First of all, a big thank you to Chuck Lund for representing us to the WSIKF organizers during the year. Among other things, he was able to greatly improve our listings, descriptive pieces, and contact information in the festival program. On to the events:
Senior Skills (Wed AM)
1. Iqbal Husain (the Festival’s 2009 featured flyer.)
The events included 1) Line touch on a rope suspended from two poles (bottom point, fly out, top point, fly off, bottom point, fly out) 2) Pasting a 4×4 target 3) Knocking cups off poles. Iqbal knocked cups off the poles like he has been doing it all his life!
BukaBukaBash (Wed PM) –
1. Steve Bateman
2. Steve Childers
3. Felix Durairaj
The event, a full round robin of 3-point matches, was flown in blazing sunshine and 0 to 0.5 mph winds.
MadMaryMarathon (All day Thurs)
1. Scott Bogue
2. (Second place prize money split 13 ways) Felix, Sharon, Matthew, Steve B., Gary, Steve C., Andy, Brian, Gopal, Johnny, Basir, Terry, Lisa
This event was flown under gray skies with nice 7-10 S wind that blew reliably all day. Following the tradition established by Denis Crowley in previous years, all matches were “first to 7, must win by 2”. In the matches I flew, the loser of the last point called whether the next point would be Top or Bottom, and the winner started the point. I think most matches were flown that way.
Fighter Kite Showcase (Thurs at 1)
Steve Bateman demonstrated his ability to knock cups off poles, and then flew a few demo line touch points against Felix. The Sheep and Wolf demo featured Basir, Johnny, and Gopal cutting the rest of us out the sky, one after another. Something like 30 kites fell victim to their vicious attacks, delighting the spectators who grabbed them on the way down.
Comprehensive Handcrafted Competition, Fighter Kite Category (Thurs PM) –
Kahuna:
1. Terry McPherson
Masters:
1. Scott Bogue
2. Steve Childers.
Journeyman:
Felix, Rich, Gopal and his daughter (not sure how they finished)
2009 Fighter Kite Line TouchWorld Cup (All day Friday)
1. Steve Bateman
2. Felix Durairaj
3. Johnny Hsiung
The flyer’s meeting was a bit misty. But, things were dry by 10 or so when we got started. After a bit of indecision, the wind settled in at about 5-8 S to SW, under blue skies. 65 deg F. ***PERFECT***. We completed a full round robin (3 point matches) of all flyers on one field. In the morning, we completed 22 matches (on one field) in about 90 minutes, for an average of 1.4 minutes/point (very close to “Terry’s Law” of 1.5 minutes/point). The afternoon went a bit slower, partly because the wind was slowly backing from SSW to SW to almost W by the finals). After lunch we completed 33 matches in 180 minutes, averaging 1.8 minutes/point. Overall, we averaged 1.6 minutes/point.
Surprisingly, we had 2 “foot fault” calls, but not a single “breach” of the divider while waiting for the FairStart to sound. The FairStarts gave us some trouble this year. One of the buttons broke off and caused the “bottom” to sound continuously. The batteries got knocked loose from the holder several times. Finally, both flyers and the judge had occasional trouble distinguishing the top tone (which was sounding “warbly” on the FairStart with two speakers) from the bottom beep. Terry solved the problem by holding the Fairstart so that one of the speakers was covered by his hand
The point totals for the Qualifying Round were (30 points possible):
Steve Bateman 25
Felix Durairaj 24
Johnny Hsiung 24
Andy Selzer 18
Scott Bogue 16
Steve Childers 14
Gopal Das 11
Sharon Champie 10
Lisa Willoughby 10
Gary Goodenough 9
Matthew Spencer 4
The final round was a 3 pt round robin for the top five point getters. The point totals were (12 points possible):
Steve Bateman 8
Felix Durairaj 7
Johnny Hsiung 5
Andy Selzer 5
Scott Bogue 5
In a 1-pt flyoff, Johnny scored on both Andy and Scott to snag third place. Andy and Scott agreed to share 4th place. The whole thing lasted about 50 minutes (4:55 to 5:45, I think), and ended with a light mist returning to the flying fields.
Terry served as official starter, Nancy kept score, and Carl Koehlein was the field manager.
At the end of the day we gathered at the Spencer’s for the traditional Friday evening barbecue (salmon, chicken, steamer clams, and much more…)
2009 Bamboo Challenge Results (Sat AM)
Line Touch:
1. Scott Bogue
2. Felix Durairaj
3. Andy Selzer
Best Kite Award:
Steve Childers
Felix and Andy were tied after the round robin, with Felix winning the 5 point flyoff to settle 2nd and 3rd place.
Also flying in the event: Brian Johnsen, Terry McPherson, Gary Goodenough.
The skies were blue all day long; winds 8-11 NNW. The line-touch event was a full round robin of 3 pt matches. Matthew Spencer did preliminary judging of the kites, with Scott and Gary making a final determination on the Best Kite award.
Thanks to event director Gary Goodenough for running a great event!
Scott Bogue (aka “hooky”)