Prop's barefoot success (From Surrey Comet)

Prop's barefoot success

8:01am Friday 5th September 2008 in

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Former England World cup winning hooker Steve Thompson may have famously been a British U18 roller-skating champion as a kid.

And international scrum-half Matt Dawson might have got to the final of the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing show last year.

But one rugby player has proved he too can be fairly light on his feet - at more than 40 mph.

Weybridge Vandals prop Luke Goggin has been barefoot waterskiing for the best part of 30 years and was last month part of the British team crowned European champions.

The 32-year-old, who switched club's in the summer from Hammersmith & Fulham RFC, was named in Team GB in a sport that clearly runs in the family.

Dad Alan is one of the founding fathers of the sport in the UK - once captaining the British team and now sitting on the sport's national governing body - while brother Ben is a former individual European Champion.

Goggin, at 16 stone and 6ft 2in, admits he is not your archetypal 11 stone skier performing high-speed tricks in the wake of a speed boat.

And as a result, it is no surprise he is one of a rare breed.

"I'm a long way from the 5ft, 11 stone skiers out there but having grown up around the sport, I've always been into it," he said.

"To go bare foot you have to be travelling quite fast, because there is only a small area in contact with the water.

"My size means I have to be going between 40 and 50mph depending on the tricks I'm doing, while everyone else is going that bit slower.

"I like to think it makes it that much harder. It is fair to say there aren't many water-skiing props around."

Walton-on-Thames-based Goggin finished 14th in a 54-man field, but the efforts of fellow Spelthorne Barefoot Water-Ski Club members Emily and Daniel Goldie - who both claimed individual titles - saw them to the team crown.

The Weybridge-based pair are tipped for success at February's World Championships in New Zealand and are under the careful tutelage of two-time world champion David Small.

They maybe heading on to big things on the water, but Goggin - who practises three times a week on top of his rugby commitments - is proud to be carrying on his family tradition while keeping on the ball at Vandals.

"I moved to Walton from travelling to the lake in Laleham from Clapham was a killer and it seemed the natural thing to do to move club," he added.

"It was great for me to be a part of the success in Tamworth. Winning medals for your country is something my brother and dad have achieved and I was well chuffed to be able to do the same."