Catching up With
Brett Wing Interview by Clint Veivers

During a recent stay on the Gold Coast for a few days of footing with John Price and Gizie Halasz, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the world’s best ever all round skiers – Brett Wing. Gizie gave Brett a call off the cuff to see if he was interested in doing an interview as the weather had turned foul for us on the water. Brett lives on the Coomera River, not too far away from John and Giz and agreed to turn up later in the day. To the uninitiated, Brett Wing is to the world of waterskiing as Muhammad Ali is to the world of heavyweight boxing; one of the greatest. As a multiple World Barefoot Champion, world water-ski Hall of Fame inductee, inventor of many of the popular barefoot tricks performed today and the first person to ever trick 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 points in a barefoot tournament, I  think I can safely skip on a full introduction. Brett has made many achievements that could warrant a story on their own, but here I have tried to mainly capture how Brett feels about the past, what he’s up to today and what might be in store for the future.

I didn’t know what to expect - having never met Brett before. I had only seen him on a video that he made in 1986, a number of years after he had given up competitive barefooting (the only thing I would have skied on up till then would have been afterbirth as I skidded out across the delivery table and into the Doctor’s arms). Back then Brett had a powerful physique that rippled with muscle and everything you would expect that comes with youth. Today Brett is a week off 47 years of age with 39 years of skiing behind him - 38 of those years as a barefooter. He currently works as a show skier at Sea World on the Gold Coast and has been doing shows since 1982 in different parts the world. Brett is leaner and more weathered these days which you would expect of someone who has spent their entire life in the water and sun - not to mention bashing hell out of himself during the early years with stretchy ropes and lower pulls – they didn’t have all the flash gear and training aids that we enjoy today.

Over a cold stubbie we conducted a casual interview with Brett. Here are some of his answers to the questions we asked him over the course of an hour.

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Clint: Of all the places you have skied across the world, where is your favourite place to ski?

Brett: I’ve got to say the Gold Coast ‘cause it’s my most favourite place in the world. There are better places as far as consistent water goes such as Columbo Creek but that means you gotta hang out there and it’s a boring sort of place.

So are you from NSW?

Yeah, Sydney. I used to coach Giz there actually in about 1979 on the Georges River, Liverpool. I learned to ski on the Hawkesbury River.

What is your favourite event in waterskiing?

Ski jumping. When there’s a good headwind and you get that hang time, it’s great.

What do you enjoy to do most on the water these days?

I guess slalom skiing. It’s good for endurance and strength. I like jumping though.

Do you believe you are stronger and more fit today due to your life of skiing or more bashed up because of it?

Definitely fitter - though I have broken 12 bones in my life with the worst being a humerus break.

Is there anything more you would like to accomplish or wish you had done in barefooting?

Not really, not in barefooting. I did what I set out to do and was ready to retire when I did. It felt like the weight of the world came off my shoulders and I really started enjoying my skiing more after that because of the pressure being off. When I went tournament skiing there was hardly any pressure at all compared to the pressure when I was barefooting because of everybody’s expectations, everybody wanted me to lose basically.

Was that in Australia or world wide?  

World wide. People don’t like seeing the same guy win all the time, that’s normal.

Is that a bit of the old ‘tall poppy syndrome’ ya reckon?

Nah, I could see where they were coming from, but it was up to me to make sure that didn’t happen, it was a lot of pressure.

Do you have any regrets about things you have done?

Probably trying my first front wake flip! I certainly went about it the wrong way.

Stek (John Stekelenburg) did a wake out flip at the recent worlds. Did you know him?

Yeah, we were pretty good rivals, he was another guy who wanted to knock me off, which is fair enough, that’s what he’s out there to do.

Did he succeed?

He never beat me. Seipel beat me once in a funny sort of tournament that was more of an exhibition. I was winning fairly easily after slalom and then I lost my toe piece in a toe turn. We went to the bear trap after that. Toe straps used to slip off a fair bit.

