Individuals Day 2 July 21, 2006

Sorry for the delay on this post, I didn’t have computer access for the rest of my time in Japan. I will be updating the last three posts with pictures and more details as soon as I get some time.

The morning of the second day of individual competition started with trick catch. It was kind of tricky wind- it was just blowing hard enough to make doubling difficult. In the singles round I had one drop- my hackey bounced off my foot at a bad angle. I had my wind doublers working well, but missed a couple key catches and ended up with a 75. That kicked me up to 6th place overall. It was a pretty intense round, and I tied my personal best from the team trials.

Accuracy was looking windy during warmups, but it died when the competition started. I did okay with a 67, but missed some opportunities on silly mistakes (i threw a couple with too much layover, and they blew out to the 4pt circle.) I think that was, again, a personal best, however, since it was calm I placed 46th, which dropped me to 18th place. Ouch!

Endurance practice was really windy- which was looking great for me. But the real rounds had perfect winds for almost all the competitors, and there were some big scores. Frido clinched the world champion title with 71 catches. I got 57, with 3 that blew by over my head, and one drop. I love that event- but it didn’t seem at all grueling this time around. I was frusterated by the 3 bad throws, although 5 minutes is a long time not to make a mistake. That put me in 26th place for the event (the same as I had placed in fast catch) which brought me up to 16th overall. Not a bad way to finish my first world championship! I was pretty pumped, and at the same time, I got alot of motivation for 2008 in Seattle.

The awards ceremony was neat- I brought home some hardware. I’ll have to post pics of it on here.

I had photos of my whole trip available online at www.flickr.com

Check em out! 🙂

Individuals Day 1 July 14, 2006

Well, the first day of individual competition is done. It was great to finally get to throw! It was really calm and cloudy this morning- almost perfect conditions for fast catch. I tuned up one of my rangs for a safe but decently fast flight, and waited for the event to start. After about 10 throwers, I was up. I had some trouble in the 1 minute warm up, the rang really wanted to fly high above my head. So it took me a bit to get it tuned. I got set for the first throw, and when I released it slipped! It bounced off the ground, but I was able to knock it down before it flew by. So then I relaxed and zipped the next five in for a 31 second round. I was pretty disappointed, but I set up the next round to use the same boom. Normally, a thrower hopes to get a safe time, and then really go for it. Next round, I did my warm up, felt decent, and really tried to focus on my first throw. I nailed it, and cruised through the round, though I had a slight bobble that cost me half a second, and I caught the 5th throw in the air and had to land before the time stopped. I ended up with a 22.18, which was about 26th place. Not too bad to be in the top 1/4.

Next event was MTA. They gave us five throws, and I assumed the score would be the best 3 out of 5. It ended up just being the best throw, so I certainly didn`t use the best strategy, but it worked out alright. 🙂 My first throw I released a quirl higher than I wanted, but it barely managed to stabalize, and stayed in for a 40 second catch. I floated out out of the circle, crashed my palm, and got another 30 plus score before I found out that it was simply the best time of the 5. Anyway, I ended up taking 3rd. 🙂 What fun! Two Japanese throwers beat me- Haruki and Nobu.

It was an incredibly challenging day for aussie round, with really random wind. It was also really warm. 🙂 I caught my first throw outside the bullseye for 10 pts, kamikazed my second into the 2 pt accuracy, caught my next in the 5, but only got 40 meters on range, kamikazed another into the 6, and slid to catch another outside the 10. I ended up with 61 points, which is not a great score, but it put me at 14th, which was better than my fast catch round! Alot of the field really got crushed by this event.

I was in 11th place overall after the first two events, and now I`m in 7th. 🙂 It would be incredible to hold a place in the top 10 through the 3 events tomorrow, which are trick catch, accuracy, and endurance.

2nd July 13, 2006

The first day at the field was a public day where we did demos and taught the locals how to throw. Got in some good practice with the team as well. We met as a team that night, and Gregg tried to convince the team to replace him with me. It lasted a while- but I didn’t feel it was my place to say much. It was cool of Gregg, but it didn’t really go anywhere with the team.

The first day started off well, but we had some critical mistakes (a supercatch mta drop)- which really hits hard with the points system used for the competion. The B-motions team finished in first in every event except Aussie round, which we took. The points at the end of the day were:

1. B Motions (Germany) 69 points
2. Fujins (USA) 57.5 points
3. Swiss Team (Switzerland) 57 points
4. Zidanes Angels (France) 53.5 points
5. Samurai (Japan) 47.5 points
The second day did not go well. The first event of the day, Trick Catch, killed us. Gregg and Stevie both had tough rounds, and Daniel and Go Go weren’t at the top of their game either. We struggled through the rest of the day and dropped to third place. The second US team was also having some trouble. Points:

1. B-Motions (Germany) 135
2. Zidanes Angels (France) 109.5
3. Fujins (USA) 108.5
4. Swiss Team (Switzerland) 107
5. Knochen (Germany) 97
6. Yama Otoka (USA) 95
7. Samurai (Japan) 92.5
8. Mooba Booma (Australia) 60
9. Appare (Japan) 58

Third day we spent the morning soaking up water off the field and hauling it away in buckets. 🙂 We took first in accuracy- with the Germans right behind us. We performed well in trick catch, and ended up taking MTA. Finally a strong performance. It bumped us into second- but theGermans still had a very strong lead. Points at the end of the day:

1. B-Motions 166.5
2. Fujins Posse (USA) 149.5
3. Swiss Team 142.5
4. Zidanes Angels (France) 138
5. Yama Otoka (USA) 126
6. Samurai (Japan) 121
7. Knochen (Germany) 120

The fourth day was another very strong day for us- we kept a solid second. I learned quite a bit running around, calling wind, and spotting doublers and MTA’s. Proud to support the team- though it was a bit dissapointing not to throw.

Fujin’s ended up taking first in Endurance Relay, and MTA. 4th place overall in trick catch and supercatch were the events that dragged us down. The second US team took 6th.

The remainder of the 4th day was spent on Gel events- I took 14th in GLORP with some silly drops, and some fun catches. I’ll get the overall scoresheet and some photos posted soon

Arrival July 9, 2006

It was a long flight over- I was traveling for almost 30hrs. Overall it went pretty well, but I got pretty hungry on the plane. 🙂 I met up with Axel Heckner and another boomeranger in Sapporo, which was nice to have some people to figure out the trains with.

The first day was a demo/instruction day for the local people, and we got some good practice in. I got in a fun game for a boomerang, and it ended up being myself, Moleman, and Manu left throwing. I missed a behind the back catch, but so did they, so I was in until I missed a tunnel when the boom caught my leg. It was my first time ever throwing head- to-head with Manu; it felt pretty good. I was looking good enough for their to be a somewhat intense discussion that night about whether I would be on the roster. I just kept quiet and let the team members debate it- and it ended up that they would keep the original six. And that is okay by me, as much as I would love to throw. I will still learn alot here, and will be able to support the team by calling wind, and running around the field to save them energy.

It is absolutely gorgeous here- what an incredible experience. The food has been awesome- though half the time I don`t know what I`m eating. 🙂 My body is feeling pretty good, and I`m pumped to see what I can do in individuals.