bfooter.com... I Have Water on the Brain

50,000+ Specators for a Ski Show Practice

2009-11-06T20:48:00.003-06:00

There are some show skiers from the USA over in China right now and depending on who does the estimates, they are getting between 40,000 & 50,000+ spectators for practices. Here's a picture of the crowd.

For more about their trip, you can check out the blog of everything they are doing here.

2009-07-19T18:36:00.001-05:00

Mad-city is the state champs!

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Mad-City took 2nd in team

2009-07-16T18:13:00.001-05:00

Mad-City took 2nd in team jump. Bad Water Skeeters took 1st.

Mad-City just nailed Team Jump

2009-07-16T15:38:00.001-05:00

Mad-City just nailed Team Jump landing a 7 and a mobius!

Where are my Cheez-Its?

2009-04-20T23:17:00.000-05:00

While the CRB and Lake of Sin feud over an old cooler (that's gotta be just about empty by now since no one refills it), a paddle and a Lappy, I'm looking for my Cheez-Its so I can watch 24? I'm not sure who's going to star in 24 now that Nola has taken out Jake Baurer (still not completely sure how that happened?) Personally, I'm hoping Jack's daughter somehow saves him without getting kidnapped.

Personally, I think the CRB just needs to give up their quest and buy themselves a new cooler... maybe something like this...

I personally don't think that will hold enough "beverages" for the CRB'ers though. (I do think it'll fit there style perfectly) They might need something a little bigger like this...

But even that might not be big enough... This one might actually be able to satisfy their thirst...

That cooler doesn't have beer in it, but it might just be big enough to handle the beer needs of the CRB crew.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to look for a new source of Cheez-Its since CRB and the Lake of Sin have purchasing all of them for the nefarious needs. I'll offer up my casa to Nola if she wants to lay low for a while.

2009-04-16T19:49:00.001-05:00

UW Band Concert

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Some of My Favorite Pictures from 2008...

2009-04-15T21:56:00.004-05:00

Here's are some of my favorite pictures from the 2008 ski season.

2008.12.31 - Favorite Pictures of 2008

Now I'm looking forward to a great 2009 on the water.

15 Percent Concentrated Power of Will

2009-02-18T21:01:00.003-06:00

That is what it took to write this post... not really, but it has been along time coming. Here's a look back at some the best pictures from 2008. My photo blogging took a bit of nose dive last year after June 1st due to the lakes closing in Madison. When you drive 45 minutes to practice and don't get home till 10pm or so, you just don't have that much spare time. The camera was still busy, so here's a look back.

As those that follow the site know, my ski season started early in 2008. January 26th to be exact. I went south to get some skiing in, but not very far. Just a mere 30 minutes. The ski site looked like this...

From 2008.01.26 - Winter Waterland

And the water was cold...

From 2008.01.26 - Winter Waterland

But it wasa fun...

From 2008.01.26 - Winter Waterland

The the skiing too a hiatus for a few months. It took till the beginning of May before we back on the water...

From 2008.05.05 - Cinco de Mayo with Teri and Douch

But it has to complain when your nights on the water end like this...

From 2008.05.05 - Cinco de Mayo with Teri and Douch

A week later, the Best Dam Barefoot Race took place. It was a little cooler this year, but still a whole lot of fun.

From 2008.05.10 - Best Dam Barefoot Race 2008

As May wound down, we had some very nice weather, which we made good use of...

From 2008.05.24 - Saturday Morning Fun

Then, the rain hit, and it hit hard...

From 2008.06.07 - Clean Lakes Festival

Leaving us with this...

From 2008.06.13 - High Water on Lake Monona

And this....

From 2008.06.13 - High Water on Lake Monona

So Mad-City headed about 45 minutes north, to Lake Wisco, to practice. One of the nice things about that is we had nights that looked like this at the end of the night...

From 2008.06.29 - Mad-City - On Lake Wisconsin

And this...

From 2008.07.01 - Mad-City - On Lake Wisconsin

And resulted in fun practices like this...

