Sunday, February 8, 2004 Finals for Individual Honors

Sunday made Saturday's weather seem like a cool front. At 9am, it was already 100 degrees Fahrenheit. By the afternoon it was easily 115 degrees. This really was unbelievable weather, but we were all thankful that there was low humidity or we would have turned into beef jerky. (Actually, I think Brett Sands is part way there! He was in great shape from a lot of aerobic training and I jokingly stated to him that he was the "beef jerky version of his former self." It obviously is a good place to be.)

The day would start with Women's slalom. There was very little to be surprised about here except that Gizzie was not in the medals. Rachel proved that she was over the head game of her injury and posted her best score of the tournament to claim her first ever gold medal at a worlds! Kirsten Gronvik showed that she was a new force by taking second and Nerissa Wright showed us all that Australian women would be knocking on doors at the next championships!

Men's slalom started off with fifth seed David Small who was trying to up his score of 18.1. I think being in his first slalom finals had him pushing a bit too hard which the judges scored with an early down on one of his crossings.

Next was me. I was calm and relaxed, but knew I had a real opportunity as a spoiler if I could surprise the top three. I learned from the first round that I had an option to trim the engine up as much as I wanted to get more speed. Although, I had never done this in a competition before, I trimmed up the engine with three "zips" to get more speed at the risk of getting a rougher wake. With great advice from Jon Kretchman, I was able to up my previous front score to a 9.0 which really got me pumped. I had slalomed a consistent 10 crosses backwards and I felt that if I improved it by just another couple of feet to get inside the wake, that I would surprise the rest of the field and they would be relegated to trying to beat me instead of cruise to an easy placement. The idea was great, but the execution was not. I pushed too hard and was down early on two crosses which took me out of the medals.

Next was Ken Derry, who skied his normal pass of 19.4 crosses. This left Keith St. Onge who was in no way worried about a medal in the event that he was world champion in before. His only concern was improving his overall. He went flat out in an attempt to break a world record. He was down early on his back pass which put even more pressure on his front pass where he was definitely the fastest in the world! Keith held nothing back as he turned up the after burners. Keith went down near the end of his pass and ended up with an 18.5.

All that the top seed, Brett Sands, had to do was ski his normal passes and he would reign supreme as the best slalomer of the 2004 worlds. Brett turned in a great pass of 19.5 to earn the gold. He was elated. It was another amazing first for barefooting. This was the first time that an independent had ever won a gold medal! Would this be the sign of things to come? Would this encourage Brett to get back into competition? Would there be more independents getting motivated after these three Aussie independents?

Next was women's tricks. The only real surprise here was that Gizzie did not medal in the event that she had shown such superiority in the first round. I cannot think of a time that a women's world champion had not won the trick event. Would this open the door for Rachel to take over the top position. After watching all other competitors, Rachel went for broke by bringing out a 360 front-to-front turn at the end of her first pass which she fell on. We all knew that she would be pumped to get her biggest trick, a one-foot front-to-back, on her next pass. She nailed everything as we held our breath. She set it up and with only a second left, she went for the gusto only to miss it on the buzzer. Was she out of the medals?

The final tally Rachel George her second gold medal. This was simply amazing. Could Rachel sweep the final event with another gold? Nerissa Wright from Australia and Kirsten Gronvik from Norway finished in second and third, respectively.

The men's trick event was a complete skills show down. Paul McDonald showed a little bit of nerves in his first ever finals event but finished with a respectable run, that would most like not be in a run for the medals. John Pennay certainly had a shot and skied an incredible first pass which only proved that his multiple turns were simply the best in the business. Knowing that he would need the performance of a lifetime to hang in there with the big guns, John pulled out the hardest start in the world and cleanly nailed a back tumble-to-one under the greatest of pressure. He smiled as he set up his run. He was having some fun. John was nearly through with his run when he fell on the much simpler 360 front-to-front turn which still left him with enough points to be in the medals.

Next was Keith St. Onge. Would he be able to pull off a miracle world record run under the extreme pressure of trying to overtake David Small? Keith came off the dock with his line-turn run. He completed all four line-turns, one line-360, and them went down hard on his reverse. This was the end of his overall bid for the title, but he still could make the medals. Keith came in with the guttsiest run I have ever seen. After only practicing on a handle in his hotel room. Keith completely changed his run around. He completed all four toe-turns feet-to-feet and then launched into a series of multiple turns including a back-to-back 720 to complete an awesome second run in the 8000+ range.

Next was Andre DeVilliers. This 16 year old went for broke completing his toe-turns, one-foot turns, and even a side-slide which has never been scored in competition before. He followed it up with a phenomenal second pass to put the screws to David Small.

David seemed only slightly bent out of shape as he came into his multiple turn pass. After completing four turns, David got stuck in his first back-to-back 360. This was a dilemma, but David calmly reset himself and continued tricking even though he had lost the judges completely with his altered run. When a judge loses there place and is unable to score the run properly, they are then forced to go to video, but not before David finished with his second pass. David calmly completed his four toe-turns, line-turns, and one-foot turns leaving the judges to the video to sort things out.

It looked like Andre DeVilliers had won his first trick title at the worlds! It was announced and posted. But in almost a nightmare fashion, problems arose for Andre'. After looking at the video, the judges came to a consensus that David Small was out of time on his last trick which would mean that Andre was the winner. When confronted with this news, David threatened to petition on the grounds that the judges were only allowed to review the portion of the video which they had not seen.

One judge had written down that the trick was out of time. The other judge was unsure, but thought that it was in time. The third judge thought it was in time. By their own rules, they were forced to allow David's out of time trick to stand as written. The officials felt absolutely horrible to have let down Andre at such a critical time, but this was the only thing they could do.

