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[ta0]

Yesterday we visited some sport installations in Bogotá and then we came by car to the small town of Tocaima, 2.5 hours aways. While Bogota at 2.7 km above sea level was cool/cold, here it' hot. Today we visited a larger town an hour away, Girardot, where they showed us other facilities, including a nice hotel which could work for one of our contests.
The opening of the traditional games finals, with representatives from 100 towns in the state of Cundinamarca, is tonight. It seems that Dale will do a yoyo demo and Val and me a spintop demo.
The actual competitions are tomorrow all day.

Here is a photo of Val with a virtual top in Bogota (she had taken the same photo in the US)



s

[jim in paris]

hello Jorge

i have been following your tracks on the map :Bogota ,
Tocaïma , then SW to Girardot (a very french name)
according to wiki it's quite a large city of 94 000 people , a favourite for weekend breaks from Bogota

what time of the year would it be most suitable ?

have a good trip , hello Dale and Val

jim

[ta0]

We had a very nice opening ceremony.



That took place at the Tejo court, which is the national traditional game of Colombia.



The spintop title is a combo of 3 events that have to be done with the same regulation size top: rayuela, calle and figuras. In rayuela you hit a top laying in the middle of a circle. In calle (street) you push a target with your top a certain distance. Figures is the most tricks in 3 minutes, but there are 5 basic tricks that are required.

[ta0]

Yesterday the day started with rain but by mid morning it stopped. That was good because tops took place in the main square. We started with "rayuela". The rules are curious: you get points if you knock the dead top out of the circle and your top continues to spin out of the circle. You get 10 points if you do it on the first try, 6 on the second or 3 on the third. The standard throw is like an overhand failed boomerang in which you try to knock the target top towards you.



There was only one advanced trick player competing. But because of the rules he only got a point per trick, no mater the difficulty. I guess this made it competitive when the scores from the three events were added.

La "calle" was very intersting for us to see. It also had a lot of drama. The organizers wanted the police to close a street but they were offered one far away and they decided to do it in the square even if it was shorter than the 40m called by the rules. It was a head to head elimination contest. I will post a video of the final round when I'm back home.

[jim in paris]

hello again

from your descriptions and photos, there are 2 things that I really like

first : the different competitions take place in the street
it's a good thing to play near people , you make things happen!
but for the freestyles , I'd prefer a regular stage with good light and sound, no wind and humidity

second : the format based on 3 different skills

I wish you a pleasant return flight

jim

[ta0]

We have the full day today to visit Bogota, but unfortunately being a Monday the museums, including El Museo de Oro with the gold artifacts from the Muisca culture are closed.

Cecil will be proud of me: I spun a 17 lb top!



The lady who has this other large top on the photo won the women competition (but this top was too heavy for her to spin).

A surprise: I met the famous Don Antonio who was making tops at the event!

[the Earl of Whirl]

Don Antonio!?!?!  The legend!!!!  That IS a big surprise.

[ta0]

Don Antonio!?!?!  The legend!!!!  That IS a big surprise.

Yes! Don Antonio!

[ta0]

The top contest consisted in 3 different games. The Calle style (calle=street) was done by head to head elimination. This was the final:

[ta0]

On the Calle game above, the original intention was to play it on the street, as it's traditional. Also, the rules asked for a distance of at least 40 meters. But the police didn't want to close a street close to the main square and the organizers didn't want to do it at another location, so it was done in the square with a shorter distance (on the video of the final all the action happens on the loser's half). Before starting the heats, there was a very spirited discussion about the rules: some wanted to take the strikes by taking turns, others by whoever finished wrapping the top faster. It was decided by a vote for the first option. The eventual winner argued that taking turns was more fair for people with longer strings while the guy who ended up second argued that the speed version was more exciting. For the strike from the throw to be valid, the striking top needs to keep spinning (even if it's outside the boundaries). After that the top can be scooped up to strike it again for as long as it spins (but the top does not have to spin after a valid strike from the hand). If the target top exits the boundaries, it's replaced at the same position along the street (at the center line).

Everybody used the same throw in the Calle as in the Rayuela: hitting the target top on the pull back! So the tops would usually leave the circle on the side of the thrower. As long as the striking top exited the circle spinning, it didn't matter if it re-entered. Here is an example of Rayuela from the women competition:

[ta0]

I couldn't interact as much as I would have wished with Antonio as he was only one day there, working all the time the lathe while I took part on all the top activities. But I had three days to get to know Roberto Castiblanco, who has been a key figure the last three decades in the development of tops in Colombia. He has a degree in industrial design and a wood shop where he makes wooden models for product development, custom furniture and fixtures and, of course, tops. He is also a performer at heart. Here he is with his 17 lb solid top (he has up to a 26 lb top  ):



I believe it was in the 80's that he started, together with a land surveyor named Alvaro Farero, to do exhibitions and promote trompos around Colombia. He wrote the original rules for the spintop tournaments like the one in Tocaima. He has hand turned huge amounts of tops, contributing to the current shape of tops for competition, and at one time Don Antonio's son worked for him, thus influencing the father's tops. After inspecting Figaro he said he would make some hollow tops, starting by a double tip (I saw him playing quite a bit with a double tip top). We might see him at US nats, if held in Miamisburg, next year . . .

One anecdote of the trip is that on my layover in Mexico City on my way back, I almost could not take Figaro in my carry on. I had a long discussion with half a dozen security people ("Mexican TSA") until they finally let me through (yes, I offered to do a demonstration). What the woman who first stopped me at the x-ray machines said, was that Figaro was a blunt object that could be used to hit somebody. What is funny is that in the same carry on there was a half kilogram steel puck (in the shape of a short truncated cone) used to play the national traditional game of Colombia: Tejo! (this was for the mini-Tejo: the full size is even heavier). I guess because they concentrated on the unusual giant top they did not pay attention to the rest. I could have easily smashed some heads or the plane windows with the tejo (should have put it in my checked luggage). By the way, in Tejo you throw the puck into a muddy square target where there is a triangular envelope with gun powder: you definitely know when they hit the bullseye! (no, I did not bring explosive targets in my luggage).

[ta0]

This group trick is called Araña = Spider



Now, I'll do some spinning spiders.



Happy Halloween!