1st Irish Kendama Open (March 21st, 2015)

[The Void]

All packed. Off to bed in an hour. Early start, urk. See you tomorrow, guys!

[The Void]

View this post on Instagram

[shalafi]

Had a blast. Great fun, sunny afternoon, lots of clicks. Most likely to repeat it next year.

Thanks again to the Sponsors for donating the prices: Kendama Europe, Krom Kendama, Ceska Kendama, Royal Kendama and Yoko Warburton.
You made this possible!

So, final results. I hope to edit the video sometime next weekend.

Advanced:

1st. Matt: 5 points <- IKO Champion
2nd. The Void: 4 points

Beginners: Top trick (highest trick without missing)

1st: Gareth.     9 (5)
2nd Emma.      8 (7)
3rd Emet.        7 (0) <- Irish Champion
4th Peter.        6 (2)
     Tony.         6 (2)
6th Rosa.         5 (4)
7th Mercedes   5 (2)
      Sean.        5 (2)
9th Des.          2 (1)

[kendamatty]

Great day, cheers shalafi for organising, and huge thanks to the sponsors!

Really glad @The Void made it over,  was a nail biter alright!
Nice clicks after the event in the rare irish sunshine, with lots of people coming to randomly join in!

See you at the bko...

[The Void]

Phew, made it home. Tiring day, but definitely a fun one. Great battling with you, Matt, and congratulations.
Thanks Raul for making it all happen. A promising start for a first IKO!

I'll try to sort out photos tomorrow, and maybe organise which bits of footage are heading where....

[The Void]

Pics!

Full collection at:
http://tlmb.net/galleries/IKO2015/ NO RE-UPLOADS PLEASE! Share page URLs, thanks.

[shalafi]

Cool pics!

[The Void]

IKO 2015

A kendama competition "near" me that I don't have to run? Yes please!
Up at 5:45, lift to the airport (thanks, lovely girlfriend!), an uneventful Ryanair flight (phew, they didn't check my rucksack was 1 or 2 cm too thick for their restrictions), and a bus ride into the centre. Peering at my printed map as I wandered towards the venue, I suddenly saw two people waving at me across the street. Ah, Matt and Emma have made it here too! Walking around the block unnecessarily (turns out I can't map read) we encountered a bizarre pile-a-load-of-junk-on-the-pavement "market", but then found our venue... with a locked door, and no-one about. Confusing. Then Raul & Mercedes arrived, and we all eventually found the side-door into the gym. We're in! A reasonable sized gym, but pretty quiet at this point. I guess 11 am was early for everyone.

We had a little game of KEN to warm up, then a beginners workshop. Nice to meet @KenDogma too, who completed the list of 7 people who came "for" the IKO. In all, there were 9 in the Beginners division, and 2 in Advanced. Unfortunately @sunnyD had some last-minute business to attend to, so couldn't make it along. Missed you, David!

Beginners made a decent showing, with people who'd only just learned to play joining in keenly. Good work from Emma and Gareth at the top. Matt and I faced off in Advanced, and the short story is that he won. I'll let the video (currently transferring it to you, Raul!) tell the longer story.

I have to be honest, and say I was quite gutted not to win. I'd been practising a fair bit, and thought I had a pretty good opportunity to tuck another title under my belt. I was annoyed at some of my misses.... but I'm sure Matt could say the same. So, ultimately, Matt rocks, beat me good and proper, and I take my hat off to him. In direct head-to-heads between the two of us in "proper" competitions, that makes it 1-1. After a wait of almost 5 years, you've got even, Matt. He's also the first Brit to beat me in competition. :-)

After prizes were handed out (#SponsorsRock Thanks Krom, for my mahogany Viking!) there was a lull, and Raul took the chance to have another crack at a Dan grading, with D2 in his sights. His moshis were already in the bank. So on to the compulsories. A reasonably solid start, with a few misses here and there, but only 3 Fallings meant that he could only potentially make 1st Dan. Which he did, I'm very pleased to say! Well done, mate!

Then it was a move to outside, in the sun on the astroturf-in-rubber pitch. A nice mellow few hours playing, KENning, filming a few video clips and chatting. A couple of newbies got curious and had a go. Stickers were spread around.

Our time at the venue came to an end, so we (down to 5 of us now) went for a walk to St Stephen's park, to chill in the last of the afternoon sunlight. Again, we had some curious passers-by coming up to ask what that funny thing was, and could they have a go. After a while, the chilling out actually became chilly, so we went for a nice sit down (Matt & Emma had also been up very early, so we were all pretty tired by now) and a hot chocolate. Then we went our separate ways.

Thank you very much Raul, for making it happen. A smallish, but successful "opening bid" in the IKO stakes. Here's a raised glass... To the next one?

[LarsVegas]

I'd say for Matt it's "all sunshine" (see pic above)

[Kev]

Looks like great fun.

Well done Matt & nice one Void.

Congratulations to Raul too for joining the Dan gang AND organising the first IKO.

Hope I can make the next one!

[KenDogma]

Great write-up! It was brilliant to meet you both Void and Matt. Thanks Raul for organising!

Already looking forward to next year's, and potentially the BKO in May.

[shalafi]

Nice review Void!

It's a great pleasure to organize something and having people get in and enjoy it.

I'm very happy with the outcome of the IKO, in attendance and fun. It's very likely that we'll have a 2nd IKO. Maybe another meetup later on this year. We'll see.

Thanks again to the sponsors and the participants to make it worth organizing it :-)

[BKA]

Ah, it'll be great if you can make it to the BKO, Gareth. Fingers crossed for you!

[shalafi]

Family photo. Thanks Void for the pics.

[shalafi]

Compilation Video uploading...