The medal I'm the proudest of is my bronze medal at the Europian Junior Chamionships on the slalom event.
I didn't expect a medal at all because I had cut my foot the day before the semifinals of tricks and slalom. With luck I got into the slalom finals and I messed up in the tricks and fell.
They were skiing the slalom finals the same day and I was a little frightened about that because my foot was killing me. So before I had to ski I borrowed some tape from Christian Antos (Austria) and Gerdy the boat driver from Belgium taped me up. Because I was really pissed off at myself and I wanted to show everybody that I could ski well even with an injury. I didn't think about the pain while I was skiing and I skied really good for myself, and after I was done skiing I didn't even really care any more if I had a medal or not. I was happy and I went back home to get showered and to get ready to go to the Il Rustico (this is a nice and fun little bar on Albarella). When I was done showering I was sitting in the livingroom and drinking something, then my father came in and said he had good news. He said that I had won bronze on the slalom! I was really happy and after hearing this and nothing else could spoil my evening or the rest of the week.

About Myself
I'm Devin Nolen I'm 15 years old. I was born in Singapore and I lived ther until I was eight and a half. I've been waterskiing since I was six years old and I've been barefooting since I was twelve years old. I learned to barefoot from my father, his name is Oene (you can find his site on my link page). Since then I was addicted to the sport, I don't know why, maybe because of the speed or the kick you get out of it. Then we meat Eddie Smit (his site is also on my link page) and he tought alot of tricks and the slalom. I've also train with Evert Aartsen (Dutch Natonal Champion) when he is in Holland, because he lives in Finland. I'm in my last year of school now so I hope that next year I will have the time to go to Finland to train with Evert and learn to jump.

About Barefooting
Barefoot waterskiing is a combination of three events: Slalom, Tricks and Jump.
In the slalom event you have two runs of each 15 second to cross the wake as many times as possible. If you cross the wake on one foot you get a whole point if you cross it on two or if you lift your foot up to late or put it down to early you get a half point.
In the tricks event you also have two times 15 seconds to make as many tricks as possible, for each different trick you get points. You also get points for the way you start out of the water.
In the jump event you get three jumps over a ramp the farthest jump wins.
Barefooting is a high speed sport, you need a speed between 65 and 75 km/h (40-45 mph).