Re: Freestyle Competition

Subject Re: Freestyle Competition
From Nick Boucart <nick.boucart@lms.be>
Date Wed, 17 Jun 1998 08:58:37 +0200
Newsgroups rec.kites 
Nick Boucart wrote:
> Can't agree more.  I liked the format very much.  It was intense, i
> think for both the fliers and the audience.
Andy Wardley (abw) wrote:
> And Nick is just too modest to admit that he won.....  :-)=

I am indeed a rather modest person ;) 

abw
> The format was simple:

<big format snip>

The format is indeed simple, yet effective. Since it is freestyling, or evem mainly trick your hard out, there is no need for a complex, up to the smallest detail kind of format. That would only spoil the fun I guess. An event like this is all about having fun, rather than having a strict competition, at least for me that is... 

abw
> There were 2 major highlights for me.  The first was watching Andy
>   Preston fly a Stranger Level 7 in his first round match.  Awesome!
>   Absolutely awesome!  This is the guy who inspired me so much all
>   those years ago and Sunday made me remember why.  Unfortunately the
>   wind wasn't so kind in his later rounds and he just got pipped out
>   in the semi-final by Nick's fellow countryman, Sebastian (surname
>   unknown, my apologies).
> 
>   The second highlight for me was flying against Nick in the second
>   round.  I started with some good flying but had a bit of a tumble
>   early on.  That was all the chance Nick needed - he put in a
>   blinder.  Not to be defeated I responded with some pretty hot stuff.
>   Not good enough, though, because Nick came back even stronger.  So I
>   got better...  So Nick got better....  After 3 minutes it felt like
>   Nick and I had flown our hearts and souls out and I wasn't ashamed
>   in the slightest to come second in that particular heat.  :-)=
>   Massive grinage!

It was indeed a very intense 3 times 30 secs. I think i did my best flying there ever. It will definitly be hard to do that again, but I enjoyed it very much. 

abw
> Round 1:
> 
>     Alistair Hammond   beat   Chaz (?)
>     Nick Boucart       beat   Hans von Lengerke
>     Sebastian (?)      beat   Carl Robertshaw
>     Andy Wardley       beat   Sean Turpin
>     Andy Phelps        beat   Jan (?)
>     James Robertshaw   beat   Chris Matheson
>     Andy Preston       beat   Sam Eaton

Just for the record, I can give you the full names of the Belgian competitors: 

Chaz = Karel Overlaet
Jan = Jan Holevoet (I hope this is spelled right)
Sebastian = Sebastian (Bas) Hougardy
abw
> Well done to Nick and all the other competitors, judges and organisers
> that made it possible.  I found it a lot of fun as a competitor, judge
> and organiser and the response from other people has been encouraging.

Thanks to all who was involved in this: Andy W for the format, the judging and the organization, and to all the other competitors: without them it would have been a dull thing ;) 

abw
> I think the great thing about this format is that you can do it strictly
> for fun, like we did at Hackney, or you could actually take it a little
> more seriously and run it as a proper competition.  It's quick, can be
> run in phases over a day or weekend, it requires no formal scoring or
> calculations (although an independant judging panel would be necessary
> for a "proper" competition),  it's very accessible to fliers - there's
> no need to practice for weeks before, just turn up and fly, and it's also
> accessible to spectators - no complex scoring or rules and the results
> are instant.

What i especcially like about it is that you have 3 chances (3 x 30 secs), so if you mess up, you still can take revenge in the next 30 secs. This encourages the fliers to do their hardest tricks. During the indoor comps this winter, we had to do a freestyle routine (or ballet, you were free to chose). It was minimum 1.5 min, max 2 minutes. But, big difference, if you had a wingwrap or such, your time kept on ticking. So, most flyers showed greater stuff during practise than during competition itself. Especially for the freestyle part, that was rather disappointing... 

abw
> Now doesn't this sound like exactly the kind of competition that major
> companies would be interested in sponsoring?  A few k in prize money
> would be all we require to run the "1998  Freestyle
> Kite Competition"....

Maybe, but I think we are than heading to a more formal kind of competition, with a lot of stress, maybe envy and things. But maybe you are right. This may indeed be the ultimate format for getting sponsors, because it is fast, young and attractive for non-kiters too. Well, sponsored or not, I think I will try to join next time, just to get a good time :-) 

abw
> It's a nice thought, isn't it?
> 
> Here's to the next one.
> 
> A

Nick Boucart.