by Andy Harris

Great Britain’s 20 year old "Barefootin' Top Gun" Dave "The Rave" Small annihilated the opposition at the 14^th IWSF World Barefoot Water Ski Championships taking three gold medals in the Men's events.   And it didn't end there; our defending world champion wasn't content with just retaining his 2-year-old title, extra spice was delivered in the form of two new world records in tricks and jump.   It was a true "shock and awe" display of athletic talent that frankly, no one was expecting.   According to one commentator, Dave Small is now the undisputed "KING of Barefooting."

The biennial Open championships were held in early February 180 miles north of Melbourne, Australia in the small township of Yarrawonga-Mulwala.   The community there boast the largest water ski club in the world with over 4000 members and a turn-over in excess of 10 million dollars per annum; this is no simple club house and lake deal - believe me!   The club operates at 2 sites, the main complex housing bars, restaurants, slot machine (pokies) lounge, offices and function rooms.  Outside, well landscaped grass areas and of course the great Lake Mulwala are used for general and recreational skiing.   They also have what has to be the smallest water ski show arena in the world and we were all treated to a breathtaking exhibition of critically timed skiing and boat driving during the Opening Ceremony on the evening of the first day of competition.

Mulwala Water Ski Club's competition arenas (a twin-lake purpose built facility) are located 10 minutes drive away from the main club complex and had previously hosted the 1995 IWSF World Disabled Championships.   The site had been nicely dressed up to host the Barefoot Championships with excellent facilities being provided.   Water conditions were perfect, so was the wind except on the last day when we had to move over to Lake 2 for the slalom finals.   Temperatures started the week at a cool 42ºC (107ºF), and as the skiing heated up, so did the temperatures, reaching a stinking hot 48ºC (118ºF) on finals day.   Not as bad as it sounds actually due to the low humidity but the local sunscreen shop did a roaring trade.

Unusually and for the first time, the Brits were a one-man team at these worlds.   Think about it; school, university, winter, snow - not exactly conducive to putting together a team.   The Barefoot Committee had decided to send only Dave Small this time - as reigning World Champion, he had to be given the opportunity to defend his title.   Clive Wilsdon had made contact with Aussie legend Brett Sands who had agreed to take care of Dave from start to finish on behalf of the BWSF.   Brett was duly appointed British Team Manager for this tournament.   Due to exam and study commitments and that we were out of season, Dave's pre-words training had been minimal; in the gym, out on the shoes in a dry-suit and some runs through the slalom course (on a ski of course).   He did manage to snatch a few days down at Spelthorne on his feet but couldn't do too much due to the cold weather.    Jan 23 came round and was he ready?   "I'll give it a go" he said, "the least I can do is defend my title."   2 days later, Brett Sand's girlfriend met Dave in Melbourne and things were looking up.   The sun was shining, it was warm and a beautiful girl was driving him down the highway heading for Brett's ski school about 2 hours away.   Dave began his 5-day warm-up with Brett who at the end of it announced that the boy was as ready as he could be.   Brett was ready too and was entering the worlds for the first time in 6 years after coming out of retirement, skiing as an independent in slalom and jump.   A former world slalom champion, Brett felt good after skiing with the current overall champ.

And so it began.   The Americans were nervous, the Aussies still needed to recover from the rugby and Dave and Brett, well they were just happy to be there.   No one could have imagined what was to come.

In the first round of slalom, Keith St.Onge (USA) lead the field with 19.8, British team manager Brett Sands (AUS), came in 2^nd with 19.4 and another blast from the past, ex-Aussie champ Ken Derry Jnr. (AUS) made the 3^rd position with 19.2.   Dave dialled in with a credible 18 to open his account and take 4^th position alongside former British coach John Pennay (AUS), also out of retirement for these worlds posting the same score.

Trick eliminations came next with and Patrick Wehner (FRA) blitzed off a great first pass followed by a second run that was not his best, falling on his reverse toe-front.  Still, with a score in the 7000+ range, he was definitely sending a message that he was up for the fight for gold.

