Tag: clean lakes festival barefoot challenge

Double Elimination – JJ Link versus Mike Netzer

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Well, here’s the first video (a Tales from the Foot exclusive) from the 2010 Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge. After some great action shots to start the video, it features the runs it took to determine the Barefoot Challenge champion.

JJ Link versus Mike Netzer - Starting Off

The final pairing of the challenge featured Mike Netzer facing off against JJ Link. Mike Netzer entered the final pairing with one loss already, having come back through the loser’s bracket and was facing off against JJ Link, who hadn’t lost yet. For those that don’t know, that means for Mike Netzer to win the Barefoot Challenge, he needed to beat JJ Link twice. For JJ Link to win, he just had to beat Mike Netzer once.

Yet somehow, they still needed three runs to determine the winner…


Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge – 2010 Finals  

Please excuse the shaky camera in the video. My video editing program actually did a hell of a job making it less shaky (you should have seen it before I processed the video.) The water was rough, the video camera was hand held and I was holding the video camera in my right hand while holding the still camera (that took all the pictures you’ve seen here) with my left, all the while trying my best to keep them both focused on the barefooters, keeping the video camera as steady as possible and taking a steady stream of still pictures in an effort to capture the moment that someone falls. Did I mention I was in a boat that was going 40.5 MPH that was driving in a TIGHT figure-8 pattern. Given the conditions, I think I did pretty well on both accounts. I hope you’ve enjoyed the pictures and like this first video.

Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge – The End of the Runs

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Here are a few pictures of “the end of the runs” from the Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge. The pictures are either from right before the fall, right after the fall, and sometimes, when I happened to push the button on the camera at just the right time, during the fall. Regardless of when they were taken, these pictures all turned out pretty cool.

Bumper disappears in the spray next to Bob Mahnke
Paul Elsen goes upside down as Rob Christensen foots away
Mike Rotar catches a toe in the chop next to Paul Stokes
JJ Link on the left, Luke Bruckner on the right, both hanging on for dear life in the "Corner of Death"
JJ Link on the left, Luke Bruckner on the right - 3 Seconds Later... that'd be a foot sticking up on the right side
Paul Stokes (on the left) feet bounce wake to wake, while Greg Wilkinson sinks in to his knees
Mike Netzer barely outlasts Luke Bruckner

It actually took 3 runs to decide the victor between JJ Link and Mike Netzer. Mike needed to beat JJ twice to win the Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge. During the first run they both fell at the same time, no one in the boat could tell who won (the driver, the two judges/spotters and me juggling both a video camera and a still camera). Even though they said we couldn’t use it to determine the winner, we looked at the video after we all agreed they’d have to re-run the first run. After watching the replay (granted it was on the roughly 2.5 inch LCD view screen) we still couldn’t tell. (BTW, lots of video coming in a few days, including this footage.)

Here are the photo finishes of their second and third runs…

JJ Link is losing it on the left while Mike Netzer holds the inside corner

JJ Links knows he's lost from bouncing on his backside a couple times while Mike Netzer watches

I did my best to identify the people in the pictures based on who I do know and using the results that I know. If I miss identified someone, please let me know [wedge [at] talesfromthefoot.com].

JJ Link vs Luke Bruckner Pictures

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Here are a couple more action shots from the boat at the Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge. These two pictures feature JJ Link on the left versus Luke Bruckner on the right as they both hung on for their dear life in what I came to think of as the corner of death (aka the 2nd half of the figure-8).

While I was there for the final runs, I only saw one pair of barefooters make a complete eight and a second pair that almost made an eight. Pretty much everyone else fell in the rollers in the middle or at some point in the corner of death.

JJ Link vs Luke Bruckner - Hanging on for Dear Life
JJ Link vs Luke Bruckner - JJ Wins

JJ went on to take 2nd in the Barefoot Challenge.

Yes, videos will coming soon. I’m working on finishing another video project first, then I’ll start work on the Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge videos. Watch for them next week.

Let’s Meet Grant Johnson

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Grant Johnson versus Mike Netzer

When 13-year old Grant Johnson arrived at the Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge, he planned to only compete in the Junior Division. Being the only junior there, he ended up competing in the OPEN division and became THE crowd favorite as he let all the footers know that he was there to win!

My google bots tracked down this video interview Grant, who took sixth place (out of 30 footers) at the Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge, beating the likes of Mark Donahue, the 2010 Footstock Champion.