Andre broke into tears as did the official responsible. This might seem harsh, but in all fairness, David was correct to force them to stay with the written decisions closest to the action. David Small was crowned victorious as Andre was forced to live with the fact that he skied well enough to win it, but did not. For the second time in the tournament, his score was overturned by technical ranglings.

As I have said for many years and told many a skier, "It is not always fair, but it IS final!"

Now for the final event! Women's, jump was delayed for hours because of a freakish wind which was only blowing even hotter air on everyone and making the jump course unsafe for the skiers.

After what seemed an eternity, the women finished the jump event with Rachel George in the gold medal position for historical sweep of all three gold medals. She was unable to jump the necessary 14.4 meters to win the overall, but she truly could claim that she was the world champion in all three events. This was also historical in that never before had a skier won the overall and not even placed in ANY of the individual medals. It was amazing, but not too unhappy for Kirsten Gronvik of Norway and Svenja Hempelmann of Germany who finished second and third in the finals!

On the men's side, I had battled a historical run-off with team mate Billy Brzoza to earn the last place in the finals which was a good place to be. I knew that it would be hard to throw-off David Small who was flying high after knowing that the Men's overall was clearly his. I did, although, know that there were some new comers in the finals that would definitely feel the pressure if I could bang off a big jump and make them feel like they had to catch me.

I jumped 24.7 meters on my first attempt. Brett New was in the boat next to me and I could see that he was having the first trouble that I had seen him in. He missed his first jump and then landed a smaller jump as I went for everything on my second and third jump only to be left with my first jump as my best. I watched Brett jump his final jump and knew that I had a place in the medals regardless of the other jumpers.

Then, in what seemed an untimely late call, the boat motioned a re-ride on Brett's last jump. It seemed unusual that they would not call this immediately as they would have known whether the speed was correct immediately.

I held my breathe as Brett took full advantage of his reride and jumped ahead of me. It was now a matter of the rest of the field. Patrick Wehrner could not equal his previous days' jump distance. He was out!

One more jumper would determine my position. Australian jumper, Benny Greenwall came out in a nervous state. He had admitted that he was up all night worrying about his first finals in jump. I believe he had even thrown up in trying to deal with the nerves. I tried to lighten the situation by explaining to him that he could easily eliminate this nervousness by deciding to sit on the bank and watch the event instead of ski it. He did not like that idea.

Benny jumped three rather short jumps and was back on the shore completely undressed when the announcer said that he was being offered a re-ride. This was unbelievable to me. How could they lose the video of his jump AFTER he had skied? Certainly this was another bit of poor timing which I am sure officials will discuss after the event to make sure that such untimely rerides do not occur in the future when there is so much on the line. Everybody has to have their game face on regardless of their position in the tournament. It is simply not fair to the skier.

Benny donned his gear, took his final jump and spanked out a big one. Once again, this was too close to call and there was a lengthy pause from the officials who then announced that Benny's jump was in fact smaller. I had now fended off four reride situation on my way to the finals and I was feeling relieved to have had one go my way.

David Small finished off the jump event with a resounding punctuation!!! On his first jump, David launched into the record books with an absolutely amazing 27.5 meter jump which is 90.7 feet! He simply could not have any rain on his parade. I took my helmet off and clapped with my competitors. David was the new jumping gold medalist finishing in the best possible way.

Congratulations to David Small and Gizella Halasz for their overall victories. Congratulations to all the competitors and especially to the entire Aussie family of barefooters who made this world championships the most incredible event ever in the barefooting worlds history.

To each of you who have ever picked yourself up and got back in the game, I solute you at whatever level you are at. 

Saturday, February 7, 2004

Freaking HOT Weather...Freaking Hot Skiing! ....continued

Andre DeVilliers was not impressed enough to get off his game plan. In the heat of all this commotion, Andre took to the water in true championship form performing his toe-turns, one-foot-turns, and two-foot turns with near flawless perfection. He came back with four line-turns, two line-360's, and what looked to be an attempted one-foot 360. Andre threw up his arms in jubilation. A preliminary score looked like Andre had actually skied past David Small's unbelievable performance. Upon a second review, his last trick was a two-foot 360 which reduced his score. When it was all said and done Andre's score was reduced even more and settled out at a still very impressive 8900 points.

The tournament chatter was at a fever pitch as everyone was beginning to digest the impressiveness of that round of skiing. Tricking over 9000 points, slaloming over 18 just to make the finals, and what would it take to make the finals in the jump event?

Billy Brzoza came on the team last year as an alternate, but spent little time there and was moved to a skiing member after another team skier withdrew from the event under the guise of neck pain (more like nervous intrepidness). Billy probably gets just as nervous as the rest of us, but he sure can ski through some serious pain. "The Beast from the East" seriously sprained his back in jumping practice while trying to play catch-up from frozen winter months off the water. He showed up to Australia in a condition that 99.9% of barefooters would not be able to ski in. I felt like it was not in his best interest to continue, but Billy is a true competitor and not only kept the injury from conversation, but he continued to ski un believably well and was still part of the equation for success in winning the coveted team overall.

When it came to the preliminary round of jump, he had already contributed 900+ team points by posting an indentical jump to Brett New and myself at 25.1 meters. This was great, but Billy wanted nothing more than to spank out a world record jump during this next round.

In fact, there was additional motivation to jump well as an inside joke by manger Lee Stone led to a surprising bet about wearing a pink tu-tu sewn by Rachel George. (I am embarrassed to report that I had to try it on at my house just to make sure it would fit Billy.) If Lee Stone wanted to risk his life by messing with "The Beast from the East," then that was his deal. I wanted nothing to do with the guy who had crushed Ron Scarpa like a bug during the first X-Games when Ron thought it would be "funny" to grab Billy and try to wrestle with him. This is the same Billy who almost tore an Austrian's shoulder off during an ill advised arm wrestling contest after the previous World championships in Walsee, Austria. This is the same Billy whose wife makes him promise not to break "things or people" when he travels without her.

