Tag: Water Skiing

One Month Till I Hit the Water?

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

As I’ve said before, I hit the water on March 26th last year and I plan to hit the water by March 25th this year and that is a month away. Now we’ve had some recent warmer weather (highs in the mid 40s) and the snow is melting and my yard is pretty much clear of snow, but the lakes are still frozen and this weekend will be more winter-like again.

At this point, I don’t think rain would be bad as it would help get rid of the snow which can act as insulation for the ice. Removing the insulation from the ice on the lake will expose the ice to the direct sunlight, promoting the melting of the ice.

Yes, I probably think this through just a little too much.

Out of morbid curiosity, I did some research on cold water survival. For water that is in the 32 to 40 degrees, you’ll experience exhaustion in about 15 to 30 minutes and the survival time is only 30 to 90 minutes. This is much different than 70 degree water we typically have in the summer that has indefinite survival time. The site also mentions what happens when you experience cold water. First they mention panic and shock. Next your extremities start to go numb. I’ve experienced all of this while barefooting in cold water. You make your way into the water and that isn’t too bad, it is when you have the unexpected fall. Your face hits that cold water and you experience shock and panic as your disorientated. And this is with proper cold weather gear. I’d hate to experience it without the equipment. [Information from U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force]

Everyone, continue thinking warm thoughts… I want to hit the water, even if it is 37 degrees warm.

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

6 Weeks

Posted in bfooter.com1 Comment

Last year I hit the water on March 23. It is February 12 now. That is about 6 weeks away doing some quick math. Today’s weather: about 10/20 degrees out, roughly 3 inches of snow. And the lakes? They’re frozen. Solid. Not completely through (top to bottom, that would kill the fish), but all the way across at least. I did find out that water has a very unique property that make it freeze top to bottom instead of bottom to top. To get the most support out of water, it needs to be 39 degrees. That is when it is most dense and offer the most support… a benefit of cold water footing.

That leaves 6 weeks for it (the weather) to warm up to the point that it is no longer freezing and the lakes thaw. Everybody, throw open your windows, let’s get this global warming thing going. If we get enough furnaces going, it’ll warming up. I’ve got cabin fever and the only thing to cure that will be a ski set. These arms of mine are ready to hold onto a rope so I can drag myself across the water. Describing it like that just doesn’t sound like fun, but it is.

I like to search for random crap on the web while I’m posting to try and add a little something to the post. Well, I learned a few things researching this one so… Challenge: What sentence in this post is a reference to one of the links and why is it a reference?

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

Words to Live By

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

I was watching an episode of Iconoclasts that featured Laird Hamilton and Eddie Vedder. For those who don’t know, Laird is a really good surfer and Eddie is the lead singer of Pearl Jam (one of my favorite bands).

I mainly watched it to see an interview with Eddie, but ended up learning a bit more about Laird Hamilton as well. Laird is regarded as one of the best surfers ever even though he has never surfed on the professional tour. He helped come up with the idea of the tow in to catch the really, really big waves and butchered an air chair to come up hydrofoil surfing (as seen in Step into Liquid). He’s also an accomplished water skier as well, so I’m hoping he won’t mind me tweaking a quote from him on Iconoclasts.

Laird was talking about his surfing philosphy, but I think it also applies to water skiing just as well.

[Water skiing] “…like art or music, the great thing is there’s no wrong way to do it. The only wrong way to do it is if you’re not having a good time.” – Laird Hamilton

This is something I’ve long thought. Whether you just finished your first run on skis, nailed your first front flip off the ramp, or just taken another of countless barefoot runs, everyone ends with a big smile on their face. My niece had to compose a song on the piano about one of her favorite memories this past year. Her inspirational memory… her first time skiing.

Granted this quote is more often phrased “If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right,” but I think Laird’s version puts a much more positive spin on it though. It implies that whether your skiing for your first time ever or just nailed a trick that has rarely ever been done by anyone, if you had fun, that is all that matters.

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

Winter Wonder Land

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

It’s been nearly two months since my last water ski run and right now it looks like it’ll be two months till my next run. Well at least in the state of Wisconsin. I’m contemplating a trip south to get some sets in.