Mike Netzer wins the 2010 Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge

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Mike Netzer beat JJ Link twice to win the 2010 Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge held at Britingham Park in Madison, WI yesterday. This is the second year in a row that Mike has won this figure-8 tournament, joining Paul Stokes as someone who has claimed this championship more than once and keeping them as the only two people to have ever won this tournament.

JJ Link took second, Luke Brukner took third and Paul Stokes took fourth.

I have a ton of pictures and video to share, but that’ll all need to get organized and edited first.

To wet your appetite, here are just a few of the pictures I took yesterday…

57 years young Mike Netzer managed to outlast the tournament surprise 13 year old Grant Johnson
Mike Netzer beating Luke Brukner
In what would be the longest run of the day under the Capitol Dome, Mike Netzer outlasted Paul Stokes.

Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge is this Saturday!

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The preparations are well underway, and the weatherman is predicting incredible weather for this weekend. (Mid-eighties on Saturday, and upper-sixties for the race on Sunday morning)

Monona Bay is free of weeds this year, and MasterCraft Boats will be pulling the event. We are getting confirmations and early registrations from quite a few footers so it looks like it is going to be bigger and better than ever.

Here is a link to most of the info you will need (this includes the Registration form, maps to the location, and misc information):

Here is the agenda:

I will be setting up the course on Friday afternoon. We may have time for a few practice runs if time permits. As there are no weeds to cut the course through, I anticipate that the course setup will go fairly smoothly, so we should have a little time Friday afternoon for some warmup runs.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Meet and Greet at Chasers 7:00 PM. Chasers will be having food and drink specials for the competitors.

SATURDAY MORNING

We will open Registration at 8AM. The official start is 10 AM, but we would like to get started earlier. Registration will close at 9:30 AM. As we are anticipating more participants this year, please print out the registration form from the website and have a check PAYABLE TO : Redline or cash. Day of Race Registration will be $50 Pre-Registration is $45. If you participate in both the Figure 8 and the Race, the fee will stay at $55

**You will also need to be a member of USA WaterSki. We will have forms available, but it would be much easier if you do it online ahead of time.

They no longer offer a $10 Temporary Membership, but they have added a Grass Roots Active Membership for $35 that will work for all of the Figure 8 events (provided they are sanctioned as Grass Root Events, which most are. Please print out your membership card and have that available at registration. The Membership is good for 1 year from the date of registration. (THIS IS MANDATORY FOR INSURANCE PURPOSES – NO ONE WILL BE ALLOWED TO SKI WITHOUT PROOF OF USA WATERSKI MEMBERSHIP)

Here is the link to USA Waterski:

The Figure 8 on Saturday morning will start no later than 10 AM. I’d love to be started at 9:30. We hope to be finished by 5:00PM. At that time, everyone is invited to go over to the Clean Lakes Festival at Olin Park, which is about 1 mile away. There will be a beer tent and food available, as well as live music, and other events.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Rumor has it, there will also be a couple of private parties near Lake Waubesa, the sight of the Sunday Morning Barefoot Race. Details to be announced on Saturday.

SUNDAY MORNING

We will meet at the Beach House, McFarland, WI at 6:30 AM for a 7:00 AM race Boats will be provided, but if anyone has a boat that we can use, please let me know. Depending on how many people can get up that early, we are expecting a good turnout for the race, so we may need an extra boat or two. I’m still waiting on confirmation of getting a boat from the Mad-City Ski Team.

After the race, we will meet back at the Beach House for breakfast. They have awesome walleye and eggs, or omelets with homemade hollandaise sauce.

TIDBITS:

  • Lodging: There are a number of hotels in the area. Several of the local participants have offered up places to stay as well, so call Bob Mahnke or Paul Stokes on Friday if you need lodging.
  • Clean Lakes Cleanup: If anyone is going to be around on Friday afternoon or Saturday Morning, we are going to organize a cleanup of the floating debris along the shore. We want guys in barefoot suits or Clean Lakes T-shirts cleaning up the area. We are going to take a few pictures to show that barefooters like Clean Lakes as well! I’ll have a few rakes and garbage bags on hand.
  • T-shirts: Be sure and buy the inaugural Clean Lakes Barefoot Challenge T-shirt. They are $20, and proceeds will go to the prize money as well as the Figure 8 Barefoot Series. This T-shirt is sure to be a collectors item. Make sure you support our sponsors as well.

Contacts:

  • Bob Mahnke – (608) 695-6673 mobile
  • Paul Stokes – (608) 333-6584 mobile