End of the Season

Today was a beautiful day, sunny, low 70’s, low humidity, and no pressure on me to perform. Finals for some events were run today; Ladies, Gentlemen, Girls, and Boys. 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 as 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 now ‘know’ that 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 0.03%; this year (yesterday) I missed the finals by 80 points out of 2660, again less than 0.03%. To advance to the Finals in Slalom at this Worlds required 12.1 points, and I have a PB of 15.

I know that if I had the confidence, strength, and practice skill, I would have skied both finals at this years Worlds. I have the ability and have proven that I can compete at the World Class level.

My goal it to be totally prepared for the 2012 Worlds; be in the best physical shape of my life; attend ski schools, ski hard so that I’ll have total confidence when I step on the dock that I will have the handle at the end of all passes and that I’m moving into the Finals. This will take total dedication because I’ll be 61 years old in 2012…

Saturday – Today I attended the World Barefoot Council meeting so I knew what to expect in the future.

David Small

Yesterday it felt so good to ski well, I can't explain the feeling. I've
NEVER skied so bad 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 was terrible, but that's no excuse. The biggest obstacle was that
I wasn't prepared physically; mentally I rushed the start, totally my fault.
I ski today one last time in Tricks Semi's but I'll not advance to finals;
I've made my point, I can ski with the best of them with my head held proud.
What happens in semi's is not important, but I would like to have the handle
at both ends.

Yesterday was emotion as David Jump Record (that he held for six years) was
broken by Henrich Sam of South Africa. I think David was stunned, I know all
in the stands were. He was just behind me and you could see that he was
truly determined to not let Henrick leave with the Record. Then on David's
first jump, it exceeds Henrick jump by over 1 meter, then to really make a
point, on his second jump, it's ANOTHER meter further than his previous one.
It brought tears to many, and for sure goose pimples to most (I had the good
pimples).

David mum and dad watch him perform (they have never seen him ski a Worlds)
and I was next to her when it occurred; you could see the 'mom' satisfaction
in her face.

Drama

I woke up at 2 am with a knot in my stomach, worrying about my skiing in a few hours. Great, now I’m awake… then a moment later I awake at 5:45 am; take a shower and downstairs to breakfast with my ‘tribe of footers’. I have a light breakfast since I’ll be skiing early in the morning. 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. 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 - takes away from my focus; I need to brush off yesterday, but mentally I’m not there. I’m not confident in the arms, my strength from lack of training is not there, and the lack of practice – I’m a mental case.

I know if I had the strength, practiced properly the past 6 weeks, no pain in the arms, I would not be in the mental condition I am. I’ll be skiing about 10 am today, 4 am your time. 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, especially the starts (strength/arm pain), which controls everything that follows, with those facts, it’s hard to have confidence.

At 8 am I’m off to the starting dock; I’m the first Skier in Gentlemen A. The last two skiers in the event before me is Keith St. Onge skies (two time World Champion), David Small skies (two time World Champion), great, I get to follow them after a boat crew change. 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, and the event on the lake next to us (they are on the same starting dock) is also on hold for ½ hour. So off goes the gear, then on the gear, then on 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 by 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 it’s not tight, need to let them know to go via the ‘okay’ command, just a second before I yell OKAY, I pray a short prayer, ‘Lord please give me wisdom.’

Okay before I tell you what happened, just a little background about the water; it’s really glassy but for some reason it has rollers that are unpredictable. Both David and Keith tell me that from the starting dock the water is ‘okay’ but as you go down the course it get unpredictable. Then on the return pass the water has rollers at the beginning of the pass. Humm, 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, feel I’m up to correct speed, then tumble to the backward position, plant my foot and wait for the boat to speed up in 2 seconds… not speed, 3 seconds – no speed. What do I do, try to get up or be wise and ‘wait for speed? I wait and ‘nail’ the start, then the trick pass begins one foots, surface hop, back to front, tumbles, side down stand ups, waves and the water was trashy, but I did it. Okay ½ done, now to make the next start, a back-deep-to-one, the second most difficult start in the sport (500 points). Give instructions, give signal to go via “OKAY” boat takes off and again after I plant the boat to take off after 2 seconds, not happening again, so I ‘wait’ and once I have speed I’m up and I have to make a positional back to front turn to get set up for my first trick forward. The water is bouncy I wait, make the turn and I’m over my feet forward with one hand trying not to go out the ‘front door.’ Seem like an eternity, but I pull in the handle, do necks, one foots, teeth, toes, tumbles, and more trash. It was a GREAT run considering the conditions.

I’m happy, I’m not a loser anymore… I advance to the semi finals in tricks which will be tomorrow. I’m ranked about 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 that event with you expectations, what happens is not important – I redeemed myself. I love barefoot water skiing…

Love you guys, thanks for the prayers.

