As many barefoot water skiers discuss at tournaments or other events, the sport seems to
have declined considerably in the last several years. While the number of skiers attending
major tournaments such as the nationals and regionals has probably increased, the heady
growth days of the sport are over. The last couple of years of Nationals have not been
shown on television. Competitors have a hard time getting even supportive family members
to attend and watch tournaments.

As exciting and thrilling the act of barefooting is to the skiers, it is paradoxically viewed as
boring and/or difficult to watch by spectators. Many conversations occur between and
among barefoot water skiers about how to make the sport more exciting for, and appealing
to, spectators. Over the years, many rules changes have been made in order to make the
sport more appealing and exciting. Despite the radical changes in points and rules made
last year, these and other prior changes do not seem to have much impact on enhancing
spectator appeal.

Many skiers seem to think that the reason barefooting is not popular or commercially viable,
is the lack of products associated with the sport. Because there are no boards, or skis to
sell, they feel there will never be any money in the sport. Since there is no money for
marketing the sport, the logic goes, it will never be popular. Personally, however, I think that
this is putting the proverbial "cart before the horse." If the sport had spectator appeal, it
would attract spectators. The more spectators there are at tournaments and other events,
the more companies selling products (of any kind) will be interested in getting involved.
Advertisers crave visibility. We cannot expect them to be associated with a sport that you
cannot even persuade your wife and kids to watch.

I think it is time for barefooters to start thinking outside the box and come up with radical
changes to the sport. I would like to propose that we start by identifying and eliminating
barriers to popular spectator appeal. The following is an outline of what I see as major
hurdles to be overcome:

  1. Spectators can't see the competitor for all but a small fraction of the total skiing time.
    The skier is outside the spectator's field of vision for most of his/her pass. When the
    skier is in the spectator's field of vision, he/she is enveloped by spray.
  2. Starts can't be seen by anyone except the judges. So why even bother? All the skiers
    do the same starts anyway. Even with the new points values for starts, very few
    advanced skiers do anything other than a Front Toe-up and a Back Deep. Beginning
    skiers usually do a variation on the Front Deep and the Back Deep. Very few places
    have towers for tower starts. The difference in drivers (practice vs. tournaments)
    accounts for skiers opting to be very conservative at tournaments and not perform
    the more difficult, driver sensitive, and risky start tricks. Bottom line: Starts are not
    very exciting to watch even if spectators could see them (they don't).
  3. No one except the judges can see the entire competition pass for tricks and wake
    slalom. No one can see the judges as they score the runs. No one can hear the
    judges or the skiers in between runs. Judging can be very subjective and "cliquish."
    Sometimes judges are related to the skier or are sponsoring the skier in some way,
    leaving the sport wide open to suspicion of inconsistent or biased judging. Exceptions
    are made for some people, but not for others, etc. I think we have all been there at
    some point.
  4. Spectators (and other skiers) usually don't know who won or how skiers placed until
    the entire tournament is over. Sometimes, skiers have to call the tournament
    organizers several days after the tournament is over. This is getting better with the
    scores posted on the internet, but this is hardly intended to substitute for the real-time
    knowledge of who is in what place and how many points separate the skiers. Rarely,
    scores are posted during the competition, but usually not until long after the event is
    over and the next event started (or completed).
  5. Spectators don't know when the timer for tricks and wake slalom starts and ends,
    making it impossible to hazard a guess as to whether a trick or wake crossing was in
    time or not.
  6. Spectators don't know who is skiing or what they are doing. Rarely, a tournament will
    have an announcer who tells the spectators who is skiing, but since the announcer
    doesn't see the skier any better than the spectators, he/she can't be of much
    assistance in determining what the skier is doing.
  7. Tournaments take at least one day and sometimes several days. Most people have
    an attention span much shorter than that. Most professional sporting events last
    approximately three hours or less. Even that time is broken up by additional
    sideshows (cheerleaders, mascots, etc.) or half-time activities and/or contests.
  8. The time from one skier's pass to another's is usually very long. We have the skier
    within the spectator's field of vision for approximately 5 seconds, followed by
    absolutely no action for 3-5 minutes, while the skier completes the pass, is picked up
    by the pick-up craft, dropped off at the starting point and gets ready for the next pass
    (after a pause for a handle change, etc.). Action is therefore occurring in front of
    spectators for only approximately 4% of the time! One cannot say that a barefoot
    tournament is exactly action packed for the spectators.

