learning to barefoot

The "side slide" is tricky, but doable. Watch this video of a clinic I was in with andre. Even though the music is playing, there is one part where he shows how to place the foot on the water while riding the boom. Look what he does 2:50 into the video.

Footin' with Andre

The boom needs to be real high. I jacked my knee in that clinic when my foot caught the water with my foot sideways. I think it is a trick you can learn any time you are ready. GlassSeeker taught it to himself cuz nobody out here knew how to do it. 360 deg. turns is a whole different deal. You will need to learn to ski backwards first! Watch this:

Learning Backwards

of course I would not try this tricks now..just thinking ahead..LOL
I really got hit by the BF bug really hard...

I wrote the final chapter on this video over the weekend by being able to ride the back one foot on both sides. if you watch this video, many unseen back headpackers were taken trying to learn this technique, with more to come I am sure. the shoe skis help a lot, but only get you so far. I always went back to the shoes when I made little progress.

Learning Back One-Foots


Still need lots of work, mainly keeping the ankle flexed when I lift it, and knee bend on my reverse.

and of those two things the most important one is keeping the lifted foot in ski position and not pointing the toe since then you gas pedal the ski foot and lose balance and glide. dryland practice picking up and setting down in the right position...alot to break that natural response/habit.

PS our friend Joe J rebuilt his Sanger DXII engine, stroked it and tricked it out and GPS speed was 59MPH and change! ...I gotta buy a stroker for mine!

These are from Keith St. Onge's World Barefoot Training Center. I couldn't rip a picture, but here is the link to view them:

KSO Shoe Skis

I had some of the hard Barefoot International shoe skis, but did not like them too much. Shin bangers. I like these. They are comfortable, and a bit forgiving, like a foot. Not too big, not too small.

Yes he's on the water. 59mph and still fine tuning, may try another prop, and change some other things but I'd say 59 is plenty.

OK, I went out and ripped a set yesterday morning. Worked on (2) things: Tumble turns (an art form according to Willie Farrell) and Long Line back deeps. Willie kept hollering at me to cross the wake, backwards. I asked, "how do you do that." Willie said, "just figure it out. Do it like your life depends on it." So I did just that. In this video you will see me making my first backward wake crossings. Kind of fun, but a little hairy! LOL...

Footing with Back Wakes

Back ones are loooking good! You'll be posing for the camara and throwing up the "Muscle Man" soon.

Dude, the suit looks vicious.

nice video!!!
water is awesome...

little over one minute..actually I was out last saturday with a buddy...evening...went for test drive of the boat after strut alligment..
litle windy..went to a no ski zone that was nice...put all the gear..but it was full of coast guards patrols around, it seems the retunr to the base throughg that place...I waited for them to go..hit the water...and ban there was another there....stopped me..hey no ski zone here!!! and you should have a spotter there also!!!I was lucky they were going home...they ask me for the papers and let me go..I could have gotten a ticket...
only got to use it 2 minutes..though it felt good..no cold at all.
This weekend I won't be able as I'm been in bed this last 2 days after I cought a cold...
maybe with some luck I will be ready to rip it next weekend....
I'm doing lots of tricks in my dryland practice though

Well Sebastian, I will give you a little inspiration on those cold nights in the Argentine. It finally got hot here in Sacramento, California (Usually hot mid-May). I took in 3 days of barefooting. 2 at my club, and 1 at the Port of Sacramento which has a 20 mile deepwater channel that was a sheet of glass:

Sheridan Footin'

This glass will blow your mind, 20 miles of it:

Port Footin'

I worked on a surface hop as a new technique, had some nice front wakes, and still struggling with crossing the wake backwards.   heading out toight for a set at a private ski lake. Hope to get some footage there.

Kristof..I´d like to see your footing progress...any late video?

Ok, so I have been following this thread since near the begining. Always wanted to barefoot, tried the step off thing when I was a kid, could never get it. Then over the winter my oldest daughter (12) said, "Dad I really want to learn to barefoot this summer." Not sure where that came from but always want to encourage that type of behavior.

So at the point I decided if we are going to do this, we need to do it to minimize any suffering so she sticks with it. I figured best way to do that is to get some help. So I started looking for a ski school, ideally I would find an instructor that could relate to a 12 year old girl. Low and behold I found Elaine Heller (cowzrus.net), who instructs in WI just a few hours from my in-laws. Doing a little research, I found out she is the 2009 World Womens Champion. How cool. Anyway she is a sophomore in college and wow did her and my daughter connect. We spent a day at their lake and both of us were footing on the short line after three 30 minute sessions. Here is a quick video compilation from last week. First shot is my daughters first pass on the short rope(she forgets to go to the 3 point and blows out the front) Second shot is at the end of the 2nd 30 minute session.

Footin Syd

I have a about the same form (although my three point isn't as compact). Love to hear your feed back, we'll post more videos as we get out there. Now forever in search of that perfect water...

30 minutes to short line, good for you guys. That's the way to have a vision, set a goal and do something about it. Your daughter had to be stoked with that kind of progress. Guess there is something to what they say about good instruction and good equipment.