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[ta0]

Crazy, crazy day, yesterday. Landed in Orlando at 3PM but arrived at the Rozen at 10 PM (with the Colombians and Salvador).  A tale of lost (and finally found) passports and driver licence, missing reservations, etc., etc. But now everything is fine. More like a dream, actually. The Cometa team is 7 strong with 3 freestyling: Gus , Carlos y Alex Torres. Takeshi is here! Steve Brown is coming. Taka and Yumi are here.

[the Earl of Whirl]

Takeshi is there?  Steve Brown too!  And Yumi should be ready to do the ladder.  With all the Columbians and Mexicans this will be some special world championships!

I am a couple of hours away but finally in Florida.  I can't wait.

[lincolnrick]

You guys have a great time and throw a top or two for those of us who can't be there.  Take lots of pics!!

[the Earl of Whirl]

I wish I were more of a picture taker.  Sorry.  I will try to paint some pictures with my words!

What a busy afternoon it has been.  Things are sure different with the Columbians here and our old friend Salvador.  Lots and lots of top activity and exchange of information.  czyoyo was spinning and gyrating like crazy when I walked in.  He is really on!  pplgrande is here and full of smiles.  I met jrodriguez from Ithaca, NY.  I just talked with Steve Brown and he says he wants to come to the Miamisburg festival!  Oh my!!!  As ta0 says, it is crazy around here.

The rain really was pouring for a while and I was glad I was not at Harry Potter world with my wife and step-daughters.  A moving moment for me was when I took Martha from Columbia in to meet Yumi from Japan.  How exciting to see the women of top spinning sharing ideas and smiles.

The Colombians all gathered around me for a picture.  That was another special moment.  They were talking to me about the unicycle/top spinning.  I hope they are not too disappointed.

johnm came through with an amazing new recycled top and people were going crazy trying the smaller orange one.  I could barely get it back from Colombian Carlos.  Ta0 was especially anxious to try it.....and see if it would wire walk!

It is comforting to hear Mark Hayward's voice.  He is the official MC and can be heard throughout the hallway announcing each contestant and then telling when their time is up.  I got to talk to him for a second when I was up measuring the stage (which is bigger than I expected at 33 feet by 15 feet).

[poptop]

I wish I was there!  Have fun folks and keep the updates coming.

Good luck to all!

[the Earl of Whirl]

Many have already gone to Lucky's but I am waiting and hoping to get some stage time.  There are over 180 1A and probably will not finish until after 8:30.  Whew!  Poor Tyler Young.  He is in the last third of the last third and is still waiting.  He says he has been waiting for over five hours to do his yoyo routine. 

I also say "poor Mark".  He has been announcing all this time!

Autograph got a lot of action this afternoon.  I count five new names on the list and lots of great stories.  Salvador was snap starting it!

How touching to meet Beatriz from Boston.  She is here with her yoyoing son but has roots in Colombia.  She is all smiles as she sits and talks with her newfound friends and newfound family from Colombia!  She is another great example of the wonderful friends one can make at this event.

Can anyone get the streaming?  Is it coming through at all?  There is a sign at the registration desk that says live stream: Justin.tv/wyyc

[lincolnrick]

Thanks for the heads up, Mike.  I'm looking at the streaming now, nothing but a dark room though.  It is almost 10:00 p.m. so are things winding down?  I'll keep the stream up till bedtime just in case something happens.

[the Earl of Whirl]

Tyler was tremendous with his yoyo routine.  He looked perfect to me!

The crowd cleared out and I got on the stage with my unicycle.  The Hickerson's seemed humored when I about went off the back of it.  As I headed out to the hall I saw some beaming people with plaques.  It was Martha and Carlos from Colombia.  They placed in Lucky's 15 seconds of fame.  Carlos was 3rd and Martha won it all.  How exciting!

I finally made it back to the room to reflect on lots of great memories from the first day of worlds 2013.

[jim in paris]

hi all

the good vibrations have arrived here in corsica

i wish you all a wonderful time

i say hello to enrique salovador and   the rest of the spinning crowd
kiss from jim

[the Earl of Whirl]

On a national sports show on the radio this morning, they were talking about Orlando!  I started listening more closely.  "Something is happening in Orlando that will change that city for a long time" they said.  My mind started whirling.  "Find out after this commercial break."  I wondered, could they be talking about how the world top spinning and yoyo championships will not be there anymore?  Maybe they are thinking of the amazing gathering of top spinners at the Rosen Plaza?  Or quite possibly they are referring to the great placing of the trompo players at Lucky's last night?  After the commercial break they came back with the boring news that the city of Orlando is putting up 20 million dollars for a new stadium.  If they put that money into top spinning then I might have been excited!

I will be glad to pass on your greetings, Jim.  I just came back from some early morning stage time.  Can you believe I had to share the stage with four other people from Japan that early in the morning?  There were only a dozen or so others in the hall at 7:30 am but believe it or not, yothomas was one of them.  I am back in my room and resting with the family until this afternoon's top spinning workshop.  So I am offline for awhile.

[ta0]

Martha and Carlos were so exited on winning the 15 seconds of fame. The awars are very nice, and the $200 made them nicer! It is great to see how happy the Colombians are about been here!

Cometa took the whole team to Universal so we didn't see them during the day but they were going very strong at night. Gus is a veritable spinning machine and was trying new tricks are 2:30 AM. 
Kirk (and his wife!) stayed to the end demonstrating he is hard core!

[the Earl of Whirl]

Corkscrew competition is going on now and it is quite a sight.  I got here late after being at downtown Disney with my family and barely got six on my last try.  The same happened with seven but then I finally settled down and got a new personal best at 10 and 11.  Amazingly, I was one of SEVEN who did eleven.  Wow!  Now they are at 13 and six remain.  This could go on all night!!!

[the Earl of Whirl]

Those who made 12 include:

Gus
Ta0
Tyler Young
Eli Hickerson
Mark Hayward
Omar Garza

[the Earl of Whirl]

I just looked at my watch and realized we have been at this over two hours.  I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by.  Neither can several sitting around me!

Here is the latest news.....three have broken the world record!!!  Tyler, Eli and Gus have all done 14!  Mark set a new all time lefty record at 13.  It just hit me that I now have the record for people over 60.  Ha ha.

On a serious note, Salvador competed with a fixed tip and set a world record for this competition with ten wraps!!!

[the Earl of Whirl]

It is six pm and it is finally over.  Tyler and Eli both got 15 wraps for a new world record and they missed at 16.  I measured Tyler's string at just an inch or two over 14 feet.  Eli's string was shorter at 13 feet and a few inches.

We had the group picture and the corkscrew trophy will spend part of the year with Sir T and part of the year with Sir E.  Thanks Jim for a wonderful trophy which stimulated some tremendous competitions.