it was my dad’s first time ever. I think he did it once when he was a teenager or whatever. But, that was a long time ago.

Qadri: So maybe it was muscle memory. That’s funny. What other summer activities have you enjoyed on that lake?

Hazzard: I remember we went to this bigger lake nearby and we did parasailing, I think. So it’s where you sit on this parachute and then you go all the way up. That was really cool. And yeah, we just had this cottage on the lake where we would hang out and have campfires, which was really fun. It was a fun vacation.

Qadri: That’s really cool. How did the parasailing go?

Hazzard: It was really cool. So, you have a camera and then a boat and then you … jump off from this and then fly up and you can see a lot. But unfortunately, you couldn’t see a lot, because it was all forests and green. So, yeah. It was really a cool experience. I would do it again for sure.

Qadri: I think going back to water skiing, what did you learn from that experience?

Hazzard: I guess maybe if I could go back in time, I would try it again. I would not entirely give up after one fall, you know? So I think that’s what I would learn from that.

Qadri: And in the moment when things went wrong. How were you feeling?

Hazzard: I was definitely frustrated because I really [wanted] to do this. I think this is a cool skill, but I feel I just wasn’t feeling it that day or maybe I just needed to come back to it when I was older.

Qadri: So if given the opportunity, if you go back to that lake with your grandmother, would you do it again?

Hazzard: Yeah, I would try it again, but I’d be a little more apprehensive, I think. But yeah.

Qadri: That makes sense. Do you have anything else to add?

Hazzard: I don’t think so. I think that summer sports are really fun and you should definitely try [to] be outside a lot in the summer. And that was definitely a core memory for me, that trip.

Qadri: Sounds good. Well, thank you so much for joining me on today’s episode. Please tune in again next month for more Never Again stories.

Music: Muzak Study Background from WeVideo music library