Team USA Diary and Notes

Below are emails and notes sent to us by the team during their competition:

Oct 14, 2003                                   Keith's Update on the US Junior Team

The second day of the competition was quite mellow for the Jr.’s because they only had to ski one event.  The tournament organizers actually squeezed them in as the last event just to try and move ahead.  It wasn’t a big deal but my skiers needed to have a full day off since they skied all three events on the first day!  Alger took first in the slalom semi-finals with 15.7, Mike was not too far behind with a 14.0 and Royal skied 12.1 that didn’t top his PB at a 13.3 in the elimination round. 

So, the Jr.’s got to stay up late on Thurs. because all the Sr.’s where going to be catching up with their semi-final rounds in the morning.  I slept till at least eleven until I got a call from the Suarez’s saying the Sr.’s were going to stop jumping because of rough conditions.  He made it clear that I needed to round up the Jr.’s (my kids) and hurry to the site!  I now know what it’s like having five kids and how hard it can be to round them all up!  It was a good dose of birth control for a male that’s for sure! 

As we grabbed a quick bite to eat and sped to the site, which was about 15 minutes away, I was getting butterflies for the team!  We pulled in and the whole lake glassed out and the team waited for three more hours till they skied.  That stunk but at a worlds you never know if any event will be moved forward or backward!  It’s better to just stay at the site and be ready at all times.

Al had the highest score again in slalom with Mike scoring a 14.4 which was a PB and Andre fell on both runs in the elimination round so he was no where to be seen!  The girls both made it into the second round but Nerissa Wright skied perfectly with a score of 11.7 for the gold.  Nobody skied spectacular in the semi-finals mostly because the water wasn’t good. 

The finals were exciting to watch like usual, and the crowd got pumped up with all the countries going crazy showing their flags off!  Everyone chanted, but the Aussie’s had everyone beat with their chant!  Aussie, Aussie, Aussie……Oi, Oi, Oi!  That chant in itself pissed everyone off!  There’s only so many times you can listen to it and there were a couple Aussie’s that were even getting annoyed by it!!  I swear I must have heard that cheer sixty times a day! 

Al needed to step up his tricks to have a shot at the overall title and to qualify for the next round!  He did just that but the kid to watch was Andre De Villiers, showing everyone his pure talent on the water!  He has the most slowest line turns, toe turns and one-foot turns you’ve ever seen!  I think he actually does a side slide for a split second and with feet like his it makes sense!  He has a size fifteen foot that are twice as wide as mine!  I hate to say it but many people were asking me if I was nervous and if I thought I could beat him??  He might be talented on the water but this sport takes much more experience at the big show!  I know I was favored to win the last two worlds and haven’t put it together yet but I’ll tell you a quick little story!

In my first eight years of barefooting I never won a gold medal at Nationals and many people thought I never had it in me.  In ’97 I beat Ron Scarpa, which was the first time anyone had done it in seven consecutive years!  I’ve won four since then, and one of the Nationals I didn’t compete in.  Victory is much more sweet when you have to work for it!  And I’ll be working for it this year!!!!

So, after seeing some awesome foot’n with Al improving his trick score, the Jr. Team and Al’s overall title would be coming down to the jump event!  It always happens like that and the worst thing about it is………you know how far you have to jump to take it home!  Sorry to say but Al had to jump eighty plus feet and we needed Nerissa not to jump any further!  Needless to say we ended up on top! 

I’ll tell you another quick story about Stephanie the Tues. before worlds started.  I decided to take the team to my place and brush up on some stuff before the worlds started.  I only live 45min. from Winter Haven so I thought it would be a good idea for Steph to take a couple jumps since she didn’t land any jumps in practice and she hadn’t jumped since nationals.  Got to my ramp on the Hillsborough River and said, “OK Steph, let’s figure this out because you need to land at least one jump at the worlds!”  Let’s work on your cut outs without the jump in the run and get square!  Sounds easy enough but when we decided to go over the ramp she said, “I forgot my helmet!”  Whatever, put Mike’s on and let’s get to it!  We’re on our way to the ramp for jump #1 and ouch!  She goes over the ramp for a fall on jump 1.  Jump 2 is a fall!  Jump 3 is a fall with a hard hit on the tailbone!  Let’s back track and put your shoes on!  O MY GOD it’s a miracle!  She lands three in a row perfectly and I say let’s take the shoes off and do the same thing on your feet!  Here we go for jump #6, set three jump 1 in the third set and YES she pulls it off beautifully!  Jump # 7, #2 in the third set and another perfect jump!  So, I said, “Let’s take one more and make it three for three!”  I know it’s going to be perfect because it all came together!  Not quit!!  She goes over the ramp, lands on her butt, her feet hit the water as she gets spun around and of course her (Mike’s) helmet catches the water and sends her into the drink!  We rush back and she’s floating in the water trying to catch her breath with the helmet pads floating everywhere!  “Are you OK I yell out?”  I’m praying to god she’s all set because we need her so badly for the team!  She was all right except for her back being strained and the slightly oversized helmet catching the water!  The helmet got ripped off her head so badly she was bleeding underneath her chin!  If your body is ok and it’s only your chin then get in the boat, take a breather and get ready to do some tricks!!  The fun it is to be a hard ass!!  I love it! 

