By Christina Nadalin
For the first time in American barefooting history, the Eastern and Southern Regionals were hosted in one epic showdown.
From August 5-7, skiers from both regions made their way down to Auburndale, Florida, to ski on the Southern Region’s new lake. There’s been a few name ideas for this new lake from “champions lake” to “lake new,” but I’d like to suggest the name “Lake PB” because at this tournament – the PBs were FLOWING.
Noah Kinnaman took home THREE new Personal Bests at the tournament! He scored 11,850 in tricks, putting him in 1st place worldwide in that discipline. He landed his first inverted jump in the tournament, which got him a new PB of 16 meters. And just to top it off, he got a slalom PB of 16.8, which won him second place overall in the open pro division at only 15 years old!
See all the scores HERE!
Brody Meskers finished first overall in the open pro division and has a new pending U23 trick world record of 9250 in tricks.
Brett Swanbom slalomed his way to a new PB of 18 and got a PB in jump of 23 meters.
Todd Fipps and Trey Edwards in the Men’s A division slalomed up a storm, both gaining new PB’s of 11.2 and 11.1 respectively.
Michael Yoder also nailed his first inverted jump in this division, receiving a new PB of 16.9 meters, and he also got crowned overall champion of the Men’s A East vs. South showdown.
Christina Nadalin from our International Women’s division walked away with a new PB in tricks of 840 and a new PB in slalom of 4.1. Swampy now calls her “PB Nadine Natalene.” Her fellow Canadian teammate Duane Godfrey skied a pending age-based world record of 12.6 in slalom in the International Men’s division.
Kelly Fill-in-the-Blank killed it in tricks, nailing her turns and getting her toe turn in time to score 3100 points. Betsy Gilman from the Women’s A division has a pending age-based slalom world record of 7.6
From the East, Glenn Kinnear got a new slalom PB of 5.5 in the Senior Men’s division.
Derek Krehling jumped his way to a new PB of 9.5 meters, and Mike Jenkins tricked a new PB of 480!
In the Junior boy’s division, newcomer Logan Harrington gained a PB of 2.6 in slalom and 750 in tricks with an impressive first tournament. Grant Lieb got a slalom PB of 3.13 and a trick PB of 490. And newcomer Thomas Franz got a PB of 80 points in trick.
Our largest division that was most viewed on our livestream, and at the lake was our boom division. It was spectacular to see these young athletes compete in their first tournament.
Congratulations to Max Dubs, Meika St.Onge, Zyla St.Onge, Kix St.Onge, Sayge Lieb, Marina Lieb, and Finn Franz – we can’t wait to see where the sport of barefoot waterskiing takes you all!
A huge thank you goes out to Chief Judge Ashleigh Stebbeings-Groen, Homologator Ben Groen, Chief Videographer Kelly Blank, Chief Safety Ache Fry, Chief Driver Ronnie Meeks, and Chief Scorer Betsy Gilman for allowing the tournament to run as smoothly as possible.
Thank you to John and Ginette Garrity for providing us with a stellar live stream for the event so all our fans at home could watch. Thanks, Brice Storman, for supplying the pick-up Jetski. And to all our event judges, drivers, and videographers who rotated in and out of the boat throughout the tournament.
Massive thanks to Polk County Sports Marketing and the City of Auburndale for providing Portalets and use of the lake. Thanks also to Margaritaville for hosting our Saturday night banquet
We can’t wait to see how our Southern & Eastern athletes do at the US Nationals in Helena, Montana, August 25-27! Look out!
American Barefoot Club 