I recently was able to attend the US Barefoot National Championships. Many years ago I used to compete in this sport but a very serious injury ended my skiing. None the less it was very fun to watch all of the competitors.

There are three different events. Slalom is done by counting the number of times you can cross the entire boat wake in a 15 second time limit. It's done one pass frontwards and one pass backwards. It can also be done on one foot or two depending on the skill level of the skier.

Tricks are pretty self explanatory.

Jumping is done at a maximum speed of 44.5mph. The ramp is 18 inches from the surface of the water. If you do not land and ski away it does not count. The current official world record is I think 98 feet. It's pretty routine for the pros to jump 80 to 90 feet.

[alamo5000]

Here is another shot showing the type of boat they are using.

[Fenwoodian]

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Nice explanation of the sport.

A few years ago I was the designated photographer at the International Barefoot Championships when they were held at Blu Moo up here in Wisconsin. Were you there?

I have photographed the Olympic Games before. The International Barefoot Championships had a similar feel to the Olympic Games (with the flags and anthems and foreign speaking competitors (although most of the non-USA competitors seemed to be from the land down under).

[alamo5000]

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Nice explanation of the sport.

A few years ago I was the designated photographer at the International Barefoot Championships when they were held at Blu Moo up here in Wisconsin. Were you there?

I was not there. I've never been to Wisconsin but traditionally it's one of the bigger hot spots for all types of water skiing, not just barefooting. Obviously Florida is another hot spot in the US. I've only kept up with the sport in the background for a really long time. After my shoulder injury (from barefooting) I was no longer able to participate in the sport so I slowly drifted away doing my own thing. In recent years though I've followed online and whatnot and low and behold the National Championships was near to me this year so I went as a spectator. It was a lot of fun.

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I have photographed the Olympic Games before. The International Barefoot Championships had a similar feel to the Olympic Games (with the flags and anthems and foreign speaking competitors (although most of the non-USA competitors seemed to be from the land down under).

Yes, skiing is definitely an international sport and LOTS of people all know each other, especially in competitive circles. Many of the more hard core skiers of many types will come to the US to spend time and ski every year (or even to just move in so they can ski more). Lots of the industry professionals are US based, IE specialized boat/equipment manufacturers so when they sponsor international skiers often they have them come over to the US for training and such.


If you include all types of competitive waterskiing there are really good skiers from all over Europe, the Ukraine, England, Mexico, Russia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and I think a few from South America just to name a few. Almost all, if not all will eventually come to the US though at some point.


It's actually pretty rare to have an event where all of the best skiers show up. The logistics of it is just crazy and most of the skiers (except maybe the top 2%) have regular day jobs. Even those guys work regular jobs most of the time. Getting everyone together is quite a difficult thing to do. Regardless of that though it's definitely not uncommon for skiers in the US (and vice versa) to follow tournament results all over the world. Once you get into that relatively small community the people are always super generous and friendly. It's not uncommon at all for an international skier to stay over (for free) at someone's house and to just get immediately plugged in to the ski community of where ever they are visiting. In general it's not 'every man for himself' at all. You hear of individual sports vs team sports, but waterskiing is really a 'community sport'. The community of skiers (barefoot/traditional) is actually quite generous and family friendly especially when you get into the competition side of things.


At this event they did have several international skiers. The #2 ranked barefooter in the world was there. He was from New Zealand. There were a number of Australians and others there too. They held a special 'international division' in the tournament so those guys/girls could also participate.

[MikeNArk]

Nice shots of what looks to be a wild and difficult sport. I haven't seen this sport in a number of years. Thanks for posting.

[alamo5000]

Nice shots of what looks to be a wild and difficult sport. I haven't seen this sport in a number of years. Thanks for posting.

Competition waterskiing of any type has gone through extremely rough times. Back in the 80s and 90s it was featured on mainstream TV and would have tens of thousands of people show up to a single tournament. Now though they don't get anything of the sort and the number of competitors is down by substantial numbers.


I think the reasons for that are primarily economic. First getting into skiing is not cheap. If you bought a 'cheap' used boat it would still easily be in the 10's of thousands of dollars, probably between $25K to $50K depending on what you are doing. Then you need a good site to ski at and the time to ski 4 or 5 days per week. If you buy new equipment and boat and all that the cost of entry easily is around $150,000 or more. People spend WAY more than that on skiing though. The lake they were skiing on was a private lake specifically designed and dug just for skiing.


