Barefooting World Championships

Festival Location: Worldwide

Festival Type(s): Water Sports Events, Extreme Sports Events

Barefooting World Championships Media:

Barefooting

By: © Michael J. Rosen 2010

"If a Blister or Cut Opens on the Bottom of an Athlete's Foot, Glue it Shut Now to Finish Skiing and Deal With the Stitches Later." *

- from the American Barefoot Club official Web site.

Walking barefoot on the beach provides that ineffable carefree feeling. Removing your shoes before entering a mosque shows respect. Ditching your boots before entering someone's home that's decorated with expensive white Berber carpeting suggests that you like fussy friends who don't own dogs. But to water ski without skis can only prove how much better you think you are than everyone else on land and sea. (Go ahead, do it on one foot! Pull a 360! Prove the point!)

Barefoot skiing, self-satisfyingly known simply as barefooting, got its feet wet in Florida in the 40s and 50s, a full decade before Australia began holding national competitions. The first World Championships were held in 1978-the very year Volkswagen stopped manufacturing Beetles and the first cell phones were introduced. Uncanny!

Those in the mood to kick off their shoes-skis, really-compete in three different events:

slalom: Skiers cross in and out of the wake as many times as possible, on one foot or two, skiing backwards or forwards.
jump: Skiers fly off an 18-inch ramp as the speedboat is splashing across the current at 40 miles per hour.
tricks: Skiers perform two 15-second passes and pull off as many daring maneuvers as possible (i.e., holding the rope in the teeth, facing backwards, somersaulting).

The American Barefoot Club and World Barefoot Council sanction the events and log in official records such as David Small's 89 foot 11 inch jump in 2004. If an average blue whale had surfaced to watch the goofiness, David would have sailed its entire length...while the whale would have thought to itself, "So this is how far we've come in mammalian evolution? At least dolphins are intelligent."

Barefooting might look simple, but getting up is very difficult, since feet don't glide on the water's surface as easily as skis, unless your feet are 66 x 6 inches-in other words, the exact size of a ski or a Cirque du Soleil contortionist. That said, faster boat speeds are required for an athlete to plane on two bare feet. A skier holds onto the rope leaning forward and is pulled onto his stomach as the boat begins to move. As the boat accelerates, the skier begins to plane on the water and can rotate from his stomach onto his back and, from there, stand up. Once one has mastered the "tumble-up" start, the trick is then to avoid the more painful "tumble down" back onto the water.

Get a (bare)foot in the door at www.barefoot.org.

*Indeed, a tube of superglue is the only item in the barefoot skier's "equipment" kit.

Lose the Shoes!

With the exemption of some gymnastic-, martial art-, and aquatic competitions, shouldn't other sports rise to the challenge of going barefoot? When will special events evolve for shoeless figure skating, mountain climbing, Flamenco dancing, cycling, snowboarding, horse racing (Come on! It's already done bareback!), or weightlifting? It's not as if a fear of splinters, bee stings, and stepping in manure is justifiable in every sport.

No Dribbling the Squid

The above article is just one of a collection of off-beat articles on 2camels from Michael J. Rosen's wonderful No Dribbling the Squid - your front-row seat to 70 of the world's most mind-blowing feats of strength, endurance, and eccentricity.

For more info check out the No Dribbling the Squid website, Facebook fan page or Michael's very own website.

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