Tag: Jumping

Adventures in Beaverland (and Lodi)

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

So my posting lately hasn’t been as frequent as it has been all summer… my bad. I had a pretty significant computer issue to recover from and there just hasn’t been as much skiing to talk about lately. Not that I haven’t wanted to go or had the time, but the Madison lakes are still pretty much slow now wake (although they have gone to a 500 foot no wake just recently).

So with the Madison lakes shut down for all practical purposes, I’ve had to resort to road trips for my skiing fixes.

The first road trip was a team road trip. The Mad-City Ski Team did a co-show with the Beaverland Must-Skis on August 26th. Both the Division 1 and Division 2 State Champions skiing together. A rare opportunity to see the best ski teams in the state together. Basically it was just a large exhibition show as we put out some pretty large acts. Our big act that night was soooo big, it needed to be in two acts. I skied in a few acts that night and here are some pictures…


Going out to OP


Opening Pyramid… I’m 3rd from the left, bottom row obviously


Conventional Doubles Start… far right


We are skiing into the sun… that’s why my eyes are closed.


The joy of conventional doubles… so much fun… I’m far left in this shot.


The Front Angel – I’m on the Right
I’m looking at the crowd and all the other guys are looking…
I can understand why 7 is looking straight ahead, but everybody else?


The Mad-City Conventional Doubles Intro…
she didn’t know she was getting picked up on to my shoulder…
worked out anyways.

All pictures in this section are from Jim’s Photos.

The following week, really didn’t get much skiing in. No wake in Madison was still going on… Did manage to get out on Memorial Day weekend, Sunday morning in particular. I headed up to Lodi, Wisconsin to do some skiing on Lake Wisconsin in Okee Bay. I met John, Sandy, Paul & Joey up there and we hit the water about 830 or so in the morning. It was a little breezy and we did get scolded by some of the locals for not waiting are turn (we knew them, so no big deal), but we did have some fun… here are the pictures from this nice last day of summer.


I started off the morning with a footing run…


Sandy decided to cut the water up with her slalom ski…
Here she is throwing a nice wall of water up!


I tried to get a good picture of John driving for Sandy…
This is a good one of Sandy skiing… but I kinda missed part of John


This is a good one of John driving, but the cut in the background isn’t as nice.


Joey busted out her swivel ski.


She’s a good swiveler… here she’s doing an overhead 360 or 720.


And the falls can be fun to watch!


John did some footing too!


I did some some surfing…


Paul on the board.


He’s doing a walk around on the board.


Occasionally, even Paul does fall and here is one caught on film.


John took a turn on the surf board…


John on the board…


Need to keep the nose of the board up…


Sky cam view…


John standing tall!


Another face plant at 9 miles per hour…


Our driver Sandy, alone in the front of the boat because everyone else is ballast…


Joey on the surf board…


…wishing she had the rope.


Joey and Paul


The Whole Crew… Paul, Wedge, Joey, Sandy and John

That night, John, Sandy, T-Bell and myself were up in Beaver Dam for the Must-Skis last show of the season. We were all hoping to ski, but they were only in need of some more male skiers, so John & I suited up. We mainly played the parts of chick haulers, but that’s why we were there. Sandy and T-Bell did a great job opening the show singing the National Anthem. Sandy does a very good job singing the harmony. Here are some pictures Sandy took during the show for me…



Pretty good size group getting ready for conventional doubles…


And the ropes are tight right NOW!


Front Angel…


The Must-Ski Conventional Intro


John hiding behind his Fat-O’s with Chad behind him


The Ending Pyramid that I was in…
the little girl was a new climber and didn’t make it to the top.


The Other Ending Pyramid


My Ending Pyramid Group


The Ending Pyramid Teams


Smooch!

After our cameo appearances in their show, we all raced back to Madison for the Mad-City End of Year Party at Jugsy’s Mansion. Jugsy is the new term for John and Bugsy. The party went late, we all had fun, and nobody was much use on Monday.

