The first time is always the most exciting, at least for hydroplane racing.

“It was an adrenaline rush,” said Katie Forsell, who took the wheel for the first time last weekend at the Tastin’ and Racin’ event at Lake Sammamish State Park. “It feels like you’re going down a dirt road.”

A 21-year-old Central Washington senior, Forsell grew up around the sport with a grandfather who owned a race boat and a family who regularly volunteers at races.

A fan and volunteer, she’s now becoming a driver herself.

Although growing up in the sport, she wasn’t invited for a ride until two years ago, when she was a passenger in a four-seater at Tastin’ and Racin’.

The ride changed everything, she said. “I came in and I said, ‘I have to drive one.'”

Forsell was quiet by nature, and so it was her mom who first asked boat owner Brian Perkins if she could drive his 1 litre boat, the smallest hydroplane class.

Perkins is known for giving drivers their first chance. At the saturday race, almost all of the boats in his class belonged to racers who got their first taste of hydroplane racing in one of his boats.

“You don’t get people into boat racing until you give them a shot,” he said, adding that the sport won’t grow unless drivers start putting people in boats.

For Forsell, getting prepared for last weekend was a year-long journey.

Driving in a hydroplane race is the only way for drivers to get experience, but there is quite a bit of ground training before drivers ever get onto the water.

The hardest part is a dunk test, where testers simulate what a hydroplane crash would feel like in a pool, Forsell said.

After being tossed about, drivers have to safely get out of their cockpit in the water, she said. “It’s pretty scary.”

So naturally, she did it twice.

First stepping into the boat was nerve racking, but once she was driving she had an ear-to-ear smile.

While she participated in a heat, it was only a test drive, she said.

A sport largely dominated by men, she was only among three female drivers Saturday.

The bigger boats are difficult to steer, requiring physically strong drivers, but women can do it if they workout, she said.

Forsell doesn’t know her next step, but she knows she wants to drive a boat again, she said. “Just to be around it is a great experience.”