I wanna learn how to barefoot

[mrothwell]

I will add that you should take about 4 vitamin I's (Ibuprofen) about 10 minutes before you try footing. Since it takes about 15 minutes for them to start working, the timing will be perfect. Barefoot falls hurt, especially long line falls, be careful.

[Moufoo]

hmm..... i'm having second thoughts about barefooting now... we are curently renting a house on lake keowee for two weeks straight, i think i will wait till the last day to try so that my body will not be ruined for the rest of the week. Would it be better to be towed by the tower or pylon? I slolam from the tower it helps me get up

[ibelieve]

The hardest part is planting the feet so when you start off a kneeboard, you already have them planted before you get to speed. Much less likely to get launched. Make sure when you lift you but off the board that you keep it low and you will be fine.

Also, the idea about waiting till the last day is not the best idea. You will be to tired/worn out, which will effect your ability to learn something new.

/Steve

[mlange]

Anyone that does a flying dock start or any kind of deep water start without a suit is a freakin' nut job.

I'd love to see it, though.

Mike

Edited July 14, 2006 by mlange

[Lakenut]

Why do you need a barefoot suit or diaper style life jacket? Just extra protection for the family jewels i'm guessing.

That is definatly one of the main reasons.

Don't let all of the bad stories scare you. You will take some hard falls just like learning how to wakeboard or slalom. I learned off of the kneeboard and on a good day can pull off a deep water start so by no means am I an expert footer. I do have the kneeboard start down to an art. To start, attach the rope to the tower. I think it gives a better pull.

One thing that no one has mentioned is to communicate with the driver before you get in the water. That way you are on the same page. When we foot off a board we get the rider up and planed off and hold around 15 mph. This gives the skier a chance to get situiated on the board and behind the boat. Depending on your board this speed may vary. We have an old joker and riding too fast w/o feet on the water makes it bounce like crazy.

When the skier is ready, he/she puts the feet on the water. That is the signal to the driver to get on the throttle. As the boat picks up speed don't fight the pull or try to stand up. Let the boat pull you up. You should feel your weight shift forward a bit. If you get alot of spray in the face your weight is too far back. Around 30 mph you will probably feel the board ride up with you like it is stuck to your butt. This is from the spray off of your feet lifting the board. Don't worry about the board. It will come off before you hit your target speed.

One biggie for the boat driver is when you fall, or don't get up, is to cut the throttle and let the boat come off of plane and almost stop before turning around to pick you up. And then it is only a slow idle. That way you don't send a roller down the lake that will get you about the time you get up the next pull.

Get out there and have fun. Oh, the idea of having a bottle of advil in the boat is not a bad one. Better to have it and not need it.

Edited July 14, 2006 by Lakenut

[Slalom Frog]

Anyone that does a flying dock start or any kind of deep water start without a suit is a freakin' nut job.

I'd love to see it, though.

Mike

Did anyone ever see that video of a guy doing a long line back deep naked? I think his name was Heath Cooper. I can't seem to locate the video anywhere.

[1footer]

hmm..... i'm having second thoughts about barefooting now... we are curently renting a house on lake keowee for two weeks straight, i think i will wait till the last day to try so that my body will not be ruined for the rest of the week. Would it be better to be towed by the tower or pylon? I slolam from the tower it helps me get up

If you get a good Barefoot suit and do things in moderation you wont / shouldnt hurt yourself

You should be able to do the kneeboard start No Problem....just make sure you do everything SLOW.

Put your feet in SLOW......dont slam them in.....lay them in the water , let the boat pull you up off the kneeboard.When you lay your feet on the water make sure your knees are touching...should cut down spray to the face.

Under 20 mph till you get outside the wake, lay feet in water....have boat accelerate up to your footin speed SMOOTHLY and you should come off the board without any problems.

This is by far the easiest way to learn and with out alot of Pain...

Neckbrace = good idea....

John

[jgouveia3]

I tired barefooting for the first time a couple weeks ago. I watched one of my friends do it by starting sitting on one of our surf boards, getting outside the wake, and then planting his feet and standing up. Looked easy for him. Not so for me. I was able to pilot the surfboard out there, and the first time I tried to put my heels down, I was shocked by how much spray there was and let go. The second time I closed my eyes (so my contacs wouldn't get messed up like the first time), nose and mouth, and tried to do it, and I ended up faceplanting harder than I ever have before in my life. It knocked the wind out of me hard. Needless to say, that was my last attempt for the day, and for the foreseeable future.

JC, if you are ever in RI, give me a shout. I will have you barefooting your first attempt off the boom!

[mrothwell]

hmm..... i'm having second thoughts about barefooting now... we are curently renting a house on lake keowee for two weeks straight, i think i will wait till the last day to try so that my body will not be ruined for the rest of the week. Would it be better to be towed by the tower or pylon? I slolam from the tower it helps me get up

Definitely foot from the tower, the upward pull helps a lot.

[jcbatt]

I tired barefooting for the first time a couple weeks ago. I watched one of my friends do it by starting sitting on one of our surf boards, getting outside the wake, and then planting his feet and standing up. Looked easy for him. Not so for me. I was able to pilot the surfboard out there, and the first time I tried to put my heels down, I was shocked by how much spray there was and let go. The second time I closed my eyes (so my contacs wouldn't get messed up like the first time), nose and mouth, and tried to do it, and I ended up faceplanting harder than I ever have before in my life. It knocked the wind out of me hard. Needless to say, that was my last attempt for the day, and for the foreseeable future.

JC, if you are ever in RI, give me a shout. I will have you barefooting your first attempt off the boom!

