I was contacted this year by Jay Bennett, owner of Bennett's Ski School in Zachary, Louisianna to ask if we would be interested in organizing a barefoot waterski exhibition at his annual Pro Waterski night jump tournament.  He had seen all the BFC videos and wanted to know if we would be interested in demonstrating some of the new stuff in front of a crowd.  I had not been to Bennett's before, but had heard good things about it, so we agreed to put out some feelers to see who would be interested in attending the event with us.

The LA Night Jam is one of the largest pro waterski stops and is unique for it's night jump format.  Over 5000 spectators attend the event from the local area along with a real time on-line webcast of the event.  Top jumpers from all over the world fly in to compete.  All the big names like Freddie Krueger, Jarrett Llewellyn are on hand to compete for the big prize money put up by the tournament organizers and sponsors.

Jay Bennett pulls out all the stops to put on this event.  The athletes are treated first class from accommodations to water conditions, to VIP passes and full access to all the food and beer they can consume.  And many take full advantage of the beer.

Having not been to the event before, I made a call to Ron Scarpa to ask if he knew anything about the site and what we could expect.   Ron was excited to hear Jay had invited some footers to put on a demo and went on to explain that he had been to Bennett's several times in the past to put on similar demonstrations.  Ron asked what we needed and said he'd do anything to help out.  He and Paul Macdonald had to contact several clients to re-arrange clinic schedules in order to attend the event.  Ron was scheduled to be on the East coast doing clinics and Paul would be just getting back from a European clinic that week.  Paul had never done the Night Jam before, so we decided he should be the one representing Ron Scarpa Watersports.  We then called on a good friend of Paul's, Dan Baumgartner, to ask if he would like to be a part of the team putting on the demo.  Dan had been on a BFC video shoot "The Run Down" in the past and we knew he could pull off some cool flips for the crowd.  Paul and Dan were both excited and began practicing some Freestyle footing together.

I wanted to demonstrate some of the new barefoot Freestyle moves for the crowd, and I wanted footers that had put on exhibitions with us in the past or wouldn't freak out in front of a big crowd.  Nolan Lough, from Beaumont, Texas was first to come to mind.  He had been to several YMCA Camp demos with us and was also becoming quite the freestyler since training with Andre De Villiers last year.  We knew we could count on Nolan to put on a show for the crowd.  Nolan's dad, Chad Lough, asked if he could come along to lend a hand.  We never turn down free help, so he was quickly added to the list. 

We arrived at the Night Jam around 2pm the day of the tournament.  Paul and Dan had driven in from Florida and had arrived a couple hours before us.  We were greeted by event coordinator Amy Bing and Jay Bennett.  They informed us that we could practice on Lake 2 and we just needed to meet together around 4:30 for a skier meeting.  Jay had arranged for several exhibitions during the tournament and wanted everyone to know when they would go on.  The event was scheduled to last no more than 2 hours and Jay wanted something going on at all times.  He had parachute jumpers, a Radar head-to-head slalom ski battle exhibition, barefoot waterskiing, a bull dog that knee boarded, and a freestyle ski jumper (Dan Olson) from Sea World.  We were scheduled to go on right after the Women's jump event.

Since we had not skiied together, we decided to take the opportunity to practice and utilize it to the fullest.  I had brought the BFC Sanger Outboard that had just recently been rigged with a tower and Super Fly-High.  I had also brought the trampoline that Zane had done a back flip off of.  I knew Paul would enjoy that.

After we each had an opportunity to ski, Paul decided he'd get a little crazy.  I wanted to do a naked back deep behind the SFH.  We were on Lake 2 and figured no one was watching, so off we went.  As I was driving. I could see every head on the shoreline turn then point out to the water.  People were laughing or just staring in amazement wondering if he was really naked.  The rest of the evening, people kept asking us if we were the skiers barefooting naked?

The buildup to the show was great.  Tadd Schrieber, from H2Osmosis Sports, was the announcer.  He was on the microphone all the time making sure the crowd stayed involved and were up-to-date with what was going on.  As we idled into position to begin our exhibition, you could hear him on the microphone telling everyone who was in the boat and what they were about to see.

As we skied by the crowd, you could hear everyone screaming and applauding.  It was a very fun 15 minutes.  We ended with everyone butt sliding up to the shore and being interviewed by the announcers.  One of the scariest things for the announcer on the dock was when we pulled Paul down the shoreline about 3 feet off shore doing a side-slide.  He soaked the entire front row of spectators as well as the announcer as we passed by.  I was very exciting for all involved, especially me being the boat driver.  Driving high speed runs on a short skinny lake with buoys and docks sticking out is hard enough during the day.  Add spotlights in your face, and random blackness, and it'll make you sit up and pay attention.

I'd like to thank Paul Macdonald, Nolan & Chad Lough, Dan Baumgartner, Ron Scarpa, Jay Bennett, Amy Bing, and the entire Bennett's staff for allowing us to participate in their event.  We hope we can make it an annual event.  We promise Paul will keep his clothes on next year, or at least require him to get rid of the tan lines ahead of time.

Thanks to Paul and Ron or Ron Scarpa Watersports for taking time out of their peak clinic season to make this event.  Be sure to check out the all new RS Pro 2 series of Eagle barefootsuits at Ron Scarpa Watersports.

.