Month: February 2009

US Barefoot Nationals… New Place, New Dates

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I just saw this on USA Water Ski.  The US Barefoot Nationals are now being held at Mystic Lakes in Maize, Kansas and are taking place a week later, now from August 11 thru 15.  Here’s the official announcement from USA Water Ski:

Dates & Venue Changed For ABC Nationals

Due to severe drought conditions in central Texas, the American Barefoot Club (ABC) has announced a change in the dates and location of the 2009 Barefoot Water Ski National Championships. Originally scheduled for Aug. 4-8 at the Barefoot Ski Ranch in Waco, Texas, the 32nd annual event will now be held Aug. 11-15 (to accommodate the local organizing committee) at Mystic Lakes in Maize, Kan.

“This is relatively short notice for a local organizing committee to get ramped up for a national championships, however, the American Barefoot Club is confident with the commitments we have for support, both physical and financial, that the local organizing committee will pull together a first-class event,” said Dan Cummings, president of the American Barefoot Club.

Mystic Lakes is a two-lake site built in what was formerly a sand pit just outside Wichita, Kan. It was built into a water ski community with houses surrounding the lake. Mystic Lakes has hosted the Midwest Regional Water Ski Championships with more than 300 competitors, so it is no stranger to the logistics of putting together a large tournament.

“There are sidewalks around the lake, it has very high banks for wind protection, and a center strand between the two lakes provides for perfect spectator viewing,” Cummings said. “We will be able to jump on one lake and run slalom and tricks on the other lake. While this is certainly a change from the previously announced Waco site, I am confident it will be a great tournament and one that you will not want to miss. Mystic Lakes has hosted our Regional Barefoot Championships on multiple occasions as well as regular local tournaments.”

More than 100 athletes are expected to compete for national titles in wake slalom, tricks, jumping and overall in respective divisions.

The American Barefoot Club is one of nine sport disciplines of USA Water Ski.

Link to Article

This is especially good news for the many barefooteres that are also show skiers.  Prior to the announcement, Show and Barefoot Nationals were on the same weekend.

Update:

I recieved this in an email from the ABC President:

Barefooters,

Due to the draught we currently experiencing in Central Texas and the lack of water to make the site ski-able, this year’s Barefoot Nationals is being moved to Mystic Lakes in Wichita, Kansas.To accommodate the LOC and Homeowners association, the dates are also being moved toAugust 11-15. The date move will also resolve the conflict we had with Show Ski Nationals, which is good since most of our World Junior Team are also show skiers. 

This is relatively short notice for an LOC to get ramped up. However, we are confident, with the commitments we have for support, both physical and financial, the LOC will pull together a first class event. Mystic Lakes is a two lake site built in what was formerly a sand pit just outside Wichita in Maize, KS. It was built into a water ski community with houses surrounding the lake. Mystic Lakes recently hosted 3 event regionals with over 300 skiers. So they are no strangers to the logistics of putting together a large tournament. Wichita is centrally located in the US and is serviced by an international airport. 

There are sidewalks around the lake, it has very high banks for wind protection, a center strand between the two lakes for perfect spectator viewing. We will be able to jump on the second lake and run slalom and tricks on the other. They have hosted our Regional Barefoot Championships on multiple occasions as well as regular local tournaments.

While this is certainly a change from the previously announced Waco site, I am confident it will be a great tournament and one you will not want to miss. Waco is lining up to host next years Nationals, so we will get to experience that great site as well. We wanted to get the word out so everyone has as much notice as possible to make plans. See you in Wichita!

Dan Cummings
President, American Barefoot Club

She’s a Believer…

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…and all of us over the age of 12 are now officially depressed.   Who are we talking about and why?  We are talking of one Georgia Groen, age 12, of the New Zealand Barefoot Team.  At the wee age of 12, she’s already competing internationally.  She just took part in Junior Worlds and her trick run was good enough to place 6th in tricks.  She was also just named the BFC Footer of the Month for February 2009

Now you might be wondering why that makes us over the age of 12 depressed?  Well, just take a look at the BFC video that they released showing her barefoot tricks.  She’s already jumping out of boats and doing side slides.   Enough with build up now and on to the video…

You can find the video on Barefoot Central’s video page here.  It’s called “I’m a Believer”.

 

15 Percent Concentrated Power of Will

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That is what it took to write this post… not really, but it has been along time coming.  Here’s a look back at some the best pictures from 2008. My photo blogging took a bit of nose dive last year after June 1st due to the lakes closing in Madison.  When you drive 45 minutes to practice and don’t get home till 10pm or so, you just don’t have that much spare time.  The camera was still busy, so here’s a look back.
As those that follow the site know, my ski season started early in 2008.  January 26th to be exact. I went south to get some skiing in, but not very far.  Just a mere 30 minutes.  The ski site looked like this…
And the water was cold…
But it wasa fun…
The the skiing too a hiatus for a few months.  It took till the beginning of May before we back on the water…
But it has to complain when your nights on the water end like this…
A week later, the Best Dam Barefoot Race took place.  It was a little cooler this year, but still a whole lot of fun.
As May wound down, we had some very nice weather, which we made good use of…


Then, the rain hit, and it hit hard…
Leaving us with this…
And this….
So Mad-City headed about 45 minutes north, to Lake Wisco, to practice.  One of the nice things about that is we had nights that looked like this at the end of the night…
And this…
And resulted in fun practices like this…


My boat also made a few trips to Lake Wisconsin too. One of the better trips was on July 4th.  It took phone calls until 1am the night before to finalize the plans, but they were finalized and we skied on some nice water in some great scenary.


