Woke up at 530, hit the water at 630 with Sandy and Joey. Good way to start the day. Managed to accomplish a goal I mentioned a couple days ago… Stood up in the right curl, did a one foot on my left foot, crossed the wake to the left curl and then did a one foot on my right foot. More news later, and maybe some pictures too. (Not sure what’s on my camera at this point.)
What’s a two-a-day you ask? Well, basically it means I’ll be skiing in the morning and then skiing after work. Mainly, I’ll get a lot of skiing in. When you’re trying out for a team, or going to training camp for football, two-a-days suck. Personally, I love mine. Details and photos later…
So Monday I was out skiing (I know, big surprise). For my sets, we ducked into the bay because I wanted to do some footin (another surprise) and didn’t want to deal with Wally World out on the main lake.
Now I’ve written about the bay before and as you may now know, it is full of weeds. Now, mid summer, it kinda looks like a large field. Luckily, their is a nice path across the diagonal of the bay that is ski-able. The weeds do have two good qualities. One, they keep everyone else out of the bay. No one else wants to ski in there. Two, no waves. Damn near glass calm.
The weeds are so nasty now that in order to really good a good footin’ run in, we need a quick way to stop at the end of the run. Enter the power turn. Boat is going 40+ MPH and basically washes out to come to a stop. They are fun to drive and fun to ride in the boat while they are occurring. I’ve decided it is also fun to foot while they are doing it.
First off, you get an ever so slightly longer run. An extra 75 to 100 yards. Don’t need to leave space for the boat to decelerate.
Next, as the boat spins out, I just dropped to my butt and slid. This, too, is fun.
Third, I never even had to let go of the rope. I’m sliding, handle in hand.
Lastly, the boat is now turned to go back the way we just came, I have the handle ready, rope comes tight, we take off. Elapsed time from my slide ending to being ready to go, 30 to 40 seconds I’m guessing (I’ll need to actually time this).
Do this six times quickly and you become very tired. 6 deeps, 6 runs, 6 slides. Lots of fun and makes for a quick set. Then did it again about an hour later. Only 4 the second time (also did a slalom set in between the foot sets).
While doing this, I even nailed some one foots on my “goofy” foot. Next goal, do a one foot on both feet in the same run. Easy one would say, but to do this the way I want to, I’ll need to cross the wake and my boat has, what I affectionately call, the bubbles of death. They’re nasty.
Another goal to start working on, tumbles. I’ll need to throw on the boom to work on those.
I’ll try to get some pics of the power turn and slides. The photographer will really need to hold onto the camera though.
Some final observations… Footing with a weed stuck between your toes feels a little funny… Doing a deep, feeling a pile of weeds form under your feet and then having that pile go splat into your face as your still doing the deep equals not fun. Still made it though… Doing one foots and feeling your pinky toe catch in the water and not falling because you caught a toe makes for interesting one foots.
Warm Up. So here goes. The concert last night at Marcus Amphitheatre in Milwaukee for Summerfest was probably one of the best double features of two top notch bands/performers one can see. Pearl Jam is one of my favorite, if not favorite band, of all time. And Petty is just a classic performer, he has so many hits and has been around for so long, it is just one performer that one should see. The concert pictures below were taken with the very fine camera contained in my cell phone. Don’t bitch about the quality. Now on to last nights show…
There’s the ticket. Row Y, which surprisingly isn’t the 25th row. Closer to the 20th actually. Section one was stage left. I would have liked more towards the center, but these are still pretty damn good seats. Here’s the seating chart so you can be the judge.
The show was billed as two headliners, but that obviously wasn’t the case. After watching both performances, one could easily see that it was Petty’s setup. They made use of the video screens and much better use of the lights.
