When:         June 14-18, 2004
Where:        Fenton, Michigan 
Organizer:  Gene and Connie Morrison
Lake:          Silver Lake

I flew out of Atlanta on Sun. June 13th, a little hung over from the night before Chris Wakefield, his wife, and myself met a few of their friends for dinner along with a night full of dancing.  I never get worried about dancing because if all else fails I don’t have to reproduce the “Chainsaw,” the “Grocery Cart” or the “Sprinkler.” I just bust out my trick run and everyone thinks I have the fresh new moves. Just kidding, that’s only after too many drinks.

As the plane touches down in Flint, MI, I awake from my comma ready to play some paint ball with the Morrison’s. They told me they had the whole week planned out and that they wanted to make sure I had tons of fun!  So, we headed to the paint ball field to sling some paint at each other.  I never played before, so I was a little nervous because I new the Morrison’s boys were going to be coming after me at full force!  I didn’t want to lug around old crappy clothes with me so I asked Gene to bring some of his along.  Well, if I ‘d known what he was bringing me, I would’ve brought my own.  I looked like some bum they found on the street. (See picture below) 

After a couple easy warm up games that I got shot out of quickly, the organizers decided to have captains and pick teams. No big deal because even though I was dressed like a bum and looked hung over, I had gel in my hair for a smooth looking paint ball player! I had never been picked last in my life because I was always captain. Well, let’s just say that my attire didn’t quite help the situation. I was picked dead last, and to beat the horse even worse, there was one large man picked over me, a couple girls, four super young kids, Connie Morrison,  the mom of the family, and 29 people in the whole group!  I had to scratch me head and wonder not only why but also how??  It was nice to be put in that situation though, mostly because I got to feel what most kids feel when I picked them last.  I didn’t want to cry or anything, but I could imagine how some kids might have felt.  It was a great lesson and since I put people in that situation before, it came back in full circle.  All an all we had a great time playing paint ball. I looked like I just got done painting a house though!

Training started Monday but what most kids don’t realize is that their parents just hired an instructor to take over and teach to the full potential of their talent.  The week started off great and I always like to get a feel for everyone the first day on what they can do and what new paths I should make for them after some touch ups.  The kids Al, Amy, Chris and father Gene were the main footers for the whole week.  That’s a lot of foot’n for five days straight and I wasn’t sure how everyone was going to take it?  All the kids have a lot of natural talent and some funny personalities! Their great talent on the water landed them on Team Barefoot Central but Al and Chris’s great personalities played a huge role as well! 

The Morrison’s waited for me to help them set up the jump on the second day, which usually doesn’t go so well! To tell you the truth I was dreading the fact that we had to put the jump into the water.  It never goes smoothly unless you get really lucky.  Anyhow, I showed Gene how to set the jump and we found a good spot to put it and dropped the anchor with our fingers crossed. It held up all week and we never had to fuss with it again.

The week started off great and everyone was foot’n awesome!  I had Al do all his hard technical tricks that he didn’t want to do!  He hit all his tricks perfectly and we started to work on new ones.  It’s weird teaching your future competition, but it also feels good to hear people say that Al barefoots similar to me and he will be one of the best some day!  I’ll always have the experience over these young guys, but I never said I was going to teach Al everything I knew!  Al went on to learn a line back that we spent most of our time on. When the day comes that Al puts all the pieces together he’ll be right there in the Open Pro division where only the few select can make it. He’s jumping huge and his slalom is starting to increase in speed! Now that he’s finally packing on some muscle and size he’ll be a force to recon with possibly this year and surely next!

Chris turned 14 when I was there and he’ll be following his brother’s footsteps quite close I imagine! C hris looks like he’ll be shorter and stocker than Al so we know that that body frame will be a future champion as long as he keeps working hard!  Chris was a little frustrated mid week because he thought he wasn’t learning anything.  Last year I tried to get him to do a toe back but he just couldn’t grasp the concept.  This year I decided to make him do all four one foot turns on the shoes until he was blue in the face.  He already does four perfect step over turns with just a little tweaking that needs to be done.  So we continued to do four one-foot turns over and over and over. He thought I was wasting his time but when I signaled for him to do a toe back when he least expected it, I thought he was going to crap himself!  Not only did he poop himself but also he nailed a picture perfect "textbook" toe back!  He was all smiles after that and nearly made a toe front feet to feet as well!  His jumping is unbelievable for a kid his age! He learned how to jump inverted at thirteen and a half and these jumps aren’t just little Banana George jumps!  These jumps are sixty plus feet and you have to realize that the little twerp only stands just over four foot tall!!  Chris’s slalom will come with time but as for right now he knows what he needs to work on!

Amy is an extraordinary footer as well with great strength!  Amy used to be in gymnastics and plays many sports in school, so she picks up things quickly on the water. We worked on her jumping a lot, back deeps behind the boat and toe-ups. Things are going to get interesting in the Girls division because there are three girls that can ski relatively close to each other as overall contenders. Mallory Bacon, Laura Szwed and Amy Morrison are all basically working on the same things. They have all jumped behind the boat now, tricks are close and all need their back one-foot slalom.  I think it’s going to be a game of consistency and an all around battle.  Amy has been foot’n for the least amount of time, but with brothers like hers, I think it’ll make for a quick learning curve. As long as she stays committed, she’ll give the rest of the girls a good run for their money!

Gene Morrison is an all rounder as well!  I’m not just talking barefooting either. This guy is involved in everything!  He loves to play paint ball and has the best gun on the field, rides a CR 250 that nobody can keep up with, and serves the ball like a pro in Walleyball!!  His kids can’t keep up with him in anything besides barefooting!  He’s a competitor at heart but loves to do anything physical when he has a chance!  It was funny seeing the kids trying to keep up with him on the Motor Cross track because Gene used to be semi pro!  I’ve never ridden on a track before with jumps an all, but Gene insisted that he would get me a bike to ride for the Saturday after the clinic.  Here I am getting ready to ride with thirty other riders for the first time and all I can think about was getting hurt!  No problem I said, I’ll just take my time and get used to the bike and track. Well, everyone else does about five laps in fifteen minutes. I however started getting cocky and thought I could do a jump like the other riders around me!  Little did I know, I could only land jumps where the landings are visible, like barefoot jumping!  Not doubles I’ve never jumped before!  So, up and over I go winding out second gear only to find myself casing the landing and going over the handlebars!  Jumped up as fast as I could before getting ran over and pushed my CR 250 to the side of the track. Everything was still attached to my body, some guy almost landed on my legs and the only thing that happened was that I broke the clutch. I was relieved because that meant the bike was broke and I was done riding for the day.  Not so because they sell parts at the track and it only cost $8.00.  I only crashed three more times after that, but I learned how to jump doubles and take the corners much faster. It's a really fun sport but I’ll stick with the water, not the dirt!!

The rest of the week went well and Connie took care of us with great food as well as keeping the kids in line. We went to a club called Genesis and played racquetball and walleyball a couple nights ands that was fun. One of the days that it was rainy we pulled out the Sky Ski and I attempted to learn some jumps on it. Gene displayed many inverted tricks like a back flip on either side of the wake, a back roll wake to wake and a front flip. Chris through the wake board on and had some fun in the rain with a back roll and other grabs. Afterwards we stopped by the MasterCraft dealership in Fenton, MI that has a great setup on Silver Lake with super customer service. For more information go to www.mastercraft.com 

After a fun-filled week, Gene and the boys dropped me off at the Szwed’s who live only twenty-six miles down the road. Happy Birthday to Chris Morrison!  See you again at Nationals!
KSO