learning to barefoot

Tim:

OK, your plane and plant are fine speed wise as long as you like it. That is more personal than anything. The gyser of water shooting up on some of your planes shows that you are good. You get a good plant, your feet are sliding on the water nice, not too much "bite" into the water, so far so good. Now, here is where the rubber meets the road:

Timing of your action and the boat's acceleration are key. The better they synch up, the easier it will be to ski. [Driver tip: once you plant, and the driver wait 1 or 2 seconds, just to give you a second to adjust and ready yourself of the acceleration. After that 1 or 2 monments, have him FIRMLY accelerate you to your top speed. 38? 40? or whatever]

In that moment or 2, after you plant, put the weight on your chest, and get your crotch off the water. Feet still sliding. This is the 3-point. I think you were "there" already in the videos.

Now, dad is going to start accelerating. You need to start bending (getting the butt up in the air) and start turning your feet down to get more bite into the water. This is a timing thing on how much bite, and how much bend relative to dad's acceleration. Andy would say "fold like lawn furniture." Willie would say "push down with your chest and chin." None of those thoughts worked well for me. I mostly stayed flat and did not progress, the speed would increase, the water got hard and could not get any bite.

So, how to get "bent?"

Don Mixon Jr. said to curl your lower back like you are "pulling out" having sex. (crude, I know). But it worked.!! As soon as I got set in my 3-point, heard the boat accelerate, I would "pull-out", push on the chest, turn the feet down, pull out, push on the chest, etc...Next thing you know I am off the water!

This is what worked for me, and maybe you too.

The point is to progress at the on-set of speed. Your butt up in the air, will cause more pull off the water. At all times when bending, keep the chin as close to the water as possible and you will not get pulled out the back, I assure you.

I don't want to minimize the importance of soem of the things the guys were saying like planting narrow, or turning the feet down. Honestly I made 10 or 20 LLBD before I ever started focusing on that stuff. At present, Andy is on me to work on those now. I think if you get too many things you are trying to do, you do none well.

As far as ropes go, your call. I just notices when you missed your start, it snapped back into the boat. A bouncy rope never helped me do anything better, that is all I know.

TRBenj wrote: My form is missing something somewhere... I might be taking baby steps as Im at least able to get my chest and chin off the water- but its still way too much of a struggle (groin). Even once my chest is up, I feel like my feet arent underneath me- like Im skiing on the inside of my feet. Ive had a taste of how easy it should be and this is not it! The rope is made from Lake Elmo's 16 strand TAC (HDPE). Its not bad, but a little stretchier than the thin BI line I have (spectra?). That BI line is always a knot fest, but I'll switch if you think its important.

Tim,
These starts are all so familiar. You're so close it's scary.

First off, you're waiting an awful long time to take your feet off the rope and planted on the water. The longer you wait, the slower your driver needs to go. You can see on every one of your starts, you start porpoising. There's only two ways to stop that....put your feet in the water or the driver needs to slow down until you put your feet in the water. You can see the common denominator here right? It's fine doing it the way that you're doing it, but the driver needs to stay sharp. With repetition, that should become easier for you.

All I keep seeing is you trying to get up with you're feet so friggin' wide yet. The reason you're having difficulty getting up is your feet (and thus legs) are so wide. When you finally do turn your toes down to get up, you're feet in reality are still angled out at roughly 30-45 degrees. That's why you feel like your skiing on your ankles...because that's exactly what you're doing!!!! Your legs and feet are so wide that you can't get your toes turned straight down. Being so wide to start only gets exaggerated as speed increases from the water pressure wanting to push your feet out even further. Get your feet closer together at the start and hold it there. Then you can easily turn your feet straight down easily. A really small detail that will make a HUGE difference that's immediately noticeable.
Remember, as soon as you get your feet planted on the water and speed starts to increase, you constantly tell yourself to touch your heels together. You'll never be able to truly do it but the idea is to over-exaggerate what you want your legs and feet to do. Your brain is still telling you that your feet and legs are fine. You need to build some muscle memory for your brain to understand.
Once your feet and legs are narrower, lock in that position and wait for speed....RELAX! I can't stress that enough. RELAX! PATIENCE. Then in one smooth, controlled motion you turn your feet straight down toward the bottom of the lake (but toes pulled up toward your knees), lift your ass in the air and push your chest into the water.

As you start to come up, you'll feel spray from your feet hitting your chin. As soon as you don't feel that spray anymore, stop raising up or you'll just keep going over backwards. Then squat down a little bit with a bend in your knees. You could probably even bring your legs together a little bit more at this time now. Then just enjoy the ride!

I tell everybody who wants to listen, you have to train your body (and your brain) to feel how hard the water is on your body. You need to FEEL the water on your feet, then your thighs, then your torso and finally your chest. As it gets harder, you'll know when you can start to make that one smooth controlled sweep of the feet, ass and chest. The boat will actually want to pull you off the water when you have speed (just like on the short line). Go too soon (like everybody does) and your feet will submarine. Unfortunately, that only comes with repetition. Trying to count for this step sucks. Different drivers, pulls and boats make the counting method unreliable. Feeling how hard the water is on your feet, legs, torso and chest make any pull from any driver behind any boat a snap. The water always feels the same at the speed you need no matter how fast or how slow you get there.

