Tag: Water Skiing

I Know How An Ice Cube Feels…

Posted in bfooter.com2 Comments

Back on Saturday, January 26th I took my first ski run of the year… sans skis. Yes, I finally made the big commitment of giving up my Saturday and headed south to get some skiing in. I went all the way to the metropolis of Newville, WI a mere 30 minutes south of Madison.

And for those of you that think that makes me crazy, I was not alone. There were about 35 of us that braved the icy water of the Rock River. Yes it was January and yes it is Wisconsin, but we still skied or footed.


Why is there snow on the ground at the ski site?

Arriving at the Anchor Inn (that is situated on the shores of the Rock River) we were greeted with snow flakes in air, ice floating down the river and a cool winter wind. This is not the typical sight when you pull up to the boat launch…


Snow on the boat… not your typical sight when you are about to go water skiing.

Once everyone was registered and they explained how things were going to work, they put the boats in the water. Unfortunately, the boat wakes broke a lot of ice free up river from us and a ton of ice started flowing through. This held things up for about 30 minutes. Once the ice flow tapered off, they let people hit the water.


KTB getting ready to hit the water.

They had the skiers go first while there was still ice in the water. Once the skiers finished up, and most of the ice had finally gone away, they started pulling the footers. Many of the footers used step off skis. In fact, I think just about everyone used step off skis. The snow banks were good for storing the skis in.


Step Off Skis in the Snow Bank

I broke the mold though. I did a deep water start. And WOW, the water was cold. It wasn’t bad to get into, but during the deep, getting my face was wet and then standing up in the 40 MPH wind… it is a new level of wind chill to experience. But even in the ice cold water I was having a blast. Here are fews pics from my footing run.


No turning back now…


Proof that I was in the water


Doing the deep


Take 2


Snow and ice in the background makes for a nice backdrop


Yes, that’s me in the ball of spray… or should I say ball of ice?


I’m thinking “OMG AM I COLD!”


After my run, cold and wet, standing on the dock and I have a grin on my face from ear to ear!


For some reason, they completely blocked me on to the dock…
I couldn’t get through to get to the hot tub and the next skier left.


To defrost or reheat us after runs, they had a hot tub on the shore.
I’m in there with Heather and Anna & KTB are there with us.
All four us took a run that day.

Even thought it was very cold, there was snow and ice to deal with, it was a blast. My feet became painfully cold and my hands hurt a little bit too, but it was a lot of fun and I’ll be doing this again next year. There is nothing like sitting in the back of the boat on some ice, teeth chattering as your hair freezes.

Props to the RAJ for putting on a great event!

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

Mad-City on BFC

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

Over on BareFoot Central they have a little thing called the Show Ski Challenge. Basically, a little spot on the site to give props to where a lot of footers come from… show skiing. They’ve got videos of crazy stunts and also some highlight clips from the teams.

“Footstock Dave” (as people call him) put together a highlight clip of the Mad-City Ski Team’s 2007 Wisconsin State Ski Show. Here’s the link to the video. Not sure I’d go with metal for the typical highlight video, but the video is pretty well done.

Be sure to check out some of the other videos as well.

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

121 Skiers… 1 Boat

Posted in bfooter.com2 Comments

Over in Tasmania on Sunday, they tried to set a world record for number of people water skiing behind one boat. For those unfamiliar with where this is in the world, here’s a map. Sounds like they need to do some work on their physics though, because when they were trying to get the people up on their skis, the booms towing the people broke. I guess the physics get complicated when you have 121 people involved. I’ll give them an “A” for effort. I wish the story had included some pictures… it would be nice to see the setup for this. Video of the attempt would have been great.

Here’s where I’m confused… I wrote a post on October 9, 2007 about a world record attempt on October 7, 2007. A German blog announced they had smashed the world record by towing 33 skiers behind one boat. Of the top of my head, I know this isn’t a record. Here’s why…

First, there is always this great picture. Not sure on the exact number, but it is way more than 33.

Next, there is the world record pyramid from 2006. 48 people behind one boat. Not all on skis. But they got that whole pyramid thing going.

Plus, Mad-City has done 30+ people ballet lines this summer. That German post just seems fishy.

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

Water Skiing in January in Wisconsin

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

So very, very tempting… time to dust off the drysuit, make sure the barefoot suit still fits and write out a check for $35… scratch the wetsuit… just need barefoot shorts, life vest and a whole lot of warm cloths to wear under the drysuit. Time to renew my USA Water Ski membership.

Winter Waterland is Back! January 26… Newville, WI

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

Post Number 400… 7 Tumbles, 6 Bars, Lots of Friends

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment

It has been busy couple of weeks since my last significant post. Sorry ’bout that. In my defense it has been a couple weeks since I’ve been on the water, so I haven’t had much to post about… but I do have a few things.

