2008
Frostbite Figure Eight Open
The
Future is Here.
Well it’s that time of year again, figure 8
season has arrived. May 3rd in Menomonie, Wi the annual Frostbite Fest
was held by the U.W. Stout water ski team.
Friday night I met up with Dave Mueller and
Jim “Bumper” Casper to catch up and have a few adult beverages. After
visiting a few of the local establishments Bumper mentioned that his
daughter, Amanda, went to school at Stout. That led us to her house
party and beer pong. Dave and Bumper who are both old enough to be the
parents of the kids at the party displayed awesome skills with the ping
pong ball. They went on to win four straight games, one more and they
would have had their names permanently etched on the walls of the house.
They fell short in that bid for immortality though. We met some
interesting characters there though, Stoney which is his real name put
on some kind of drinking display. Not sure if his parents would be proud
or not but he was a trooper. Shortly after the beer pong it was
definitely time for bed.
Saturday morning I was prepared to wake up
and find it to be snowing and cold. But it wasn’t that bad, temperature
was around 45 and partly sunny. The wind was steady at around 12 m.p.h.
which meant that as usual Lake Menomin was gonna be choppy. As the
skiers slowly filtered in it was clear that the turnout was gonna be
smaller than in the past. But there were the usual suspects there: Mike
Netzer, the ghetto footers, the U.W. Eau Claire team which includes Max
Verhagen, the U.W. Stout team and some of their alumni. Mark Donahue
came up from Indiana and brought a friend Chris McWatters from Michigan.
They also picked up a hitchhiker somewhere along the way who came along
to be a cheerleader. Some names I thought would be there that weren’t
were CVZ, the Heller family, Jon Debelak, Paul Stokes, and Bob Mahnke.
Hopefully they will show at Madison.
After the skier meeting took place it was
time to put the drysuits on. Although some of the brave (dumb I say)
younger guys went in wetsuits. The tournament was again going to have a
lot to do with the coin toss. The passenger side was not the place to
be. People missing steps in the first round included Mike Netzer, Matt
Hoeft, Mark Donahue. and many others. This meant a long way through the
losers bracket for these guys. None of the runs were very long.
Generally making your step and clearing the buoys won the round. The
longest run of the tournament was between Nick Gargarro and myself and
that only went maybe 500 yards. Matt Hoeft now more determined than ever
went through the losers bracket and was pushing towards the finals. Mike
Netzer, who normally is rock solid, was eliminated pretty quickly in the
step off area. Nate Birchler and myself worked the coin toss magic to
the finals of the winners bracket. This meant one of us would have to
lose a toss to make it to the finals. Nate was the unlucky victim of the
toss. After a short run out of the step area Nate succumbed to the wind
chop. Matt Hoeft would have to fight his way through three more skiers
before reaching Nate and as luck would have it he got there. Nate who
hadn’t missed a step all day missed pushing the showdown between the
young gun and the old veteran. Well my coin toss luck ran out and Matt
got the passenger side. After clearing the step off area and getting
myself into the wake, I thought I may actually sneak out a win from the
wrong side. But luck was not on my side and my foot went out from under
me. This put both of us at one loss, and the one and done showdown. So
we went back to the dock Matt made the coin call and nailed it.
This is where the unthinkable happened. As
we approached the step off area for some reason from somewhere a few
more little waves came into play. I planted my foot for maybe three
seconds before sticking my face in the water. Yes that’s right I missed
my step off. Hanging out with Chuck must be rubbing off. Joking aside, I
know that’s not how Matt wanted to win his first tournament, but a win
is a win. The odd thing about my step off issues was that I wasn’t even
upset. I know Dave thought that he would have to drown out my language,
but I lost to a very talented young skier who very well could be the
future of figure 8’s.
Once the tournament was done there was one
more run to go and that was between Nick G. and Rommes for the right to
shave the others head. Nick lost this and now has a fancy new mullet.
Always something fun and different at Stout.
The tournament was once again well run by
Nasty Nate and his fellow skiers. Special thanks goes to my buddy Josh
Fox for a place to stay, Amanda and her boyfriend for inviting us to
beer pong, Chad M. for use of his new master craft again this year.
Dave Mueller's
Response to Aaron's Article
A few points were
missed. First, it was sunny all day and the water was not that bad. The
first 20 minutes were a little rough but there were plenty of runs
lasting into the first turn. The skier turnout was down( c'mon
footers) but the crowd was much bigger. First time I
ever saw 3 Gladiator suits at one tourney. I would also like to Thank
the U of Stout for putting on a great tourney. Aaron did miss his step-off
in the final run, but Matt took him for a nice run to get there. I got a
chance to talk to Matt after the victory, and all he could talk about
was the raffle he won. Half way thru the tourney we picked one name off
the bracket of skiers. The winner has to foot against me at Footstock
for one of the Eagle Demo Wetsuits we showed off last year. First name
picked was Scuba, but he has to go to a wedding. Even though he said he
would skip the wedding, his friends quickly reminded him he's
not allowed to. So Matt was the next pick. Up until he drove away he
kept saying "this better be for real!". Then he had the
Gaul to ask me when do I want him to take a
dive? It's ON now.
Later that night was the infamous Kehrin's
house party. The theme was "Rockstars and Pornstars". I got to meet
Brett Michaels, the Flock of Seagulls, Kenny Loggins, The Eight Balls,
and many more interesting characters. And as for the beautiful girls of
Stout, all I can say is not many girls can get
away with wearing what they wore in grade school. There will be NO
video. Bottom line, Everyone had a great time, Stout Rocks, and Kehrins
DOES NOT look like Hugh Heffner. It's all about having fun, and Stout
proved that. Peace Love and Dave.
|
Final Results |
1st Place - Matt Hoeft (right)
2nd Place - Aaron Schoelzel (left)
3rd Place - Nate
Birchler (middle) |
  |
