Canyon Creek 2010 Area 5 Championship

[shootingchef]

Thanks for a great match. Timing could not have been better for the last shot fired on my squad. Minutes after the last shooter,the skies opened up and drenched the place. Squad 405 was great.

[G-ManBart]

Yep, definitely a fun match. I took the Manny Bragg class with 7 other brave souls and we had a really good time. Thank God for the tent on Tues or we would have been soaked! JT went out of his way to make sure we were taken care of, and it turned out to be a great class and a great venue for a big match.

[twodownzero]

Yep, definitely a fun match. I took the Manny Bragg class with 7 other brave souls and we had a really good time. Thank God for the tent on Tues or we would have been soaked! JT went out of his way to make sure we were taken care of, and it turned out to be a great class and a great venue for a big match.

+1

I had a great time and learned a lot. Jim Thompson is a riot! Chatted with him for a bit on stage 10.

Have a drink on me, Jim!

[rvb]

I'll echo the others saying what a great match it was.

The work on the facilities was top notch. From what I saw everything seemed to go to smoothly from registration to lunch to the shooting schedule. The stages were challenging with lots of options. The staff did a great job. Kudos to everyone involved.

And a big Thank you! to the sponsors!

-rvb

[gunner40sw]

It was a hard match that was for sure, there is just one thing I can't figure out. On Friday it seems like the squading was all screwed up we had very large squads that seemed to really slow down the entire day. !! hours to shoot the match in that heat really took a toll on alot of shooters. Maybe there was a reason for it but the way I figured according to how many shooters you had for friday you could have had like 8 six man squads and 4 seven man squads that would have really moved things along instead of the 6 or 7 twelve man squads. When we were on stage 5 there was nobody on stage 6 or 7 or the chrono and the squad was just finishing up on stage 8. We were even hearing on the radio the different ro,s calling in that they need shooters on their stage. Then when we got to our last stage of the day it was already closed down people running the stage said they didn't have any shooters there for over 2 hours so they thought everyone was done. I know it takes a ton of work to put on a match like this and I appreciate all the people that worked so hard but I know I am not the only one that thought Friday could have been run alot faster.

[B_Seehawer]

Had a blast Jimmy, thanks to you, Dave, Mike, Darla, and all others that lived there and set up!! Hats off to my squad 306 peeps, fastest pasters and steel setters in town!! Not sure, we might have set the steel faster than we shot it......

Brad

[JThompson]

It was a hard match that was for sure, there is just one thing I can't figure out. On Friday it seems like the squading was all screwed up we had very large squads that seemed to really slow down the entire day. !! hours to shoot the match in that heat really took a toll on alot of shooters. Maybe there was a reason for it but the way I figured according to how many shooters you had for friday you could have had like 8 six man squads and 4 seven man squads that would have really moved things along instead of the 6 or 7 twelve man squads. When we were on stage 5 there was nobody on stage 6 or 7 or the chrono and the squad was just finishing up on stage 8. We were even hearing on the radio the different ro,s calling in that they need shooters on their stage. Then when we got to our last stage of the day it was already closed down people running the stage said they didn't have any shooters there for over 2 hours so they thought everyone was done. I know it takes a ton of work to put on a match like this and I appreciate all the people that worked so hard but I know I am not the only one that thought Friday could have been run alot faster.

Both Thurs and Friday were that way and you're not the first one to mention it. There were a couple reasons for it and perhaps, we should have split up the squads. We wanted to let the people who self squaded, shoot with their friends. We knew it would make the day longer, but opted to let you shoot with your buddies. The other reason was to get a grip on what the clearing times would be. We made some adjustments from Thursday and needed to know if it would be enough to keep people from backing up on two stages. The changes worked well on Friday, so I knew we could keep people moving on Sat when all stages would start with 12 on a squad.

I had considered dropping a stage because I wasn't sure we could get it to run fast enough to keep it moving. I'd like to thank Lyle, who came out for three days and reset the pressure plate and movers on 8. We had a massive amount of reshoots there on Thurs. We had only one after we put Lyle on it and that was for the cable getting a little slack in it.

Yes, it would have cleared the range faster to split you up. Also, it would have been easier on my staff.

Having done it, we might force you to split up next time, but perhaps not. Leaving the squads at game-day size, helped us to stave off a real goat rope of wait times on the day when we had 144 shooters.

Best.

JT

Edited June 14, 2010 by JThompson

[nwb01]

Great Match, thanks to all the staff!! Nice to finally shoot an area match with a decent finish. Shot with a great squad, mostly friends but had a couple of guys that were sure fun to watch. Max and Blake can make tough stages look so easy !

The only down side of the match was explaining this to the wife.......

Thanks to Carl, Ray and one other staff member, as well as my good friends for getting this patched up for the 6hr drive home.......

