Speaker 1: It's nine am this morning. Just just woke up. She
Speaker 1: got out of bed, didn't fall asleep until one last night.
Speaker 1: I was just watching some TV. So yeah, I was
Speaker 1: gonna sleep in a little bit longer, but my dog's
Speaker 1: decided it was otherwise needed to be let out and fed.
Speaker 1: And my plans for today I had to go out
Speaker 1: on the whaler. On my whaler, my boat. She's go
Speaker 1: have some fun friends, cruise around, maybe fish a little bit.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that's the plan for you today.
Speaker 2: This is finally a shroud about a fifteen year old
Speaker 2: water ski instructor.
Speaker 3: Someday she'll be a professional snowboarder if things.
Speaker 4: Go for a day.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we're walking down to the dock, get on
Speaker 1: our skis, you know, just get ready to get in
Speaker 1: the water. My name is kar Stolman and I am fifteen.
Speaker 1: So I'm from Lake Arrowhead. Beautiful place I've born and
Speaker 1: raised here. It's just very small mountain. You know, everyone
Speaker 1: up here, everyone knows you. Great place to go hikes.
Speaker 1: You know, my backyard. I can just ride my dirt
Speaker 1: bike out of my garage, you know, into the onto
Speaker 1: the trail.
Speaker 3: So that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: All right. So yesterday we got off the rig yesterday, right,
Speaker 1: we were on We're on double handles, all right, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna start off on double handles this time, all right,
Speaker 1: And then.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll start off on doubles this time.
Speaker 1: We have seasons, so we have summer and winter obviously
Speaker 1: my favorite ones because summer it's hot you get to
Speaker 1: go water skiing and make money, and winter you just
Speaker 1: go have fun and snowboard. And I started working at
Speaker 1: sea School when I was about I think like nine.
Speaker 1: I came there, I was really good friends with the
Speaker 1: owner's son. Well, I didn't want to I didn't want to
Speaker 1: ski at all in the beginning.
Speaker 3: It was scary.
Speaker 1: And then my brother convinced me to go out, and
Speaker 1: then that was I started skiing.
Speaker 5: More and more, and then that just came on that
Speaker 5: I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Why was my brother's practice lesson? I was before you
Speaker 1: become an instructor. I was just like first like lesson
Speaker 1: and he did good.
Speaker 3: But I didn't.
Speaker 1: I was. I was not a good skier in the
Speaker 1: beginning because I did not listen because I think it
Speaker 1: was cuzier with my brother.
Speaker 3: I did not listen to him.
Speaker 1: So I'm putting all my skis and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hop in the water and get ready to go skiing.
Speaker 1: The most important part about like learning how water ski
Speaker 1: is to listen, Like you just have to You have
Speaker 1: to listen. It's the main, the main part, because you're
Speaker 1: in the water. It's really it's very easy as long
Speaker 1: as you're listening to your instructor and you're you keep
Speaker 1: your arms straight and you stay in your cannonball position,
Speaker 1: which is knees to your chest and tight ball just
Speaker 1: like you're jumping in a pool. And then you just
Speaker 1: let the boat do all the work and you just
Speaker 1: have fun and listen. We have instructor, boat driver, dock doork,
Speaker 1: and box bitch. I first started at ski school, like
Speaker 1: as a dock door. Is that unpaid internship where you
Speaker 1: just help out around at the dock and you catch boats,
Speaker 1: you wrap up ropes, and you help people inside their
Speaker 1: skis and show them on the dock construction, which is
Speaker 1: where you just pretty much show them how to ski,
Speaker 1: but like on the dock just like a little preview
Speaker 1: of what's going to happen out on the water. And
Speaker 1: all the instructors would tip you out so you made
Speaker 1: if you made if the instructors made money from the groups,
Speaker 1: then they would they'd give you a.
Speaker 3: Little bit of what they made, and then you would
Speaker 3: go home with some of that money.
