Upon arriving at Las Vegas picking up hire car driving on wrong side of road we had finally arrived at hotel dropped Deb of and went checking out lake mead was a bit disillusioned with land scape. no trees bit different to living in Daintree rainforest, keen for a quick dive got weights and jumped in for swim, woops to many weights never having dived freshwater before this took a lot of getting used to. In water the terrain was exactly same as land, no structure, no trees, no coral, no nothing, just sloping bottom into the never never vis about 5/6 mt. So I lay on the bottom, and slowly slid down, an loose gravel started a landslide, this is definitely going to take a lot of getting used to, but after 6 days of scouting we were ready for comp, so we thought.
During this scouting period we met a lot of the other competitors, great friendships were made and many pleasantries swapped but it was clear that they were also very competitive not to many secrets were given away this was shaping up to be a great competition.
First day of comp boats lined up for start and when the whistle blew, the boat race was on, it was clear that boat start comps all over the world are not one bit different MANIACAL. Even though the comittee had given everyone a half hour travel time before being able to enter the water, we arrived at our first dive site 10 min to go very frustrated, waiting till dive time, this is a new concept for us, the honesty incorporated into this comp. Stripers only today were few and far between, and very challenging diving. We hoped every one else found it as challenging. We looked forward to belting the carp the next day.
Second day start same still maniacal, lets go belt these so called dumb fish and clear the lake of pests. These dumb fish wont know what hit them. They soon learned, and so did the divers who thought it would be easy, including me, they didnt exactly make life easy for us sson dissapearing and being hard to find. A great days spearing was still had and heaps of fish caught.
Whilst i was busy scouting and comp area, my wife was enjoying the other side of life, great sites to see Hooters dam, grand canyon, Las Vegas itself with all its attractions ,not to mention the shopping. I had to buy extra bags to get gifts home, Deb had a ball, didn’t fair to bad at the casino either.
Awards night was a great night with plenty of drinks tales ,tall and short, being told. Congrats to all the winners, I got placing 3rd in masters, I was very happy with, and 25th overall against some very notable legends.
I was extremely pleased with this position as a Master and (the Bundy bear has still got a bit left in him.)
Over all this was one of the best competitions i have competed in, the friendships made and the camaraderie, was the best ever. Representing Australia at this level again was fantastic, and diving against the other countries top competitors was the best. The honesty and friendliness of all involved, the origination of the committee and the fact that we were helping the environment by depleting invasive species certainly made this a world class event. This is definitely the way to go for future competitions.
Many thanks to Mike, the committee and all the sponsers involved it was an absolute honner to get invited and compete at this level again.
Cheers
Andy