All of the above barriers to spectator and commercial appeal are well known to skiers,
officials, and tournament directors. Yet, these are the same problems that have been with
the sport for over 20 years of organized tournament activity at the national and world level.
Sure, changes have been made such as shortening the skier passes from 20 seconds to 15
seconds, new tricks have been invented, point values changed, backwards barefooting
rewarded in wake slalom, etc. However, these are clearly not sufficient. In fact, I would go as
far as to say that these changes are akin to rearranging the chairs on the deck of the
Titanic in the hope that would keep it from sinking. I think it is time for a radical approach to
barefoot water skiing's spectator appeal problems, using techniques borrowed from other
sports with similar issues that have been overcome.

Take snow skiing for instance: Snow skiers are out of the field of vision of spectators for
most of the run; they go by spectators very fast, and it's difficult to tell one skier apart from
another because of helmets, goggles, etc. Yet, snow skiing is an Olympic sport, is regularly
on television all over the world, its top athletes make a good living off prize money and
endorsements, and lots of people turn out in freezing cold weather to watch competitions.

Water ski shows also attract millions of spectators every year who pay significant amounts of
money to Sea World, Marine World and Cypress Gardens to see barefooters perform beach
starts, tumble turns, and barefoot backwards (tricks that most tournament competitors can
perform in their sleep!). Yet we can't get our own families and closest friends to attend a
barefoot tournament to see somersaults, surface turns, toe turns, etc. After they see their
first tournament, they would rather have a root canal than go to another one. What gives!?

Well, for instance, in snow skiing competitions, television monitors are located throughout
the viewing areas so spectators who don't have a skier in their field of vision can monitor
his/her progress. A timer is displayed on the monitors showing the skier's time and the best
time of the event as well as the skier's current and projected place. As soon as the skier
crosses the finish line, everyone knows the skier's time and current placement. A leader
board is immediately updated showing the top skier's times and current place. Not much
time lapses between skiers - sometimes there are more than one skier in the course at one
time (i.e. one starts before another one has completed the pass). Spectators therefore
always have a skier within their field of vision (either directly or on a monitor), know the
current placement and the skiers time, and are constantly viewing skier activity.

During a water ski show all stunts, tricks, and performances occur right in front of the
spectators. At no time are the spectators allowed to take their eyes off the water in front of
them for fear of missing something spectacular or interesting. The announcers build up the
excitement for each stunt, exciting music is played, and the show is kept to an hour or so.
Some of the water ski shows are performed several times a day in front of packed
audiences.

I contend that the only reason barefoot water ski competitions aren't exciting, popular
spectator events is that we appear to have done everything possible to prevent this from
happening. Reread my list of barriers to spectator appeal above. A reasonable person
would just shake their head and wonder if barefoot competitions were designed specifically
to be boring and to literally drive spectators away. In short, during a barefoot tournament,
spectators can't hear or see anything going on, and, in fact, most of the time (96%) there is
absolutely nothing going on with spectator appeal.