Pearl Jam opened. Set list was very good but I thought missed at least one significant staple and that was Betterman (looked and it was played the night before). Based on what I heard, there was very little overlap with the previous night’s set list. I had also heard the sound quality for Thursdays show was horrible (this was probably due to the power outage and not being able to do a proper sound check). I thought the sound was in the good to very good range for Pearl Jam’s portion of the show. Some of their faster/louder songs could have used a touch more volume to the vocals, but on a whole, it was well done (I’ve heard much worse). I would have really like to have heard 25 Minutes to Go (Johnny Cash cover that they’ve done in the past) and Crazy Mary (also played the previous night), but they did a very good mix of old, new, popular and some of the lesser know material. I liked the new arrangement of Insignificance that they did and can’t wait to here it again to really compare it to their normal arrangement. That song is favorite of mine. My only complaint about the Pearl Jam portion of the show… their set was too short. They played about 90 minutes. If the show had started at 730 as advertised, it would have been a two hour set instead of 90 minutes. That is the only thing that pissed me off.
Pearl Jam has just taken the stage.
Another shot of Pearl Jam on stage.
Here’s a shot of the crowd. 23 thousand strong!
One more shot of Pearl Jam. A bit more happening with the lights. Also the guy weTom Petty. Petty’s portion (that’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for those who don’t know) was a very good show. Sound was about as good as one can get at a concert. It was dead on. Not something I would go see, but I was glad that I did. The guy has been churning out hits forever and he played them all. I didn’t recognize a cover they did and their new song, but everything else he played was a classic. He’s been doing this forever and he knows how to do it. I did get tired of him saying “Thank you” to the crowd after every song and I have to wonder how he can sing so well when his voice is just so awful. The set list contained everything I thought it would ,and from the sound of it, was nearly identical to the previous nights show. Eddie Vedder joined them on stage for a couple songs, including the closer, American Girl. Vedder did a great job on both songs he helped with.
Petty on the stage. More lights. Video screens, etc.
Vedder singing with Petty and the Heartbreakers. On the video screen.All in all, one hell of show. As I mentioned before, my only complaint was Pearl Jam didn’t play long enough. It would have been nice if they had made use of the video screen, but my seats were close enough that I didn’t care too much that they didn’t.
Random Thoughts. Now for some miscellaneous notes about the concert and the rest of the day…
Day started off great. Woke up after 3 hours of sleep and went skiing with John, Sandy, Ronee and Jonas. Perfect weather, perfect company, lots of skiing. Only thing wrong with the skiing portion of the day was I had to call it about 1230 so I could head to home to get my back fixed and then head to the concert. I could have spent the whole day on the lake easy. Would have like to as well.
Why the 3 hours of sleep? After practice the night before, the older members of the ski team stuck around, had some beers, went to the Memorial Union, had some more beers, went to BW3s and ate. Good times were had by all. I found out the union carries Stella Artois (which is a beer I love- ask me about my first experience with it, it is a good story).
Bell girls. There most be something about my boat, the Bell girls, and nearly losing some water skiing equipment. I had the issue with my wet suit falling off the boat into the lake. Well Sandy left her barefoot suit and shorts on my swim platform and I was on the ramp to the interstate when she called. “My suit and shorts are still on your swim platform, I hope.” I pulled over once on the interstate, checked, and luckily, they still were on the swim platform, barely.
Beer Man. To the guy that walked buy me carrying many beers several times… When I jokingly said “it’ll cost you one beer to get by,” thank you for the beer. It hit the spot.
Orton? The group of people seated directly around me pretty much came to the consensus that Kyle Orton (the Chicago Bears quarterback, formerly of Purdue and thorn in the side of the Badgers) was sitting five rows in front of us in Petty tour t-shirt. He really got into Pearl Jam, spilling $5 beers all over himself. I saw him tip one beer up to drink it and the cup wasn’t even on his mouth. Needless to say, he missed. He pretty much passed out during the change from PJ to Petty. And I mean passed out. He was dead to the world. When Petty did take the stage, he started to move after about a song or so and started pouring more beers down his shirt again. In the picture to the right, we believe the guy just to the left and several rows in front of the guy in white shirt on the right side of the picture is Kyle. Tough to tell with this photo, but he looked like he was passed out.
