We live on a lagoon in Doha, so have access to flat, sticky, salty, sweaty brown sea at all times. I don’t paint the nicest picture there, which is unfair – It’s beautiful. Despite living in a coastal city you can’t really live on the sea in Doha unless you live on this particular lagoon, so we are super lucky, don’t get me wrong.

Not only that but we have access to boats, beaches and lots of friends who love messing about on the water. But even better than that part of my work is running a water sports business in Doha – Sora Marine Training, so we also have access to the very best instructors and facilities in town.

Water skiing has always been a great love of mine, I showed a small amount of natural ability for the sport when I was younger and have latched on to it ever since. When we moved to the Middle East and part of my job was to keep the water sports company on the right track I leapt at the opportunity to dust off my old water ski and get behind the boat.

But way more excitingly than me skiing was the opportunity to get Archie up and skiing at a super young age. I became obsessed about getting him skiing before he was 5, everyone competes about getting their children onto snow ski’s earliest but I wanted to be the first to get my boy up skiing (incidentally plenty of people seem to get their children up at 3 years old, but that’s obviously only people destined for life in the circus…or maybe Jack?)

Sure enough after dragging Archie along the beach by hand, getting him comfortable in a little boat behind the Mastercraft and eventually trying to drag myself along in a little blow up boat next to him holding his life jacket, we decided to go for it and lined him up for his first proper tow behind the boat.

Archie flew, he was amazing, I exploded with pride as he came out of the water and disappeared away from me. Seeing a tiny figure being dragged along the water by a 3 tonne wake boat and hearing him squealing with joy over the engine was an amazing feeling.

We have since taken to trying to get anyone and everyone we know with small kids into the water and up on skis. Anyone in Doha who wants a go should get in touch with Sora Marine Training, their patience and calmness is almost certainly the reason Archie had the confidence to go for it.

So Thank You to them!