Every September, a
group of barefooters and waterskiers from Discovery Bay, California get together to
put on a waterski exhibition to help raise money for the Royal
Family Kids Camps. Royal Family is a non-profit organization
that helps abused and abandoned children go to camp each year. There
are over 3.6 million cases of child abuse, neglect, or abandonment
each year.
Click Here for more details The skiers in Discovery Bay come
together each year to help make a difference in these kids lives.
Mike Temby, a
barefooter and freestyle skier from Discovery Bay has a passion for
helping these kids. Mike heads up the promotional efforts of
the once a year ski show. He, along with his family,
professional colleagues, and good friends get
together to organize a waterski exhibition that entertains several
thousand people on the banks of the Delta each year. The
proceeds from the event go to the Royal Kids Camp. Hundreds of
volunteers come out to the event to help out for a day and enjoy the
event themselves.
We've been unable
to attend this event in the past because it has always been on the
same weekend as Surf Expo, a big watersports retailer show held each
year in Orlando; but when we found out Surf was going to be on
a different weekend this year, we called Mike to ask if we could
attend and help out. Andre De Villiers happened to be in the
US at the time, so with the help of skiers like Willie Farrell,
Teresa Wallace, and Scott Pellaton, we were able to arrange a trip
to California that included a few days of Freestyle clinics for the
West Coast footers (click here),
all leading up to a great weekend of skiing in the Brentwood Ski
Show. We spoke with Mike Temby prior to the event and told him we would like his show to be the first
public showing of Andre's new Freestyle move the "Air De Villiers".
Mike was excited
to hear we were coming and was even more excited to get a chance to
show off his moves on the water to Andre. Mike is considered
the best walk-around skier on the Delta and grew up skiing with the
likes of Scott Pellaton and George Coverelli. These guys were the rebels of
the Delta. They were on a constant search for faster boats,
crazy stunts and
new moves on the water. To this day, they're still the heart and sole of the
Delta scene. At 50+ years of age, none of them seem to be showing
any signs of slowing down.
We arrived in
Brentwood the evening before the ski show. We stayed at Scott
Pellaton's place. We arrived around 5pm and chilled out for a
while before heading off to dinner at a fabulous local sushi
restaurant. We met Mike Temby at the restaurant and had a
great time sharing stories of all kinds of waterski and local Delta
adventures. All the older crowd, myself included, headed back
to the house after dinner, and the younger crowd, including Andre
and all the twenty somethings headed to the local clubs. California
is not short on pretty girls, and Andre looked as though he'd died
and gone to heaven the whole weekend.
The ski show was
scheduled to start at noon on Saturday. We showed up on sight
around 9am for a pre-show skiers meeting with Tim Pellaton.
Tim was in charge of the show schedule and had to coordinate the
running order for the skiers, which included jet skiers, wake
boarders, drag boats, speed skiers, barefooters, sky divers, and an
air show consisting of aerobatic jets. The jets were set to
fly over at specific times, so Tim had to make sure the show stayed
on schedule. That seems easy until you through bunch of crazy skiers in
the mix all headed up by Mike Tembe.
The show started
off with jets flying over then a group of sky-divers dropping in on
the delta and skimming across the water to land, and exhibitions
from the local Fire Boat and Rescue Helicopter. They followed
that up with acrobatic jet skiers.
I had a great time
helping out with the show. Tim Pellaton asked me to drive a
racing transition to show the crowd the methods teams had developed
to transition skiers during the BFC Racing Cup Series. I
hadn't driven a transition in over two years, but as they say, once
you ride a bike, you never forget how. Mike Tembe and Jerry
Kanawyer were the footers as we conducted two transitions right in
front of the crowd. The narrow channel of the Delta had
everyone, including myself, on the edge of their seats, as I turned Mike's
Sanger DXII around at full throttle to make a large circle as I
slung one skier forward and turned to drop the other. It all
came off without a hitch.
Next on the water
were the wake boarders, and some crazy costume antics from Mike
Tembe and Jerry Kanawyer. The kids loved it as Batman and the
Joker fought it out on the water, and especially when Shrek came
down the dock on a unicycle and then launched into the water to come
up barefoot waterskiing.
One of the more
impressive exhibitions was the drag boat and racing boat drive byes.
The sound was deafening as multi-engine, 1000 plus horsepower boats
drag boats, day cruisers and racing rigs shot by the crowd at well
over 100mph. We had a speed skiing exhibition by young ???,
the current Junior Girls National Champion. She cruised by the
crowd at 100+ like it was a walk in the park.
After the speed
boats, Andre De Villiers took to the water to put on a barefoot
jumping and freestyle exhibition. The crowd went crazy as
Andre inverted jumped over the ramp then came back flipping back and
forth over the boat. It takes a lot to get the attention of
the Delta skiers and Andre made some heads turn that day.
The show finale
was a barefoot speed run by Teresa Wallace. Scott Pellaton
pulled Teresa past the crowd at around 105mph. She slid to a
stop as the crowd cheered for more.
 |
 |
Scott
Pellaton pulled Teresa with his Sanger Day Cruiser.
Top Speed 110mph and very loud! |
After the show, we
took Andre out on the Delta for some barefooting in the famous
barefoot slough. We each made a few runs, then road around the
Delta checking out the sites. There are literally thousands of
miles of canals to choose from and it's easy to get lost if you've
never been there before. We decided we wouldn't venture too
far, so we returned to the dock to help break the show down.
By the time we got
back, everything had been packed up and Scott had already returned
home. Tim Pellaton loaned us his work truck to get back to
Scott's place. The truck was an old 70s Chevy Pickup with no
seatbelts, nothing electronic, but heavy on nostalgia. We got
a kick out of driving it. On the way out, we stopped at the
bar by the boat ramp where Willie Farrell and Mike Tembe had stopped
to have a few drinks. Our intention was to stay about 15
minutes. I'm not real sure why we ended up staying almost 4 hours.
Let's just say they know how to have a good time in California.
The next morning,
Scott took us over to Mike Tembe's house for some early morning
skiing on the Delta. Scott and Mike ski for exercise at least
3 days a week and you can tell they're best friends. The
argue, cajole, and tease each other the entire time. Andre and
I got a kick out of watching Mike show off on his walk-around ski.
We each had to try it. It's definitely not as easy as Mike
makes it out to be. Andre was the best at it. After we
tried the walk-around, Andre took to the water and showed off for
Mike. He then showed Mike a few freestyle moves. It was
a great morning.
After returning
from Mike's house, we met Scott's wife Erin and hopped in Scott's
plane for a quick trip to Lake Tahoe for lunch. We had a
beautiful flight, great meal in Tahoe and were back in Discovery Bay
by 4pm. It's a day we'll remember for a long time.
Skiers
Help Abused & Neglected Children
