Bonjour à tous,
Here is picture made by Adam on the field during the week end to introduce the weather conditions :
Here are Adam comments on the 5th tournament of the NBT
I can’t quite remember now who told me about the Moirans Boomerang tournament, but I clearly remember after the first few minutes of my first visit in 2021 wondering why on earth I’d never been before.
Here we have this almost absurdly out of place, beautiful sports stadium, in a peaceful location in South France. Framed by spectacular high mountains. It reminded me a little bit of North Wales, or even the EBC in Mallorca. But a much kinder climate and amazing grass underfoot.
Thus it was in August 2023, that my wife and I found ourselves excitedly packing and preparing for another tournament in this rather special location.
One of the main draws, is the fact that 3 events are thrown under stadium spotlights commencing around 20:00 and usually the winds are almost perfect at this time, allowing for some excellent scores for accuracy, fast catch and endurance.
This year for the first time, there was a bonus - a fun head to head on Friday evening, where 10 talented throwers fought a fast catch, endurance and mini trick catch against the clock and each other.
A few days before travelling, it was clear that some potentially stormy weather was a strong possibility for the whole weekend. In fact as I picked up my hire car in Lyon, I noticed some unusual mammatus clouds, which often accompany thunderstorms. Being a keen photographer and also having packed all my camera kit just for this possibility to say I was excited was an understatement.
Friday evening and Saturday evening indeed produced a spectacular lightning storm which sometimes lit the sky up just over where we were throwing. I did briefly think that throwing boomerangs in Moirans and getting struck by lightning was not too bad a way to end my life.
So, how was the tournament?
Well, Saturday afternoon surprised us all with almost perfect winds for trick catch. Warm and sunny.
I threw with the French Wonder Matteo. He was not looking like he would drop anything at all and came in with an incredible 90 which was enough to win the event overall.
Some other impressive scores were thrown by several other throwers. This was a good start to the 6 events.
Then the plan as always here, is to recommence accuracy, fast catch and endurance at 20:00.
I was keeping a close eye on my storm tracker. The worst of it was due to arrive around 22:00. Which would prove rather interesting!
Accuracy was completed first, in early darkness and stadium lights essential. No rain yet, but it was threatening. Lightning was flickering in the distance. Winds were pretty light. Not calm, but not far off. Many good rounds were thrown, with a surprising first place to Fred Gerard with an amazing 89p.
Then onto fast catch.
Fast catch under stadium lights is a real skill. You want to throw a red trifly? Good luck with that. You will find 1/3 of its flight will be very difficult to see and when you do look, you may well be blinded by spotlights.
Keep your boomerang low and brightly coloured I thought. Yellow neon is a good choice for paint.
Plus I bought my safety eye Goggles after seeing several throwers do the same thing after my first visit. Warm up in perfect conditions in 2021, was scary. There were very fast boomerangs flying everywhere.
I was happy to witness the winning FC round of Paul Chalumeau (20.52s). A superb display of graceful speed and superb transitions. He was using an original Nico Manicosaur. It looked fast and was indeed fast. Nico would have been proud for sure.
So, endurance to finish the day. And the rain was starting. Despite a good decision for a 45 minute wait to see what happens, we had to continue.
I can honestly say, I’ve never seen boomerangs thrown in torential rain before. My own round of 40 was with increasingly slippery boomerangs. So hard to control.
Which is why Guillems winning round of 48 was amazing. It was absolutely pouring with rain for his entire round. Winds light, but significant water. Quite how he was able to catch virtually everything apart from 2 or 3 drops was a major feat of skill.
The evening finished at around 23:00 with 2 events to finish the tournament on Sunday. The scores were dutifully recorded and uploaded to the superb Glide App by Olivier. The top 5 placings were very, very close indeed.
Sunday 8:30 am saw MTA practice commence. Zero thermals. Heavily overcast but to start, virtually zero wind. Fairly good conditions allowed all throwers to get at least 2 good throws with great winds. It was here that most of the best times were logged, with Seb GUIHEUX’s winning time with a carbon Braket of 37.71 secs.
By now for the rest of MTA, winds were not favourable for two bladers. So the tribladers were out in force and either being blown out, or not getting times anywhere as near as the first half results.
So, the last event Aussie around. An incredibly tight top 5 scoresheet. It all hinged on this event.
Winds were very difficult to judge. Not strong, but very unpredictable and shifty. Many Fuzzies were thrown. Some crashed and some did very well indeed. After a good couple of hours the best score was 71 by Seb, a great result for him and cementing an overall 4th.
The top 3 overalls were very well fought and deserved -
Guillem 5478p
Olivier 5462p
Matteo 5398p
And the best trophies I’ve ever seen.
Moirans is indeed a special tournament. Excellently hosted by Olivier and his family and friends.
Great food, great company in a spectacular location. I hope to come here for many more years to follow.
Participants
The Podium
The Trophies
Some throwers told us it was the most orignal trophies they had ever received.
The tropies has been made by Patrick ROUGIER.
https://trophees-sportifs-rougier-patrick.fr/
Matéo sur le vif
Les résultats
Application Glide de gestion des scores
1er Guillem PARMAIN
2eme Olivier CHELMAS
3eme Matéo GUERRERO (et Premier Junior)
4eme Sébastien GUIHEUX
5eme Adam Mac LAUGHLIN (GBR)
6eme Olivier DUPRET
Rappel des conditions météo difficiles
Les commentaires à chaud de notre envoyé Spécial : Pau Thion
Le samedi après midi, c'est Trick-Doubling dans des conditions étonnamment clémentes. GuiGui et Matéo ont réalisé de tres bons scores dans cette discipline.
Super catch par équipes pour le plaisir.
Le diner est organisé tôt, vers 18:30...
Vers 20h, c'est le démarrage de la Précision. Puis Vitesse et Endurance sont prévues ensuite.
L'échauffement de Précision se déroule dans des conditions presque parfaites...
Mais, peu après le début de l'épreuve, quelques gouttes et un peu de vent arrivent.
Cela reste quand même à peu près gérable. Ol' Chelmas et Adam Mc font tous les deux 82.
Matéo améliore son meilleur score personnel avec 89.
Début de l'échauffement de Vitesse à 21:25 sous pluie battante....
Matéo casse son vitesse imprimé en 3D à la fin de l'échauffement .
Endurance sous la pluie pour certains .
Guillem réalise un très bon score de 48 en endurance sous la pluie dans des conditions fortement défavorables .
Le Dimanche, Petit matin humide avec de nouveau de la pluie, certes moins forte que la veille au soir.
Le MTA se passe dans un petit vent avec des gouttes.
Guillem s'est fait peur en ne rattrapant que son quatrième lancer: 29"00 avec son nouveau tripale carbone.
Encore une fois, Paul C. n'arrive pas à faire un score.
Seb remporte l'épreuve de MTA avec 37 Secondes.
Aussie-Round dans la foulée.
Les groupes sont faits en fonction du classement.
D'abord lancent les mauvais, comme moi, puis les champions, comme Super-GuiGui.
L'épreuve débute dans une petite brise pour les premiers groupes, mais assez vite le vent devient changeant en intensité puis en direction.
Le tout ponctué par quelques ondées passagères.
Seb gagne l'épreuve avec 71 points, il remporte donc les 2 épreuves du dimanche .
Head to Head
Le vendredi était l'occasion de tester le format Head to Head, voici une photo des participants du Head to Head , en dessous vous trouverez les vidéos .
Voici les vidéos du Head to Head du Vendredi
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