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 Each
year, we invite a few of our top promo team members to join us for a
couple days as we visit YMCA Camp Grady Spruce to teach campers how to
barefoot waterski. It's become an event we look forward to each
year and one we donate our time and effort to in order to help the camp
improve their watersports program year over year.
2010 marks our 6th straight year of
visiting Camp Grady. I started sending my daughter Kathryn to the
camp last year and she's been looking forward to going back ever since.
The one question she asked me more than any other was "When am I going
back to Camp Grady?"
Nolan Lough has been with us on every
visit to the camp and this year would be no exception. The YMCA
counselors and campers all know Nolan and have enjoyed watching him grow
up and improve as a footer each year. He started coming with us at
age 11 and is now 16. No matter who we bring with us, Nolan is
always a camp favorite.
This year, we invited Andre De
Villier's along with us. Andre had heard and read about the camp
and how many kids we teach to foot each year. He was excited to
get a chance to be a part of our visit. When we announced that
Andre would be coming the YMCA was a buzz about it. Marv Bateman, the
YMCA Board Member that organizes our trip each year, got more excited
than all the campers combined when he heard he would get a chance to see
the World Freestyle Barefoot Champion in person and get a chance to ski
with him.
We arrived at Camp Grady around 2:30
pm Thursday July 15. We unloaded our gear and had about 45 minutes
before we were scheduled to be on the water teaching campers to
barefoot.
Camp Grady is divided into three camps
(Main Camp-boys 7-12, Ray Bean-girls 7-12 and Frontier Camp-co-ed
13-16). Frontier Camp is for older kids and is a bit more rugged
than Main Camp being that the kids sleep outside in screened in tents
without air conditioning. Camp Grady has camping programs that run
year-round. They have a program to fit everyone in the family.
For more information, visit
www.campgradyspruce.org
Each year, we use two boats with 5
kids to a boat. We go out for an hour at a time and teach as many
kids to barefoot ski as sign up for the program. We also take the
camp counselors out and show them how to ski and how to teach.
Many of the counselors have been at camp grady for several years and
have become very good barefooters. Mike "Marv" Bateman has worked
hard to make Camp Grady's watersports program a success. He works
with local boat dealers such as Dallas based Waterski America to
purchase and maintain the camp's fleet of Malibu waterski boats.
He works with equipment manufacturers & retailers such as Eagle Sports,
BarefootCentral.com, Texas Ski Ranch and more to keep the camp stocked
with the latest in waterski gear. You'll be hard pressed to find
anyone more passionate about Camp Grady than Mike "Marv" Bateman.
We can't thank him enough for allowing us to be a part of the YMCA
family.
 On
Thursday evening, after teaching kids to barefoot, we put on a barefoot
ski show for the kids at Main Camp and Ray Bean Camp. They bring
all the kids together on the shoreline to watch us. It's an
amazing sight to ski at. Main Camp is located right across from
Possum Kingdom's Hell's Gate. A large gap in a huge cliff across
the lake. It's a amazing sight, but the beauty does not come
without a price. The ski show is scheduled for 6:30pm on this
public lake at one of the most popular locations on the lake. The
result is countless boat rollers. This year was no exception.
We always hope for smooth conditions, but expect to ski in some of the
roughest conditions of the year.
In order to make the water more
skiable this year, we had a fellow BFC member (Ryan Robinette from
Dallas/Ft Worth) who had emailed us to ask he could help out this year,
bring his boat to use as a breaker boat. He would run in front of
our boat knocking down the rough water allowing us a more consistent
surface to ski on.
Though we fret about the water
conditions, we forget all about them once we hear the kids cheering for
us on the shoreline. This year, the kids were amazed as they
watched Andre perform the Freestyle Barefoot moves such as his famous
ADV and ADV flip. Nolan wowed the crowd with dolphin starts and
jumping in and out of the boat, and hand plants. One of the show
favorites was 8 year old Kathryn Gleason as she footed by waiving at the
crowd. We had a blast skiing for the kids, so be sure to check out
the video below.
Friday morning, we
woke up at 5am in order to be on the water by 6am. The plan
was to take several of the camp counselors out before the campers
woke up for breakfast. We would each breakfast at 7am and then put
on another ski show at 7:30 before starting a long day of teaching
students. Mike informed us that over 45 campers had signed up
for lessons that afternoon.
The weather
was hot 100 degrees, but the deep water (40-100 ft deep) of Possum
Kingdom Lake was very refreshing. The goal of the day is to give the
campers a fun experience of barefoot waterskiing. Many campers
are first timers and have never even seen barefoot skiing so we make
sure to walk them through the basics on dry land before taking to
the water. If the success of the program is measured by the
number of smiles and screams of excitement, I'd say we have quite a
successful program. It's always fun to watch the facial
expressions of the kids as they accomplish something so exciting for
the first time and to watch as their fellow campers cheer them on in
the boat. Who knows, we may find out some day that a National
or World Barefoot Waterski Champion got their first introduction to
the sport at Camp Grady Spruce. It's also nice to know that so
many World Champion footers have taken time to join us on our annual
trip to Camp Grady including Nolan Lough, Andre De Villiers, Chris
Morrison, Keith St Onge, Colt Mahan, Teresa Wallace, and more.
I'm sure we'll see even more famous footers in the coming years.
We thank them all for helping us make a difference in these camper's
lives. If you're a parent looking for a summer camp to send
your kids, be sure to check out YMCA Camp Grady Spruce. You're
kids will make friends that'll last a lifetime.
www.campgradyspruce.org
Our last stop
before leaving Camp Grady was to pick up Kathryn. She didn't
want to go and was already asking when she could come back next
year. She talked our ears off about how she got to ride
horses, learn to sale a boat, swim, ski, hike, and more.
Thanks Camp Grady!!
When
considering summer camps, be sure to check out Camp Grady Spruce
Click Here
Chuck Gleason
Team BarefootCentral.com
Thanks again to Nolan Lough, Andre De
Villiers, Mike "Marv" Bateman, Ryan Robinette, Mike Lisch, and the
entire Camp Grady staff for making this trip a success.
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