Even at 36, Mikey Caruso has a love for the water.
The Delray Beach resident won nationals in the jump competition of the Men’s Open Pro Division during the summer and punched his ticket to the 2023 IWWF World Barefoot Water Ski Championships, Feb. 14-19, 2023, at the Max Kirwan Ski Parks in Mulwala, New South Wales, Australia.
“I won nationals in August,” he said. “It went really well. I only needed one jump to win the competition. I did two jumps and beat the guy’s eight jumps, and that was pretty amazing.”
Caruso jumped 24.6 meters. He went on to take third in slalom and fifth in tricks to finish second overall in the 44th Barefoot Water Ski National Championships Aug. 4-6 at Stevenson’s Ski Ranch in Conroe, Texas. They take the top 3 scores from all the divisions, jump, slalom and tricks in the nation and take them to the world championships.
Caruso, who trains at least three times a week, won the jump at nationals (75 feet), was third in the slalom (946.75) and sixth in the Men’s tricks (371.98) on just one run. He beat 22-year-old Broderick Meskers in the jump.
“They put me on the Elite team that will compete in Australia,” said Caruso, who also competed in the 2018 World Championships in Canada. “It is really neat to be competing with all of the young kids. I think six of the contestants are under the age of 22. There is one older guy who is like 62 and then there is me to kind of round up all of the kids, keep them in line and focused to win the World Championships.
“I only took one jump in the first round because I knew nobody could come close to it,” he said. “My previous best jump is 25 meters. I am competing at the highest level in the sport.”
Caruso has gained so much confidence since the 2018 World Championships where he finished 15th overall, including 15th in slalom, 17th in tricks and 16th in jump. He helped the U.S. finish runner-up that year. He has also credited his coach Mike Frankenbush for his recent progress in the sport.
“I am just blowing it out of the water,” Caruso said. “I have added like 15 feet give or take in my jumps. I have been training a lot and progressing every day I go out in the water.
“I am hoping to place and get a medal in jumps at the World Championships,” he said. “I am one of the top jumpers in the World, top 10 right now. It is also huge for me to be a leader for the team and keep all these youngsters in line. I am also excited to go to Australia. I have already been there once for World Championships (2003).”
Caruso was one of eight selected to the 2023 U.S. Elite Barefoot Water Ski Team that will compete in the 2023 IWWF World Barefoot Water Ski Championships. He will be joined by Carter Boerman (Paddock Lake, Wisconsin), Mike Caruso (Delray Beach), Orval Cyr (Chisago City, Minnesota), Faith Dix (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin), Jerry Kanawyer (Byron, California), Noah Kinnaman (Lake St. Louis, Missouri), Broderick Meskers (Chetek, Wisconsin) and Brett Swanbom (Land O’ Lakes). West Palm Beach’s Dale Stevens will serve as the coach of the Elite team.
This event will be the first in-person Barefoot World Championships since 2018 when the Barefoot Worlds were staged in Napanee, Ontario, Canada. The U.S. Junior Barefoot Water Ski Team won the overall team gold medal, and the U.S. Elite Barefoot Water Ski Team earned the overall team silver medal.
The former junior world champion in barefoot water skiing saw his life turn upside down as he went from traveling around the world competing on the biggest stages in the sport to being homeless and backpacking through Mexico and California. Caruso called that dark time the “biggest struggle” of his life. He was homeless from 2011 through 2016 before his sister and father took him and helped change his life around. He didn’t ski from 2003 to 2016.
“I was in Sports Illustrated for Kids and on the cover of Sports Illustrated Extreme one minute and homeless the next. I couldn’t even believe it myself,” Caruso said. “I just … did my best to stay alive.
“Back then, I was skiing every day and dreaming of becoming a world champion in the professional division,” Caruso said. “When I was 16, I was a junior world champion and that was huge. I am hoping in the next few years to come that I will win an overall World Championship. This is a good start.”
