Nationals Awards Banquet

The Southern Region was well-represented on the medal stand at the nationals awards banquet.

Nationals Day 5: Cold Day in August

The competition was hot, but the weather was miserable for the final round of Barefoot Nationals. The temperature never hit 60 degrees today as the open women and men battled the elements and each other.

Mike Holt officially captured the Mens 5 Overall Championship. Betsy Anderson came away with the Womens 3 Overall Championship and plans to go open next year. Look out!

Mike Salber was forced to drop out of the final round of the open mens competition due to an elbow injury suffered during the jumping competition on Friday.

The Koehler Family had to leave early on Saturday so Betsy had the honor of awarding the Kailey and Arianna their medals for Girls 2 Slalom and Tricks! The impromptu awards ceremony was done out of the rain in the base of the announcers tower!

The Koehler Girls are tough competitors in the Midwest and were participants in Thursday's Cool Chick Tricks! You go girls!

Barefoot Nationals Day 4: Young, Old & St. Onge

The Youngest member of the Southern Region, Zane Salber, hit the water today in Boys 2 Wake Slalom. Zane scored a 2.1, placing fourth in wake slalom and first in the hearts of the crowd. Zane finished 4th Overall in his division.

Papa Mike Salber made the finals for the open mens wake slalom and looks forward to skiing with the Big Dogs on Saturday. Old Man Salber is still kicking the butts of all of the young'uns.

Mike Holt landed a 29 foot jump in Mens 5 jump to wrap up his second consecutive Mens 5 Overall Championship.

Keith St. Onge made his appearance on the ramp shortly after Holt and landed a 60+ jump.

Mike & Mike Show

Mike Salber and Mike Holt get ready before Mens 5 Jumping!

One of the more memorable parts of the day came after all of the skiing was done. Betsy was finishing up her duties as Assistant Chief Scorer and had to take a porta-potty break. As she rode her bike across the abandoned parking lot she noticed lone man walking towards her... she recognized him immediately as MIKE SEIPEL!!!

The Legendary Barefooter thought she was security. (Betsy looks pretty tough) Betsy introduced herself and spoke to the legendary barefooter for just a few moments... he was as nice as could be. Betsy thought it was cool to meet a pioneer of the sport!

Everybody wants to be part of the team!

Legendary Mens 8 Competitor Don McFeters was just one of many people wearing Team t-shirts! Several people in the stands, the entire Peria Family from Minnesota, Dave Goar and many more people were representing the team by wearing the colors! It was fun to see all of the support from footers and fans!

Barefoot Nationals Day 3: Who wears the Pants?

The Barefoot Women made their mark during the third day of competition at the Barefoot Nationals... And we all found out who wears the pants on and off the water.

Betsy Anderson and Mens 4 Skier Lee Stone of Texas traded camo pants. Betsy had outscored him in the Tricks Competition and he was giving up the pants... but thankfully not his boxers when he put on Betsy's short shorts.

Betsy pulled out half of her super secret trick run in Womens 3 tricks but fell halfway through her back pass. She still managed to score a 1060 and a silver medal in the tricks event. Just 40 points out of first place. Just wait until next year! The Womens 3 Overall has yet to be decided.

The highlight of the day came right before Open Womens jumping. The Open Men decided the water was too rough to jump, but the Open Women said "Bring It." So while the officials were setting up jumping, Mike Schoenke came up with "The 2007 Chick Tricks."

Betsy Anderson and Laura Szwed did double long line tumbles and some other fun tricks before getting three of the junior girls up behind the boat... for their first Chick Tricks EVER! It was a crowd pleaser and there is VIDEO! Stay tuned for that.

Barefoot Nationals Day 2: Holtzy hits it again!

Mike Holt is having the Nationals of his life and is once again setting the bar high for his fellow competitors in the Mens 5 Division.

Holtzy racked up a 14 in wake slalom today, officially crossing into the Open Mens Division and setting a pending national record for Mens 5.

With two Golds, two pending national records and the Mens 5 Overall championship all but wrapped up, Holtzy sets his sights on jumping.

Betsy Anderson will take to the water in the morning for tricks. She plans on pulling out all the stops and maybe a super secret trick run. Hold on to your neck braces!

Barefoot Nationals 2007: Holtzy is HOT!!!!

Mike Holt set the water on fire the first day of the 2007 Barefoot Nationals at the Blue Moo in Alma Center, Wisconsin.

The 56-year-old spark plug set a pending national record in Mens 5 Tricks with a score of 2760. Holt dominated the competition beating the second place skier by more than 1000 points.

Betsy Anderson won Womens 3 Wake Slalom, winning the Gold for the first time ever in wakes. Jumping was a different story... and also a first... she didn't land a single jump. Miss Betsy is looking to make a come back in tricks on Thursday.

2007 Southern Regionals: "Wakeboy" is now OPENMAN!

After years of flirting with open scores, Chris Wakefield put it all together and scored a 3050 in tricks and the Mens 3 Overall Championship at the 2007 Southern Regionals in Groveland, Florida.

It was an amazing moment for all of Team BarefootWaterskier.com and the Openman is now setting his sights on open scores in Slalom and Jump. In addition to the Wake Moment, the team captured four overall titles and set a pending national record. Look out Team Xcess!

Al Posada set two personal best scores in jumping (10.1 meters) and tricks (1170.) Unfortunately, a cut foot prevented him from three-peating in slalom. He still managed to place 4th overall in the highly competitive Mens 4 division.