From 2008.07.02 - Mad-City - On Lake Wisconsin - The Fun Practice

My boat also made a few trips to Lake Wisconsin too. One of the better trips was on July 4th. It took phone calls until 1am the night before to finalize the plans, but they were finalized and we skied on some nice water in some great scenary.

From 2008.07.04 - July 4 on Lake Wisconsin

When State arrived, the rain made another cameo appearance...

From 2008.07.17 - Thursday at State

But it didn't stick around too long...

From 2008.07.17 - Thursday at State

And it was still a whole lot of fun...

From 2008.07.17 - Antics at the Lodge

And we put on one hell of a good show...

Resulting in this...

From 2008.07.20 - State Awards

The following week we did a road show in Portage, so I had a chance to do doubles again...

From 2008.07.26 - Doubles at the Portage Road Show

And then the next week we did yet another road show, this time on Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, there were 4 foot rollers there to great us...

From 2008.08.02 - Lake Forest Road Show

Finally, Nationals arrived. After a season of driving, late practices and little sleep, our Nationals show went very well...

And after our show, we hit "The Bar"...

From 2008.08.09 - At The Bar

Our efforts were rewarded...

After Nationals, the Madison lakes slowly reopened, so then we just had some fun....

From 2008.08.16 - Tubing

And more fun...

From 2008.08.29 - Skiing - With Brianna & Imhof

And occasionally, we needed supplies delivered...

From 2008.08.29 - Skiing - With Brianna & Imhof

So the nights would end like this...

From 2008.08.29 - Skiing - With Brianna & Imhof

But then we'd go out again the next night...

From 2008.08.30 - Skiing with Paige, Brandon, Imhof, Austen, Laura and Sam

I did get to hit the ramp a little...

From 2008.09.12 - Skiing - With Sandy & Brandon

And the water...

From 2008.09.12 - Skiing - With Sandy & Brandon

Finally, fall arrived, and the last trip out on the lake...

From 2008.10.12 - Skiing with John & Sandy

Then winter arrived and more nights would end like this...

From 2008.12.29 - CBI

So that's the 2008 in pictures.

Think Tank

2009-02-10T17:08:00.004-06:00

I find it interesting that Think Tank has changed it's name. The reason I've heard is there are two many "think tanks" now and the name wasn't unique.

I think (and this is just my opinion) that they may have changed the name because some call it Drink Tank. So they've now dropped the old name for a new name, and the new acronym is WSCE, and as Steve Locke pointed out on USA Water Ski today...

WSCE (does that sound like whiskey?… just wondering)

So I'll be off to WSCE at the end of February, where they've dropped one drinking name for another.

Barefoot Worlds Coverage on Tales from the Foot

2009-01-28T22:44:00.004-06:00

Barefoot Worlds are going on right now in New Zealand. The best of best are over there tricking, slaloming and jumping. KSO is trying to defend is title.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world, at least those of interested in barefooting, are curious to know what's going on over there. So far, there hasn't been much, if any, official coverage, but I have managed to track down some sources to keep tabs on what's happening.

Instead of having to scour the internet yourself looking for info, I'm doing that for you. Just head over to my barefooting website Tales from the Foot. That link will show you all the World's Barefoot coverage that there is to know about so far.

While you're there, feel free to browse around the whole site.

Going for a Record... 122 Peoples, 1 Very Big Boat

2009-01-27T21:20:00.007-06:00

I wrote about their attempt last year (someone from Tasmanina even stopped by in December 2008 to let me know about this upcoming attempt on Jan 31st.) Well they are going to try it again. The Horsehead Water Ski Club in Tasmania is going to try to set a record. Don't know where that's at? Neither did I, so enter Google Maps, and you find out it's here...

Still not sure where that's at? Well that "island" is off the southern tip of Australia. It is west of New Zealand, if that helps. Here's a link to the location in Google Maps.

Enough geography for today, back to the task at hand. The World Record attempt. The current World Record, at least according to this YouTube video, so it's gotta be true, is 100 skiers.

100 Skiers, 1 Big Boat [video]

Anyways, the Horsehead Water Ski Club is gonna try it again this year. This weekend actually. They gonna try on Saturday, so that would be some time late on Friday here in the states if my international date line logic is current, but it could be wrong.