When State arrived, the rain made another cameo appearance…
But it didn’t stick around too long…
And it was still a whole lot of fun…
And we put on one hell of a good show…
Resulting in this…
The following week we did a road show in Portage, so I had a chance to do doubles again…
And then the next week we did yet another road show, this time on Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, there were 4 foot rollers there to great us…

Finally, Nationals arrived.  After a season of driving, late practices and little sleep, our Nationals show went very well…

And after our show, we hit “The Bar”…

Our efforts were rewarded…

After Nationals, the Madison lakes slowly reopened, so then we just had some fun….
And more fun…
And occasionally, we needed supplies delivered…
So the nights would end like this…
But then we’d go out again the next night…
I did get to hit the ramp a little…
And the water…
Finally, fall arrived, and the last trip out on the lake…
Then winter arrived and more nights would end like this…
So that’s the 2008 in pictures.
Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

Ski-A-Rees Benefit Show for Ryan Bergeron

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Here is some info about an upcoming benefit show for Ryan Bergeron that the Sarasota Ski-A-Rees are doing. Ryan was injured while barefooting during a professional ski show.  Here are all the details…

Some of you know that Ryan Bergeron, who has skied with the Sarasota Ski-A-Rees Water Ski Show Team, in Sarasota, FL, since 1999 was injured barefooting last year while performing in Brazil and is currently without the use of his legs. Ryan’s recovery is going well and he recently returned to the water, performing in our Sunday shows. As you can imagine, Ryan’s medical bills are staggering.

To help Ryan, March 22, 2009 will be “Ryan Bergeron” day at Ski-A-Rees Stadium, with all proceeds from the Sunday 2:00 show going to the Ryan Bergeron Medical Fund.

We invite all show skiers, especially those in the Southern Region or visiting our area on Spring Break, to join with us for the entire weekend, including practice on Saturday and an all-day party and 2:00 public show on Sunday. We plan to heavily publicize this show and would love to have commitments from other skiers to report to the media.

Our show director, Sherri Brunner, needs to know as soon as possible how skiers plan to participate. Please send her an email at benefit@skiarees.com.

If you’re unable to ski, but would still like to help Ryan, please consider sending a donation to:

Ryan M Bergeron Medical Account
c/o Sarasota Ski-A-Rees
P.O. Box 1493
Sarasota , FL 34230

For more information, please contact us a http://www.skiarees.com/ryan

Also here is a link to a video aired on TV done on Ryan. http://usfmasscomm.blip.tv/file/1713685/

Brad Satterlee
Event Coordinator

Best Dam Barefoot Race is on for 2009!

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The Best Dam Barefoot Race is on!  I spoke with T-Bell, the race organizer tonight, and she confirmed that the race will occur this year. They decided to push the race date back one week so it will be the Saturday after Mother’s Day weekend (May 16th). The water should be ever so slightly warmer and we’ll no longer need to deal with being “exhausted” on Mother’s Day.  Be sure to check back here for more details.  I’ll have them as soon as they are announced.

Start training now for the 22 miles of fun pain torture racing excitement.  Get your team’s together now!

Blue Moo Chick Fest Is Online

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The Cowz R Us Ski Team, based at The Blue Moo (near Alma Center, WI) has posted their event calender for the year.  They are kicking off the ski season with a Beach Party on May 30 (which is a Lions Club Fundraiser ).  Their next major event is the Wisconsin/Illinois Open on June 26- 28.  Following that is the Blue Moo Chick Fest on July 11th.  They’ve launched a completely new website for that event and you can find it online at www.barefootchickfest.com.  The Blue Moo event calander comes to a close with the Midwest Regionals July 24 – July 26.

You can view their event calender on their site or you can view the event calendar here.  I’ve added all of their event and many others for 2009.

Be sure to check out their video section.  They put together a nice video of the footing from the 2008 Beach Party titled Hellar 2008.

Barefoot Chick Fest 2009 Logo

Think Tank

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I find it interesting that Think Tank has changed it’s name. The reason I’ve heard is there are two many “think tanks” now and the name wasn’t unique.

I think (and this is just my opinion) that they may have changed the name because some call it Drink Tank. So they’ve now dropped the old name for a new name, and the new acronym is WSCE, and as Steve Locke pointed out on USA Water Ski today…

WSCE (does that sound like whiskey?… just wondering)

So I’ll be off to WSCE at the end of February, where they’ve dropped one drinking name for another.

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