There was still high water in Madison so my boat stayed in the garage. I headed back up to Beaver Dam on the 5th with Paul. We wanted to jump and their jumpers wanted some tips from Paul. Their jumpers didn’t want any tips from me.

Paul went out with one of their newer members whose been working on an inverted trick for a while. Paul gave him some feedback on what to work on with the trick and made a lot of progress that night, but didn’t land the trick. He did make the very next day.

Meanwhile, I hit their ramp. This is the first ramp I’ve gone off that wasn’t a Mad-City ramp. I had heard it was a bit slicker than our ramp so I wanted do a ride over before I try out a heli. Here’s the first time off the ramp…

Next I tried some helis… didn’t make much progress on my helis, but it was fun. Enjoy the crashes…

That was it for the night up in Beaverland. Afterwards we headed to Morrey’s for some pizza and beer and talked shop, ski team shop. Generally had a good time.

I went up there again on the 12th for some more jumping. Tried some more helis, took some more falls… some not so nice. Here’s my first fall of the night… I land backwards.

What I was really working on while trying these it I use to go up the ramp with my hand that was on the braid literally gripping the rope. This can cause the spin to be slow, especially if there is slack between the hand on the braid and the hand on the handle. To correct that, I’ve been working on just holding my hand next to the rope to keep me from spinning so instead of needing to let go of the rope to start my spin, I now just move my hand away from the rope. I was doing good at this part, but I was doing this way too late. So even if I was spinning quicker, I was starting latter again which was negating any increase in my spin speed. I was also working on turning my head to the left to help initiate the spin. I don’t think I was doing this.

So I have a few things to thing about for next time… First, I need to spin sooner. I need to start on the ramp. Next, I need to turn my head to the left to help initiate the spin. Third, I need to pop as I leave the ramp (during my initiation of the spin).

Watching all the heli videos, I can see another thing that is probably contributing to my many falls. As I spin, my hand holding the handle comes away from my body when I get about 2/3rds of the way around. When it comes away, that will slow my spin, much like when you are sitting on a chair and spinning, if your hands are in you spin fast, put them out, you slow down. This same bit of physics is affecting me in my helis… I’d spin good and then my hand would come out and my spin would slow and I get pulled off access resulting in the many falls you’ve hopefully enjoyed watching…

After getting beat up by the ramp, a group of us headed up to a bar called Cocktails… it has a rooster on the sign. We had some drinks, talked, laughed and had a good time. At the end of the night, Ma & Pa Bell figured out they are locked out their vehicle. They have On-Star, but the vehicle account number is covered by a real estate flier. So I ended up driving them home.

I went back up there the next day, not for jumping, but to do some chick hauling. Did some pyramids and conventional doubles and then we hit Cocktails again. Had a lot of fun as they admitted that they are recruiting me hard to ski with them next year… I’m just visiting though, getting my skiing fix in.

To sum everything up… not enough skiing, a trip to Lodi, lots of trips to Beaver Dam, lots of fun skiing and many helicopter falls. Not nearly enough footing either!

For full quality versions of the pictures, you can get them at the links below.

Links:
Jim’s Photos – Beaverland Must-Ski Co-Show Album
Mad-City Co-Show
Skiing in Lodi
Skiing with the Must-Skis Again

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

Been Hitting the Ramp…

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

I’ve been hitting the ramp pretty hard the last couple weeks. Pretty much going every time I get a chance. I’ve been trying heli after heli after heli…

Earlier this week, I had my best heli attempt so far. Typically, I start spinning as I go off the ramp and the whole time I’m in the air I’m thinking to myself “make it all the way around, make it all the way around…” Well on Tuesday, on my first attempt of the night I hit the ramp, start my rotation and manage to get all the way around and see the boat. And then it hits me, I should grab the handle with my free hand. That’s the first time that thought has had a chance to even occur during one of my heli attempts. I usually don’t even get that far. I reach for the handle with my right hand and find it. Then my ass hits the water because I’m not over my skis enough and fall. I was still pumped though. It was the first time I had gotten all the way around and thought to put my hand back on the handle and did put my hand on the handle. Here’s the video…

Here’s one of my more typically heli attempts as of late… only rotate about 330 degrees and take some sort of rib shot…

One of the comments I heard that should help me out is I’m gripping the braid too much. Need to have a light touch so my rotation starts quicker. Also need to just turn my head to the left to help initiate the spin as well. Both should help me get around quicker.

