2008 Frostbite Figure 8 Recap

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The 2008 Frostbite Figure 8 Tournament was last weekend. I wasn’t able to attend, but based on what I’ve heard, the weather was much better than expected. 45ish, blue skies and just a little wind. Much better than the anticipated weather of snow or rain and clouds. A little more wind than people wanted, but it could have been much worse.

UW-Stout did a good hosting the tournament once again. The results were:

  • 1st Place – Matt Hoeft
  • 2nd Place – Aaron Schoelzel
  • 3rd Place – Nate Birchler

The after parties must have been pretty good based on the drunk dials I received. Over at BFC Aaron Schoelzel posted a good recap with some added comentary from Footstock Dave. For more details of the shanigans from the weekend, go check out the BFC.com story.

Breaking the Seal…

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And now back to our regularly scheduled blog-casting. Water Skiing and Barefooting season is finally back!

Spring is doing everything in it’s power to push the last remnants of winter away. The weather is slowly warming, and with that, the water is slowly warming.

Unfortunately, the weather and my schedule haven’t been very cooperative this spring. The handful of nice days that we’ve previously had, I’ve been busy. The days I’ve had time, well let’s just say the weather has been a bit wintery. Hell, we’ve even had snow coming down on some of those days. Other days, 50 MPH gusts of wind. All great for water skiing… err maybe not.

But the weather and my schedule finally lined up on Monday. 60 or so degrees, sunshine, calm winds. After texting T-Bell and calling Lisa, I had the magic number for skiing.

After work, ran home to quickly get my boat, put some fresh gas in the tank, and headed to the lake. Teri and Lisa arrived and away we went. The lake’s a little high right now and we all felt the need to duck are heads as we went under the railroad bridge into the bay. I don’t think my head would have hit, but it was definitely low enough to make me think twice.

Once in the bay, I finished suiting up. And unlike last year, where I needed some assistance zipping up my suit…

Last year I needed some help…

This year, I zipped it all by myself. I’m a big boy now… or maybe not quite as big of a boy now since I fit in my suit a bit better.

Anyways, onto the skiing!

I took the honors and took the first run of the year behind my boat. I usually do. Ownership has it’s privileges. Somehow on my first run, I managed to be footing and have slack in my rope. That’s a neat trick. The first runs of the year took their toll on me. 2 sets of 2 runs each. No major runs, but it had it’s after affects. My feet were sore the next day, ear aches from the cold water, and arms that felt like jelly. Completely worth it though… I was back on the water.


Slack in the rope?


Smiling!

Next up Lisa dusted off her slalom ski. After letting the waves calm down from the barefoot circles, Douch took her runs back and forth across the bay cutting up the glassy water.

Lisa cutting hard!

Nice wall!

Teri dusted off her dry suit (not that it was really needed that night) and took her footing runs for the night and the first of the year for her as well.

Teri sporting the dry suit look!

In front of the Capitol

As we headed back to the boat launch, the three of us were treated to a great sunset!

Sunset on Lake Monona

After just a couple runs, maybe totaling 2 miles, I’m off to Beaver Dam this weekend for The Best Dam Barefoot Race. 22 miles of something. Last year it was brutal water, but a hell of a party afterwards. This year we’re crossing our fingers hoping for better water. No matter what, it’ll be a lot farther than I went on Monday.

Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

Ice Mite Fight

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I grew up playing hockey, so it holds a special place in my heart. The NHL playoffs are fun to watch, and so is college hockey (I follow the Badgers). Olympic hockey is also a lot of fun to watch.

One thing I’ve never been a fan of is fights in hockey. I just never really saw the point. Once you’re old enough to check, there are so many legal ways to hit someone really hard, why throw your fist into somebody’s helmet. It just doesn’t make sense. So the frequent fights in the normal NHL games are pretty much a turn off for me.

Last time I went to a Badger hockey game, they had some Ice Mites playing hockey between periods. One kid tripped another and I stood up and started heckling the “refs” about missing the call. Another guy stood up and starting yelling it was clean. It became quite the funny scene and then pretty much the whole section started laughing. See Ice Mites are about 5, 6 or 7 years old and most can just kinda ice skate. They don’t know all the intricacies about playing position yet, they just kinda follow the puck. Lots of fun to watch… at least for a few minutes.

This video came to my attention from one of the many sports blogs out there. It shows, what looks like Ice Mites, getting into a fight. Unlike most fights, this one is hilarious. It almost looks like they are on the same team and someone from the other team comes to break up the fight. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud at work when I saw this. Enjoy…

Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

Flying Back Tumble to One

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Hearing that I thought “what the hell is that going to be?”

A slightly better description would be “drag on your stomach, head first in a superman position, then spin on your belly into a back deep position, then stand up one foot only.”

Still confused?  Then just watch the video…

Flying Back Tumble to One

Next on the video play list is video showing the worst possible place to face plant while barefooting…

Not a good spot for a face plant

40+ MPH heading towards a jump, you’d think the guy does everything in his power to not fall.

Finally, for those of us who think we’re good footers, here’s a kid whose probably better than us.  And he’s 5 in the first video, throwing down tumble turns like nothing.

I’m only 5!

Think it’s a fluke?  Here’s Brody a year later…

Are you better than a 6-year old?

Hopefully that drives you to work on your footing skills so you can say you’re better than a 6-year old.

Props to The Rowboat for finding these gems… Personally, I think the guys over there have too much time on there hands.  All they do is search YouTube.

Inappropriate or Hilarious?

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Or both? You decide…

Personally, I think both. I can’t help but laugh at this image, the winner of the latest Woot contest, but also feel bad that I think it’s funny. The image in question is from Woot user toby8195. Prepare to feel bad that you’re laughing so hard…

Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

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.

Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

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

Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

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.

Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

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)