Barefoot Ski World Championships – The Rest of the Story

Wednesday August 11, 2010
I woke up at 2 am this morning with a knot in my stomach, worrying about my skiing in a few hours. Great, now I’m awake in the middle of the night… then a moment later I re-awake at 5:45 am; take a shower and go downstairs to breakfast with my ‘tribe of footers’.

I have a light breakfast since I’ll be skiing early in the morning, then I find out that I’ll be skiing about 10 am instead of 7:30 am. Knowing when you’ll be skiing and what event, and the running order is not possible at these Worlds - very stressful. You have to stay on site, pay attention to the announcer, check the boards, and hope that you don’t miss your event.

My arms are not doing that great, some pain – which takes away from my focus; I need to brush off yesterday’s failure. Mentally I’m not here, I’m not confident in my strength due to lack of training, and practice – I’m a mental case.

I know if I had the strength, if I had practiced the past 6 weeks, no pain in the arms, I would not be in the mental condition I am. The bottom line is that I’m not operating at my peak level, so it’s a crap shoot as to how I’ll perform today in Tricks, especially the starts which stresses my arms the most.

At 8 am at the starting dock; I’m the first skier in Gentlemen A division. The last two skiers in the event before me are Keith St. Onge (two time World Champion) and David Small (two time World Champion); great, I get to follow them.

Keith skies well and so does David, then I’m on the dock getting ready to go; but in typical fashion there is a ½ hour delay between the events. So off goes the gear, then on the gear, then off the gear and I’m getting concerned since the water is glass… hope it holds for our event.

Finally it’s time for me to go, I’ve stretched and I’m ready. I wrap the handle behind my back; the boat crew yells ’30 seconds’ then ’10 seconds’ and they put the boat in gear. The rope tightens up, I know I’m not confident, I’ve done my mental preparation and know that since the delay the Men A skiers from the previous event are watching me, the skiers from the Gentlemen A event are watching me, the skiers from lake 2 on the dock are watching me, and I’m the only skier to get on the water for ½ hour, so the camera is on me!

GREAT I’m thinking; okay the rope is tight, I need to let them know to go via the ‘okay’ command; a moment before I yell OKAY, I pray ‘Lord please give me wisdom.’

Before I finish the story, just a little background about the water conditions; it’s really glassy (smooth and glass) but it has rollers which make the water unpredictable. David and Keith who skied just before me tell me that the water is ‘okay’ but as you go down the course it gets unpredictable. Then on the return pass the water has rollers at the beginning of the pass. Hmm, another ‘fact’ to screw with my mind…

I yell ‘OKAY’ and the boat takes off, I fly off the dock in the superman position to attempt the most difficult start in the sport (flying back tumble up to one – 800 points) with the rope wrapped around my back, land on my stomach, once I’m up to correct speed, I tumble to the backward position, plant my foot and wait for the boat to speed to 42 mph - but no speed. “What do I do, try to get up or be wise and wait for speed?”

I wait for speed and ‘nail’ the start, then the trick pass begins one foots, surface hop, back to front, tumbles, sit down stand ups, waves in trashy water!. Okay ½ done, now to make the return pass via the second most difficult start in the sport (back-deep-to-one 500 points).

Give yell my instructions to the boat crew, give signal to go via “OKAY,” the boat takes off and again after I plant the foot to get up on one foot, NO SPEED! I ‘wait’ and once I have speed I’m up; I make a positional back-to-front turn to set up for my first trick forward.

The water is bouncy; I wait, make the back-to-front turn; I’m way too far forward over my feet and holding on with only one hand trying not to go out the ‘front door.’ Seems like an eternity, but I pull in the handle and start the tricks; necks, one foots, teeth, toes, tumbles, and more. It was a GREAT run considering the conditions. I’m happy, I’m not a loser anymore… I advance to the semi finals tomorrow.

I’m ranked 10th in the World in this event and there is no way for me to advance to the finals, even if I have the ‘perfect’ pass. So I’ll just ski without expectations, what happens is not important – I redeemed myself. I love barefoot water skiing (again).

Thursday August 12, 2010
Yesterday it felt so good to ski well, I can’t explain the feeling. I’ve NEVER skied so badly in Slalom in my life, of course missing the start created a cascading impact on my score of 4.1. Yes, the water played with my head, the driver didn’t help, but that’s no excuse.

The biggest cause of my failure was that I wasn’t prepared physically or mentally; I rushed the start, totally my fault. I ski today one last time in Tricks Semi’s.

Friday August 13, 2010
Today was a beautiful day, sunny, low 70’s, low humidity, and no pressure on me to perform in the Semi’s. I was given a Canadian Team T-shirt as a birthday gift, received lots of ‘Happy Birthday Holtzy’ during the day, and was taken to dinner by the New Zealand team where they sang the birthday song - embarrassing but flattering to be loved by my family in the Southern Hemisphere. After the birthday dinner, I went back to the site for some Brazilian entertainment, then back to my room to write you all.

Basically it was a wonderful birthday and I totally enjoyed every minute; it began with watching my friends compete in the Finals, a great dinner, and an evening with entertainment. Brandenburg knows how to throw a great Birthday Party for Holtzy!

I’ve uploaded the photos of the day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/103472112604379439617/WorldsDay5HappyBirthdayToMe#

Well, it’s the end of the barefoot season; I’ve had today some time to reflect on what I’ve learned from this experience:

1. I strained the inside muscles in both arms three months ago from overuse, but I kept trying to ski and took anti-inflammation meds. When that didn’t work, I lightly skied for six weeks with meds - that didn’t work; so six weeks before Worlds I just about stopped skiing completely. The impact on the lack of ski time resulted in me having very little confidence in my ability to perform at the World Class level, or to even make a back-deep-to-one start because of pain. I was not able to practice on site because of the terrible winds and rough water, and this just compounded my lack of confidence.

The lesson learned is that if I strain a muscle in the future, I need to ‘stop’ skiing until it heals. It’s better to stop skiing in the beginning or middle of the season, than a few weeks before a World Competition.

2. I ‘know’ I have the skill to make the finals in both Slalom and Tricks at a World Championship. In 2008 – New Zealand, I missed the Trick Finals by 70 points out of 2600 or less than 3%; this year (yesterday) I missed the finals by 80 points out of 2660, again less than 3%. To advance to the Finals in Slalom at these Worlds required 12.1 points and I have a PB of 15.

My goal now is to be prepared for the 2012 Worlds by being in the best physical shape of my life; attend ski schools for additional training, train hard in rough water so that I’ll have total confidence when I step on the dock that I’m moving into the Finals. This will take total dedication because I’ll be 61 years old in 2012…

This is a video of my trick run. It’s only available via YouSendIt until Sept 3 http://www.yousendit.com/download/aHlSZ28yRSs3bUJjR0E9PQ