By Nicholas Korn

Hello my name is Nicholas Korn and I have been fortunate enough to have been selected to be an intern for BarefootCentral.com and Eaglesports. Basically what that means is I do whatever Chuck asks of me to do. What I get in return is to be surrounded by some of the top barefooters in the world. I have learned forwards one foots, tumble turns, the dolphin, toe holds, jumping in and out of the boat, backwards, backwards one foots, back to fronts, attempted the Air de Villiers, attempted a toe turn, and even attempted a front to back which everyone on the boat got a kick out of. For a little over a month, I have gotten to know Andre and the Gleason family. Every time Andre is on the water I am amazed and my jaw drops as he creates and invents new tricks every day. It is unbelievable how he does all the things he does. I think he should have just been born a fish because he just belongs in the water.

It is my first time down in the state of Texas and one of the things that Andre and Chuck were doing while I was down here was to go to the LA Night Jam. I had never heard of it before and was excited to hear they were taking me along to the state of Louisiana, which I didn't even know LA was the abbreviation for Louisiana, until about halfway through the car ride there. The plan was to drive down to Beaumont, Texas and pick up Chad and Nolan Lough, ski a little at the Blue Mile, and drive with them the next day over to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to put on a show during the LA Night Jam.

Once at the Blue Mile, Andre showed us all why he is the freestyle champ landing a move that has never been seen waiting to be unleashed in the second round of the freestyle competition. Nolan and Chad were star struck. Nolan was speechless and Chad yelled how it was the finest trick he has ever seen. After a long set of practicing and messing around at the Blue Mile, we headed back to Chad and Nolan's house.

I was in love with the Lough's house, everything was smaller and seemed to be custom made to my standards (height that is). Chuck and Andre of course felt like giants towering over all of us while they walk around easily over 6'2". We ate pizza and played washers, something I had never heard of, all night long. There were so many things I did that I had never done in my life before.

After a good nights sleep, we departed the Lough's household and ventured off to Baton Rouge, Louisiana with Chad, Nolan, Chuck, Andre, and myself. We played slug bug the whole way down, which I have been forced to play ever since coming down to the state of Texas. Obviously, I lost, Andre came in second but lost the lead at the end by having a bunch of false calls, and of course Chuck won. It seems like we don't even have to play slug bug anymore because it is the same result every time, but we still play.

On the ride to Baton Rouge, I heard about Cajuns. I had never met a Cajun and was anxious to meet one. It wasn't ten minutes after we arrived at the LA Night Jam before a 100% Cajun ran up to Andre saying how it was a blessing from God that he was there. He went on to say how Andre may not be God but he was for sure on his staff. I thought this was one of the funniest things I had ever heard and couldn't control my laughter. He was one of the most entertaining individuals I had ever met in my life.

We were treated like VIP's the whole time we were at the LA Night Jam. Jay Bennett met Chuck as soon as we arrived and welcomed us to the Night Jam.  I was a great feeling walking around with the Eagle/BFC crew.  We got free food, free drinks, and I felt like I was a celebrity.

We took to the water a few hours early to get in some practice before the show, then chilled by the pool.  Andre is like a kid at heart.  He couldn't stop doing flips off the diving board.

Finally, the show started with Andre jumping over the starting dock while the crowd erupted. I still can't believe how effortlessly he makes these new tricks look. Nolan and Andre then did some huge dolphins and side slides and scissors. They each did huge Air De Villiers which wowed the crowd. Then, Andre did a never seen before trick which left me speechless. I still can't believe he stomped it. If you missed the live broadcast, you'll have to wait for Round 2 of the Freestyle Challenge to see if Andre unveils his new move.

Watching Andre and filming his daily runs and seeing where he is going with his second round freestyle video is ridiculous. I can't wait for the world to see how he is single handedly taking freestlye barefooting to a whole new level. To end the show, Andre and Nolan did massive butt slides almost the entire length of the lake into the crowd.

We hung around the show after the crowds left for about an hour visiting with other skiers and the show organizers.  Once the crowds were gone, we were able to get the boat out and get back to the hotel.  We got to bed around 12:30am.

One of the funniest stories of the weekend was what happened at 2:30 am.  Chuck, Andre and I were sharing a room (Chuck in one bed and Andre and I in the 2nd bed).  At 2:30am, the phone rings.  We're all asleep so it takes several rings to wake Chuck up.  He answers the phone and a lady asks him if he knows an Andre De Villiers.  Chuck turns on the light and Andre is gone.  Seems Andre sleep walks occasionally.  All he knows is that he woke up on the hotel lobby in his boxer shorts.  He had spend about 45 minutes trying to find our room.  He didn't remember the number and we were checked in under Jay Bennett instead of Chuck since the NightJam comped our rooms.  So imagine a nearly naked confused and fairly agitated South African in the lobby of the Best Western Hotel.  The lady told Chuck that they were about to call the police and have him arrested.  Lucky for Andre Chuck answered the phone.  Even more lucky Chuck felt sorry for him and chose to claim him instead of denying he knew who he was.  Andre was convinced we picked him up in his sleep and carried him to the hall.  I got punched repeated as he tried to make me admit I did it.

The next day we woke up and drove back to Texas.  Along the way, Chuck decided to stop at the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge and put the boat in the water.  He said he always wanted to ski down this long channel the sits between the I-10 highway.  It was very cool but quite scary at the same time.  Andre and Chuck kept saying they saw an alligator and snakes.  They know how much I hate snakes.  I got worried as we put the boat in the water.  Chuck took a shotgun out of his truck and put it in the boat.  I asked him why he was putting a shotgun in the boat.  He asked me if I had ever seen the movie "Deliverance"?  He said we were about to put our boat into the swamps of southern Louisiana with fisherman that have never seen a barefoot waterskier, in a swamp we don't have a map to, with gators and snakes.  Andre and Chad had no issues with Chuck's decision.  Enough said.  We skied for about an hour and shot some great footage. 

It was my first ever trip to Louisiana, my first ever ski show, my first ever time meeting a Cajun and my first time being in a swamp. All in all, it was an unbelievable experience, and I am happy that I could ride along with Chuck, Andre, Chad, and Nolan to the LA Night Jam.

Chuck would like to thank David Harper for bringing his barefoot jump to the LA Night Jam.  He'd like to thank the Bennett's for their hospitality and Amy Bing for coordinating everything.  We hope you'll invite us back again.