I digress....

The announcers were already speculating about the possibility of a three person run-off in the event that the finals would be decided by the previous days tie between Brett New, Billy Brzoza, and myself. It would be the first time in history if it happened and it was too good to not imagine the possibilities.

As can almost be expected, the unexpected became a reality. First of all there were the spoilers. Patrick Wehrner had jumped a first round jump of 19 meters, but being bumped out of the finals in slalom and tricks left him hungry for some kind of revenge. He got it with an unbelievable jump of 25.5 meters which definitely turned some heads. Next on the surprise list was Ben Greenwell. Ben was known to be a good jumper and we found out why he was on the team when he jumped an amazing 25.6 meters to assure him a place in the finals. Next, to no one's surprise, Mr. Consistency, Brett New jump another great jump of 24.4 meters.

One more spoiler. 16 year old phenom, Andre DeVilliers was not known for his jumping even though he was a very good jumper. His previous jump distance was not enough to catch up to me in the overall race where I was a strong third to Keith and David Small. Andre changed all that when he jumped 24.7 meters. This was not enough to make the finals, but it sure put some rain on my parade as that was enough to put him about 65 points ahead of me. Patrick Wehrner, Andre, and I were all so close to each other in the overall that it took a spread sheet to figure it all out.

That left Billy and I with the difficult task of jumping 25.2 meters JUST TO MAKE THE FINALS!!!

Billy's back must have been killing him as he was unable to land a jump in that round. I ended up jumping 25.1 meters which simply was not enough to advance so we were left with the situation that everyone was talking about. The "what if..." was now a reality. The way it works is that they can only take 5 people and no more into the finals. They take the top three scores from the current round plus "the next two best scores from either round."

This meant that since there was a tie for the next best score of 25.1, there would be an historical first ever "run-off" between team mate, Billy Brzoza, and myself. What makes this even more interesting is the history between Billy and I. In 2002, Billy out jumped me by 0.1 meters at the Nationals to win the gold medal. In 2003, I beat Billy by 0.1 meters for the National jump title, and now we were tied in the historical locking of horns to see who gets into the most difficult jump finals to qualify for in history. To put this in perspective, one of us needs to jump further than we had in the last two national championships just to qualify for the finals.

Since this had never happened before there were a lot of questions. How do we decide who goes first? Answer...a coin toss. Who gets to "call it" in the air? Answer...Billy defers to me. Dale Stevens, Oscar "Foot" Mann, and other judges and officials all crowded in to watch as a crowd of thousands listened to the "play-by-play" action by Brian Price. Dale tosses the coin...I call "heads"...and Foot stomps on the coin while he verifies the call. Heads it is. Richard Gray (team Canada coach and good friend) advises me to go first and apply pressure to Billy who has had difficulty landing the last 5 jumps.

My first jump was 23.5 meters. Billy missed his first jump. My next jump was 24.7 meters. Billy lands a smaller jump of around 22 meters. And on my third jump I tried to go huge and could not land it. Billy pulls himself together as I am watching anxiously from shore. It looks like a pretty big jump. It is way too close to call. The crowd waits anxiously as they double check the video. In true form, Billy's jump is 0.1 meters shorter than mine. (We were later told that it was about one pixel difference on the monitor between our jumps.)

Bottom line, I advance thankfully, but upset to be in a position where I have to eliminate a team mate that should be in the finals. Another historical first. Billy and I hug like true competitors and I can see the tremendous toll that the tournament has put on an already severely injured back. Billy is a true warrior that the team was proud to have in battle.

The battle lines were now drawn for the finals. The Team event was now over and the U.S had claimed an unprecedented 10th World Overall Team title. The most consecutive world titles by any team in water ski history! You could see the relief on Jon Kretchman's face as he realized that he had done his job well. Jon has never been on a losing team while skiing or coaching. Not on his watch.

While there was some jubilation, there was still three left standing from our team for the finals;

#1 Rachel George would be skiing in all three events and would have to jump 14.4 meters to overtake the individual overall title from Gizzie.

#2 Keith St. Onge was out of the jump finals but in for slalom and tricks. He was behind David Small for the Overall title and would have to trick 10,000 points to beat David by 1 point if David did not improve his scores! He could also help himself in slalom, but that would mean another world record to improve on his already impressive 20.1 in slalom. He would have to break the longest standing barefoot record in the three events...Brian Fuch's 1994 record of 20.5 crosses. Keith would spend hours of dry-land training in his room that night with Jon Kretchman to plan his trick run.

#3 Lane "Dawg" Bowers-I was in the jump finals where I would need to jump near a world record to get into the overall race. There was some room for improvement in slalom, but I had already posted a greatly improved 18.6 crosses. I would need to break into nine fronts (one-foot crossings, that is) which I had not done since the 1998 worlds where the boats were much faster and the wakes much narrower. It would also help to improve my backs to 10.6 crosses which I had done several times, but never in a worlds' slalom finals where I was faced with the best slalomers of all time. I was not in the trick finals where I would have had the most to gain for improving my score.

The good news was that Keith, Rachel, and I were all too tired to be nervous any more. It was simply a matter of stepping up and doing what we had been training for over the last two years.

The bad news was that no one could have predicted what would happen on Sunday...

Saturday, February 7, 2004

Freaking HOT Weather...Freaking Hot Skiing!

Men's trick semi-finals determines a lot of things. The best tricker usually wins the coveted Men's Overall race. In addition we find out if there are any "break-out" skiers who want the world to know their name.

In an event like this there are those who meet there expectations, those who do not, and those who force us to realize we should not make predictions. As the event started, the first major story became Paul McDonald from Canada. He is definitely one of the nicest guys you could ever meet and he was about to let the world know that he was not just a pretty face!

