By Alex Youngblood & Lexi McCauley

Swivel girls and barefoot girls united on Lake Silver this past weekend to ski in the first ever Super Girl Showdown tournament. This heroic Swivel Ski and Barefoot competition consisted of three different events; Womens Barefoot Tricks, Open Swivel and Barefoot Endurance.

The Women’s Barefoot Tricks event kicked off the Super Girl Showdown at 8 AM, although this was no ordinary Barefoot Tricks event. Exceptions to the rules included the repetition of tricks, and no set time to complete all of the tricks. The girls got very creative with their tricks set up, for example doing 45 one foots in one single pass and doing all 180 surface turns the next pass, racking up some big points.

Competitors included Deanna Dean (FL), Tina McCauley (OH), Emma Vaughn (AUS), Kelly Blank (AUS), Megan Adams (MN), Grace Petzold (WI), and coming in third place Lexi McCauley (OH) with a score of 5300 points, second place Ariana Koehler (WI) with a score of 8300 points, and sweeping the competition Ashleigh Stebbeings (AUS) with a super score of 8450.

The Open Swivel Competition was apart of the Flaunt It Swivel Tour 2019, consisting of some of the best swivel skiers from all around the world. It was an amazing event to watch, and get to connect with other women skiers. Many of the girls in the Swivel Competition had daunting routines, all tied into the Super Hero theme.

Luci Lippelgoos, competing in the open division for the first time, rocked her routine and put up a killer score. All the girls WOWED the audience with their beautiful costumes and savvy moves on and off the water.

Competitors included Lexi Berens (MN), Nevaeh Tessen, Anne Youtsler, Jac Lyman (FL), Caroline Grubs (MN), Luci Lipelgoos (FL), Erin Weston Green (AUS), In third place was Darian LeBlanc (FL) with a score of 14.43, coming in second was Grace Petzold (WI) with a score of 14.90, and coming in first place was Brea Imse (FL) with a super score of 16.96.

Lastly, both the swivel girls and barefoot girls battled in the barefoot endurance event. The endurance competition was based on a double elimination bracket system. Being able to share this event with both disciplines of skiers was amazing. The skiers got to share their passion with each other, and create friendships that will last a lifetime.

It was also very fun to see everyone being able to barefoot waterski without any big pressure, and just to have fun together. In third place, Kelly Blank (AUS), in second place, Lexi McCauley (OH), and taking the first place spot Ashleigh Stebbeings (AUS).

In the evening, many swivel women got together and worked to create a New Pending World Record swivel line of 21 ladies completing a 360 degree move at Lake Silver in Winter Haven, Florida, the Water Ski Capital of the World!

 

Thank you to Ashleigh Stebbeings (World Barefoot Center), Shauna Pasanen (Knotty Girl), Tina McCauley (ABC Eastern Regional Director), and Betsy Gilman (ABC President) for making this dream a reality for the girls who participated.

Also big thanks to Ben Groen, Will Leigh, Andrew Petzold and Cypress Gardens Waterski Team for the equipment and help throughout the day.

And of course… massive thanks to Chief Safety Char Portman for always keeping us safe and having fun!

History was made this weekend by these heroic female skiers at an All Female Action sports event. The skiers show their confidence and passion to bring empowerment to female skiers everywhere. These girls will continue to create a “Super Girl” culture, and continue to make their mark in the waterski world.

Chicks Fest 2019

In the days leading up to the Super Girl Showdown… The World Barefoot Center hosted the 2019 Chicks Fest Clinic, which is a three-day clinic involving only women barefooters. This clinic is an awesome way to bring females of all ages and skill levels together on the water and to have a really great time while doing so.

Barefooting is a male- dominated sport, so it’s  fun event to be able to get women barefooters together to improve their skills and to also encourage other females who have never tried barefooting to come along and give it a go in a relaxed and super encouraging atmosphere.

For this years clinic we decided to mix things up a little and instead of purely focusing on just barefooting, we wanted to be able to both get some awesome barefooting in as well as doing other fun activities both on the water and off the water. Ashleigh Stebbeings and Betsy Gilman worked hard to put Chicks Fest 2019 together and to revamp the whole event.

This year Emma Vaughan, Teri Larson-Jones, Megan Adams, Tina McCauley, Deana Dean, Carol Jackson, Lexi Berens, Alex Youngblood, Kelly Blank, Ashleigh Stebbeings, and Lexi McCauley all took part in Chicks Fest.

We start Wednesday off with a full day of Barefooting which included lots of girls hitting goals on the water and some of them just getting their feet wet for the first time this summer. Even the afternoon rain couldn’t dampen the laughter in the boat. We ended our first day in the hot tub before heading out for a little pamper session of our feet & toenails!

The rain cleared overnight & we kicked Thursday off with long glass water runs on the North Shore of Rochelle! If you have ever been to the ski school you will know and love this run as it’s the barefooters dream on a north wind. After another awesome barefoot session, the ladies spend the afternoon with Winter Haven Watersports learning to flyboard and cruising around the lakes on jetskis. We ended the day with a sunset pontoon cruise on the chain of lakes and dinner at the Twisted Prop on Lake May.

On the last day of the clinic after the barefooting was done for the morning, we spent the afternoon with the swivel chicks in a fun combination of disciplines and getting pictures with the awesome Lynn Novakofski.

The barefoot girls got to learn how to swivel ski and there was a lot of giggles while we tried to straighten our legs and point our toes. It was super fun to see some of the swivel girls also kick off their ski and take a footing run. We ended our three day clinic with lots of laughs on the porch at the World Barefoot Center while the boys of WBC barbequed us up all a feast.

This week was an absolute blast! It was an amazing experience to see all the
girls motivating and cheering each other on.

All the girls are excited to find out what’s in store for the NEXT Chicks Fest Clinic which could be as soon as May at the World Barefoot Center and Summer 2020 in the Midwest… call Ash at the World Barefoot Center for more info!