Good results in fly casting competition in Japan
24.11.2009
Mathias Lilleheim and Tommy Aarkvisla return with heavy metal
We had heard rumours about a fantastic fly casting competition in Japan. The famous Norwegian spey caster Knut Syrstad had participated last year and was very impressed with the level of the Japanese casters. We also heard from the Carron Team that the Japanese casters had improved considerably and that the competition was run very fair and very efficiently.
Tommy had won the 18 foot speykasting competition at CLA this year, using a rod from CND, and Mr. CND himself, Nobuo Nodera, was so impressed that he invited Tommy to this competition in Japan with the impressive name of JCA Anglers Class Masters’ Casting Competition. Sneaky little me managed to tag along and Nobuo was generous enough to include me in the deal.
Travelling and training
Tommy and I flew down separately. I used SAS and Tommy was lucky enough to fly with Russian Aeroflot. Tommy hit jackpot when he ended up beside a remarkably fit Russian professional tennis player with an impressively tight rear end and forgot everything about fly casting as he chatted her up. My neighbour on the SAS flight was a relatively unfit Japanese gentleman with a friendly smile and very rudimentary English. There were no increased levels of testosterone in my part of the plane, but I think I can guarantee that Tommy’s blood was saturated with it. I have to add, in Tommy’s defence, that he’s a very married young man and that he behaved like a true Norwegian gentleman (at least that’s what he told me).
We both landed at about the same time and Nobuo was there to pick us up. I immediately understood that we were in good hands and that the days ahead were going to be equally good. We chatted away through a three hour drive from Narita Airport, through Tokyo (we spent one and a half hour on the motorway just to get from one end of Tokyo to the other) and to a city called Saitama, where the competition was going to take place. This was Thursday and the competition wasn’t going to start until Saturday. We ate a Japanese version of a hamburger accompanied by an ice cold pint of Japanese beer and though struggling a little bit with jet lag after a relatively sleepless flight, we were ready for a serious training session. Nobou took us straight from the restaurant to his own “private” spey casting river, where we met a good friend of him preparing for the same competition. They had built a wooden platform that they had placed in the rather slow river and that was all we needed for this spey casting session. We tried rods and lines from both CND and Zpey and enjoyed three perfect hours in mutual madness, before we drove a couple of kilometres to a baseball field where we would end the training part of the day with some overhead casting. The new competition lines from Zpey behaved beautifully and we managed some very long casts in the nice tailwind.
Darkness came and the collective madness slowly dissipated. Fly casting is not that fun when you can’t see the line and in addition, the effects of too many hours without sleep started to present themselves. As dedicated believers in the brutal way of getting accustomed to new time zones, the day was far from over. The prescription is to sleep as little as possible during the flight and then wait until normal bed time (local time) before entering the necessary coma. There were still a few hours to kill and they were going to be killed in the best way possible: By eating and drinking.
We met two Scotsmen and an Irish one in the lobby of our hotel; just as tired as us, but just as eager to taste the local food: The Carron Team had just arrived. Old-timer James Chalmers (not as old as me though), the Irish representative Ruairi Costello and last, but not least, one of the most successful spey casters in modern history; Gordon Armstrong.
We ran through our respective showers, put on some decent clothes and went out to eat Japanese style food in a restaurant just around the corner. Together with the crazy gang were Hiro from the Japanese Casting Federation and ………… Unaccustomed to real Japanese restaurants, the two Norwegians were sceptically scrutinizing the furniture that was supposedly placed there to enhance the flavours of Japanese cuisine. On second thought, I thought, it might actually be the other way around; the furniture were put there to inflict physical pain, which would again result in a massive contrast between this pain and the already mentioned flavours, making the food taste even better?
