POST YOUR BAREFOOT VIDEOS HERE

[Michigan boarder]

No vids, but you guys would probably appreciate this scenario from last week:

Me and another footer take off from our start dock on skis, planning to drop them and foot.  As the lines unspool his turns out to be 15' shorter than mine.  Weird, but oh well we are gonna go footing.  The boat driver is doing a large circle, and never really straightens out after he is clearly up to speed.  Realizing that we are not going to get a straight line, I do a double bail out and stick it (first one of the year).   I'm on the inside of the curve, way inside to get away from the wake.  The other guy is outside the curve and has stepped off.  The inertia of the turn is pushing me towards the wake, and I bobble a bit over some waves which causes me to lose my steering and I go into the wake.  At this point I say "screw it" and not only go into the wake but out of the wake on the opposite side.  I am abruptly met by the equivalent of 10 garden hoses spraying me in the face by the other footer, and decide I need to go back, and I was able to fight the inertia and cross back thru the wake to my original spot.  My first wake to wake and back crossing!  I never would have done it on my own, funny how it all happened.

I hope someone gets vids, we are all footing behind a sea plane at the end of the week.

[footndale]

42 minutes ago, justgary said:

I used to aspire to learn backward, but I talked myself out if it for just that reason.  No need to push the envelope on concussive head trauma.

Yeah, learning at 16 would of been better than 50s.

[justgary]

1 hour ago, footndale said:

Yeah, learning at 16 would of been better than 50s.

Indeed.  At 16 we were still sliding off surf boards and trying desperately to step off of a ski with no real instruction, just talking amongst ourselves.  Outboard runabouts aren't the best to learn behind, but it sure was a lot of fun back then.

[Murphys]

7 minutes ago, justgary said:

Indeed.  At 16 we were still sliding off surf boards and trying desperately to step off of a ski with no real instruction, just talking amongst ourselves.  Outboard runabouts aren't the best to learn behind, but it sure was a lot of fun back then.

And wearing t-shirts like this

[hunter77ah]

Is it possible to step off of a wakeskate to start?  I've always wanted to try to barefoot, but haven't had a group to try with.

[wedge88]

22 minutes ago, hunter77ah said:

Is it possible to step off of a wakeskate to start?  I've always wanted to try to barefoot, but haven't had a group to try with.

I've barefooted off a lot of toys just because I like a challenge.  While I'm sure it's possible to do it off a wakeskate, the issue is the speed and foot placements.  I'm pretty comfortable on wake type devices but not at 30mph+ and your feet aren't pointed in the natural direction nor a good way to center your gravity once one foot is planted.  If you do it, please record for our enjoyment.

I think my favorite way was off a kneeboard.  I could get outside in the flats riding normal and then carefully spin my body around on the board and dangle my feet in the water.  Boat speeds up and plant.   

[footndale]

1 hour ago, hunter77ah said:

Is it possible to step off of a wakeskate to start?  I've always wanted to try to barefoot, but haven't had a group to try with.

I would sit on it and start that way.

[footndale]

1 hour ago, justgary said:

Indeed.  At 16 we were still sliding off surf boards and trying desperately to step off of a ski with no real instruction, just talking amongst ourselves.  Outboard runabouts aren't the best to learn behind, but it sure was a lot of fun back then.

13, self taught with this.

[Murphys]

6 minutes ago, footndale said:

13, self taught with this.

Back when men were men

[REHinH20]

5 minutes ago, Murphys said:

Back when men were men

And shorts were SHORT!

[Michigan boarder]

4 hours ago, footndale said:

13, self taught with this.

That handle!!

[justgary]

5 hours ago, REHinH20 said:

And shorts were SHORT!

Ours were always cutoff jeans.  Curiously, they don't provide enema protection nearly as well as a wetsuit... we always had to look away when somebody boarded the boat after trying to slide off the surfboard.

