Dodge the Ball & Duck the Puck - Day 8
It's up and at atom this morning, Jo and I are pretty amped as we have a big day ahead at the Speights Summit Dodge ball championship. It's a local favorite and taken very seriously down here in Queeny with some teams rumored to be fitting in secret training sessions just to perfect their dodging maneuvers and throwing style. Jo is in the mix to MC the event with our bud Mark Wilson and in true professional style when I wander into her room that morning all I can hear is “if you can dodge traffic you can dodge a ball”, “The 5 d’s of dodgeball, dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge” oh goodness here we go she is in her element – when it comes to quoting silly movies especially staring Ben Stiller, or Will Farrell she is all over it. She is even getting ready for the day by playing some Youtube videos from the movie "Dogdeball" for inspiration.
Oh yes Lisa.. I love a good movie quote “Did we just become best friends? Yep! “
Again today were fully kitted our in our awesome Roxy and Quicksilver gear, you can't really miss us down and around as we like to wear it bright and bold in a sea of black jackets and tops, we are even killing it with our bright DC shoes too so we're all set to duck, anything that comes our way.!
We got down there early but already teams were on site bantering with each other and talking them-selves up. There were some great team colours on display, the AJ Hackett Bungy boys were un-miss able in their masculine pink tees and Team Roxy were cutting some sweet stylez in matching one piece grey trackies.
I wanted to grab some great footage of all the action so I decided to position myself outside the nets in the corner, utilizing the 'hold the camera as high above your head as you can' technique’, to be honest this process wasn't really working well at but as least I was safe from the multitude of flying balls…dodgeballs that is…keep it clean…reel it in….Luckily for me Stefan (our awesome local photographer buddy) spotted me struggling…of course he did…(haha he’s our good mate) and invited me up the other end to share his ladder! OH YEAH! This was a much better spot, nice work Stefan. Prime position, what a find!, from here I could take in the whole Dodge ball court, capture all the action and remain safe from the numerous yellow balls flying everywhere...WRONG! I'm not to sure what happened, but as soon as I got up that ladder I suddenly became the primary target for all heat seeking dodgeballs! I'm unsure if it was the stripes on my jacket, perhaps they resembled a target or maybe it was the fact that I was suddenly in the players peripheral vision? Either way after 5 minutes of being up the ladder a stray yellow ball came straight for me! I’m not used to these ones…Fortunately for me Stefan deflected it before it clobbered me in the nose and he joked that I should be ok now as the likely hood of another ball coming my way was very slim. Again...WRONG! As I was laughing my head off at the first incident, another yellow ball came flying straight at me, hitting me squarely in the side of the head! Clearly, I had angered the Dogeball Super Kings and they were seeking vengeance! Jo and Mark joked over the loud speaker that the third guy that hit me could have my phone number. Oh Hahahah! Frankly, I wasn't so sure about this concept...I mean sure, I've heard of all the new dating techniques,...speed dating, dating in the dark etc, etc, but I have to say I think the new concept of 'throw a dogeball at Lisa 3 times and get her number' is fundamentally flawed and I strongly doubt it will be catching on any time soon! At this point I decided it would be a good idea to head up the Mountain for a bit to catch some of the bands play and head back down to the dodgeball later on for the semi and final. I’m getting out of here before Jo gives my number out.
Ok Lisa, just because you have taken off that does not secure you from inappropriate comments taking place. Mark and I had an awesome time MCIng, we had the great calls alright as we entertained the crowd with our banterful banter..cracking up hard out at our own jokes. Marks highlight was the Canadian girls who were fully kitted out in Canadian colours and sung the Canadian national Anthem…hmmm all girls team have anything to do with this choice..most likely…My fav’s were the samurai crew who did a full show roll and flips…the winners though “the Tiny Gineys” who were actually super massive took out the winning prize. The most interesting thing…we met this guy who claimed to be one of the dodgeball teams mangagers..he claimed and he claimed and positioned himself in the best spot inside the arena and played in character for the duration of the event..we came to the conclusion that he was just sifting and sidling so we just wrote him onto the script…he became a core feature of the event.
In a nut shell “Help! I'm in a nutshell! How did I get into this bloody great big nutshell? What kind of shell has a nut like this” The Speights Summitt Dodgeball Championship was BALL-TASTIC…did you see what I did there? Oh yes great pun!!
So it was back to the Dairy for some more work, a quick freshen up and off to the ice Rink to take in see the big ice hockey game. This was set to be an exciting match up between the local team Southern Stampede and the top of the table Botany Swarm from Auckland, in a classic, first seed plays second seed, North verse South, things were about to get hot and sweaty in here. It was also helpful to know some of the guys in the Stampede team after interview a few of the players during the week, mind you it's kinda hard to tell who the heck is who with all the protective gear they have on, you are left instead left to rely on jersey names and numbers. When I walked into the rink half way through the second third I'm blown away but the atmosphere, the whole place was going off, the stand was packed and the energy and bustle was enormous. I've never been to a live ice hockey game before, I'm far more in the know with rugby, have grown up in a rugby family, but HOLY MOLY peeps, I may be about to switch codes! Ice hockey is fast and furious, every second something is going on, and they move fast, really fast! I made my way around to the media area where there are no nets to protect you from what is happening on the ice, when the puck heads your way look out, as there will be 4-1 massive players skating towards you at speed fighting for the puck and smacking into the wall with bone crunching force. IT!S GREAT!!! The rest of the game was peppered with intense plays and a few 'disagreement' scuffles, which stops play and everyone swarms to aid in the conflict whilst the black and white stripe referees try to sort it all out. The Stampede ended up going down to The Swarm -2-0, but there is another game Friday night and a chance to settle the score! GO THE STAMPEDE!!
After the game we headed back into town and up to the Lone Star for a late dinner. A firm favourite the Loney can always be relied on for amazing meals and serving late, I opt for the Feel Good Fillet, Jo goes for the Nachos and our new crew members Mark, Scott and Jono opt for their second dinner of the evening! GO BOYS! We have a few drinks and enjoy our meals whilst discussing strategy for tomorrow Speights Suitcase Race at Coret peak, Jono has been spending a few weeks 'modifying' his suitcase to improve it's speed and Mark is off in the morning to buy a new suitcase just for the event. I'm starting to worry...I'm entered in this race tomorrow and at this stage I don't even have a suitcase!! Make sure you hit up Dave from Lonestar and get some good tucker when your down here..oh and a mojito.
We all head home early to be fitting fit for the mornings racing...mostly I'm off early to figure out how to turn my suitcase into a super sledge!!!
Someone let Cornet Peak know the crazies are turning up early tomorrow!!
