A National Championship Recap!
This past weekend was long, hot, humid and a whole lotta fun. The Mad-City Ski Team competed in the 2007 National Show Ski Tournament in Loves Park, IL (near Rockford). We’re the defending national champions and are looking for our 3rd championship in 4 years.
The 2007 National Show Ski Tournament started off strong for the Mad-City Ski Team. Our jump team competed in the team jump competition on Friday afternoon. They hit the water first and put the bar way up high by performing a no fall jump act with a whole lotta difficult jumps including a four man front flip and a 720. Nobody else’s jump act was in the same league as ours. Here are some pictures from the Team Jump National Champions…
Quad Helis
Quad Fronts
The 2007 Mad-City Ski Team – National Team Jump Champions
For more Team Jump pictures, you can visit this Picasa Web Album.
After team jump, we headed to our hotel for our team meeting/practice. We started off with pizza party then held a short team meeting before heading outside to run through intros one last time before the tournament. We practiced intros and dances for about an hour or so and then the official team functions were done. A few of us we’re quite ready to call it a night yet and headed to a local watering hole called the Turtle Tap for some R&R.
I rode there with Taryn, T-Bell and 7. Taryn was driving and 7 was navigating and we had several cars following us. As we approach the stop light for the frontage road the hotel is on, the light turns yellow and Taryn guns it to make the light and leave the others stuck behind the red light. We then talked to Taryn about the etiquette of leading cars which consists of basically not running yellow lights so they can keep up.
After pulling over and letting the others catch up, we’re soon faced with the same situation. The light turns yellow and Taryn guns it and then she stands on the brake to bring the SUV to a very sudden stop. The funniest part is she puts her hand over to help keep 7 in his seat. She did the short stop from Seinfeld. Meanwhile, T-Bell and myself in the backseat nearly find ourselves in the front seat and we’re all laughing.
We walk into the bar and let’s just say I’m glad there was a large group of us walking in. Had it been a small group of us, we probably would have turned around and left. Cameras everywhere and a fairly rough looking crowd. In stark contrast to the crowd, they had this mural on the wall…
There was a “someone” with a mullet that went down to the middle of the back and it took us a while to figure out if the someone was male or female. Turned out to be female. We split up into two groups, one playing pool in the corner and another playing darts. I joined in the game of cricket. My team consisted of Laura, Kristen and myself. Whoever setup the cricket game actually setup a team cricket game so we were actually paired up with another team as well. For a long while we struggled, but in the end we caught up and helped our combined team win.
We headed back to the hotel just a bit after a 11 to get to bed at a decent time for our early wake up. We all had a lot of fun and had a nice relaxing night.
Saturday morning arrives and it is hot and humid, just like the day before. After enjoying the continental breakfast at the hotel (I made myself a really good waffle and drank a whole lotta milk) I headed to the ski site. Made it there at 730. Watched just a bit of RAJ’s show to see how the sound system sounded with crowd and to get an idea of it’s capabilities. Watching this bit of the RAJ show took a long time. They had 2 injury timeouts that delayed everything about an hour.
Finally show time arrives. After doing a quick hook up of the sound equipment and brief sound and mic checks, it was show time. Adam and Matt did their little pre show dance and then the ladies hit the stage. Adam and Matt have a funny pre show dance. The ladies just have a really good pre show dance.
Moments later our show hit the water. It stared off strong with a 6 man barefoot line and a 4-double top 2-4 high pyramid coming through. Montage then came rapid fire after that as it usually does and also came through pretty clean. The Bell sisters made their fliers through some crap water and caught some serious air while doing their deeps. Cake made his sky ski pass. Kristen came through and threw 5 720’s in her single pass (apparently this is too many 720s and makes the trick seem easier than it is). Paul ripped up the water with his wake board. Here are some pics from the first few acts of the show…
The Bell Sisters
Watch Out for Flying Cake
Beau & Kirk
Mr. Paul O’Conner
Kirsten Heilman doing too many 720’s in one pass
Apparently 5 is too many…
After montage we put out a Mad-City original act. The One Act Show. This year we went big. A shoe skier, a 4-high human pyramid, a doubles couple and a pinwheel going over the jump next to all of that. It rolled through the show course and the crowd went wild.
Next up was the Mad-City Dream Girls. Turns out they are the best all female ballet line in the nation. 23 strong with some great dances. I’ll let the pictures speak for them selves.
We even put some ladies on some mini stages…
Then our jump team hit the water for their first jump act of the show. Had a couple of falls, but still a very good jump act. Then our star swivel hit the water and like jump had a fall, but still a very strong act with Kristen throwing a 1080. Then our big act took to the water. It also had a handful of falls, but also a very clean act. Here are a few more pictures…
Ladies… stay away. I have chirpies. It’s a canaryial disease. It’s un-tweetable.
