Wow, I’m still amazed at how cool it is when I am fortunate enough to go on one of these trips. I have been on waterski trips to Japan,  Jordan, and this is my third to China. This trip had things that were different and things that are the same.

The new things are the people that I’m going with, the places we visit and perform, the development of the Country, and how my body can handle it. :) Yes my ribs are still sore from the first day where I took the ski tips to the rib cage on my right side. The couple of days off from skiing and sightseeing were a blessing. The things that were the same are that there so many Chinese people and a lot of them are so entertained to see us perform, the chinese food is nothing like the Chinese food in the usa, the air quality, the kindness of the Chinese people, the long travel time, and my appreciation for home.

This trip had the second largest crowd I can remember skiing in front of. The first day of practice it was free to the public and had the biggest audience of 40,000 to 50,000 people. Then during the two days we did the opening and closing ski shows competition and drew in 100,000 people who had to purchase tickets for 100 RNB. = $15.00 us dollars.

It was great being able to Ski with our talented skiers where we put together some great jumping that received a perfect 100 out of 100 points in the competition. As it turns out I’m 6/6 on winning in China, not sure on how or why and it would not matter if we won or not because we are all winners just to get to be on the trip. Another few highlights of the trip are the inexpensive great massages we received, the shopping and sightseeing, the history we learn about, and sharing the fun of waterskiing with people from the other side of the world. It was really great to work with the Chinese olympic Doubles coach and the unbelievably flexible little doubles girls to learn new lifts.

Couple more things I noticed on this trip. All the taxi cabs are Exactly the same in the cities we were in. I’m guessing owned by the government in each area. A five to ten minute cab ride (can hold just four americans) costs 4 or 5 Y (rnb) = .85 cents. There is so many more stories to tell you about, like fun with the laser pointers and the crazy and funny things that happened to some of the people on our team. The ski tip that broke during one of our pyramids, the clown act etc...

It is a wild experience to get a chance to be treated like a rock star getting swarmed, getting your picture taken by thousands, signing autographs everywhere, like “living the dream baby”. 

I’m looking forward to getting home to my family and friends that I miss so much.

Jon