BRYAN HOPKINS, from Counce, TN,
was selected as the April 2002
Footer of the Month

He was nominated by Kerry Hanson.  Here's why:

Hi Chuck,
I met you last year at Nationals, I am Kerry Hanson, Kip Hansons Dad (The kid with the birthday cake).  I recently had a fantastic experience thanks to your terrific web site.  Kip and I had enough of the cold Wisconsin winter and decided to tow the Malibu south to get some footin in before our ice melts, (hopefully this month).

We did not have a clue how far South we would need to drive or where we might find great water.  We looked up Tennessee on BarefootCentral.com's Locate a Footer section of the site.  A few names popped up and we chose Bryan Hopkins.  We fired off an e-mail to Bryan with a lot of questions about his location and asked for his input.  Bryan immediately responded with tons of valuable information.  He even went so far as to call a camp ground to make sure they were open and to inquire about prices.  Based on Bryan's information we packed up and headed south to the Tombigbee river.

We arrived and headed straight to the river and had a blast.  When we got back to our campground, Bryan was there,  waiting to make sure that our travel had been easy, and that we had found his secret spot on the river.  We couldn't believe what a great host Bryan was.  We invited him to ski with us the following day.  Bryan quit work early to join us on the river.  Bryan and his wife (Diane) ski at least three days a week year round.  As far as we could tell, they are the hardest of the hard core.  Barefooting and riding their sky ski for hours on end in frigid weather.  That night Bryan and Diane invited us to their house for a steak barbeque. 

The following day, both Bryan and Diane quit work early and put their boat in to show us some more river and a great time.  Bryan patiently coached Kip until he could ride the sky ski.  Bryan and his wife Diane are the very reason that I spend so much time hanging around with barefooters.  He went way way out of his way to accommodate a fellow footer, was a real gentleman, and showed us a great time.  Without his help we would still be waiting for that first run of the year!  I think Bryan Hopkins should be footer of the month, and would be very grateful if you could make that happen.  It would be a cool surprise for him.  I know he uses your site often. 

From left is Bryan and his 10 month old daughter Hailey,
 who loves riding in the boat much better than the car,
Bart Tegen, Kip Hanson and Kerry Hanson

Congratulations Bryan for being selected the 2002 April Footer of the Month.  You are now eligible to become the 2002 Footer of the Year.

As a special note:  Diane & Bryan were one of the very first footers to join Team BarefootCentral.com.  They have both been great members and a pleasure to know.   I hope to get to Tennessee soon to meet them both a get me some of that barbeque.   Chuck Gleason