Month: April 2008

This Isn’t Good Sportsmanship…

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It’s GREAT sportsmanship!

Sara Tucholsk, a senior from Western Oregon’s softball team, hit her first home run ever in a game vs Central Washington. In her excitement, she forgot to tag first base as she passed it and went back to touch it. That’s when her knee gave out and she crumpled to the ground.

The antiquated rules of softball (probably inherited from baseball) state that the runner has to touch all the bases for it to be a home run and Sara wasn’t able to move anymore on her own power. The rules also state that she couldn’t get help from an official, her coaches or anyone on her team to round the bases. It appeared that they were going to have to score it as a single and then put a pinch-runner in for her.

Then Mallory Holtman, a senior from Central, asked if they could carry Sara around the bases already knowing in the rules that nothing prevented that. So Mallory and Liz Wallace, both from Central, carried Sara around the bases so her first home run would be scored as a home run.

For a few more details, go check out the full article on ESPN.com.

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10 Best Places to Ski and Live… Redux

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Although I like the fact that Madison, WI was named one of the 10 best places to ski and live, I really didn’t care for the article. Instead of just complaining about it, I’m taking action. I’m going to write my own version of the article. Here goes…

People in Madison, WI love their Packers and Badgers. The city, situated amongst Lake Monona, Mendota and Wingra also has people that love their lakes. Everyone enjoys the lakes, from the Union Terrace situated on Mendota to listen to live music in the summer or attending a wedding reception at the Monona Terrace situated literally on top of Lake Monona, people love the lakes. But people do more than just things around the lakes, they do stuff on the lakes. In the winter, while they’re frozen, you can find a multitude of ice fisherman on the lakes. But once they finally thaw, you can find even more people enjoying the lakes. The lakes are known for their great fishing and also sport both UW Rowing Team and many rowing clubs. There are also avid sailing clubs. Amongst all this activity, you can also find 3-eventers, wakeboarders, barefooters, show skiers and weekend warriors on the lakes. Madison is home to the Mad-City Ski Team, winner of 3 of the past 4 national championships, and the UW-Ski Team, a collegiate team that has competed well at the national level, despite only a month or so on the water in the spring and fall. To support all of the avid skiers, the city has boat dealers for both Mastercrafts and Nautiques. The lakes are facing their challenges though. The Mad-City Ski Team is helping to lead the charge and sponsors the Clean Lakes Festival raising money to help clean the lakes for everyone to enjoy.

Selling point: Minnesota may be the land of 10,000 lakes, but Wisconsin has even more. And 5 of the lakes are in the Madison area. Once the lakes thaw, you can find avid skiers taking to the water while ice still lines the shores, making the most of their precious time on the water. Whatever type of skiing you enjoy, you’ll like find some new friends on the water that share your passion for the sport. And once the sun goes down, you’ll find a lively city scene to keep you occupied till the sun comes up again. Just make sure you’re not allergic to snow.

Website: http://www.madcityskiteam.com or http://www.uwwaterski.org

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First Figure 8’s of the Year

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The last couple weeks have featured the first figure 8 tournaments of the year. The first was down in Oscala where KSO took home the top prize. Check out BareFootSki dot com for a full recap.

This weekend up in De Pere, WI, 12 brave footers took to the frigid water for the first northern tournmament of the year, the De Dere Figure 8. Marc Donahue of Indiana took home the bragging rights to this tournament. A fuller recap is available at BareFootSki dot com once again.

Next up is the Frost-Bite Figure 8 hosted by UW-Stout this coming weekend (May 3rd, starts at 10am.)

Be sure to check out BareFootSki dot com. In addition to barefooting news, they’ve got a forum, pictues and some decent videos up there as well, including this video of some old school barefooting.

http://www.barefootski.com/albums/album07/SkiChampsAction.wmv

Download Vintage Barefooting – Cypress Gardens (BareFootSki dot com)

10 Best Places to Ski and Live

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I was flipping through the April 2008 issue of Water Ski Magazine and saw this picture staring back at me…

Mad-City Ski Team’s Ballet Line
Picture Composed by Don Heilman from the team’s website

Turns out I was on a page in their article titled 10 Best Places to Ski and Live. Now I’m happy to see Madison, WI ranked on their list, but I wish they had spent just a little bit more time writing their paragraph about Madison.

First off, the image is straight off the Mad-City Ski Team’s website. I know, I help run the site and know the person who put the image together. It isn’t a simple photo, there is some photo shop skill on display there as well. The kicker is photo credit doesn’t list the person that created this image or the team. It lists the person that sent them the image. Not good in my opinion.

Next, they talk about Mad City being a “show skier’s haven.” Based on that comment and the picture accompanying the article, I’m guessing Madison made the list, at least in part, because it’s home to the Mad-City Ski Team, winner of 3 of the 4 past National Show Ski Championships. If that’s the case, then just come out and say that it in the article instead of just the allusion to it by referencing Madison’s very common nickname which is incorporated into the team’s name.

The next thing that irked me is they completely got the number of lakes in Wisconsin all messed up. They point at the Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and Wisconsin isn’t that far behind. Now I knew off the top of my head that Wisconsin has more lakes than Minnesota. Using the internet I easily verified that. Wisconsin has about 15,000 lakes, significantly more than the 11,842 lakes in Minnesota. If you’re going to point out how many lakes a state has, even in general terms, make sure you get it right.

