Throughout your travels you tend to meet people that change your opinions on stuff.

They can change your opinions on small things like the best kind of beer you like to big things like religion or science, and everything inbetween. But then there’s some people that you meet that throw a wrench into who you are and basically you just have fun with them and they’re crazy. That’s the story of this gentleman I met who owned a jet ski and he was one of the patrons at the hostel I was volunteering at.

Now let me paint you a picture about what he looks like – he’s a huge dude about 90% muscle with a huge beard, he loves wearing big glasses and has a big personality but the cool thing is he had a big Jet ki too. We were hanging out after a hard day of painting, having a beer and he was telling me that he has this jet ski and he wants to go out and take it out for a spin.

I thought that sounded like a hoot and a holler so ask him if I could join. He graciously said yes so we continue drinking our beer and he told me that we would go tomorrow. I remember after the drinks being a little tipsy and passing out. Tomorrow was my day off so I was in no rush, I slept in and eventually met him with a couple of other people. We all packed into his truck and went off, his jet ski bouncing along behind us.

Eventually we found our spot, we parked and put the jet ski into the water. I took a couple of nice shots of me standing in front of it and then I start helping people on and off of it. I wanted to be one of the last people. Fast forward a little while and it’s my turn now. It seems as if he was going pretty light on everybody so I whisper in his ear as I take a seat behind him to go faster with me. He laughs and starts the engine and my heart goes crazy. He slowly took me into the centre of the lake where he then yelled “Let’s go fast!” He hit max power and we shot up to 109km an hour.

I didn’t even know they could get this fast but it was really fun to bounce up and down. He would randomly cut into the water water causing me to go left and right – almost falling off! I tell him to go even faster and that’s where he sped up to 109km again, then turned cutting into the water deep and hard causing me to fall off this time! At 109km an hour I skipped like a stone. I don’t think he noticed me falling off because he went a little further and I laughed my ass off realizing what it’s like to be a stone.

After a couple more minutes of just enjoying myself with him we eventually decide to get going so I help them park and help him put it back on his truck. We empty the water out and once we were back we have another beer. I go to bed knowing that I’m gonna be sore as all fuck in the morning. There’s a lot of things that crossing off my bucket list has taught me… one of the main ones is that if somebody wants to have fun with you and let you try something new you should always take it as an experiment, because you only live once. Also always check to see if there’s alligators in the lake – I didn’t know at the time but there was a lot of them and I could’ve been lunch but that’s a different story.