People All Over the World Have Visited Here

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I was bored and decided to dig into my Google Analytics stats for this site.  Officially, people from 65 different countries have visited this site and I’m going to make the call that someone from every continent has visited.  Yes, I’m even going to include Antartica.  There are known hits from all the continents and there are 2 hits that didn’t have a continent specified, so I’m going to chalk those up to the people living at the South Pole.

Don’t worry people.  It doesn’t show details down to the individual visit.  It mainly just does anonymous stats about where people are coming from, how they got here and how long they stay.

Willie Farrel Stands Alone

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Here’s a video from SacFooter Productions of Willie Farrel doing some “winter” barefooting… California Winter Barefooting to be exact.  (I have a hard time calling in winter footing when it’s bright and sunny with no snow on the ground*.)

Anyways, the video is of Willie on Jan 11, 2009 at the Port of Sacramento, probably getting some last minute training in for Worlds.  You’ll see some front and back barefoot slalom and some tumbles as does som training in his dry suit.  Good luck at Worlds Willie!


Willie Farrel – Stands Alone

*Here are some links that show winter barefooting.  This one has a story about real winter footing and this one has a video of it.  Real winter footing involves being worried about hitting ice during your footing runs.

Hell of a Way to Ring in the New Year

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Found this gem of a video over at the CRB and since it has some barefooting happening in winter, it’s just too good to pass up and not share here.  A local news crew did a short feature on a group of skiers from Witchita, Kansas that likes to go skiing on New Years Day… no mater what the weather is like.

It looks like this year the weather cooperated… well it cooperated as much weather can on January 1st.  And did I mention there’s  a Speedo?

71 Year Old Barefoots in a Speedo on a Frozen Lake

And for those that haven’t visited the Creaky Rowboat before, you should really stop by.  Even USA Water Ski’s executive director Steve Locke has taken notice.

Chicks Rule DVD

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I picked up the Chicks Rule DVD that Toes Up or Faceplant finally released last year after a lot of anticipation… they’ve had previews posted on their site forever.  If by chance you haven’t seen the preview, here they are…

http://www.toesuporfaceplant.com/chicks_rule3.wmv

Chicks Rule Trailer

The preview looks very promising… some world class barefooters get a chance to show off their footing skills.  Sadly, the preview shows all of the best stuff from the DVD.  The video contains several short interviews with the various ladies so we get to find out how they got into barefooting and some other interesting facts about them that relate to barefooting.  None of this is ground breaking, but is entertaining.  The actually barefooting parts of the DVD… well, we see most of those in the trailer and there isn’t much else in the video besides what’s shown in the preview.  Yes, the footing video in the DVD is longer than the preview, but there isn’t much else.  Just reviewing these two portions of the video, it would be OK, but nothing really that great.  There are quite a few barefoot videos on the web (from BFC and KSO and on YouTube) that are just as entertaining and show better barefooting.

Sadly though, there is a 3rd portion of the video I’d like to mention that for me, tips the scales to the point where I’ll recomend passing on this video.  They have a guest visit them on the docks.  Let’s just say this part of the video is what makes them put a warning about the content in the video being inappropriate for kids.  In my opinion, if it had been left out, the DVD would have been much better.  The segment was pointless, not funny (at least to those of us who don’t know the people involved) and completely unrelated to barefooting. The segment would have been more appropriate on a Girls Gone Wild video, but sadly, doesn’t even feature girls going wild, it just features a very hairy guy doing very stupid things.

If you’re looking for a good barefooting DVD, check out the DVD Soul (available at Lake Elmo Sports) or just go watch the videos you can see on BFC or visit KSO’s site.  I think you can safely skip Chicks Rule.

Finally though, good luck to Teri “Larson” Jones, one of the ladies featured in the DVD.  She’s competing at the Barefoot World’s next week in New Zealand.  I’ve footed with her several times and wish her the best of luck next week.

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

A New Holiday Classic

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No, this isn’t water skiing related, but it is a relatively new Christmas. This dates back all the to 2005 when Carson Williams put together this little light show for his neighborhood.  I’m not sure if it was that year or next, but Miller picked it up for their holiday beer advertising.  Then the following year they tried to create their own, but it wasn’t nearly as good as the original.

Without further adoo, here is the original Symphony in Lights featuring the Wizards in Winter by TSO…
Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

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.