Speaker 2: So I'm just waiting with my curs to tell me
Speaker 2: the idle and I'll get the boat going straight. And
Speaker 2: then as soon as she tells me to hit it,
Speaker 2: when her client the cut is all ready to go,
Speaker 2: probably wait for a few of these weeks to go by,
Speaker 2: then we'll hit it and we'll start the lesson. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm Holly Frank. My mother in law, Pam McKenzie. Her
Speaker 2: parents started Mackenzie Water Ski School in nineteen forty six,
Speaker 2: so we're third generation, family owned and operated. My husband
Speaker 2: has the real job that pays the bills, and I've
Speaker 2: been running the ski school for thirteen years. So Keris
Speaker 2: has now been an instructor for two years. But she
Speaker 2: started out like all the other little ones on the dock,
Speaker 2: doing as we say, figuratively and literally.
Speaker 6: Doing the ropes.
Speaker 2: So she's turned into an amazing instructor. So now usually
Speaker 2: back in the rack here, she'll just shake her handles
Speaker 2: a little bit and we'll slow the boat down so
Speaker 2: we can practice working on starts. Unless it gets a
Speaker 2: little too choppy.
Speaker 6: We'll keep going.
Speaker 1: In the beginning always like I always wanted to be there,
Speaker 1: and like work the Box with Holly when I was younger.
Speaker 1: Work in the box is you set up the schedule
Speaker 1: in the book that has everyone's reservations. You take care
Speaker 1: of the money, You take care, yeah, take care of
Speaker 1: the scheduling and time cards, and just make sure the
Speaker 1: doc's running smoothly.
Speaker 3: Pretty much.
Speaker 1: When you're in the box, people can be mean. They
Speaker 1: can They'll just yell at you for no reason. You
Speaker 1: tell them that they can't schedule this time because someone
Speaker 1: else has it, someone else's scheme during this time, and
Speaker 1: they'll just lose their minds.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's not not very fun being around people every single day,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: It really builds, it.
Speaker 1: Builds your social skills, especially starting at such a young
Speaker 1: age as a doctor.
Speaker 3: You start at such a young age.
Speaker 1: And like you're scared to talk to people at first,
Speaker 1: and then you start talking to them and talking to
Speaker 1: them and trying to get them to tip you, you know,
Speaker 1: and you just keep working and working and working at it,
Speaker 1: and then your social skills just become like talking to
Speaker 1: strangers just like talking to your family. You know.
Speaker 3: That's how my dad is too. My dad can talk
Speaker 3: to a brick wall.
Speaker 2: So it's amazing the difference between having the instructor ski
Speaker 2: right next to you. There's only a couple of things
Speaker 2: that you need to do, keep your knees bent and
Speaker 2: your arms straight. But when the instructor's right next to you,
Speaker 2: they're there to help you. So they're like psychiatrists and
Speaker 2: athletes and comedians and encouragers. I say psychiatrists because that's
Speaker 2: really important because a lot of it's mental. So once
Speaker 2: they make their start with the instructor, then we kind
Speaker 2: of like loosen off all the little training wheels that
Speaker 2: we have so they can begin to do more and
Speaker 2: more on their own. Obviously, seventy nine summers, we have
Speaker 2: little tricks that makes everybody get up back.
Speaker 6: Oh and she's down, flag up.
Speaker 2: And that's what skiing's all about.
Speaker 3: The rig is this little nugget.
Speaker 1: It's it's a metal piece that connects to a ring
Speaker 1: that's connected to a rope that connects to the boat.
Speaker 1: And what does the connects to that is a pole
Speaker 1: line that connects to our life jackets. And when you
Speaker 1: pull that, it disconnects this rope that goes to your skis.
Speaker 3: Like that connects to your skis.
