Kendama Getdown København December 1st

[The Void]

Team Sunrise were getting together again for another exciting excursion abroad. Thank you very much David for making it happen!

Up horrendously early for an early flight to Amsterdam to meet up with the gang to travel together onwards to Copenhagen. We arrived to be greeted at the airport by Mattias and Philip, and were promptly presented with an arrival present of a new custom Krom kendama, designed by Thorkild. Sweet! After a short wait, Thomas arrived too, and we all squeezed into Philip's car to book into our hotels. Then it was onto the KendamaDK soon-to-be-a-shop HQ for some hanging out, meeting up with Isaac and Emil. Then some delicious pizza snacking and of course kendama-play! Thorkild arrived later too, to complete the party. After a bunch of games of DAMA, Jeffrey was the killer, but I sneaked a win in and luckily for me it was on a game that Philip had offered a prize for. Fitting then that it came down to me vs Philip in a tight final! Luminous Krom for me! Thanks Philip! But now it's late, and we were all knackered. Off to bed...

I'd set 2 alarms, but managed to sleep through both. I still managed to wake up in time to meet back at the shop to load up the car with kendama goodies and then off to the venue.

About 10 eager souls were waiting outside in the cold, clicking away to pass the time. After a short wait for a keyholder to turn up, we were in. A few trips unloading and setting up, and I turned around to see at least 30 people already there. This built throughout the day to a total of around 150 clicker folk. They sure know how to do it in Denmark! The first couple of hours were spent hanging out, meeting people, being challenged to a few games of KEN and DAMA. The level of the play of the kids of all ages was very impressive! They are obviously a very dedicated bunch of clickers. A few people had fun playing with the three T8 tortoise kendamas that the Sunrisers had brought with them.

When the ladders kicked off, it really sunk in what a good scene there was here. There were 4 divisions, and the lower 3 all had multiple heats, all closely fought. Then it was the turn of the Pros. We'd been wary of Around Denmark, expecting the locals to shoot us all down in a minute. But having seen them practice, a few chinks in the armour were showing, so there was hope after all.... 9 of us lined up, including the 4 overseas visitors. Tricks #3 & 8 were my bugbears, and sure enough I got a little bit stuck on 3. In fact, I think I was still stuck on it when a cheer went up for the winner (who was it? I don't know, I'm still concentrating on my tricks), but I carried on as there were "podium places" still on offer. Someone said Emil was the winner! This 14-yr old is seriously good. Meanwhile on with the ladder, I'm finally past number 3, but now my hands are shaky, and of course that's fatal for #6 BirdFlyOverTheValley, dammit! Stuck again. Another cheer.... Jeffrey's got second place! Okay, I finally make it to Around Denmark, and of course it's horrible. The remaining 7 persevere, but at one point I fall over in exasperation. I got up and hi-fived a kid in the front row for good luck.... and promptly finished 30 seconds later. (thanks, dude!) Well, 3rd place, I'm pleased with that. Well done that yellow Sunrise. Phew! Oh, and I get a plain-wood Krom as my prize. That makes 3 to take home with me.

The next half-hour or so was spent chilling out and re-fuelling on water, sandwiches, fruit and Katrine's yummy kendama cake. So I missed the Beginner/Intermediate Best Trick division. Adv/Pro was up, I kicked it off with Robin's ball+kendama sequence. Hjalte followed with more juggle-style kendama. On my other attempts, I tried to nail fast hand drill, but no dice. The judges picked 5 finalists to come back for a 30-second run. Hjalte, Mattias & Thorkild (as a duo), KendAlex, Thomas and [the guy in the Jus Liv It t-shirt in my gallery] came back, and the committee decided they liked Hjalte's moves best. Taiyo for you, sir!

Then there were 2 divisions of Last Man Standing, each echoing to regular sounds of "Aaarrgghhh!" as people dropped out on tricks they knew they shouldn't have. See my photo gallery for the winners (sorry, I don't know their names...  Thorkild, Theo, any help?).

Then it was wind-down time. Time to just chill and trick-swap, DAMA, try out each other's kendamas. I also was asked to sign a few autographs, which is always a bit of a weird feeling, but I suppose it's a nice thing to do, and of course it's flattering to be asked at all.

Right then, pack up, and head off to Philip & Katrine's place for a chill out, chat and a lovely Indian meal. Followed up by a game of sitting down DAMA. Jeffrey wins again! We head back to the KDKHQ for a few hours more clicking. Emil took the chance of taking a BKA exam with Thorkild at the helm. He managed to step up from his prior 1st Kyu to a 1st Dan. Only the dreaded Moshi Kame stopped him from going further, I'm sure. Well done Emil! We had another T8 session, with unsuspecting tricks being sneaked up on and nailed.

Late night walk back to the hotel... And it's snowing! It was tough getting any sleep, as my mind was buzzing with the day's goings on.

Up super early again, for Philip to taxi us back to the airport. Thanks so much for being a great host, Philip, along with Thorkild, Mattias and Isaac you all made it a really great weekend for all of us! The Danish kendama scene is really booming, and you guys should be proud.

At the airport with a little time to kill, but little energy to spare, we once again had a bit of a T8 session - landing such tricks as Scoop Up, UFO, C-whip, Earth Turn, Double Jumping Stick and quite a few more between us. I got home tired, but very happy.

Until the next one, keep clicking hard, everyone!

Photos are here:
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Click the cake for more pics!
***Please DO NOT upload any of these photos to Facebook or anywhere else. If you would like to share them, please share the page URL. Thanks. ***

[The Void]

Really nice group shot by Jeffrey:

Back row: Philip, Morten, Thomas, Mattias (Hey, stop stilting my head! ), Emil, Isaac (hidden), Hjalte
Front row: Jeffrey, Alex, Me, Thorkild (Crazy balance!)

[theobau]

I won one of the last man standing.. I don't know about the other ones..

Theo

[The Void]

Ah, right, I must have missed that too.

[The Void]

Snake Tap looks to me like:
Big Cup>(Orbit & reverse tap) to Big Cup> Spike finish

Don't think I ever updated this: I discovered on arrival that I'd not spotted an extra tap in the video, so Snake Tap is actually:
Big Cup>(Tap, orbit & reverse tap) to Big Cup> Spike finish

[The Void]

The video is finally out!

Great to see some of the footage from what was a great day. Cheers guys!