“I’m heading to Minneapolis for work and I’m looking for a pull.”
My friend, Paul Oman, a competitive barefoot water skier, responded quickly to my Facebook request. I was on a quest to barefoot water ski in all 50 states for my 50th decade. Minnesota would be my twelfth state on my 50 States for my 50’s tour.
Paul and I met at my first barefoot tournament up in Wisconsin several years ago. I was immediately impressed by his performance on the water. Paul learned to barefoot water ski when he was 40. He shared some of his memories with me:
As a youth, I was fascinated by barefoot skiers at ski shows and dreamed about doing that some day. When I finally got a boat fast enough to pull me footing, I tried a few ski step offs and took hard falls that made me put that dream on hold.Later in life, at the age of 40, I learned about new tools (the barefoot boom) that make learning much easier and found a local ski school that let me try it. I made a tumble around start on my first try and was hooked. Ending that first run wasn’t as pretty. The instructor told me to let go and I immediately caught a toe and took a hard fall. The instructor asked “That hurt didn’t it?” When I replied “darn right it did” he said “now I’m going to show you how to stop.”I got a boom for my boat and used it often but the boat didn’t go fast enough for me to do very much. I looked into getting a better barefoot boat and heard about local tournaments. I went to my first tournament just to check out the boat and did my trick run (a single wave) in front of a big crowd. Everyone had gathered to watch Jon Kretchman, who followed me in the running order. We were both in classes of our own – me as a raw novice and he as a top pro.I continued going to tournaments to watch all the skiing and get tips and enjoy hanging around with all the great skiers. I’ve always been impressed with how helpful other skiers are – even with their competitors.
At 64 years of age, Paul tackles the sport like a 20-year-old. He continually learns new things and pushes himself to reach new levels of skill. He is one of the few seniors who jump competitively in tournaments.
“I started taking lessons from pros to ensure I wouldn’t develop bad habits,” Paul said. “Ron Scarpa, the four-time World Barefoot Champion, talked me into trying jumping. I thought it was silly, because I didn’t expect to ever jump in a tournament, but I trusted his judgement. Ron had incredible patience and taught me to jump in very gradual stages–and that ultimately led to setting a national record. My first tournament jump was in 2002. It was unremarkable except that, until just recently when I set the national Men 6 jump record in 2015, it was the longest jump of my career–maybe it was beginner’s luck?”
The weather was absolutely wonderful when Paul and I stepped outside on a Friday morning and headed down to the dock. There was a light wind, just enough to create a ripple on the water, and it was getting a little rough in the middle of the lake.
“I’ve got a spot where we can always find calm water,” Paul reassured me.
I had not barefooted much over the summer so I was truly out of shape, but I enjoyed the runs. It was just the two of us in the boat, so we took turns driving and barefooting.
Paul decided to go backwards behind the boat. I was a little nervous at first, as I had only driven that kind of pull once before, but Paul was a pro and got up with ease.
Before I left, I gave Paul a copy of Unwrapping Your Passion and he looked at the book with hesitation.
“I don’t really read books,” he said.
“That’s okay, just skim through it and you can give it to someone else,” I said.
A few days later, I was delighted to learn that Paul enjoyed the book!
A special thank you to Phonak for making it possible to barefoot water ski around the country!