Paul stepped of the dock and returned a new man! Paul posted a score of 7850 which was later reduced to 7300. The shock was felt on the dock as this was one of those events that had just changed its flavor. In addition, this was the first world championships I have ever been in where competitors openly cheered for each other. I believe that the Australian attitude of unbelievable hospitality and an environment that was perfect for barefooting had helped to bring barefooting into a new era. It was clear that if you did not witness this world's then you had missed a mile stone. There was a definite change in the air!

I would like to say that I came off the dock making a statement about my skiing, but I must painfully report that the only statement I made was that I would be watching the trick finals from shore. I felt as if this was going to be a breakthrough moment in my skiing and for the overall race, but within seconds, that would prove not to be the case. After a poor handle position on my set-up trick, I was down before I ever got into my run. I knew I was out of the race, but I was pissed-off enough to come back to the dock with authority. My second run was an angry one with my more difficult run; 4 feet-to-feet-toe-turns, four 2-foot turns, a flip and two one-foot turns. It was a simple gesture to myself that I would be back to avenge this event! But believe ye me, this was not the most exciting part.

Patrick Wehrner was hungry to be on the podium, but his run ended in two early falls which took him out of the overall race as well. He is an impressive skier who I can guarantee will be training with a vengeance as soon as his water warms back up at home. He had helped France's position in the Team standings, for sure.

Barefooters from all over the world groaned when they had heard that Australian legend, John Pennay had come out of retirement to ski 8800 points (before the worlds) with his incredible multiple turns. Not only that, John skied as an independent skier because he did not have the time to take away from his family and job to qualify for the mandatory team tournaments (hmmm...They sound like they have their priorities straight.) The Aussie and American teams both wondered what effect this could have had on the team overall title (not to mention independent skiers Brett Sands and Ken Derry who were already into the slalom finals!)

Johnny skied well enough to advance into the finals of tricks. I believe he was the first ever independent in the trick finals! (I will correct this if someone can prove me wrong!)

Next came David Small. This is where time seemed to stand still. David smiled with confidence as he gave his call to the boat. I was still trying to explain to Jon Kretchman how I had screwed-up my easier pass when David took-off. I was not expecting to hear what came next. After David's first pass, he had racked-up 4800 points. This caught my attention. On the way back David seemed to be moving gracefully through his toe-turns, line-turns, and then one-foot turns. His fist went in the air as we waited for a preliminary score. Jon held up the walkie talkie as I listened..........9900 points? "Was that 8900 or did you say 9900?" Jon asked. "9900" was the reply. It was a good thing that Keith St. Onge was so focused, because if he had heard that, I am sure he would not have skied so well.

Keith skied up and back with a run in the upper 8000 point range. This run would have been a gold medal run in any other tournament, but we had entered a new era. Finally, top seed Andre DeVilliers went up and back as we were still pondering David's awesome world record shattering performance!!!

Andre was not impressed....

I have to get to the gym... more in a couple of hours!

Saturday, February 7, 2004

Alright, I can now say that Mulwala, Australia is definitely the hottest place I have ever skied in my life. Saturday the temperatures easily rose to 110 degrees Fahrenheit with the promise of hotter weather on Sunday. The team was consuming water and other fluids as fast as they could be purchased and there was a real concern about dehydration and heat exhaustion.

One of the real stories that had been brewing since Ron Scarpa (failed to qualify for the team for the first time in almost two decades) and Jason Lee (college schedule problems) were not on the team, was could this team bring home the gold with this "New School" team.

Jon Kretchman’s strategy was simple, but scary. The team would be relying on the scoring power of Keith St. Onge (in slalom and tricks), Rachel George (in slalom, tricks, and jump), Billy Brzoza (jump event), and myself (in slalom, tricks, and jump). The scary part of this plan is that there was no room for error. If we did not receive the skiing we needed out of each team member, we would lose the coveted Team Overall title to a hungry Aussie team anxious for victory!

The women were first o the water with the semi-finals of jumping. There were no big upsets here. Rachel easily advanced and continued to improve her jumping scores. She had been doing her job, but the real concern for her going into Sunday's skiing was could she catch local favorite Gizella Halasz for the individual overall race.

I must also point out here some tremendous skiing by Kirsten Gronvik from Team Norway. Although she was not in contention for the gold, there was no doubt that Kirsten was sending a message that she was a true competitor that she was here to make this race honest. She was ready and waiting for any opportunity which she showed by winning the women's elimination round of slalom, and by continually improving her jumping. Imagine what kind of training she had available in Norway! Ice skating, maybe!!! Her team mates were notably the most enthusiastic cheering squad that even the local Aussies had to appreciate! Although we could not understand the actual words in the cheers, we all felt like we wish we could cheer on this champion!

In the preliminaries of women's tricks three things stood out in my mind;

#1 Gizella had the most skills, but was feeling the mounting pressure of the finals approaching.
#2 Rachel was going to continue her plan of not making mistakes and applying more pressure.
#3 Kirsten wasbuildingg her momentum and confidence

The results were Rachel George led the round as the number one seed going into the finals even though everyone knew that if Gizzie could repeat her first round performance, she would slaughter the competition! Kirsten turned in a solid performance and was brimming with the new understanding that she was a player!

I should also point out that as all this was going on, there was another battle for third place going on. For the first time in barefooting history, the French were moving in hard on the Canadians and the Kiwis. Could this be an upset in the making? Would the French team stand proud on the podium on Sunday?

The most unbelievable barefooting in barefooting history was still to come in the semi-finals of Men's tricks and jump!!!!

I am missing a much needed nap by getting this out. Brent Benoist told me to sleep later...

