Month: January 2007

NASCAR on the Water

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Between Badger games today, I started browsing the Barefoot Central website and came across this video. It shows some pretty slick barefoot endurance racing video clips set to Thunderstruck by AC/DC.

What is barefoot endurance racing? It is a relay race, each footer goes as long as they can until they are exhausted or fall. The boat goes back to pick them up and another footer jumps in and the boat takes off. There is usually some sort of set distance, say 20 miles that the racers have to go. First team done, wins.

A popular race is the Dam to Dam race put on by the Austin Barefoot Ski Club in Austin, Texas. Here’s a clip of that one.

Links:
Barefoot Central
NASCAR on the Water Video
Austin Barefoot Ski Club
Dam to Dam Video

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Stunt Junkies

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Just an update on my earlier post about there being some water ski jumping on TV. Seems there is going to be some other crazy stunts on as well. A wake boarder will jump over a fountain and a hydrofoiler will jump over an oncoming towboat.

For the full USA Water Ski announcement you can go here.

For the upcoming schedule of the show Stunt Junkies you can go here.

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Pass-Pass-Shoot

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Back in the summer of 2005, I had a run in with Kyle Klubertanz. He was/is (not sure) dating a girl I skied with on Mad-City. We were in a bar up north playing Bubble Hockey. After the game, which ended in a tie, we got to talking about hockey a little. I didn’t try to coach him, tell him what to do specifically, he’s obviously a very good hockey player. I just mentioned one thing to him in particular. On their power play (from the 04-05 season) I told him how they were passing too much. Nobody was taking a shot. Also, the passes weren’t quick. It was pass, dribble, pass, dribble, pass, dribble… I mentioned that they needed to pass-pass-shoot. I don’t know if it was me mentioning this to them or just that their coaches came to the same conclusion I did but their power play was noticeable different in 05-06. They had a pretty good season too.

Now back to tonight & Pass-Pass-Shoot…

The Badgers did that twice tonight and it resulted in goals. Two of them to be exact. In hockey, you see a lot of passing. On power plays, it is instrumental. But to score goals, the passes need to be crisp and accurate. And quick. By quick I mean the time between receiving the pass and passing or shooting the puck is very brief. And quick. The puck just needs to be on the blade of the stick for an instant.

Tonight, the Badgers did it perfectly. Pass-Pass-Shoot. The plays were that were quick.

The first one was a three on two rush towards Minnesota’s goal. The Badger in the middle made a pass to the wing on his left and then hesitated for just a moment to hold up in front of the goal. The goalie moves to play the wingman with the puck who instantly passes it back to the guy in the center. The center gets the puck back and taps into the net. Pass-Pass-Shoot-Goal!!!

The second one was just as pretty. Badgers on a power play. Guy at the top of the keep passes it to the guy low by left pipe. Bang & goal!!!

Here’s a highlight video over on UWBadgers.com that shows the two scoring sequences.

Crisp, accurate, quick passes and quick release shots meant two goals for the Badgers tonight. Not big slap shots, nothing really hard or nasty. Just quick shots.

Pass-Pass-Shoot-Goal.

Those two goals ended Minnesota’s 22 game unbeaten streak. It was a big win for the Badgers. 2-1 over the Gophers. Here’s the official recap.

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Mark Your Calenders… Water Ski Jumping on TV

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On January 15, 16, 19 & 29, the Discovery Channel will be airing a show title Stunt Junkies – Water Ski Launch. Scot Ellis will try to set the world record for a person on water skis jumping over more boats than anyone else ever.

Meanwhile, while searching for a video of Scot Ellis ski jumping (didn’t find any on Google & YouTube was down), I came across the 4th blog dedicated to waterskiing called Waterski University (they’ve been added to the blog roll.) Seems to be more geared towards the collegiate skiing land, which is good. I even found a little mention of a neighbor to the east.

Seems Marquette won the NCWSA Team of the Year for 2006 for, among many other things, being the runner up at D2 Nationals in their 3rd year of existence (click here for the Marquette announcement). I had a post about the National Results back in October. Seems I should have given Marquette more props back in October. Looking through the results just a little closer, I see that Marcy from Marquette tied for first in Women’s Jump. I’d like to think the drinking we did back in July in Fox Lake and the barefoot sets we did in Madison later that month helped her jumping at Nationals.

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Now This is Rock & Roll !!!

