July 3rd – Backyard 1.4g shoot

For a long time my neighbor Andy has had a barbecue and fireworks at his place on the 3rd, and the last few years I have helped with the fireworks, increasingly taking over. I know a lot more about fireworks than he does, have better product, and am more safety conscious, so I have taken over a bit more of the show each year.

It isn’t a very large yard, so the show isn’t very big. I used most of my product at the last WA group shoot, so this was about ¼ I set aside for this show. There isn’t room to do angles or anything too fancy, so it was pretty basic, though still probably the largest to date. We used 27 200g, 6 500g and 40 shells. Almost all the 200g were shot in pairs to keep the pace up, and taped together for stability. Here is the cue list:

1x Hydrogen Bomb (BP)

July3rd07a

July3rd07b

July3rd07c

My girlfriend Emily helped shoot, her first time lighting anything more than a sparkler. She did very well and wants to do it again, so that was an extra bonus. We set the 200g on two sheets of plywood and alternated lighting to keep distance between the firing cakes and the shooter lighting the next pair. 500g and shells were off to the side.

I was planning on starting with a few fountains then using Hydrogen Bomb as a surprise first cake, but used all my own fountains and forgot to pull some from Andy’s stash. It made a good opener by itself, and fills the sky quite well. Wild West was a solid performer as always, the distinct volleys look great, and firing two at once keeps things busy. Earth Force was our only mines, and one didn’t fire because the fuse went out, but the one that did was surprisingly good, with nice color and a good pace. F16 and Hot Hot Hot were great as always, and Cosmic Raider and Mile Stones made an effective and noisy pair. New Dimension, Buck Fever and two City Crashers was probably the most intense section of the show (more than I expected) and I should have used it closer to the end, it worked great and the New Dimension breaks are huge. Four 4th of July Spectaculars was great, with nice colors in the peonies plus some good palms. Vast Plains and Bustling Cities were nice, but should have been mixed into the 200g section, they aren’t really big enough for the end of the show. Two Heavy Metal was great, if I’d had four I would have just made that my finale. The colors were fantastic, the breaks large, and the willow finale was awesome, definitely a highlight.

Last were 40 GG Predator shells in two 20-shot vertical racks. The plan was to do the first as singles then fuse the second with blackmatch to fire the whole thing in a few seconds for the finale. Unfortunately I discovered I was out of blackmatch, so I ended up just taping that rack in groups of four. The singles were lit a couple at a time, then I backed off for them to fire, and did a few more. This meant the pace was a little slow, and while the breaks are nice, it wasn’t what it should have been. The second rack I was going to do two groups of four, then the last 12 shells at once, but the second group of four ignited the third, so the finale ended up being only eight shells at once, which was a little anticlimactic.

Overall I was very happy with how it went. There were a few seconds of dead air I should have avoided and the shell finale was a bit weak, but everything else went great. Last year a bunch of shells broke low, this time the worst we had was some of the fish from Riders on the Storm hit the ground. My torch also went out on me and I grabbed Emily’s, which led to a few seconds of dead air, but no big loss. Heavy Metal was the standout of the night for me, New Dimension plus Buck Fever and two City Crashers was great, Cosmic Raider with Mile Stones was another nice once, since I hadn’t shot those before. We had a very nice mix of effects, and all high quality product.

Video 1 - Part of Hydrogen Bomb
Video 2 - Part of Laser Volcano + Freak Show, Part of Cosmic Raider + Mile Stones
Video 3 - Part of Master Mine + Great Willow
Video 4 - Part of New Dimension, Buck Fever and two City Crashers
Video 5 - End of Vast Plains, 4th of July Spectacular
Video 6 - Last eight Predator shells