Photo taken by Kyle Fahrenthold

Chuck Gleason - Founder of BarefootCentral.com

The name Barefoot Central came to be back in 1993 when a group of friends including Stuart Singer, Mark Puchio, Mark Hughs, Charley Simpson, Michele and I began spending ourr weekends together barefooting in the mornings, and hanging out in the afternoons.  We'd ski all day, party to the wee hours then waking up at 6:00am to foot again.

The name Barefoot Central came to be by happenstance.  Stuart Singer and Charlie were driving to the river one weekend and Charlie's phone kept ringing with people asking him when they would be at the river, what was the plan, etc...  Then on about the 6th call, Charlie just answered the phone "Hello, Barefoot Central!"  And the name stuck.

We all skied together from 1993 to around 1998.  As the guys started getting married, promoted, having kids, getting divorced, etc... the gang started to slowly separate.  The only three to keep skiing through it all was Stuart Singer, Michele, and myself.  As some of the guys would move on to other things, we would also pick up a few new footers to the gang.  We met Kyle & Debbie Fahrenthold, and they became regulars on the river.  Kyle & Debbie even got involved with 3-event competition and have helped us many times at National events.

Through the years we've met the likes of Britt Hartline, Gary & Rhonda Stewart, Mike Bateman, Dwayne & Susan Mahan, and many others on the river.  Some people fell out of the sport for a while, then came back, and some others disappeared for good.  The common bond between all of us has been the Brazos River at Tin Top, Texas, where Barefoot Central was conceived.  We've hosted many fun events at the river through the years and have too many memories to count.  We started a wall of fame (below) as a way of remembering all the footers that visited us.  If you came to the river to ski with us, you got a chance to put your foot on the wall and experience the traditional ceremony of the founding members lifting you in the air to place your foot on the wall.

I officially founded BarefootCentral.com in 1998 as a way to keep busy as I recovered from my neck surgery.  I developed the website as a way to promote the sport of barefoot waterskiing and allow me to communicate with footers that share the same passion we had developed for the sport there on the river.  As time went by, the site grew bigger and ideas on how to improve the site came flowing in from footers around the world.  We continue to refine the site every day in hopes that we can lay claim to having the best barefoot waterskiing website in the world.  We want to provide informative information about upcoming events, insightful and interesting articles, a one-stop shop for all barefoot equipment needs, and a place for footers to meet other footers.