The second tournament of the Southern Season, the 2022 Summer Splash, went off like a cannon ball on the world record-breaking waters of Lake Grew in Polk City Florida on May 21st.
Eighteen barefooters from around the south and the world gathered to shatter their personal best scores and four fierce women competed in their very first barefoot tournament ever!
Tournament Organizer and Southern Regional Director Ben Groen says he wanted to bring this tournament back for the first time since 2018 because of the more barefoot tournaments, the better.
“We need everyone, and especially the kids, to get excited again after the world shutting down for two years,” says Ben. “We had so many women in town for the Barefoot Chicks Fest and so many people that had traveled from all over the country… it was perfect timing,”
Carter Boerman took advantage of the timing to make a statement on the barefoot ramp. The 15-year-old boosted a 15.9-meter picture-perfect inverted jump to launch into the Open Men’s division. He also scored 5000 in tricks to make his way into Open Pro! Wait, whaaaat? To top it all off he scored a 14 in wake slalom to cut into Open Men’s and create a trifecta of personal bests in this breakthrough tournament! This kid is on fire!
Carter also had a surprise cheering section show up at Lake Grew when Mom and Dad Boerman arrived unannounced! A great day to watch their son tear it up!
Let’s hear it for the Women!
Women outnumbered men in this tournament… which means everything ran smoothly. Even the Chief Officials, other than Ben were women!
The new women on the dock were Ariel Bailey, Natalie Dimeo, Valerie Murray and KJ Meyer who all experienced tournament skiing for the very first time. Valerie had just learned her longline start a couple days beforehand!
In Women’s B Tricks Natalie “Turbo” Dimeo took first place scoring 230 points followed KJ Meyer with 170 points, Ariel Bailey with 140 points and Valerie Murray with 60 points! In slalom, Natalie came out on top again with 2.3, Ariel finished second with a 1.88 and KJ came in third.
In the Girls B Division, Victoria Bostock put her dad on notice that he is not going to be the best barefooter in the house for long… nailing her starts at both ends!
In Senior Women, Perennial Champion Carol Jackson scored 770 in tricks and 2.4 in Wake Slalom.
Faith Dix tore up the Open Women’s division with two personal bests of 2030 points in tricks and 11.5 in slalom. She just gets better and better! While Aussies Kelly Blank and Ash Stebbeings let the world know they are on their way home for the 2023 World Championships in February. Kelly scored 2500 in tricks, 11.0 in slalom, and 8.6 meters in jump. Ash killed it in wake slalom with a 17.4, and then she had work to do as Chief Judge. And keeping Ben and Betsy on task.
What about the Men?
In Men’s C, Cody Heikela is the newest member of the Southern Region and was given a So Region, So Cool sun shirt to help him survive his first Florida summer. Cody scored 520 in tricks and 2.18 in slalom.
In Men’s A, Tony Craugh scored a beautiful toe-up and 1400 points and a 4.4 in slalom.
In Open Pro Men’s, Brett Swanbom won tricks with a 6950, but Brett and Mikey Caruso tied with a 14 in slalom. Mikey won jump with a 20.9 meter leap.
In Senior Men, Matt Ellis won tricks with 560 points and scored a 4.7 in slalom. In Master Men, Peter Bostock won tricks with 400 points and Jess Caserta won slalom with a 7.55. Peter finished second in slalom with 5.05.
Massive thanks to Char Portman for being Chief Safety, Ben Groen for being Tourney Director, Chief Driver and Chief Homologator, and Ash Stebbeings for being Chief Judge. Special thanks to Tony Craugh, Deanna Dean, Mikey Caruso, Sandy Boerman, Duane Godfrey, and Kelly Blank for judging and scoring. Kudos to Trey Edwards, Brett Swanbom, and Carter Boerman for videoing in the boat! And of course to Faith Dix for picking up the Pizzas! And a very special thanks to the WBC boys for setting up in the rain on Friday and adjusting the TV.
See you all at Southern Regionals on June 25-26 at Lake Grew! Login to EMS To Sign up HERE.
American Barefoot Club 