I’m anxiously waiting for the Madison lakes to melt so I can get my boat in the water for that first run of the year. The weather hit near 50 here today, which will work some wonder on that sheet of ice covering Lake Monona.

For more details and the entry form, be sure to check out the team’s website.

The format is a 55 mile barefoot endurance race. Driver meeting is scheduled for 6:30a, boat launch at 6:45a and the race kicks off at 7:30a. Awards are schedule to go from 11a-noon followed by a cookout and then an afternoon of water skiing, barefooting, and what sounds like an impromptu figure-8 tournament.

Check out the team’s website or 2010 Alabama River Barefoot Challenge flyer for more details.

The entry fee is $65 with registration starting at 7am, the skiers meeting at 730am and the tournament starting at 8am. The tournament will pay out $1000 for first place, $500 for second and $200 for third.

Typical figure-8 rules that follow the Footstock rule book with the exception of the ropes being on a standard tower. No duct tape or Ultimate Grip Clinchers or Masterline Pro Lock gloves.

Seeing as how it’s at the WBC, you’ll likely be competing against KSO, David Small and the rest of the staff from there.

A party will follow at 7:30pm at the WBC Headquarters located at 3915 Lake Conine Dr. East in Winter Haven and the flyer indicates FREE BEER!!!

Check out the WBC website for more details and contact info. It’s also the final stop on barefoot ski dot com’s Figure-8 Barefoot Series.

Click on the image below to embiggen the flyer…

Update 9/25/2010: The figure-8 tournament will be held on Lake Silver now. My understanding it’s a private lake so there won’t be any weekend warriors to deal with.

The first event is simply the biggest of jump from your two jumps. Simple, go farther than everyone else and you walk away with 5 grand.

The second event takes a bit more math to figure out who wins, but anyone can win. Simple out jump your personal best from the past 3-years of tournament jumping, and whoever increases their personal best by the largest percentage will also walk away with 5 grand.

If I’m understanding that second event correctly, say your personal best is 40 feet and you jump 60, that’s a 50% increase. If another person’s personal best is 50 feet and jumps 70, that’s only a 40% increase, so you’d win, even though you both increased your PB by the same amount.

I’ve attached the flyer for the event below with more details, including contact info.

• Jump Jam Flyer

You can also watch the Austin Barefoot Ski Club’s website for more details.

Registration starts at 830a and the skiers meeting is at 930a.

For more details and the entry form, head on over to www.faceplantfest.com.

The preparations are well underway, and the weatherman is predicting incredible weather for this weekend. (Mid-eighties on Saturday, and upper-sixties for the race on Sunday morning)

Monona Bay is free of weeds this year, and MasterCraft Boats will be pulling the event. We are getting confirmations and early registrations from quite a few footers so it looks like it is going to be bigger and better than ever.

Here is a link to most of the info you will need (this includes the Registration form, maps to the location, and misc information):

• Clean Lakes Festival Barefoot Challenge

Here is the agenda:

I will be setting up the course on Friday afternoon. We may have time for a few practice runs if time permits. As there are no weeds to cut the course through, I anticipate that the course setup will go fairly smoothly, so we should have a little time Friday afternoon for some warmup runs.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Meet and Greet at Chasers 7:00 PM. Chasers will be having food and drink specials for the competitors.

• Chasers Bar Madison – Google Maps

SATURDAY MORNING

We will open Registration at 8AM. The official start is 10 AM, but we would like to get started earlier. Registration will close at 9:30 AM. As we are anticipating more participants this year, please print out the registration form from the website and have a check PAYABLE TO : Redline or cash. Day of Race Registration will be $50 Pre-Registration is $45. If you participate in both the Figure 8 and the Race, the fee will stay at $55

**You will also need to be a member of USA WaterSki. We will have forms available, but it would be much easier if you do it online ahead of time.

They no longer offer a $10 Temporary Membership, but they have added a Grass Roots Active Membership for $35 that will work for all of the Figure 8 events (provided they are sanctioned as Grass Root Events, which most are. Please print out your membership card and have that available at registration. The Membership is good for 1 year from the date of registration. (THIS IS MANDATORY FOR INSURANCE PURPOSES – NO ONE WILL BE ALLOWED TO SKI WITHOUT PROOF OF USA WATERSKI MEMBERSHIP)

Here is the link to USA Waterski:

• Join USA Water Ski

The Figure 8 on Saturday morning will start no later than 10 AM. I’d love to be started at 9:30. We hope to be finished by 5:00PM. At that time, everyone is invited to go over to the Clean Lakes Festival at Olin Park, which is about 1 mile away. There will be a beer tent and food available, as well as live music, and other events.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Rumor has it, there will also be a couple of private parties near Lake Waubesa, the sight of the Sunday Morning Barefoot Race. Details to be announced on Saturday.

SUNDAY MORNING

We will meet at the Beach House, McFarland, WI at 6:30 AM for a 7:00 AM race Boats will be provided, but if anyone has a boat that we can use, please let me know. Depending on how many people can get up that early, we are expecting a good turnout for the race, so we may need an extra boat or two. I’m still waiting on confirmation of getting a boat from the Mad-City Ski Team.

After the race, we will meet back at the Beach House for breakfast. They have awesome walleye and eggs, or omelets with homemade hollandaise sauce.

TIDBITS:

• Lodging: There are a number of hotels in the area. Several of the local participants have offered up places to stay as well, so call Bob Mahnke or Paul Stokes on Friday if you need lodging.
• Clean Lakes Cleanup: If anyone is going to be around on Friday afternoon or Saturday Morning, we are going to organize a cleanup of the floating debris along the shore. We want guys in barefoot suits or Clean Lakes T-shirts cleaning up the area. We are going to take a few pictures to show that barefooters like Clean Lakes as well! I’ll have a few rakes and garbage bags on hand.
• T-shirts: Be sure and buy the inaugural Clean Lakes Barefoot Challenge T-shirt. They are $20, and proceeds will go to the prize money as well as the Figure 8 Barefoot Series. This T-shirt is sure to be a collectors item. Make sure you support our sponsors as well.

Contacts:

• Bob Mahnke – (608) 695-6673 mobile
• Paul Stokes - (608) 333-6584 mobile

The 2010 Barefoot Worlds kick off this coming Saturday at the Beetzsee Rowing Course in Brandenburg-an-der-Havel near Berlin, Germany. The rowing course has seats for 5,000 spectators and has held as many as 10,000 people. The event runs from Saturday, August 7th thru Sunday, August 15th. Now I’ve never been to Berlin or Germany, but I know lots of people who have, and everyone of them says you can have a ton of fun over there. Plus, they are bound to have some really good beer, and of course really good beer gardens.

By now, many of the participants are likely there, on their way there, or about to leave. To everyone, I wish you all save travels, and of course, good luck in the event.

I’ve read through some of their newsletters (yep, they send them to me) and they are expecting huge crowd for the event, which will be awesome to see for a barefoot tournament.

I’ll do my best to cover the event from 4400 miles away, but I will admit to a conflict on the final weekend of the event… I’ll be competing in the National Show Ski Championships, so my ability to keep close tabs on the event will be hampered that final weekend, but I’ll still do my best. I’ll use the full resources of the interweb to cover the event. There is the significant time difference from there to here, so hopefully I’ll be able to use that to my advantage.

And if you happen to be heading over there and want to be a correspondent for Tales from the Foot, let me know by sending an email to wedge [at] talesfromthefoot.com. Or if you just a picture or two, send them my way.