Speaker 1: And your handles, So when they fall, you pull this
Speaker 1: rope so the like, if they keep pulling onto their handles,
Speaker 1: they don't get dragged with the boat. Also it helps
Speaker 1: them get up out of the water as well, it
Speaker 1: pulls their skis with them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a super easy day. There's nobody else
Speaker 2: out on the lake. But you're watching forward, watching backwards,
Speaker 2: you know, making sure the clients have fun, making sure
Speaker 2: that Karens is communicating with me what she needs. Looking
Speaker 2: back all the time. I'm always looking forward to see
Speaker 2: if there's other boats coming, making sure there's any other
Speaker 2: skiers in the water, making sure that she's you know,
Speaker 2: letting me know that I can see her, that she's safe,
Speaker 2: that I've got her. So it's a lot of back
Speaker 2: and forth. But she's an amazing instructor, smart, kind, hard working,
Speaker 2: So those hand signals are really really important, and that
Speaker 2: I'm paying attention right on.
Speaker 6: Yep, us outside the way.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm the first girl instructor. I think.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I just maybe no one wanted to
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 7: Caros started with us six years ago as a little
Speaker 7: we call him doc engineers, but it's really a doc
Speaker 7: doork position. And that's where I say, you literally and
Speaker 7: figuratively learn the road of the business. So that what way,
Speaker 7: when you get out there and you're instructing, you're completely confident.
Speaker 3: And that's what she is.
Speaker 7: Confident, funny, encouraging, strong, And.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna cry because she's just a great, great young
Speaker 5: girl and I'm excited to have seen her grow and
Speaker 5: turn into such a great young woman, and it'll be
Speaker 5: exciting to see all the things that she does in
Speaker 5: her future.
Speaker 1: I started getting a paycheck, I believe a couple summers ago.
Speaker 3: Feels really great. It's awesome.
Speaker 1: It's really cool being the only girl, especially like even
Speaker 1: now I am like.
Speaker 3: The only girl instructor at the dock. Like it just
Speaker 3: kind of shows who I am as a person. And
Speaker 3: obviously is hard.
Speaker 1: I don't have as much energy as the boys do
Speaker 1: or strength, and it's obvious, like guys do have more
Speaker 1: advantages of girls and a lot of things, and it's
Speaker 1: not said enough sometimes, but yeah, it's hard.
Speaker 3: It's hard work. Definitely with one hand.
Speaker 1: It hurts after skiing for a while, and you know,
Speaker 1: skiing four hours in the morning and three or four hours.
Speaker 3: In the afternoon.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of work, and most guys can just
Speaker 1: push through it, but being as a girl as it's
Speaker 1: pretty tough. I grew up snowboarding with my dad and
Speaker 1: my brother. That was our main thing we did, and
Speaker 1: that just was the dream.
Speaker 3: It still is.
Speaker 1: That's all I do pretty much. I ride for Dinosaurs
Speaker 1: will Die in thirty two. Snowboarding is very expensive, but
Speaker 1: that was one thing that my dad did to support
Speaker 1: it all he was He would always he bought all
Speaker 1: of our season passes. He bought all of our snowboards,
Speaker 1: our bindings, our boots, our gear, and then most recently
Speaker 1: I just I just started getting free clothes and free
Speaker 1: boots and free boards, free bindings, So now all.
Speaker 3: I have to do is buy a pass, which is great. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just broke my collarbone last winter during this like
Speaker 1: core snowboarding event I went. I was falling on my
Speaker 1: I caught my toes on a rail and I was
Speaker 1: going to fall on my hands, but I put my
Speaker 1: arms in because I didn't want to break my wrists,
Speaker 1: and my shoulder hit and my entire body weight just
Speaker 1: snapped my collarbone in half.
Speaker 3: So about a week later, I got surgery on it,
Speaker 3: and then a week out. I was supposed to wait
Speaker 3: for three weeks, but a week got for that, I
Speaker 3: was back on my snowboard.
Speaker 1: I broke my collarbhone on Friday, had my surgery on Friday,
Speaker 1: snowboarding on Friday. I've always gotten told that I've always
Speaker 1: gotten special advantages for my snowboarding because I'm a girl.
