macsrollers
84 posts
Jun 02, 2009
10:41 PM
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Yesterday morning I had the honor of flying in the finals for the World Championship of rollers. I woke up before sunrise and to my amazement it had rained fairly decent overnight. First rain of any kind in 6 weeks in Las Vegas. As it got lighter I could see it was very overcast and dark with a nice 5 mph breeze. These perfect conditions had never happened on any of our fly days over the past 14 years, regardless to what we were flying for. I felt blessed and got even more excited! At the same time the pressure intensified as I was already representing our small region that some think is "easy to qualify" in, thought they couldn't be more wrong and I will put our top 3 flyers up against anyone. I felt I had to be respectable in the finals and now with the perfect weather conditions there would be no excuses. My birds came out lazy and were hesitant to go up. One rolled into the tree and my heart sank, but quickly went back up. I called time in at 2 minutes. Lost a couple possible breaks but wanted to wait until the hotter individuals settled down and the team grouped up tight. Then they started warming up with 6 breaks the first 5 minutes. I looked at my son with a big grin as it seemed today was my day. Then the birds accelerated a little and started to climb. They got up just out of scoring range for the next 10 minutes. In my mind I was done as old birds can hang that high for awhile. The birds were breaking big while up there and I got more and more dissapointed. Then at 15 minutes they started coming down. At 17 minutes unbelievably they were back in scoring range, adding a 7 bird and a huge break that scored 12 towards the end. 92 points, respectable but dissapointing as the judge tells me if they would have stayed down a little for that 10 minutes I would have been between 200 to 300 points. So did I miss a rare opportunity to perhaps finish in the top 10 in the World Cup? In a sense yes. Perfect weather conditions? In hindsight no. Too perfect-yes. I prepped my birds for 80 degrees at 6:30AM with slightly cloudy as the weather forecast stated. It was 85 degrees when I went to bed at 11PM the night before. I didn't pull their water that evening because I didn't want them not to have a late afternoon drink as it would be 80 Degrees when they flew in the morning. But instead it was 67 degrees, overcast with good moisture in the air. Birds in Vegas rarely see this and they enjoy it when they can! I had the birds as near on as I could, just conditions changed and they felt a little too good and enjoyed the moist air. Am I dissapointed, yes, but not dejected. To know I had a competitive team and had them on on fly day, especially considering that I lost 8 out of my A team, including 1 on our regional fly and another ripped open, is very rewarding. I am in no different position then the others that fly in the finals and don't win. We all have our what if's. But what if's are just that. You can look at these situations in life as the cup being half empty or half full. I choose half full and let's work on filling it up all the way! I had a great time, was able to compete with the best at a high standard, and met Hannes Rossouw. We had a great day. I didn't win the competition but I did win the experience! May you all win the experiences in life! Sincerely, Don M. Mac's Roller LVRC
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