I very much apologize for the long delay since my last post, but as the competition heated-up, I was unable to return to town where the only internet cafe' was closed by 5pm and not open on the weekends! Even though, I am suffering from 30 hours of return traveling, I am committing to getting these posts out and finishing what was the greatest world championships ever held!!!!

Friday, February 6, 2004

Today was the day we would jump for the first time. After this we would have all three scores (jump, tricks, and slalom) necessary to find out where we stood as a team compared to the Aussies.

The first round was good to both the Aussies and to the U.S. as all competitors advanced on the men's side except for Ryan Boyd whose jumping had improved dramatically, but was not quite up to the extremely competitive world's standard.

At the top of the heap was David Small with a huge 25.8 meter jump followed by a three-way tie between Brett New, Billy Brzoza, and myself at 25.1 meters. The feeling in the air was that a world record would be going down soon.

The other real story developing was that David Small was skiing at an incredible level for a guy who had only two weeks of practice coming out of a bitter U.K. winter. David had made the statement that he was not a fluke last year and he was in no mood to lose his title.

Next on the agenda was women's slalom. This was another big event for Rachel George who had not slalomed since dislocating her shoulder not even a week before. It went t without needing to be said that this would be a major challenge and a head game for Rachel who would have to get beyond the fact that although she had done well up to this point, the last time she crossed the wake she went to the hospital. This is a head game for anyone in her situation and the pressure of needing to score points for the team was added pressure.

I gave Rachel some last minute advice that I hoped was simple enough to keep her focused on the task instead of the head game. She was the top seed in this event and after watching everyone else, ski, she knew she need only ski conservatively to advance to the next round. On her first pass, she went forwards and skied out an entire pass before falling. Without being able to talk to her, Jon Kretchman and I paced and wondered if she was O.K. or if the fall would effect her backwards run. Rachel stood up her entire back pass and easily made it into the second round in second place.

Rachel later told us that the fall was a huge relief to her because she realized that she was not hurt and that allowed her to relax and get the monkey off of her back. Being second also awakened her to the fact that she could not cruise through this tournament. She would have to dig deep and that helped her focus.

Behind the scenes, there is another whole world that not many of the competitors even get to know. It is the dark under belly of the world of petitions made by team managers and skiers who feel that they have been scored improperly in the competition. At the beginning of the day, there were ranglings about someone trying to get Keith St. Onge's last trick thrown out since it involved a fall. We were not sure who was involved in trying to overturn this score, but were confident that it would not be changed as it was too late.

On the other hand, we were surprised to find out that South African Andre' DeVilliers' trick run had been upgraded by 850 points from the previous posting. This change was important because it lowered our team scores by almost 100 points. Jon Kretchman quickly mounted a petition saying that this change had been made incorrectly. Jon had been told in advance that his petition would most likely be turned down, but Jon doesn't like to lose battles of this nature. Jon won his petition and the score was changed for the second time.

On a personal note, I felt bad for Andre' as I saw the trick in question and felt that the rule needed to be changed as it was clear to everyone that Andre' had shown his skills properly even though it was interpreted to be otherwise by the rules.

This was only the beginning of the battle that was heating up and it had all the markings of one of the best show downs in the history of the world barefoot championships.

Before the end of the day it was almost 100 degrees out and the locals were still telling us that the hot weather would be here by the weekend.

The first semi-final was held at the end of the day. Men's slalom finished-up with an amazing battle that showed just how far the sport had advanced. Not only was the skiing getting better, but so was the judging. It was clear that judging had entered a whole new level of expertise which made skiing clean the difference between advancing and watching the finals.

It was absolutely incredible to see such great skiing and to find out that 18 crosses was good for 8th place!!!! The semi-finals finished up with Brett Sands at 20, Keith St. Onge at 19.8, Ken Derry at 19.4, Lane Bowers at 18.6 and David Small at 18.1.

On a personal note this was a great victory to make it to a five-man finals in slalom after falling in almost every World championships since I had competed. Slalom had been my Achilles heel and it felt great to send my gorilla looking for a new home!

By now, we had learned that we were in a commanding lead for the team overall, but by no means a sure victory.

Saturday would be one of the most incredible days in barefooting history!

I had an unusually good sleep for the night before the first big runs. I was thankful and well rested. Breakfast with the team had a tension so thick that you could cut it with a knife. If the woman's trick event was a taste of what was to come, then the US Team was in a fight for its life. Today was a REALLY big day for the US Team and we all felt the pressure.

It would be great if we could just continue the frivolity and light heartedness we all experienced going up until this week, but despite our good intentions and close feeling among team mates, we felt as if the war had begun and that we might lose a few good men (or women) in the bloody fight that was about to engage us. Jon K. and manager, Lee Stone, had even gone the extra mile of asking non-skiers to keep chatter to a minimum as to not cause more tension than already existed.

The day started out with the tension of the great unknown. Would Rachel George feel good enough with her recently dislocated shoulder to jump. We needed her to score and to out jump the rest of the field. Rachel did not disappoint us. She led the field of jumpers with a tournament high 11.5 meters. Her form showed the world that she had the foundation to take jumping further than anyone has ever done, but would she make the commitment that it will take in the upcoming off-season? It did not make the difference right now, but she easily out skied the field.

After her second jump, I really felt Rachel needed to up her boat speed to help her chances of jumping further. Rachel surprised Jon K. and me by asking for the maximum allowable speed of 72 kph or 45 mph!!! I would never have asked her to do that as there are only the top men in the world who ski this speed! She nailed her last jump and showed that she had a lot more in her for the next round!

The real gut wrencher event is the most difficult and dangerous of all events in men's bare footing Group A tricks. It requires the most practice, the highest degree of difficulty, and the most amount of calm and concentration.

The event started out with Mikey Caruso who was the first guy on the water and someone who we hoped would set the pace by completing his runs. Mikey fell on unusually calm water. The nerves were getting him out of his game plan and it showed as he fell on his second pass.