Speaker 1: And it's true, true, I've always had a little bit
Speaker 1: of an advantage. I mean, obviously not have an advantage
Speaker 1: physical wise, but an advantage like people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: my gosh, she's a fifteen year old little girl, you know,
Speaker 1: like she's sick, she's super cool, so that's an advantage.
Speaker 1: And people have always been like, yeah, you know, you're
Speaker 1: only I've had a few someone tell me before like oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're only sponsored by these people.
Speaker 3: Blah blah blah because you're a girl.
Speaker 1: And it's like, yeah, it's true, because I'm a girl
Speaker 1: that snowboards, you know that's better than you.
Speaker 6: But yeah, all right, So now that's the signal for
Speaker 6: me to stop the boat and then I'll bump it
Speaker 6: in reverse here real quick so that they don't lose
Speaker 6: their lines. Flag up very good, good job growth.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 6: Now what are you doing taking a little breather.
Speaker 1: Yeah, usually beginning of like before winter really hits, before
Speaker 1: any of the resorts open and ski school ends, there's
Speaker 1: not really much to do. It's kind of just hang
Speaker 1: out around the house, hang out with friends until school starts.
Speaker 1: Then just focus on school and then snowboarding will start
Speaker 1: and then that's when I focus. You know, it's snowboarding time,
Speaker 1: and snowboard all the way you could snowboard. Tell July,
Speaker 1: Like last year, I was in Mammoth on July fourteenth.
Speaker 1: I was in Mammoth on July fourteenth. Like it really
Speaker 1: depends like how much snow will get yearly or whatever.
Speaker 1: But like this year, my season ended already like a
Speaker 1: month ago. So I've been just working and just hanging
Speaker 1: out with my friends and just playing guitar. I really
Speaker 1: like to play guitar actually, or go fishing.
Speaker 3: I like to fly fish a lot.
Speaker 1: Uh. Summer is a very different vibe, Like you're just
Speaker 1: hanging out on the lake all day. You're not white
Speaker 1: like a vampire, you don't look like a ghost, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you're just having fun on the lake with your friends.
Speaker 3: Especially because I have seasonal work.
Speaker 1: I don't work in the winter at all, and like snowboarding,
Speaker 1: it's completely different vibes, Like it's obviously like all your
Speaker 1: friends are still involved, still hang out with your friends,
Speaker 1: but summer's more of like flowers and go fishing, and
Speaker 1: winters just snowboard hang out in your room.
Speaker 3: There's not much to do up here. I mean there's, yeah,
Speaker 3: I work, go water skiing. Sometimes I'll go. I'll go water.
Speaker 1: Skiing, like with some of my friends on their family's
Speaker 1: boats or whatever, but mainly that or go on my whaler,
Speaker 1: the Boston Wheeler that I own. But other than that,
Speaker 1: it's pretty boring up here.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: I bought my first boat when I was fourteen with
Speaker 1: money that I earned from ski school, and so I
Speaker 1: drive that thing around.
Speaker 3: But it's probably like ten feet long and only like
Speaker 3: four feet wide.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to be sixteen to drive the big boats.
Speaker 2: Nothing like that feeling.
Speaker 6: And back in successful roof.
Speaker 1: Right on, I'm not sure really what I see past
Speaker 1: sports like water skiing and like skating, riding my dirt
Speaker 1: bike or snowboarding.
Speaker 3: Really just kind of want to be as active for
Speaker 3: as long as I can, and.
Speaker 1: I'm planning on staying at ski school at least until
Speaker 1: I turn eighteen, because I want to travel when I
Speaker 1: graduate high school. I want to travel and go places,
Speaker 1: and especially it always depends with snowboarding. I could be
Speaker 1: anywhere in three years, so that usually it really depends.
Speaker 3: But definitely planning on stain. I am not going to.