Devastating

Arrived at the site, very stressed, not knowing when I would ski, I think I’m to see soon so rush to get gear, get all worked up to find out a have an hour or so. Adrenalin coursing through my veins and I’m feeling weak, not a good sign. I purchase some water, get to the dock and have time to settle down. After a hour on the dock with the other Division A skiers, I start to relax, and the water is glass. The first five skiers ski great, then the water chops up and gets nasty but then next few skiers do okay. My turn, I call 2400 RPM till I plant, two seconds ‘hail it’. I yell ‘Gear’ then “Okay” then I roll over to start the first Slalom pass backwards. Boat driver must be way over 2400 rpm, but I make the back deep-to-one (always get up backward on one foot). The water is ‘nasty’ and after the 4th crossing I fall, bummer.

When I get to the end of the course via the pickup boat, I’m notified that my water was rough and that I had optional reride. So they wait a few minutes, back to the starting dock and I try to get them to wait cause I feel it’s still too rough, but no avail; I’m to go now. I give the instructions again, 2400 rmp…. Notify them to go via ‘okay’ signal and after I plant, the boat speed was not there. I was committed to the one foot start and was not in position to step out; result I MISSED MY START – Score Zero.

Return pass is into the wind forward, but it really doesn’t matter, I’m not going to semi’s after 5 crossings, one hand slips off the handle and I twist out of position and I’m down. Score – 4.1. Total for both passes 4.1, I’m sure this is the worst slalom score I’ve every received, and at the World Championships. No excuses, it’s called life and some times it doesn’t go as planned. But I’m still embarrassed and bummed out. I want to cry…

I started to feel the adrenaline kicking in

Tuesday August 10, 2010

Just before I woke up, I started to feel the adrenaline kick in to my body. I try to tell myself that my arms are okay, but when ever I test them I can feel a sharp pain. Because I strained both arms, I’ve only skied six times the past six weeks, where it should have been between 20 and 25 times. I’m concerned that I’m losing muscle strength, especially for the backward starts that I do in three of the four starts for each round.

There are three rounds, elimination, semifinals, and finals. All skiers ski the elimination round and basically the top 50% advance to the semifinals, then the top 5 from the semi’s advance to the Finals.

I ski in the ‘Senior’ division, which is for 35+ age group and I’ll be 59 this week; basically I’m much older than the second oldest skier here and the oldest males barefooter to have ever skied a World Championship. There are three events and I qualified to ski in the Trick and Slalom event. To quality to ski a World Championship, you have to achieve a qualifying score in the event that equals or exceeds the 20th ranked skier score. In Tricks I’m ranked about 12th in the World, and for Slalom I’m ranked 10th.

Based on my World Ranking scores, it’s not likely for me to advance to the Finals, but if I perform as I can, I would advance to the Semi’s; but I have to have a ‘stand up run’ – meaning I have to have the ‘ski handle’ at the end of both passes.

Every run is ‘new’ and there are lots of things that can happen to result in a fall. The most critical is to make the start, then be relaxed as the boat speeds up to 40+ mph, not freak out, not rush, stay in the zone, do what you need to do, and in 15 seconds it OVER. Then you get to do this again for the return pass. Years of training lead to the World Championship; where you get two – 15 second passes for the trick and slalom event. Now is not the time to SCREW UP; especially since they have a huge video screen in the middle of Lake 1.

I’m taking a deep breath, holding it, release, and doing it again. My adrenalin level right now as compared to yester day is about 4 out of 10, where yesterday it was 1 out of 10. Need to get dress, get breakfast and find out what time I ski. Since they are video casting the Worlds, you ‘might’ be able to see me. I’ll take my computer to the site and let you know about an hour or two my ski time. Maybe you’ll get to see me! Great more pressure, the family is also watching…

Will I ski tomorrow?

Monday August 9, 2010

Got up at 6 am this morning; got some work done and wrote out my thought and experiences for the past two days. Went downstairs for breakfast, then to the site to just hang; got there about 9 am and stayed till about 10:30 pm. It’s amazing how fast time can fly when you do NOTHING at a barefoot tournament! I miss my ski buddies from Florida…

Today was interesting for a few reasons, the water was smooth (glass) most or the day so the organizers decided to run the Jump event all day to take advantage of the calm water. Jumping is the most dangerous event and the skiers really need smooth water so that they don’t fall before the jump and get killed (a friend of mine died jumping…); I retired from jumping last year at the age of 58, so no worries.

There are two lakes, Slalom and Tricks for Groups D, C and many B events took place on Lake 2. The problem is that the large video screen located on lake 1 where the stands are showed primary the jump event, which was taking place right in front of us. Many parents and family members were upset because they could not see the action on Lake 2, so I visited the ‘video guy’ and explained, he was Germany, I really didn’t get anywhere. As other’s complained to me, I directed them to the ‘video guy’ and that didn’t make a difference; but at the end of the day, much of events on Lake 2 were showed on the large video display on Lake 1.

The most exciting part of the day was the Women Open A jump event, Ashleigh Stebbeings set a new World Record of 20.7M (67.9 ft). I took some great photos of her jump pass, I mean great!

