torek, 13. oktober 2009

4fun competition in Selca



On Sunday October 11, there was a 4fun frisbee competition, the last in a series of six, at the Škoja Loka-Železniki Kennel Club. The grounds of the club are located in an idyllic setting, part of an expansive area of parks, sports fields, and meadows at the outskirts of the village of Selca, along the Selca branch of the Sora River. A footpath parallels the river, with several access points where dogs can go splash in it. Which my dogs happily did, during a pre-competition walk, even though the temperatures have dropped considerably in the last week or two.

Idyllic or not, one drawback of being so close to a river is the danger of flooding: in September 2007, heavy flooding caused extensive damage in the Sora Valley and elsewhere, and pretty much demolished the kennel club facilities, as you can see in the photos here.

But two years later the place has been fully renovated. True, after some rains earlier in the week, and due to slow-draining soils and a predominantly shady aspect, the ground was soggier than what we're used to in my part of Slovenia (the Karst, where any rain quickly percolates through the limestone surface and the rivers run underground), but apart from a puddle or two the field was not bad to play on. The weather stayed dry and we even caught glimpses of sun.

The dogs had a great time. They like the cooler temperatures even if their owners don't. ;) Mine do, at any rate, they were happier and friskier than I've seen them all season. Lyra in particular was in great form, catching almost all of my minidistance throws, and winning that event with two solid rounds and a total of 36 points. One of the very few times she's beaten Oli (who was fourth this time).

Full results can be seen here; below are photos of the awards for the top three finishers in each event.

Mindistance:


1. Jean and Lyra (obscured by Oli, who is in the picture only because I didn't want to leave her unattended), with 36 points

2. Maja and Nelly, with 33 points

3. Aleš and Ayya, with 32.5 points


Time trial:


1. Jean and Oli, with a winning time of 18.05 seconds. Not bad, but still not as good as Petra and Veni at an earlier competition in the season: 17.39 seconds, which is the fastest time so far for this event in Slovenia. :)

2. Petra and Gia, with 18.83 seconds

3. Maja and Bri, with 18.93 seconds


Men's Quadruped without dogs:


1. Aleš Sušnik, 51.05 meters

2. Roman Žitnik, 50.7 meters

3. Tomaž Šubic, 44.7 meters


Women's Quadruped without dogs:



1. Jean McCollister, 47.8 meters

2. Maja Kokalj, 47.35 meters

3. Daša Zakotnik, 35.5 meters


Quadruped with dogs:


1. Maja and Bri, 47.35 meters

2. Jean and Oli, 45.65 meters

3. Tomaž and Casper, 43.6 meters


And winners of the cup (cumulative results from best four competitions of six in the series):


1. Amadea and Bora

2. Petra and Gia

3. Petra and Buffy


It was a very nice conclusion to the season. Thanks to all who made these events possible. Although I was only able to attend two of them this season, I hope to be a regular in future, and I would encourage more players from Slovenia as well as neighboring countries to take part. It's a great way to gain competition experience in a friendly, supportive, and fun atmosphere. Rumor has it that there just may be a winter cup in the offing...

četrtek, 8. oktober 2009

Last Slovenian 4fun competition of the season


Dogfrisbee 4 Fun tekma se bo odvijala v nedeljo, 11.10.2009 v ŠKD Škofja Loka - Selca pri Železnikih (Športni park Rovn).

Kako do vadbišča: http://kd-skofjaloka-zelezniki.net/zemljevid_kd.html

Tekmovalo se bo v naslednjih disciplinah:
- mini distance (2 rundi)
- time trial (2 rundi)
- quadruped s psom
- quadruped brez psa - moški
- quadruped brez psa - ženske

Štartnina je 5 EUR za nastop v eni disciplini ali 10 EUR za vse discipline skupaj in se jo plača na kraju dogodka.

Zbor tekmovalcev je ob 11.30 uri.
Prijave na mail: ales@wtf.si, prosim, če v prijavi navedete:
- ime in priimek
- ime psa
- gsm

ali kar na forum.

Tekma je zadnja, ki šteje za pokal Slovenije v dogfrisbee-ju.
Po končani tekmi bomo razglasili zmagovalce pokala in razdelili denar zmagovalcem.

Vljudno vabljeni!

ponedeljek, 5. oktober 2009

Frisbee show in Nova Vas

On Sunday September 27 Nadja and I went to Bloke Ranch in Nova Vas to do a halftime frisbee show at their horse event, "Spretnost je umetnost." The organizers set up a very innovative obstacle course that horses and their handlers had to negotiate calmly and skillfully. The emphasis was on negotiating the course without resorting to whips, spurs, and other forms of force.

For the first round, handlers led their horses through the series of obstacles.

