I made my Tricks Party debut at Old Dominion, Richmond VA, last week. It was a pretty rough introduction to competitive sport kite flying. I’ve been snowed under at work for weeks and had no time to practise or read the rules much less establish a routine. So it was with some trepidation that I took to the field.
I’d arrived at the field early having left home at some ungodly hour so as not to be late. There was nobody else there, which was quite alarming, “Oh @!$%, I’ve got the wrong weekend and the wife’s going to kill me !”. A quick call to Doug Charleville (one of the judges) allayed these fears and I went and grabbed a coffee and waited for the organizers to arrive. An hour or so later having setup the field and sound equipment and everything we were ready for the briefing and get going.
ODTP was a full three round competition, each round comprised of imposed tricks and ballet. The individiual competition scheduled the first round and imposed tricks from round two on the Saturday with the ballet of round two and round three on the Sunday. Conditions were pretty grim that first day, with precious little wind, but at least it was warm and sunny and given it was November and all we really didn’t have too much to complain about.
My first round was an utter disaster. I’d brought my Vendettas to compete with, but there is no SUL version available as yet, so windless conditions would have had me well and truly stuffed. However, Shawn Tinkham had two prototype versions of his Vendetta SUL there and he was happy to let the other competitors fly them, what a top bloke he is ! But picking up a strange kite, no matter how capable it may be, to fly in a competition for the first time and with an unrehearsed routine I wasn’t expecting much and I got what I deserved …. an ass kicking. The conditions severely hampered most everybody else except for Young Master Will Sturdy who was pretty spectacular considering.
Peeking out of the motel window the next day I was very relieved to see the trees fluttering in what appeared to be pretty decent wind. In truth the wind was up and down quite a bit that day – but most everybody had sufficient wind to fly their routines and UL’s were the order of the day rather than the SUL’s of the day before. Able to fly my own kite, the splendid Vendetta UL, I felt quite a bit more confident and was sure I’d do a little better.
Second round I did indeed fly better. I was first up and sure I missed some tricks as the wind bumped up and down, but I hit enough to improve my score and my feel better about my performance. Most of the competitors likewise improved in round two and there was some very impressive routines by both the individuals and the pairs alike.
Round three and Hurrah ! I only crashed only the once. Again I missed a couple of moves, but on the whole I was a little improved again, staying in-bounds but missing my ending, finishing after my music had ended. It was not enough to lift me from last place overall but I’d given a better account of myself and considering my absence of any sort of preparation for the comp. I was content enough.
I’d really encourage anybody reading who is debating whether to enter a competition to go ahead and jump in. For the newbie at least it really is less about competing and more about taking part. I was made to feel very welcome and received no end of encouragement all weekend long and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
For those who enter a comp. do yourselves a favor and learn from my mistakes.
- Make sure you fly your full compliment of 12 tricks. You are allowed to repeat each trick and so this should not be an issue for most folks.
- Fly the tricks you are truly confident of pulling off. A well executed Half Axel scores points, a fluffed Jacobs Ladder does not and you’re less likely to incur crash/tick penalties on tricks you can fly with your eyes closed.
- Read the trick definitions beforehand. There I was flying what I considered to be nice cascades only to realize they’d be penalized for not descending as required by the rule book.
- Practice your routine. Get out there with your headphones and get comfortable with your routines. The best competitors do not look like they’re randomly flying between tricks, their routines are cheorgraphed and all the more interesting/rewarding to watch as a result.
- But most importantly don’t panic. Remember why you got into flying kites in the first place. Its supposed to be fun. You’re mostly only competing with yourself, so relax and try to enjoy the competition for what it really is – the chance to hang out with a bunch of like minded and fun people.
I’d like to extend my thanks to the Richmond Air Force who put on wonderful events and go out of their way to make everybody feel welcome. Not for nothing are they AKA Kite Club of the year. I have the best times visiting with them … I look forward to returning. And to Stephanie Hiebert, co-founder of Tricks Party USA, and field director for the competition. Steph really helped me through my nerves and mess ups and was very encouraging (as were all my fellow competitors) all weekend.
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