by Catherine Hedgecock FOLLOW THAT BOAT, er, THAT DREAM Published September 9, 1996 Other Columns by Catherine Hedgecock	A couple of years ago, I was eating lunch outside my building on a gorgeous day in May. It was too warm and leafy out there to go back inside and work. Unfortunately, the cubicle deity was waiting for me, arms akimbo, feet tapping, to come back and plow my unkempt papers into neat rows of finished work. I had about 20 minutes to eat and absorb the rays before re-entry. I realized that the only sane thing to do was abandon all responsibility and go waterskiing. I didn't, of course. We Americans, like it or not, put work first. Fun has to wait for the weekends. But not everyone has that problem. Carrie Michael is one of those people who gets paid to do what she loves. She's a waterskier at Marine World Africa USA in Vallejo, California. Michael, 23, left her native Wisconsin to follow her waterskiing dream. She's one of 18 people in a colorful, manic show that is performed every day, nine months of the year. The skiers flip forward and backward off a ramp, whip and spin around boats, ski barefoot, and perform in graceful pairs with elegant lifts and turns. The petite Michael is on the second row of a three-story water ski pyramid that closes the show. The huge seating section is usually filled with a loud and enthusiastic crowd.
Carrie Michael is one of the lucky few who get paid to do what they love.	For Michael, being a professional waterskier is a dream come true. She grew up in the nation's capital for lakes and water skiing. She was part of an amateur team for nine years, performing in two shows a week during the summer and shredding the wake on a slalom ski in between. "I'd ski behind a fishing boat if I had to," she said. "I really love it." She went to college in Madison and studied journalism, but the wet gliding, spinning, and cutting of skiing kept calling her. "When I'm 90, I don't want to look back and wonder why I didn't try to learn all the tricks," she said. So she packed her bags and headed to California. Last year she worked only the summer months, between semesters. In December she graduated, and this year is skiing on the Marine World lagoon from March until November. She has worked to become a better skier, although it's not as easy as you'd think. She skis in four shows a day on weekends and two shows a day Wednesday through Friday. Not only that, the show skiers work out in the gym every morning. "I'm so physically tired at the end of the day," Michael said. "My shoulders are sore and my knees are clicking."
"One toe out of place and you're doing hard tumbles."	Nevertheless, she'll grab a tow rope and head onto the water during breaks between shows to learn and practice new tricks. She has learned to ski barefoot, which takes a lot of chutzpah. One little pinky toe out of place and you're doing some fast, hard tumbles. Michael picked it up quickly because she had good teachers at Marine World. And they didn't give up on her just because she was scared. "I tend to think of myself as a wuss," she said. "Nobody held that against me." Along with barefoot skiing, the Marine World crew taught Michael to drive a jet ski off a ramp. "After that, I wasn't scared of anything." That fearlessness, and the confidence gained from people believing in her, are qualities Michael will take into the rest of her work life. She plans to leave Marine World at the end of this season. Her body will be ready for a rest, and she'll have lived her professional skiing dream. Next, she'll look for work as a journalist.
She'll be able to work at a desk with less longing for the water.	Every dream comes to an end, and maybe it's better that way. After the physical workout of show skiing, a writing job will look pretty good to Michael. She'll be able to work at a desk -- maybe with a little less longing for the water, a little more pleasure in having given it her all. "To a certain extent I'll miss being outdoors, but to a certain extent I won't. My body hurts every day. I won't miss that. I figure I'll live it up now so that I won't miss it when I'm 40." Catherine Hedgecock is a freelance writer and editor in Berkeley, California. She has written for USA Today, Knight Ridder newspapers, GNN, and other publications. She has won first place investigative reporting awards from California Newspaper Publishers Association, Gannett newspapers, and Best of the West. Ms. Hedgecock is currently writing a mystery novel. © 1996 Catherine Hedgecock, All Rights Reserved