Matchplay Shooter of the Year 2013-Jun-29, Compound Style!

I never thought I'd pull this one off but I did. I shot my Bowtech Equalizer at 50 meters on the 6-ring 80 cm target face. I scored every shot. I finished with a 610/720, which is a pretty weak score for most, but pretty good for me considering that my usual style is barebow and that I pretty much have an improvised setup. Stormy conditions didn't really help me too much either, but it was definitely worth a try!

 Shooting the 50 meter target with the individual 6-ring target. The two big targets to the right are 50 meters for the Recurve B division and the three furthest out are the Recurve A targets, which are my usual haunts at 70 meters.

 Feels a little funny shooting something that's shorter than me!

 A slightly clearer shot of the targets...

 Wet, wet, wet with lots of negative evapotranspiration! I can't complain too much about my score given that it was a baseline to see where I can build from, assuming I do continue on this path!

And this is me actually shooting the Bowtech Equalizer! I actually don't need the armguard or the chest protector for this bow. This was *after* all the action once things dried out enough for me to want to pull the camera out.

Sunshine State Games 2013

The Sunshine State Games was one heck of an event after Tropical Storm Andrea, which did make things extra icky-sticky. I shot the FITA round on the first day and the American 900 round on the second day, both with a 35 lb longbow that R had built. The ultra-light weight riser was very unstable and unforgiving and the slower speeds made it unusually vulnerable to wind drift, but short distances (50 meters and less) were very promising because it was much easier to hold back the weight. Then again, I do notice that my release, while clean, don't have that extreme explosiveness that I find ultra-satisfying with the zebrawood bow.

 On the line with my fellow barebow and older arch-rival... think this was at 50 yards. It was so awesome to have 2 other barebows on my target, even if one is a compound string-walker and the other is a recurve string-walker who's experimenting with his anchor a bit!

 Azarath... 

 Metrion...

 Zinthos!!!!! And now visualize the explosions and the dark flashes and anything else associated with Raven from the Teen Titans series...

 Let's see if that spider is mine!

 Focusing on that little spider hiding in the center of the target...

 Yeah... the 35 lb bow is certainly very easy to hold back!

 The Fantastic Four! Besides the three of us who almost always try to shoot together, we also had a youngster join us for her first ever tournament!

And the award ceremony. I went uncontested in my official division but my unofficial arch-rival beat me this time after I got him back in October at the Classic 600 in the Villages and narrowly beating him last year at Sunshine State Games. Until the next time we go face-to-face!

Picture from Fellow Archer

This is a picture of me at the end of Gator Cup with Cadet Female Compound bronze medal winner Angelica Ramirez. She and her father were both in the compound division so I hardly saw them except at lunch and entering/exiting for the day. I remember when she was smaller than me... then again, teenagers DO tend to grow ... and a lot of them do grow A LOT! 

I have a strong feeling that this girl will do some serious damage to compound target faces and continue to do so for a very, very long time!

Gator Cup 2013

Gator Cup 2013 was one heck of a shoot but I do it because I really love shooting FITA rounds and there's so few of them in my neck of the woods. I didn't shoot a particularly strong score at any distance except at 60 meters but apparently the winds were A LOT worse than what I thought.

Full suite of pictures from Gator Cup can be found here. 

 Picture courtesy of Teresa Iaconi... 30 meter follow-through. That was one explosive shot and that's how I love it! Bam! Of course, I don't know where that shot landed but it felt so good!

 Final score at the end of the day... And of course it was the *pink* sheet that was the most legible of the two score-sheets!

 Elimination match practice... I'm going against the lass in purple to my left.

 Setting up the shot and getting a rough calculation to see where to line up based on where my last shot went...

 Slowly getting to full draw and preparing to expand... that gold is going down!

 Analyzing the last shot and getting ready to take that gold down again...

 Full draw, about to hit expansion and release... that gold is going down!

 One of the ends in elimination... the other two shots were a little high... it was literally up, down, perfect! Best part was having some Olympic veterans witness this shot and going buggy-eyed at the bold longbow shooter pulling this stunt off!

 Me and my Canadian idol Crispin Duenas, who's also an absolute genius as well as a true target-slayer! I gotta admit... he's the archery equivalent of a training buddy at the gym I've dubbed the Alpha Wolf, minus the tendency to run around shirtless!

 Me and Khatuna Lorig, the 2013 Gator Cup gold medalist, 5x Olympian,master archer, and pretty much the real-life She-Ra but with a bow instead of a sword =)

 Me and Holly Stover, the 2013 Gator Cup silver medalist and fun person to watch as well as an amazing shot!

 Me and Lee Ford-Faherty, one of the toughest people I've ever met both physically and mentally. She also represented us in the 2012 Paralympics and is always fun to cross paths with!

Me and Michelle Gilbert, the 2013 Gator Cup bronze medalist, up-and-coming target-slayer, and engineering genius! She may be tiny but she packs one heck of a punch with that recurve of hers!