Next on the water was our Dave who posted a strong 7400-point run, looking good and solid but really just testing the waters.

Keith St. Onge was next and the pressure of being ranked world number one saw his usually flawless tricking fail him when he needed it most.  He fell on the 3rd trick of his first pass and then received an unbelievable gift of a re-ride, which turned out to be the only one of the entire tournament given for rollers.   I was in the boat and who knows where they came from but they were there for Keith but no one else.   I guess someone jumped in the water to cool off just at the wrong time.   7400 points later, Keith joined Dave in joint 2^nd place behind Junior ace Andre De Villiers (RSA), another one-man operation at the championships.   The South African phenomenon was obviously benefiting from his training with Patrick Wehner over the previous 3 weeks with the 16-year-old banging out the top score of the round with 7780 points.   John Pennay (AUS) whose forte had always been tricks and turns in particular was back in a world trick event again and what a pleasure it was to see him spinning his way down the Barefoot 15 again.   Courtesy of the live boat-to-shore TV link, the new kids on the block got to see how turns ought to be done.    It was a special treat and John showed that he still is one of the best multiple turners in the world despite going down early in his second pass.   He was easily through to the second round with his 5850 pass, 3700 being the cut for the semi-finals.

Jump eliminations saw Dave Small dominate for the first time.  His 25.8m jump was the best of the round by 60cm.   He looked good, he looked confident but little did we know about what was to follow the next day.   Meanwhile, the other high-flyers also showed well including co-world record holders Brett New (AUS) and Mamo Colosio (ITA) both of whom were hungry for jump honours and breaking of their current 26.3m world records.   The cut-off for the semis was 22.1m seeing Pete O'Neil (AUS) sitting on the bubble.   Those scoring less were all done after round 1.

The semi-final rounds were upon us and the word going round the site was that David Small was skiing at an incredible level for a guy who had only had 1 week of practice coming out of our bitter U.K. winter.  David had made the statement that it was not a fluke win for him 2 years ago and he was in no mood to lose his title.

Slalom semis ran true to form with all the top dogs increasing their previous round scores by up to half a crossing.   Dave only added 0.1 to his previous round score while Team GBR Manager Brett Sands and Keith St.Onge ripped into the 20 point zone.   At the end of the round Dave's 18.1 was enough for him to take the 4^th slot in the 5 man final; proof enough that Dave was skiing consistently well in his weakest event; the swathe being cut through his opposition was beginning to develop.

I was lucky enough not to be asked to judge the semi-final of men's tricks.   I say lucky because instead the organisers asked if I would take a seat with the announcers and score the runs from the live TV and then add some judging comments for the crowd.   To anyone who thinks that you can judge barefoot skiing from the TV, let me assure them that whilst the TV and video review are great arbiters, you simply do need that 3^rd dimension inside the boat in order to judge the more complex tricks.   The white-out is another issue for me and even with broadcast-quality pictures coming back to us in the tower, I still maintain that you get the best chance of judging a skier correctly from the boat than you do from anywhere else.   Enough said…

Men's trick semi-finals determine a lot of things.   The best tricker usually wins the coveted Men's Overall and we also find out if there are any skiers in there who want the world to know their name.  In an event like this there are those who meet their expectations, those who don't, and those who force us to understand that perhaps those predictions we made on the plane coming out here may not be looking too good now.

As the event started, the first major story came from Paul MacDonald (CAN).  I have been watching Paul develop as a coach and skier under the watching brief of Ron Scarpa these past few years.   He is definitely one of the nicest guys you could ever meet on or off the water and he was about to let the world know that he was not just a pretty face!

Paul left the start dock and returned a new man, posting a score of 7300.   Up in the tower, we had seen Paul ski the best he ever has and we were impressed.   Was this a new champion in the making?   Paul got a huge cheer as he returned back to the spectator area after his run and deserved every second of it.

Some say that this semi-final was going to be one of those defining moments with amazing Australian hospitality and an environment that was perfect for barefooting helping to bring the sport into a new era.   To those who did not make it to these worlds then I'm afraid you missed a new milestone of definitive change in the air!