Ten Clubers. To the couple sitting to my left, I doubt you’ll ever read this, but I still think I recognized the girl from somewhere. The face, the body, the voice, all seemed way too familiar. After talking, it is doubtful we’ve ever met because they are from ‘burb down by Chicago, hasn’t spent much time in Madison other than a visit or two and didn’t go to UW-Whitewater, but they had also been to the Alpine Valley shows in 97, 01 and 03 just like me. And like me, the joined the fan club in 97 after getting lawn seats to the show.
3rd Best Pizza. Pre-concert, we stopped at a bar near by buddy Al’s house called Rookies something or other. As I walked in, I heard the bartender mention “we have the 3rd best pizza in Milwaukee”. I had it. I’m pretty sure I could walk around downtown Milwaukee and find 3 better pizza’s easy. Nothing to write home about. Basic bar pizza in my opinion. Not great, not bad, just bar pizza. It did have a couple really spicy spots. I know my pizza is better than it, but it isn’t in Milwaukee.
Al. For my buddy Al, I’m still waiting for your comments about this show and how it compared to Thursday’s.
dr_r0ck. For Al’s buddy dr_r0ck that feels that the Marcus is horrible venue for concerts… basically a large venue for concerts that is acoustically good doesn’t exist. Once you get past a couple thousand seats in a legitimate theatre (where plays, musicals, opera and orchestra are performed) the acoustics go to crap. They don’t build arenas with the acoustics in mind, unless they are thinking about how they can make the crowd noise louder for basketball or hockey. The amphitheatre design used at the Marcus (23,000 fans) and at Alpine (36,000 fans) is actually one of the better setups for acoustics for a large crowd. Much better than a basketball arena for football stadium. Basically it comes down to the sound engineer that travels with the tour to figure out how to make the sound actually sound good in each venue. Some of these guys are good and some are not. From my experience, most are not. The sound engineer mixes the concert and sets the volume levels. He can make (Green Day, Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Elton John, Billy Joel & DMB) or break (Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill) a concert. Don’t blame the venue, blame the sound engineer. You can read more of an old rant about bad concert mixes here.
Today I finally accomplished a barefoot trick I’ve been working on for a while now. Nothing major, but it is something I wanted to get done. I’ve been doing one-foots for a while now where I lift up my right foot. And I’ve been doing them pretty successfully and easily, conditions permitting. I’ve been working on lifting my left foot up since the beginning of summer and just haven’t been able to bring myself to lift it off the water. I shift all my weight onto my right foot, but when I tell my muscles to lift that foot, they don’t respond.
I couple weeks ago while skiing with Dale, I borrowed his barefoot trainers and tried a few one-foots lifting the left foot they worked out OK, but when I tried them on my feet again, it just wasn’t happening.
Today, it finally did. Skiing by the weeds off Olin Point on Lake Monona I finally got over the mental block and lifted my left foot of the water. Wasn’t comfortable, but was a definite solid one-foot. 20 minutes in the bay I replicated it and felt a lot more comfortable doing it too. Next, one foots on the wrong side of the wake (lift the left foot when in the right curl and lift the right foot in the left curl).
I put some pictures up below showing me doing both variations of the one foot, left and right.
This is the foot I’ve been good at for a while, lifting my right foot. Looks pretty good right in front the Madison sky line. To bad my camera sucks, otherwise this would have been a great picture.
Now we’re in Monona Bay (still lots of weeds in here) and this is a good shot of a one-foot on my normal foot again. We’re making use of a narrow path that cuts through the weeds across the middle of the bay that is about 30 feet wide, maybe.
Still in the bay amongst the weeds, but here is a good picture of me doing a goofy one foot, lifting my left foot, and actually feeling comfortable doing it. In my opinion I’m also on the wrong side of the wake (I really like the driver side curl), but that is another habit I need to break.
Spray in the sun!
