The AKA is going to the dogs.
Ok, there, I’ve said it. Of course, some context with respect to that brash statement may be in order. You see, upon arriving at the massive Eisenhower Hotel complex, the AKA (and all of us who are here) found that there is also a Rhodesian Ridgeback convention running at the same time. So, we’ve roughly guessed there is about 400 AKA guests, and 800 Rhodesian Ridgebacks. But, it’s been no problem at all, just kind of amusing. Gettysburg itself is a wonderful small town with some very famous history for the United States of America, namely the war fought here and the Gettysburg Address itself.
People began arriving as early as Sunday, however today is typically the main kickoff for the week’s events, so the registration area was certainly kept hopping this morning, and most of the workshops ran in the same general area of the hotel. Some of the workshops this morning included the ever popular “so this is your first convention” workshop plus a roundtable discussion led by Todd Little which looked at the Battle of Gettysburg.
In preparing to come here last week, I’d kept an eye on the local weather condition “and in fact, today was much like last week. Light, variable winds but warm. Due to a tent misplacement for the sound equipment and scoring, that necessitated a very long extension cord run to a distant building, the day got off to a somewhat slow start but, as these issues were all ironed out, finally we were ready to get underway for the days competition events.
It was a busy afternoon for sport kites, with six separate outdoor events scheduled, followed by the indoor in the evening. For the most part, events ran very smoothly throughout the afternoon despite often very low and occasionally shifting winds all day long. I was judging Masters Pairs Precision and much of our time was spent moving so that the pairs themselves could be in the center of the window. Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication somewhere along the line, the Novice class thought that they were not to call upon wind rules for their event, thus it was decided late in the day that they’d rerun this event on Thursday afternoon. But, past that, everything else ran without incident or real delays. Below you can find the results for the day’s events.
With the day running a little long due to delays at the start (through no fault of the AKA organizers!) and some large classes and wind delays, many people found that dinner was something to be either rushed through or skipped until after the indoor event.
And as has become a Tuesday tradition, the indoor comps were run just across the road from the Eisenhower. With a full slate of 13 flyers, all kinds of kites were showcased from single lines, to dual and onto the quads. It was a nice large space but, the odd AstroTurf surface proved interesting to deal with! Below are the results from the indoor comps.
Well that’s one day down with 5 more to go! Tomorrow is all chock full of workshops and competitions so be sure to check back on our updates to find out what happened! The weather forecast looks to be much of the same, so, a lovely warm day with some light winds should provide a fun challenge for everyone involved.
Off to sleep for me!
David Hathaway