Speaker 1: Go to college, so yeah, at school is not my
Speaker 1: favorite thing. I'm actually on online school, like like not
Speaker 1: for snowboarding, but I go. I'm online school so I
Speaker 1: can snowboard, so I can snowboard every single day without
Speaker 1: having to worry about missing school in person, and I
Speaker 1: can just go home and do it on my computer
Speaker 1: and it's very, very a lot more easier than in
Speaker 1: person school. It was second semester of eighth grade and
Speaker 1: they were telling like one of my friends did it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: First my mom said no, she said you're not doing it.
Speaker 1: And then I convinced her and it was perfect. My
Speaker 1: mom has been like through like fourteen years of school,
Speaker 1: like as long as I can remember. My mom's been
Speaker 1: in school for She's a nurse practitioner at La Melinda.
Speaker 1: I started trying to convince her by just telling her that,
Speaker 1: you know, the little ways, like I can snowboard more.
Speaker 3: You know, I can do this, I'll get better grades.
Speaker 1: And then I think, finally one day she just gave in,
Speaker 1: and then my dad just followed her behind her and
Speaker 1: they let me do it. So I passed all my classes.
Speaker 1: I passed, Yeah, every single class. Now we're in summer,
Speaker 1: so that's nice. Snow more school for a few months
Speaker 1: at least.
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I'm Becky Dolman. I'mkarasulman's mom's. We've always said she was
Speaker 4: destined to do great things or for good or evil,
Speaker 4: and we were always hoping that it would be for good.
Speaker 4: She has been a strong, willed, independent child since she
Speaker 4: was born, and she's always done great things. She's done good,
Speaker 4: you know, always done good whatever she tries. She's an
Speaker 4: amazing snowboarder and it shows because she loves it. And
Speaker 4: it's not even that she's competitive. She's very humble and
Speaker 4: she just loves doing it. I always get to your
Speaker 4: eye when I talk about how like proud I am
Speaker 4: of my kids.
Speaker 1: Uh, there's definitely a lot of support from my parents
Speaker 1: always and forever, especially my mom. My mom works every
Speaker 1: single day she's working six days a week now to
Speaker 1: just support me and my family, which is great. And
Speaker 1: my dad, my dad owns his own construction business up
Speaker 1: here in Lake Carrolhead, Uh, just pretty cool.
Speaker 3: He built some pretty cool houses.
Speaker 1: And he's worked pretty hard as well to support us,
Speaker 1: which is really cool. The way my mom has inspired
Speaker 1: me is she's just worked so hard to become where
Speaker 1: she is today. She's, like I said, as long as
Speaker 1: I can remember, she's been in school, just working for
Speaker 1: more and more and more and wanting more and more,
Speaker 1: and just she earned every single bit of it. And
Speaker 1: that really, like I feel like, inspired me to I
Speaker 1: can do like she has done so many years of
Speaker 1: school and I've only I was probably the longest like time.
Speaker 1: Remember I'm like I've been in like nine years of school.
Speaker 1: It's like not that big of a deal. So it
Speaker 1: just really pushes me to just be the best as
Speaker 1: in school and be who I am, you know, show
Speaker 1: me that any thing is really.
Speaker 3: Possible, because that's hard work. It's very very hard work.
Speaker 1: I would I would tell someone that who wants to
Speaker 1: be like something that is hard that only like they say,
Speaker 1: only a man can do, but women could clearly do it.
Speaker 3: It's just hard. You just have to work hard at it,
Speaker 3: and you just have to believe in yourself and just
Speaker 3: not give up.
Speaker 2: So when she taps her head like that, that means
Speaker 2: home and she's ready to go home.
Speaker 3: It's one am.
Speaker 1: I'm about to go to sleep, and yeah, my night
Speaker 1: was just watching TV. Watched I watched a scary movie
Speaker 1: with one of my friends. Couldn't sleep very well so
Speaker 1: last night as well. And obviously it's one in the
Speaker 1: morning now, so you can see I can't sleep sleep
Speaker 1: very well any any night, you know. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: that's that's what I did tonight. I just watched the
Speaker 1: TV and relaxed and now I'm going to bed.