By Client Veivers
Without getting the calendar out, we have run about two seasons now doing barefoot endurance skiing with the support of BarefootCentral.com. We have skied on the Hawksbury River at Sydney, the Mary River at Maryborough and on the Northern Rivers of New South Wales being the Richmond and the Clarence. Only by chance a few months ago, I heard of a barefoot endurance challenge in rocky on the Fitzroy River. I had never heard of the people who were organising the event, which piqued my interest. It just goes to show that there are a lot of closet barefooters out there who are missing out on the fun we have been having doing this exciting team sport. Before I get into the Rocky event I must explain the great week we had that lead up to it…

One week after the birth of our new baby girl Jacqueline, I packed up the car, chucked in the missus, kids and my suit and headed off on the 2000 Km round trip to Brisbane to see Brooks and Dunn in concert for the first time ever in OZ. I would need to spend the next few pages trying to describe how good they were too, but lets just say it was bloody great!! Sharon and I have been following B & D since before we met and that’s been over 10 years. Ronnie Dunn’s voice has been kissed by angels and a lot of people who would turn their (snotty) noses up at country music would change their minds in a hurry if they heard these guys. This trip to Brisbane highlighted something to me that Giz once said back in 03’ when I first met her and John. She said that the barefoot world is like one big happy family and since then there has been a lot happen to cement that statement and this trip was no exception. An example is that when we got closer to Brisbane we rang Glen Haggath who lives on the banks of the Brisbane River with his lovely partner Selina. (They competed last year in the Queensland team at the Nationals for the first time and both did great. They have been very involved in everything barefoot since joining the club and are now an integral part of our team as well as being great friends.) His reply to our call was ‘keys are under the mat, pick any room and make yourself at home. We’ll be home tonight’. We had a couple of spare hours after arriving at Glen and Selena’s so we popped off down to the Gold Coast to see John Price in hospital. For those of you who may not know, John had been diagnosed with Bowel Cancer and had just come out of what was later found out to be a successful op. I nearly needed to be admitted to the hospital next door myself (with the padded rooms) as my two year old boy had decided that he had enough of being in small spaces and was going to try to destroy the room. At one point I had a vision of John convulsing after my boy ripped a cord out, or kinked one off that was hooked up to John, much like on Toby Keith’s music video ‘As Good As I Once Was’. (John is now recovering as well as can be expected and is back to work and being able to sit in a boat.) We then had to race back to Brisbane and get ready for the Brooks and Dunn Concert. Glen and Selina looked after out two-year-old boy Bronson and Jacqueline at two weeks old. They really are a pair of Gems.
 

The Start
Norm, Pete and Brisbane crew	Recovery

The morning after seeing B & D (still can’t believe we saw them) it was to the river in the awesome Custom Ski Boat powered by the great 225 Optimax Merc. Glen, Chris Marinan, Jamie Bacon and I skied all day and had a ball. After having our training sets the day slowly turned into a fun fest, trying to copy some of Andre’s stunts and others which would be just as entertaining for anyone to watch because they didn’t quite turn out the same as the masters!
 

Chris and part of Jamie	Glen Haggath
Me, Giz and Scott	Glen Jamie and Chris

On our way back from Brisbane we called into see Ross Angel of Ski Surf and Snow who was the organiser of the Fitzroy River Barefoot Enduro. I soon learnt that Ross is a veteran ski racer (damn, I don’t get to say the “race” word much in these articles!!) with many great results from over the years in the SMOC class skiing all the big ski race events that OZ has to offer such as the Southern 80 and the Bridge-to-Bridge races. Ross is also a keen footer of distinguished, experienced years and did a great job of getting a lot of local skiers to partake in this event. Julia Diehm had only got up on the long line a week before and still skied the event, which is awesome to hear, and a bloody good effort so well done to her!
 

