Odyssey Flatware Contest - the organizer perspective

imageOrganising and running a competition is a hard thing. So many people to please, expectations to live up to and simply just getting it right. The main thing I have learnt, is do what you can to the best of your capabilities and situation.

Saturday was a tough day. I had a restless night and the morning sky was a gloomy grey prompting texts of despair. The weatherman claiming it would rain, so with the power of my metrosexual shorts and windswept hair-do, I managed to keep the sun out. Although, there was a point where a few heavy rain drops made my mouth drop, as there was no alternative back up spot.

But carry on we must.

imageLuton is a small market town 30mins north of London, you may know the airport? And once a year, University of Bedfordshire holds an arts festival, showcasing films, live music, art and dance. Long story short, I blagged them for prize money for a flatland competition and I got it. In asking for that, the floor, gracefully shown by Phil Dolan, was sacrificed a great deal and was too small and bouncy for riders to get runs dialled, making them loop out of basic tricks.

But carry on they did.

imageThe comp, slap bang in the middle of the town centre with a large crowd of Saturday shoppers, had a good turn out, better than I expected. Maybe 20 or so riders? It was formatted as a 3 minute, 1-on-1 battle due to the size and floor. And Ok, it wasn’t the best comp but people still made it from Newcastle, Liverpool, Leicester, Redhill, Wales, Manchester, Ireland, Portsmouth, London and wherever to show support and commitment as opposed to chatting breeze over FaceBook.

There are a lot of new faces and interesting riders in the UK at the moment competing in the AMs. Not necessarily from the UK, but living here for whatever reason and bringing something freshness to the dance floor. Aidwin, Faqes and Adhim from Malaysia, Norbert from Hungary, Jimmy from France and some dark-horse ninja called Michael from, I don’t know, somewhere in Euroland, keeping UK riders on their toes.

I ain’t going to bore you with a trick list. They are tedious and boring and because the floor wasn’t great, runs weren’t great. But I could see something was gonna explode and this got my appetite wet, which has prompted the start of a new project. Check 75º blog for details soon.

The pro comp should have been better, but yet again, the floor.
NB. When putting on a comp, make sure the floor is flat. Everything else is secondary and will fall into place as long as the LAND is FLAT. FLATLAND…get it?
imageHowever, pros are pros for a reason and they got on with it. Big respec’ to Kevin Browne and Lee Wilson for stepping into pro territory. Overall, everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves. Drinking on empty stomachs, jumping train barriers, scannin’ out da gals dem and just having a jolly good ol’ time. On this note I’ll leave you with the final battle and give a big thumbs up for the support and kind words from all those who attended. Jamie at IMG distribution. MC Hype mans Keelan and Effraim and LAF for the prize money and opportunity. X mwah X

Keelan Phillips Vs. James White.

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Words: Aleks
Photos: Effraim Catlow / Roseann Matsu / Aidwin Wing

2010-05-04 - Aleks

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