Meanwhile, Bugsy has also been beating himself up as he works on flips… front flips to be exact. Here’s the footage of his four front flip attempts from this week…

When Paul watched these, the one comment he had for Bugsy was that he needs to stay tucked to finish the rotation. He’s coming un-tucked and that stops the rotation which provides spectacular falls for the spectators… something we appreciate, but something he’ll want to correct if he has dreams off skiing away from one of these.

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

Did I Just Try A Mobius?

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Jumping Definitions:
Helicopter – Rotating 360 degrees around as you leave the ramp
Gainer – A back flip of the ramp
Front – A front flip
Mobius – Basically doing a helicopter and gainer at the same time

Tonight, I hit the ramp again. Been resting my ribs and sore ankle as I waited for some calm water. Would have gone last night, but it was rough. Tonight, very calm water. Excellent conditions to try some more helis.

Well, I approached the ramp with all intentions of doing a heli. But that is not what it looks like. Take a gander for yourself:

As I said, doing what looks like I tried to do a mobius was not my intent. Watching the video, I was back on my heals and that caused my feet to just go out from me and start my backwards rotation, or the gainer motion that is video. Then I let go of the rope to start the heli and that’s when it became what looks like a mobius. Granted I ate it, but it still looks cool. Too bad the video is blurry (not sure why, the others turned out OK.)

Turns out if I pulled in on the rope and brought my knees around, I may have had a chance to land it.

For those that are curious, there were no injuries sustained in this jump. Managed to realize I was about to eat it and managed to almost dive into the water with my skis and braced myself for the impact.

Took two more ride overs after this one, still landing back on my heals and tweaked my ankle again. It’ll be sore for a couple days again.

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

More Helis… My Head Won Out Over My Body

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Yes, don’t take the heading out of context… I know some of you have your heads in the gutter, lets just not go there.

Tonight, arriving at practice with warm weather, northwest winds and my ribs feeling about as good as they’ve felt lately, I decided to do some more helis even though I have some tender ribs. I did wear a life vest over my wetsuit for extra rib protection. So instead of resting my ribs a few more days, I hit the ramp.

As you can see, I manage to get all the way around, and unlike my earlier attempts, instead of reaching with my left foot to finish the rotation, my left foot completes the spin just fine, but my right leg gets lazy and doesn’t follow. Basically I need to keep my feet together, it’ll definately increase my odds of skiing away. I didn’t need the extra padding tonight, but I did tweak my ankle a little bit, but it’ll be fine tomorrow.

I have come a long way since my first heli attempt on July 9th, seventeen attempts ago.

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

My Ribs are Staging a Revolt

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

As I’ve mentioned before, I did some helis on the Thursday morning of State with the last one causing my ribs more than just a little pain. I didn’t stop doing helis then. I’ve been persistent on trying them again. I tried them again last Tuesday on the 24th. Only did one though as it ended in a painful fall that my ribs did not care for. For your enjoyment, here’s the video…

That also didn’t stop me… it just slowed me down. I did some more skiing since then, but finally took a couple more trips over the ramp tonight. First one was close again, just need to work on my landing. This video also shows the beautiful technique I use to wrap the rope.

This was my second and final attempt on the 30th. Didn’t finish my rotation, landed sideways and my ribs decided to stage a revolt. This one just doesn’t look good. It is bad from the beginning.

As I just mentioned, I did do some skiing this past weekend. The water was rough by the ramp, so I didn’t do any jumping. Here’s a few pictures from the skiing on Saturday…

Some footing in the bay… so calm. Bay has opened up enough where we can do laps again.