This is not the kind of start we wanted, but there was no time to cry about it! Patrick Wehrner certainly did not seem to mind. He is Europe's number one skier and he showed that four months of winter and a new baby was in no way slowing him down. Patrick blitzed off a great first run followed by a second run that was not his best. With a score in the 7000+ range, he was definitely sending a message that he was in the game.

Next on the water was David Small who was also in a similar training situation and posted a strong 7400-point run.

I was next on the water and I really did feel good. I was surprised at how calm I felt. Later I realized that this was the first world Championships that I have ever skied without a minimum of 10+ Diet Cokes running through my veins. I definitely felt calmer. I skied my first run a slightly slower pace and missed getting my flip I time at the end of the run. My second run left me with a sloppy second toe-turn to the front. I quickly got on track with another tick-tock toe-turn and went into my one-foot turns where I encountered more problems. Realizing this sloppiness was causing me time; I made an immediate change and went with four quick two-foot turns that still left me with tricks out of time. With a score of 6300, I was easily through to the next round, but about 3000 points lower than I had hoped. I did, although feel good about having the rope in my hands at the end of each run which left me injury free and confident about making needed changes in the next round.

Keith St. Onge was next and it was obvious that the pressure of being ranked number one was getting him out of his usually flawless tricking. He fell on his 3rd trick coming down hard. Keith then received an unbelievably amazing gift of a re-ride, which was the only one of the entire tournament given for rollers. (The Aussie site was amazing and everyone was thankful for such a fantastic opportunity to ski in perfect water.)

On Keith's re-ride, he skied a great pass. His next pass had him down hard on his third trick. Keith still collected enough points to put him up with the top three guys.

South African phenom, Andre DeVillieres was obviously befitting from his training with Patrick Wehrner as you could tell from the trademark hit-it call bellowed in standard Wehrner form! It definitely seemed to work as 16-year-old Andre spanked out the highest scoring run of 7800 points to take the top preliminary score in men's tricks.

Aussie, John Pennay, is one of barefooting's most endeared champions who has been retired for years. He decided to show up and it certainly was a treat. John showed that he still had the best multiple turns in the world despite going down early in his second pass. He was easily through to the second round even though he was skiing as an independent skier as opposed to an Aussie TEAM skier.

The Men's slalom was the next big news as all the best slalomers in the world were on the dock. This local tournament even drew out retired Aussie legends, Brett Sands, Ken Derry, and John Pennay. It must have been painful for the Aussie Team skiers see all their independents easily out-ski the Team members. All three were easily through to the finals just behind Keith St. Onge who skied a fantastic 19.8 to show why he is still the best slalom skier in the world.

I skied an 18.2 and currently am waiting to see if the was a touch down which would put me at 17.7, but easily into the finals.

The Team event side of this was dramatic. The top slalom guys for Australia all went down hard with an unusually bad performance from Peter O'Neil who fell in both passes. This effect was dramatic as it put the US in a commanding spot with respect to the slalom and tricks event.

More to come as the Internet cafe is kicking me out.

Expecting a Miracle!!!
Lane "Dawg" Bowers

The story is starting to write itself!

There are two groups "A" and "B" which are the upper and lower seeds respectively for both men and women in the tournament. The "B" group of men skied slalom and that set the tone for what the skiers in the "A" will have to ski in order to get to the semi final round. Previous World Champion David Small form England showed he was here to make a statement by posting an 18 in slalom which was the highest score form the "B" group. The next scores were around 15.8 and that would most likely be the mark that the "A" group would have to beat in order to make it to the semi-final round of slalom.

There were several Aussies slaloming in "B" group including Brett New and Brendan Wright who the Aussies were counting on for Team Overall scores. Peter O'Neill told me after the event that their scores were lower than they had hoped. They were defining the bubble for the next round and it will be left to the Men's "A" group to see whether they will advance.

But what about Rachel George? Rachel took to the water half way through the pack as Jon K. and I sat there pacing as though it was our own turn at the World Championships. We were hoping and praying for Rachel's safety as well as a good start for the US Barefoot Team. In typical form, Rachel skied like a machine completing both of her passes modified to eliminate only one trick to reduce the possibility of injury. We had hoped that by her skiing consistently well, Rachel would put pressure on the Aussies number one skier, Gizella Halasz, to ski under pressure.

That program was quickly found to be of little consequence. Gizzy came into this tournament with a lot to prove to herself. She had failed to land any jumps at the Senior World Championships in Winter Haven, Florida. That cost her the overall title. What effect would that have on her skiing here? We found out only a few skiers after Rachel. Gizzy skied like the true champion that she is by skiing what I would have to call the best woman's tricking I have ever witnessed. She performed a flawless feet-to-feet toe turn, some one-foot turns, a wake flip, some two-foot turns and then fell on her regular flip to give her an incredible score of 4300 points compare to Rachel's 2500+ points.

There was no question that this Team event would be a war and the Aussies were out to over throw the longest winning streak in all of the water skiing world! The US Barefoot Team has won every single Team Overall Title since 1988 and no water ski team of any type has equaled this performance. And if you do not think that the Australians would like to get back to the days where there anthem is the last one played on the podium, then you simply have never witnessed the absolute devotion that Aussies have for sport.

Tomorrow, the big boys take to the water in Men's group "A" tricks. This is the most gut wrenching of events and will be a critical part of how this battle is going to go. After that is Men's Slalom and Women's Jump.

Can Rachel hold it together for the pounding of the jump event? Will Gizzy redeem herself by shrugging off her "zero-out" jump event at the Senior Worlds? Will Keith St. Onge begin his advance to his first overall victory? Can David Small repeat his last World's? Will South African new comer, Andre' Devilliers spoil everyone's hopes? Will I redeem my previous Elite World's performance and continue to ride the wave of my Senior Men's Overall title? How will the Team Overall event play out as we get through the first round of all three events?

