Category: talesfromthefoot.com

All of the old posts from my old website talesfromthefoot.com.

Winter Waterland Update

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Just a quick note for those of you who may have been looking at the calendar here.  I tentatively had Winter Waterland on the schedule for next Saturday, Jan 24th.  Sadly, I’ve confirmed that this event has been postponed.  I spoke witht he organizers and the January dates have caused to many ice issues to deal with during the event.  They are looking at a date in December 2009 to host the event.  When things are announced, I’ll do my best to update everyone.  The site they post their info on is here.

On personal note, if they do host it in December this year, I’ll be able to cross another month of my list.  I have a personal goal of skiing or barefooting all 12 months of the year in the state of Wisconsin.  Currently, I only have December and February left on my list and a December event would cut the number of months I have left in half.

Barefoot Worlds Kick Off January 26th

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No, I didn’t disappear.  Life happened, and i drifted away from here for a bit.  I’m back and I’m going to try and get something new up here each week, sometimes more.

Anyways, back to the post at hand.  The 2008 IWSF Barefoot World Waterski Championships are at the end of this month.  Why are they taking place in 2009 you ask?  Well they are taking place on the far side of the world from my Tales from the Foot World Headquarters.  The tournament is hosted by the New Zealand Barefoot Water Ski Club and will take place on Lake Inspiration in Otaki, New Zealand.

China will be participating for the first time in the tournment that will feature 150+ competitors from 14 countries.  Hendrick Same (seen in a few videos that have been featured here) is already there, training for a shot at the world title.  And just between the American and Australian supporters, there will be over 110 fans chearing on all of the competitors.

The New Zealand Barefoot Club posted a nice little blurb aout the upcomping tournament here.  They also have a lot of information posted for people that are making the trip or just want to find out more about what’s going on here.

Good Luck to All of the Competitors!

And one last comment… the name of the lake suits it perfectly…  It looks like a beatiful ski site.


Image from the New Zealand Barefoot Water Ski Club Website

Club Foot Montage

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Once again a video that has nothing to do with BFC or any famous barefooter.  This one was evidently put together by a Michigan barefoot club called Club Foot Barefoot Water Ski Team.  A quick search of the my internet didn’t turn up anything current.

It’s a good montage video of the members footing.  Takes about 2 minutes to get started, but the editting of the footing footage was done very well.  And if Club Foot still exists, drop by and say hi.

I think a lot of the footage is late 90s so there is some great hair and wetsuits.  Enjoy… 

Club Foot Montage

Heinrich Lets Loose

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Heinrich Sam, a young and very talented barefooter from South Africa, took a footing set with Andre to try a little free style barefooting.

It starts off with what is probably a typical Heinrich pass.  For those that don’t know, he’s a pretty good barefooter of some reknown.  At the ripe old age of 17, he has already set some European Junior and Open trick records.  The kicker is he is just as good as barefooter now, if not better, after he has survived a bout with cancer.

After his initial trick run to warm up, he lines up next to the boat to try some freestyle.  His freestyle isn’t as polished as Andre’s yet, but I’m sure it’ll get there soon.  Enjoy the video from BFC…

You can find the video on BFC’s South African Barefoot scene page here.  In the video section on that page, it is called “Heinrich shows his Freestyle Talent”.

This video does come with a little warning.  They do a boat to boat exchange of footers on the boom.  Please don’t try this without excellent drivers and some serious confidence in the other footer’s ability.  The results could be bad without 4 very competent people (2 drivers and 2 footers).  Be sure to be comfortable with all 4 peoples’ skill level for that trick.

BTW, be sure to watch till the very end.  Heinrich tries some overhead 3’s on the boom.  Fun to watch, looks like it might hurt, but he bounces right back up… literally.

Let’s Get The Party Started

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Unlike BFC, Toes Up has no qualms about putting up crashes and here’s a classic video, or least a classic video according to the description on USA Water Ski.  In reality, it’s a video put together last year by Paul & Heather Stokes.  Paul Stokes, for those of you who don’t know, is regarded as a very good barefooter… he was a US Barefoot Champion in 1994.  For more details about him, check out Stokes Sports.