I’ve heard that you invented some barefoot tricks?

Yes, the toe up and step overs. I was the first person to do a toe turn from back to front.

What is your favourite trick?

Front to back toe turn, It’s a real nice trick to do I reckon. I was just surprised at how easy they really were. When I was a kid we used to do it on a trick ski and I’ve actually said ‘I think that’s impossible to do barefooting’. Then a mate rang me up one day, Alan Moffat and he said “You’ll never guess what I’ve done”.

I said “what?”

He said “I did a front to back toe turn”.

I said “You’re kidding!!”

He said “Nup, I done it”.  When I went out the next day, I made my second one, so much easier than a conventional front to back I reckon.

What was the hardest trick you ever had to learn in barefoot skiing?

Gotta be a front to be back?  It gave me grief for six months straight skiing every day.

Did you have stiff ropes back then?

No, and no one to go off being the first people to try this sort of stuff at the time.  We just did what we thought was right and had a hack at it.  The first one I learned was my reverse front to back and it was inside the wash.

What’s the most pumped you’ve ever been – biggest thrill?

When I needed jump to beat Seipel and set a new record at 21.7 metres conventional style at a pro tournament.  It was good money, $8000.  I was losing and jump won it, so that was a big thrill.

What do you think about the skill and ability of today’s footers?

Oh, it’s awesome!.. Incredible, they just keep getting better.  Jumping is the same; you think how far can they go?  And they just keep going further and further and further.  Obviously techniques are getting better and equipment also.  I’ve heard you get more points now for tricks?

Giz fills Brett in on how starts are now part of the trick run and the passes are now fifteen seconds long not twenty.  She also compares the new scores for tricks against the old.  Brett sounds very interested and answers ‘wow’ more than a couple of times.

I saw Keith St Onge’s run at the worlds recently… awesome… amazing!

Gizie tells Brett about some of the other really exciting new young footers in the world now, such as David Small and Heinrich Sam who is only fifteen years old.

I was starting to peak and fifteen, I won my first worlds at seventeen and when I was fifteen I was going to seniors the next year.  So I knuckled down real hard and got real keen cause I wanted to start winning seniors when I got there and I did. 

Giz – so would it be fair to say you always skied to win?

Yes.

Giz – so you worked out what you needed to do win and just did that so you would win?

No, I didn’t use that strategy at all.  The strategy we had was to go out and do the same run we did in practice every single time no matter what, even if it was rough.  We never changed and it is amazing how far I got in the rough stuff.  Sometimes I’d make a decision to do the run inside the wake because we got some pretty choppy tournaments, ya know, white caps.  At some of the sites they probably didn’t choose them as well as they do now.

Do you keep up with the latest world happenings in barefooting?

I generally leave it but then I’ll have a refresher.  I don’t access it daily or weekly but I certainly keep up to date.

Who do you most admire in footing?

When I was young it was Gary Barton.  He set a pretty good milestone for barefooting, he won four national overalls in a row.  He invented back deep and was doing back toes around 1970, other people were doing them but he was the only one doing a reverse…in a pair of shorts.

What is your personal best achievement?

1980 worlds, set world trick record and a world starts record.  It was the best tournament I ever had.  I got the maximum points you could get and won gold in every event. 

Giz – was that in Mexico?

The 1982 worlds were in Mexico and it was not the best show. It was early days back then and the Americans were fairly new at running this type of event, so it was a bit of an anti-climax. They are very professional these days though.

Giz – Fred Groen was telling me that you’d step off a ski coming into course and the Mexican kids would steal the skis and then sell them back to you.

Yep, and we bought ‘em.

As I’m relatively new to the sport, Giz goes on to explain to me that everyone used to have two skis.  They used to ride on these into course to step off.  There would also be a pick up boat that used to run along and pick up skis but they weren’t quick enough and some of the Mexican kids would swim out and flog ‘em.

What is your highest accolade?

