Equipment Outfitters

Sports are about competition, but also about contact. Sports which involve the thrill of speed invariably require specialized equipment to undertake them, but for the sportsman, the nearer to the elements you can get, the greater the sense of accomplishment. So for water skiiers, what could make more sense than dispensing with the skis?

Barefoot Water Skiing began in Winter Haven, Florida in 1947. Water skiing pioneer Chuck Sligh theorized that water skiing without skis might be possible if the ski boat went fast enough. A 17-year-old boy named AG Hancock proved him right, becoming the first water skier to drop a ski and continue barefoot successfully. Hancock left on a family vacation before he could show the trick to Cypress Garden’s Dick Pope Sr.. A few days later, Pope’s son Dick Jr. successfully dropped a ski and got all the glory— photographs, newspaper stories, newsreels, the works. Barefoot skiers soon adapted many of the freestyle moves of traditional waterskiers. Spins, backward maneuvers, body drags, and other tricks made barefooting an exciting new discipline. Due to the speeds required to barefoot, the tricks are especially difficult, and dangerous, since the water becomes very hard in a high-speed impact.

Barefoot water skiing quickly became a cult sport, especially in Australia. Barefoot clubs and competitions took place throughout the Sixties without too many people outside of the sport taking notice. Sometime around 1967 the Australians began experimenting with barefoot jumping. No one knows who the first barefoot jumper was, but he set in motion a chain of events that eventually brought his sport some long-overdue attention.

In 1973, the Australians introduced the Americans to barefoot jumping at the International Championships, held at Cypress Gardens. It wasn’t until 1978 that jumping was included as an event at the first U.S. Barefoot Nationals. That same year Greg Rees of Australia set the first official world record at 44 feet (13.41m).

Bum jumpers

The techniques used at this time were foot-tofoot, where the jumper used his feet for both the take-off and the landing, and something called bum jumping. Bum jumpers went up and off the ramp on their buttocks and then tried to land on their feet, a technique that resulted in longer jumps, but was uncontrollable.

Even this spectacle wasn’t enough to garner a lot of mainstream attention. That all changed in 1989 when U.S. jumper Mike Seipel accidentally invented the inverted style of jumping while training in Florida.

The first time it happened Seipel says the thought that occurred to him was “I’m going to kill myself,” so he let go of the handle and splashed in. Then he realized that he had flown farther, so he tried it again, sticking the landing on his third try.

In the inverted style, the jumper pushes forward at the top of the ramp and lets the handle out. This puts the jumper horizontal to the water, flying most of the distance of the jump in that position, then swinging his body back down for a landing, hopefully on his feet and buttocks. The first time Seipel tried it in competition he broke the world record, flying 72.5 feet (22.10m).

The sport immediately exploded. Jumpers who were initially skeptical of the new technique quickly learned it, and average jumps went from 40-50 feet up to 60-70 feet. The current record of 90.88 feet (27.70m) is held by Australian Justin Sears, and the 100 foot mark is expected to fall soon.

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