There was a gate...


a bridge, where the horse had to stand quietly and wait while the owner rang a bell three times...



a water obstacle (not pictured) followed by this weird-looking thing...



then a tunnel (not pictured), then you had to go with your horse into a sort of three-sided improvised chute (hay bales on two sides and the tunnel wall at the end, not pictured) and stand there for five seconds, then back out, then go and collect a wooden club and use it to tip the scary-looking creature pictured below into a bow.


During the second round competitors repeated the course, this time on horseback:


In between rounds the arena was taken over by our dogs. As a warmup I ran the obstacle course with Lyra:


She did a great job, but I was disappointed when the judges didn't give us a score so we could see how we compared with the horses' results. ;) I was also quite surprised when Lyra balked at the water obstacle, running alongside it instead of through it; I thought for sure that would be her favorite, but I guess she didn't want to get her dainty feet dirty.

After warming up Lyra (and the crowd), I launched into our frisbee routine. Somewhat adjusted for the smaller space available. And my first experience performing on sand. Interesting. Lyra got a mouthful whenever she tried to scoop up a missed frisbee from the ground, and I got generous amounts in my hair, shoes, pants, etc. But it wasn't too bad. Makes for nice soft landings anyway. :)





After I finished with Lyra, Nadja took over. Unfortunately I didn't get to see or hear much because I was busy changing dogs. She was fitted with a microphone, which confused Ginny a bit because when Nadja called her she ran in the direction of the speakers instead of towards the caller. ;) Nadja told the audience a bit more about the sport (and also about aussies) and demonstrated some freestyle moves, like weaving...



flips...





leg vault...



and flying...



Then it was Oli's turn to get sand in her mouth (and all over me):







(note water obstacle in background here...)





It was a very nice event, thanks to Maja and Jure at Bloke Ranch for inviting us! Next time I hope to come with a horse as well as a dog.

četrtek, 1. oktober 2009

Poročilo iz obiska v osnovni šoli

posted by Tamara Gregorčič

Z Žakom sva se v ponedeljek, 28.9.2009, odzvala na povabilo in obiskala učence od 1. do 5. razreda podružnične osnovne šole Jevnica. Povabili so naju predvsem zato, da pokaževa kako izgleda dogfrisbee.

Še preden smo se z učenci srečali, so naju poznali, saj jim je učiteljica pokazala najine slike in posnetke na you tubu. Na šoli sva prejela lep sprejem, potem pa smo se skupaj odpravili na bližnje nogometno igrišče. Najprej sem jim razložila kaj bova pokazala, lahko so si pogledali frizbije in ščitnike, potem pa sva pokazala najin freestyle program.



Učenci so bili navdušeni, zato so se še sami preizkusili v metanju frizbijev. Nekaterim je šlo prav dobro. Žak pa se je med tem zabaval s pobiranjem frizbijev in jih nosil na kup. Tako nam je tudi prihranil nekaj dela s pospravljanjem. Dve deklici sta v tem času poskušali izvesti najin freestyle program - ena je oponašala Žaka, druga pa mene.


Žak se je med tem časom že malo spočil, zato sva pokazala še malo trikcev, nato pa so mu otroci metali še žogice. Žak se je imel super, saj še ni doživel, da bi se toliko otrok z njim igralo. Žogice jim je kar sam prinašal v roke. Nekaj se jih je opogumilo in mu dalo tudi nekaj pasjih priboljškov. Za konec sva pokazala še nekaj frisbee trikcev, ki so bili otrokom najbolj všeč.





Žak je bil na koncu že kar utrujen in sledilo je božanje z vseh strani...



Žak je bil ta dan dober cirkuški in mečkalni pes, zato so mu otroci podarili super pasjo igračko, nad katero je bil navdušen. Otroci pa mu pravijo: Žak, po priimku junak :)

Maribor competition

What a great day! Perfect weather, superb premises, and a terrific international atmosphere. There were about 60 teams who came to Maribor from six different countries: the Netherlands, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Croatia, and of course Slovenia. Organizationally there were a few hitches, but nothing too terrible, and considering it was our first time carrying out such an ambitious project, we did all right. AND we raised 250€ for the Horjul animal shelter through the Quadruped for Horjul fundraiser. Big thanks to everyone who participated, helped, competed, watched, cheered...I hope you all had an enjoyable time! And most of all that your dogs had a fun day out.

Full results and a photo gallery can be seen on the Flipsi website. Here's a taste:

The Dutch players in particular proved to be great showmen...




In addition to border collies ...




there was a nice variety of other breeds...
















Our Flipsi registration team and official photographer, working hard all day in exchange for a few cookies...


Manca was kept so busy announcing she didn't even get a cookie...


Aleš, accurately predicting his final ranking in Time trial...


Peter, jumping for joy (I think)...


A truly international finish in Mindistance (Netherlands, Slovenia, Czech Republic)...


A slightly less international finish in Open freestyle...



And a group photo...we are all winners!




Thanks again to all of you!