Finally, going back to the picture. It’s a picture right off the ski team’s website, so they know where it’s at. I think the picture was on the WWSF’s site too, and if they got it there, they were obviously looking for a Mad-City picture for their article and the WWSF site has links to the team’s website so they could find it. Plus, if you Google the team name, the team’s site is right at the top of the list. The website listed as a local reference for the article is the WWSF website. Nothing against the federations website, but ALL of the other 10 best places have a local chamber of commerce type site listed or local ski club site listed, not the state’s federation site. (I’m guessing this is related to the person who sent them the photo, but not positive.)

Once again, I love the fact that they like Madison enough to put it on their list and featured a picture of the Mad-City Ski Team in the article. They may even have mentioned my skiing habit of skiing until very late in the season in a drysuit amongst the snow and ice. But please do some basic fact checking. Or contact someone with some local knowledge to help with the fact checking.

Just a little note… One of the other cities listed, Seattle, Washington, has a great photo of someone skiing on Lake Sammamish with Mount Rainier in the background. It is a very scenic place to ski… I know, I’ve skied there. Very nice place to ski.

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Bodies…

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I’ve heard rumblings about this video over on the BFC forums and finally decided to check it out myself.  It’s a video from Toes Up or Faceplant.  The website is a little bright with some crazy fonts, but if you dig around a bit, they have some good stuff.

If you’ve heard the song Bodies by Drowning Pool, you might have an idea about what’s in the video.  If you don’t know the song off the top of your head, you may have heard it in ads for the movies Daredevil, The One, xXx, Fahrenheit 9/11, Rambo or even a US Marines Commercial.  The song caused a little controversy when it came out and some stations even stopped playing it for a while.  Why, you ask?  If you think about the lyrics and think about how it’s been used in advertising, it can easily be misinterpreted.  It is really suppose to be about moshpitting.

Anyways, the most common phrase in the song is “Let the bodies hit the floor.”  According to the lyrics site I found, they say it 27 times, roughly have the lines in the song.  Now, while barefooting there is no floor to hit, but there is the water, and this video, A LOT of bodies hit the water, and they hit the water HARD.  They did a very good job putting all of these crashes to music so file is a pretty big (but it looks good) so be patient.  Enjoy…

http://www.toesuporfaceplant.com/bodies.wmv

Download Bodies Video (Toes Up or Faceplant Production)

Barefooting or Swivel Skiing?

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While the Rowboat’s Paddlers and Rykert argue about Venn Diagrams and question where their cooler full of beer is, I’m going to ask you to grab a beer out of your fridge, sit back and watch a video production from BFC. I’m not sure where BFC find these guys but they got some crazy footers named De Villers. I let ya’ll know about the first De Villers’ video, now there is a second one. This one has the first name of Zane and it features some solid footing.

Now if you go look at the forums on BFC, you’ll find quite the discussion about the Super Fly High that the De Villers make use of. Some people think it’s cheating and not real footing while others say it is just the evolution of the sport. I fall someone in between… Learning how to foot and get my long line deep water starts more consistent, I could tell the difference between a normal pylon, a slightly extended pylon and a hylon in how they helped me make my starts. Now the SFH is much higher, almost like a trapeze. I’m off the opinion that yeah, it’s going to make the tricks easier to do. But the tricks these guys are doing are sick and even watching them being done on the SFH is pretty awesome. So I guess I’m of the opinion that the SFH’s make the tricks easier, but if they are going to give us tricks like this, I’m all for them. Now when people start doing these tricks on a normal boom or long line on a hylon, then the people doing them on a SFH can be called wussies. Until then, they have bragging rights on some crazy tricks.

One trick Zane does that stands out is the overhead 360 on the barefeet. I see swivel skiers do this all the time, some even throw 7’s or 10’s. I also see shoe skiers do this trick. But never before have I seen it done on barefeet. Zane does some other stuff in there two, but I’ll just let you watch and be amazed.

Enjoy…

Download

Best Dam Barefoot Race 2008

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Best Dam Barefoot Race 2008

Just want to help spread the word the Best Dam Barefoot Race will be taking place on Saturday, May 10th in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Besides it being the Best Dam Race, I think Teri and the Must-Skis throw the Best Dam Party afterwards. For more details, check out the flyer.

If you sign up for the race and this is how you found out about it, be sure to let Teri know you heard about it at TalesFromTheFoot.com… Thanks!

The Jersey

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If you pay attention to sports, you’ve probably heard that a Red Sox fan who happens to be a construction worker on the new Yankees’ stadium decided to put a Red Sox shirt in the cement of the stadium. (Here’s the story from TBL.) The guy couldn’t keep a good think secret and blabbed and then the Yankee’s went and dug it up.

Here’s what would be awesome…

He went and told about this shirt to make a big fuss about it. The secret is he really buried 2 shirts in the cement and didn’t mention that there is a 2nd shirt.

That would be awesome if he was smart enough to do that!

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A Good St Patty’s Day Tradition

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Found this story while browsing the internet for barefooting stories.  There are a group of friends from Anapolis who were facing a mid-life crisis eight years ago.  They wanted to do something crazy and came up with barefooting.  Then they started doing footing runs on St Patty’s day.  They figure they’re already in body bags (ie dry suits) so if anything does happen, they’re all set to go.

When they are done, then they break out some green beer, a tradition the rest of the country follows.

Visitor Number 5000

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Visitor number 5000 hailed from the Arena, Wisconsin area and arrived via the Google Image search having found this picture from this page and spent about 33 minutes browsing the blog looking through at least 13 different pages.

Obviously, the main page has been the most visited page, but the “Fatty Full of Fellowship and Fun” page visited by #5000 has been one of the most popular pages for people to find, followed closely by the Friday Night Surfing page.

Now that I’ve crossed the 5000 visitor mark, the quest begins for 10,000! Hopefully I get to 10,000 just a bit quicker!

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