Ronée did some swivel toe turns…

Scotty wowed us with his mad Sky Ski Skillz

Ronée also did some Wake Surfing

I did some surfing too… still need the rope way too much

Here are the 2 successful surfers… Ronée and Myself in case you didn’t know

Here’s Scott trying out the swivel ski… love the fact that he’s wearing a helmet!
The Mad-City Swivelers have nothing to worry about!

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

State Tournament Weekend Recap

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Probably the funnest weekend year has come and gone…

It started early Thursday morning with a quick ski set on the water with T-Bell and Imhof. I hit the ramp working on my heli’s and it probably would have been better if I hadn’t. Three heli attempts, 3 falls, each one worse than the one before. Main problem was rotating only 3/4 of the way around. That dramatically increases the difficulty of skiing away when you land on your side. Last landing really hurt too! Still feeling today. Here’s are the videos… enjoy my agony!

First fall of the morning… this one just looks painful!

Second fall of the morning… this one stung!

Third and final fall of the morning… this one hurt.

After putting the boat away and eating lunch, I crammed my car full of stuff as I packed for the long weekend and then headed up to Rapids… Took me longer to pack than I expected and I arrived just a little bit latter than I wanted to. As I opened the car door, I heard the beginning of Joey’s swivel song so I hauled ass to the beach to catch her routine. Then I sat through a lot of other swivel ski routines. As they were finishing up, I stopped by to see what the jump team was planning on doing and that is when I was asked what their music was going to be. I was dumbfounded… I’ve never been involved in team jump before. We had a quick discussion and we settled on the song On the Edge by Dee. Problem was, it was an MP3 on my computer, only 3 minutes long and there were on the water in minutes.

I ran up to my car, popped the trunk, flipped on the laptop and started working my magic. 5 minutes later I had a 6 minute version of the song and it was being written to a CD. As I shut down the laptop, I heard the beginning of Ann’s swivel song and once again hauled ass to go watch her ski before I handed the CD to the sound guy.

Then I did the photos for team jump and based on what I’ve heard back so far, I took some good ones. After a little time in the beer tent, we headed to our respective hotels or cottages to get settled. I checked in, unloaded my stuff and then made my way to Lake Sherwood Lodge for a nightcap.

After enjoying a very good pizza and a Stella Artois beer with some friends, others began to arrive… and more and more drinking was done. Here are some pictures from the evening…


We are all much happier after our pizza… [Wedge, Bugsy, Joey and Paul]


This is after a couple more drinks for everyone… [Kirk, Kristen, Wedge and Nick]

You can find more pictures from Thursday night in this album.

I headed back to the hotel late, wnating to wake up early to catch some ski shows, but was just too tired and too sore so I slept in. I did make it down to the Beaver Dam show and was very impressed with it. I also took a ton of pictures of it which you can find here. Yes, they one D2, found their holy grail and are now a proud member of D1.

After the Must-Skis show I headed back to the hotel to wash up quickly and then we headed to the Heilman Cottage for the team meeting and something I’ve been waiting for all summer… the delicious turkey sandwiches. I managed to limit myself to 5 of them this year. After eating, we practiced intros, danced, did the fills and then headed back to the hotel… show time was quickly coming.

Morning came early… left the hotel a little before 7 and headed to the ski site… quick meeting, then I wondered… more dance and skit practices and then I wondered… ate some breakfast and then I wondered… just couldn’t sit still. Finally, show time was arriving so I grabbed my trusty laptop and headed to the sound area. After a quick setup and mike test, I cranked up the volume to 11 and started the pre-show dances. First up the guys and then the ladies.


Adam and Matt’s Preshow Dance


The Ladies’ Preshow Dance… much nicer to look at

Then it was show time… Things didn’t go as well as we wanted, but we still skied a good show and the show portion wasn’t matched by anyone that I saw. Backfoot line had some falls, OP made it up, but had some falls coming back to the beach, montage had falls (but both Bells stood up for the first time at the same time), one act show was money and girls ballet rocked as well. Jump 1 had some falls, star swivel was great. Big act also had some falls and then the jumpers nailed Jump 2. Ending pyramid made it up, slowly, and then had some falls on the way down. One man jump wasn’t all we hoped and big ballet blew up. Crowd was on their feet after the SNL and Evolution of Dance 2 fills. Here are some pics from the show, courtesy of Jim’s Photos.


