Barefoot skiers?

[DeepCMark58A]

Any bare footers here? As an added bonus with a recent purchase came with a barefoot boom. I think it will be enjoyable to watch my son face plant.

 

[Scott Danforth]

My father and oldest uncle used to barefoot, I attempted to...... once...... 40 years ago..... LOL

 

[dwco5051]

Tried to learn it but never could get the hang of it. Back then the boats my daughter and I both had would just barely reach barefoot speeds.

 

[racerone]

Many trips to the emergency room started out as fun.----At around 40 MPH any spills can result in injury.-----Barefooting is best left to experienced skiers.

 

[jimmbo]

Any bare footers here? As an added bonus with a recent purchase came with a barefoot boom. I think it will be enjoyable to watch my son face plant.

The Boom will make it easier, as it offers Solid Water for the Feet, unlike the Frothy Water behind the Boat. As for your Anticipated Joy, at Barefoot Speeds, the Water doesn't feel much softer than Concrete upon a Wipeout. Any bit of Floating Debris, such as a Branch, can really mess up the feet too.
Successfully done, it is a wonderful experience, but there are Caveats

 

[Scott Danforth]

my advise to those learning to barefoot. use a wetsuit...... my swim trunks came off about 200 feet from where I ended up when I finally quit going arse over teakettle ....

 

[cyclops222]

 

[DeepCMark58A]

I will not be partaking in that tomfoolery.

 

[racerone]

I used to ski behind a 14' boat with a 40 HP.----Wore a foam belt.-----One day customers of the shop asked if I could help teach skiing.----I ended up behind this 100 HP boat myself.------After they did a high speed turn I ended tumbling on the water at high speed.-----Bought a full foam jacket the next day.

 

[jimmbo]

I used to ski behind a 14' boat with a 40 HP.----Wore a foam belt.-----One day customers of the shop asked if I could help teach skiing.----I ended up behind this 100 HP boat myself.------After they did a high speed turn I ended tumbling on the water at high speed.-----Bought a full foam jacket the next day.

I too learned behind a 14 ft with a 40.
I remember cracking the whip behind our 90, boat was going 33-35, with 75 ft of rope, I was probably going over 50, and wiped out. I skipped on the Water, like a Stone, several times before the water was soft enough to yield

 

[Scott Danforth]

I learned on a 12' dumphy with a 35, then we migrated to a 14' mirro craft with a 50

dad did the foam belt as that was the state of art back then.... however you cold be floating feet up with it as well as head up.

I still have the old wooden skis that Dad bought when I was 1.

 

[nola mike]

My BIL tried to get me up barefooting maybe 10 years ago. His method was
1. Sit on knee board
2. Accelerate to 40 mph while sitting on knee board that was neither meant to go 40 mph nor be sat on
3. Stand up and don't hurt yourself.

It did not go well. After the fact he let me know that he had never done it this way, always off a boom (and he had one ffs).

 

[Lpgc]

Always found 2 Skies easy but I remember dad and his friends learning mono-skiing, lots of falling off and bouncing over the water. They learned mono-skiing then tried barefoot, method was to go really fast then try to kick the ski/skis off and stay up, none of them managed it for more than a few seconds but they spent a lot of time face planting and bouncing off the water.

Another time I'd be around 14, me dad and his friend took dads Sims Super V 15ft boat to Cleethorpes close to the mouth of the river Humber. I sulked because dad let his mate drive when I wanted to drive, his mate wasn't used to driving boats and I thought the way he drove we were going to drop off a wave and take one over the bow. Then dad decided to waterski so I drove the boat but I wanted to scare his mate and drove it very hard over the chop. Still dad was enjoying the skiing, jumping over the port wake then starboard wake etc... until he went wide starboard, I did a sharp port turn and opened it up, he must've been doing 80+mph on the outside of the turn before he fell off.

A year later dad had a week to go before having his hip replacement, didn't think he'd be able to ski for a while after the hip job so decided to have one last long go at waterskiing before having it done. Skied all the way from Abersoch to Shell Island, around 13 miles over sea. Knew it'd make his hip ache but said it was worth it. Dads friend, a comedian, only had one leg but had the world record for long distance waterskiing (at least for one-legged skiing) and skied from England to France.

 

[cyclops222]

REAL bare footers only have about 6 straight toes.

 

[sangerwaker]

I competed barefoot 3 event for 15 years. Helped run 3 national championships and a world championship in 2016. I'm not a great skier, but do enjoy it a lot. I also skied a few barefoot figure 8 tourneys.

Get someone who knows how to do it to help teach those that want to learn. Without a coach, bad habits form and the potential for injury is much greater. The boom is a fantastic training tool. Works great for kids skiing too. A great way to start learning is "the swing". Use a wakeboard or barefoot handle (they are wider at 15"), and wrap it around the bar going over one of the cables so it can't unwind. The trick is to get the distance from the handle to the boom, and the distance from the boom to the water's surface right for the height of the skier. Keep in mind this will change as the boat comes on plane. Have the skier sit on the handle and hang onto the boom. It is impossible to fall. If they catch a toe, all that happens is they swing backwards. Spread the legs a little, and swing back into position to stand up again. Great confidence booster for young kids learning to ski too. We all know many kids give up quickly if they don't find immediate success.

PIc of swing in use:
DSCF5040.JPG


I'm just starting to get back on the water. Had both hips replaced over the last couple of years. Pain was too great for me to ski prior to replacement. Haven't been to my bare feet yet, but have been on shoe skis a few times this summer. I'm hoping for a barefoot run next weekend.

 

[southkogs]

I used to ski behind a 14' boat with a 40 HP.----Wore a foam belt.-----One day customers of the shop asked if I could help teach skiing.----I ended up behind this 100 HP boat myself.------After they did a high speed turn I ended tumbling on the water at high speed.-----Bought a full foam jacket the next day.

Close to the same story for me. Except we bought the new(er) boat, and got the jacket at the same time.

 

[Grub54891]

I pulled a barefoot skier once on a modified boat that was used for ski shows. He could pull 8-10 skiers for the show. He instructed me to nail the throttle, when the boat was dang near straight up in the holeshot to slam the throttle down, then right back up when nthe bow came down. then at 50 mph, leave it there. He stood up and did dang good! Next run he put on shoes as his feet were sore!. I chose not to try it!

 

[tphoyt]

As a kid I would always see the Ski A Rees training and thought it was so cool.
I never got the hang of getting up on two let along barefoot. My first try involved a face full of seaweed because the skies came off and I panicked and didn’t let go of the rope. I’ll never forget it.

 

[Chris1956]

My speedboat was plenty fast for barefooting. My friend removed the toe piece from a slalom ski and wore his flat bottom sneakers. He would yell "hit it" and jam the ski onto his feet and do a deep water slalom start. After a short time he put his left foot down and just let the ski fall off.

I forget exactly how fast we were going, but likely about 45MPH. On an unrelated note, I did pull another friend on a slalom ski at 50+ MPH, mostly because I was mad at him at the time.

 

[jimmbo]

In 1985 I was able to pull a guy Barefoot, without him using any Ski, Knee Board, etc to get going. He just tucked the Rope Between his Legs and laid back in the Water. As the Boat sped up, he raised himself up, Legs still straight out in front of him, and as the speed got between 43 and 45 mph, He dug his Heels in and raised himself up
I was quite pleased that my 15 1/2 footer with a 115 Merc was able to do that.