While you enjoy tomorrow's sleep, there will be about 20 men from around the world who will try not to be nervous, but they will not be able to stop playing their own video analysis of their trick runs in their heads as they hope to fall asleep early!

Enjoy your sleep while we take it up a notch tomorrow (We are actually almost a day ahead. The future looks good so continue on and expect a miracle!!!)

Friday started out as one of the best practices we had put together with everyone skiing great. Mikey Caruso was his usual relaxed self and we all wondered if his resting hear rate was any different to when he skied. He definitely leads our team in the relaxation department. Which would be a mistake to say that he was not taking this seriously! Although the youngest skiing member of the team, Mikey has as much experience as the most seasoned skiers. As a previous World Champion in the Juniors and an expert jumper, Mikey's calm attitude helps add a nice perspective to our team.

The weather seemed to be up and down with cool mornings that required several layers to blistering hot temperatures that required maximum protection. Several sessions required alternate ski plans and many of us practiced our trick runs on our Barefoot Central Extreme Footers because of the windy conditions that kept popping up. It was always a nice break in the tension of training and a great way to keep injury free while keeping confidence very high (and you thought only beginners wore shoe skis!)

New team member Ryan Boyd was improving his skiing steadily and we were all happy to watch his confidence grow in al his skiing, especially the jumping.

Rachel George is a rock that we rely on heavily. She is dramatically tougher than she appears and as game day approaches, she gets even nicer while brewing with confidence and competitive savvy that belies a seasoned champion. She is a perfect example of a skiing machine that will force the other girls to match or beat her. She is especially critical to this team because of the dynamics that exist on our always tough Aussies Team.

The number one Aussie woman is Gizzy Halas and if she does what she is capable of doing she can break a world record in tricks, but with a steady avalanche of pressure from Rachel George, that requires a monumental effort that all the Aussies would like to see out of Gizzy.

Now that you understand the importance that George has to our team, you can understand the fear that struck our hearts in what happened next...

After a typically flawless slalom set, Rachel decided to take one more pass forwards to get used to the wake behind this boat that we had never seen before. At the very end of that pass, she went down in the middle of the wake in what seemed to be a relatively non-threatening fall to the observers. Unfortunately, that was not the case. On her second flip into the water, Rachel's arm seemed to be a little too far way from her body and it had an awkward look.

When she came to the surface it was obvious she was in trouble by the look on her face and the way her arm was positioned in the water. After carefully retrieving her, calming her and preparing her for transport, the entire team came together to cover her with any spare close we could find to warm her up. She was going into shock. As bad as it seemed at the time, this team is no stranger to serious injuries. The flawless execution of getting her ready for immediate transport was calming because we had all been in similar situations...

We could see in Jon Kretchman's (Team Coach) eyes, the caring, but concerned look of what could mean disaster for our team.

Practice continued with concern for Rachel as she was seen by doctors and given X-rays. To our amazement, Rachel seemed relaxed and confident only hours later. It was a best case scenario of the least possible damage for a dislocation. Could this very toughest of woman pull herself to skiing in only a matter of days? She was to be our first member to ski.

I will let you know how it goes!

Our first two days on the water were definitely a chance to get our legs back under us after working on changing time zones to the opposite side of the world. It is always disorienting to try to ski as well as you did before leaving because it is like waking up in the middle of the night and trying to pretend this is daytime.

Despite all that, we all skied well. Keith St. Onge had arrived ahead of the team and was fully acclimated. His tricking was flawless. I was inspired by his preparation and he showed that he was the number one ranked skier in the world according to the standings list. In fact, this was Keith's 3 world championships to be ranked #1 in the world before the event. I am sure he is feeling the pressure of this awesome responsibility, but he seemed relaxed and confident!

On a special note, you are going to have an opportunity never before made available. With the permission of ABC President and the skiers of the Elite US Barefoot Team, for the first time ever, we are going to make the actual practice sessions leading up to this world championships available on DVD for purchase. I am donating all editing and processing fees and 100% of all the money will go to supporting the elite team expenses for the next worlds and there after if successful. In the past each skier has had to donate $500 of their own money to come up for the short falls in our budget and I felt that if we had something of high quality to give away that we could supplement the budget specifically for the Elite Barefoot Team. We will see how she goes and I will let you all know as soon as it is available.

I digress...

We all got plenty of time to get used to the new Custom Ski Boat's Protege' that is being used in the tournament. It is similar to the Flight Craft , but with an Optimax 225 Mercury engine on the back. The boat is a bit faster than the inboards back home and it was not to difficult to get used to.

Each day seems to end with a half day of free time in which a lot of us either head down town to take over the internet cafe' or play some team building events that involve high velocity throwing of a rubber football to each other in entirely to close proximity...around a pool! Needless to say, the US Team is competitive in these fun times. I definitely have never seen a team so quickly gel together and in complete harmony.

There has been an unusual changing of the guard this year that has led up to this feeling. Without going into too much detail, Jason Lee was not able to attend because of his commitment to his college education (this deserves a resounding applause as too many skiers lose perspective and deny themselves continued education...we applaud Jason, but we miss him!), and Ron Scarpa failed to qualify for the US Team. After a tremendous amount of National and World wide debate, Ron was granted the right to ski as an independent. HE then sent an email several days ago informing us that he could not attend as an independent skier due to a back injury. We wish him speedy recovery and miss having him on the team.

This whole process left us with the least experienced team we have ever had. Any nervousness about this was quickly dismissed after we saw how well we all worked together in this "new school team."

Our confidence level seemed to be increasing daily. That would all change on our last practice of the week before tournament week...

more in my next post

Let me take you back a week to catch you up to date!

