learning to barefoot

Agree with Glassseeker on keeping your toe leg bent, or not letting it stretch you out. That will help the retrieval process and keep you from catching your heel.   

I ski with straight arms as well. I think that it allows me to be more relaxed. However, when people ski Keith ski with his arms in, it certainly can work. I think that most show skiers that learn to back barefoot by back stepping usually have their arms in as it is necessary to get taller. So that can have some carry over as well. Since you aren't keith, I would experiment with straight arms, and perhaps you will end up somewhere in the middle. In addition to just ll onefoots, have you ever just hooked your foot over the line. You can hook and push down on the top of the foot, and that allows you to get tall like the back toe.. A very good simulation. Another twist is to work on back toes in the front toe handle. If you think its far now, you really have to reach and keep good form to get it. It will make the back toe handle feel like cheating lol.

Did we skip rule number one?

Find flat water!

go over on the other side of the wake and do the same thing and your reverse will be easier over there.

and I have the same comment as the back toes...(squeeze the cup)try to scissor your legs more to get the rope directly over and inline with the skifoot---I think this is the only reason for the instability and tracking issue. It works, try it.

really you ski well enough that you can still do those toeholds whether you are in the right position or not...they will be easier and more stable just line up the foot and the rope.

Thanks....Yes I see the alignment can be an issue. Will try it and provide some feedback.

The best way would be feet to feet. It would depend on how high you jump in relation to how far away from the boat. The higher the force you hit the water with and higher chances of punching through. You are going to want full speed on your boat. But, it is a similar motion to a 2-ski jump out. Those are easiest feet to feet. Handle in to absorb the landing is good, but you want solidly, but then immediately absorb the landing with soft knees. It is a delicate ratio. If you lean back a bunch you will load the line and your feet will be plowing and not gliding. Conversely too clean or too stiff and rigid will cause you to punch through. You can easily slide into a 3 point. But you don't want to be thinking 3 point from the get go.. that will be too easy to land but first and you will get rocked for sure if you land that way. Think about jumping further away from the boat and going horizontally and less upward pop to make the landings less harsh till you get the hang of it.

Don't do it like this. Try to land softly (ya right) on your feet.

Aaahhh noo.. a step off will always be easier than any form of bombout.. why are you straddling the gunnel if you are on a ski.. if its to stay dry, lean over the bar with your weight resting on your stomach, as soon as you have enough speed drop down and walk your hands back to the handle. You will have too much side spray to ski right next to the boat.

A little more clarification would help.

The high boom combined with her light weight and her boat doesn't have nearly the side spray that most nautiques have all contribute to her success. I would think that should be able to through enough of the side spray to make it work.. or grab the boom, work your way out and inch back to the handle. The fastest would be to get on the ski quickly. You should be able to slalom on a high boom at a very low speed, and as the boat accelerates you will cutting away from the spray, should be nbd.

Roy - come on you know who that is, That's Elaine Heller, #1 or #2 skier at the last couple of worlds, I believe she still holds the Jump world record. What's really crazy is driving for her, my only comment was, sure I'll drive, but no crazy stuff, I would feel wrecked if you get hurt while I am driving - HA!

I don't have video but with a non-extended boom and a 5 ft handle we used to swing in and swing out at speed...a gunnel step out/in....most of my old barefoot crew did it all the time but I can only swing out, can't swing in because I have super high arches--flat feet help here bigtime to get a fast quick cut to the boom/gunnel.

Andre has tips here:   Boat Jump out / in

To you old timers...remember when tumble turns were cool and got ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd? Man, I'm feeling old.

Ok, yep got it, here is the method that Ryan and Andy were explaining. A little different then Elaine's technique, which I believe just requires great one foot ability. I believe when I tried this (this video)I had a little slack in the rope which was catastrophic...

Paul McDonald does the over-the-gunnel step out AND in method bacwards in one of his BFC Freestyle Challenge videos. My rope is not long enough, that's my excuse! kapla, when are you going to tighten that inner cable??

75 Tique wrote: To you old timers...remember when tumble turns were cool and got ooohs and ahhhs from the crowd? Man, I'm feeling old.

Good point Larry, It is amazing to me how easy it looks by a pro. Or when you are at a ski school or in a clinic it seems so much easier to accomplish new things. But when I am out with my local skiers on a routine weekend the progress is so slow and takes so much effort. B. Paige make a good point last summer stating he skies 7 days week/ 30 days a month - year round. I ski on average 30 - 40 days per year give or take a few. At that rate it takes years to accomplish some of the things we see in the videos. Great sport but not an easy one to master.

tbeard wrote: Great sport but not an easy one to master.

This is exactly why it can keep your attention for years.