Barefoot Skiing

I had heard of barefoot skiing prior to camping a couple weeks ago, but I had never seen it done. One of our church members is quite skilled in the sport and we were able to come along for a ride and watch him. Wow. It was amazing. As you can see in the first photo, he would start face down with his feet in the rope. Then, the driver would gun it and he would eventually somehow manage to pop up onto his feet. Talk about a sinus flush!

It was incredible (and terrifying) to watch him because everything looked so easy - even recovering from losing his balance and being dragged by his feet.

Erik even got to try it out, which he was pretty pleased about. When you're a beginner you just use the boom and you start by holding on and being dragged with your feet in the water. You then have to rotate your hips while the boat is going fast and somehow get your feet in front of you before slowly standing up on them. Then it's pretty much just like skiing, lean back with your arms straight, but you have to keep your toes curled up so that you don't lose one. Erik managed to get up and actually ski on his first attempt, which surprised all of us. So much so, in fact, that he hadn't been taught how to fall when we got to the end of the lake. We were quickly approaching the shoreline so Dan was yelling at Erik to sit down and let go. Erik only heard the let go part so he stood straight up and let go... it was funny and a little bit painful to watch as he bailed hard.

Even managing a smile for the camera.

His thigh was so bruised the next day... and the bottoms of his feet hurt (understandably). They were a bit swollen and were very sensitive. But I think it was worth it.
This is a video of the end of Erik's last run. The quality on these blog video's isn't so good, but you'll get the point.