Show Time!


Back foot line!


Opening Pyramid!


Adam and Matt


The Bell Fliers!


T-Bell pointing to the crowd!


Paul on the Wakeboard


One Act Show!!!
Shoe Skier, 4 High Pyramid, Doubles and a Pin Wheel!


Doing their thing!


Best Ballet in the State!


Adam the Parrot and Matt the Pirate


Super Sized Pin Wheel!


Adam and his hot friend Taryn


Triple Fours for the Ending Pyramid!


Catching the rope with the ski on the second 720 attempt…
Notice one foot point one way and the other the other… not good!


Guys Ballet


The Hot Pick!


The Crowd!

After the show was over, I stuck around and watched the Aqua Skiers (click here for their web album) and Badgerland (click for their web album) shows. Then after a little beer tent time, it was off to get some dinner and wash up for the annual bus tour around Rapids.

I enjoyed some quality Little Ceaser’s and then watch a little TV. About 915 I get a frantic call form T-Bell… when is the bus coming? how do I get there? will I have time to change? I managed to talk her through driving into Rapids to the hotel. She arrives as the bus does and opts to follow it to the first bar so, like any good water skiers, she can change out of the back of her car and then come to the bar. As usually, the bars were a blast. We started at Johnny’s and then headed to Gooses. Here are a couple picks from the night…



T-Bell and I


Sandy and I


Sandy and T-Bell


Kristen and I


Holly and I


Joey and I with my trusty Margarita on the Rocks…


Laura and I… surprisingly it took 3 attempts for this picture… I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Saturday night ended way too late and Sunday morning came way too early… After going to bed at 3am, I woke up at 630am to try to reclaim my humanity and then head to the ski site to catch the RAJ show (pictures of that coming soon). Arrived with some time to kill so I ate breakfast but was very disappointed that they had run out of milk to go with the pancakes.. I guess the disappointment was evident in my face as my pancakes were discounted because of the lack of milk.

Watched the RAJ show. As usually, they have good skiing, but like our show, too many falls here and there throughout the show… didn’t really bring either pyramid through the show course completely (opener a 5-high but ended up being a big 4-high, closers lost a pyramid). Jump acts had a scattering of falls as well. The whole show just seemed flat to me. No real energy to it.

The RAJ Opening Barefoot Pyramids

My initial comparison between our show and theirs… skied about the same, but we had the better show for entertaining the audience throughout the entire show. I took a few pictures of their show and you can find them here.

Then it was the long wait till awards… watched a few shows on off, but was really just to anxious to find out what happened.

Finally, the awards arrived. First off, congrats to the Beaverland Must-Skis on their repeat as D2 Champions. Welcome to D1. The show you skied would probably put you near the top 5 in my opinion.

As you’ve heard by now, Mad-City took 1st and also won best ballet, best jump act, best boat drivers, best female skier (Kristen Heilman) and best audio. It was a hard couple weeks before state, but it paid off. Now on to Nationals!

Matt, Adam and I… Best Audio Presentation!

After the awards we reconvened at the Lake Sherwood Lodge again. More pizza, more beers and many good times.. Poof pants, One Act ‘fo Show, watching the video, chaffing, cheese curd discussions and what they look like when they leave the body… fun in the little blue rooms, or green rooms as they were this weekend. I laughed for a long time that night before finally heading home at 1215am. Called Sandy at 2 to let her know I made it home safe and talked to a very drunk person who was laughing her ass off too. Unpacked, slept and slept some more…

Links to Web Albums mentioned…
Thursday at State
Beaverland Must-Ski Show
Mad-City Ski Team Show [Jim’s Photos Pictures]
Badgerland Ski Show
Wisconsin Rapids Aqua Skiers Show
The Bus Trip
Janesville Rock Aqua Jays Show
Awards

Watch for updates to this post… I have more pictures to post from ski shows and I likely forgot something that I wanted to include. I’ll put a comment down here indicating when I update it.