The table was so low that, if I was able to get my legs under it, I would probably need a crane to get back out again. No chairs, of course, only pillows on the floor and I could see the panic in Tommy’s eyes, probably equalling my own, as we walked over to the table after having taken off our shoes. Imagine the relief when we discovered that there was actually a square hole in the floor, just under the table, where you could lower your feet to preciously wonderful depths and then be able to sit up straight without struggling against nature and against your own body. To make a long story short, we sat down and enjoyed an almost never ending story of delicious dishes. Some recognizable ones, some strange ones, some peculiar ones, some with unexplainable textures and, of course, raw fish. I have always had a difficult relationship with fish. Not when it comes to fishing for them, of course, but the eating part sometimes gives me problems, especially if the fish is one of the fishy ones, tasting more of fish than other fish. A terrible explanation, but you know what I mean (don’t you?). If the too fishy fish is raw, however, the horror is logarithmically magnified and I just knew that choosing the polite and adult way through this diplomatic dilemma would probably end in a mixture of psychiatry and happy pills. So I chickened out. Strange expression isn’t it, especially on this occasion. In stead of eating raw fish, I chickened out, even though I didn’t eat chicken. It’s not logical.
Anyway, I was graciously forgiven by our Japanese hosts and we all ate more than we should have, accompanying the food with gallons of beer and more than enough of the famous sake that was dangerously mild in the beginning, but slowly infiltrated your system in an attempt to perform a sneaky hostile take over. Luckily, we were all able to raise our defences in time, and we even managed a couple of hours in a local bar before we went to bed.
I mentioned coma earlier, and the next hours were exactly how I’ve imagined such a state. The alcohol might have had something to do with it, but the main ingredient was the combination of lack of sleep and different time zones.
A fantastic sightseeing day
We woke up to a very rainy morning and a weather forecast promising a lot of rain throughout the day. This day was all about sightseeing for Tommy and me. Nobuo had promised to take us to the famous town of Nikko; to Toshugu, the shrine of the most powerful and famous Shogun (a title, not for emperor, but more of a prime minister with enormous power and wealth), in Japanese history. His name was Tokugawa Ieyasu and in the year 1600 he defeated Hideyori and his loyalists and became absolute ruler of Japan. In 1603 he was appointed Shogun by the Emperor and the Tokugawa shoguns continued to rule Japan for more than 250 years (the Edo period).
The lavishly decorated shrine complex consists of more than a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings set in a beautiful forest. Initially a relatively simple mausoleum, Toshogu was enlarged into the spectacular complex seen today by Ieyasu's grandson Iemitsu during the first half of the 17th century.
The buildings and the artwork were absolutely breathtaking and we walked around fro almost three hours, admiring one spectacular sight after another.
We had lunch in a famous restaurant on the bank of Lake Chuzenji. Lake Chuzenji (Chuzenjiko) is a scenic lake in the mountains above the town of Nikko. It is located at the foot of Mount Nantai, Nikko's sacred volcano, whose eruption blocked the valley below, thereby creating Lake Chuzenji about 20,000 years ago. We also marveled at the sight of the Kegon Falls, the outlet of the Lake Chuzenji (see picture on next page).
After lunch, we drove to one of the hot springs in the neighbourhood to enjoy a relaxing bath in natural temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and after this wonderful purification of both body and soul, we went back to Saitama for another spectacular meal in the company of not only our hosts and the Carron team, but also of about ten Japanese casters that were ready for action the next day. It was reassuring to see that even some of our Japanese competitors were struggling with large amounts of sake. We were not alone.
First day of competition – 4 overhead events
Saturday in Saitama was the day of the four overhead events. This part of the competition was held in a track and field stadium not far from the hotel. Because of slight language problems, Tommy and I arrived rather late at the stadium and found that the conditions were variable. The wind varied from no wind to a nice tailwind and you just had to hope that the gods were on your side when it was your time to cast.
Single hand overhead # 6
The first event was single hand overhead, AFTM 6.
Tommy and I were both using the Zpey True Blue 10’ # 6 rod and a Zpey Competition Line # 6 Shooting Head.
Tommy was casting side by side with our host from the Japanese Casting Federation, Hiro, and the gods were nice to them. Hiro won and Tommy came second. Hiro proved to be a fantastic caster and he won by a good margin. He would have done well even in no wind conditions. Gordon Armstrong and Ruairi Costello from the Carron Team came 3rd and 4th and I came 5th. I was less fortunate with the wind, but this is what outdoor fly casting competitions are all about. Sometimes you get lucky and other times less so. Even with a better wind it would have been difficult to beat Hiro.
