A ways back, Slalom Magaine… I mean WaterSki Magazine went up to Footstock, wrote a nice little article and even created a video that they posted on their website. I know I linked to that video when it came out, but now it has found its way on to YouTube… so here it is.
Tag: press
Worlds & Nats
The main reason for a new post is my google alerts found a nice article on the Heller girls. They recently competed at the World Games in Taiwan and did very well with Elaine taking the gold and Shannon the bronze. Quite an accomplishment for two sisters. They also competed at the US Nationals a couple weeks later taking gold and silver. (article) One thing that helped a lot is Elaine is now using the inverted jumping style and is currently the only woman using that type of jump. Basically, you fly through the air like superman (or woman) and fly a hell of a lot farther.
I can’t find a source to back this up, but I remember seeing a USA Water Ski post go through my RSS reader about Keith St. Onge winning gold at Worlds and I know he also won gold at Nationals as well as set a pending trick record. (article)
Here’s a link with all of the Nationals results.
Finally… a little teaser. Keep an eye on here for a pretty sweat barefoot video (or two) coming soon. Camera work kinda sucks and the view point isn’t that great, but the trick is more than kick ass and makes up for the poor camera work and bad perspective.
Spring 2009 Wisconsin WaterSkier
The new issue of the Wisconsin WaterSkier showed up in my mailbox today. Flipping through the Official Publication of the Wisconsin Water Skiing Federation I was pleasently surprised to find several articles by barefooters for barefooters in it. Typically you’re lucky to find one article about barefooting in a water skiing magazine.
The issue is primarily focus on the details of the Wisconsin Water Skiing Expo and Convention (previously called Think Tank) with details on all of the various sessions available. But towards the back of the book there are three good barefooting articles.
The first barefooting article is by Jamie Kunlien. He recently just competed at Worlds in New Zealand and in the summer is a member of the Janesville Rock Aqua Jays (a show ski team in Wisconsin). His article went through many good things to think about when going to a barefooting school, or any type of water skiing instruction, and really any type of instruction in general. He wrote about what you need to do be an Active Learner. There’s a lot there that seems obvious, but it is worth everyone’s time to read it. You can apply it to a lot more than just barefooting.
The second article is by Paul MacDonald, also a world class barefooter. His article is about how to dryland train for barefooting. This is a good article for those of us in the frozen north because even if we do get out on the lake, we’re probably ice fishing right now. He goes through several things to work on when you’re not on the water and how they’ll translate to making you better on the water.
The third and final article is by Dave Small, yet another world class barefooter. His article talks about how to do a tumble turn. It’s a simple trick and his explanation is yet another rephrasing of every other explanation of how to do a tumble turn. It wasn’t anything new, but hearing everyone give a consistent explanation means it must be the right way to explain it.
Finally, for those of you looking for something to do the weekend of February 27th thru March 1st, come to Wisconsin Dells for the Water Skiing Expo. They’ll be several sessions about barefooting with topics about goals, driving, how to practice, stretching, figure-8 competition (by KSO), back deeps, 3-event (by KSO), and about what barefooting can teach you about life.
I know I’ll be attending some of these sessions, as well as many other sesssions about show skiing. This year one of my goals for Think Tank is to do less 12-ounce curls on Friday night. 🙂 I hope to meet some of you there. Ask around for Wedge. There are lots of people that know who I am.
KSO at the Moo
I decided to check KSO’s site to see if there was anything new there and was pleasantly surprised to find a video he put together from a trip he took to the Blue Moo. He put together a nice little video to the tune of Kick Start My Heart by Motely Crue featuring some jump and footing tricks. He’s currently competing over in New Zealand at Barefoot Worlds and I wish him the best of luck. He’s one of the favorites favored to win it all and would cap of an extraordinary 2008 for him. He won the US Barefooting Title and Footstock. World’s would make it a trifecta. Without further ado, here’s the video…
http://www.ksobarefoot.com/Blue%20Moo.wmv
KSO Foot’n Fun (aka Blue Moo Challenge)
Hell of a Way to Ring in the New Year
Found this gem of a video over at the CRB and since it has some barefooting happening in winter, it’s just too good to pass up and not share here. A local news crew did a short feature on a group of skiers from Witchita, Kansas that likes to go skiing on New Years Day… no mater what the weather is like.
It looks like this year the weather cooperated… well it cooperated as much weather can on January 1st. And did I mention there’s a Speedo?
71 Year Old Barefoots in a Speedo on a Frozen Lake
And for those that haven’t visited the Creaky Rowboat before, you should really stop by. Even USA Water Ski’s executive director Steve Locke has taken notice.
Barefooting on Smash Brain Raw
Never heard of Smash Brain Raw before, but apparently they make short video clips and put them up on YouTube. Sounds like a very viable business… or not.
Well they did a video for barefooting featuring Peter Fleck and Mike Seipel. They went out with a film crew and caught a whole bunch of tricks on video. For the host wondering what happens when you hit a log, I can answer that question. It hurts. You fall. And you’re lucky when you don’t break a foot or leg. I know from first hand experience. Here’s the video…
http://youtube.com/v/8TtSr7euSzM
Do It
That’s Banana George’s moto and he’s still living it.
In a mass email sent to apparently every water skiing related website, Growing Bolder announced a video showing the 93-year old Banana George trying to barefoot again after a winter of health issues. But he’s still doing what he’s famous for and that’s barefooting. Much props to him and I hope to also be barefooting at the age of 93. With no further ado, here’s the link to the video on Growing Bolder. Go check it out.
Here’s a video of a tribute done for George at Cypress Gardens.
http://youtube.com/v/L_rqkEDYx2o
A Good St Patty’s Day Tradition
Found this story while browsing the internet for barefooting stories. There are a group of friends from Anapolis who were facing a mid-life crisis eight years ago. They wanted to do something crazy and came up with barefooting. Then they started doing footing runs on St Patty’s day. They figure they’re already in body bags (ie dry suits) so if anything does happen, they’re all set to go.
When they are done, then they break out some green beer, a tradition the rest of the country follows.
WaterSki Magazine – March 2008 Recap
This month’s WaterSki Magazine has a couple good articles about barefooting. I’ve noticed a little more in there about barefooting and that’s a nice change. They still focus a lot on the 3-event skiing, but they are doing better with footing coverage.
The first article is about the Barefoot Central boys… seems they found a nice little lake, rounded up a pilot and did some footing with no boat wakes to worry about. Just a little plane, a rope and glassy calm water. They’ve got some good pictures and stories from the footers that took part in it. I’ll be waiting for the video to make an appearance over on BarefootCentral.com
The second article is about the Dam to Dam barefoot race hosted by the Austin Barefoot Ski Club of Austin, TX. They celebrated the 20th aniversary at this past year’s race and the race continues to grow each year.
Both stories had some good pictures and was nice to see WaterSki Magazine give some press to those of us who don’t need the skis.
Mad-City Wedge 