I had the opportunity to hangout with some of the best footers on the planet while they tried new tricks and showed off for the camera in general.  David Small runs his ski school in Clermont, Florida for much of the year and has become a big part of the Central Florida barefoot scene.  Dave Mueller had contacted him about coming down to hangout for a weekend and film all he could for some upcoming videos. 

I was able to come out on Saturday and Sunday afternoon to watch, foot and take some photos of the action.  When I arrived on Saturday afternoon the wind was blowing but the lake was large enough for us to have smooth water on one side of the lake.  I put the Barefoot Sanger in the water and idled across the lake to find Adam Pickney and Ryan Boyd doing some freestyle skiing off of the boom with Dave Mueller manning the video camera.  We pulled out the Nikon and started running the same line ahead of them and shooting stills of them playing on the boom.  Ryan was doing some great one foot turns, toe turns and trying different ways of jumping out of the boat.

When they got tired, we headed over to the jump that was set up and Canadian National Barefoot Team member Nicole Blackmore was working on inverted jumping with David Small coaching.  She pulled off some nice jumps off of the boom.  Her brother Richard also worked on a little jumping as well.

Now is when it got a little crazy.  David and Ryan decided to try a back roll on the shoe skis.  We loaded everyone in the inboard boat to get the wake as large as possible.  Then David and Ryan took turns heading into the wake and trying the roll.  It took multiple attempts but both were able to pull it off and it produced some great photos as well as video.

Sunday had more favorable winds and when I arrived David was attempting an S-Bend off of the jump.  He took some crazy falls but ultimately rode it away.  I know Dave got it on video so hopefully we will be able to see it soon.  Emily and Nicole decided to try some freestyle on the boom.  The ladies were working on flipping over each other’s back and working on some duel freestyle.  Later Mike Salber jumped on a Jet Ski and David tried some freestyle moves behind the boat with Mike driving the Jet Ski.  One of the moves he was working on was a flip over Mike while he was on the Jet Ski.  You will have to wait for the video to see if that move works out.     The day ended with everyone jumping off of the boat and just playing around on the boom for the camera.  From the looks of what is coming out of Florida this year we are going to see some great video as well as some guys really pushing the envelope of freestyle barefooting and I am looking forward to seeing the video.

Dave Mueller put together a crash video to demonstrate what these guys are going through to learn the new freestyle moves.  If you haven't seen it, be sure to check it out.

Thanks to Paul for taking the time to write up this article and send it to Barefoot Central.  Keep up the good work!  You can find Paul on the BFC Forum (ID I12Foot)