Single hand overhead # 8
The next event was single hand overhead # 8.
The Norwegians, Tommy and I, had changed to a Zpey True Blue 10’ # 8 rod and a 27 gram and Zpey Competition 18 meter Shooting Head. A fantastic rod and line for competitions like this one.
Tommy delivered one fantastic cast and a second good one. He won, I managed to come second and Ruairi Costello from the Carron Team came third. A fantastic double victory for Zpey.
Double hand overhead 16’ # 10
For the double hand overhead 16’ # 10 competition, both Tommy and I struggled to find a rod to use. Zpey’s 16 footer is a wonderful rod that has won many medals at the Norwegian Championships, but it’s classified as a # 10/11 and thus not allowed in this competition (maximum # 10). Tommy chose his CND 15 foot spey rod and I chose the Zpey First Edition 15 foot fishing rod. The Zpey rod was not designed for lines this heavy, so I knew I had to do my very best to win this competition. In the end, Ruairi Costello won by a good margin, but I managed 2nd place, a lousy 14 centimetres ahead of Gordon Armstrong. Tommy came 4th.
Double hand overhead 18’ # 13
It was time for the big rods and a last chance for me to take an overhead gold medal. I had made some very long casts back in Norway with a nice tail wind (a longest cast of 83 meters), but the wind seemed to be done for the day. This meant that everybody got equal conditions.
Tommy was leading with a longest cast of 58 and a second cast of 57 when I entered the podium. I felt sure I was going to win this competition, but made the classic beginners mistake of taking the gold medal for granted. I used to much force, forgetting to use my head and I ended up with the third silver medal of the day. Tommy won again and the good thing was that, once again, the Norwegian Vikings managed a double victory.
Norwegian demos
Straight after the overhead competitions were over, we drove to the venue for tomorrow’s spey casting competition; a huge pool with two platforms and a huge crowd of people wanting to watch us demonstrate casting techniques and fly casting equipment from Zpey.
Tommy started with a demonstration of his way of spey casting and I acted as an interpreter. He managed some very long casts with his CND equipment and was rewarded with a spectacular applause afterward.
My demonstration was more about spey casting techniques connected to practical fishing with shorter shooting heads. I was using a prototype of the new Zpey Fusion Extended Shooting Head that will be available on the market in 2010 and focusing on how little force you needed to make very narrow loops that could travel unexpectedly long, using almost only the lower hand and the fantastic bent Zpey handle that makes everything so much easier. In addition to using my lower hand as the engine of the cast (and my upper hand as the pilot) I was showing the audience how important it is to start every casting stroke with a whole body movement, before finishing the strokes with the lower hand.
I showed different kinds of spey casts. Single spey, angled spey casts, snake rolls from both directions, aerial Snap T’s and so on.
After that I casted a couple of single hand rods and told the audience about Zpey’s wide range of single hand rods and lines.
Even I managed to raise a healthy applause and was very happy with that.
More wonderful Japanese food and an early night
Together with quite a lot of our Japanese competitors, we went out for another night of very tasty Japanese cuisine. We ate more than we should have, but drank almost nothing and I ended up doing different kinds of chins from a wooden beam in the middle of the restaurant, where I managed to smack my head into the very same beam, causing a healthy bump that would stay with me for a few days. Some people never seem to learn.
Last day of the competition – Time for Spey Casting
The conditions were difficult and heavy. The Carron guys told us to expect shorter distances than we would have in Europe and we soon found out that this was right.
16 foot Spey Casting
We were 50 contestants in both events. We started with the 16’ Spey Casting competition were I struggled with getting the fly past the right hand sector line and lost a couple of major casts in the beginning. Still I managed to end up with to casts of 50 meters and hung on to the last qualifying place for the final. With a combined sum of 100 meters, I was only 2,5 meters behind Tommy, who won the qualification on our platform. On the other platform, Ruairi won ahead of Gordon and James got the same place as I, 6th, and grabbed the last place in the final.