First up, a little critique of 7’s tumble turn skills. Back on Sept 29, the last day I’ve been on the water, 7 tried some tumble turns. I’ll give him an “A” for his effort. The trick can be broken down into about 5 primary steps…

  1. Sit back down on to the water and transition to your back
  2. Initiate the spin
  3. Spin
  4. Stop the spin
  5. Stand back up and continue barefooting

7 has steps 1 thru 3 down pat. In fact, he has step 3 down so well, he keeps spinning. He’s having some issues with step 4 though. Let’s go to the video…

I’m OK giving out a critique because I’m also willing to admit my last time trying tumble turns looked like this…

Trying to tumble turn or break dance? I’m honestly not sure?

Next up, Imse, the other person out in the boat that day, has been working on his back deeps for a while and at this point I would say he them down pretty well when he’s doing them on the boom. His back deeps themselves are very clean, but his backfooting did produce this awesome photo of one of his falls…

Awesome picture of a backfooting fall

Here’s some video of his back deeps…

As you can see, they look pretty clean. His next step is do them long line.

For a few more pictures from this outing, you can check out the pictures here… there are some good ones of 7 trying a flip on the wake board.

In non-water skiing related news, I’m sure you all remember the really old joke where people ask “Is your refrigerator running?” and most normally people answer “Yes” and then the joke is “Well you better go catch it!” For the past week I’ve been able to answer that joke with a “No” My fridge is dead right now and has been since last Tuesday. I’ve been living out of a mini-fridge from my college days for the past week and a half now and have been keeping my beer in a cooler on the deck. Here’s hoping the neighbor kids don’t find it or realize what’s in it.

Next, one of the most impressive feats of human determination you will probably ever witness… a high school girls breaks her leg and manages to finish her race. I found this on the The Big Lead, but wanted to share it…

At the time that The Big Lead posted it, not much was known, but since then ESPN has had a story on it as well.

A couple weeks ago I had a pretty busy weekend. Nothing too wild on Friday, but Saturday was a long day. Woke up, grilled out, watched the Badgers destroy Michigan in football, then headed downtown to meet up with some peeps… first I hit the Big Ten Pub to meet Paul, Joey, Josh, Cake and Solberg. They had some friends in town. Hung out with them for a while and when the started to head out about 630, I then walked down the street to the Regent Street Retreat to meet up with the Badger Bash Crew. Ran in to KTB, Bugsy, Tristan, Adam and a whole bunch of UW related skiers. By UW related I mean they either skied for the UW, still ski for the UW or skied against the UW in a collegiate event. Met Steve (again) and Meghan from UW-Whitewater’s ski team. Turns out she’s a WaterBug too.

After hanging out a Regent Street for a while, we hit up Toppers and then made our way to the KK… the Kollege Klub. Can’t say I’ve been there recently. About 1030 we migrated to Brats. Bugsy got friendly with The Captain, danced with some random people. Roller Girl showed up with some Healies on and slid up and down the isle… Bugsy, being “smart” asked me to move to my left to be more our in the isle. I had seen what she was doing and new what was going to happen. She came flying down the isle on her heals and ran right into me full speed. Not really an issue for me because a) I knew it was coming 2) the striped bibs she was wearing were hot… especially with the shirt on underneath and not much else from what I could tell and lastly) I’m not a tiny guy, played hockey in my past and knew how to take a hit, but in this case, taking a hit meant catching her so she didn’t fall down after running into her.

After enduring the chaos there, I finally departed about midnight and headed up to the The Dane to meet up with Sandy, Teri, Libby, Scotty, Beth and Sandy’s friend from Florida, Mark. Had some drinks and then we hit up Mike’s Horseshoe Inn near Sandy’s house. It was a little hole in the wall bar and had some great prices and a Patrone Margarita on the Rocks that can kick your ass. Finally, we ended up at Sandy’s for an after bar for a final beer before heading home… crawled into bed at 415am… way too late.

Sunday, watched the Packers blank the Vikings… which was awesome. 7 called during the game asked if I wanted to go the Badger B-Ball game… so we watched them struggle early before dominating IPFW.

Finally, found this video on the net over on BareFootSki Dot Com… guy put together what amounts to a remote control for his Sea-Doo and now he can barefoot and ski solo. No driver or spotter required. Not completely safe or legal, but I still want one.

And finally, finally, a word from Carl about the BCS. Just an FYI… he’s none to happy with the Giants either.

Carl on the BCS

I’ll have my own words on the BCS in the next couple days.
Visit bfooter.com… More pictures, more videos, more water skiing stuff.

The Boondocks

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment
boondocks |ˈboōnˌdäks| plural noun informal
rough, remote, or isolated country : we’re out here in the boondocks, miles from a telephone.

