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 2009
marked our 5th consecutive year we've visited Camp Grady Spruce to put
on a barefoot ski show for the kids at camp and teach the campers how to
barefoot waterski.
This year, my wife Michele, Nolan
Lough and Colt Mahan joined me on our visit. It was Nolan's fourth
year to attend, and Michele & Colt's first. Colt has been out of the
sport for the last 6 years while he was playing football at North Texas
University. He graduated last December, so I took the opportunity
to get him back involved. He's a great guy and visiting the camp
brought back memories of when he and I first met and when I coached him.
He was more than happy to share his knowledge with the campers and Grady
Spruce.
The staff has watched Nolan grow up
over the last four years and he's become the camp's most favored skier.
As we ski for the kids, we can all hear them chanting Nolan's name, and
his line for autographs is always the longest.
Before getting to the camp this year,
we decided to drive up to Dallas a day early (Wed) and stop
by the Brazos River where Barefoot Central was founded and where Colt
Mahan's family still has a cottage on the river. We arrived late
Wed evening and proceeded straight to bed. Our plan was to wake up
early Thursday morning and take a ski set with Colt before heading on
Possum Kingdom Lake that afternoon. We didn't have to be at the
camp until 3pm.
Colt was right on schedule Thursday
morning and we were on the water at 7am. Colt had not done much
footing at all in the last six years, so he was a bit nervous about how
he would ski. But when he took to the water, it was just like
riding a bike. Once you learn, you never forget. We all had
a great time skiing and catching up. The water was perfect and we
all got to take some nice long runs. Nolan and I enjoyed some nice
long side-slide runs and we took the opportunity to teach Colt some of
the new freestyle moves.
We all skied until around 10:30am.
After wiping the boat down and packing our bags, we headed off to town
to have some lunch. Just as we were finishing lunch, I received a
call from Mike Bateman and he was driving from Dallas to Possum Kingdom
Lake and was just about to our location. So we met up and followed
Mike. He was pulling his Malibu LXi and I was pulling my outboard
Sanger. We always take at least two boats to the camp because we
have at least 10-12 kids each session.
We arrived at camp around 3:30pm.
Mike a.k.a. "Marv" at camp, showed us to the guest quarters. He
makes a point to find us the best possible cabins to sleep in each year.
We all took a quick nap until 4:30 when we were scheduled to take
campers out on the water for lessons. Colt, Nolan and I relaxed
while Michele paced the floor. She was too excited about getting
to see our daughter Kathryn, who had been at camp all week. We
wouldn't see her until the ski show later that evening around 6pm.
At 6pm the show
began. The first show is for the really young campers (ages
7-12). Most of the kids have never been skiing before and most
have not seen barefooting. So it's always exciting to see and
hear their reactions.
After the show, we
take the boats out of the water, then Marv takes us all out to
dinner at a local restaurant. We talk about what went well and
what things we might want to change for the next show scheduled for
the next morning. We have a lot of fun sharing our experiences
and reminiscing about barefooting and shows we've done in the past.
The next morning
comes bright and early. We wake up at around 5am so we can
drive across town, put the boats in the water and meet up with the
camp staff members for a pre-breakfast barefoot clinic. Each
year, we take the staff out and teach them some new moves as well as
show them techniques on how we teach newcomers to the sport.
That allows them to pass it on to other campers throughout the year.
We had two
complete boat loads of staff members this year. The water was
very calm in the morning, so they all got some good water to ski on.
I gave all the skiers in my boat the opportunity to try the BI Super
Fly High. We went 4 for 4 getting them all up long-line.
After the morning
ski, we were treated to breakfast. We are never short on good
food and plenty of water during our stays. The YMCA staff treats us
great.
Just after
breakfast, we headed back to the dock to get ready for the ski show.
As soon as the campers were finished with breakfast, they would head
to the shoreline to watch the show. So we had to get suited up
and ready. This year was unique. Typically, we have to
compete with some strong winds and fairly nasty water conditions,
similar to what you saw in the video from the previous day show.
But this year, we got lucky and the winds stayed calm. This
meant the entire show would be skied on our feet instead of shoe
skis.
We started the
show off this year by having Marv and Michele do a double long-line
run and slung them into the beach. Marv did the introductions
and then left Michele on the shoreline to keep the crowd entertained
on the shoreline letting them know who was skiing and what tricks we
were doing. Colt then kicked it off by jumping off the
trampoline and landing out on the water. He then did a tower
dock start to wow the campers. Nolan did some freestyle flips
and boat jump-outs, and I did some surface turns, toe holds and
tumbles. We always finish the show by skiing Marv into the
shore on a long butt slide. This year, we added Colt and Nolan
on the boom while Marv was long-line. The show ended with all
3 of them sliding into the beach.
Marv introduces us
all to the crowd and opens it up for questions from the crowd.
So we get to answer questions like: "Does it hurt your feet?",
"Where have you skied before?", "How old were you when you
started?", and as always "Does Nolan have a girlfriend?" Then
we sign autographs for about 30 minutes. It's great fun.
When
considering summer camps, be sure to check out Camp Grady Spruce
Click Here
Chuck Gleason
Team BarefootCentral.com
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