From Waterskiing to Barefooting

Ann C wanted to know, how does one go from water skiing to learning how to barefoot:

As a kid, I’ve water-skiied and slalomed on water to the point I could do a quick turn-’round and jump the wakes, also slalom with eight other ppl on ski’s, weaving in and out under and over the ropes. The latter stunt required a boat with a lotta horsepower. Also powder skiied on slopes for several years. I’ve had my share of flat-facing both on water and snow, heh.

Gotta ask ya, how does one start at a barefoot, off a dock or pulling outta the water literally? Hey, pulling outta water on slalom ain’t easy, takes a lot of balance and knowing if the boat has got enough horsepower. If one were to go from skiing to barefooting, how’d one start?

I gotta tell ya, Ann, the easiest way to learn barefoot water skiing is off a boom, from an experienced teacher.  When I went down to the World Barefoot Center this spring, I used a boom for the first time and my first thought was, “Wow, this is a lot easier than behind the boat!”

You can move from the boom to learning a deep water start off the five-foot rope extension strapped to the boom.  To do a deep water start, you grip the handle near your hips, place your feet on the rope and lie back in the water.  As the boat picks up speed, you sit up on the water, place your heels gently and stand up. Once you master the extension, you can move the deep water start to the long line behind the boat. Take a look at Joann O’Connor (61-years-young!) doing the start:

To learn to barefoot behind the boat with a 75- or 100–foot-rope, you can either start off on a wakeboard/kneeboard or by kicking off a ski.  I learned with a kneeboard and I never really mastered barefooting off a ski– I face planted half of the time!

I highly recommend the World Barefoot Center if you’d like to try barefooting for the first time.  The WBC team is great to work with and they even have a swing to sit in off the boom for first-timers.