Henderson Bay - July 4th
After getting a good chunk of work done on the 3rd, we didn't have any huge rush to get things done the day of the 4th, which was nice.
The barge had been towed to the site the previous night and was waiting for us when we got there. It is a perfect location for a barge show, lined with houses on three sides and with enough space to shoot 8" shells. After being at the Seattle show three years in a row it felt a little weird not having a huge beach of people all in one spot, but I guess the whole point of a private show is to skip all of that!
The barge was secured with a "spud anchor," something I was not familiar with as one who spends most of his time on land. It is basically a retractable pole that sticks into the ground, rather than a traditional anchor. Because we were only attached on one end, this meant the barge moved with the wind, making it hard to set angles on tubes for any specific perspective. We wanted things mostly towards Richard's house (the primary sponsor) but because others around the bay contributed, we basically just set things up and then let the barge move with the wind.
The barge was secured with a "spud anchor," something I was not familiar with as one who spends most of his time on land. It is basically a retractable pole that sticks into the ground, rather than a traditional anchor. Because we were only attached on one end, this meant the barge moved with the wind, making it hard to set angles on tubes for any specific perspective. We wanted things mostly towards Richard's house (the primary sponsor) but because others around the bay contributed, we basically just set things up and then let the barge move with the wind.
Right - 6" and 8" shells in sand boxes. All the tubes were in boxes, no racks were used in this show. In the background is Richard's house where the party was, and where we got to and from the barge on his boat.
Left - Mounting fountains on the supports for the ramp. Wolverine/Rod had never used these before, and despite their beefy size, they were pretty weak as you'll see in the video (along with some amusing commentary).
Who knew the pizza place delivered to barges? Actually this is Richard and his daughter bringing us lunch, which was greatly appreciated. He also had a large boat when we had to move more people or gear.
I ended up staying on the barge pretty much all day except for an hour or so at dinner, luckily we had a tent for shade and some stuff to sit on.
I ended up staying on the barge pretty much all day except for an hour or so at dinner, luckily we had a tent for shade and some stuff to sit on.
Left - All shells dropped, the last things to do were set up the cakes and strobes.
Right - The FireOne with attached iPod, very futuristic. The show was set to music, which was broadcast on the local radio station. There was a pre-recorded message before the music, and at a certain word in the message we hit the start button on the show. The timing actually worked out very well!
Left - The tug arriving soon after the show ended (they got a good view) to take the barge back to Tacoma to be unloaded.
Waiting for showtime we got to watch people setting off fireworks all around us, which was pretty cool. I had the option of being on the barge or not, and I figured it would be fun to be on the barge at least once, even if you don't have the ideal view of the show (further away where you can see everything). During the show we got on our safety gear and life jackets and watched from the opposite end of the barge, which was of course not very far away given the size of the barge (especially the cakes). I've handfired 3-4" shells before, but I hadn't been this close to larger shells or 1.3G cakes before. The largest shells were at the far end of the barge, so I was quite comfortable watching the show from where I was, but I don't mind handfiring and being close as much as some people.
I was taking video with my camera the whole time, just holding the little thing above my head, so my arms got pretty tired. At pauses in the show I was able to stop recording to save and give my arms a little rest, which was very nice. The show itself was quite good, with a wide variety of effects and good timing with the music, which we could occasionally hear over the fireworks with a small radio next to us. Feeling the lift of the large shells or seeing a large fan cake firing right in front of you was pretty cool, and because there were no long fronts and nothing angled with any great complexity, we didn't miss too much being right under it.
After the show we found more shells that didn't fire than usual, which was frustrating. Every ematch leader was tied off to the tube through a hole drilled near the muzzle, but wires still ended up getting over nearby tubes in a number of instances and were blasted through before they fired, so we'll have to work on avoiding that better in the future somehow. There wasn't much real cleanup to do that night because the barge was being towed away and things broken down on Monday, so I got done at an almost reasonable hour, which was pretty cool. Overall it was a lot of fun working on a barge for the first time and I had a great 4th!
The video was taking in a number of different parts, stopping to save at pauses in the show, fountain sections, etc. I then stuck them back together in Windows Movie Maker, which is kind of lame but free, so I'm not complaining. The quality took a small hit and it dropped some frames in the fastest parts, but it was a huge reduction in file size, so I won't complain too much.
Direct links: Part 1 (58MB .wmv) Part 2 (38MB .wmv)
Waiting for showtime we got to watch people setting off fireworks all around us, which was pretty cool. I had the option of being on the barge or not, and I figured it would be fun to be on the barge at least once, even if you don't have the ideal view of the show (further away where you can see everything). During the show we got on our safety gear and life jackets and watched from the opposite end of the barge, which was of course not very far away given the size of the barge (especially the cakes). I've handfired 3-4" shells before, but I hadn't been this close to larger shells or 1.3G cakes before. The largest shells were at the far end of the barge, so I was quite comfortable watching the show from where I was, but I don't mind handfiring and being close as much as some people.
I was taking video with my camera the whole time, just holding the little thing above my head, so my arms got pretty tired. At pauses in the show I was able to stop recording to save and give my arms a little rest, which was very nice. The show itself was quite good, with a wide variety of effects and good timing with the music, which we could occasionally hear over the fireworks with a small radio next to us. Feeling the lift of the large shells or seeing a large fan cake firing right in front of you was pretty cool, and because there were no long fronts and nothing angled with any great complexity, we didn't miss too much being right under it.
After the show we found more shells that didn't fire than usual, which was frustrating. Every ematch leader was tied off to the tube through a hole drilled near the muzzle, but wires still ended up getting over nearby tubes in a number of instances and were blasted through before they fired, so we'll have to work on avoiding that better in the future somehow. There wasn't much real cleanup to do that night because the barge was being towed away and things broken down on Monday, so I got done at an almost reasonable hour, which was pretty cool. Overall it was a lot of fun working on a barge for the first time and I had a great 4th!
The video was taking in a number of different parts, stopping to save at pauses in the show, fountain sections, etc. I then stuck them back together in Windows Movie Maker, which is kind of lame but free, so I'm not complaining. The quality took a small hit and it dropped some frames in the fastest parts, but it was a huge reduction in file size, so I won't complain too much.
Direct links: Part 1 (58MB .wmv) Part 2 (38MB .wmv)
