With the sun reflecting off the calm lake and a cool breeze in the blue skies, laughter can be heard in the distance from the smiling faces scattered around the shore. A boat zooms past, rocking up and down on the water of Ironwood Lake with an individual in tow gliding across the top of the water.
This is the scene that the UCLA club water ski team welcomes every weekend, a place that the members have come to call their own, which offers an escape from their lives at school. The team members travel to Arvin, which is nearly two hours away, to a private lake that they rent from a UCLA alumnus and camp on the shore, practicing their technique in the water.
“We’re actually on the lake pretty much every weekend,” said Megyn Rugh, a fourth-year biology student. “It’s pretty fun to camp out here and just get out of the Los Angeles bubble.”