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 Chuck called me up
one day back in July and asked if I would like to accompany him to a YMCA camp to teach a few kids how to barefoot.
Chuck explained that it was an opportunity for us to introduce some kids to the sport that rarely get a chance to see barefooting. He explained that his good friend Mike Bateman, who is a board member on the Dallas YMCA, had asked him to come out to Possum Kingdom Lake and teach a few kids to foot. What started off as a plan to teach 2 or 3 kids had grown to nearly 20 after Mike did a little promoting and let the kids know that we were from BarefootCentral.com. The videos on the website got their attention. So Chuck and Mike needed another instructor to handle the clinic. I told myself it would be a great opportunity to take a break from training and go back to the days when I was just learning how to foot.
Chuck and I arrived at Camp Grady Spruce at about 7 am on Tuesday morning. Camp Grady Spruce is about a 3-hour drive west of Dallas. It is located directly on Possum Kingdom Lake off in a little cove. The YMCA runs several camps on the lake. The week we were there was a waterski camp that included slalom, wakeboard, and now barefoot
waterskiing.
The first thing I thought when we drove up was how it took me back to my childhood when I spent time at summer camp myself. This place was a full blown summer camp with tents, hiking trails, beaches, swimming, ball fields, horse back riding, etc. When we arrived we were greeted by Mike Bateman. Mike started off by telling Chuck and I that they just recently bought three new Malibu Sportsters for there camp and they are trying to improve the waterski portion of their camp. The program was quite big many years back, but little had been done to support the program for years. So they worked with a Dallas Malibu dealer
“Waterski America” do get some good deals on the boats and a full assortment of waterski equipment. The kids now had state of the art equipment and plenty of it.
The kids were still at breakfast when we arrived so Mike took us out on his boat to show us the lake. We decided to go for a few runs to warm up. The water was fairly rough so we wound up doing a little double long line endurance run to get ready for Footstock. Chuck and I were leaving the next morning to head to Crandon, Wisconsin for the Figure Eight National Championships, so we figured a little endurance couldn’t hurt.
 Mike had arranged for all of the kids to come down to the beach after breakfast to watch us do a little barefooting exhibition. The bad news was that the waves around the beach were about a foot high. But as they say, “The show must go on”. I started off by doing a flyer off the 2nd story diving tower and a bunch of tumble turns as I skied by. You know how everyone loves seeing tumble turns in ski show. It was great hearing the cheers as we skied by. There had to be about 300 kids on the shoreline. Chuck was doing multiple turns like crazy on shoes skis and back one foots on his feet. He even pulled off a front to back on his feet in crazy chop. Nothing like a big crowd to make us do crazy stuff.
After the show it was on to what we really came to do, teach the kids how to barefoot. We had no idea what to expect as far as the level of participation. There were several hundred kids at the camp and we got somewhere around 16 kids who signed up to barefoot that day. We decided to split up into two different boats with the camp waterski instructors with us and went to two sides of the lake with four kids in each boat. We would take a group out in the morning, have lunch, and then teach another group in the afternoon.
We started off with a few stretches and dry land demonstrations. When we took to the water, the training went well despite having slightly rough water conditions. Most of the kids were able get up at least once and experience what it’s like to barefoot. Barefoot suits are a scarce item at a ski camp, so Mike brought along a bunch of his old suits and a few that we think he picked up at a yard sale on the way to the lake. It was a one size fits all day. If the kid was small we’d double up on the padded shorts and put a life vest on under the barefoot suit. We called the suits the Fred Sanford specials. The kids were all real troopers and we all cheered a lot as they each got up their first time.
The camp was very friendly toward us the entire time we were there. They fed us a wonderful lunch. Mike had us sit at the VIP table and introduced us to all the YMCA staff members. They were all very thankful for our willingness to spend a day at the camp and invited us back next year.
I would like to thank Mike Bateman and the rest of the staff at Camp Grady Spruce for allowing me the opportunity to come out and work with these young kids. It feels good to teach others the sport that I love so much. Hopefully next year we can make it back.
Phillip Damuth
Team BarefootCentral.com
Special
thanks to my sponsors: BarefootCentral.com,
Intensity, and Masterline Ropes
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