Mark and Ross	Ross & Madison
Mick self medicating in background. Check left hand	Big Norm & Ross
Ross Steve and Julia	Bronson and Selina

This event was run in a real bush fashion meaning that it was very relaxed which lent to the amount of fun we had doing it. Once we were done and on the bank waiting for the rest of the field to come in, some real gut busters and one-liners were flying. One team was about to step out of their boat onto the bank before spotting a black snake right where they were about to step. I heard one of the lads rushing to the scene exclaiming in classic Aussie slang “Bloody hell, it’s a decent sort ‘a’ viper too the bastard!!” A couple of other lads were floating down river past the boats lined up along the bank on their backs with suits unzipped wanting to know where the oxygen tent was. The best laugh for me though was the last boat to come in called ‘Casper’ (no guess as to its colour). As it rounded the bend about a kilometer away we all immediately noticed that something was just not quite right. The revs were low and so was the spray and no footer could cut out that wide under those conditions. “Quick, step off, we can see you” was one remark. As soon as they were about 200 meters from the finish, they stepped off and finished with by far the greatest round of applause of all.

The start method of the challenge was the only thing that really detracted from what I believe is the most exciting part of an endurance event having done a number of them now. The start was arranged by a seeding order that Ross obtained by knowing most of the people competing and knowing that we had been very competitive in previous events. This made us the last boat away and every boat had started one minute apart. The reasoning for this was well justified being the first event that they had run and putting a focus on trying to get as many local footers in the mix and trying to make it as fair as possible. I can imagine that it would not be much fun lining up against seasoned footers as a learner or very low time footer and just getting mowed from the start. So the start was a bit of an anti climax for us after being used to lining up with a heap of other boats with a horn then going off preceding the 10-15 minutes at around 73 km/h to see who could hang the longest before the inevitable changeover which can make or break the run and earn you the right to ski out front on the undisturbed water.
 

Team BFC

Clint, Giz, and Scott

Team BFC this time consisted of Gizie Halasz, newcomer to the sport Scott Verrall and myself. Ash Stebbeings drove his Custom Protégé inboard with the big PCM power plant pushing us and Scott’s hot chicky babe wife-to-be Renee observed for us. Starting last was a new experience having never done any ski racing before and the river of rollies ahead proved to be a huge challenge for us. I have never been so exhausted after a run yet and skied nowhere near the time I can usually manage. Giz skied the longest time of seven minutes and twenty seconds after we had caught the last boat at the 19km halfway mark and skied back through all the oncoming rollies of the boats still heading up. Scott did great for his first event and having not skied since last year. We ended up finishing 11 minutes ahead of the next boat being Ross Angel’s team consisting of Madison and Ben Harber and Ross himself. Norm’s team was not too far behind and he came from Brisbane driving another Custom Protégé with a 225 Merc pushing. It’s good to see that they travelled from so far and I hope the trend will continue next year with some more people travelling from far and wide to really crank the show up.
 

Ross & Madison

Giz on last leg

The whole weekend was great fun from driving down from Mackay, picking up Giz at the Rocky airport and going for a ski on the river with everyone. The Rockhampton Ski Gardens are a magic spot. The whole area is wonderfully set up with beautifully grassed camp spots, a club house, concrete boat ramp and dock. The ski club had good food on the plate whenever we needed it and more than we could drink. They really looked after us all and we can’t wait to get back there next year for a bigger and better event. (Gotta get that live music happening though Ross!!)

To end this yarn I have a couple of thoughts/ observations to mention that may be amusing to the people it concerned.

• Mt. Etna never looked so good when it came into view near the turnaround point on my second leg when I felt like being stretchered off. Damn, only halfway though!

• Crocs can’t swim as fast as barefooters ski so don’t be silly, they will not eat you…just don’t float around for too long

• World Champion Female Barefooter or not, you are going to get smashed by two blokes on shoes when skiing in between them attempting starts in two foot chop after an endurance run…next time I’m taking the middle!
  

• If you weigh 115kg plus and haven’t footed in yonks, don’t show up if you know there is a team with one member short. We’ll get the oxygen tent ready for next time.

• Don’t accept a push up challenge with someone even if they might be three decades your senior unless you are in shape.
  

• Mick, tuck and roll mate, tuck and roll. I hope you can walk by now! And no, Bundy Rum does not work as well as Nurofen Plus.

• Can someone give me a better excuse than gastro when taking a sickie to go skiing??

All the best til next time,
Clint Veivers.