I was the second man in the final and made the foolish mistake of not having enough line for the first cast. This cast proved to one of the really good ones, but it was brutally stopped by the reel and the fly came back several meters to end up on 45. The next cast was also good and this time with enough line. 51 meters in the very heavy conditions was ok. The rest of my time I tried to overdo myself and this seldom succeeds. I ended up with a combined total of 96 meters and was not satisfied. In the end, the Carron guys Ruairi and Gordon took a double, with Ruari claiming the gold medal. I was one meter behind the bronze medal and Tommy came 5th, one meter behind me again.
It was almost, but not quite for both of us.
18 foot Spey Casting
In the 18 foot competition, I started with a very good cast of 53,5 meters, which would ultimately prove to be the second longest cast of the competition, but again struggled with the second cast and ended up with 48,5 meter and a total of 102 meters. This result gave me a 4th place in my qualification group and a safe place in the final.
Tommy was struggling a little bit, but finally ended up with a 5th place in the same group and a total of 100,5 meters.
In the final it was my turn to struggle. I managed an ok cast of 51meters, but with a second cast of only 45 meters I was out of the medals and ended up 7th. Tommy did a little better with 51,5 and 49 meters and came 5th.
Once again we thought the Carron Team would take both silver and gold, but the last man out, the Japanese that won our qualification group, wanted another result. With 53,5 and 52 meters he ended up 2 meters ahead of Gordon (2nd) and 3 meters ahead of Ruairi (3rd). This proved a very popular and deserved victory for the Japanese hosts and the poor guy was celebrated with gallons of champagne (both inside and outside) before he was thrown into the pool by the Carron Team. A friendly gesture that was applauded by everyone and I think even the poor gold medallist thought it was good to take a fully clothed bath under such circumstances.
Time to say goodbye
Very early the day after, we struggled out of bed before six and Nobuo took Tommy and me to Narita Airport for our respective flights back to Norway. We thanked our noble host very much and promised to come back next year.
It had been a wonderful experience, we had managed to win some medals and we would arrive back in Norway with things to improve.
Thanks Nobuo. We’ll definitely be back!
Back
Mathias Lilleheim and Tommy Aarkvisla return with heavy metal
We had heard rumours about a fantastic fly casting competition in Japan. The famous Norwegian spey caster Knut Syrstad had participated last year and was very impressed with the level of the Japanese casters. We also heard from the Carron Team that the Japanese casters had improved considerably and that the competition was run very fair and very efficiently.
Tommy had won the 18 foot speykasting competition at CLA this year, using a rod from CND, and Mr. CND himself, Nobuo Nodera, was so impressed that he invited Tommy to this competition in Japan with the impressive name of JCA Anglers Class Masters’ Casting Competition. Sneaky little me managed to tag along and Nobuo was generous enough to include me in the deal.
Travelling and training
Tommy and I flew down separately. I used SAS and Tommy was lucky enough to fly with Russian Aeroflot. Tommy hit jackpot when he ended up beside a remarkably fit Russian professional tennis player with an impressively tight rear end and forgot everything about fly casting as he chatted her up. My neighbour on the SAS flight was a relatively unfit Japanese gentleman with a friendly smile and very rudimentary English. There were no increased levels of testosterone in my part of the plane, but I think I can guarantee that Tommy’s blood was saturated with it. I have to add, in Tommy’s defence, that he’s a very married young man and that he behaved like a true Norwegian gentleman (at least that’s what he told me).
We both landed at about the same time and Nobuo was there to pick us up. I immediately understood that we were in good hands and that the days ahead were going to be equally good. We chatted away through a three hour drive from Narita Airport, through Tokyo (we spent one and a half hour on the motorway just to get from one end of Tokyo to the other) and to a city called Saitama, where the competition was going to take place. This was Thursday and the competition wasn’t going to start until Saturday. We ate a Japanese version of a hamburger accompanied by an ice cold pint of Japanese beer and though struggling a little bit with jet lag after a relatively sleepless flight, we were ready for a serious training session. Nobou took us straight from the restaurant to his own “private” spey casting river, where we met a good friend of him preparing for the same competition. They had built a wooden platform that they had placed in the rather slow river and that was all we needed for this spey casting session. We tried rods and lines from both CND and Zpey and enjoyed three perfect hours in mutual madness, before we drove a couple of kilometres to a baseball field where we would end the training part of the day with some overhead casting. The new competition lines from Zpey behaved beautifully and we managed some very long casts in the nice tailwind.