[Updated 1046pm on 7/25 – Added albums for Aqua Skiers and RAJ, Added RAJ Barefoot Pyramid Picture]

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

You Spin Me Right Round Baby, Right Round… Heli Attempts Part IV

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Tonight I hit the ramp again for some helis… there seems to be a pattern goin’ here. I’m now consistently getting all the way around, just need to get my landing down.

First heli, not my best of the night, but made it around. 2nd heli was money… last Friday I had a heli attempt that Paul that I could ski away from, I was rather doubtful about it, but it had been my best attempt so far. This heli, I should’ve skied away from. So close… 3rd one was more like the first. Last jump was just a ride over and I had a little too much love from the driver on the landing… just kept slowing down when after the initial bit of love, I needed some speed.

Anyways, the video clips from the the nights ramp action… Check them out below…

My second attempt of the night was soooo close. I so want to ski away from a heli soon. Need to resist the landing and find the handle. I have the spin down and I’m keeping my feet pretty close together. Gettin’ there.

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

Learning How to Heli, Part III

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Did some more heli’s before our practice tonight and I think I’m finally comfortable throwing them… before it was a thousand things going through my head as I approached the ramp. Now I’m actually thinking about the trick. Making it around pretty consistently now, but if you watch the videos below, my feet come apart on the last 90 degrees of the rotation and that causes my landing to go to crap. Here’s the footage…

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

My Adventures in Helicopters, Part Duex

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Hit the lake after work tonight (with Joey, Paul, Ronée and Scott) and did another jump set…

Jump number was a planned ride over… lets just say I landed… on my back. Went off on my heals and it was a complete yard sale on the landing. Wish I had this one on video.. it would have been good.

Jump number two was suppose to be heli attempt number one. Well, I was still working on getting the wrap done as we approached the ramp and it finally got to the point where I wasn’t going to be wrapped so I just did a ride over. Nothing special, but I did have the feeling that I hate where it feels like I’m going to go out the front, which is in reality good, because then I’m over my skis. Anyways, landed it and received a standing O from the crowd on the Betty Lou that was going by.

Jump number three was my first heli attempt of the night, and third overall. I made it 270 degrees around and had an ugly fall from the boat’s perspective. Nothing bad from mine. It seems that I’m starting the heli way late. Need to initiate it just before I leave the ramp, not eight feet later. Here’s the video…

Jump number four, heli attempt number two. Hit the ramp, initiated the spin at the very top of the ramp (still late, but earlier than before)… started spinning and saw the ramp and then I saw the boat again. Yes, I had finally spun 360 degrees. Had a landing I could have skied away from (according to Paul – skis flat, but they were in front of me), but didn’t. So close. Never been so happy after a fall. Instead of coming up with just a wave that I was OK, I came up with both fists pumped in the air.

I try to limit myself to 4 jumps (5 if I’m skiing away) per set so I called it after that one. Don’t like to get too tired and then injure myself. I had taken 3 pretty good falls.

Ended the night with a little wake surfing. I need more weight in the boat to make a bigger wave. Joey swiveled, Paul instructed, Ronée did some toe turns and Scott acted as our third after J &P left for v-ball. Fun night all around.

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

Now Showing on Picasa…. some water skiing videos

Posted in bfooter.com2 Comments

I now have a camera that can take relatively decent videos so I’ve been making good use of it the last few days… here are some videos of some jumping and barefooting featuring John, T-Bell & myself. There are some good wipeouts on some of them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

[Update 7/11/07 @ 215pm] Some of the videos have been moved onto Google Video… I’ve been using that instead of Picasa to hold videos. Still working on my master plan for storing videos both on my computer and on the web.. Questions… let me know. -W

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