I have lived by Lake Lanier for almost six years, trying my best to barefoot whenever I can and build on what I had learned from Gene Morrison and his kids when I knew them in Michigan. Although I had the opportunity to teach many of my friends the little bit I knew about barefooting, I never managed to run across anyone here whom I could learn from. The barefooting community down here appears to be very small. 

So, when I learned Gene and Chris were coming down with a team to run the barefoot race, I was pretty excited. I figured the best way to meet folks in the local barefooting community would be through this event. All the locals should show up, as well as some teams from around the country. I was quite puzzled when I found out that there were no local
boats involved except for Rob Scott's. Even Rob Scott, the local organizer of the race, had to use out-of-towners to complete the crew on his boat for the race. Disappointed as I was that I once again did not have the chance to meet any local footers, I was looking forward to the race.

The day of the race, I was onboard the Michigan boat to do a little video taping, and to do the navigating. I videotaped the entire start of the race, until we started to get to the part of the lake that required navigation. One of my last shots was the Michigan boat having a great long run as we could see the other three boats in the distance. All three boats seemed neck in neck, and we could see by the developing plumes of spray that all three were just pulling their skiers out of the
water. We were in the lead by a strong margin! In this part of the lake we knew that it was important to hit all of our markers, stay on course so that we did not get disqualified, and make it to the bridge first! As I said, I have been on the lake for almost five years, and while the lake is large, there are enough islands and irregular shoreline that the course race would not allow for anyone to pass us without us knowing. By the time we hit the bridge, I was amazed at the beating that the five man team had taken in the main channel. I had never seen anyone with the ability to foot through water this rough. I have a tough time getting through that amount of chop with my Mastercraft, yet these guys barefooted through it. Even though the entire team was exhausted by the time we hit the bridge, they were in great spirits because they felt they had accomplished their objective: get to the bridge first. The rest should have been an easy run to the finish.

Chris' story says it all. You can imagine the confusion and disappointment we all felt when we realized the St. Louis boat was ahead of us. Knowing the lake, I could only think of one possibility of how they got ahead of us. They must have cut left off the main course toward Two Mile while the rest of us dutifully followed the course. This little "shortcut" around a large series of islands would shave at least 8 to 10 minutes of their time, and give them smoother water, saving
their energy. When the number three boat confirmed that they saw St. Louis go off course at this portion of the lake we were incredibly disappointed, but figured the results of the race would clearly show who completed the course, by the rules, first. 

Unfortunately this was not the case. Rob Scott took three hours to make a wrong decision when it would have taken anyone who has ever even watched a sporting event three seconds to make the right decision. You can say I am biased, because I know the team from Michigan. They stayed at my house, and I was in their boat. However, it appears that the St. Louis team stayed in Rob Scott's brother's house. I videotaped his speech attempting to justify his decision, it made no sense. His rule changes for the coming year would have put the St. Louis boat in last place, but somehow he thought it was ok for them to stay in first place this year. He gave no good reasons, at least none that made sense to
me.  Any sport is about fair play and competition. What happened on Saturday was anything but fair or a competition. 

Joern Beer

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