Darkness came and the collective madness slowly dissipated. Fly casting is not that fun when you can’t see the line and in addition, the effects of too many hours without sleep started to present themselves. As dedicated believers in the brutal way of getting accustomed to new time zones, the day was far from over. The prescription is to sleep as little as possible during the flight and then wait until normal bed time (local time) before entering the necessary coma. There were still a few hours to kill and they were going to be killed in the best way possible: By eating and drinking.
We met two Scotsmen and an Irish one in the lobby of our hotel; just as tired as us, but just as eager to taste the local food: The Carron Team had just arrived. Old-timer James Chalmers (not as old as me though), the Irish representative Ruairi Costello and last, but not least, one of the most successful spey casters in modern history; Gordon Armstrong.
We ran through our respective showers, put on some decent clothes and went out to eat Japanese style food in a restaurant just around the corner. Together with the crazy gang were Hiro from the Japanese Casting Federation and ………… Unaccustomed to real Japanese restaurants, the two Norwegians were sceptically scrutinizing the furniture that was supposedly placed there to enhance the flavours of Japanese cuisine. On second thought, I thought, it might actually be the other way around; the furniture were put there to inflict physical pain, which would again result in a massive contrast between this pain and the already mentioned flavours, making the food taste even better?
The table was so low that, if I was able to get my legs under it, I would probably need a crane to get back out again. No chairs, of course, only pillows on the floor and I could see the panic in Tommy’s eyes, probably equalling my own, as we walked over to the table after having taken off our shoes. Imagine the relief when we discovered that there was actually a square hole in the floor, just under the table, where you could lower your feet to preciously wonderful depths and then be able to sit up straight without struggling against nature and against your own body. To make a long story short, we sat down and enjoyed an almost never ending story of delicious dishes. Some recognizable ones, some strange ones, some peculiar ones, some with unexplainable textures and, of course, raw fish. I have always had a difficult relationship with fish. Not when it comes to fishing for them, of course, but the eating part sometimes gives me problems, especially if the fish is one of the fishy ones, tasting more of fish than other fish. A terrible explanation, but you know what I mean (don’t you?). If the too fishy fish is raw, however, the horror is logarithmically magnified and I just knew that choosing the polite and adult way through this diplomatic dilemma would probably end in a mixture of psychiatry and happy pills. So I chickened out. Strange expression isn’t it, especially on this occasion. In stead of eating raw fish, I chickened out, even though I didn’t eat chicken. It’s not logical.
Anyway, I was graciously forgiven by our Japanese hosts and we all ate more than we should have, accompanying the food with gallons of beer and more than enough of the famous sake that was dangerously mild in the beginning, but slowly infiltrated your system in an attempt to perform a sneaky hostile take over. Luckily, we were all able to raise our defences in time, and we even managed a couple of hours in a local bar before we went to bed.
I mentioned coma earlier, and the next hours were exactly how I’ve imagined such a state. The alcohol might have had something to do with it, but the main ingredient was the combination of lack of sleep and different time zones.
A fantastic sightseeing day
We woke up to a very rainy morning and a weather forecast promising a lot of rain throughout the day. This day was all about sightseeing for Tommy and me. Nobuo had promised to take us to the famous town of Nikko; to Toshugu, the shrine of the most powerful and famous Shogun (a title, not for emperor, but more of a prime minister with enormous power and wealth), in Japanese history. His name was Tokugawa Ieyasu and in the year 1600 he defeated Hideyori and his loyalists and became absolute ruler of Japan. In 1603 he was appointed Shogun by the Emperor and the Tokugawa shoguns continued to rule Japan for more than 250 years (the Edo period).
