Every year since 1994, the founding members of Barefoot Central kick off the summer with a huge party.  For the last 3 years, Stuart and Shelly Singer have hosted the party and each year they seem to out-do themselves.  This year was no exception.  Shelly started planning the party sometime in early March.  The theme chosen was Hawaiian Luau. 

This year we decided to invite the 2004 Barefoot Central Junior and Elite Promo Teams to Dallas to take part in the fun.  A 4-day weekend of fun was planned to give the team members a chance to get to know each other, ski together, have fun, and take part in a team photo shoot.  The entire Junior team was able to make the weekend.  The Elite skiers consisted of Mike Salber, Phillip Damuth, and Aaron Schoelzel.  Keith St. Onge and Billy Brzoza were unable to attend due to work commitments.

The team arrived in Dallas late on Thursday night May 27.  After getting to sleep at around 1 am at our house in Dallas, the team was shaken out of bed at 5 am to make the 1-1/2 hour trip to the river in order to be on the water by 7am.  The first order of business was the team photo shoot.  The entire team had never been together, so we took the opportunity to shoot some pictures of them all in their new Eagle barefoot suits.   

The morning of the photo shoot couldn't have been better.  No wind and a light fog on the river.  The fog made for a great backdrop for the team pics.  Mike Salber's new Eagle Stealth gold suit had arrived the day before and fit like a glove.  I have never seen a better looking barefoot suit.  The kids suits were all different colors loaded with their sponsor logos and their names on the back.  Nolan Lough's suit was so small that Eagle had to shrink all the logos.  Nolan looked like a mini Mike Salber.

After the photo shoot we all took to the water.  It was glass water in both directions.  We split the team up across 3 boats and skied until our arms couldn't take anymore.  Everyone practiced their tricks and wakes.  We had an impromptu wakes tournament by dividing into groups of 3.  The group with the most amount of wakes won.  The Morrison boys were on cloud nine after Mike Salber and I both face planted our front wakes pass, leaving them in sole possession of the victory.  Mike and I took Nolan out long-line with us to do a little hot-doggin.  Nolan climbed on our shoulders as we skied at 45mph.  He was fearless.   Nolan, who weighs all of 50 lbs, got up backwards on the shoes and then showed off with some one-foot surface hops and cranked out one-foot wakes. 

Marrissa Williams (left) and Haley Thomas do some double long-line to start the morning.
Chuck Gleason, Mike Salber, and Nolan on our shoulders.
Sweeeeeet suit!	One of the coolest barefoot poses.
Al Morrison hams it up
Chris Morrison
LEFT:  Nolan shows off a  perfect front toe RIGHT: Chris hams it up showing everyone his perfect "posture and glide" position.
Al, Mike, Chuck, and Chris doing some 4-man long-line.
We finished up the morning with everyone skiing on the boom at the same time.

The next day (Saturday) was the day of the party.  I woke everyone up early and announced that we were going to have an endurance race.  We had enough skiers to have 4 teams of 4.  I had divided the teams up putting a junior and/or girl on each team, an open skier on each team, and divided everyone else by ability.  The race was about 14 miles in total.  We'd ski down river about 8 miles, then back up 6 and finish in front of Stuarts dock.  I through a curve ball in for all the open skiers (Salber, Al Morrison, Phillip Damuth, and myself).  Every other time we skied, we had to do a back deep.  Phillip Damuth's team was the only team with 3 skiers.  It consisted of Phillip, Nolan, and Chad Lough.  Nolan was too young to drive and couldn't ski over 35 mph.  I figured that would give us a chance against Phillip.  The race ended in almost a dead heat between Stuart Singer's Team (Stuart, Chris Morrison, Salber, and Marrissa), and my team (myself, Kyle Fahrenthold, Haley Thomas, and Aaron Schoelzel).  BFC had put up $100 to the winning team.  We decided at the end to give each of the juniors $25 for their efforts in the race.  It was great fun. 

Summer Kickoff Endurance Race Upper left: Phillip Damuth & Chad Lower left: Britt Hartline, Chris Johnson Above: Stuart Singer

It party was scheduled to start at around 3pm.  The kids were blown away when they saw Bill and Anne Rand roll up in their bus and silver Hummer.  Bill and Anne have been coming to the party for the last 3 years.  They are very good friends of Stuart and Shelly Singer.  Bill has agreed to let Barefoot Central use his bus during the 2004 US Nationals.  We'll be rolling into Austin in style.  It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and Barefoot Central Team members will get a true taste of what VIP is all about.  So don't get left out in the heat.  Be sure you're a member before you get to Nationals.

