Whew- been pretty busy the last week so it has taken me a bit to post this. Nationals went really well- it was pretty warm in Georgia, but not unbearably so. The first day we threw long distance, which is kind of its own tournament. That was really fun, but LD rangs are crazy- being both heavy and very thin. I ended up not scoring due to difficult winds (and just having learned to throw a long distance boom) but it was great fun. I had some out over 120m that almost made it back through the gate.

The individuals started the next day with trick catch, followed by MTA, fast catch, and endurance. Trick catch the winds were dead calm, and I found out that I don’t have a doubling set for absolute calm. I did ok with 70 pts, considering that I dropped both foot catches (each worth 10.) and a 1 handed behind the back (7 pts). Challenging catches- but I should have been able to make them. I was a bit discouraged with that start (14th place I think), but I was excited about the next event.

The USBA rules for MTA are set up so that the best 3 out of 5 throws add up to an individual competitors score. The event started with winds too strong for composite boomerangs, unless they were really under-powered. I had my first MTA crash, I had thrown a quirl to handle the winds, but they can be a bit finicky to stabilize. As I walked into the 50m circle for my second throw, I felt the wind die. It was like everything paused, and I could feel the heat that shouted, “thermal!” I grabbed my Manu composite boom ran to a good position and yelled to my timers. As soon as I had their eyes on me I threw. The boomerang set up high, and lifted slowly with the rising air. I was worried that it would drift out, so I sprinted down to the 50m line. As it started dropping I moved in, and started to hear other competitors shouting advice. “Don’t milk it!” was the excellent advice from Eric Darnell. So I caught the boom at about chest height for about 70 seconds. What a rush! The longer a boomerang is in the air in competition, the more unnerving the catch is. I was really pleased with my time. My third throw crashed again- the quirl slipped out too high. So I was faced with two throws that I absolutely needed catches for to back up my one good throw. I managed to do it, with two nearly 30 second flights. Harold Stecht gave me a run for my money on his last throw, but most of the other competitors had blown out of the 50m circle when they got big air. This was the first event I won at an individual tournament competing in the advanced division! I got a nice plaque for the 2006 National MTA champion. That was pretty sweet. Also, taking the event moved me into second place overall since most of the people that beat me in trick catch had tough MTA rounds.

The next event was fast catch, and my experience in Japan really paid off for this event. I completed my first round in just over 21 seconds with 5 consitant throws and safe catches. So the next round I pulled off the rubber bands on the same boom and went for it. I ended up doing my first sub 20 round with a time of 19.99. I had bobbled two of the catches and had to reset to throw, but it was still a good time and placed me in fifth for the event.

My endurance round was awful. I had thrown for 2 minutes and had over 20 catches (on pace to win the event) when I had a boomerang slip out a bit high and bounce lightly off the ground. I stopped it so that it didn’t cost much time but when I threw it again it had detuned and instantly crashed into the ground. I scrambled to get it, and went back to throw with the same result. I thought that I had just thrown it incorrectly, but after another throw I tried tuning it with only minor improvement. I finally broke the boom trying to get it to fly correctly and switched to another that I had just in case the wind picked up. I threw the last 30 seconds punching the wind rang out as hard as I could and watching it slowly return. I dove for my last catch and ended the round on the ground- knowing I had blown it with only 33 catches. Guess there’s something to learn every tournament.

I finished up the day tied for 6th place, but was a bit nervous about Accuracy and Aussie Round the next day- two events that have given me alot of trouble. I set personal bests in both- with an 84 in accuracy and a 72 in Aussie. 84 was a three way tie for second, which was really neat. Aussie was kind of rough- my thows were not that precise, but I made up alot of ground jumping in catches for more points. Had a couple rather brutal landings- but it was well worth it. On one of them I landed almost flat on my back from about 4 feet up and later heard that people 100m away felt the ground vibrate! lol.

Ended up finishing the tournament in 6th place- which I was happy with- especially considering my awful endurance round.

The next day we did some demo’s and coaching. We also snuck in some team event practice and the crowd seemed to enjoy that quite a bit. I love 30 meter relay- it has the awesome intensity of head to head competition. Below: Logan Broadbent and I ran head to head in the tie breaker round with perfectly even times.

I’ll get the scoresheet posted when it comes out.