The lavishly decorated shrine complex consists of more than a dozen Shinto and Buddhist buildings set in a beautiful forest. Initially a relatively simple mausoleum, Toshogu was enlarged into the spectacular complex seen today by Ieyasu's grandson Iemitsu during the first half of the 17th century.
The buildings and the artwork were absolutely breathtaking and we walked around fro almost three hours, admiring one spectacular sight after another.
We had lunch in a famous restaurant on the bank of Lake Chuzenji. Lake Chuzenji (Chuzenjiko) is a scenic lake in the mountains above the town of Nikko. It is located at the foot of Mount Nantai, Nikko's sacred volcano, whose eruption blocked the valley below, thereby creating Lake Chuzenji about 20,000 years ago. We also marveled at the sight of the Kegon Falls, the outlet of the Lake Chuzenji (see picture on next page).
After lunch, we drove to one of the hot springs in the neighbourhood to enjoy a relaxing bath in natural temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and after this wonderful purification of both body and soul, we went back to Saitama for another spectacular meal in the company of not only our hosts and the Carron team, but also of about ten Japanese casters that were ready for action the next day. It was reassuring to see that even some of our Japanese competitors were struggling with large amounts of sake. We were not alone.
First day of competition – 4 overhead events
Saturday in Saitama was the day of the four overhead events. This part of the competition was held in a track and field stadium not far from the hotel. Because of slight language problems, Tommy and I arrived rather late at the stadium and found that the conditions were variable. The wind varied from no wind to a nice tailwind and you just had to hope that the gods were on your side when it was your time to cast.
Single hand overhead # 6
The first event was single hand overhead, AFTM 6.
Tommy and I were both using the Zpey True Blue 10’ # 6 rod and a Zpey Competition Line # 6 Shooting Head.
Tommy was casting side by side with our host from the Japanese Casting Federation, Hiro, and the gods were nice to them. Hiro won and Tommy came second. Hiro proved to be a fantastic caster and he won by a good margin. He would have done well even in no wind conditions. Gordon Armstrong and Ruairi Costello from the Carron Team came 3rd and 4th and I came 5th. I was less fortunate with the wind, but this is what outdoor fly casting competitions are all about. Sometimes you get lucky and other times less so. Even with a better wind it would have been difficult to beat Hiro.
Single hand overhead # 8
The next event was single hand overhead # 8.
The Norwegians, Tommy and I, had changed to a Zpey True Blue 10’ # 8 rod and a 27 gram and Zpey Competition 18 meter Shooting Head. A fantastic rod and line for competitions like this one.
Tommy delivered one fantastic cast and a second good one. He won, I managed to come second and Ruairi Costello from the Carron Team came third. A fantastic double victory for Zpey.
Double hand overhead 16’ # 10
For the double hand overhead 16’ # 10 competition, both Tommy and I struggled to find a rod to use. Zpey’s 16 footer is a wonderful rod that has won many medals at the Norwegian Championships, but it’s classified as a # 10/11 and thus not allowed in this competition (maximum # 10). Tommy chose his CND 15 foot spey rod and I chose the Zpey First Edition 15 foot fishing rod. The Zpey rod was not designed for lines this heavy, so I knew I had to do my very best to win this competition. In the end, Ruairi Costello won by a good margin, but I managed 2nd place, a lousy 14 centimetres ahead of Gordon Armstrong. Tommy came 4th.
Double hand overhead 18’ # 13
It was time for the big rods and a last chance for me to take an overhead gold medal. I had made some very long casts back in Norway with a nice tail wind (a longest cast of 83 meters), but the wind seemed to be done for the day. This meant that everybody got equal conditions.
Tommy was leading with a longest cast of 58 and a second cast of 57 when I entered the podium. I felt sure I was going to win this competition, but made the classic beginners mistake of taking the gold medal for granted. I used to much force, forgetting to use my head and I ended up with the third silver medal of the day. Tommy won again and the good thing was that, once again, the Norwegian Vikings managed a double victory.
Norwegian demos
Straight after the overhead competitions were over, we drove to the venue for tomorrow’s spey casting competition; a huge pool with two platforms and a huge crowd of people wanting to watch us demonstrate casting techniques and fly casting equipment from Zpey.
