learning to barefoot

Greg, not sure myself on the "one-foot plant" method. Small taught a friend of mine (Big Dave Hunt) to ski that way. My chief complaint of the shoes to learn backwards is that the beginning backwards skier does not have the "touch" required to ease the foot in proper position on the water. You can see your foot (shoe) grabs big bites of water and throws you around a lot. Try setting both feet on the water, or with no shoes and see what happens. Agreed with HW you were haulong @ss speed-wise.

I learned to foot back with the shoes, firt good attemp on shoes and I moved right to barefeet...there´s lees feel with the shoes...
My friend Julio had hard time on the transition from shoes to foot...Had to force him the hard way to do the change...

That guy might be the worlds best footer but the driving was crap... Waaaaaaay too fast. That's a recipe for an injury.

I don't care for the 1-foot plant method either, but that might be personal peference. Telling you to control your bouncing with the shoulders, what a terrible thing to be teaching a backwards newbie. It might be true but it's an advanced technique to compensate for a pull that's too fast. The driver should just do you a favor and give you the proper speed (10-12mph) until your plant is solid. There are 10 more important things to be focusing on before your shoulders, sheesh.

75 Tique wrote: I'm not expert at coaching, but I don't see the one foot at a time exercise at all. To me, the only thing that can lead to is one leg whipping around up to your head causing a severe groin or muscle pull. With two feet in, one foot can compensate if the other foot goes in a little to hard/fast and catches.

Now I don't see how one foot in the water will compensate for a catch of the other. It may prevent a groin pull in severe cases but otherwise you just spin out like a top. I have never seen anyone recover from one buried heel with both feet off the rope.

The one foot on the rope will let you recover and start over without a "fall" in most cases. If your groin can't handle it or you just don't like it then fine don't do it but it definitely is a time saving method.

I hear what you are saying Kevin, and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. I got hurt kind of badly the first summer I worked on it when both my legs got flung up around my head. Knocked me out of doing much for a couple weeks. And I did that planting both legs at once. I can see what you are saying about with one foot you just spin around. I guess my point was, I see people stuggle with intermediate "learning aid" steps, when sometimes they can be bypassed to start progressing. As you observed, Greg never really got a good plant with one foot. Maybe if he goes right to two feet, he will get a better sense of the glide. I remember when I was first learning to trick. My instructor said I had to master a side slide before 180s or 360s. I could never get the side slide (keep in mind here, I was 13 at the time....1968 just to put it in perspective) I finally gave up on that and just started spinning. I kind of have the same feeling about making people "master" a three point glide when learning to front deep water start. I'm not sure that's critical either. It can be tough to hold a decent 3 point sometimes, when if they just put their feet down from a butt glide, they will be on their way.

Hollywood wrote: As a driver I'm a fan of mastering each step instead of constantly turning around fall after fall.

Sure am glad I have Eddie as driver/teacher....he has spent a lot of time 'turning around' for me. Especially lately as I relearn the LLBD..really having a struggle.




john

kapla wrote: for the FB followers theres a nice talk going on there WBC vs BFC! lol I know each keep their own business, but I think instead of figthing each other they should all contribute in helping the growth of the sport, no matter if you are into 3 event or Frestyle....

Wow! This FB feud you reference just showed up on my news feed. Gleason comes off really bad in this thing. I've bought a few things from him in the past, but I gotta tell you, after reading that garbage, I can only think that it will hurt his business moving forward. Definitely from me.

I havent seen the recent iteration that Kap referenced, will probably look it up. But that feud erupted a year or two ago. For some reason the two schools of thought FS vs 3 event cant seem to accept the other school exists or is any good, which is goofy. Chuck does come off as a bit of a jerk, but he does that often, in fact I believe I have read where he refers to himself as the footer people love to hate...in other words he knows he's a bit of a tool. I soured on him when our Keith told me how Chuck screwed him and CCF out of the sale of a number of custom Nautique vests that were only supposed to be sold though this site. Chuck likes to ride on the shoulders of ADV and seems to idolize him in unnatural ways. Which makes you wonder about his objectiveness with those freestyle video contests.