That’s where I spent a good portion of last weekend… the boondocks. My friends Beau & Kelly were getting hitched in the north woods, or at least what a boy from Madison would call the north woods. Beau called it the boondocks…

But anyways, the wedding was in the afternoon and was very nice. Then we made our way to the reception with just a slight detour to make a brief stop at a liquor store for some supplies. One of my responsibilities was to start the music at the reception. We then put our stuff in the cabin we were staying in and made our way back to the reception hall and had some cocktails and snacks. The wedding party arrived, dinner was served, a nice video they had put together was played and then the dance started. After playing the part of a wall flower for a while as I continued to drink some beer, I eventually worked up the liquid courage needed to make my way out to the dance floor. I never looked back. I spent most of the rest of the night on the dance floor, only taking breaks to refresh my beer or find another shot. Needless to say, I had a blast. Shortly after midnight, I realized I had enough. Enough what you ask? Fun, drinks, dancing, everything. I was ready to call it a night. I said my goodbyes and stumbled my way to the cabin. It was like someone had flipped a switch. Here are a few pics from the night…

The Bride and Groom… Kelly & Beau

Kristen and I with Drinks in Our Hands

Kelly, Jenny and I on the Dance Floor

Final damage… 12 pack of Stella and a shot of Souther Comfort and about 5 or 6 shots of Jaeger Bombs. Yea… I was down for the count. And you knew you could have so much fun at a YMCA camp?

Next day, roll out of bed about 9am. Get some breakfast, say our goodbyes and head home. Roll into Madison about 11am ready to do nothing for the rest of the day. That didn’t happen though.

First, picked some of the ski teams 2006 DVDs. Next, headed to the ‘rents for some lunch and then got a call to go skiing… so I did. Hit the water at 230 in the cool brisk sunny afternoon air. Other than a few footing runs, I didn’t do much. It had only been 15 hours since the previous night and I was still a bit run down… Did get to see some good footing and some good falls. Here are some pics from the afternoon on the lake…

My footing run… notice there isn’t a dry suit!

7 Did Some Stuff on the Wakeboard

Trying a Back Roll

Trying another Back Roll

Final Back Roll of the Day

Imse did some backfooting… I have really good videos of his backfooting, and I was about to get a really good picture of him backfooting when this happened…

I’d Like to Claim this Was a Planned Picture, but it is Pure Luck

The fall didn’t end his day… he took another run.

How can you not want to be on the water on a day like this?

I have some videos of Imse backfooting and 7 doing his best break dancing imprecation. Both are really good. They’ll be coming soon.

Links to the Photo Albums:
Wedding in the Boondocks
Barefooting in the Fall

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

Some October Skiing

Posted in bfooter.comLeave a comment
Wanted to posted some pictures from some skiing runs earlier this October…

The first pictures are from the very beginning of October. I hit the water right after work on October 3rd to get some quality skiing time in.


John with a nice one foot


Me, smiling for the camera…


John’s buddy from New York getting a slalom run in…


John throwing up a wall of water


The sun setting in the bay…


A nice view of the capital

The next set of pictures is from the morning of the 20th… so this time it was a little colder. First a little background. Originally I lined up T-Bell to go out in the morning. I originally suggested 930 to 11am wanting to give it at least a little while to warm up. She asked to go earlier so she could go to the football game. I didn’t mind so we changed our plans to 830 to 10. Meanwhile, I’m realizing it is going to be a cold morning. Friday rolls around and she had a change of plans and asked if we could go out earlier. Once again I didn’t care, so we set the time from 8 to 930. It was going to be a frosty morning. Everything is set to go.

Much later that night, about 330am, my phone beeps at me. New message from Teri. I flip it open and read it through my half open eyes. It said something to the effect of “Do you know it is going to be 45 degrees in the morning? Still want to go?” I flipped the phone closed and went back to sleep.

7am rolls around and I crawl out of bed. As predicted, it was 45 degrees out, but also a bright sunny day. I’ll ski. Message back to Teri… game on! Then I gave Beau his wake up call. After breakfast, I head off to the lake. I ended being the only one that skied that morning… only one brave enough to hit the chilly water in the even colder air…


Yea…it’s a little colder out here, but I love doing this!


See the nice bright sunny day behind me?


Yes, it’s a bright sunny day out… gotta love it!


And now my face is completely frozen from the wind chill!

I’ll have another update a little latter this week recapping this past weekends adventures… a little trip to the north woods of Wisco for a wedding (the reception was blast… I think… as Bugsy put it “Drunk Wedge came out”) and then I hit the water today. I’ve got some killer pictures of the skiing today (some that are accidentally awesome!) and some good videos too! Check back latter this week.

Links:
After Work Skiing

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