Eric Coryer scored well in slalom (10.5) and tricks (1700)... enough to win the Mens 2 Overall title. But Mr. Consistent in jumping showed his human side and also stirred up a new resolve to work the ramp this fall.

Mike Holt, the tournament director and a man who broke into open at 56 years old, received the adulation of the crowd with his flying back deep tumble up to one start (700 pts.) Holt also set yet another pending Mens 5 National record and captured the Mens 5 Overall title.

Tom Gabey was nursing some injuries and didn't jump. But grabbed the silver in Mens 4 Wake slalom with a 9.5.

Betsy Anderson won the Womens 3 Overall title with a lackluster performance. She missed her toe-up start... jumped only 8.6 meters and just a 6.8 in wake slalom. She has already hit the water for remedial toe-up school.

Waterski Magazine's Cover Boy: Keith St. Onge

Team Nightscaping is looking large and in charge on the latest cover of Waterski Magazine. Notice the Nightscaping logo front and center on Keith St. Onge's wetsuit! There is a great article about the man, the legend KSO.

St. Onge, the current Open Mens World Overall Champion and World Slalom and Tricks Record Holder is looking to make 2007 an even bigger and better year than 2006. He is challenging all of Team Nightscaping to set your goals NOW for the 2007 Season and DOOOOOIT!

Sign up for the KSO Georgia Clinic (There are only a few openings left) YOU TOO, CAN LEARN FROM A WORLD CHAMPION!!!

KSO Clinic Schedule June 4-8, 2007, Lake Lanier, Spring Lake. We will be using the new 8.1 Sanger and of course the outboard on a mission to help you fly better... "The Flightie!"

Call or email Betsy now to reserve your spot! betsybarefoots@aol.com or 770-653-7859

See Schedule below.

Hub on CNN (Kinda like your brain on drugs)

Eventually, everyone on team Nightscaping will end up on CNN.

This time, Team "Wanna-be" Hub Talbot took the water on May 11 to help CNN correspondent Judy Fortin produce a piece on Waterskiing Safety.

The story called for Hub to strap on the sticks and he complied.. maybe bacause he had yet to barefoot behind his brand new Malibu boat.

Rough water, wallies everywhere and Hub did held steady at the breakneck speed of 25mph. Way to go HUB!

Kirsten's New Tat!

Betsy's niece, Kirsten Kvalsten, is taking this barefooting thing seriously. Check out her new tattoo! The chinese characters mean "Determination." And Kirsten has that and more.
The 18-year-old North Dakotan is currently footin with Jace Foss and Mike Pladson. She is looking forward to skiing the "Chick Fest" at the Blue Moo in Wisconsin in July and the Fergus Falls Barefoot Open!
Look out Womens 1!!!!!

New Year's Day Brrrrfoot Bonanza

January 1, 2007 – New rules set the table for a dramatic showdown News Years Day on Lake Lanier as members of Team Cumming-on-up/Team Nightscaping came together for their Annual Brrrrfoot Bonanza.

Perennial champion and team leader Al Posada had put together new rules for the face off and everyone was excited to take part in what could be a legendary battle behind the boat. Infamous New Year’s Day Choker Chris Wakefield was a no-show for the event… but Al was joined by Betsy Anderson, Eric Coryer and Mike Crawford.

Here were the rules per Posada:

- Everyone takes ONE run behind the boat
- No do overs unless there is a unanimous decision in the boat
- 2000 point bonus for wearing barefoot wetsuit ONLY (no heater shirt, beanie)
- Tricks will be scored according to ABC rules
- 200 points for each minute behind the boat
- 50 points for each one foot wake cross
- Every one must drink a little Jack

The day dawned bright and sunny in North Georgia… a balmy 49 Degrees. Water temperature at game time hovered in the high 40’s. The smack talk ensued almost immediately with Al and Eric bickering over the rules. Eric was trying to change them as he went along. After much talk… barefooting ensued.

First up… Eric. It didn’t take the “Mouth of the South” long to set the bar pretty high. He jumped in with a wetsuit only and skied for a total of 28 seconds. Racking up 1150 trick points and 2000 point bonus for a total of 3150. But he didn’t have any Jack.

Next, Crawford in a drysuit and a pained look on his face. He skied about 2 minutes and racked up 250 trick points before Al was forced to shut down the boat for mulch in the water. Crawford resumed his run after dodging logs. He added another minute and 50 more trick points for a total of 1300. He DID have Jack.

Al was talking smack as he suited up for his run. He gambled with a drysuit and a plan to hang on for 20 minutes. Eric was going down! Al started with a back deep and then fell on his back to front. He did ski longer than Eric, (30 seconds) and had a total of 200 tricks points. He was forced to concede this years race to Eric. And Al DID have Jack.

Finally Betsy was up. No drysuit and threatening to go with no wetsuit, Betsy tricked conservatively, 150 points, and settled in to outlast Eric but the water had really gotten rough… and two minutes later… she was down with a total of 2550 points. She did have Jack… a little two much because she didn’t warm up and elected to go head to head with Al! Who is the wussy in this photo?

Final Scores:
Eric 3150
Betsy 2550
Crawford 1300
Al 300

It was first to worst for Al and a second place finish three years in a row for Betsy. Crawford was just happy to be there. And Eric continued the smack talk back at the house. We’ll see what happens next year!