BTW.......Coroplast and Duct tape are good up to 95mph !!!

[gunner40sw]

What time did they finish shooting on Saturday?

[furyalecto]

What time did they finish shooting on Saturday?

Our squad finished at about 7:15 IIRC.

Edited June 14, 2010 by furyalecto

[JThompson]

Great Match, thanks to all the staff!! Nice to finally shoot an area match with a decent finish. Shot with a great squad, mostly friends but had a couple of guys that were sure fun to watch. Max and Blake can make tough stages look so easy !

The only down side of the match was explaining this to the wife.......

Thanks to Carl, Ray and one other staff member, as well as my good friends for getting this patched up for the 6hr drive home.......

BTW.......Coroplast and Duct tape are good up to 95mph !!!

I was the other guy bud... sorry about your window.

[furyalecto]

Impressive match. It was an education (1st big match.) I have a lot to work on.

I can't imagine the work it must have taken to put this on. My hat is off to the MD & everyone who worked it.

Edited June 14, 2010 by furyalecto

[Sandro]

Well, got back to FL late yesterday. First I want to congratulate the staff and all the volunteers who helped organize and run the match. As many shooters as we had with all 12 stages it wasn’t easy.

I like the stages, they were technical and very challenging. I have nothing, but good things to say about the match stages and staff. There were no shoots and hard cover targets everywhere, (best hard cover targets) BTW  Also, I wanted to congratulate Chris Keen for winning Master class. Congrats dude!

We shot all day Saturday and the weather was bad for a couple stages, but eventually the rain stopped and it was fine.

As for Bob V., I wish I could’ve had seeing him shoot. Some of the times he did were amazing. I think this is the 2nd Area match this year he finished well ahead of his competition. Good shooting Bob!

Thanks again to the match staff!!!

DVC,

Sandro

Edited June 14, 2010 by Sandro

[Flexmoney]

Thanks to Carl, Ray and one other staff member, as well as my good friends for getting this patched up for the 6hr drive home.......

I like the duct tape...the gray goes with the scarlet!

[Matt Griffin]

I can't comment about Thursday and Friday, but the squads moved as smoothly as I've seen at an area match on Saturday and Sunday, despite weather.

The quality of the stages can't be overstated, at least half were full field courses with lots of options and angles. There's typically two or three of those at a big match, and it's rare to see such good layouts. Us roundgunners need lots of options when it comes to making stages fit six, and there was always a way at this match. Kudos.

H.

[Jetfire]

Thanks, JT and all your staff and ROs.

This was my first "BIG" match, I've only been shooting USPSA a little over 3 months now. I shot with a great Squad "402" though. I learned a lot for watching Ben Stoeger, Matt Mink and the rest of our Squad. I saw how they approached the different stages and their reload points. I unfortunately kept shooting too fast and Miked almost every stage. But I had a great time.

[JakeMartens]

I thought that it was a very good match, lots of hardwork by the staff setting up the stages, lots of detail to get those set up, great job. Not alot of options on the stages, pretty straight foward but alot of harder shots to take with the noshoots and hard cover (which I was able to shoot both) Range was great, very nice place to have a match this size.

Other than my 30 second death jam on my last stage the classifier (never say that you have never had an issue with not case gauging every round, it will come back to bite you in the ass when you least expect, like your last stage, second shot and lock your gun up) it was a great match.

Thanks

Edited June 14, 2010 by fortyfiveshooter

[JThompson]

The match was tough... some of the stages could have been tweaked a bit, but we flat out ran out of time to do so. I would have loved to rework the end of 10 and also rethought 8 a bit... to much in and out there. The issue was one of safety. We had to remove some walls and push everything up into the bay. Basically, the whole stage was changed and designed on the fly. I know Ray would have taken a look at the angle of the stage and the opposing range and pulled it or reworked it. There would have been no time to do so, so the stage would have gotten pulled.

Michael Rhea and Bob Clift have my utmost respect and a special thanks to Lyle Kurtz, who is a machine and reset the 8 consistently and without fail for three days. Also, to the Porters and Larry Starost, along with both my friends Dan and Nate Vestal, who made "The Mess" work and kept things from backing up there.

Those three stages were the choke points of the match and without the superb oversight of those people, you would have been sitting a waiting to shoot. If some of the staff seemed a little gruff at times it's because they know what it takes to keep people moving. I asked them to kick you in the ass and keep you moving... so if there are any comments about that, you can direct them toward me. Well, except maybe Scott... he's surly most of the time. lol

We had a bit of a backup on 10 and I overstepped a bit suggesting an alternate scoring procedure which Mike didn't like, I later apologized for stepping on his toes. He understood my apprehension and said, "Don't worry man, we all got your back." I can't tell you how far that went to calm me down and from that point on I just STFU and let them do their thing. You guys are the heart and soul of the USPSA.