The weather this winter has been pretty mild. If I had been ambitious, I should have managed to get a run in during December. We had highs in the 40s and low 50s. It would have taken a little work, but it should have happened. Now, it probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Last Monday we received a fair amount of snow and today we’re receiving even more. Here’s a picture of the current conditions.

As you can tell, it is starting to pile up. Probably about 6 inches out there, most of from today. If you look closely you can ski that the tiny little trees in my backyard are nearly buried. Looks like ski season is a couple months away yet.

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

The Secret Spot [water skiing movie]

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

I posted about Soul, a barefooting movie a while back. Well here is a water skiing movie called The Secret Spot. The trailer looks pretty slick.

Basically, they took a camera crew down to a spot on some isolated river, brought some skiers, footers, wakeboarders, and hydrofoilers and let them tear it up in front of the cameras on the glass calm water. You can find the list of all the athletes in the movie over at IMDB.

Here’s the trailer.

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

Stunt Junkies

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Just an update on my earlier post about there being some water ski jumping on TV. Seems there is going to be some other crazy stunts on as well. A wake boarder will jump over a fountain and a hydrofoiler will jump over an oncoming towboat.

For the full USA Water Ski announcement you can go here.

For the upcoming schedule of the show Stunt Junkies you can go here.

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

Mark Your Calenders… Water Ski Jumping on TV

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

On January 15, 16, 19 & 29, the Discovery Channel will be airing a show title Stunt Junkies – Water Ski Launch. Scot Ellis will try to set the world record for a person on water skis jumping over more boats than anyone else ever.

Meanwhile, while searching for a video of Scot Ellis ski jumping (didn’t find any on Google & YouTube was down), I came across the 4th blog dedicated to waterskiing called Waterski University (they’ve been added to the blog roll.) Seems to be more geared towards the collegiate skiing land, which is good. I even found a little mention of a neighbor to the east.

Seems Marquette won the NCWSA Team of the Year for 2006 for, among many other things, being the runner up at D2 Nationals in their 3rd year of existence (click here for the Marquette announcement). I had a post about the National Results back in October. Seems I should have given Marquette more props back in October. Looking through the results just a little closer, I see that Marcy from Marquette tied for first in Women’s Jump. I’d like to think the drinking we did back in July in Fox Lake and the barefoot sets we did in Madison later that month helped her jumping at Nationals.

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

Water Skiing News from Around the Web

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Found these water skiing related stories on web…

Although I’ve wanted to do some water skiing with our recent warm weather here in Wisconsin, I didn’t actually go through all the work of getting my boat and stuff ready to actually go. Well, others experiencing the warm weather have taken advantage of it. Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, they took to the water, even raising some money for charity. Meanwhile, out east in Scotia, New York (near Albany I think) a ski school did some skiing on New Year’s Day as well. Then there is this guy out near Wichita, Kansas who likes to take his annual New Year’s Day barefoot run in a Speedo (for the ladies, there’s a picture behind that link.) Unfortunately, there is a picture in the news story (ladies, you may not like that one as much).

While searching for more crazy news stories of people skiing, I found this post on a blog about a guy that took his dog wake boarding. Seeing as how it is cold enough for the guy to need a dry suit, I don’t think I’d want to put my dog in the cold water, but he did.

Meanwhile, Rykert over in Iowa is making use of the water skiing off season by trying to build a dry land trick apparatus.

My searches also turned up this blog. I didn’t see anything specific about water skiing on it, other than the user name for the blogger… Waterskiing on Two Discount Alligators. Might have to ask about that one.

And finally, this European water skiing site has information up about a thing called Think Tank. Now I’m familiar with Think Tank, it is put on by the Wisconsin Water Ski Federation, of which I’m a member. It is basically a water skiing conference. I’ve even presented at it a few times and will be again this year. I just found it interesting that it is being promoted over in Europe. Browsing the website, I came across this description of Barefooting:

“Barefoot water skiing is skiing beneath a towboat wherein the skier do not uses any skis on his feet, thus this waterskiing discipline is also known as barefooting.”