One of the cleanest skiers on the circuit for me is Lane Bowers and he had to be hot contender for the finals.   Surprisingly it was not to be and Lane would be watching them from the shore this time - his 4950-point run was disappointing to say the least.

Patrick Wehner was hungry and I have to say I fancied him to win this year but his run ended in two early falls which took him out of the overall race as well.   I've watched this guy grow into the amazing skier he is today, but I have to admit that Mr Techniche didn't get it right this time in any of the 3 events.   Over trained could be a reason and perhaps he needs a break to consolidate his position, but I guarantee that Patrick can still be an overall World Champion.

Barefooters from all over the world smiled 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 was skiing here 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 selection trials.   Johnny skied well enough to advance into the finals of tricks with his 8500 point pass, really getting it together this time round after his early fall in the second pass of the first round.

Next came David Small.   Now this is where time seemed to stand still.   We watched from the tower as Dave smiled to the camera with confidence as he gave his instructions to the boat.   And so it began; 4 toe-turns, 4 line-steps, 2 360 line-steps, 4 tick-toks, 4 180 turns, 4 180 1-foot turns.   Now wash that lot down with 2 back to backs and 2 front to fronts, a 540 turn to the front, oh and don't forget the 2 starts AND the flip that was in time but he lost the handle and there you have it.

"Well now" we all said, "that was pretty good wasn't it."   Let me tell you just how good.   After David's first pass, he had racked-up 4800 points.  This caught my attention as I'd not recalled any previous 1^st pass run tally up that high from him before.   On the way back his fist went up in the air as the timer went off and I began to count the points.   It was a lot.   I had Richard Gray beside me and we both double-checked each other's addition of the 2^nd round score.   5100 points!   No it can't be right.   We checked the 2^nd pass again and then the 1^st pass one more time.   Had we included the flip?   No.   I looked at Richard and he agreed and told Nick Hunt to call it through to the boat and the crowd…...........9900 points.    "Was that 8900 or did you say 9900?" people asked.   "9900" was the reply.   The crowd went wild and we could not believe what we had just seen.   And if he had just held that flip - 10400 would have been the new World record.

Well that just about tore the arms out of everyone after that.   Back he came, cool as a cucumber, took off his wet suit, had a drink of water and started signing autographs.   All in a days work really.

Keith St. Onge badly needed to surpass Dave's first round score but now his overall crown was slipping away fast.   He skied up and back with a run totalling 8650, more than enough to take the gold medal in any other tournament but in case you forgot, we had entered a new era.

Andre De Villiers went up and back as we were still pondering David's awesome world record shattering performance.  He came back at Dave with a truly magnificent reply at 8980 but still 900 odd points adrift. Andre was not impressed - "he's not supposed to do that" he said.

The jump semis were interesting for several reasons.   First, you needed a distance of over 24m to make it into the finals.  Second, we were almost sure that even before any finals had begun, Dave had secured the men's overall.   Third, there were several skiers out there who felt sure that Dave had maxed out in jump during the eliminations and was now going to step aside and let someone else have crack at a gold medal.  Mr Small had other ideas - he was saving himself.

Dave was looking at some serious competition in this event.   Brett "the Stretch" New, so hungry for a new world jump record.   Billy "the Beast from the East" Brazoza, also chasing the record.   Mamo Colosio, previous world record holder.   Lane Bowers, Brett Sands, Ken Derry, Andre, they could all pull one out of the hat in this event.

Once again, the unexpected became a reality.  First of all there was Patrick Wehner who had jumped a first round score of 19m, but had been "painfully" bumped out of the finals in slalom and tricks.  He was hungry for some kind of revenge and got it with a great jump of 25.5m that definitely turned some heads.   Next on the surprise list was Ben Greenwell (AUS).  Ben was known to be a good jumper and we found out why when he jumped an amazing 25.6m to assure him of a place in the finals.   No surprise who was next, "Stretch" New with another superb flight of 25.4m.   Andre De Villiers came in with a handy 24.9m but this too was not enough to make the finals.   Dave came in at 25.3m, relaxing in the cruise knowing that his top score from the elimination round was his free ticket to the finals whatever happened.

