When I was a kid, I loved the lake. Really, I loved swimming and playing in any body of water. It was the best part of the summer for me. My uncle had a boat and a house on a lake in upstate New York. I spent every visit either on the water, or asking when we could go to the water.

I loved getting dragged by the boat in an inner tube. It was a ton of fun and I only found waterskiing to be even better. Pretty much anything involving going fast in a boat was a thing that I loved.

A couple years ago, a friend of mine from college asked me if I wanted to join him and a few other friends on his speedboat for the afternoon. He said that we could go tubing and waterskiing, and that the boat was ridiculously fast. Of course, there would be adult beverages there too, so I took no time in counting myself in.

We had a ton of fun that afternoon. Everyone got multiple turns driving the boat, waterskiing and tubing. Later on in the evening, I was trying to get one last ski in before we went to shore. It was getting dark and we were probably going too fast. I lost control during a turn that was pretty close to the shore, and I ended up flying into a dock. I broke a couple ribs, my arm and my collarbone. I also needed emergency surgery to repair some internal bleeding and organ damage. I was in the hospital for two weeks.

Luckily, my friend who was driving the boat at the time had great insurance. They paid for everything from hospital bills, to physical therapy. I guess that they were afraid of litigation, even though I would never have put my friend through that. However, you should remember that if you suffer an injury on the water, or anywhere else for that matter, you should contact a qualified attorney at the earliest opportunity. No one should deal with a scary injury alone.