Looks like I finally get to throw my hat into the infamous Learning to Barefoot thread.

I took my first steps into the world of footing two days ago at Lake Shangri-La in Wisconsin.

With the help and tutelage of Mr. Steve K (Skutsch) and Ryan (some of you know him as the Mastercraft Barefoot 200 guy at Green Lake Reunions) I got onto my own bare feet.

It only took about 30 attempts, severe sunburn, a left arm that no longer works, and a sinus that will be leaking lake water for 9 months........but I got up.

I'll let the video that Steve made speak for itself.



What a great day with friends at the lake!!!

To be honest, Chris did AWESOME. I think the video contained all but one or two of his attempts. So more like 12 to 15, not 30.

Chris, I apologize, little did I know it was so hard to drive and teach. Now looking at the video, I can see immediately what you were doing wrong all those times. Look at your feet, you were forgetting to flex the top of your feet to your shin bone when you transition from the butt glide to the 3 point. The first time you stood up, you actually did that. Something to think about going forward.

BTW, the last still picture, is his first official "head packer" you can tell because even though he has his eyes shut, he is still smiling. He has no idea what awaits in about 20 milliseconds... I believe this to be where your arm went numb!

Nice job Chris! I was reading your trailer thread when you posted this and I was thinking, all the work this guy did on his trailer I hope he gets that boat in the water and skis already...mission accomplished!

Its crazy how close your feet are too the bar when you have them hooked on the rope, you are one tall dude.

As one of the worst/least experienced footers on here, let me jump in and throw my opinion at you.

Number one, nose tape. For real. Clear medical tape, at any CVS or Walgreens...best $3 you'll ever spend. Shouldn't leave the boat. You will exclusively be a mouth breather while you're wearing it, worth it.



I'm watching that video going, I know exactly what he's going through, I was doing the same exact thing a couple months ago, as chronicled on p98 of this thread. You're letting your arms out before you plant. I personally had a hard time with thinking, "I know my arms need to be straight, let me just do that before I stand up and get it out of the way". As soon as you do that, your back lays flat down on the water. If you look at the two you skied away, you raised your back ever so slightly as you planted and you were able to stand up. The trick for me was to keep that handle at my waist until I was already on my feet, then let it out. As soon as I figured that out, I was up every time. It was hard for me to figure out the timing, or maybe the order, when do I put my feet in, how straight is my back, and when do I let my arms out...it just took me practice. Nothing bad happens with the handle on your belt.

Keep at it man, look forward to more videos and progress!

Chris, you have your arms backwards. In on the start and out on the finish. That boom is really high, which amplifies the butt bouncing (caused from having the handle away from your waist). Are you wearing any padded shorts underneath? That will dampen the bounce also. No matter what it's largely unavoidable starting out. Happens to everyone.

Awesome effort, driving, coaching and water conditions! There is just so much going on so fast it is impossible to do everything right at once. You trick skied very well your first time out so I think this too will come along quite well. Pretty amazing feeling skimming along in just your bare feet isn't it?

I completely forgot to comment on the drama.

Keith is a good man. Chuck is a sociopath. "Freestyle" is nothing more than non-3 event barefooting. It is a senseless term. Chuck's love affair with Andre is both awkward and obvious.

I guess I'm not the only one to notice that Chuck is waiting for ADV to perfect the feet to d*ck-in-mouth trick.

Frankenotter wrote: Looks like I finally get to throw my hat into the infamous Learning to Barefoot thread.

Welcome to the club Chris. Was that your first day out trying, if so, amazing progress. Adam beat me when he responded, but the first thing I thought of after viewing your video was Adam will say get the handle down to your waist, since that is what he decided was his hurdle to success, but he and several others already made that point. I like your description of your aftermath....look at my signature. Yes, welcome to the club.