More stories to come!

KSO

Oct 13, 2003                                            Letter from the US Junior Team

In preparation for the 2003 Junior and Senor World Championships the Junior USA team flew down to Tampa, FL to train at Gliding Soles Barefoot Training Camp. During the week at Gliding Soles everyone was skiing great, building confidence for the Worlds in Winter Haven, FL. The USA Junior team headed into the Worlds as underdogs, nobody expected that the team would perform as well as we did. The Junior USA team took the lead in overall and held it all the way to the end coming out on top. This would not have been possible without the most important member of the Junior USA Barefoot team, our coach Keith St. Onge. Keith put many hard hours into the team. He coached us when we needed help, pulled us through anything that came our way, and most important Keith brought us in under his wings and became our best friend. 

Thank you, Keith, for everything you have done. It is greatly appreciated!!

Sincerely,

Michael Suarez, Laura Szwed, Stephanie Sternagel, Al Morrison, Billy Benoist

Oct 09, 2003                                     Keith's Update on the US Junior Team

On Wed. the first day of competition Al Morrison, Mike Suarez, Laura Szwed, Stephanie Sternagle and Billy Benoist showed the world that this US Team wasn’t going to go down without a battle!  We were considered the under dogs and most people are thinking and thought that this team would only come in third place!

Well, after day one Al had the top score in slalom at 16.2 which was a PB, Laura slalomed a 10.2 which was also a PB for first place in the elimination round and Stephanie took first with a PB in tricks with 1750.  Billy Benoist as the alternate took second place behind Andre De Villiers with a score of 4430.  Andre skied a new Jr. World Record set at 8520 with time to spare at the end of his second run.

After the first two events the US led the field for the Overall position by 180 overall points!  My hat goes off to my team for an excellent show and magical barefooting!  The boys jumped Wed. night to complete the long and exhausting day with another outstanding performance!  Mike made it to the second round with a short jump at 19.4m/64ft. but the first round being the elimination round it doesn’t fully matter what you land as long as you move on to the next round!

Royal left us in suspense when he missed his first two jumps and then got a re-ride, which he also missed!  The whole US Team support and fans were left with pumping hearts!  Royal managed to land his last jump skiing as the Alternate and set new National record being 22.1m/73ft.  He qualified for the second round as well!

One of my main reasons for putting Al on the team was to have him as our back up jumper behind Mike.  If Mike didn’t land a jump we still have Al to fall back on.  In practice Al was jumping bigger than I had ever seen him jump before!  He didn’t realize he was jumping bigger in practice and I didn’t tell him how perfect he was jumping in practice because he was our specialist in slalom and trick!  That’s what our focus was on everyday he skied! 

Needless to say Al came in on his first jump and skied on into the air!  I thought for sure he wasn’t going to land it but of course the young and talented footer whose real name is (Alger) pulled it off and helped us out for some major overall points!  The bad news was that the videoaugrapher captured the jump too early and marked the jump distance with Al’s feet one and a half feet off the waters surface for an inaccurate jump distance!  I wasn’t happy and demanded for the videotape to be taken out of the camera and measured correctly!  The distance was 67ft., which was also a personal best by six feet and an automatic second round qualification!  I’ll get back to that fiasco in a few seconds. 

On the second jump Al took a pass because the wind had picked up and the jump was skewed to the course.  The boat judge said he saw nothing wrong and made the decision for no re-ride!  This is where I started to get pissed off!  Anyway, between the second and third jump Al sat at the end for over 20min., which gives the skier a disadvantage for weather and inappropriate malfunction of the tournaments equipment stated in C901 of the rulebook.  I started to ask questions with the help of Oscar “Foot” Mann bringing this issue to my attention.  I was ready to fill out a protest until I started to think of the simple facts:

1. Al moves on to the second round where he can improve his jump distance.

2. The jump was Al’s PB and a good score for the team.

3. After the event was over the tape would be reviewed and the jump would most likely be farther.

4. And I didn’t want to stir the pot and create any ripples in the tournament that could possibly come back and bite us in the butt!

So, I didn’t write a protest and after the last jumper skied at 7:30pm we started to review the jump in the dark!  Al’s jump wasn’t just farther but it became a new National Record in the Open division topping Royal’s jump and Kevin Towers jump at the 2003 Nationals.   So, do you want to know the final distance yet or what????  22.5m/74ft.  Way to be a team player Al! 

I’m so proud of my team I can’t wait for the up and coming days!  Scores will become closer throughout the tournament, things will heat up, skiers will improve their scores and the excitement will rise 100%!!!  Keep visiting BarefootCentral.com for information and once I find a cable port I’ll have many pictures for ya’ll!

KSO

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