Tag Archives: sport

Throwing a Stick – A Big Stick!

A focus of the Highland Games in Pleasanton was the traditional sports thought of when you use the term Highland Games and the most famous of these is tossing the caber. The event took place on the finish straight of the horse racetrack. Everyone stood in the grandstand while the athletes did their best on the track. (This did mean that the barrier was in the way of most of the shots.)

The guys taking part were some big fellas. The goal is to flip the pole end over end. They get a run up going – no mean feat while balancing a large pole by one end – and then heave it in to the air. The pole is tapered and they hold the thinner end so the thicker end hits the ground and, if there is enough momentum, the thinner end will arc up and over. This is not easy to do and the guys were having a lot of trouble. I think we came in at the end of the competition so probably missed some of the earlier (and presumably easier) throws. The celebration when they made it was something in itself. I don’t think I would like to get on the wrong side of any of these guys.

Sailing Across the Bay on a Windy Day

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Plenty of my times alongside San Francisco Bay are airplane or wildlife related. You do get to see lots of other things on the bay, though, and on a windy day the sailing is definitely worth a look. Having grown up in a sailing town, I do love to watch sailing, even if I never got into sailing myself. A lot of boats were out on this day. I don’t know whether they were racing officially or just were out testing each other but they were certainly getting some speed on. Watching the sails full of air with the boat healing over dramatically and making good speed is really cool.

When It All Goes Wrong on (or off) the Bull

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The first few of the bull riders at Rowell Ranch Rodeo seemed to do pretty well and make it for the full duration. It turns out that this was an aberration and the remainder of the riders seemed to have a lot of problems. Some still went the distance but a lot of them were thrown off. Getting thrown from a bull is a risky proposition.

Let’s put aside the problem with falling at speed from an animal. Instead, contemplate being on the ground and a little disoriented when you need to get out of the way of a seriously pissed off bull that weighs a lot! This is where the other people come in to play. Their role is to distract the attention of the bull away from the rider while someone helps him get to his feet. It is something that looks perilous and, I imagine, it is.

Riding the Bulls

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My visit to the Rowell Ranch Rodeo was the night of the bull riding. I had never seen this in person before and was curious to see how things went. It was an evening show and the clouds had rolled in so it was pretty dark, even early in the evening. They had floodlights but they were not doing too much for me so I was really testing the high ISO capabilities of the camera for the first time. I was often shooting at 51,200. I have to say that, while the shots are not super clean, they are not too bad at all.

The most dramatic moments seemed to be shortly after they came out of the chute. The bulls leap into the air and the rider hangs on like crazy. It seemed that, if they made it through the initial period, they often went the full time. If they were unsettled initially, they were struggling from then on. More to come of that…

Kiteboarding in the Bay

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If the wind is up, there are usually a lot of people out kiteboarding in San Francisco Bay. While I was a Coyote Point I could see a few people out in the water. Some were a little further up the shore, one was very close to the marina near me and a few more were down towards the San Mateo Bridge. They may not have been that far down but it looked that way from where I was.

Surfs Up Again

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There was a decent swell coming in of the Pacific while we were in Santa Cruz. People were surfing at a number of locations. The majority were off the headland by the lighthouse. A lot of the waves were carrying the surfers a long distance but they weren’t getting a lot of action in during their runs. Every once in a while, though, someone was able to really get things moving. These are some of the shots I got during the day.

Leap Frogs

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The Leap Frogs are a parachute display team from the Seals. I have seen them a few times at shows in the Midwest – sometimes working with the Golden Knights of the US Army. During Fleet Week the Leap Frogs jumped to open the main part of the air show. On the day I went, they jumped from Fat Albert, the C-130 of the Blue Angels. Apparently, they also used an Air National Guard C-130 over the weekend.

Their jump routine is pretty cool. They do a lot of coordinated work once under canopies. They make a cool four canopy stack which takes a while to form up but, when formed, looks neat. I just wish they would hold it until they were a bit lower. They also do a nice pairs arrangement where two jumpers hook legs and end up plummeting downwards breaking just in time to land. Always a good way to get the crowd on edge!

My shots of parachute teams have tended to get a bit samey over time but I still like getting some shots of them as you never know whether you will get a slightly different angle on something or that the lighting will show something special.

Surf is Up Again

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If you have a nice Sunday morning with nothing planned, heading to Santa Cruz is worth it. The shore on the north side of the bay is a great place to hang out. Everything is so laid back. I guess people don’t go there if they are up tight. It always seems that everyone is having a nice time. That includes the regular contingent of surfers.

The conditions on our last visit were mixed for surfing. Occasionally a good swell would come ashore and everyone would jump on the opportunity. Most of the time things were calmer and the surfers would sit on their boards waiting patiently. There is a line close to the rocks that offers more but seems to be the territory of the more capable surfers.

To get pictures needs as much patience as the surfers have. Of course, it is Sunday morning so I am not in any hurry. I am happy to wait and see what happens. Every once in a while, someone comes in so close to the rocks that you don’t realize that they are there until they are past. In that case, you miss the shot and instead appreciate the skill.

Chicago Marathon

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I have had a few sporting themed posts recently and here is another one. This time it is the Chicago Marathon. When we lived in the city, we were right in the heart of the marathon route. On several occasions, my brother-in-law took part in the marathon and we would then go out and experience more of the course as we tried to pick him up at various points around the whole route. The way the route is designed means the spectators can cut across easily between sections and be ready when someone comes by again.

For several years, the route was changed where it came past our place. Some rebuilding of one of the stations meant it wasn’t practical for the runners to use that intersection so they diverted down a street and along another to pick up the original route. This meant they came right by us. A couple of times I went down to the street to watch them come through (provided I was more interested in being in bed on a Sunday morning!).

One of my favorite shots was taken from this location and it is the one at the top. I went with a slow shutter speed just to see what would happen. It turns out that the only thing that stays still for any period of time is a foot while it is on the ground so the shot has lots of feet clearly visible while everything else is blurred out.

This year my niece is going to be running the race. Sadly I won’t be there but I hope she has a good time. The support the crowds provide all around the course is supposed to be very good for the runners so let’s hope her first full marathon is an enjoyable one.

Skydiving

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Part of the entertainment at the Sonoma Skypark Family Fun Day was some skydiving. Some lines were marked out on the grass and Joey jumped from the Cessna flown by Trevor and targeted the landing zone. People could guess which line he would hit with a prize for the closest guess each time. Skydiving looks so cool to me so getting some shots of Joey seemed like a good plan.

He was great fun to hang out with as were the rest of the guys. His first jump came in a bit hot and he landed a little long compared to the marked area. That was not a competition jump, though, so no-one lost out. After that, he was on target for the remaining jumps. I started out staying well back but, as I built confidence in him and he knew I wasn’t going to do anything stupid, I was able to get in a better position to show him coming in. It is a quick transition from a long lens for the aerial shots to a wide one for the touchdown. He is coming in pretty fast. With a few jumps, you can try a different approach each time.

Once on the ground, Joey certainly knew how to keep the crowd happy. He stopped off to chat with people on his way back to repacking the chute and the kids seemed to love talking to him. I need to get more shots of these guys. They were fun and they look cool too. A couple of the group are also in to paragliding so now I have something else I want to check out. I also created a few animations of Joey’s departure from the Cessna so they are included below.