The entire US Barefoot Team met up in Los Angeles on January 24, 2003. Rachel George and I had been training together in Winter Haven as well as the canals of south Florida with Richard Gray. We had been training as much as possible in Winter Haven with my buddy Dave Gurnsey.

For those of you fortunate enough to get down to paradise (Winter Haven, FL) to train with me, you will very likely get to meet one of the nicest individuals in the world and a great supporter of US barefooting as well as anyone who makes it into Winter Haven for barefooting! Dave has been responsible for helping me with my personal barefoot training as well as my personal lifting and eating coach. He has helped me lean out to the tune of 25 pounds which I have found to be a huge help in my skiing! He has also been a huge help to Rachel George while she has been training with me. You can't miss his beautiful Gold's Gym which sets a standard for all gyms! Thanks a lot "Super Dave!" ....I digress...

Normally, most top skiers (in the US, that is..) take time off the water around December and January to heal and strength train. This year, that was not possible. Even though the water temp dropped to 58 degrees f (I know, stop my whining), we stayed vigilant in our wetsuits as we knew it would be wetsuit weather in Mulwala, Australia where we heard rumors of temperatures that could melt the pavement!!!

To be fair, most of the skiers outside Australia and New Zealand (and Florida) did not even have the option to train because of the opposite side of the equator winter season! It would be like trying to train in the Northeast or the Midwest regions of the US!!! US Team member Billy "The Beast" Brzoza had this dilemma and was left with coming into the worlds with only a positive attitude and superior off water training in the gym!


So...we all packed our gear and flew out to LA where we met with the other team mates. After getting all together we hugged and shared our stories as we got ready for a 16 hour flight to Sydney, Australia in route to Melbourne where we would catch a ride up several hours to our final destination in Mulwala!

24 hours of travel put us in our final destination and left us wondering how we could stay awake long enough to make it past dinner! This is a critical part of changing time zones and was a must. Team coach, Jon Kretchman, had led us to victory at the last World championships and he was not about to let our team make any simple mistakes lie going to sleep at the wrong time!

Travel was made immensely easier as we were blessed with one of the best support teams ever assembled for any US Team in the last 12 years! We had secured the new ABC Team President, Lee Stone as out Team Manager along with Charlene Portman, our first and most endeared massage person!

Lee Stone's addictive laugh set the tone for what will probably go down as the most relaxed and comfortable team ever assembled. "Char's" take no prisoner's attitude towards muscle problems makes her the envy of every team we see. But she is ours and you cannot have her!!!!

Our first team meeting was to establish a Team captain. I was surprised to be named as captain for my first time. It is a great honor.

It was time for bed. More to come tomorrow on our first set on the water!

Let me take you back a week to catch you up to date!

The entire US Barefoot Team met up in Los Angeles on January 24, 2003. Rachel George and I had been training together in Winter Haven as well as the canals of south Florida with Richard Gray. We had been training as much as possible in Winter Haven with my buddy Dave Gurnsey.

For those of you fortunate enough to get down to paradise (Winter Haven, FL) to train with me, you will very likely get to meet one of the nicest individuals in the world and a great supporter of US barefooting as well as anyone who makes it into Winter Haven for barefooting! Dave has been responsible for helping me with my personal barefoot training as well as my personal lifting and eating coach. He has helped me lean out to the tune of 25 pounds which I have found to be a huge help in my skiing! He has also been a huge help to Rachel George while she has been training with me. You can't miss his beautiful Gold's Gym which sets a standard for all gyms! Thanks a lot "Super Dave!" ....I digress...

Normally, most top skiers (in the US, that is..) take time off the water around December and January to heal and strength train. This year, that was not possible. Even though the water temp dropped to 58 degrees f (I know, stop my whining), we stayed vigilant in our wetsuits as we knew it would be wetsuit weather in Mulwala, Australia where we heard rumors of temperatures that could melt the pavement!!!

To be fair, most of the skiers outside Australia and New Zealand (and Florida) did not even have the option to train because of the opposite side of the equator winter season! It would be like trying to train in the Northeast or the Midwest regions of the US!!! US Team member Billy "The Beast" Brzoza had this dilemma and was left with coming into the worlds with only a positive attitude and superior off water training in the gym!


So...we all packed our gear and flew out to LA where we met with the other team mates. After getting all together we hugged and shared our stories as we got ready for a 16 hour flight to Sydney, Australia in route to Melbourne where we would catch a ride up several hours to our final destination in Mulwala!

24 hours of travel put us in our final destination and left us wondering how we could stay awake long enough to make it past dinner! This is a critical part of changing time zones and was a must. Team coach, Jon Kretchman, had led us to victory at the last World championships and he was not about to let our team make any simple mistakes lie going to sleep at the wrong time!

Travel was made immensely easier as we were blessed with one of the best support teams ever assembled for any US Team in the last 12 years! We had secured the new ABC Team President, Lee Stone as out Team Manager along with Charlene Portman, our first and most endeared massage person!

Lee Stone's addictive laugh set the tone for what will probably go down as the most relaxed and comfortable team ever assembled. "Char's" take no prisoner's attitude towards muscle problems makes her the envy of every team we see. But she is ours and you cannot have her!!!!

Our first team meeting was to establish a Team captain. I was surprised to be named as captain for my first time. It is a great honor.

It was time for bed. More to come tomorrow on our first set on the water!

Well, there my barefooting buddies. I have been asked to create a quick page where you can get the inside scoop on what is going on here down under! I hope this helps. It is rather difficult to publish from an internet cafe in Yarrawonga, NSW Australia! But you have to love the technology that makes this all possible!

I will do my best to publish what I can daily! So check back for daily updates which will be posted in the late afternoons here which is like 16 hours later on Eastern Standard Time Zone!