By Clint Veivers

The year two thousand and ten. The only two things happening barefoot this year that matter to me are the worlds in Germany and the Fitzroy 50 at Rockhampton Australia. I’ve skied the Crouch Connors on the Hawksbury, the Bowhill to Mannum on the Murray, the Mary 30 on the Mary River at Maryborough in Queensland and Grafton on the Clarence River. Each place has awesome people and great venues but there is just something special about the Tropic of Capricorn on the east coast of Queensland Australia!

Brendan Paige and David Bray were the stand out competitor names with Ross Angel the owner of Snow, Surf and Ski and the Rockhampton Waterski Club going hard behind the scenes again to make the event what I believe is now the premier Endurance Barefoot event in Australia and the only Figure of Eight. Next year we hope to attract some southern and western skiers from Victoria, NSW and WA. They won’t be disappointed with the massive Figure 8 course right in front of the grounds and 50 Km of glassed out river.

Do we need to make the marathon longer? For at least three teams I reckon that would be a nod! Brendan and Brazy skied nearly all the way to the turn around buoy in one stint being 25km. The winning team being Barefoot Central consisting of Brendan Paige, Gizella Halasz and myself would love to see the main relay going even bigger distances...why not? I reckon I was lucky to get in about 5 minutes myself due to the difficult water on the way back from the turnaround going through the wash of the other 7 oncoming boats. Giz didn’t fare much better but we got Brendan back to the good water and he saw another 15 minute plus run back to the finish on his own with nothing but glass in front of him.

Brendan deserves some special mention here. Keith St. Onge himself said, “That right there is the future of Australian barefooting.” After winning the open trick medal at the Australian Titles in April of this year I would say that he was spot on! Brendan only learnt to foot a few years ago and skipped straight to Mens 1 before hitting open. Peter O’ Neil, Brenton Crouch and even John Pennay have no choice but to sit up, take notice and watch this space because here comes Brendan. I feel confident in saying that the Australian record will tumble before too long and Brendan will soon be named amongst guys such as Small, St. Onge, Werner, Sam and so on.

Back to the marathon...so...Brendan has just skied over 20 minutes, Giz and I have done maybe 10 between us, Brendan skis again and just keeps going and going! (The day before Brendan was caught out saying that he wanted to do some multiple turns and side slides to style up the start. [Andre De Villiers is his idol!] Being just a bit risky and not really in the team spirit of things he decided to leave it as and just ski safe.) This didn’t stop him from doing toe holds, showy moves and massive side slides on either sides of the wash on the way home, well after already having skied 30 minutes. Brendan is also the newest and first sponsored skier of Barefootcentral.com.au being the Australian franchise of BFC. Team QLD Mens 3 was second consisting of David Bray, Peter Aquili and Chris Brennan. Dave skied a massive 21 minutes to rival Brendan but was a little slower on the pace and dropped back enough to give BFC a clear run home.
Next year is sure to be a clanger, especially if a handicap is introduced to try even the field. This year saw a handicap of sorts limiting the top speed to 69km/h. Any boat judged to be over 69 for an instant meant dropping the skier and making a change. 73km/h is the usual top speed allowed on waterways in Queensland so 69 does even things out a little in the department where some skiers hold 70+ for 10 minutes or more. If there is going to be a handicap next year then rest assured Team BFC will train hard to make sure we are there at the finish to be counted. Some teams might need to consider doing the apprentices run too of a shortened distance. There is no shame in this as we all started this whole thing doing short distances until we found that we were capable of doing more and more each year.

The juke box this year was a hit and I will make sure I’m on site next year for the whole weekend to give it a flogging! Get ready for some Slim Dusty all you city folk! So C’mon all you barefooters large and small. Central Queensland is putting on a damn good show here and you need to come and check it out. Congratulations to all the first timers and new footers too. The Fitzroy 50 is a real achievement just to finish. You’re a dead set barefooter if you can show up and complete this marathon full stop. Thanks again to Ross Angel and the Rocky Ski Club. Can’t wait for next year.
 

	Relay Winners - Team BFC Australia Gizy, Brendan, Clint

Clint Veivers.