well folks I'm back.
Here is the news......
For those of you who haven't been following me, david morningstar, jaegoor or Ukranian Alex or any of the guamians or spanish slingers on facebook, whatsapp or (presumably) twitter - I will put together an overview video at some pont soon and post some pics here as well.
This year - due, we believe, to internal spanish/catalan politics - we didn't get to sling at the castle or the festival of the islands. But with less places to be, the rest of the time was more relaxed with more socialising and much less walking
So many thanks to Pep Ribas Ribas and the balearic slinging federation for organising everything and being the brunt of all our complaints.
We love you really Pep
In the end it all worked out well and a grand old time was had by everyone who attended.
So less busy than other years, but on the whole I think - more enjoyable.
If I hadn't picked up a vicious sore throat and cold on tuesday after freezing my bollocks off in soller, I'd actually be feeling quite human now. In previous years by this point I felt like death, warmed up, cooled down, warmed up again and repeatedly poked with a sharp stick.
Okay I did have 12 hours sleep last night, but still felt relatively good.
Kudos and major thanks have to go to Joan oliver Ramon:
https://www.facebook.com/MetgejoanNot only the only mallorcan to offer myself, jaegoor and david somewhere to train. But he also picked up up from the hotel, bought us lunch and gave us all a goodie bag !
Just one of the good guys !
Okay so the big stuff this year.
Last year we had two visitors from guam, interested to learn more about their ancestral skills. They made a lot of friends and promised to come back with a small army !
They went home: they built sling ranges, they got permission to play sling golf, they held competitions, they made various types of slings. Including one that can be made in 30 seconds.
They came back in force - 8 guamians, with 6 active slingers and an irishman ! (for good luck, lol) and they conquerored !
Between them they are taking home the first every sling trophies to guam.
7 OF THEM !
Josiah the 7 year old won 3, Roman
(don't call me ramon) De La Cruz won a trophy for most dianas in one comp and a third place in the final day's international. Brandi also won 2 trophies. One for simply being the Only international female (she still scored well) and one 2nd or third (can't remember) in proper competition.
Alexandr Krzheshovsky took home 2 trophies to Ukrainia. He's spent a year training hard and it showed !
This year with some amazing advances to google translate he was finally able to communicate in real time with the rest of us. Even offline the google translate app is phenomenal. With online access it can become a realtime 2 way speech translator.
It just blew me away.
We found out what a great guy he is - we knew it - but it's amazing to actually converse with someone you don't have a language in common with.
When you have a group of people that come from so many different countries and cultures, being able to communicate reliably in a language different to your own is fantastic.
And just looking at the ukranian words on the screen and hearing it spoken - there is no other way on earth, I'd be able to talk to ukranian alex any other way.
Had a couple of 'lads' rock up from switzerland this year. Swiss Alex and Swiss Martin.
Roman renactors who were interested in learning more about the sling.
So as if language wasn't already an issue, we now had: Swiss Alex, Ukranian Alex and English Alex (that would be me, for those of you who don't know my off-line identity).
For the sake of ease on score sheets: I'm Alex, Ukranian alex is: Alexander and Swiss Alex is Swiss Alex
Some new spanish guys as well.
Competition wise, Silvio did well again. Winning the internationals only comp outright and getting a respectable 2nd in the world championship.
Everything else was either won by menorcans or Ibithans. Mallorca, even with home ground advantage
(and deliberately hiding all the good rocks on the final day), did very poorly this year.
Young Raoul
(or as I call him: mini Luis) from menorca, in his first year slinging as an individual adult, won the over all championship !
Great lad, and destined to become a true future ambassador for the sport !
Menorcan and ibithan teams won just about all the team comps. With ibithan women taking most of the individual trophies that guam or menorca did not win.
Given that there are less than 20 slingers on the whole of menorca - this is an incredible achievement.
On the world stage: in 1 year Guam has gone from a few guys looking to reconnect with their ancestral roots, to the leading sling nation in the world.
They have more active slingers than all the balearic islands put together.
They held more competitions last year and they have advanced the cause of slinging in a way nobody has ever done before - anywhere !
There is a new world order in slinging folks, driven by the sheer charisma and relentless enthusiam of Roman de la Cruz. A man it's impossible to dislike, who once set upon a course will accomplish it - no matter the obstacles.
And you know what ? If slinging is ever to become an olympic sport, forget spain, forget the balearic islands: it will be done with the Fokai spirit and drive and enthusiam of Guam !
You heard it here first