At the end of the semi-final round we were faced with a tie for the 5^th place in the jump finals between Lane Bowers and Billy Brazoza and both needed to ski in a run-off to break it.   For the first time since the rules had been tweaked for tie-breakers, a flick of a coin to decide who went first and 3 jumps each later Bowers was through.

The battle lines were now drawn for all the finals.   The Team event was now over and the USA Team had claimed an unprecedented 10th World Overall Team title. The most consecutive world titles won by any team in water ski history!  You could see the relief on skipper Jon Kretchman's face as he realised success.  Jon has never been on a losing team while skiing or coaching.   Congratulations to the Yanks who pulled it off again but only just.

Finals day Sunday was going to be hot.   The championship week began with average daily temperatures at around 42ºC and each day it got warmer and warmer (or should I say hotter).   At 9am, it was already 100ºF.   By the afternoon the thermometer was reading 48ºC (118.1ºF).    This really was unbelievable weather, but we were all thankful for the low humidity.

The first finals to be run were slalom and due to wind, we moved on to Lake 2.   Men's slalom started off with David Small who was trying to up his score of 18.1.  The slalom finals had him pushing a bit too hard which the judges scored with an early down on one of his crossings.   Next was Lane Bowers who pushed that bit too hard as well.   Ken Derry skied his normal pass of 19.4 crosses which left Keith St. Onge with 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 but 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 fell near the end of his pass and ended up with an 18.5.   It was not to be for Keith this year.

All that the top qualifier, Brett Sands, had to do was ski his normal passes and he would reign supreme as the best slalom skier 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?   Can the fact that as Brett was in such good company (as British Team Manager) this fuelled his trip to the podium?   Who knows, but he was delighted and so was everyone on site.   All week, he had been pleasing the crowds with his amazing commentary and now he showed his prowess on the water too.

The men's trick event was a complete skills show down. Paul MacDonald showed a few nerves in his first ever finals event but finished with a respectable run that would not be enough for the medals. John Pennay certainly had a shot and skied an incredible first pass that further endorsed his multiple turns as 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 for his run.  He was having fun again. John was nearly all done when he fell on the much simpler 360 front-to-front turn but it 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, but then fell on his reverse. This was the end of his overall bid for the title, but he could still make the medals. Keith came in with the guttsiest run I have ever seen.  After only practising on a handle in his hotel room, Keith completely changed his run around.   Not a good idea just before a Worlds final but then he had to have a go at Dave's 9900 if he was to have any chance of a gold in overall.   First 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.   Great run but not nearly enough.

Next was Andre De Villiers.  The 16-year-old went for broke completing his toe-turns, one-foot turns, and even a side-slide that has never been scored in competition before.   He followed it up with a phenomenal second pass in an attempt to ruffle David Small.

David looked a little out of shape as he came into his multiple turn pass.  Something wasn't right and 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 the judges completely lost him with his altered run.   I was one of them and even though I know Dave's run well, the way he stalled simply caught me off guard and I had no choice but to refer to video afterwards.   When a judge loses their 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 and the video to sort things out.

It looked like Andre De Villiers had won his first trick title at the worlds!  It was announced and posted. But in almost a nightmare fashion, problems arose again for poor 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 and Brett threatened to protest 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 according to the rules which have to followed.

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.   Our sport is judged from the boat, not the video.

So David Small was crowned victorious as Andre was forced to live with the fact that he skied well enough to win it, but didn't.  For the second time in the tournament, technical ranglings had overturned his score.  How unlucky could he be?  As I have said for many years and told many a skier, "this is Sport and it can be hard and tough sometimes, real hard and real tough.  And so it was, Dave had won the gold in tricks.   Andre took it on the chin and vowed to "have him next time."   He will!

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.