[Woodski]

That was the barefooters bible back in the day...and you paid all of $2.50 for it:-)

@Michigan boarder - you need to put a Go Pro on the back of the plane.  Videos for sure, no exucuses ... 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Woodski

[Michigan boarder]

2 hours ago, Woodski said:

That was the barefooters bible back in the day...and you paid all of $2.50 for it:-)

@Michigan boarder - you need to put a Go Pro on the back of the plane.  Videos for sure, no exucuses ... 

I'm charging the batteries now, it's going on my chest!  Hopefully someone else from shore or a ride along on skis will get one too.

[footndale]

17 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

I hope someone gets vids, we are all footing behind a sea plane at the end of the week.

That should be fun. Friends did it for a show a few years ago. Even had a reporter ski behind it. Fun times in the summer.

[TomH]

20 hours ago, hunter77ah said:

Is it possible to step off of a wakeskate to start?  I've always wanted to try to barefoot, but haven't had a group to try with.

If sitting yes.  Wakeskates or wakeboards without the bindings work really well for learning.  Start with feet up on the tip and laying back a little to come out of the water.  Once up, skoot your butt forward until you're pretty well centered to keep it from porpoising as speed increases.  Think of the pull-out like pulling a knee-boarder up - nice and gradual.  Depending on weight, at 25-30ish, you can gently set your feet in the water just a little ahead of your butt, but stay seated.  Boat can then speed up and as the speed increases you'll be able to slowly stand and the board will ditch out from under you.  This is best done on the boom/5-foot line where driver can see you and adjust speeds accordingly (if the driver knows what they're doing).

[Hemmy]

@hunter77ah I say you give ^^ it a try.  Make sure you take a video.  We would all love to see this, especially your first attempt.  There are two threads to post this in.  Either here or the Wipeout thread.

[footndale]

 

It's Thursday!

 

[Murphys]

1 hour ago, footndale said:

 

It's Thursday!

 

Do you have a tower extension? That rope angle looks steep. Nice skiing. 

[footndale]

1 hour ago, Murphys said:

Do you have a tower extension? That rope angle looks steep. Nice skiing. 

This morning's run was behind a 2002 Sanger barefooter with Fly High on tower. Unfortunately the skiing wasn't me, He's way better than me.

[Michigan boarder]

Well, the airplane pull did not come together.  The pilot got concerned about hp, speed, etc. and decided to not take the risk.  We had a good show, no vids but here's a double bail out and 1.5 times around the jump.  I decided to let go in a clean spot, this lake was so balled up with seaweed it was awful to ski thru and/or fall in, it took out almost half of our acts.  Pics on our FB page

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=grand city show skiers

[footndale]

Foot ski last night. I'm driving. 
 

 

 

[footndale]

Friends footing 4 years ago.

 

[footndale]

2 hours ago, Michigan boarder said:

Well, the airplane pull did not come together.  The pilot got concerned about hp, speed, etc. and decided to not take the risk.  We had a good show, no vids but here's a double bail out and 1.5 times around the jump.  I decided to let go in a clean spot, this lake was so balled up with seaweed it was awful to ski thru and/or fall in, it took out almost half of our acts.  Pics on our FB page

Two skis would be now problem. Especially jumpers.

Doing a step off shouldn't be an issue either. If footer falls, they just need to let go right away. Many of done it. If the pilot plans on the leaving water, the up pull really helps the footer.

Edited June 16, 2021 by footndale

[Michigan boarder]

10 minutes ago, footndale said:

Two skis would be now problem. Especially jumpers.

Doing a step off shouldn't be an issue either. If footer falls, they just need to let go right away. Many of done it. If the pilot plans on the leaving water, the up pull really helps the footer.

Hey, I was all for it and agree with you!   We were going to set the pilot up with a trick release too in cased he wanted to dump the ropes.  But, he backed out, and he knows his equipment and limitations so probably a good decision.

But dude, we rolled up at the site and that yellow plane was idling, then took off for several laps around the lake, flying low, banking and disappearing and reappearing behind a small island as we began unloading our stuff.  It was old and loud flying 25ft off the water and looked plenty fast.  My heart started racing with a combination of fear and excitement, man it was an amazing feeling.  But, then I was told it was off, and that was the end of that.