Tag: netzer

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].

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.