Brisbane - Jan
3 - Jan 7
Pictures from Gizie and John's place
Pictures from Gizie and John's place
We arrived at John
and Gizie's around 10:30 am. John was waiting for us and Giz
was scheduled to be home later that evening after work. Gizie
works at Qantus Airlines. Gizie's father "Charlie" happens to
live right across the street from John and Giz. He was very
friendly and was constantly offering us food and drinks. He made us lunch
one day and dinner the next.
John and Gizie's
home sits right on the water in an area called the Gold Coast.
It's a beautiful neighborhood and a perfect training site. I
couldn't wait to get on the water. It was summer time in
Australia and the temperatures were in the mid 80s to low 90s with
water temps around 80. We had been skiing in dry suits in
Texas since mid November. Skiing wet in January was something I had
never done.
We didn't know we
we'd meet on our trip other than John and Giz, but to our surprise,
in walked Oscar "Foot" Mann. Foot moved to Australia about 3
years ago from Florida. Foot's wife was originally from
Australia and they decided to retire there to be closer to family.
Foot spends his days as a General Contractor building and remodeling
homes, wood working, and playing Trivial Pursuit at the local
library or town center of some sort. Foot has the knack for
retaining every bit of information he's ever read or heard. So
he's a master at the game. He has an ongoing battle with two
local retired librarians. For those of you who don't know
Foot, he's the guy that pretty much wrote the current World Barefoot
Rules Guide. Ya know, the one we're always complaining about being
too thick and too complicated. Foot's can recite the thing
line for line. He's been around the sport for many years and
has been a huge influence on the sport from a US National, World,
and now Australian point of view. He was recently selected as
the Coach to the Australian Barefoot Team that will compete in the
Worlds this coming September in the US.
To our surprise,
Foot offered his tour guide services to use during our stay in
Brisbane. Being from the US, he was a great help explaining
the differences between US and Australian customs, slang, and
general oddities. He knew all the local history, and took us to see
some great sites off the beaten path.
Pictures from our travels around Brisbane with Oscar "Foot" Mann
Pictures from our travels around Brisbane with Oscar "Foot" Mann
One thing I
noticed about Australia immediately, other than the fact that they
drive on the other side of the road, was that there is practically
no litter anywhere. The place was not only beautiful, but very
clean. Aussies are big into the outdoors and do their best to
recycle and keep things looking as they should. Some other
things I personally made a note of is that Aussie's aren't big on
air conditioning. They seem to have a higher tolerance for
heat than even we Texan's do. Some other things that could
drive an American crazy while visiting include:
- When you order
ice tea, it's bottled ice tea like Snapple and comes in a small
glass with one or two ice cubes. I've learned to order a glass
of ice separately so I can pour my tea into it. Australia is
settled by European's, so many of the customs are the same as
Europe. You'll experience the same ice issues in Europe.
- I like
shrimp and oysters,
and they have plenty. But don't bother asking for cocktail
sauce or horse radish. They'll look at you like you're crazy.
Some restaurants will say they have cocktail sauce, but it's some
strange concoction that tastes like French dressing and ketchup
mixed together. It's nothing like we're used to in the states.
If you come to Australia, be sure to smuggle in some cocktail sauce,
horse radish, and maybe even some Tabasco sauce.
- Australians are
lousy at distances. If they tell you something is 5 minutes
away, it's really 15. 15 really means 45. If they say
something is just down the street, it's about 5-10 miles.
Australia is a huge country and Aussie's think things are closer
than they really are.
One of the
funniest parts of the visit has been getting used to each others
accents and slang. Aussies talk fast. My only advice is
go with the flow and don't assume anything. Stop them and ask
what they just said and they'll be happy to explain. Then let
them know you'll be glad to do the same.
During our stay at
Giz and John's place, I got a chance to sit down with Oscar "Foot"
and Gizie and talk a little barefooting. Click on the link
below to check out the interview.
Click
Here for Video
43Meg MNV
Michele and I were
also surprised by another visitor. Clint Veivers, a
barefooter from Queensland that we only knew as a customer to
BarefootCentral.com. Clink drove 3 hours after working til 3 am just to
ski with Michele and I. I couldn't believe it. He was
very excited to meet us and we had a great time skiing together and
kidding each other about our accents. Clint writes a lot of
articles for the Queensland Barefoot Club's news letter and has a
few articles in the Australian Waterski Magazine. He also runs
the website for the Queensland Barefoot Club's website. So we
had plenty to talk about.
It was a real
pleasure skiing with Gizie. I had never had the opportunity to
ski with her and I was thoroughly impressed. She skies as good
as any top Open Men's skier I've ever skied with. Clean and
confident surface turns, front flips, and feet to feet toe turns.
I asked her if she did line steps and she said she could only do a
line-front and couldn't see herself doing a line-back. So I
saw that as a challenge. I spent 3 years learning line backs
and know damn near every trick in the book to figuring them out, so
I told Giz to get out the shoe skis because she was going to do a
line back before I left. She looked at me like I was crazy,
especially seeing as though we only had two days to ski together.
I told her I'd give her the crash course and if she would attempt a
few and get out of her comfort zone for me, I guaranteed she'd get
one. She tried about 20 the first day and was starting to get
the feel of what I needed her to do. Then after about 5
attempts in her first set on the 2nd day, she was getting her leg
over the line but still falling away. During her 2nd set I
told her to try a few more after giving her some pointer, then low
and behold she skied one away. We were all yelling and
screaming. I couldn't believe it. Giz was so excited she
hugged and kissed me. That doesn't happen very often to me.
ha ha
Brisbane is a
great city with so much to do. We couldn't do everything, but
one thing we had to do was visit the zoo where crocodile hunter
Steve Erwin makes his home. The zoo was located about 15 miles out
of town in an area they call the Glass House Mountains, which are
ancient volcano spouts that are now nothing more than a huge rock
formation sticking up from the ground. They are huge and can
be seen for miles. It was fun visiting the zoo and seeing
Steve Erwin's crocodile show. They have several stadiums set
up (all different sizes) just for his shows. His image was
everywhere. It was strange though. The Aussies don't
really like him. They feel he has made them look foolish to
the world. People come to Australia thinking all Aussies are
like Steve.
Click Here
for Video from our visit to the Zoo
25Meg MNV
After the zoo, we
went shopping for Opals at a local opal shop and then visited the
famous Ettamogah Pub. It was very cool. We sat and talked and
had several beers while Foot filled us in on even more local facts
and history. The man is a bottomless pit of useless and
interesting information.
Visiting the Australian Zoo, home of Steve Erwin
Visiting the Australian Zoo, home of Steve Erwin
On one day Gizzy took Michele
downtown Brisbane to explore the city and check out the beach called
Surfers Paradise. There were hundreds of surfers in the water
and a very cool sand castle.
Visiting downtown Brisbane and Surfer's Paradise
