Not me, but a story from my youth... the lake we went to for several summers was the base for a waterski team... that meant they had a ski jump set up on the lake (and a slalom course). One day, 2 kids from a family I knew (brother and sister) aged about 16 and 14 or so, dared each other to go over the ski jump. Their family had a 14' boat with an old 50's vintage (white) 45 or 50 hp merc. The boy went first... IIRC they scrounged up an old hockey helmet (with no mask), and he wore a lifebelt... no other equipment (except bathing suit). He put on their good ole wood combo ski's (with steel keels), and off they went, even though several other teens on the beach (including me) said they were nuts. He managed to keep his feet mostly under him, and get airborne and make a big splash as he wiped out on landing... No harm done. I think he did this 2 times. Next it was the sister's turn... she was emboldened by Brother's success, but when she hit the ramp for the first time, both skis shot to the side and she whacked her whole body against the ramp with a "thud" that we heard from 100's of yards away. She slid (bare skin) up the ramp, almost stopping at the top, but kept going just enough to roll off into the lake....
Once they got back to shore (she still crying hysterically), they went off to the hospital for Xrays.... Turns out nothing broken, but she had bad road rash (with wax embedded in it) and the whole side of her body was blue/purple. She was lucky not to have smashed her face into the ramp.
The coach guy who owned the ramp heard about this and came over to talk to them after.... said he was glad they were OK, but they were very lucky... he offered to spend a session teaching them about jumping if they really wanted to learn. He also pointed out that there is special equipment like pads, proper helmets and jump ski's to prevent injury and also the damage to the ramp that their steel keels had caused. I thought it was extremely classy that he had this talk in a polite way, rather than coming over and ranting at the kids... No, they never took him up on his offer to go jumping again....
Anyway, I'm not sure what made me remember this... maybe it was seeing a pict of an old white merc like theirs.
Once they got back to shore (she still crying hysterically), they went off to the hospital for Xrays.... Turns out nothing broken, but she had bad road rash (with wax embedded in it) and the whole side of her body was blue/purple. She was lucky not to have smashed her face into the ramp.
The coach guy who owned the ramp heard about this and came over to talk to them after.... said he was glad they were OK, but they were very lucky... he offered to spend a session teaching them about jumping if they really wanted to learn. He also pointed out that there is special equipment like pads, proper helmets and jump ski's to prevent injury and also the damage to the ramp that their steel keels had caused. I thought it was extremely classy that he had this talk in a polite way, rather than coming over and ranting at the kids... No, they never took him up on his offer to go jumping again....
Anyway, I'm not sure what made me remember this... maybe it was seeing a pict of an old white merc like theirs.