But back to the video.  There isn’t anything ground breaking in the video, but I guess there isn’t suppose to be… it’s a crash video.  Enjoy.

http://www.toesuporfaceplant.com/get%20the%20party%20started_wmv.wmv

Get the Party Started [toe’s up video]

And They Do Fall Down…

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Back in the beginning of October, the following question was posed on the BFC forums:

These guys (the De Villiers brothers) are always trying new things so there would have to be some great spills.  How about a video of that?  It would just be nice to see a human side to these guys?

Well, it appears that Chuck has changed his mind.  On the eve of the election, this new video came up on the website. 

You can find the video on BFC’s Video page here.  It’s titled “I Fell Down”.

Chuck’s rational for not showing the wipeouts is that he’s trying to encourage people to barefoot and doesn’t want to show the painful side of it.  But guess what, unfortunately pain is a part of the sport of barefooting. It doesn’t need to be a big part of it, but even people that are learning the basics, they want to see that even the great footers fall down and go boom when they are trying new things.  Plus, if they don’t see the pros struggling to learn new things, new people can become frustrated when they don’t get it as quick as these guys do.

So thank you for the video of the wipeouts, even if they do just tumble up about half the time, which is really just sickening.

BTW, no I did not start that thread.

A Little Barefoot History Lesson… Let’s Meet John Gillette

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While browsing around the other footing websites, looking for something interesting about barefooting, I came across an article on Toes Up.  That site, run by Teri Jones (aka Teri Larsen) and Scott Jones (aka Jonesy) who are currently training for Worlds, has some videos and stories about some of the original barefooters.

The one I’m going to talk about today is about John Gillette.  He authored a book called Barefooting that sounds like it contains a wealth of knowledge about the sport.  Based on the article, although he is a much more talented footer than me, it sounds like that like me, he really has to work on anything new that he wants to learn.  I won’t go into too much more detail here, but be sure to go check out the article over on Toes Up. Here’s the direct link to the article.

And Now Something a Little More Recent

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I’ve put up some older KSO videos recently, older being early 2000’s.  Here’s one a bit more recent, probably the last year or so.  It features footing by Mike Salber and Dany Baumgartner in addition to KSO.  Once again, it features some sick “traditional” trick footing by KSO and ther others.

This video is the first one that I’ll say it has something in that you should try at home.  Given the number of videos that have been up here lately, and the wide variety of stuff that’s been in them that most sane people wouldn’t try, but this one features something that some people might thing is easy or safe.

I”m not sure which footer it is, but one of them steps off the ski platform and foots right behind the platform, to the point where his feet are nearly under the platform.  It looks cool as all hell, but IMO, it is crazy dangerous to foot this close to a boat.  Please don’t try that without EXPERT instruction and guidance.

But beyond that, enjoy the video.  Nothing really special, but it’s a good video with some good shots.  It also has a trick in that I want to try, the front flip, and it has some good shots of it.

Enjoy the video…

http://www.eaglewetsuits.com/videos/therundown.wmv

The Run Down

Crazy Footers

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There was a little request in the new forum to find some videos that feature speed footers.  What are speed footers you ask?  Don’t all barefooters go pretty fast already?  Well, most footers go around 40 MPH or so.  A lot of the people you see doing these crazy tricks are probably pushing 45 to 50 MPH.  Compared to speed footers, these speeds are down right slow.   Speed footers go 70, 80, 90 or 100+ MPH.  At these speeds if you fall, your bones might be shattered or destoyed.  Even the boat drivers are wearing helmets at these speeds.

I’ll have a more in depth post about these very crazy atheletes in our already crazy sport of barefooting in a week or so (I need to do a little research first), but to wet your appetite, here’s a short clip of Teresa Wallace go 91.16 MPH on nothing but her barefeet.

Teresa Wallace – Speed Footer