UFO Major / Colorado Canine Challenge - Denver, CO
Or more appropriately, the SOGGY Canine Challenge.
Bailey and I made the two day trek through the Western United States, and through the
Rockies to compete in two of our favorite competitions of the year. The Colorado Canine Challenge and the Quadruped.
We arrived in a light rain the night before and wisely decided to visit the field before we retired to our hotel for the night. We luckily ran into Chris Sexton who was glumly looking over the field as we drove up. He told me that the powers that be for the park were probably going to nix our use of the field due to the rain. Being the seasoned architect of MANY competitions throughout the years Chris had already lined up a backup field, but final word of whether we would get to use the primary field wouldn't be delivered until the morning. Ripe for scheduling hell! But by making that little side trip I was able to locate a Walmart to buy a rain/wind breaker (I live in Southern California, what is rain???) and I was invited to a little pre-games dinner. That was a blast getting to spend a little time off the field with all the fine frisbee folk in Colorado and those that traveled from near and far to be there.
We woke Saturday morning to a frightening site, and sound. RAIN, LIGHTENING, and THUNDER! When I say RAIN, I really mean to say R.A.I.N.!!!! It was pouring. We all got to the field and tried to make the best of it all morning. Well, I forgot to mention. The field WAS changed and we had people trickling in all morning after finally figuring out where the event was. So we started the competition with the Novice and Intermediate teams trying Toss & Fetch in the pouring rain. But as the morning wore on, it only got worse, and the lightening started getting close. So, for the safety of all Chris decided to postpone things for a couple hours over lunch. He did some checking and the weather reports showed things were going to clear up soon.
Sure enough, the sun came out after lunch, and we were on our way! Totally drenched, but on our way. I MEAN, EVERYTHING I HAD WITH ME WAS SOAKED. Due to the confusion of the restarted event, I had NO IDEA I was coming up until I heard people saying, Joel! You're on! WHAT?!?! Gads!!! I ran onto the field, no shoes (didn't have time to put them on) and away we went. We posted a decent 30+ score, so I was happy. And we posted a not so great 11.5 Toss and Fetch round. This performance placed us in 13th place overall out of 40 teams. Not too bad. Despite all the craziness we still had a blast and enjoyed seeing all of our out of state disc brethren.
Someone who definitely did not enjoy the rain, nor the experience was Jeff Hill. He was miserable. I tried to tell him that last year was beautiful weather, and that this is not normal for this time of year, but he wanted nothing to do with excuses. I hope he changes his mind for next year.
Matt Diano stole the show, as he has been doing all year, with the two best freestyle rounds of the day and the second best Toss & Fetch round. The guy was a monster! Jane Brunton grabbed second with solid freestyle rounds and a Gigantic Toss & Fetch round of 17.5. Roo Yori & Wallace and Tracy Custer & Five were right behind Matt in the freestyle rounds, but poor Toss & Fetch scores of 5 and 2 respectively kept them out of the top two spots.
Complete Results
Bailey and I made the two day trek through the Western United States, and through the
Rockies to compete in two of our favorite competitions of the year. The Colorado Canine Challenge and the Quadruped.
We arrived in a light rain the night before and wisely decided to visit the field before we retired to our hotel for the night. We luckily ran into Chris Sexton who was glumly looking over the field as we drove up. He told me that the powers that be for the park were probably going to nix our use of the field due to the rain. Being the seasoned architect of MANY competitions throughout the years Chris had already lined up a backup field, but final word of whether we would get to use the primary field wouldn't be delivered until the morning. Ripe for scheduling hell! But by making that little side trip I was able to locate a Walmart to buy a rain/wind breaker (I live in Southern California, what is rain???) and I was invited to a little pre-games dinner. That was a blast getting to spend a little time off the field with all the fine frisbee folk in Colorado and those that traveled from near and far to be there.
We woke Saturday morning to a frightening site, and sound. RAIN, LIGHTENING, and THUNDER! When I say RAIN, I really mean to say R.A.I.N.!!!! It was pouring. We all got to the field and tried to make the best of it all morning. Well, I forgot to mention. The field WAS changed and we had people trickling in all morning after finally figuring out where the event was. So we started the competition with the Novice and Intermediate teams trying Toss & Fetch in the pouring rain. But as the morning wore on, it only got worse, and the lightening started getting close. So, for the safety of all Chris decided to postpone things for a couple hours over lunch. He did some checking and the weather reports showed things were going to clear up soon.
Sure enough, the sun came out after lunch, and we were on our way! Totally drenched, but on our way. I MEAN, EVERYTHING I HAD WITH ME WAS SOAKED. Due to the confusion of the restarted event, I had NO IDEA I was coming up until I heard people saying, Joel! You're on! WHAT?!?! Gads!!! I ran onto the field, no shoes (didn't have time to put them on) and away we went. We posted a decent 30+ score, so I was happy. And we posted a not so great 11.5 Toss and Fetch round. This performance placed us in 13th place overall out of 40 teams. Not too bad. Despite all the craziness we still had a blast and enjoyed seeing all of our out of state disc brethren.
Someone who definitely did not enjoy the rain, nor the experience was Jeff Hill. He was miserable. I tried to tell him that last year was beautiful weather, and that this is not normal for this time of year, but he wanted nothing to do with excuses. I hope he changes his mind for next year.
Matt Diano stole the show, as he has been doing all year, with the two best freestyle rounds of the day and the second best Toss & Fetch round. The guy was a monster! Jane Brunton grabbed second with solid freestyle rounds and a Gigantic Toss & Fetch round of 17.5. Roo Yori & Wallace and Tracy Custer & Five were right behind Matt in the freestyle rounds, but poor Toss & Fetch scores of 5 and 2 respectively kept them out of the top two spots.
Complete Results
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