Self-flagellation at its finest

Last weekend, I traveled up north* with Mathematical Laura, Troubadour Jenny, Road Trip Andrew and Biker Mike. Laura’s family has a cabin on Hubbard Lake — located somewhere between nowhere and the end of the earth, a location some progressive cartographers call “the Alpena area” — and they graciously allowed us to invade Barkley North for the weekend.

*(For those of you unfamiliar with Michigan, “up north” means “wait, where did all the people go, and who put all these trees and lakes here?” For many of us Michiganders from the population-dense southeast, up north is a pleasant escape; for other Michiganders who enjoy stress, traffic and endless seas of cookie-cutter home developments and obnoxious chain drug stores, up north is a strange foreign place filled with … well, nothing. Which is to say it’s filled with lots of things that used to exist in southeastern Michigan before someone decided that pavement and strip malls were way better than icky dirty things like trees and grass and open space.)

Like many such lakes, Hubbard Lake features copious amounts of water, which makes it ideal for fast water-based activities like water skiing, tubing and motion sickness. And, like many such cabins, Barkley North features a boat that allows its occupants to enjoy those activities (except for motion sickness, which is difficult to enjoy). I don’t often get the chance to photograph things like water skiing and tubing, so this presented an opportunity for me to have some fun with my camera.

On Saturday, four brave souls — Mike, Andrew, Laura and Sean, Laura’s cousin — ventured onto the lake to enjoy a spirited round of tubing.

One of the best parts of this sort of photography is the facial expressions.

See?

Sometimes the laws of physics make for fun…

…And sometimes they make for none.

At this, Laura’s most dignified moment, Sean can’t help but think, “Do I have to be related to her?”

Mike flies like paper, gets high like planes.

Laura invades Mike’s tube like Germany invaded Poland, except without guns and death, and with laughter.

Hail to the victor valiant, hail to the conquering Laura…

Saturday’s tubing session wasn’t enough punishment for the group, so they decided to try water skiing on Sunday morning. Laura got the party started.

If this were on snow, someone would tell her to widen her stance. Or am I the only one who gets that?

Laura are serious Barkley.

Please stand by; Laura is experiencing technical difficulties.

Andrew was the next victim.

“And when you wipe out,” says Laura, “your bones will snap like this.”

Andrew had a very watery start…

…Things started looking up…

…And then they stopped looking up.

After a couple attempts, Andrew put together a good run; the Barkley Patriarch’s reaction to Andrew’s unique skiing style was, “I’ve never seen anyone ski like that!”