Here then, are my recommendations for improving spectator appeal and making the sport
commercially viable:

  1. Ensure the skier is always in the spectator's field of vision from the start to the end of
    the pass.
  2. All events should be shown live on monitors throughout the spectator area.
  3. The judges countdown timer should be displayed in real time on the monitors (along
    with the live video feed of the skier) during the skier's run.
  4. Scoring of all runs should be instant and known within seconds of the end of the run.
    (Yes - this can be done).
  5. No official with a family, financial, or sponsor relationship with a skier should be
    allowed to judge or score any skier in that skier's division. A competitor of the skier
    should not be allowed to judge or score anyone in the division either. Not having
    enough judges or scorers is not an excuse. If we set our minds to it, we could have
    plenty of qualified officials available at tournaments.
  6. Either do away with the start trick or make the point values significantly higher for the
    more risky starts. I would submit that no one is going to try a back deep to one for 500
    points and risk falling on the start and not making a 3,000 point pass. There are
    simply too many variables that can go wrong on a start:  Driver unfamiliar with the
    start, unclear skier instructions to the driver, miscommunication, etc.  Doing away with
    starts points as part of the trick run has the potential added benefit of allowing for
    shorter lakes and compressed times between skiers.
  7. Every skier should have their name announced and displayed on the video monitors
    during their run. This also means that skiers better learn to be at the starting dock
    ready to ski when it is their turn to ski. No more "whoever is at the dock skis next." If
    they are not at the starting dock when they are supposed to ski, they are scratched.
  8. Skier placements should be shown on the monitors and announced periodically
    during the tournament. This should be known in real time (i.e. Immediately after each
    skier completes his/her two passes). This should build excitement and interest, as well
    as place competitive pressure on the remaining skiers.
  9. There is no reason why two to three boats couldn't be on the lake at the same time
    with skiers ready to go, to keep the action moving. At least two skiers could be in (or
    on) the water at the same time. This would keep "dead time" to a minimum. While one
    skier is driven by the pickup craft to the start area on the other side of the lake,
    another skier could begin his/her run at the starting dock. This obviously requires
    close coordination and safety, but it can be done and is being done in other sports.
  10. Awards for placement should be handed out on a podium immediately (or at least
    very soon) after each event is completed. Barefooting is one of very few sports where
    this is not done.
  11. Tournaments should consist of preliminary rounds and finals (perhaps the top five
    skiers in each event, regardless of age or ability). This way, the preliminary rounds
    can be done for a day or two to determine who makes it into the finals. Then the finals
    are what's marketed to the public for spectator viewing and is kept to a reasonable
    length of time (no more than 2-3 hours). Of course, the preliminary rounds would be a
    lot more spectator friendly than previously.

All of the above would require significant training of tournament directors and officials. It
takes significant planning and coordination in order to pull off successfully. In reality, we are
talking about a highly "produced" event, similar to a live television show. In fact, I would go
as far as to recommend that the ABC develop a team of officials to develop this concept of
tournaments, test it at a few sites, and then promote this by training additional teams of
tournament "producers" for every region. This would take considerable investment of time
and money but, in the end, I believe that the return on investment would be tremendous
because of new spectator and commercial interest in the sport.

An alternative, and even more radical step, would be to do the following:

  1. Eliminate wake slalom as an event. Let's face it - it is boring for anybody to watch.
    After you have watched the first few slalom skiers, you have seen them all. Do away
    with it.
  2. Replace the current two 15 second tricks passes with four or five 5 second passes.
    Ties would be broken in run-offs. Use starter balls to ensure that the skiers perform
    their trick run in front of the spectators.
  3. Consider going back to a separate starts event that takes place in front of the
    spectators. Skiers must be up and in skiing position by a certain marker ball or time.
    Alternatively, allow skiers to perform start tricks in lieu of regular tricks for the tricks
    event above.
  4. By all means hype up the jump event - it already has all the elements needed for
    success: Everything is in the spectator field of vision; the skier's score and placement
    is known immediately; it is spectacular; and the action can be kept going continuously,
    particularly with the use of 3 boats.

These are just my thoughts. I am very interested in hearing yours. However, I am afraid that
if we don't do something radical very soon, this sport that we are so passionate about is
destined to remain a fringe sport. If nothing else, I hope I have stimulated some creative
thinking "outside the box" on your part. Let me know your thoughts...

                                                                                                      Thor Thordarson
The Future of Barefoot Water skiing