Next on the water was our second jump act of the day. It was hot. Two fronts and gainer… Triple heli, double splits… and a super sized pinwheel (gainer, double fronts and a heli)… No falls. It would have been the highest scoring jump act, except we have one more jump act in store.
Then we had our SNL fill. Adam and Taryn put on a phenomenal production. This video will be on the internet soon. The crowd loved it. Here’s a couple pictures to keep your interest until then.
Then after an impromptu fill, our ending pyramid came through, a double top 3-2-4-2-4. We lost just a couple people off the dock that prevented the double top 3 from being a 4.
It was suppose to be a 4-2-4-2-4. This is pretty damn close!
After the pyramid we did a completely original version of the Evolution of Dance. This time Adam had a dancing partner with Matt sharing the stage with him.
Let’s twist again, Like We Did Last Summer!
Do the Locomotion!
Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting!
It takes 2!
Still takes 2!
Oh, Oh, Oh Oh Oh Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh Oh
No Comment Needed, or Desired for this Picture
I’m a Barbie Girl
No comment on this one…
Bringing Sexy Back!
Then the Jaw Dropper took the water. One man, 3 jumps, never leaving the show course. Starts off with the gainer, then does a front and finishes with a 720. When it’s clean, it is an untouchable jump act. Sorry, I don’t have any good pictures of this act. Watch for the video.
Then we put our newest act on the water… our combo ballet line with a hot pick of the guys. We put on a phenomenal show and finished to a standing ovation.
Guys Ballet
Hot Pick
Big Ballet
Our show ends with several dances… here’s the first One!
Then Adam did HIS intro, to the dismay of the rest of the team…
I Love You, You Love Me…
Then we dance some more… What I Like About You!
Left, Right…
After the show, the long wait began. We’re done with our part and now need the rest of the teams to finish their shows. And it is a long wait.
Saturday night, after grabbing some dinner at the local Applebees, we all met up at bar near the hotel (at least those of us that stayed in Beloit). It was a blast that night. Everyone had lots of drinks and everyone had lots of fun. We definately rolled up a fatty of fellowship and fun that night.
Something funny was said… can’t remember what
Shots for the ladies…
Me, Sandy and Paul
This was taken at the end of the night, only a few hours before Brad was waken up and told to move the truck.
Paul and Kelly Dancing
Obligatory picture show both Bugsy and Tristan at the very end of the night at the bar…
Sunday morning came way too early, but I did make it in time to catch Wonder Lake and Little Crow’s shows, the two that I really wanted to see. Both had good shows, but not anything that could beat our show from the day before. Both had some phenomenal acts. Wonder Lake did their pre-fab pyramid hot pick again. They first take 2 pre-fabs off the dock. Then they loop around and come from behind the starting dock. Meanwhile, the starting dock has 2 more pre-fabs on it and their is a floating barge butted up to it with 2 more pre-fabs on it. As the boat pulling the pre-fabs approaches the dock, the barge comes free and gives the boat room to split the dock and barge and hot pics the four pre-fabs. Not sure what I mean, then just watch the video.
Little Crow also had an act that I thought was great. I’m not even a big fan of ATBs (around the boats) but they did an ATB act that was awesome. Just three people, but two went one way and the third guy went the opposite way and they went around the boat. The act didn’t stop there though, they immediately did another ATB, and then they did another. 3 guys doing 3 ATBs back-to-back-to-back. I wish I had filmed it.
Finally, the shows ended and it was awards time. As I’ve already posted, Mad-City swept the traditional box scores (dock & equipment, driving, pickup boats and sound) and some of the act awards (jump, swivel and ballet). A couple interesting facts… Mad-City had the 3 highest scoring jump acts and 2 highest scoring ballet acts. Here are some pictures from the awards ceremony…
The sea of Mad-City blue shirts waiting for the results!
Christ accepting the Best Ballet Award for our Combo Ballet Line
Paul, with Cyndi and Tony, accepting the Best Jump Act Award for The Jaw Dropper
The Best Swivelers in the Nation!
Ann, Kristen, Laura and Joey accepting the Best Swivel Act Award
Paul accepting the Skip Gilkerson award from Skip Gilkerson
for the Outstanding Male Performance at the tournament.
Some of our Dock & Equipment people accepting the award for Best Dock & Equipment
Best Pick-Up Boat Driving
Don, Jerry, Gary and Tony… Best Boat Drivers!
Adam, Matt and Me (Wedge) – Best Audio Presentation
Chris accepting the National Championship!
A River Full of National Champions!!!
After taking our swim we headed back to Madison for a little party at the Coliseum Bar and Grill. Originally, we planned to watch the production company’s DVD of our show but it didn’t work and appears to be a bad DVD. I made a call and arranged to get a DVD that my dad had made so the team could watch that. A lot of the people in the show don’t really get to see it, so for them it is the first time seeing it.
The night ended with Paul, Laura, Kristen, Bugsy and myself closing down the bar at midnight, all of us exhausted.
Picasa Web Albums in this Post:
Mad-City Wedge 