The shortcomings of the match land squarely on my shoulders, as I had a great staff. If it wasn't for them it would have been a serious goat rope.

I'd also like to thank Ray Hirst, without whom. the ROs would have been working on stages before shooting Thurs. That makes for a very unhappy staff. None of the stages were "match ready" when he got there on Weds. We started at 7AM and worked until 7PM. He did all the cabling for us as well as set some targets and, in general, was one of the build crew all day. I owe you big time my friend!

I did the fix-it for Thurs as the staff shot and we beat most of the gremlins into submission.

I'll be reaching out to all my staff via emails soon and personally thanking them for their outstanding work. My heartfelt thanks to all of you and I hope to work with you again in the future. I can only hope, you feel the same.

I can't thank everyone here, but I will be in touch with you all in the coming days and weeks.

You can't help, but have a warm feeling for those that help you get through something like this. Dave Sharp was my right hand man, he ran a stage for me and took off work to help me frame all the walls and kept going when I took breaks. I can say without reservation I love you and am proud to call you my friend. Without this guy you all would have had an 8 stage match. Him and I did 4 of the stages before anyone else got there. considering how close it was at the end, there is no way we would have got them all done. I owe you pal...

Scott Hattrup, who is an arrogant prick, but a hell of an RO and a new friend. Thanks for Looking after Jen and getting her on a course for being a fine RO.

Finally, to my Co-MD Dale Hayen... what can I say man, without your help and calming influence, I would have went screaming into the night.

This is already turning into a book, so I will close, but I wish I could type out a paragraph on all of you. You are the ones that make these things fly and we thank each and every one of you.... even Scott.

Jim Thompson

Retired MD A5

Edited June 15, 2010 by JThompson

[Ben Stoeger]

First rate match guys, I would love to see it there again.

[dcarter]

I had a great time with my squad. You couldn't ask for a greater bunch of guys in one place at one time! Great stages and great crew. Not much to see in Polo unless your really into corn.

[Gary Stevens]

Thanks everybody. This was a good match, and I had alot of fun. Weather was bad, and on more than 1 occasion, but only for a couple hours at a time. Could have been worse.

Nice to see so many good friends, and meet lots more.

Nice to have finally won my own area. I'll get some videos up later.

A big thank you goes out to Rudy Project, Canyon Creek, and JThompson.

Chris I have your plaque, along with Bob Vogle's two plaques. I'll be in Indiana and have them with me.

[eric4069]

I see Bob Vogel has taken another Limited title. He seems to have become the man to beat with iron sights in any division. His discipline and consistency are just amazing... didn't finish below 4th place on any stage... wow!

Is he using a Glock for his Limited gun, or something else?

I was priveleged to be on squad 106 with Bob Vogel on thursday. He was using a Glock L longslide.

He is incredible for a beginner like me to watch, very fast and smooth.

Also pleasant and helpful to the squad, he did most of our scorekeeping. Pure class.

Eric

A65231

[eric4069]

1st I would like to say this was my first major match so I don't have anything to compare to but thought it was a very organized, well run match with stages that made me make a plan and try to stick with it.

2nd a big thanks to everyone in squad 106. The entire squad was very supportive and helpful even with the very BAD day I ended up having due to my own negligence.

3rd an apology to squad 106 for my negligence in paying attention to my own physical shortcomings. I did not eat breakfast due to nerves and excitement. By the 2nd stage I was physically shaking by the 3rd stage my mental and physical capacities were gone and I didn't even know if I was going to be able to continue. Thanks for your patience and thanks to my wife for getting food and liquids in my so I could continue. If my inattention to my condition in any way deterred from your experience I apologize again.

Thanks again,

Larry L.

A64474

P.S. I am 45 yrs old, should know better!!

Larry, It was a pleasure meeting you and shooting with you on squad 106. I'm sorry you weren't feeling well and hope it goes better for you at your next big match. This was my first "big match" too so I know it can be nervous at times.

Eric

A65231

[jripper]

It was a really great match. Probably one of the toughest I shot in years, but still a lot of fun. Pretty good mix, but heavy on the accuracy. Anybody that wonclass or division should be very proud. There were no give me's here. Hats off to all the staff. It wasn't exactly pleasant weather to work 11+ hours a day in. Thanks for all the water. I packed a case of bottled myself, and only used one of them, as the staff kept us well supplied. Great shooting with everyone on squad 412. Congrats on Tony H. for winning Production Master, and Eric G. for top C Production. Tony, dude, you are always too tough on yourself. Anyway, had a great time, and definitely will come back if you all do it again.

[JThompson]

Let's see the pictures and video....