http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 87275.htmlAug. 28, 2007, 8:39AM
Earning their wings
Flying contraptions
Teams take the plunge into Lady Bird Lake at Red Bull Flugtag Texas
By LANA BERKOWITZ
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
AUSTIN - Chupacabra Iditarod Sled's blood splatters were a hit, and during most of Saturday evening the Houston team was in second place at Red Bull Flugtag Texas.
But as the sun went down, so did the sled team's standing. Celebrity judges, including rap entrepreneur Paul Wall, Ricardo Chavira (Carlos Solis of Desperate Housewives) and Connie Britton (Tami Taylor of Friday Night Lights), flipped numbered cards to rate the teams on creativity, showmanship and distance.
Distance is always a challenge in flugtag, a competition in which human-powered flying craft are launched off an elevated ramp over the water.
Flugtag - or "flying day'' - originated in 1991 in Vienna, Austria, and marketers for Red Bull energy drink brought it to the U.S. The U.S. flight record of 155 feet was set in Nashville, Tenn., in June.
But like most of the teams competing Saturday, the Texas Roach Wranglers of Houston did a nosedive into the water. However, as team No. 21, the roach got a cool nighttime launch. The sun was still frying the contestants' brains when Chupacabra, No. 4, plunged off the 22-foot ramp into Lady Bird Lake.
Twenty-eight teams built contraptions to throw off the flight deck. The grand prize - a pilot's training course - went to Austin's Skate and Destroy. Superman's Crip Tonite, piloted by Mark Zupan of Murderball, took second place, and Billy Ocean's Flying Fish Taco, starring the wandering Austin marlin, was third.
Cell-phone votes made Congress Street Bats the crowd favorite.
Though the field was dominated by Austinites, participants included teams from Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas and Canada.
The venue officially opened at 5 p.m. Saturday, but spectators were milling about the staging area at least an hour earlier.
Here's one view from the fence line.
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4:30 p.m.: Chupacabra has a sweet position. They are the first team visitors see when entering the staging area. Chupacabra (Jeremiah Shaw of Houston) wears a black suit that covers him from head to toe. He also has wings and goggles.
4:32: He looks hot, but he's talking a big game. Chupacabara says it will be a moral victory if the winged sled, which costs about $700 to construct, makes it up the 50 foot ramp and over the edge.
Chupacabra and his teammates, who are dressed in wooly pants, happily pose for photos.
4:40: Chupacabra's younger brother, Derek Shaw, stops by to point and laugh. "People ask me if I'm going to see my brother fly, but I say I'm here to see my brother fall.''
4:55: Chupacabra practices sacrificing his goats. They bleat for spectators, urging them to use their cell phones to vote for "Nummmmmber Four.''
"These guys are too damn funny,'' says a new fan, who is a bit too chatty with passers-by.
5:10: The Phi Delt Flyers, with their Eat Me cake, yell, "Toga, toga, toga.''
5:15: Scissors, of the rock-paper-scissors Team Roshambo, grooves to the music.
5:25: Chupacabra's goats are still game for photographers, but getting gamier by the minute. "I'm looking forward to going into the water,'' says sweaty goat Luis Mesen.
Goat Dixie Dismukes, who made the team's woolly leggings, puts a red bow on her tail. The three goat boys are topless and damp from sweat or dousing themselves with water.
5:30: Danger, danger! Karl Sucks, a giant flying vacuum named for one of the Minneapolis designer's ex-boyfriends, is accidently pushed into the wingtip of the Chupacabra Iditarod Sled.
Chupabacra groupies use a backpack and cooler to protect the sled's wings, and an 18-pack of Red Bull is shoved under a front wheel of Karl Sucks to hold it in place.
5:32: Chupacabra takes off his hot mask to reveal a hot, bearded face. Shaw takes a break.
5:35: Goat Danny Hall takes his cell phone from the front pouch of his woolly pants and gives it to a friend for safekeeping.
5:45: Security starts herding spectators out of the staging area.
5:50: Shaw returns.
5:51: The color guard lines up at the bottom of the ramp.
5:52: After some discussion about life vests, the color guard leaves. According to the diligent security staff, everyone on the ramp must be wearing a personal flotation device.
6 p.m.: Goats Hall and Bryan Osborne douse themselves with water again.
Nearby, Scissors is still dancing.
6:02: A member of Team Stonehenge (Wilma, perhaps) asks me to vote for No. 12, a flying Flintstone car.
6:05: There are audio problems. The audience can't hear sideline interviews with the guest judges, whose images are beamed on a giant screen.
6:10: Redbull safety helmets and life vests are handed out to the first teams ready for launch.
6:15: It looks like Goats Dismukes and Bryan are talking strategy with Chupacabra. Or, maybe not. It's hard to tell because Chupacabra's mouth is covered.
6:20: A flower-power player from Summer of Love, which will be flying a VW bus with rainbow wings, offers me a flower.
6:28: Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction sings the national anthem, but spectators can't hear it. More sound problems.
Afterward the Congress Street Bats, the first team up, talk trash to Chupacabra Iditarod Sled Team.
"You ready to see how it's done? You better have a library card because you're gonna be checking us out.''
6:36: The Bats don't take off because Who Let the Dogs Out is the wrong music. Finally Wham!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go cues up, and the Bats are the first team in the water.
7 p.m.: Chupacabra hits the water. There's a cheer for the blood-spilling skit, but a groan greets the sled's nosedive. This crowd wants to see some flight before a gruesome crash.
Goat Mesen bruises a leg when he hits the sled during the jump. The team breaks 6 on the applause-o-meter.
7:22: A member of security helps Rock of Team Roshambo make his face opening bigger so his helmet will fit. A few minutes later Rock gets a sympathy groan when he does a face plant into the water.
7:30-7:55: There are more sound problems and announcements for lost kids, but the wind picks up, providing some relief from the heat as more teams go plop.
7:55: The lights go on, and it becomes a night-flying event. A radio DJ working the crowd tells parents to stop losing their children.
8:10: It's revealed on the big screen that Chupacabra is in second place behind Billy Oceans' Flying Fish Taco and ahead of Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, which constructed an effigy of Al Gore.
8:50: Texas Roach Wranglers finally move to the starting line at the bottom of the ramp. A guy in a Red Bull shirt says into his phone that the event is 20 minutes behind schedule.
9 p.m.: There's nothing like it, says Roach rider David Sutherland, trying to describe the jump he made with teammate Roddie Schuster. "It's cathartic.''
9:15: Chupacabra, wearing black Lycra without the headgear, is bummed because he lost the backpack that contained his wallet. Goat Mesen, now in street clothes, is limping, and goat Hall says his heel aches.
But with some libations from the VIP lounge, their spirits perk up.
"It was bedlam,'' Chupacabra/Shaw says, who acknowledges he was feeling dizzy just before the jump because he had been in the sun all day in his black outfit.
Goat Osborne wanders in. He's still wearing his muddy fur pants and goat horns.
"I didn't want to take them off and not get the attention,'' he says.
9:30: The Red Bull Air Force parachuters glide in from the darkness. Three land on the flight deck, and one hits the water. The flugtag winners are announced. Then the music starts at 9:35 p.m., five minutes past schedule.
The sticky crowd parts, leaving a sea of empty plastic water bottles and Red Bull cans.
This event took place Saturday August 25th.
From everything I've found including this article there were sound problems.
