Keith St Onge | Speaker, Author, World Champion Barefoot Water Skier

Gliding Soles
Keith St.Onge with Karen Putz

To be honest, my first book signing was nerve racking. I have competed in National and World Championships before, but this was different. I guess it was fear of the unknown. Would one person show up or would there be many? Stepping into a new world of being an author while doing book signings was different than standing on the dock preparing to barefoot water ski. One thing I knew for sure, my intentions were to help others and I was confident my book, Gliding Soles, Lessons from a Life on Water, would do just that.

L-R, Kendra (sister), Lauren (wife), Mother & Father. Thank you for your loving support!

My first signing was at the local bookstore in Berlin, NH hosted by SaVoir Flare. We started at 3 p.m. and nobody showed up. I had several books set up with my Sharpie in hand. A few costumers rolled through the store– not knowing I was doing a book signing and bought a book. Shortly after that, around 3:15 p.m., faces I hadn’t seen in years began coming through the door. I had teachers that followed my career since they had me in school buy the book. It was great catching up with everyone and I thank them for their support.

I was ecstatic by the end of the night. I had only five books left out of many and the bookstore bought them to resell. I walked away with an empty box and a full heart after rekindling relationships with friends and teachers.

My favorite teacher Mrs. Provencher & I.

The next day, I had a book signing between 2-4 p.m. in Gorham, NH at the White Mountain Cafe & Bookstore. I was nervous again, but since the response in Berlin was so positive, my spirit and attitude were kept high. I had a few more teachers visit the store to purchase books. I never realized how many teachers followed my career.

High school teacher Mr. Stever and I.

I was speaking to one of my past teachers, Mr. Stever and he shared a story with me. For one of my projects in his class I had to do an oral presentation. I chose to speak about barefoot water ski jumping. I had to be precise on how I jumped and landed. He then explained that he had been using my presentation as an example for his classes the past seventeen years. I was blown away. He also showed me a pin I left for him after using it for the project.

Enjoying the moment while seeing my book on the shelf!!

Like all authors, I hope my book can climb the ranks and be a part of the Bestsellers list someday. That is no easy task, but for now I have been enjoying the wonderful comments people are sharing with me personally and under the customer reviews on Amazon. If you are reading this and have read my book, I would welcome a review. It would be appreciated by me and others who may be thinking about buying the book.

It would be a dream come true if my book made it to the Best Sellers list one day.

I would like to thank everyone who made my first book signings a success and I sincerely hope you enjoy the book. There are great life lessons we can all use, as we never stop learning.

Passion Will Push You Above and Beyond

January 28, 2013 — Leave a comment

Keith St.Onge as a teenager at Lake Umbagog in New Hampshire

Keith St.Onge as a teenager at Lake Umbagog in Northern New Hampshire

Passion can burn deep down inside. I remember falling while I was training on the water as a teen. I began to cry. I tried to stop myself from crying before the boat came back to pick me up, but they asked why I was crying.

I could not answer. I just knew the passion deep down inside of me was like a ball of fire. I had failed to do the trick and paid the price in a fall, but I would not give up until I mastered it.

“Passion is when you cry from failure and have no idea why, but you will do anything to figure it out and succeed.”

22 years later, Keith St.Onge is keeping the passion alive!

For a long time, passion pushed me above and beyond. It’s 22 years later and I sometimes wonder where that old passion lies? As the years pass by I continue to dig deeper and deeper to keep the passion alive. At times we get complacent with where we’re at. It’s not that I don’t have the passion anymore but everything needs a little rebirth at times. I used to say, “Ron Scarpa has been barefoot water skiing longer than I’ve been alive.” It’s now my turn to hear that from the younger skiers and I sit in disbelief.

I remind myself of my first dreams I had, wanting to be a professional barefoot water skier and owning a barefoot ski school in Florida. All of that can be taken away in a second and someday it will vanish. The old memories and titles will be there forever but being able to physically compete at the highest level will some day be gone. I need to push myself more than ever so I can finish my career off strong. Nobody ever told me it would only get harder as time went on but it does.

The reality of it is, finish strong knowing you put everything into it so, there won’t be any regrets. I’ve learned a few valuable lessons while being around my partner David Small. Don’t sweat the small stuff and live in the moment. Learning and living like this is a much easier way to not have regrets. Regrets are decisions made that you will not be happy with later in life. Living in the moment is just that…the moment…do what makes you happy and understand that they’ll be more great things to come instead of thinking about the things that have passed.

In Life Lessons life lessons, passion

New Keith St.Onge Video Released

January 23, 2013 — Leave a comment

Ben Groen from the World Barefoot Center produced a new video capturing some fun on the water and a bit about me:

In About Keith St. Onge barefoot water skiing, barefooting, keith st. onge video, two-time world barefoot champion

The Launch of Gliding Soles

November 30, 2012 — Leave a comment

“Launching your first book is kind of like giving birth to your first child,” Dave Ramsey said to me after Gliding Soles went to print. After two and a half years of writing this book, it feels good to finally give birth to it!

Here’s what Dave has to say about the book:

“I have been a barefoot water skier since age 16. I never learned the right way to do thing, so I got Keith St. Onge to spend a week with me, my son, and some guys to show us how it’s done and teach us some tricks. As my family and I spent some time with Keith, getting to know him on and off the water, what really impressed me more than anything was this guy’s character, his integrity, and his relentless determination to succeed. I learned a lot from him and you will too. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to win in life.”

Karen Putz and I shared the book with several people to get some early feedback. We were literally blown away by some of the reviews:

Gliding Soles Reviews

The whole process of writing and launching a book was a lot more than we could have imagined when we started this project two and half years ago. We are also launching this with some sadness at the passing of Zig Ziglar, a man whose life lessons have impacted many. We have the honor of having his son, Tom Ziglar, endorse Gliding Soles. For all the struggles we’ve had due to our lack of experience in writing a book, it brings to mind one of Zig’s quotes:

“Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly–until you can learn to do it well.”

This has definitely been a learning process and we’re still learning as we go. If you’ve read Gliding Soles, I would love your feedback either via email at glidingsoles@gmail.com or as a review on Amazon.

Gliding Soles on Amazon

Gliding Soles Digital Copy