First off, some props go out to the Mad-City Ski Team, Skipper Buds and Malibu Boats. Based in Madison, WI, the ski team performed a benefit show on December 19th called Project Snowflake to raise some dollars for he local children’s hospital. They braved 30 degree weather and 36 degree water to raise about $3k for the American Family Children’s Hospital. They had fun for a very good reason. Check out the story on their website for more details. You can also donate to the cause. Details are in the Mad-City story. You ask why this made a barefooting website? Well, they had some barefooting in their show. Picture below.
Next, 30 years ago a town in California decided they needed a way to boost business on New Years. They settled on the Bun Run. It’s naked water skiing on New Year’s Day. Read the story here for more details.
Finally, there are a group of wild and crazy guys up near Montreal, Canada that like to do some water skiing in the winter. It sounds like it’s an annual tradition and they have a lot of fun in the process. Watch the video below…
The Carolina Show Ski Team organized a little barefooting challenge this past January 1st. The challenge? 46 degrees out of the water and 44 degrees in the water. Believe me, both of those add up to it is very, very cold. It’s no Winter Waterland with snow in the air and ice in the water, but yeah, it’s cold.
After looking at their website, it looks like they actually did try to keep scores with the time they stayed up on the water and how many tricks they did to come up with winners, but I contend the real challenge is just getting in the water. Yes, it’s mind over matter, and you can convince yourself to get in, but matter is something you study in physics, and the physics of a person at 98.6 degrees getting into the 44 degree water means the heat is going to get sucked right out. Then you need to add in the wind chill factor. Your face is wet with very cold water and then you start going at speeds in excess of 40 MPH, which means a 40 MPH windchill. It all adds up to being very cold.
Anyways, they put together a nice little video to commorate the event. So without further ado, here it is…
I’m not sure if this was a team only event, or if they opened it up to all skiers, but hopefully, they’ll spread the word a bit more next year.
Anytime anyone has a barefoot event, please send me the details at wedge [at] talesfromthefoot.com. I’m more than happy to spread the word to my many readers. Just about all of them love to barefoot.
Yes, this video almost gets disqualified from this site based on all of the wakeboarding in it (I’m not anti wakeboarding, but this is a barefooting site) but there is enough footing in to warrant it’s inclusion. Plus, there’s some pretty funny stuff in it. The weather was about 1 degrees and everyone’s having fun. Enjoy the video…
Adrienne sent in that there was some winter water skiing and barefooting taking place just yesterday, February 1st and sent a long a link to the pictures, which I’ll share. Why are they doing this you wonder? Well the local news crew was interested…
The backstory is Kare11 did a segment on winter activities- Eric Perkins “perk at play” took a stab at waterskiing in the winter. I’m not sure anything I took part in will make the air 😦 since we tried to build a pyramid and I fell twice (brrr), but it should be a fun segment. I think it airs Tuesday at 10- might be able to find it online. The video should have some good footage. There is a hard core group in MN that regularly foots year round, including a New Years day outing.
– Adrienne
Anyways, here the pictures…
Most people that pull up to the lake and see this, don’t think about going in the water. But as you can see, they are already splashing around in the water while the rest picnic on the shore ice.
Next, before they went skiing, the needed to clear the dock. Usually this involves sweeping off whatever that stuff is that the sea gulls, docks or geese leave behind. But they didn’t need to worry about that nasty stuff. They just had to get rid of some snow, so they bust out the snow blower…
Next, they launched the boat and pulled up to the dock to load the barefootersspotters suckers into the boat. The driver’s face is just going to freeze when the start moving. 40 MPH wind chill is cold. Don’t believe me? Next time it dips down below freezing, just roll down your window while you’re cruising down the highway. It gets pretty cold pretty quick. Next, stick your hand out the window without a glove on as you move. Now it’s really cold. If you’re really brave, dunk your hand in water so it’s soaking yet and then stick it out the window and you’ll get a tiny little taste of what it’s like behind the boat when your cold, wet and moving very fast. On days like this, the drivers just don’t get enough credit.
They finally did do something in the water though. Here’s a good shot of some barefooting.
This is really cold. But its really fun too! Plus you get to brag to all your friends.
Thanks to Adrienne for sending in the picturs. If you want to see the rest of them, here’s the link to the album.
I first set my bare feet on the water July of 2008. I had slalom skied for years, but thought barefoot skiing was too far out there. My first successful pull on a short rope off the boom did it. I was hooked. I knew I wanted to get better, but knew few people, if any, at my ski club could offer any instruction. Most of the guys there were old school, 45 MPH denim shorts, long liners that hadn’t set their feet on the water in years.
I recall an article in Prosper magazine a client showed on some whack job skiing backwards on his barefeet. He lived in the Sacramento area, and possibly had a barefoot ski school. I did some on-line searches, and swerved into a fellow, Andy McCarville, who skied with Willie on a regular basis. He said Willie did not teach any more, but Andy opened his boat for me to ski anytime. That is a cool thing about barefooters, they are always stoked about new footers joining the sport.
I enjoyed skiing with Andy many days during that summer, but no sign of Willie. He was out there, footin’ as usual, but hadn’t hooked up with us. Low and behold, early September Willie surfaced. He was cordial, affable, and fully stoked at “fresh meat” in the boat to provide entertainment. We hit a spot called Lost Slough, a 2-mile long footer’s paradise, which was glassy, and there were no other boats to found.
We all took turns ripping it up. Little did I know at the time what this relationship with Andy and Willie would become. Willie was very comfortable at this spot since it looks like the Cajun Bayou and it appears as if crocs are going to emerge out of the swamp.
