 You don’t know you’re a good barefooter unitl you have 200 12-16 year
old kids ask you for an autograph. Then you feel like your barefooting
as taking you somewhere. If you have never had this opportunity, then
you need to get involved with BFC and their annual trip to YMCA Camp
Grady Spruce.
When Chuck Gleason invited me down to big Texas to train for the Junior
Worlds, he also asked if I would be able to help him with the Camp Grady
Spruce clinic. I thought sure, I like to teach kids how to barefoot, and
like to show off a little bit, so I was in. So I joined Nolan Lough and
Chuck on a 6 hour car trip to Possum Kingdom Lake where the camp
is located. On the way, we stopped at the Dallas airport to pick up
Keith St. Onge. Chuck had arranged to have Keith come with us this year.
Having never been on one of these trips with Chuck before, Keith and I
didn’t know what to expect. But from the moment we arrived, we were
welcomed as celebrities.
 We arrived at the main camp around 4:30pm. We where greeted by the camp
councilors and the camp Director. Our main host was a guy named Mike
Bateman, who all the campers referred to as Marv. Marv helped us get
ready to put on a barefoot ski show for the campers. That’s right we put
on a barefoot ski show for over 200 7to12
year old kids. The water was pretty
rough, but as they say, the show must go on! So we gave it our best. We
started with Nolan and I doing a show circle and double long line start
right in front of the kids. Then Chuck did a run doing some turns. As we
passed the shoreline, I could see the kids were jumping up and down
screaming. Then Keith did a 15-foot tower start! Marv got the crowd into
it and asked them to really cheer loud to get Keith pumped up.
Click
Here to see Video
The kids were egging Keith on chanting…Keith, Keith. Of course he made a
sweet jump and skied right in front of the crowd. Then I came back with
a two-ski jump out in about 1-foot chop. Then Mike aka “Marv” Bateman
skied into the shore on his Chuck Tailors (sneakers) and the kids went
wild! We finished the show by letting the kids ask us questions about
ourselves and barefooting. Almost every one of them had their hand up.
We answered as many as we could. Then Marv asked the kids if they would
like autographs, and to our surprise, all 200 kids stormed us! They were
crowded around us yelling our names. Nolan and I looked at each other
and where like WOW! We felt like famous Pros. Then we see Chuck getting
kids asking him to sign their Chuck Tailors. This was very funny! Chuck
Gleason signing kids all star shoes! We signed so many autographs my arm
was getting tired. It was GREAT!
After the show, Marv took us into town for dinner. He told us that we
would be spending the night at the 2nd camp across the lake. Camp Grady
Spruce is divided into Main Camp for kids up to 12 years and Frontier
Camp for kids 12-16. Marv showed us to a cabin that was set up for us to
stay in that night. It was about 105 degrees while we were visiting the
camp, so it was great to get in an air-conditioned cabin.
The next day we wake up at 5:30 am. When we got down to the boat dock at
6:00am, there were so many campers and instructors waiting to ski with
us, we had to take three boats. The kids did great! Lots of natural
talent. And despite some hard falls, they all got in the boat with big
smiles on their faces.
After the first set of kids, we headed in for breakfast. We all watched
as the campers set up for breakfast. The campers all had certain jobs.
For example, some kids set silverware on the table while other did
chairs and others made sure the tables and floors were clean. Once this
was complete, they walked out to the flag pole outside to say pledge of
allegiance. Everyone at the camp participated. Then they have one of the
campers select a warm up type activity. For example, they walk back to
the dinning hall sideways, or backwards, or like a duck, etc...
After we had breakfast, all the campers came down to the main beach to
watch the BFC barefoot show. We did a similar show for the main camp,
except Nolan, Chuck and Keith did a barefoot pyramid to start off the
show. This got the Frontier camp pumped up from the start. The rest of
the show was the same but better because of the water being a little
smoother. We did the question and answer session again and got swarmed
by the campers again for autographs. Nolan and I felt like stars. It was
amazing to see how kids that had never seen barefooting before reacted
to our show.
After the show, we had a bigger line of kids who wanted to try! So we
loaded the boats up and started teaching. It was great fun watching so
many kids try it for the first time. All of the campers were very nice
and fun to work with. And they all thanked us many times for coming out
to visit them. I heard Keith tell Chuck that he couldn’t believe how
many times he was thanked those two days. He said he had been thanked
more in two days that he had in the last year. It made us feel great.
Before we left that day, the camp director at Frontier Camp invited us
to have some fun on The Blob. They remembered that Nolan wanted to do it
last year but couldn’t fit it in the schedule, so they made sure to fit
it in for him this year. It was a total blast! Keith and Chuck joined in
and had some great Blob wars of their own.
I’d like to thank the staff and campers of YMCA Camp Grady Spruce for
making my first trip to camp so great. And thank you to
Barefootcentral.com for giving me this awesome experience, and hopefully
they will invite me back next year!
The
Board of Directors of the Camp Grady Spruce are serious in their desire
to build the camp into a world class waterski and outdoor adventure
camp. The idea of coming to a camp that offers waterski,
wake-board, barefoot, hiking, archery, climbing, horse back riding,
sailing, swimming, and many other outdoor activities can't sound all
bad. It's a great atmosphere. There goal is to attract more
young skiers that can grow into future counselors, ski instructors, and
mentors to others. For more information on Camp Grady Spruce, please
visit their website at http://www.campgradyspruce.org.
If you have a son or daughter that like to barefoot and do outdoor
activities, sign them up now for next Summer's camp. We'll be back
next year, and the spots will fill up fast.
Click Here to see all the photos taken at Camp
Grady Spruce
Chris Morrison
Team BarefootCentral.com
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