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I’m not one to blatantly post an ad or infomercial here. In fact, other than movie previews, I don’t believe I have. Well, that is about to change. If you can make it through the first 60 seconds of this video, the rest is pretty amazing. Don’t think my fingers would work on the tiny keyboard’s keys, but his do.

Drums Please (spoken like the opening of Summertime by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince)


YouTube.com

Disclaimer: I don’t know if this product is on the market, was on the market, or will be on the market. Other than it is a dual keyboard that incorporates a normal keyboard like I typed this post on and a very tiny piano type keyboard that you’d play the piano on, I really don’t know anything about it other than it appears to be a product from Creative that at least one person can play very well.

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Shepherds and the Sheep

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Caught this movie last Friday. It was one that I’ve been looking forward to, but it didn’t have show times or run-time that make it an easy movie to go see. But I did finally manage to catch it.

I would say it was worth the wait. Saying that, I will qualify this by saying not everyone is going to like this movie. The story is told in a very complicated way flash backs and flash forwards that can make it easy to get confused. I did manage to follow the story easy enough, but then I’m use to reading complicated plot lines and like some of the more interesting ways to tell a story. I would say I didn’t find the complicated story telling fashion added anything to the movie. It could have been told in a more traditional way and I think a lot more people would enjoy the movie.

In case your not sure what I’m talking about yet, I’m talking about the movie The Good Shepherd staring Matt Damon. It tells of the beginnings of the CIA and the spy game that the US is involved in. For those that think this stuff isn’t going on today, I’d say your wrong. And this is how it started. I won’t go into too many details about the movie other than to say watch it closely and pay attention to the story. It is confusing, but once all the pieces fit together, it becomes a pretty slick story. I’m happy to say I did manage to figure it out a little bit before the end.

Much like a flock of sheep and the shepherd that watches over them, does the shepherd really control the sheep, keeping them all together, or is it the sheep the controls the shepherds movements as they range around and find the food they are foraging for? Much like that dilemma, you also need to figure out who is the shepherd and who are the sheep? There are so many people pulling strings in this movie, you’ll be surprised all the strings just don’t knot up.

Damon plays a very convincing spy. Di Nero makes a nice little cameo in his own movie. And like any good Di Nero movie, we even get to see a little Joe Pesci (aka My Cousin Vinny.) Finally, I didn’t even really realize that Angeline Jolie was even in the movie (I’m mentioning that in a positive fashion in that she plays her character well.)

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Snowmen

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I’m a Calvin & Hobbes fan. Since they are no longer publishing new strips, I’ve found Red & Rover, which is similar, but not quite the same. For example, nothing can beat the many C&H strips featuring his snowmen. Here’s a link with several of them, many are my favorites.

Although today’s R&H strip was pretty good. I grew up playing hockey, so I especially liked it.

Link: Calvin & Hobbes Snowman

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Water Skiing News from Around the Web

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Found these water skiing related stories on web…

Although I’ve wanted to do some water skiing with our recent warm weather here in Wisconsin, I didn’t actually go through all the work of getting my boat and stuff ready to actually go. Well, others experiencing the warm weather have taken advantage of it. Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, they took to the water, even raising some money for charity. Meanwhile, out east in Scotia, New York (near Albany I think) a ski school did some skiing on New Year’s Day as well. Then there is this guy out near Wichita, Kansas who likes to take his annual New Year’s Day barefoot run in a Speedo (for the ladies, there’s a picture behind that link.) Unfortunately, there is a picture in the news story (ladies, you may not like that one as much).

While searching for more crazy news stories of people skiing, I found this post on a blog about a guy that took his dog wake boarding. Seeing as how it is cold enough for the guy to need a dry suit, I don’t think I’d want to put my dog in the cold water, but he did.

Meanwhile, Rykert over in Iowa is making use of the water skiing off season by trying to build a dry land trick apparatus.

My searches also turned up this blog. I didn’t see anything specific about water skiing on it, other than the user name for the blogger… Waterskiing on Two Discount Alligators. Might have to ask about that one.

And finally, this European water skiing site has information up about a thing called Think Tank. Now I’m familiar with Think Tank, it is put on by the Wisconsin Water Ski Federation, of which I’m a member. It is basically a water skiing conference. I’ve even presented at it a few times and will be again this year. I just found it interesting that it is being promoted over in Europe. Browsing the website, I came across this description of Barefooting:

“Barefoot water skiing is skiing beneath a towboat wherein the skier do not uses any skis on his feet, thus this waterskiing discipline is also known as barefooting.”

