Chicago Clinic 2002

Windy City Clinic 2002
Stories from the Road by Keith St. Onge

When:           May 6-10, 2002
Where:          Fox River – St. Charles, IL
Organizer:    Tony Smith
Why:             To learn new foot'n tricks from Keith St. Onge

The clinic in the Windy City was probably one of my most enjoyable clinics. Reason being, because it was half vacation and half clinic. I arrived early to visit with a cousin so I could get the tour of the town! Wow, I thought many other cities were huge, but this takes the cake. One of the largest skylines I've ever seen, along with a spectacular view of the city from up above. We went 96 floors above the city in the John Hancock Tower. I saw a full 360 view of Navy Pier, the Sears Tower, Gino's East Pizza and of course Lake Michigan. If you want a pizza the size of your largest birthday cake, go get some thick, thick deep dish, pan pizza at Gino's East!

All right, let's get to the clinic and I'll finish telling you about the next weekend. Besides the clinic being through the week of the 5th-9th of May, it was great! We had great water all week, even though we had near blizzard conditions. The wind was freezing with rain, and 45 degree temperatures. I had my rain pants on with three layers of sweaters under a snowmobile jacket. I'm from Northern New Hampshire but I'll tell you one thing; living in Florida will make your blood as thin as a piece of tissue paper. My blood type is no longer Rocky Road. To get me to ski was like trying to get a cat in water. I actually skied on Monday when it was 75 degrees and sunny. I didn't do much, due to lack of feeling in my feet on that cold water, but everyone seemed happy that I tried. I most always ski for my students unless there's any chance of getting hurt.

Tony Smith was the organizer and he did a great job! The accommodations were great and finished just before I arrived. It was a pristine remodeled cellar with a beautiful full wooden bar next to the bed. Surround sound included with a 40 inch TV screen. It wasn't officially complete until we set up the dartboard and whipped up on each other.

There's more work into setting up a clinic than it appears. Contacting the people and getting their deposits isn't the easiest in the world. To get someone to commit on skiing a month ahead of time, and calling back several times to inform them that they can't ski until they lay down a deposit, can get stressful. This was Tony's first time and he was an ace. Remember Tony, It's always easier the second time.

Monday was one of the nicest days we had with lots of talent in the boat. The skiers were Tony Smith and Jim Cochran, who footed all of the five days. Also on Monday was Rich Hagele and Jeff Peterson. Like most skiers, after seeing what the first students work on, they want to do the same. Most of the day consisted of turns. I stressed the fundamentals that should be performed before doing turns and most everyone met the qualifications. Tony, on the other, hand could barely do his reverse toe hold. He could do his back toes great and kind of ride his basic front toe, but, I had to hammer him on those the rest of the week. We had great water all day and the sun broke out in the afternoon. I actually got into shorts and a tee shirt and even struggled on getting the dry suit on. I did a couple of tricks on the boom, one pass of wakes, and a little shoe skiing on a home made pair. The others skied hard and made a lot of progress on their turns.

Tuesday through Thursday was not so warm! We had serious wind and the temperature was about 45 in the mornings. On Tuesday morning it started to rain and persisted for the next hour and a half. Despite the wind blowing at about 15-20 mph, we had water that we could deal with and the skiers were Doug Westhoven, Chuck for a half a day, and Lewis. On Wednesday, the water was good as well. It might have been early in the season but not having any boats to compete with was quit nice! Thursday brought more of the same weather, then the wind picked up in the afternoon leaving us with only shoe ski water.

I have to tell you about a quick story about Thursday. We didn't have any other boats to contend with all week except for one. This boat shows up one day and would not go up or down river. The guy just decided to stay right in the middle of our run. So, I put the boat in the middle of the river to talk to this Wally and explain what we were trying to do. The guy decided to ignore me and just took off in his 24 foot Lund fishing boat. I initially started after him, but Tony, showing me the ropes of the river, had me stop and said, "Remember I told you not to go next to that shoreline?" Well guess where Mr. Wally Lund was headed? Right towards the sand bar to the left of us. The boat's I/O started to skip out of the water and Walla! Problem solved! The Lund boat was beached in about 8" of water. We skied happily for an hour as the Wally tried to get himself un-stuck. When he finally did, he didn't stick around to find anymore sand bars.

On Friday we spent our day at one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen! If you think you have a great site you should see James Gulifer and Lee Reich's site! They ski on an old quarry shaped in a T. Doesn't matter which way the wind comes, it is always smooth. I took quit a few runs on the quarry until I couldn't feel my feet anymore. We finished the week on a beautiful day.

The next weekend my cousin met us downtown in the City. There was a group of nine that went to Buca's Italian restaurant. You can't go there alone or as a couple because the food comes in portions that would last you a week in left overs. Besides the heaps of food and unbelievably excellent the food, there was one other unique
feature. Anywhere on the wall you looked there were the most funny pictures you could imagine. They were all real pictures, just things you couldn't believe that were caught on a still camera. We found pictures that resembled someone falling or doing a trick the wrong way. It was pretty funny. After dinner we got a cab and went to a couple local bars with some great bands playing. Thanks for the great time in Chicago boys! I'll definitely have to come back.