Then after Ashleigh skied, we were done for the day and it was off to the German Bar-B-Q, but of course no Bar-B-Q sauce. We all had a great time and they auction of items as a fun raiser; I kept waiting until he was “Going once, Going twice,” then I would raise my hand and bid. It drove the bidders crazy and the crowd loved it; of course it pushed up the bid price quite a bit. I didn’t buy that much, but did have a lot of fun.

Because of the change of schedule to accommodate the Jump event, all other event orders were shuffled, the bad part is that it’s almost midnight so I have NO CLUE when I ski tomorrow; most likely it will be in the afternoon.

I’m still quite relaxed and confident that I’ll make my starts and ski well, no matter the weather and my that my arms will be fine, we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully pray I don’t get too confident and cocky and that I stay focused.

I uploaded a bunch of photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/103472112604379439617/WorldBarefootChampionships2010Germany#. I don’t know if there is a special login for you to see the photos. Let me know if you can see and your thoughts.

Walking in the Stadium

Saturday August 6, 2010

Today I attended the World Barefoot Council meeting so I knew what to expect in the future of our sport. At 6 pm we had opening ceremonies and it was the best ever as compared to 2006 and 2008 Worlds. At this World Championships, there were 17 countries present, I’ll try to remember as many as I can, South Korea, China, New Zealand, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, USA, Canada, …

Walking in the Stadium with the USA team with our colors is always special, and the stadium was packed with family, friends, and locals. There was entertainment, Brazilian dances, acrobatics, as well as an amazing show of Fire Works. Since we are Germany, it;s October feast all day.

Sunday August 8, 2010

Today skiing started at 1 pm, I checked the schedule and I didn’t ski today, so I slept late, as late as I can with bright light at 5:45 am and windows open… Started working on the 2011 NEC Changes document till about 8 am, then went downstairs for breakfast with some of the USA and Canada team members. Back up to the room for some more 2011 NEC Changes stuff, then off to the site about 11 am.

Just hung out at the site, learned about how the proposed Video Judging program worked and all of the technical details on operation as well as equipment. I’m not sure about Video Judging, the camera angle is high (on the tower), when video review is required, all video is on the hard drive that they are real time recording, it’s hard to find the skier that skied previously to do a video review by the judges when required. Also hardware/software is about $1000. I’m a cutting edge guy so I’m not down on new technology, just don’t know if they are going to get it working at this Worlds for the Finals or Semi’s, well see.

Hanged around like you typically do at a barefoot event, just move from group to group, visit, talk barefoot stuff, get to know new persons and personalities, then move on again. About 5 pm went to dinner with Doug Jordan (great Senior skier from Washington State) and his family, Judy Myers (oldest person to every ski a World Championships – 67, and in a lot of women magazines), and Jim Forester (great looking guy, with a wonderful personality).

Noting exciting happened to day at the tournament, I’m totally relaxed and wonder if I’ll start to freak out as my ski time approaches. My arms are okay, still taking anti- inflammatory pills and muscle rub. I have just been chilling out today.

I won’t be skiing until Tuesday the earliest, the reason is that skiers are all ranked by score and the higher ranking skiers ski later in the week. There are four groups for Senior Men Slalom and I’m in Group A. Another four groups for Senior Men Tricks, and I’m in either Group B or A. Hope to be in Group A (ego).

One Week To Go.

Well in less than a week I'll be arriving in Germany to prepare to ski the 2010 World Barefoot Water-ski Championships. I have mixed feelings, this season it's been up and down. My skiing is continuing to improve but 10 weeks ago I strained a muscle in my right arm, but continued to ski. I had to over compensate by using the left arm more and now they both are strained.

Last weekend was the Southern Regional Barefoot Championships, and as much as I wanted to ski, my Ortho Doc said that I needed to rest it for a few weeks. But the problem is that in two weeks I have to SKI!

So, I feel relaxed that I really did the best I could this season, I have a tendency to do well in competition and feel that I’ll have no excuses if I don’t ski to my potential at this Worlds.

It’s interesting that I’ll turn 59 in Germany and my skiing skills are still improving. The next World Championships will be in North America in 2012 and I’ll be 61. Is it possible for me to still ski at a World Class level after I’m 60? I don’t know, but then again 10 years ago I never dreamed that I’ll qualify and ski a World Championship.

My first World Championship competition (USA) was 2006 and I only qualified to ski one event, Tricks. Then for 2008, I qualified and skied the World Championships in New Zealand and I took advantage of the opportunity to travel ½ of the way around the world and spend a month!

New Zealand was amazing and it changed me; very special. http://holtzy2008worlds.blogspot.com/

Germany, hum, I arrive on Saturday after a overnight flight, I rented a BMW and I have no clue what I’ll do the first seven days before the competition. I’ll just get in my car, and go somewhere and take it all in.

Will not see my wife for three weeks so we will take our motor home out for a few days, just her and I without my Iphone.