Sport Kite Championship
June 21-22, 2008
Dorey Park, Richmond VA
for more information: conklincomputer@gmail.com
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16th Annual Old
Dominion Sport Kite Championship June 21-22, 2008 Dorey Park, Richmond VA for more information: conklincomputer@gmail.com |
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 ODSKC 2008 is complete!
I feel that this was the best ODSKC that
we've done since I took the event over 3 years ago. My goal has always
been to match what Terry and Phil were able to do with the event when
they were running it, and I think this year we did that, thanks to the
efforts of everyone involved. People don't come to Richmond for the
fantastic wind conditions or balmy Caribbean-like weather, so ODSKC has
to do a little more to make sure that folks enjoy their experience and
want to come back. This weekend was a good example - it was hot, humid,
and I'm pretty sure that we could have recorded wind at every half-MPH
mark from .5 - 10 and from every possible direction! I was actually
somewhat pleased with the wind conditions, at least it was blowing for a
good chunk of the weekend, I've certainly spent enough days at the park
where I anxiously awaited a 5-minute period of more than a 1MPH wind. I
got a lot of positive feedback from folks, I think I talked to everyone
that came, at least for a few minutes, and it seems that everyone was
glad to be there and having a good time. If there was something that
you saw that you think could be improved or was a problem, please
let me
know.I'd like to thank all of the competitors and spectators who came out for the event. Everyone pitched in with setting up the tents and fields on both Saturday and Sunday morning, it was great to have everything go so smoothly. I was greatly impressed with everyone's efforts on Saturday afternoon as the thunderstorms were rolling in, I've never seen a competition get broken down and put away so quickly! It was a fantastic effort, and we got out of there just in time. Thankfully, the rain was light for the cook-out! I also really appreciated everyone's willingness to help out with judging and field directing. I'd guess that just about every competitor served on at least one judging panel, so it was a true group effort; hopefully some folks who hadn't judged before got some good knowledge out of serving on those panels. We certainly couldn't have filled all the panels we needed without tapping all those shoulders, so thanks to all of you for helping out. Some specific thanks: In my opinion and experience, Maggie Engvall is the best Chief Judge out there, and I'm so thankful that she's been willing to help us out for the last 3 years. Maggie was able to put together a schedule of events that ensured that all competing and judging assignments were spread evenly among all of the participants. No one had to stand out on the field for 3 hours at a time, no one was running from one assignment to another. As far as I can tell, everyone worked, but everyone got to get a rest in between assignments, which was essential given the heat and humidity. She ensured that the Novice fliers got both a pre- and post-flight briefing from their judging panel, which I feel is also essential. I didn't talk to the Novices about those briefings, I hope y'all got some good feedback that will help you build your competition skills. Most importantly, and I crowed about this to anyone who would listen all weekend long, we were on or ahead of schedule for the entire event, even after having to adjust the schedule due to Saturday's thunderstorms! When was the last competition you went to where you could say that?!?!?? Thanks also to Susan Mason, who was in the judging tent all weekend long helping Maggie assemble clipboards and whatever else she needed. Jessica Albosta was our scorekeeper for the event, and I've never seen anyone who was able to bang out scores accurately as fast as she did. We decided to skip the whole "TBA" thing and announce scores on the field as they came, and we were usually announcing scores for the last event as the next one was going on. There was some talk about "real-time" scoring on the forums a while back, and this was about as close as you could get! Jessica kept a smile on her face all weekend long despite the heat, and I was really appreciative for her professionalism and positive attitude. Thanks also to Meg Haymans and Laura Stonestreet, who both helped Jessica throughout the weekend either entering, calling out, or double-checking scores. Will Smoot did a great job announcing the event. We tried a few new things with ODSKC, like playing music and doing some announcing during precision, and just trying to present a "professional" sounding event. It's pretty funny, ODSKC is probably the least spectator-friendly of any Eastern League event, based on it's location (not at the beach) and timing (everyone's leaving Richmond for the beach on weekends in June, not coming here!), but we felt that it could be a good testing ground for trying some new things. I think there's still some things to figure out, but I think we made some progress. Bottom line - Will was up for anything, and he did an excellent job of keeping everyone informed. Thanks also to Terry Murray, Dennis Smith, and Janis Worth for filling in on the mike when Will was out on the field competing. The hospitality tent was huge hit again this year, thanks to the efforts of Mearl, Adrianne, and Rena Balmer. Adrianne's biscotti has become legendary in the Eastern League, and there was a bunch of it out again this year! I hope that everyone at the event got to try the biscotti, if you didn't, you need to come back next year just for that! The Balmers took on a lot of responsibility for this ODSKC, and they came through with flying colors and a smile on their faces! In addition to the hospitality tent, Mearl and Adrianne handled the on-field lunches from Classic Subs, which were excellent, and procured all of the items for our fund-raising auction. I can tell you that I put in a lot of effort into this last year, and I was pretty happy with the results, but Mearl and Adrianne blew me away with some of the items they were able to get! The auction did extremely well, and I'm happy to say that ODSKC is solvent once again! In fact, I'll go so far as to promise that we won't be raising our registration rates next year, we'll keep them at the $5 per discipline that we've done for the past 2 years. The "unsung hero" of the event was Doug Charleville. Doug took it on himself a few years back to provide ODSKC with water and ice, he's done it the past 3 years for me, and I've never really shown him the appreciation that he's due. I walked around all weekend long reminding folks to stay hydrated, and I'm pretty sure that everyone did, and it was all thanks to Doug's efforts. He was filling, dumping, or hauling coolers full of ice and bottled water all weekend long, at no expense to the competitors. I'd rather not imagine what the weekend would have been like if all that cold water hadn't been readily available. Thanks again Doug! The Saturday night cookout was another huge success, despite the intermittent rain. Terry Murray and Janis Worth are tremendously gracious hosts, and both put in a lot of work to make that extremely fun night come off without a hitch. They're such sweet and conscientious people, and it was really great how they were willing to welcome all of us to their home. Guys, I hope you had as much fun as we did! The cookout was catered by Heidi Smoot and her students, and I think that the food was even better this year than last year's. Working with Heidi was so easy for me, I had to actively think about the food for the cookout for maybe 20 minutes total this year, Heidi took care of all the details. It was so awesome to know that when I got to the cookout, all I had to do was enjoy myself, that everything was already squared away, thanks to the efforts of Terry, Janis, Heidi, Adrianne, and Mearl. Thanks again to all of you! We had some extremely cool kites donated for this year's auction from such luminaries as Cliff Quinn, Harold Ames, Randy Shenk, Jose Sainz, Gary Engvall, Gerard Normand, Maria Charest, Drake Smith, Chris Stankus of Jackite, and Ken McNeill of Blue Moon Fabrications. There were some other great items from Doug Charleville, Andrew Albosta, Jackie Maciel, Karen Burkhardt, Charlie Dunton, Charles Stonestreet, and Glenn Haynes. It's a difficult thing to ask these folks to contribute to something like this, to sell something they made with their own two hands to raise money for an event that, in some cases, they've never even heard of! It was great to see the generosity of these folks and the incredible kites that they built. I hope the folks that were able to win at the auction will enjoy those kites for a long time. ODSKC's primary sponsor for the last 3 years has been Hang 'em High
Fabrics (http://ecom.citystar.com/hang - Marc Conklin, Event Coordinator Make a donation to ODSKC! Click the button below to go to paypal and pay from either your existing paypal account or credit card! For information and pictures from former ODSKC's, click below:
ODSKC 2006 last updated: 06/24/2008 9:09 am |
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