THE BOILERPLATE:
Feet on Fire is a 32-man, head-to-head barefoot endurance contest with one main rule: no barefoot suits allowed, only a pair of shorts and a vest. The event was founded by watersports industry announcer Danny (Dano the Mano) Amir and pro wakeboarders Parks Bonifay, Daniel Watkins and Erik Ruck. The first Feet on Fire was held in 2005 on Clear Lake in Orlando, Florida. Since then, the barefoot endurance competition has taken place numerous times in Central Florida, Wisconsin and Australia. The event is owned, organized and produced by Touch of the North Events, LLC.
THE FOUNDING:
The year was 2005. On the fateful day, pro wakeboarders Parks Bonifay, Daniel Watkins & Erik Ruck along with watersports industry announcer Danny (Dano the Mano) Amir were sitting in a boat, naturally.
The four grew up doing a variety of towed watersports, and still enjoyed getting out on the water and getting pulled while doing whatever made them happy. Around this time, they happened to be barefoot waterskiing, a lot. So much so that their lake had its own barefoot club – the Clear Lake Barefoot Club (it was pretty epic).
The idea of a throwback barefoot contest was tossed around. And, before they knew it, they had a list of wakeboarders and friends who had pasts in barefooting or just knew how to do it.
The idea was an endurance barefoot contest, with almost no rules. The one main rule: no barefoot suits allowed, only a pair of shorts and a vest. Aside from that one golden rule, the barefoot contest would basically be anything goes. Two guys start behind the boat and have to be barefooting by a certain point, but they didn't care how – deepwater starts, one or two ski step-off starts, wakeboards, wakeskates, wake surfers, kneeboards … anything, they just needed to be barefooting by a certain point.
The four were pretty stoked. They chatted with their buddy Tony Smith, who at the time was editor of Alliance Wake Magazine – he dug the idea and came up with the name: Feet on Fire.
The first Feet on Fire was held in 2005 on Clear Lake in Orlando, Florida at Crazy Kelman’s legendary house. Since then, the barefoot endurance competition has taken place numerous times in Central Florida, Wisconsin and Australia.
"IF YOU CAN'T WIN, CRASH SOMEONE WHO CAN! SOME WISE WORDS FROM RICKY CARMICHAEL THROUGH THE YEARS! WATCH OUT CHIP, I'M COMING IN HOT!!"
PARKS BONIFAY AT THE 2018 FEET ON FIRE SOUTH
"WHAT AN AWESOME EVENT. THIS IS A SHOT OF MYSELF, PETER FLECK, JJ LINK AND LOGAN WALTER DOING A FOUR-MAN, LAST MAN STANDING CIRCLE!"
KEITH ST. ONGE, ONE OF THE BEST ENDURANCE BAREFOOTERS IN THE WORLD, AT 2018 FEET ON FIRE SOUTH
“THESE DAYS IT’S RARE TO SEE ALL OF WAKEBOARDING’S ORIGINAL LEGENDS IN THE SAME PLACE, AT THE SAME TIME – SCOTT BYERLY, PARKS BONIFAY, SHAUN MURRAY, DARIN SHAPIRO, COBE MIKACICH, ZANE SCHWENK AND MORE. HARLEY CLIFFORD EVEN TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO SNAP A PIC WITH HIS HEROES."
KEVIN “KEVCO” MICHAEL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE WATER SPORTS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION (WSIA) AND COMPETITOR AT 2018 FEET ON FIRE SOUTH
