More exclusive but no less challenging are tournaments run by the American Barefoot Club, the barefooting division of USA Water Ski, where skiers compete in barefoot versions of traditional water skiing's three main events: wake slalom, tricks and jumps.
Complete with barefoot women stomping grapes, this version was not a substitute for the 1841 original, but the staging worked on its own outlandish terms.
As England's younger, sexier version of the Barefoot Contessa, she's a spherical series of soft curves, murmuring an endless litany of "mmms" to camera as she sips and dips around the kitchen.
The Last Night of the Proms has a similar spirit to 1066 and All That – something is being gently mocked: not real British history, with all its achievement, conquest and villainy, but a Victorian music hall version that includes barefoot seamen, plump contraltos, and no mention of slaves other than those that Britons shall never, never, never be.
The pair split for their own segments midway through, Smith being joined by her long-serving guitarist Tony Shanahan for raw acoustic versions of "Dancing Barefoot" and "Pissing in a River", and a hymnal take on John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)", interspersed with special location-specific readings from her favourite poet Robert Louis Stevenson.
In the first version he is a barefoot ancient, ragged and forlorn, wandering the cliffs with barely a toga to call his own.
I've used veggie cutters to produce hearts and stars on spinach salad and made miniature versions of everything from the Barefoot Contessa's meatloaf to mashed potatoes from 101 Cookbooks.
We chatted with the evening's host, Ina Garten, known as the Barefoot Contessa, who told us the well-known story of her version of a dish called "engagement chicken".
This is a paraphrased version of a conversation I had with one (particularly extreme) barefoot runner: "I've managed to teach myself to run in Vibrams.
That our version of the game is missing the romance, the folklore, the streets filled with barefoot 5 year olds.