Tommy started with a demonstration of his way of spey casting and I acted as an interpreter. He managed some very long casts with his CND equipment and was rewarded with a spectacular applause afterward.
My demonstration was more about spey casting techniques connected to practical fishing with shorter shooting heads. I was using a prototype of the new Zpey Fusion Extended Shooting Head that will be available on the market in 2010 and focusing on how little force you needed to make very narrow loops that could travel unexpectedly long, using almost only the lower hand and the fantastic bent Zpey handle that makes everything so much easier. In addition to using my lower hand as the engine of the cast (and my upper hand as the pilot) I was showing the audience how important it is to start every casting stroke with a whole body movement, before finishing the strokes with the lower hand.
I showed different kinds of spey casts. Single spey, angled spey casts, snake rolls from both directions, aerial Snap T’s and so on.
After that I casted a couple of single hand rods and told the audience about Zpey’s wide range of single hand rods and lines.
Even I managed to raise a healthy applause and was very happy with that.
More wonderful Japanese food and an early night
Together with quite a lot of our Japanese competitors, we went out for another night of very tasty Japanese cuisine. We ate more than we should have, but drank almost nothing and I ended up doing different kinds of chins from a wooden beam in the middle of the restaurant, where I managed to smack my head into the very same beam, causing a healthy bump that would stay with me for a few days. Some people never seem to learn.
Last day of the competition – Time for Spey Casting
The conditions were difficult and heavy. The Carron guys told us to expect shorter distances than we would have in Europe and we soon found out that this was right.
16 foot Spey Casting
We were 50 contestants in both events. We started with the 16’ Spey Casting competition were I struggled with getting the fly past the right hand sector line and lost a couple of major casts in the beginning. Still I managed to end up with to casts of 50 meters and hung on to the last qualifying place for the final. With a combined sum of 100 meters, I was only 2,5 meters behind Tommy, who won the qualification on our platform. On the other platform, Ruairi won ahead of Gordon and James got the same place as I, 6th, and grabbed the last place in the final.
I was the second man in the final and made the foolish mistake of not having enough line for the first cast. This cast proved to one of the really good ones, but it was brutally stopped by the reel and the fly came back several meters to end up on 45. The next cast was also good and this time with enough line. 51 meters in the very heavy conditions was ok. The rest of my time I tried to overdo myself and this seldom succeeds. I ended up with a combined total of 96 meters and was not satisfied. In the end, the Carron guys Ruairi and Gordon took a double, with Ruari claiming the gold medal. I was one meter behind the bronze medal and Tommy came 5th, one meter behind me again.
It was almost, but not quite for both of us.
18 foot Spey Casting
In the 18 foot competition, I started with a very good cast of 53,5 meters, which would ultimately prove to be the second longest cast of the competition, but again struggled with the second cast and ended up with 48,5 meter and a total of 102 meters. This result gave me a 4th place in my qualification group and a safe place in the final.
Tommy was struggling a little bit, but finally ended up with a 5th place in the same group and a total of 100,5 meters.
In the final it was my turn to struggle. I managed an ok cast of 51meters, but with a second cast of only 45 meters I was out of the medals and ended up 7th. Tommy did a little better with 51,5 and 49 meters and came 5th.
Once again we thought the Carron Team would take both silver and gold, but the last man out, the Japanese that won our qualification group, wanted another result. With 53,5 and 52 meters he ended up 2 meters ahead of Gordon (2nd) and 3 meters ahead of Ruairi (3rd). This proved a very popular and deserved victory for the Japanese hosts and the poor guy was celebrated with gallons of champagne (both inside and outside) before he was thrown into the pool by the Carron Team. A friendly gesture that was applauded by everyone and I think even the poor gold medallist thought it was good to take a fully clothed bath under such circumstances.
Time to say goodbye
Very early the day after, we struggled out of bed before six and Nobuo took Tommy and me to Narita Airport for our respective flights back to Norway. We thanked our noble host very much and promised to come back next year.
It had been a wonderful experience, we had managed to win some medals and we would arrive back in Norway with things to improve.
Thanks Nobuo. We’ll definitely be back!
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