It's looking great so far. Just keep thinking to bring your feet together some more, relax and let the boat do the work.

Hi Tim, guys-
The only thing I can possibly add here that I haven't seen mentioned yet is shoe skiing. I'd recommend you solidify your starts on the shoes then go to your feet. While I'm still not 100% with my LLBDs yet I will tell you that the shoes helped me.
Sorry I didn't think of that when I was there in August. I had my Scarpa trainers and Steve was using them for some back deep starts on the boom one evening.

I can pop them in the mail for you if you'd like.

-Brad

TRBenj wrote: I feel like everything Im doing with my ass and chest are just fine... theyre actually overcompensating for poor leg/feet position. If I can correct that, I think I'm golden.

Exactly!!! I totally agree.

Keep in mind, if you feel comfortable with a wider plant initially, that's fine. You just try and touch your heels together as soon as you feel the boat accelerating. Then just hold that position and wait for speed.
Everything else should take care of itself.

backfoot100 wrote: I tell everybody who wants to listen, you have to train your body (and your brain) to feel how hard the water is on your body.

THAT, is one helluva good tip!

Allright, I think I am pretty close to where Tim is. Got out yesterday for more attempts. Focused on feeling the water; feet, quads, chest. It's starting to come together, a little more attention to bend over. Attempt #4 and #7 were VERY close. In #4, you may be able to hear HW saying turn your feet down, I think that would have done it. #7, I believe I was up and then forgot to lean away from the boat, and got pulled out the back - DANG! Baby step progress, but it's progress and that's huge for me!

Let me know if you see anything else. Not sure if there is much more to say then whats been said in the previous posts, just getting it to all gel in my head on the water, so the brain can tell the body what to do. Here you go:



BTW, on a completely seperate note, If you watch these in HD, Johnny took the video and did some AWESOME camera work, I think this is the best technically shot video I have seen from this camera. Interestingly enough, I down graded the video to 720, and the pixelation of the water spray is pretty funny, but I digress

all excellent attempts,

on plant try to cock toes towards shins more to smooth things out

you are narrowing too soon the stance...this is the place where I try to explain that you FREEZE...dont try to fight your way up you will see stars and generate alot of torque...thats trying too hard...freeze in position...ass up...3 point and WAIT...til you are going 25-30...then you can "try" to get up.


I actually gas pedal to get up or Id just be sliding on my face forever...

also dont forget the boom...add extra rope like 5ft to a 5ft handle...do a backdeep there then go try your LL's...a few times then get back on the boom and make a successful start...positive reinforcement......shoeskis wont let you stuff your feet in so they could help with getting the cocked foot/toes Im talking about

the rate of acceleration is too fast=harsh...needs a bit slower but steadily increasing ...your driver needs to add some deftness to the throttle control.


in your mind a LLBD is about twice as long as a boom backdeep...at least

Seb - I guess I am a bit pig headed. Not a SFH, its an old AL Fly-high (2 piece) on an extended pylon, puts the top about 7 feet above the dog house.

Andy, your right I should go back to the boom, or try the shoe ski's, Our daylight is getting so short and I feel like we have been making progress each time. Perhaps its time to concede and go back to the shoes or boom.

Kevin (Hollywood) was driving, he is awesome and I completely trust his judgement, he was picking up the pace because he felt I was getting bored... Last couple of times out (didn't post those vids) we went REALLY slow - this was really good as it taught me how to control and get stable in the plane. Again, part of the slow steady progression, I feel I am making. Everytime I get comfortable in stage, I allow the muscle memory to take over and can focus on tweaking.God Bless him and Jonny for their patience. All of you guys too for your encouragement and tip.

Oh, and I don't see anything! My eyes are probably closed most of the start.

fantactic feed back here. Will me sure to try it out next time out...if only I could go..lol...

Here is my first LLBD. Long enough ago that it is sad that I don't nail this EVERY time. You can see how wide I am, but notice the first thing you see is my ass coming up:

Roy - I think that just became my favorite SacFooter video, love your cheering section, honestly who was happier that day you or Willie and Andy - awesome! Your second and 3rd looked like you really had it down too, so natural. Ok, now I just need to get it done by Oct. 25, maybe I need to move to the dry suit...

Eddie - good explanation on the freeze, the hardest part is going to be to wait, your right, it does feel like 40mph, but I'll wait longer. I guess in my head I am thinking if I get going too fast, I won't be able to turn my feet down, but now sitting at a desk, rationally that doesn't make sense, its very easy to break the water, think standing back up after a tumble. OK - New focus for the next trip out. Thanks everybody!!!

Think about how far you travel before standing on a front longline deepwater start then next time you rush the BD see how far you got...usually about 50ft...not near enough space to smoothly gain the necessary speed of 25 to 30