Willie, Andy and I would go out on many occasions after that. Willie learned shortly after this outing that he was named to the US Barefoot Team and would go to New Zealand in January. September in Sacramento is hot, the water is warm, and January seemed a great way off. I did not know it at the time, but I would become part of Willie’s crew an be part of his road trip to the World’s.
Over the next several months we skied a lot. Me, the rookie, learning one foots, toe holds, progressing on the back deep; Andy, always energetic, fine tuning his massive quiver of techniques with emphasis on surface turns. Willie, now, is another story. The best I can describe him train is like a samurai warrior. Honing and sharpening his already deadly sharp sword; Visualizing his trick run while taking a light jog down to the launch. Willie is a highly focused, very intense individual, especially while barefooting. He is constant about proper technique as well as boating and skiing safety. He knew when to hit the water and when to stay in the boat because “something wasn’t quite right.”
But don’t let Willie’s intensity take away from his lighter side. He is a jokester and makes footing a lot of fun. His sense of humor had somehow charmed his way into a local club of 50 members that are outboard fisherman, and only one barefooter, Willie! He would always mix things up at any given time, like the time he ripped a backwards one foot with a phone book in his hand as a promo for the phone company he worked for.
Phone Book Promo
Late Fall we made a spectacular trip to his friend Jerry’s private lake, and hit legendary conditions. Willie tuned his trick runs, Andy hit a few more front to backs, and I nailed my first toe-hold.
Summer gave way to Fall, and Fall finally conceded to Winter. The water got down to 48 degrees, the weather at times was still beautiful, and the 3 musketeers were still footing, still progressing toward our goals. As the Winter came into full bloom, out came the drysuits, and the cooler full of hot water, and baby powder all over the place. Willie’s game became very mental at this point. His runs were concise, to the point, and very focused. His technique was sharp, fast, and very physical. I had never seen him fall, not once.
This whole time I was transforming. I was becoming a barefooter. At times watching Willie work his magic, I often thought: “How is this possible? Months back I was struggling to catch a foot ride off a hydroslide. Now I am out barefooting with one of the best in the world.” Exhilarating and humbling at the same time. The day Willie left for New Zealand I had a very memorable phone call with him. He thanked me for being part of his team, for helping him get ready, for inspiring him, for driving the boat. He parting words as he readied himself for a long plane ride were, “I’ll make you proud down there.” I said, ” I already am proud.”
Proud to know him, proud to be part of his crew, proud to be his friend. Willie stands alone:
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?
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.
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.
Back in the fall of 2006 I was out skiing in Monoan Bay. In the fall there just seems to a few more birds on the water. Don’t know why. So much like with the pigeons from Seinfeld, boats seem to have a deal with the waterfowl. As the boat comes through, they get out of the way of the boats and we just mumble under our breaths at all the crap they leave on our dock.
So I’m footing behind my boat, moving along at 41 MPH or so. There is a flock of ducks on the water that we’re coming up on that I’m keeping my eyes on. They scatter for the boat, but one moves just clear of the boat and directly into my line. Now, much like in NASCAR (at least according to Days of Thunder), this is kinda like a car wreck so I’m thinking “just go straight through.” There are still several ducks scattered about and trying to slalom my way through just isn’t a realistic option. I’m moving at 41 MPH and there is only about 90 feet between me and the boat. Not sure on the exact math, but that doesn’t give me much time to react.
Now I’m moving along directly towards the duck that is just kind of floating there. As I approach closer, it sees me coming directly towards it and starts swimming which is good. Except it starts swimming the same direction I’m going. It isn’t going 41 MPH. So I’m thinking a typical barefoot stance is about shoulder width apart roughly. The duck isn’t going to fit between my feet. At least not easily. I obviously don’t want to hit the duck. A) This is bad for the duck and B) hitting the duck would be bad for me. I could potentially break a foot, ankle, knee, leg, etc and I’m just not ready to call it a season yet.
So I get to thinking, the duck is swimming, it isn’t that big. I’m about 20 feet from it now and I decide to widen my stance so it is about 4 feet wide. I wanted to get wide, but not too low because the duck might remember that it can fly too. The duck starts to swerve just a bit, but not much, just enough where I need to move a little bit to keep it centered and I straddle the duck. To the best of my knowledge, I didn’t touch it. I didn’t feel any feathers on my ankles or legs.
The spotter, 7, who’s watching this, went from a look of “oh shit he’s gonna hit a duck” to laughing his ass off. John, who’s driving also sees this in the mirror and I could tell he’s laughing too. They could both see clear as day that I straddled it.
I resumed my normal stance and just kept on going.
One of my favorite and first memories about barefooting is from quite a while back, 1991 to be exact. I had learned how to barefoot earlier that summer and I was admittedly still a little rough around the edges when it came to my barefooting prowess. I was maybe 50/50 doing deeps in good water. My parents boat just didn’t have the power to pull me at barefooting speeds so I didn’t get many opportunities to go footing.
It was our last show of the season (Labor Day weekend) and in typically Law Park fashion, we were going to skiing our show in what would nearly be white caps. No one was jumping up and down saying I want to do the barefoot flyer off the dock. I said I’d do it, but was honest and said I might not make it with the water. We had a small contingent of skiers left so they decided to write me in to the spot.
Show time comes, I’m standing on the dock watching my rope feed out. It comes tight and I run off the dock throwing my feet in the air. I hit the water, the boat goes up to speed and plant my feet and manage to stand up, at least just a little bit, still buried in a ball of white spray. But I had stood up, barefooting, making it through the show course in the rough water before ending my run with a face plant at the other end of show course. This was the first time I had successfully barefooted in a show.
I swim in to the shore and crawl up the rocks the make up our shoreline, big smile on my face. The people sitting there on the shore all congratulated me in one way or another saying nice job, or what not. I may have only footed 20 feet after I stood up, but it was still a big rush.
Mad-City Wedge 