Thanks, I'll keep that offer in mind if I'm ever up there - a lot of people have told me its a lot easier off the boom. I was just shocked (the time I tried it) at how hard I hit the water when I bit it. I guess I've gotten used to the much slower speeds of wakeboarding and surfing, and have forgotten how hard that water gets about 30MPH!

[jgouveia3]

wait till you catch a toe at 41...

[srud]

wait till you catch a toe at 41...

That thought right there is enough to keep me from even trying. Go ahead, you can call me a now, but the hard crashes on a wakeboard are enough for me and that's only 20 mph.

[zzbutler]

I tried to foot on a boom summer before last. The biggest mistake was to do it at the end of the day. I finally had surgery on my knee last month after living with the pain for almost two years. Be very careful.

Edited July 14, 2006 by zzbutler

[JohnDoe]

I tried to foot on a boom summer before last. The biggest mistake was to do it at the end of the day. I finally had surgery on my new last month after living with the pain for almost two years. Be very careful.

On your what?

[Pondking]

I highly reccomend a cup and lots off padding preferrably a barefoot suit.

I echo the boom suggestion. It's worth every penny.

[jcbatt]

wait till you catch a toe at 41...

Yeah, I'm sure that sounds like great fun... they said they were at about 38 when I took the final faceplant a couple weeks ago.

I did try it at the end of the day, but thats usually the only time our lake is glassy smooth (unless I get out real early, which I usually don't).

[zzbutler]

I tried to foot on a boom summer before last. The biggest mistake was to do it at the end of the day. I finally had surgery on my new last month after living with the pain for almost two years. Be very careful.

On your what?

You know on my new. I made the correction - on my knee.

[JohnDoe]

Were you in a toe hold? How did you hurt your knee barefooting if you weren't?

[Daniel]

My first attempt... (sorry about the picture quality, it's a still capture off of a digital video)

second attempt ended up with a faceplant and cartwheel at about 39 mph... I gave it one more half hearted try, but never got all the way to my feet.

Daniel

[zzbutler]

My story is just like that picture. My buddy's Mastercraft with a boom, barefoot suit, and everything. I started on my butt and tried to drop my heels in softly. The first attempt, I dropped them too quick and went tumbling. Second attempt same thing - I felt like I got hit by a truck. On the third attempt (keep in mind I had also been skiing all day) I dropped one heel in just a little sooner than the other and I was instantly violently twisted.

I just couldn't seem to drop my heels in lightly. After holding them up, I was just so tired that I physically couldn't do it.

Edited July 14, 2006 by zzbutler

[barefootski]

Hi, i wanna learn how to barefoot ski. What speed should you go and how do you get up? Does rope length mater that much? We dont have a boom, so thats not an option. I was thinking of riding my wakeskate and just steping off of it. I can slolam ski, but i have never dropped one. Any adive would be great

To echo other son this post, learning from a boom is the only way to learn. I learned last summer when Keith St. Onge came to our lake for a clinic, I had never tried to barefoot ski before and he taught me in 4 hours. It might help that I learned from one of the top, if not the top barefoot skier in the country. I actually got up on my first attempt. I did not step off a ski or wakeboard, I lied flat on my back and used my body as a ski and when the boat got up to speed, I put my feet in the water. A barefoot suit is also a must if you plan on footing very often, a neck brace also helps. Watching a training video should also be helpful. If you want to watch a few brief video clips of barefoot skiing, check out the barefootcentra.com web site which has lots of info on barefooting (I promise I am not getting paid to endorse their web site).

Good luck and remember that pain is only weakness leaving your body. (Sorry to anyone who has already heard that).

[SunriseH2OSkier]

Good luck and remember that pain is only weakness leaving your body.

That's one perspective. The other would be that pain is only weakness entering every cavity of your body at the same time!

[electricjohn]

One more thing, try to get into a habit of curling into a ball when you fall with your arms over your head. We use to call that an eggdrop position. The falls happen fast but you eventually make a habit of it. Makes the falls a lot more tolerable.

[87Skier]

After footin for almost twenty years I would have to say you should definately buy a barefoot suit and preferably a boom. But if you insist on no boom you should not attempt without the barefoot suit. I learned behind an I/O on a kneeboard and after plenty of faceplants I finally taught myself, but I was a wirey teenager and had the determination to barefoot in spite of the painful falls. Once you get a little older say past 30 the faceplants are pretty hard to take so you need to at least watch some training video to see the proper form since barefooting is all about proper form. Bad form = nasty faceplant. With your barefoot suit on you need 75 feet of rope (non stretch is prefered) and nothing else. I wouldn't worry about the knee board or ski because a deepwater start is surprisingly easier once you have seen it done (referring to that training video again). Anyway learn the correct way and you will have fewer falls and avoid injury and will keep barefooting for a long time to come instead of smoking yourself and quiting forever. Barefoot skiing isn't easy but sure is cool, definately on the very eXtreme end of the skiing spectrum. Have fun and show us the video.

[Tom Sawyer]

I finally taught myself (almost 20 years ago) to foot by stepping off a ski and it was cake.

Same here. Don't know if it was a piece of cake for me, but it's not the Evil Knevil type of stunt some people think it is either.

I don't disagree w/ those that say the best way to learn to foot is a boom, followed by a wakeboard . That said, I think anybody who's SOLID on a slalom ski can learn using the LL step off method with the proper approach. In fact, I know tons of guys (most of them show skiers) who learned this way.

When I learned I didn't even know what a boom was and wakeboards hadn't been invented yet. I had difficulty getting the kneeboard going then it would start bouncing on me. I had success stepping off the ski during my first couple of attempts.

There are preferable methods but believe me, the step off method isn't a lost cause for those comfortable doing it that way.