On Saturday, July 15th, 10 barefoot waterskiiers from Washington, California, Oregon, and Montana competed in the 2017 Western Barefoot Regional Championships at Lake Silverado. Several competitors will go on to compete in the 2017 National Barefoot Waterski Competition in Polk City, Florida, in August. Five additional barefooters joined the fun by watching the competition and getting some water time as well.
The event, hosted by Doug and Diane Jordan, began Friday night with a few practice runs and fun runs. Joe Lovato completed what is believed to be the first ever successful execution of a flying line-step start, also known affectionately as the “flying froggy” start. Lynae Newby filmed the occasion from above via drone. After this excitement, the skiers and friends headed out to dinner for the evening.
Saturday morning began with a skiers meeting where everyone pitched in to cover tournament roles. Tim Bailey and Jay Leuck were the primary boat drivers, with Brian Heeney and Joe Lovato judging most of the events. Josh Jordan and Adin Daneker sat in the boat to video the competition, and Jerry Kanawyer worked with Claudia Landon to score both tricks and slalom.
2017 marks the implementation of alternate skill-based age divisions, with Claudia Landon and Mike Brisco being the first to take overall in Senior Women’s and Senior Men’s, respectively.
Lynae Newby took the title in Women’s A, and Andrew Martin took first in Men’s A.
Jay Leuck of Men’s B took overall in his division, featuring a back-to-back slalom and trick performance in the second round due to driving a large portion of the second round skiers. 
Open Pro overall was taken by Willie Farrell, although there was fierce competition amongst the Open skiers in all three events. Doug Jordan took first in Open Men’s slalom with 15.0, as well as jumping an amazing 15.2 meters in the second round. It was Joe Lovato who took first in tricks with 3,030 points. However, it was Jerry Kanawyer with the upset in overall due to his first-round trick score of 3,850.
Sunday morning held promise of more time out on the water, with very few other sites that compare to the ideal water conditions of Lake Silverado.
For all scores, go to:
http://heeney.net/RealTimeResults/2017_US_Western_Regionals/Index.html
Massive thanks go out to Western Regionals sponsors:
Banana George Blair Flag Pavilion (above)
Masterline Ropes (Supplied us with 6 very well made ropes!!!)
Sanger boats (Stocked the boat house with 5 awesome Sanger boats!!!)
The Jordan Family and Partners of Lake Silverado
Submitted by Andrew Martin, the Legend of the West and Midwest
American Barefoot Club 
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