John Mylle, looking good! Click on the picture to enlarge it

The footers do not use any kind of board here, they ski on their bare feet. To do so so they need speed, between 40-46 miles per hour depending of the skier and what he/she is doing. On regular tournament, like waterskiing, there are 3 events. Lately there are two other type of competition: the figure 8 and the endurance race. Both are getting more and more popular.

Wake crosssing Event:

The footer must perform, to get the most possible points, two 15 second passes ; One forward and one backward. During theses runs the skier will cross the wake made by the boat as often as he/she can.. To have a chance to win, he/she must perform these 2 wake crossings on one foot. The more wake crossing the skier will make the more points he/she will get. The skier who earns the most points wins the event.

Tricks event:

A skier attempts to perform as many tricks as he/she can during two 15-second passes. Each trick has a pre-assigned
point value and an athlete may perform a forward run and a backward run to receive more points. each trick must be performed correctly, in order to receive credit by the event judges. The skier who earns the most total points for the two passes wins the event.

Jump Event:

The object of the jumping event is for a skier to jump as far as he can. There are no style points, just pop off of the ramp and fly! Each skier has three attempts to jump as far as he can. Of course the skiers who jumps the further wins.

Figure 8 tournament:

There are two skiers behind the boat, which will make a figure 8 course. Each skier must stay on their side of the wake. The hard part starts when after the 1st turn, the skiers ski on the roller made by the boat. The first skier who falls or quits loses! There are a lot of face plants!

Endurance Race: (Text from www.barefootcentral.com)

For many barefooters, once the tournament season (or Nationals is complete), their focus quickly shifts to training for endurance competitions.  Endurance races have grown rapidly in popularity over the last years.  A lot of the popularity is attributable to the the success of the Austin Dam-to-Dam barefoot race.  The Austin Barefoot Club started putting on an impromptu race every November to test both their rough water skiing abilities and iron man tenacity to ski through some of the harshest weather mother nature could whip up.  The idea was simple.  Find 3 or 4 close foot'n buddies (as crazy as yourself), pile in a boat, line up against 3 or 4 other boats, blow a horn, and the first boat from one end of the lake to the other (about 25 miles) wins.  Sounds simple enough, but if you are the 3rd or 4th boat and the winds are high, it's a living hell.  Endurance racing is the only event in barefooting where you work as a team to win.  Team members encourage one another during the race and must practice skiing together to be able to transition from one skier to another quickly.  Many races are won and lost during transitions.  The biggest unknown in every race is the weather.  But it's like show business. The race goes on now matter what the water conditions or the weather.  Smoother water results in high speeds and long runs, whereas white-caps result in a lot of face plants and many transitions.  The greatest thing about these races, other than the team aspect, is that you don't have to be a Pro-level skier to be successful.  Some of the best endurance footers don't even compete at the tournament level, but they can ski through the roughest water conditions imaginable.Most races have rules that require each team member to ski in succession during the race.  Rules for cheating (i.e. no butt riding, breaker boats, shoe skis, booms, shorts lines, etc...) have also been developed over the years.  It's a constantly evolving event.The Grand-Daddy of all the Endurance Races is the Austin Dam-to-Dam (early Nov).  But their are several other races that have started up over the last few years that rival the Dam-to-Dam and push the limits of barefooting endurance to the max. 

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