Photo from Barefoot in the Burbs

Over on Karen Putz’s blog Barefoot in the Burbs, she has a nice article about Lauren Lindeman. Lauren learned to ski at 3 1/2, barefoot at 6 and is now a World class barefooter. Take a moment and check it out…

Links:

• Lauren Lindeman, Show Skier and Barefoot Water Skier
• More about Karen Putz

Glen Plake, an extreme downhill skier innovator, recently visited Keith St. Onge at the World Barefoot Center to do some barefooting. Be sure to read the whole story on Chicago Now.

Karen Putz (previously featured here) attended a did a story for Chicago Now. Be sure to read it and check out all of the pictures. There are also links to her personal blog in the story with even more details from the week.

Judy isn’t the only one though. She inspired Karen Putz, who 26 years ago caught a toe barefooting and went from hard of hearing to being deaf. Karen’s husband heard about Judy on the today show and sent the story to Karen. Inspired by Judy, she decided to take up footing again and flew down to the World Barefoot Center, where Judy volunteers her time, and started barefooting again at the age of 44.

Joann O'Connor & Karen Putz Barefooting Together (Chicago Tribune)

Since then, Judy introduced Karen to Joann, a 61-year old barefooter from Crandon, Wiscosin and the two of them recently spent a few days barefooting together before heading to Footstock to watch the final day of the figure-8 tournament. There, they got to see some of the barefooting legends like Peter Fleck and Keith St Onge, as well as many other senior barefooters sporting the gray hair.

Check out the following links for more about Judy and Karen:

• Malibu Boats Blog
• Chicago Tribune (full story)
• Today Show (video)

Next, 30 years ago a town in California decided they needed a way to boost business on New Years. They settled on the Bun Run. It’s naked water skiing on New Year’s Day. Read the story here for more details.

Finally, there are a group of wild and crazy guys up near Montreal, Canada that like to do some water skiing in the winter. It sounds like it’s an annual tradition and they have a lot of fun in the process. Watch the video below…

Winter Water Skiing in Canada [video]

After looking at their website, it looks like they actually did try to keep scores with the time they stayed up on the water and how many tricks they did to come up with winners, but I contend the real challenge is just getting in the water.  Yes, it’s mind over matter, and you can convince yourself to get in, but matter is something you study in physics, and the physics of a person at 98.6 degrees getting into the 44 degree water means the heat is going to get sucked right out.  Then you need to add in the wind chill factor.  Your face is wet with very cold water and then you start going at speeds in excess of 40 MPH, which means a 40 MPH windchill.  It all adds up to being very cold.

Anyways, they put together a nice little video to commorate the event.  So without further ado, here it is…

2009 New Years Day Barefoot Challenge [video]

I’m not sure if this was a team only event, or if they opened it up to all skiers, but hopefully, they’ll spread the word a bit more next year.  

Anytime anyone has a barefoot event, please send me the details at wedge [at] talesfromthefoot.com.  I’m more than happy to spread the word to my many readers.  Just about all of them love to barefoot.

Winter Waterland 2001 [video]

We may not have the weather to ski year round up north, but that won’t stop us.

The backstory is Kare11 did a segment on winter activities- Eric Perkins “perk at play” took a stab at waterskiing in the winter. I’m not sure anything I took part in will make the air  since we tried to build a pyramid and I fell twice (brrr), but it should be a fun segment. I think it airs Tuesday at 10- might be able to find it online. The video should have some good footage. There is a hard core group in MN that regularly foots year round, including a New Years day outing.
  - Adrienne 

Anyways, here the pictures…

Most people that pull up to the lake and see this, don’t think about going in the water.  But as you can see, they are already splashing around in the water while the rest picnic on the shore ice.

Next, before they went skiing, the needed to clear the dock.  Usually this involves sweeping off whatever that stuff is that the sea gulls, docks or geese leave behind.  But they didn’t need to worry about that nasty stuff. They just had to get rid of some snow, so they bust out the snow blower…

Next, they launched the boat and pulled up to the dock to load the barefooters spotters suckers into the boat. The driver’s face is just going to freeze when the start moving.  40 MPH wind chill is cold.  Don’t believe me? Next time it dips down below freezing, just roll down your window while you’re cruising down the highway.  It gets pretty cold pretty quick.  Next, stick your hand out the window without a glove on as you move.  Now it’s really cold.  If you’re really brave, dunk your hand in water so it’s soaking yet and then stick it out the window and you’ll get a tiny little taste of what it’s like behind the boat when your cold, wet and moving very fast.  On days like this, the drivers just don’t get enough credit.

They finally did do something in the water though.  Here’s a good shot of some barefooting.