Anyways, good luck to all the participants in this attempt. You can check out this website for updates. I hope they let the world know how they do.

Heli Front

2009-01-26T12:45:00.003-06:00

I the show skiing world, we've seen barefooters pull front flips, but in the video below we have a guy doing a helicopter pulling a front flip... very nice.

Heli Front [video]

Why is Santa so Jolly?

2008-12-24T18:00:00.002-06:00

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
-George Carlin

A New Holiday Classic

2008-12-23T23:59:00.001-06:00

No, this isn't water skiing related, but it is a relatively new Christmas. This dates back all the to 2005 when Carson Williams put together this little light show for his neighborhood. I'm not sure if it was that year or next, but Miller picked it up for their holiday beer advertising. Then the following year they tried to create their own, but it wasn't nearly as good as the original.

Without further adoo, here is the original Symphony in Lights featuring the Wizards in Winter by TSO...

Symphony in Lights [video]

The Mad-City 2008 National Recap is Online

2008-10-22T21:02:00.002-05:00

I just finished posting Mad-City's National Recap over on the Mad-City website. Once again, it features a highlight clip. Here's the link. If you don't want to read the whole recap and just want to see the video, here it is...

Mad-City 2008 National Highlight Video

Time for a Crash Course

2008-10-15T20:42:00.003-05:00

For those of you that think that doing these crazy tricks on skis, or your barefeet, or hitting the ramp is easy, just watch this video. It features skiers from a professional ski show trying out the new stuff in their spare time and this video shows all the crashes these people go through to land that big stunt in the ski show.

Crash [video]

Spread Eagle Night Shows

2008-10-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

One thing you just don't see very much is water skiing at night. It's just not allowed in most places. Tommy Bartlett's in the Dells would do night ski shows, but in the heart of summer, it just doesn't get very dark until very late, so it usally wasn't done in the full dark very often.

Once in a while the local ski teams around the state of Wisconsin get permission from the local authorities and put on a night show. It's usually a pretty big deal.

The Badwater Ski-Ters put on a night show this past year. They are based way up north in Spread Eagle, WI (yes, it's a real place) and ski on the Menominee River.

Google Map It!

Night show are something you don't get to see very often, but luckily, they put together a little highlight video of their show. Take 10 minutes and check it out.

Badwater Ski-Ters 2008 Night Show

Mad-City 2008 State Highlight Clip is Online!

2008-10-12T20:36:00.004-05:00

I've just posted Mad-City State Highlight Clip online. You have a couple options to view it...

First option is to go to the team's website where there is a state recap online, with a brief recap of the whole weekend, including the video. Here's the link for that.
Next option to start searching YouTube, but that isn't always easy to find what you want.
Third option, is to just stay right here, because I've posted the video below.

Mad-City 2008 State Highlight Clip [video]

Another Couple Peeps Doing 7's

2008-10-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it has finally come to pass. Paul O'Conner of Mad-City is no longer the sole person doing 720's in the show ski world. We have a couple more people to add to the role call now.

First off, we have someone from the Waterhawks in Waterloo, Iowa doing a 7 of the ramp through some fire.

7 Through the Fire [video]

Next, we have a 16-year old named Nick Wilson, from the Lake City Skiers in Warsaw, Indiana land a 7.

16 Throws a 7 [video]

Not sure how consistent either of these people are throwing them yet, but much props to them for landing one. Me, I still spin abot 330 degrees when I throw a heli. Makes skiing away a bit difficult.

Free Style!!!

2008-10-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Way back in the 90s, there was a little sport called Free Style Jump. Back then, they did a whole lot more of the ramp than just flips, gainers and helis. They'd do all of that, then they'd do it on just a single ski, throw in some 1 ski 540's, mobes, back mobes and some other stuff that I'm really not sure what they are and you have some pretty slick free style jumping.

It still exists today to some extent. Now it's called show ski jump, but just a bit tamer. They mainly stick to the three staples (helis, flips and gainers), with a handful of people doing a bit more. You see the occasional 720, some one ski helis, and the vary rare mobious, but you just don't see them vary often. In the show ski world, unless you can stick damn near everytime, it's just not going to make the show. It's too risky when you're going for a state, regional or national championship.

