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Anthony "Don't call me Tony" Gramalino
wins the
2008 Lake St. Louis Figure-8 Open Division |
The 2008 Show Me 8’s Glen Mueller Memorial was
another huge success. This event has had a history of good times and good
barefoot skiing at the best site in the country. The organizers: MVS BAREFOOT, a
small group of footers from the Arch Rivals Show Ski Team partnered with their
local community association and commodores club to create an EVENT. They had
over 3K in prize money a world record attempt for most people on a air raft and
one of their own Anthony “ don’t call me Tony” Gramolino going for his third
title as open champion.
Registration went smooth and the drinks were flowing from the clubhouse bar.
When the Stokes Sports Van rolled in it was time to open the Knoerzer Bar and
Grill. In Lake St Louis the Barefoot Bar and Grill is the main attraction and
the skiers know it’s the place to be every night. The word is the bar was open
way into the night!!!
Lake St. Louis MO., a private 60 acre lake, glass water, 3 million dollar
clubhouse, BBQ smoke in the air. The stage was set for a great weekend of
footing. The Crandon Boys were in town looking for some cash. Fatla even brought
his MOM. Stokes, Manche, Meitz, Netszer enjoyed McDonalds provided breakfast
under the Red Bull tent. Gramolino and Stokes drew number one seeds in the Open
Division.
The juniors and women’s division went first. In the juniors Jimmy Swanson and
Mitch Burley skied the first turn and crossed booth sets of rollers before “Big
Dog” Burley was crowned champion, a local 11 year old from Lake St. Louis. In
the women’s it was Ashley Swanson taking home the Barefoot Central Plaque. The
seniors battled it out most of the day with showdowns between Dave Sommer and
Dan Cardinal, Cardinal advancing. MANCHE was the man of the day in seniors
taking out all of the challengers despite his lack of fingers: including Netzer,
Timmy “hydro” and Mike “the hammer”. His reward was $500.00 cash and a very
respectable trophy.
The OPEN DIVISION was the highlight of the weekend; these guys are the best of
the best and winner will take home a $1,000.00 bucks. Saturday was a light day
of skiing for those in the winner’s bracket and the number one seeds were
enjoying the first round Byes. The tourney provided great head to head action
with footers hanging tight as the wind chop ( LSL style) kicked up. As the
losers fell out the spectators watched from the pool and beach; great rough
water skiing and spectacular crashes. The bracket was complete for the day.
The figure 8 skiing was over but the EVENT moved on. All of the footers were
handed a raft and assigned a team, it was time for a world record breaking
attempt. MVS and their community had planned a party. They invited almost 800
people to attempt to break the world record for the most people in a continuous
line while floating on an air mattress. It looked like a rock concert, beer
garden, burgers and a band on stage. It turns out they fell short by 85 people
of the record but say they will make another attempt. The boys in Lake St Louis
are always entertaining.
Sunday morning, the water was glass and the footers were ready to ski the bumps.
Anthony Gramolino was the favorite he has won his home town event three years in
a row. This year had some well known figure eight footers ready to take him out.
Fatla and the Crandon faithful were saying that Gramolinos’ style can be beat.
The final four came down to Ted Woods, Gramolino, Paul Stokes and Bob Manche.
Woods and Stokes were eliminated and it was A1 time. Anthony skied for two days
in the open and had not lost. He and Bob were set, Anthony had the outside for
the first turn and they both skied the bumps with ease, it was after the second
turn when A1 slipped up and suffered his first loss. Its double elimination so
Bob has to beat him twice. It took two 8’s but A1 took out Bob and took home his
4th championship. Can anyone beat this guy on his home turf??
If you'd like to check out the complete
bracket results,
CLICK HERE
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2008
Lake St. Louis