Having watched lots of people do lots of figure eights a couple days before, my buddies and I were inspired to try some of our own. I had a tough time making through the first half of the eight, but was holding my position well until the driver realized he needed to tighten up the corner a little or he’d be too close to shore. When he tightened the turn, my cut was no longer enough to hold my spot and I was whipped through the bubbles.
I’ve posted some action photos that show me holding, holding, whipped… enjoy…
Photo 1: Starting the corner
Photo 2: Holding my spot in the corner
Photo 3: Whipped through the bubbles
As you can see in the last two photos, there is a definate difference the in radius shown by the bubbles. In photo 3 the bubbles are a lot tighter than photo 2. Needless to say, I’ll keep working on it, just need to find a better driver. Until then, I’ll blame the driver (just like any good skier does!)
Last weekend the 2nd Annual Mad-City Dual took place in Monona Bay. It was a successful tournament that ended up with a competition between Bob Manhke and Paul Stokes for the championship and Paul ended up winning.
As I mentioned before, there are a lot of weeds in the bay area. I’ve attached a few pics of the final figure eight and you can see the weeds are evident everywhere.
Notice the weed cutter sitting idle in the background
This weekend the second annual Mad-City Dual takes place in Monona Bay at Brittingham Park (visible on the north portion of this map – also notice the weeds). Now what makes this interesting is currently, Monona Bay is chuck full of weeds. It looks like a field, not a body of water (to the right is a picture of the bay), and they plan on having a barefoot figure eight tournament in there?
Simple put, there is some work to be done. The weed cutters are all poised to go to work in there, but still, there is a lot of work to do. Nearly the entire bay is overgrown with weeds. Just a couple weeks ago, back on Memorial Day, I managed to sneak a run in there, but even then, we had to pick the boat path carefully.
In Monona Bay they’ve placed these things called Solarbees that are suppose to reduce the amount of weeds and algae. Based on what I’ve seen, they aren’t helping to control the weeds. Most of the ‘bees are surrounded by weeds. The county has also received a $100,000 grant to protect the lakes and streams. I’m hoping they spend the money wisely.
I do hope this tournament is successful. And that the water cleanup is successful. It would be nice to be able to go skiing in Monona Bay in July and not have to imagine that you’re a swamp monster. The water is nice and clear in April and the beginning of May, why can’t it be clear in June, July, August and September?
Tonight at ski team practice, besides the typical chick-hauling that occurs when we do pyramids, we actually had, for us at least, what we’d call glass calm water. Now it wasn’t actually glass, but close enough for us. At the end of practice, some us decided to do some braced barefoot step-offs in anticipation of someday basing a barefoot pyramid.
The first time I ended up being the odd man out in the set and just practiced a barefoot step off in the bubbles behind the twin rig. Made the step off, but the bubbles were not fun. But getting the practice step in calmed my fears of trying this out.
Second set, I’m up. I have my foot planted and I’m waiting for the guy next to me step off since he had planned on stepping first. Well, the speed my have been just a touch slow, and boom, face plant. We gather ourselves and take another shot at it. This time the speed was probably a little hot. We get the driver to back off a bit. My partner never really gets comfortable enough with his plant and yells to me, “You comfortable?”
At that point I decide to step.
Then I step.
Without missing a beat, I answer back “Yea.”
By this time we had progressed past the calm area and were now getting in the slightly rougher stuff. I’m now trying to brace him and help him hold his spot as I keep my spot on the curl. Finally, exhausted, I call it before I hurt myself.
Best part, I made my step while braced. Something I hadn’t done before.
On an unrelated note, our twin rig is delivering some super smooth pulls of the dock… Now if it only had a speedo…
One last note… Driving to practice, rain. Leaving practice, rain. I’m getting tired of dodging raindrops all the time.
Did my first two-a-day of the year today. Took a good long ski set at lunch and then did some more skiing that night. Lunch we had great water. Nailed a nice long one foot across the bay. At night, the wind had shifted and increases a lot, and basically sucked. Still good to get a couple more runs in though. Now I’m beat.
Mad-City Wedge 
