learning to barefoot

Tough to drive and video, wish I had the pass prior to this

http://youtu.be/NqN-4edznW4

NCH20SKIER wrote: So after looking for a third person to join today's fun we (Steve Watkins) ended up with just the two of us so no pics or video other than one very poor attempt. Conditions could not have been much better, Steve nailed every long line, 2 flyers and was on his way up bacerds on the boom. Some additional time and perhaps some driving improvements and I am confident that the bacerds will become reality

Greg,
It was a great time and you're right, the conditions could not have been better. The driving improvements were needed alright but only when I was behind the wheel. The 206 is awesome, your company was excellent and the driving impeccable IMO. Your footing was pretty damn impressive too.

Let's do it again. I'll get better at pulling the back deeps, but only with practice.

Going to try this link thing again



Steve

Got a little footing in this weekend...and 3 first timers. Started with some boom work, but everybody got on their feet.

My cousin- water was a little rough to start...



Tiny bit of spray



Much better...gotta love any time the dismount is purposeful. He does a good job of riding on his butt and not jamming his feet, although they are still way far out. We'll work on up and down next time.



Then yesterday...gotta love these guys for getting out and giving it a go. Neither have ever barefooted before and well, some of the falls demonstrate that. This was the first attempt, I told him I would yell when it was time to turn, you will notice I never yelled, he tried to pull his feet around at about 10...



Figuring it out. He just could not wrap his head around get up, then ride, then sit down on your butt and do it again...that's what that weird crouch is about 40 seconds in



Tried one last time to get him down on his butt...nothing doing



Third guy, no concept of getting his knees up, he just decided to pull them on through



Then one of his feet flew back and he decided to get cocky and try to keep it up...once it was there he couldn't get it back down, which ultimately led to his demise



Gold medal wipeout



Good position until I told him to drop down to his butt, which he did, he just couldn't figure out how to pick his feet up.



Never tried this before...not bad, but way too far forward on the landing. I doubt I ski that one away on a rope



Much better



Cheers guys, happy memorial day!

they've been sending me pictures of bruises all day from dragging their legs through the water...that's why the camera is the best training tool...look at where your feet were dummy!

Wow Larry, you really went the long way around those skis...it looks like you went around the outside of them. I called my dad before trying on the boom just to see what to do and he told me to start wide and try to land between the skis...is that different from your approach? You did bring them back together in the air, but still...

Also, not gonna lie, when you said "What could go wrong" I was really hoping for a wipeout, haha

Of course I am a bit proud of that as you don't see too many bombouts around here, even by footers a lot better than me. Only other one I've seen in person is TRBenj (October 2007) I tried to do one to show the guys and failed miserably (see Keith's Northeast Amateurs video in the video section or youtube) and then Tim tried (I believe his first time) and skied away.

But, giving credit where due, the best CCF bombout I've seen (on tape) is Hollywood's W2W.


http://s227.photobucket.com/user/rharold/media/MVI_1070.mp4.html

I've never once landed on my skis and sometimes it looks more like I "walk out" than bomb out. Feet to feet!

Great trick hw!

Seb, that is bad news. I have lived with herniated disks (L5 & S1) for almost 20 years now. So far I have avoided surgery, despite ending up in the hospital 3 times (the initial injury and then 2 re-injuries). Do everything you can to avoid surgery (although a slipped disk, might be different then herniated disk). I know too many people that have come out disc repair surgery in worse shape then they went in. Every time I have ended up in the hospital, I have been able to get things back to normal, through Physical Therapy. My problem is I don't have the discipline to keep up with the exercises. Physical Therapy is all focused on CORE strength, the benefit of that is all good for barefooting. It's amazing the number of little things that you can do to activate different muscles to properly do things, from picking up a pencil to sitting in a car or at a desk to barefooting. Good luck and get better soon!

Lost in translation...i have an herniated disc actually...
It sure hurts like hell!

     Both myself[2X] and my brother have had back surgeries for herniated discs back in the 90's and have resumed all normal activities including lots of barefooting. I personally would not fear surgery...have gone the rest, therapy, etc routes and always ended up under the knife to get the fix. There is no worse pain than that nerve pain from the sciatic nerve!! Most of these procedures have come a long way with great success rates.

jbear wrote: sure sorry to hear that Kap...but you can get it fixed. I had a herniated disk between L4 & L5 years ago. (mid 80's maybe?) had arthoscopic (sp) on it and went back to work climbing phone poles and skiing. Sometimes still bothers me a bit.....but I ain't getting any younger. Still skiing! Good luck! john

Larry...love the grave jumps...used to be a favorite trick for me and Bill..also had a friend named Gary B that was very good...been a long time since I tried any of those!

IAughtNaut wrote: ...now that would be a great video, where the combined age of the skiers is what, 173? haha! and still putting us young fools to shame...

Adam, Here are Bill (70) me (58) and JBear (62) last year, cumulative age, 190.

(If you missed it or don't remember it, here is a compilation of runs from when the Berrys and Monahans stopped in at 7 Lakes last year onteh way to White Lake.)

Berry-Monahan footing at 7L

Just to provide some clarification, a slipped, ruptured or herniated disk is the same thing, in contrast to a bulging disk. A bulging disk is just a bit deformed and can push on nerves, resulting in pain. With a slipped, ruptured or herniated disk, the outer "shell" of the disk is (as the name would suggest) ruptured, allowing the contents of the disk to squeeze out. I had a major break in a disk, and a big hunk of it was hanging out of line from my spine. My doc told me how disk treatment is varied (medicine, rest, PT....) but in my case, its time to schedule surgery and 3 weeks later I had it done. I can not see living with disk pain. Get it fixed!! I had it done in Oct and was footing the next summer. To answer Dave's question in my case, I probably had disk issues all along, but I think the footing exacerbated it, though I would never admit that to my wife who said my foolishness led to the problem. I just remember one outing when I tweaked my back and it was the end of that season that I started having the major issues.

Got back out this am for a couple of attempts before heading out of town. I can tell that this will be a frustrating process but it IS going to happen. Conditions and driving were perfect but the skier remains a bit (lot) out of shape but is working on that as well.

Greg's Backerds Attempts 01