On the men's side, the skiers 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. Lane Bowers jumped 24.7m and Brett New was in the next boat and was not comfortable.  He missed his first jump and then landed a smaller one.  We watched Brett New jump his final jump and knew that he had a place in the medals regardless of the other jumpers.  Patrick Wehner could not equal his previous day's jump distance so he was out.   One more jumper would determine the medal positions.  Australian jumper, Ben Greenwell looked nervous.   He had admitted that he was up all night worrying about his first ever jump final.  He jumped 3 rather short jumps and was back on the shore completely undressed when the announcer said that he was being offered a re-ride due to a video capture error and they were unable to recover from the tape.   Bad timing for Ben who had to don his gear once more, and take his final jump which was smaller than his preceding ones.

Then came our Dave.   I was not in the boat but as he came in for his first jump his timing off the ramp was so spot on that he simply just flew off the surface and went straight up in the air.   As he began to extend his body, it was as if he'd suddenly lit the after-burners; he just stayed up there.   He was literally flying on the hot thermals that were hovering around the jump course.   His landing was as gracious as was his departure.   Like a swan landing on water his feet came down and he extended his undercarriage to ski away from what everyone knew was a huge jump - the site went quiet with extra anticipation.    David Small finished off his worlds with an incredible 27.5 metre jump!   He simply could not have anyone else on his podium.   Everyone on site, his fellow competitors, the spectators, the officials, just stood and saluted our great hero.   He was the new jump gold medallist finishing in the best possible way.   27.5m and the crowd went wild!    With 2 jumps to go Dave was coaxed to sign off there and then by manager Brett Sands but he was not interested.   He needed to answer the 3000 strong crowd who were screaming for more.   He answered them with 2 more great jumps but the 27.5 would remain the winning distance for him.

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 world's history.

The Australians, still shell shocked from the grit and determination of English Sportsmen, had just suffered another devastating blow, not so much on home turf but on home water.   Still reeling from the Rugby victory involving boots and a certain Johnny Wilkinson, this time it was from the bare feet of current and now double world overall barefoot water ski champion David Small who delivered an incredible performance confirming he was the true king of the sport again.   What made it so wonderful was that he came from our part of the world where the climate is not so conducive to an outdoor water ski event.

Our 20 year old student from Lichfield Staffs. Only had one week in Australia to recover from jet-lag and get in training as important exams at Nottingham University prevented any early training departure; all he could do at home was to ski (and not always on his feet) in Britain throughout the cold winter months.   It is dedication like this that has now made him a double world overall champion.  This absolutely amazing achievement has been made all the more sweeter by being crowned trick and jump champion with world records in both events, 9900 in tricks smashing the previous record of 9400, and 27.5 in jump crushing the previous record of 26.3.

Barefoot water skiing has never ceased to shock and amaze all that have seen it, from those early pioneering days of over 40 years ago, when it was considered a crazy stunt, it has been developed into a highly professional and skilful extreme sport.

This is a truly outstanding result.   Dave has taken on and beaten the best the world has to offer.  The Aussies, the USA and South African teams have the best training conditions, flat water and warm weather, yet this quiet and unassuming young man stood tallest against the worlds greatest barefooters.

As I sit here in Sydney recovering from an unforgettable week of true sporting endeavour, I can honestly say that watching Dave grow in to the force he is today has been nothing short of an incredible journey.   What makes it even more incredible is that he ain't finished yet.   I can tell every time I watch him ski that he still has so much more packed inside of him.   He will jump further, he will trick well over 10K and he will slalom faster.

He is the KING.   Long live the KING.   Long may he reign and hopefully with the media interest that he has now generated, our sport can truly be recognised with the merit and respect is deserves.

Dave wishes to acknowledge the following who helped make the dream come true….

In Australia: Brett Sands and everyone at Brett Sands WaterSports, Team Canada Barefoot Team.

In Great Britain: British Water Ski, Clive Wilsdon, Gryphon Dry Suits, Jeff Williams at Wilbar Components, MasterCraft (UK) Ltd.

In the USA: Ron Scarpa, Paul MacDonald and everyone at Ron Scarpa WaterSports.

STOP THE PRESS!!  The World Barefoot Council has ratified Dave's World Records at 9550 in tricks and 27.4m in jump.