Basically put after the bubble and economic crash of 2000, then 9-11 and so forth a whole generation of people never ever recovered financially. Some people made it but the majority not so much. Back in the prime you had lots of 'average folks' who would compete, IE an electrician or plumber might also be a national competitor (or have kids that were), but now the pool is substantially smaller.

Everything changed pretty much. The cost easily doubled, the price and design of boats changed among other things so not as many people are able to get involved. When you try to skip one or two generations of skiers (for those reasons mentioned above) it's very difficult to get back. Most professional skiers start when they are very young, but when mom and dad can't participate things go sideways.

[Apet-Sure]

Great image! Thanks for posting. I would imagine it's quite challenging to get a boat to go exactly 44.5mph.

[alamo5000]

Great image! Thanks for posting. I would imagine it's quite challenging to get a boat to go exactly 44.5mph.

Thank you!


In previous years they had other means to ensure as close to perfect speeds as possible. Today they have GPS throttle/RPM/speed controls that are good down to 1/10th of 1mph. 44.5mph is not the set speed, but rather the max you can elect to jump at. If you opt to go 42mph that's fine.


A long time ago they had several ways to measure speed and boat track. I am not sure if these are still in use today or not, but there is some form or another of tech that is used. One of which was having lasers at various points perpendicular to the boat path. As each laser was broken by the boat it would register start/stop times. Also they would have a small plate mounted on the boat and would have essentially laser survey equipment looking straight at the nose of the boat at that plate and that would tell if the boat deviated from it's course by six inches or more.


Keep in mind that kind of precision is not required in most aspects of skiing. In traditional slalom skiing (with skis) if there is a world record broken (must be in a sanctioned tournament) if the boat deviates in path or speed (more than the rules allow) the record will be denied. With barefooting you obviously want the boat to go straight but it's not that critical if it deviates to the right or left a little bit.


If the skier in a tournament feels like something isn't right they can check on things to verify and give a re-ride if needed. If there is some kind of conditions that impede the skier they can opt for a re-ride which the tournament judges have to decide yes or no.


With all forms of waterskiing having a good driver is paramount. Back in the heyday of waterskiing a lot of the pro tour boat drivers would get paid a couple hundred thousand bucks per year to drive at professional events. That's not happening these days (pay wise) but there is a massive technological advantage now.

Skiers can opt for whatever kind of pull profile they want and once underway a GPS control systems take over and accounts for all sorts of variables to get things as close to perfect as possible. It's kind of like cruise control on your car only a little (or a lot) more precise and a lot more versatile.


Keep in mind, reiterating, different types of skiing have different requirements. If the boat is a foot to the right or left in barefooting it doesn't matter. In traditional slalom (with skis) it matters a whole lot.


To the average skier on up to very advanced skiers those new systems deliver rides that are definitely good enough.

[alamo5000]

Great image! Thanks for posting. I would imagine it's quite challenging to get a boat to go exactly 44.5mph.

The first link is to one of the more popular speed control systems. There are a few options.


Perfectpass.com |

The second link is to one that makes certain you are driving straight (within allowable limits). It gives real time feedback to the driver so they stay on course within the allowable limits. If they veer off course the judges can require a re-ride. This is most applicable to traditional slalom and jump but not so much barefooting.


http://www.sure-path.com/

If you watch the video below it's traditional slalom skiing. The course dimensions are from the centerline of the course to the buoy you ski around is 38 feet. There are six offsetting buoys. The pros fairly regularly ski the course on a 34 foot long rope, or a rope that is four feet short of the six outside buoys. The pro mens ski at a constant 36mph boat speed.


The world record is skiing the course with a 32 foot long rope. The rope would be six feet short of the buoy. As you can tell if someone were to cheat they could have the driver cheat back and forth in favor of the skier so getting it correct is paramount.

Again, what kind of skiing you do determines what you need in the way of equipment.

You Tube

You Tube

[alamo5000]

Here are a couple of videos of the pros barefooting. Several of these people were at the event I attended a few days ago. It should give you a good idea of what's going on. In the videos they sometimes are skiing on a boom (the bar sticking out from beside the boat). Usually that is just for training. In tournaments booms are not allowed. All skiing has to be done on the long line.

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

[Tonytee]

Wonderful action and still photography. Really appreciate the narratives as well.

Tony

[alamo5000]

Wonderful action and still photography. Really appreciate the narratives as well.

Tony

Thank you! I didn't do much post processing on this particular image. The more I look at it I could maybe touch it up some.

The lighting was kind of weird at the time of this shot. A big storm came through and it rained for an hour before clearing up. It kind of had a filtered light effect a little bit.

I have about 300+ more images from the two days that I was there. It was a great time for sure.