Mike and Al check out the Barefoot Central VIP Bus

The party was a huge success.  Bill Rand brought in a 300 lb block of ice and Mike Salber chiseled an image of a US Gear front toe handle and the words BareFootCentral.com in the ice.  The ice was set at an angle and everyone did shots off it.  It was great fun.  

Mike Salber did a great job carving the ice block	Colt Mahan watches on as Chuck finishes his shot. Mike Salber takes his first shot.
Chad Lough does his shot Pimp style.	Mike Salber
Mike Salber shows Phillip Damuth how to do it	Stuart Singer

The Singers provided tons of food and drinks for everyone.  Shelly Singer organized a lip singing contest which resulted in some amazing performances by some very HOT ladies.  You can judge for yourself.

Click Here to check out the HOT Party Pics

When the kids weren't on the water, they spent most of their time jumping on the Singer's trampoline.  The boys tied a rope and handle to a tree and spent all day jumping and flipping.  I got dizzy watching them.  They also took every opportunity to hit the water and do some wake surfing.  The girls were a great help watching our daughter Kathryn and spent a lot of time playing cards between their trampoline sets.  Any time the traffic and wind on the water died down we'd take to the boats for more footing.  Colt Mahan stopped by to say hi.  He's graduating high school this year and has received a football scholarship from North Texas.  His best friend Hugh will be playing football for Colorado.  Colt and all his friends made sure to stop by the party and had a great time.

Al Morrison	Chris
Hugh and Colt Mahan	Marissa Williams

Sunday morning started off once again with more footing.  Only the juniors and I were able to get up that morning.  Too much alcohol consumption keep everyone else in bed until around noon.  The boys went with me and the girls went with Michele and Debbie Fahrenthold.  The Morrison boys worked their turns.  Chris, who had never even tried a 540 pulled off a perfect one on his second attempt.  Chris also started learning his reverse FB on his feet.  Al started learning a line-back on his feet, which he would end up skiing away the next day.  It took me two years to learn a line-back on my feet, and it takes Al two days.  I wish I was 16 again.  Haley and Marrissa worked their back deeps on shoe skis and even pulled off a couple one foots. 

Kyle and Debbie Fahrenthold invited the entire team down to their cabin for dinner that afternoon.  Kyle smoked some great brisket.  Everyone got totally stuffed.  We then got in Kyle's hot tub to work the aches out.  It had been 3 days of hard skiing.

Phillip Damuth invited Aaron Schoelzel to accompany him down to the part of the river that he normally skis, about an hour south.  Phil Gustaphson, of Team Vortex, and Nathan Aust had been talking trash for weeks about how they could beat Phillip and anyone he brought with him in a two man race.  So we left a challenge on Nathan's phone and told them to be prepared.  We found out the next day that Phil and Nathan would not race.  They did not feel they were adequately prepared.  So Phillip and Aaron did some skiing and spent the rest of the day touring around Dallas before Aaron had to catch a plane back to Wisconsin.

Back at Tin Top on Monday morning found me sick as a dog.  I felt like I had food poisoning or something.  Michele and Chad Lough took the kids out skiing at 6:30am.  By about 8:30 I was feeling a little better so I hitched a ride from some locals up river to find the team.  We all had a great morning skiing.  Al hit his first line-back on his feet.  Chris hit his first reverse front to back on his feet.  Marrissa got up backwards on the shoes and pulled off her first back to front.  Haley got up backwards and did a great back on foot.  Nolan did some more backwards on his shoes.  All the kids skied plenty and we were off the water by noon eating lunch. 

Before the team left for the airport, we assembled them all together to perform the Barefoot Central ritual of putting their feet on the wall of fame.  The kids were proud to see that their feet were right next to the likes of Keith St. Onge, Billy Nichols, Mike Salber, Paul Stokes, Brett Sands, and the entire Australian barefoot team. 

Nolan Lough	Chris
Al Morrison	Al Morrison
Haley Thomas	Marissa Williams
Chad Lough helps H	Marissa Williams
Chad and Chuck lift Salber into place for Stuart	Stuart presses Mike's foot to create a good image.
Chad gets his foot on the wall of fame as well.	Nolan Lough signs his name by his foot.
The 2004 BarefootCentral.com Junior Promo Team with Mike Salber

Special thanks goes out to Chad Lough, father of Nolan Lough.  Chad was extremely helpful the entire weekend.  He went well beyond the call of duty to make sure Michele, Stuart Singer, and myself always had an extra hand to get things done.  His efforts were unsolicited and greatly appreciated.

Special Thanks also goes out to Stuart and Shelly Singer for hosting such a great event.  This weekend goes down as one of the best barefooting weekends on record.  Family, great friends, great skiing, great weather, great food, great party, hot babes, and beer.  It doesn't get any better!

See ya next year!