Video Blog: CCS 2005

It has taken me five months to complete it, but I've finally uploaded all of the photos (including movies) of the 2005 Columbia Cascade Sectional Tournament to Jerry the Geek's Shooting Gallery.

There are 5 sub-albums total, presenting 204 photos and 33 videos

You can go directly to the shooting gallery main page and click on the links for direct access to each sub-album, or follow the links from the day-1 album, or weave your way through the albums and find links to the sub-albums.

That works fine for browsing, but here's the directory with links to the main album and all the sub-albums:

Day 1 - Still Photos (48 images on 6 pages)
Day 1 - Videos (12 movies, including "Miami Vice - The Movie" on Page 2)

Day 2 - Still Photos (71 images on 8 pages)
Day 2 - Videos (21 movies)

Awards and Group Pictures (85 pictures on I forgot how many pages)

You may recall that I earlier spoke of how burned out I was after the match, and later I discussed the thematic considerations ("Keystone Kops") and how they affected the stage designs and the props we used. (There were lots of jail-bars, and all of the stages were named after cop-movies and cop-television shows.) Also, as the Keystone Kops were known for running back and forth in apparent confusion, most of the stages featured lateral movement and often required you to re-cover the the same ground several times.

There was even a fine discussion on rules interpretation ("What is A Tool?") , which overflowed into various Internet forums including my home town, The Unofficial IPSC List.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a 'dedicated photographer', so most of the photos and videos were taken within the confines of the squad to which I was assigned: Squad 1. I don't know whether I got that squad assignment because I was Section Competition Director, or because I pouted so prettily. But it was kewl starting with the first stage, and going to each stage in rotation until I got to the last stage.

The first article I wrote gave the link for the match results, if you're interested. They're still 'up' on the Columbia Cascade Section Website (see the link on the sidebar),

If you go look at them, and compare them to the sequence of the photos, you may notice that the stages are numbered differently than the sequence in which they were actually encountered. That's because no single range was big enough to hold the entire 11-stage (plus chrono) match, so it was spread across two ranges. Half of the squads shot at the Dundee range on Saturday, and on the Tri County range on Sunday. The other half of the squads started on Tri County, and finished on Dundee on Sunday.

But the Tri County range was in the middle of a MASSIVE reconstruction project, adding a lot of new bays, and they weren't sure how many would be available and what size they would be. The TC folks but a major effort into completing enough bays to hold their half of the stages JUST in time -- they were building the berms and leveling the grounds on the last two bays while we were setting up stages, TWO DAYS before the match started!

As a result of this reconstruction, Tri County will host the 2006 Area 1 match. They now have 12 bays, from small (10x20 yards) to huge (40x60 yards) and most of the berms are built of huge concrete 'bricks', faced with dirt. You can see them in many of the pictures on the album.

Incidently, my home range (Albany Rifle and Pistol Club) is also in the process of reconstruction. There will be 11 bays, the last four of which will be comparable to the biggest of the Tri County bays. Seven of them currently feature concrete pads and 3-walled cover over the staging area. All of the bays in these two ranges are covered in deep gravel, so mud and rain are no longer a problem in the Columbia Cascade Section.

The plans are for the 2006 Columbia Cascade Sectional to be held at the Albany Range, which will even have sufficient parking for over 100 competitors.

I'm getting a little far astray of my main theme - the CCS photos are UP! - but this is my first official post of 2006, and I think it continues with the comfortable tradition of Geek-Length posts.

I want to extend a special thank you to the lovely SWMBO, who took at least half of the photos displayed on the Gallery. I didn't post ALL of the photos, but I did post all of the videos. She chose to assume this chore in addition to RO-ing, taping, scoring, helping me with squad-leader administrivia, and incidently shooting her own match.

If you like the photos, thank her; she made it all possible. If you don't like the photos, it's my fault.

But if you have a hi-speed connection, I particularly recommend the film she made showing how a couple of the stages look from the point-of-view of the shooter. She did this for "Remington Steele" and "Miami Vice". (I added a little appropriate music to the last film.)