I’m pretty sure that when I’m barefooting, I’m not beneath the towboat, I prefer to be behind it. I can’t hold my breath long enough to make skiing beneath the boat worthwhile, plus there is the whole issue of the prop. It spins fast and is capable of slicing and dicing and I’d rather not be near it while it is spinning. I’m guessing this is probably just a translation issue, but I found it funny. The rest of the description is pretty decent.

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Movie Review Catchup

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So I’ve been a little lax on my keeping my movie reviews current. Time to catchup & here goes…

Apocolypto – Saw this movie a while back. I found it very interesting, knowing that although it seems realistic, I knew going in that Mel Gibson had done some blending of times, portraying different points of history simultaneously. Overlooking that, the movie was enjoyable. Parts are very interesting, other parts are a little gruesome. Final verdict, I liked it, but it isn’t a movie for everyone.

Happy Feet – Caught this movie on the IMAX and I’ll say it was one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen lately. I’d summarize it as March of the Penguins from their perspective, but with more a story and unique characters. Originally, they advertised it as being in IMAX 3-D, but they decided against doing that. I think that would have really added something extra to a few of the sequences in the movie. As a whole, I highly recommend this for an enjoyable entertaining family movie.

Eragon – Read the book before seeing this one. Book was good, kind of a little bit of a cross between Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. LOTR type story, Potter type story telling, but not done as well as either. Book was good. Now for the movie. Completely unrecognizable from the book, other than a boy finds a dragon egg, the meat of the story is completely different. I can’t recommend that you don’t go see this movie enough. I’ll just say that if I was the author, I’d be buying ads denouncing the movie and urging people to read the book.

Rocky Balboa – I had serious doubts about this movie when I originally heard about it. How could they make another Rocky movie? Then I saw the ads and thought they had a good pretty good story idea. Washed up boxer sees a special on ESPN and thinks he can still box. He gets a shot at the champ, who is like most modern athletes and living at the center of their own personal fantasy world (please note, I said most, not all). If you haven’t seen Stallone in a while, he looks just a little freakish now. Giant hands that would probably feel like a brick hitting you in the ring. Surprisingly, he can still string together words to form sentences that can be understood. He even has what it takes to perform for him what would be called a significant monologue. Forgetting that you have to listen to Stallone speak for an hour, the movie is actually very good and provides a very fitting conclusion to the Rocky series. At least until he makes another one.

Sorry there aren’t any links to previews, one sheets and random links to info about the actors and directors. Pressed for time tonight. Well, now I’m all caught up on my movie reviews. Time to fall behind again.

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Fox Sports BCS Playoff Conspiracy

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If you went to bed when Boise threw the pick returned for TD with a minute left in the game, you missed one hell of an ending. Doubtless, there are 1000’s of places to read a better recap than I can write. So if you’re looking for that, you came to the wrong place. If you’re lucky, you may be able to see it on ESPN Classic later this week if they’re willing to pony up the cash to re-air it. It is definately an instant classic. One of the few games I think is worthy of that label.

On the other hand, I’m putting this out their for the world to see. I believe Fox, whose commentators have been fueling the fire about a NCAA Football playoff (especially during the end of the Boise game tonight) has a master plan and decided to go out on a limb and pay oodles of money for the BCS rights so they can throw their weight (which is the millions of dollars they paid) and get it turned into a proper playoff. Maybe just an 8 team, maybe 16 if we are really lucky, I don’t really know. I just see the controversy out there and Fox just continues to pour fuel on the fire.

I don’t care what they do with all the other bowls, just take the top 8 or 16 teams and make ’em play until they determine a champion the old fashion way, on the field! And not by writers and coaches and experts and computers deciding team A gets to play team B for the championship and team C is left out because B is better than team C because of some goofy stat or subconscious inclination because of the voter’s region or teams your just more familiar with. Let them play. The teams left out of the playoff can continue to play in their exhibition games in random bowls number 1 through 50.

Oh and Chris Myers just popped the question for the Boise State running back before he had a chance to ask his girlfriend himself.

Disclaimer, I’m putting this out there with no inside knowledge or any relationship to Fox or any other sports broadcasting entity other than I watch their broadcasts way too much.

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