There are a few.  Getting inducted into the International Water-ski Federation Hall of Fame. Check out www.iwsf.com/halloffame/brettwing.txt   Then I got voted by a group of judges such as Scarpa, Bruce Neville and Dave Reinhart as one of the ten greatest water skiers in the sport. Check out www.waterskimag.com/article.jsp?ID=12941  I’m in the Australian sporting hall of fame which is a good club to be in.  You get to go to all the dinners and all the different athletes are there. Another link to check out www.sahof.org.au/hall_of_fame/membersDisplay.cfm?MemberID=239

Is there free grog?

Free grog, free dinner, they fly you down and put you up in the Hilton.

I really want to follow in your footsteps now!

What is the coolest/funniest thing you’ve seen or done in skiing?

Probably these guys here (motioning towards John and Gizie’s next door neighbours who work with Brett at Sea world).  They invite mates over and try to step off drunk.  They get drunk and get out there in the nude totally out of control, they can’t stay on the ski, one leg is up in the air and they’re trying not to fall but in slow motion they are – it’s funny!  It’s bought tears to my eyes I can tell you.  It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, it was hilarious, these nude drunk guys trying to ski.

Giz – Oh, I’m sure you’d never participate in anything like that?

Once, ha ha.

What do you do to chill out?

Hang glide, I love it.  It’s one of the greatest forms of chilling; when you are in that glider there is nothing else on your mind.

Any pet hates?

Probably fishermen, some of them shake their fists at you.  It’s been that way for the last forty years.  I mean you’re just out there trying to do your thing, nobody owns the water, and everybody is entitled to use it.  It’s mainly just the abusive ones anyway.  What do they expect if they’re going to park in the middle of a river?  Mind you if you ask them what their pet hate was it would be skiers, it’s just the way it is.

At the beginning of the interview Giz had hoped to find out if there was something in waterskiing that Brett had not done.  It turned out to be sky skiing.

Giz – So you’re pretty good at the sky ski?

Nope, never done it and proud to say so.  Some guys love it but it’s never tickled my fancy.

Giz – Is it because you’re strapped in?

Nah, I think it looks a bit dorky and …it’s a funny thing, when it first came out there was this guy and he thought he was pretty good. The way he behaved annoyed me a bit and then he stole my girlfriend at the time (which may have been a favour anyway) so I thought ‘right, I’m not gonna ride that thing.’

Giz – If you could catch up with someone from past worlds who would you like to see again?

I like Scarpa…yeah - he’s a good old boy!

How long do you think you’ll keep skiing for?

I don’t think I’ll be a Banana George but I’d like to make a living out of it as long as I can, I can’t really say how long I might go but I’m feeling pretty good, I’m 47 next week so I think I’m going to make 50 pretty easy.

Brett had turned up to the interview sporting gravel rash and bandaids from a motorbike accident which prompts Gizie to cut in at this point and say “not if you keep riding that motorbike.”

I mean I’m skiing pretty smartly and not pushing it; I’m just going through the motions and am finding it pretty easy.  I do get the odd niggle.

I learned more about the history of barefooting in one afternoon with Brett and Giz than I ever have. We had some good laughs during the interview and it was a really lax, casual afternoon that I will remember for a long time. I know Brett is regarded as a legend in the sport, but doing this interview really showed me just how much of a dead-set legend he really is. The best thing for me was that Brett appeared to be an ordinary, average, typical kind of Aussie bloke that you would find on any street in OZ. The fact that he comes from NSW and his favourite drink is XXXX Bitter and not VB just goes that bit further in warming this proud Queenslander’s heart! Ha! I also noticed that Gizie affectionately called Brett ‘Wing nut.’ What Aussie bloke wouldn’t get branded with some sort of nickname?

Brett also told us there is a new DVD coming out soon featuring himself, Joel and Amber Wing. Some never released before footage of his barefooting will be included on the DVD. This will certainly be another one to put along side his legendary 1986 video in your library.

Clint Veivers is sponsored by BarefootCentral.com as a Promo Skier & Writer

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