But here are some people that don't care about scores. They just care about making you go "what the hell did I just see?" or "wow" or "holy shit!" and occasionaly make you're jaw drop.

Free Style Jumping [video]

Now some ski teams still push the envelope a little bit. Mad-City has Paul O'Conner who's one of a handfull of people who can through a 720, and probably the only one that lands it consistently. They also have a stable of jumpers so they can put together double 1-ski gainers, or the more traditional triple gainers. There's also Jon Debelak who's skied for RAJ & Badgerland that can through the Mobe and gets to pull it out once in a while.

Some other teams will put together some crazy jumps of people flipping over helis and what not, but nothing like old school free style jumping.

Fey on SNL

2008-09-28T21:24:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm guessing the other hour and 23 minutes weren't this funny, but the first 7 minutes were. In case you missed it, here is Tina Fey from SNL last night.

SNL - Fey doing Palin

Solving the World's Problems

2008-09-11T14:52:00.003-05:00

Here's something from an email chain I typed up today... I was asked if we had solved the world's problems... Here's my response.

And yes we solved the world's problems... the Mad-City Ski will be introducing a new car that runs off the energy generated by big bright show skier smiles. Just keep a shit eating grin on your face and it'll cruise down the highway. Revert to a normal smile and it'll stop damn near immediately. Still working on a way to power boats with this power, but they have a tough time maintaining their smiles as they pull people of the dock (some are concentrating just too hard to smile). Besides solving the world's energy crisis and the issue of road rage (it's just too hard to yell mean things while maintaining this smile), the ski team will make enough money to buy up Monona Bay and all the surrounding land and convert it into the world's best show ski site and ski school. And we also plan to move MG&E's hot water outputs into the bay to keep it heated year round for skiing.

I was then questioned on pissing off the property owners and fisherman, to which I replied...

In my plan, the property owners would be very well off. The team purchases all the land around the bay to plant more trees (wind blocks) and create a huge park/ski site along the south shore of the bay (that is the best shore in the summer with Madison predominate south winds.) Basically, it would be a park all around the bay with the exception of the side with the train tracks on the shore.

Fisherman would be happy too... based on the need to be able to run U shaped patterns, some new breakwaters would be installed in the southwest and southeast corners out in the bay to prevent waves from the U-shaped patterns from interfering with the calm water in the center of the show course. These breakwaters would be planted with trees to both provide additional windblocks and "hide" things that are out of the show course. The side of the breakwaters opposite the main show course would become prime fishing areas based on the new shoreline for small fish to hide which attract larger fish which the fishermen want. Due to the nature of the boat patterns, they'd be able to fish in these locations anytime, including during shows practices.

I can't think of a way to help the ice fishermen though... they'd just be out of luck.

And in case you didn't realize this by now... this is completely fictional and tongue-in-cheek. Not real. Don't be offended or pissed off.

Watch the National Championship Mad-City Show Online

2008-08-19T17:00:00.000-05:00

You can now watch Mad-City's 2008 National Championship Winning Ski Show online. Just go over to WebCast-TV.com and click on the Mad-City link. They also have the other 13 team's shows posted.

Links:
WebCast-TV.com

BFC Wisconsin State Tourny Article

2008-08-15T10:36:00.003-05:00

Over at BarefootCentral.com, one of the many minions Chuck has out reporting on events for him sent in a pretty good article about the Wisconsin State Show Ski Tournament. The article, written by Michael Frank of the Badgerland Ski Team, has lots of pictures from a lot of the shows and a good explanation of what show skiing is and how it's scored. Go check it out.

Link: BarefootCentral Wisconsin State Tournament Recap

7-Man Front Flip

2008-08-15T07:09:00.001-05:00

Tampa Bay's Ski Team did this at the 2000 Nationals in Rockford, IL. To my knowledge, this is a record that still stands today. I don't think I need to write anymore about this, I'll let the video speak for itself.

7-Man Front Flip [Video]