learning to barefoot

After a while, as good as the talent is, the pro freestyle videos can end up being the same old stuff and a little boring. Some new stuff in B. Paige's. His rope around the neck start is pretty stupid, to me, but check out the start at 3:50. Also a possible neck breaker, but a pretty interesting maneuver.


BFC Videos

I tend to agree, Larry. Impressive, but it seems they are all trying to out-Andre, Andre. Frankly he was doing most of that stuff years ago, and I credit him with the explosion of barefoot freestyle. Agree also on the handle around the neck. I commented on Fasebook when the video came out that it was a poor choice. Not to sound too parental, but it puts out a bad message: you gotta put yourself at risk to get attention. There was some kid jumping over a dock last year at one of Chucky's barefoot shows in Texas that if he did not clear the dock he would get jacked up.

Freestyle Barefooting could have weight divisions...

Brenden Flyweight
Andre Heavyweight

Of course they are emulating Andre, he is the reigning king of freestyle. It is not easy coming up with new tricks.


There is a true story of a CO footer who fell in a tournament in the neckhold and the handle bent and wrapped around his neck...by the time anybody got to him/the boat got back/ he was dead. I have cut off my teeth holds and I don't put my head in handles just some silly rules I go by.

the neck and teeth tricks were reduced in points to discourage them from being done at tournys...most everybody used to do them.

I love Randy Filter's flipping backdeep...it has a potential to go badly.
I may have to risk that one.

Figure out a way to get that video on youtube!!!!!

I have posted this here before but it's surely worth a look again.

watch for the flipping back deep...

hey is it possible to embeb FB vids here?

there´s a nice frenchie 80´s vid with Ron Scarpa I believe, doing some funny stuff, and also side slides!

screen shots!

one of my friends does what we call the superman where on the end of a backwards run as the boat loses speed he drops down like a reverse backdeep lets go with one hand and spins to the front on his belly/cup, when done right looks super smooth and easy and it is alot harder than it looks.

Not Peter...(Peter Fleck?) Randy Filter.

Seb,
I saw that vid on FB, Scarpa is sidesliding, he does something like the superman I described above, it is a good video...shows how long the sideslide has been around...kinda funny how Scarpa had to re-learn it on BFC with Chuck I thought that was kind of strange.???



EDIT**** It's called the Sandman...he learned it from Brett Sands

Geez Larry that sounds kind of knarly...getting back down on your belly at 40 or 42 is kind of uncomfortable to put it lightly.

if you've got it on to DVD you are almost there.
the files are on the DVD you can just upload them to Youtube...it's not that hard...you've done the hard part.

I need to get my act together and get my vhs on to dvd. I have a guy faceplanting on the jump ramp that is wild.

More Randy Filter footing on youtube would be a good thing. I hope you load it up and post a link.

Guys,
I made 3 or 4 LL deepwater attempts on Friday none of which were successful. My trouble is that I can't get outside of the wake on my butt. I also have poor control LL whether attempting to cheek out of the wake or not. Notice how I'm bucking all over the place. My comfortable spot is on the driver side just outside of the wake. You'll see that I ended up planting on the opposite side and then got pulled back into the wake before I got comfortable enough to gain control. What's wrong? Greg Fossett was my driver for this and he was attempting to "sling" me out of the wake, but you'll see that I still couldn't make anything of it. Critiques welcome.

Steve LL deepwater attempt 4

Thanks for the input. I did stand a couple of times inside the wake, but the turbulence was too much. What's the secret to cheeking out? Is it just practice? As you can see, it was a rough ride.

Steve, those starts look a lot like my starts when I started skiing behind the boat. It was hard to tell from the video, but are you using a ski rope. There ia a lot of bouncing going on back there. A non-stretch rope will help a lot. The pull you got looked good enough, so no correction there. For me cheeking out is a timing issue. As soon as you plane out and can sit up, start driving to one side ot another. Naturally one side will be easier, but practice both. A friend best described like turning on a knee board, where you weight the rear kneeboard corner of the side you want to turn on. Same thing cheeking. It is not enoug to roll onto a cheek. lean back and to the side and drive your cheek/hip into the water. If you do this as the boat is accelerating you will drive your cheek into the soft water and get some "bite" like a rail of a kneeboard or wake board. Once you have the edge, don't let up. You will cut hard and drive outside the wake. It mght bounce you a time or two, but hold on. If you get to the edge of the wake, but not out, immediately drive to the other side. That is plan B. Plan C is you make sure you have speed and get up in the wake. Communicat this to your drive: "OK driver, I ma going to cheek left, if I don't make it, cheek right, if not hammer it and I will get up in the wakes.

Standing up in the wake is certainly and acquired taste. It takes practice like Holly wood said. You can get used to it by skiing into in and hang out fot a bit, turn left, turn right and get used to the texture. Biggest trap standing in the wakes is standing up early and getting pulled out the front when the boat accelerates. When I miss a cheek out, Andy will make me stand up in the wakes a couple of times. Wille never cheeks out. He stands right up.

Bottom line you gotta get your cheek dug in and as soon as you can. lean back and into the turn. Best of luck.

One other thing that might help, I noticed this made me a lot more stable when I was just starting out. Lock those elbows at your sides, it is amazing how much that helps stop the flapping around back there. The other thing you might think about is just slowing everything down. get on top of the water, and establish a STABLE butt glide, at 20-25 mph, when your stable then roll on to your cheek and lean away as Roy describes (Elbows locked at the side). As you roll over the wake, settle and get stable. Then give the line a flip as a signal for the speed, then transition to 3 point and then stand. ON the water it will feel like forever, but from the camera perspective it will just look controlled and deliberate.

Having said all that, I got sick of trying to cheek out and just butt glide to the left or right of the prop wash and stand up there, much easier to ski into the curl then try to cheek there (IMO)... HA!

you could add some length to the rope(ZERO stretch!) 90 or 100 ft to get you behind the wash while you practice cheeking out and or standing up right in the wake. Bouncing will go away on it's own.

some people like the driver to help, I don't think that's a good idea. driver drives a straight line---as always. then follow what Roy said plus be sure you have some barefoot shorts under your barefoot suit because you slide twice as good as without them.

elbows can be a little like pontoons, I find as soon as the boat takes off I drive the whole right side of my body down and point my feet wayyyy to the right, the handle is nailed to my belt line, my weight is focused on my right hip and cheek, arms bent, elbows out to sides and down a little, the right elbow will act a little like a limiter(pontoon) on how far I can lean so I don't roll onto my face.

Steve you could have planted and stood up alot earlier anywhere at all.
Don't get hung up on having to get out of the wake to get up. once you plant feet and stand you can steer where you want to go, the long rope will make the wake a non issue.

Another little trick we've figured out is to loosen your grip slightly on your left hand which transfers most of the pull to your right hand which helps to drive your right side into the water during the beginning of a deepwater start.