Flugtag!

After a long work week, I very much enjoyed the weekend (and am missing it now). I slept in for a nice long time, lounged in pajamas for hours, and Friday night I went to Red Bull's Flugtag event which happened here in Austin.

For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a goofy sort of competition that people enter "flying" contraptions into. A 30 foot tall ramp was built over Towne Lake in the near middle of downtown, and teams took turns pushing their inventions off the ramp, to see who could gain the most distance from the ramp before falling into the water. However, seeing as none of them could fly in the least bit, I'd say it was more a competition of who had the most creative crashing vehicle than flying machine.

At first, I could not exactly say the event was fun, because I really didn't see much of the event at all. Thousands and thousands of people crowded the riverfront, which was also occupied by tall trees whose canopies blocked the way. On the way into the park I had seen a girl wearing platform wedge sandals that made me cringe to look at, and I thought, "What is wrong with her- why would you wear those to an event and a place like this?" As I peered into numerous shoulder blades ahead of me, I understood why, simultaneously wishing I had brought along a step ladder.

Every now and then I caught a snippet of the action between people's heads or through some branches, but despite the visibility issues, we were always moving around looking for a better spot to see. Myself and one of the guys I was with got separated from our third group member, so we spent a good 30-45 minutes tracking him down on top of that. However, when we finally spotted him, the fun could finally begin, as he had found a spot on the nearby bridge, with a straight shot view of the end of the ramp.

Luckily, nobody in the crowd minded that he pulled me up to where he was against the railing. (Perhaps because I miserably reached through them to poke him, and made sure to say in a loud enough voice how I was so happy I had finally found him and unfortunately I hadn't seen any of the event yet because I'd need to grow a few more feet in order to- what nice people to sympathize with me.) :)

Most of the contraptions were some variation of a glider attached to a holding vessel that held one member of the team, that the rest of the group would push down and off the ramp. It was the way in which the vehicle was decorated, the costumes the team would wear, and the crazy little dance or show the group would put on before plummeting off the edge that differentiated them usually. One group was dressed like the flinstones and modeled their machine after the car the flinstones drive; one of the contraptions was decorated to look like a giant cockroach spreading its wings and smiling; and a group of soldiers who had served in Iraq entered a piece and performed a "secret mission" in their camoflauge uniforms before deploying, to name some examples.

There was one in particular that, although did not travel far from the ramp, did actually hover in the air a bit more the others, sort of floating to the water. It was a device that strongly resembled a patio table with an umbrella, but had a guy sitting on top of it in a basket, with the bright green umbrella spinning around beneath him. The rest of the inventions corkscrewed, tumbled and crashed, much to the amusement of the giant audience.

Unfortunately, none of my pictures of the machines or their launches (or crashes) came out well, as we were still quite far away. But standing on the bridge overlooking the many boaters and waders who gathered to watch while the sun set over them, I was able to get an awesome little nature pic- a little solace for the inconveniences I suffered I suppose.

In any case, I still had a good night, and we went to Amy's Ice Cream afterward (home of the most delicious flavor of vanilla in the world!)- so of course my evening out was well worth the heat and the reminder of my height challenged stature. :)