I’m pretty sure that when I’m barefooting, I’m not beneath the towboat, I prefer to be behind it. I can’t hold my breath long enough to make skiing beneath the boat worthwhile, plus there is the whole issue of the prop. It spins fast and is capable of slicing and dicing and I’d rather not be near it while it is spinning. I’m guessing this is probably just a translation issue, but I found it funny. The rest of the description is pretty decent.

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

Hydrofoil Surfing?

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

So I’m watching Step Into Liquid on HDNet tonight and come across something very interesting.

Besides coming to the conclusion that I really do need a subwoofer, I saw some surfers, Laird Hamilton was one of them, who found a Sky Ski or Hydrofoil. They think its fun and all that as they get pulled behind a PWC, but then they get to wonder about why they need to be seated and strapped in. One of them takes a saw and cuts of the chair, they strap on some bindings and they make it into a surf foil. Pretty slick.

Sorry Cake, but they did really chop up a sky ski.

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

1st Annual Water Skiing Report

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

I hope to make this an annual recap of skiing, but this’ll be the first one…

This last year was my longest ski season to date. It started on March 23 and ended exactly 7 months later on November 23 (Thanksgiving). That amounts to 245 days of on the water activity. I’m hoping this off season will be my shortest off season ever as well. It was even longer than the baseball season, something I will strive to do every year.

I took my boat to the lake 45 times, putting 61.5 hours on the engine. I was at the lake nearly every day throughout the summer (June-August) for ski team as well. So actual number of days on the water isn’t known (need to count this better for next year).

Now for the break down of runs…
1 Ballet Run
2 Slalom Runs
2 Fluff Runs
3 Random Show Ski Runs (not sure)
8 3-High Pyramids
10 Jump Sets for a Total of 35 Jumps (my back didn’t cooperate, so this is basically just the count for the month of June)
16 Conventional Doubles Runs
95 Barefoot Sets

The 95 barefooting sets break down like this…

Overall I took 299 barefoot runs. I really wish I had done one more.

29 were of unknown length
28 were short runs (usually show ski passes, flyers off the docks & tumble turn attempts)
200 were medium runs
45 were long runs
14 were marathon runs
3 were figure eights

A short run is a typical show ski pass, a medium run is approximately a diagonal pass in the bay, a long run is usually at least two bay shore lines or more. A “marathon” run is qualified as a bay loop or more (or the equivalent) and a figure eight is a figure eight. The difference between long & marathon was tough to keep track of.

Of the medium runs, a lot were done in rapid fire succession. Dash across the bay, boat whips a shitty & takes off again. Never let go of the rope. Total time between runs is (if done right) about 10 or 20 seconds.

There were also 9 2-a-days. Usually these involved waking up and going skiing, then work, then going back to the lake for more skiing. I need to up this count as well next year. I didn’t do any 3-a-days, which is disappointing.

As you can see, this running sound for the ski team really puts a damper on me doing much besides barefooting. Only took 40 show skiing related runs all summer and 301 “other” runs. I think my wakeoboard made it to the lake 4 or 5 times but I never used it.

One final statistic that speaks to the quality of the people that come out skiing with me… I put $806.23 worth of gas into the boat and my fellow skiers kicked in for $497 of it. Considering there is usually 3 of us in the boat at a time and people are helping out for two thirds of the gas is great. Thanks to everyone for helping out with the gas bill.

Finally, both my first and last days on the water had air temps of 45 degrees and water temps of 37 & 41 respectively. Just to let everyone know, when your face is covered in cold water and you’re going 40+ MPH, that 45 degree air is bone chillingly cold on your face. The wind chill really does a number on you. According to NOAA, when it is 45 degree and there is a wind of 42 MPH, the air temp feels like 34 degrees. Then you need to mix in the already cold water on your face and it feels even colder, but I couldn’t find any place to mix in the moisture factor.

Finally, I think June 30 was the best day on the water. August 2nd & 3rd were a lot of fun too!

BTW, we (Mad-City) won a state and national show ski championship which is pretty cool too!

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