Bling it on. That was the title of the tournament I and a bunch of friends checked out this weekend, up in Nanaimo. I'll do some background first. Last year's Nanaimo was the first time I'd gone to a squash tournament that was out of town. Bevan, Jarryd and I went up to the western themed tournament in my car and we had a great time. It was the first time I'd ever hung out with Jarryd, I met a lot of new friends, and all the variables lined up really nice. That's computer-ish-y talk for saying that the Nanaimo tournaments will always have a special place in my heart. I think. I'm just faking it most of the time.
This year Dan's parents were generous enough to lend him the SUV, so Nikki, Dan, Eric, Jarryd, and myself were all able to go up together. I met Dan and Nikki at lunch after I got off work, and we headed to go and do some shopping to pick up some clothing and bling to go along with the tournament's theme. We pulled into the Yates St. parkade and I mentioned that I wanted to check out Sitka as it had been a while since I'd last gone in there. Awesome, 65% off all their clothing? What a wicked deal. I picked up a sweet zip-up hoody for only 39$, which is wicked, because I've wanted a new hoody for a while, and I like Sitka's clothing and designs a lot. We're starting out on the right foot here. We bought some incredibly gaudy ear-rings and necklaces from Claire's in the mall, and talked to someone who directed us to Mayfair Mall for our ultimate tacky trump card: the grill.
For those that don't know, the grill is the latest in hiphop technology, and looks something like this.
I'd already spent enough money on clothes and accessories, so I passed on the tooth-wear. Dan and Nikki each picked one up, and we headed over to Red Robin's for some lunch before heading up. That being completed, we went and picked up Eric, then waited for Jarryd to show up. Weird, he got dropped off by some blonde woman that none of us knew. Turns out Jarryd didn't know her either - he just offered to pay her ten dollars if she gave him a lift out to Eric's place. Okaaaaaaay..
Alright, we've assembled the road trip crew, we've got beer, and we've got a destination in mind. We all headed up in the SUV and we're starting to get excited for the weekend to come.
I dropped my bags on the floor, looked over at the two beds in one room and the couch in the other room, and wished that I hadn't mentioned my ability to stun herds of buffalo with my snoring. I flopped on one of the sweet sweet beds knowing I wouldn't be sleeping on it and instantly gained the ability "sleepytired +10". I noticed the remote for the TV, reached for it, and in one deft motion that both displayed my incredible dexterity and my eagle-like hand/eye coordination (well, eagles would have really good hand/eye coordination if they had hands), I turned the television on.
Interlude - I don't have cable TV, and I'm fine with that. I barely have enough time to watch more TV than a couple of hours during the week, so it's not like I'm missing much. However, those that know me are aware of the fact that I can, and seem to enjoy, taking in large amounts of what some scientists wearing tin-foil hats call "mindtrash". Dan and Nikki pulled me out of my catatonic TV state ("Hey look, I think Adam's drooling") and it was time to head to the squash club.
First night
We rolled into the squash club and head over to register. Blake's girlfriend Melissa checked us in, and gave me a big compliment saying that my entry form was the best one they got. Many people go to squash tournaments to win their division and play good squash; I go to fill out the entry form. We got our tournament shirts and drink tickets (haiyo!), and headed to check out the draw. I was looking forward to seeing Blake - he and I get along well, and share some of the same quirks, which always makes it easier to be around someone. When I did see him, I was not ready for what I like to call the "Righteous Beard Bomb" that he dropped in my lap. Blake was a level 10 Amish person if ever there was one. Neck beard, bare upper lip. Do I need to say anything else? Seriously, this beard bomb was righteous.
11:40, my first match. Wow, that's late. We stopped for coffee in Duncan, so I'm good on the caffeine tip. I run into a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while and socialize. It's nice to be back to such a welcoming environment - huge props to all the people that work to make that happen in up there. We head out to pick up Bevan from the ferry with Jordan as our navigator. I don't really remember whether anything was happening in the ferry terminal - my mind was starting to drift towards the game I had in a few hours. Bevan comes off the ferry, throws up the horse shoes, and we break the good/bad news to him. You're riding in the back of the "whip".
First matches are looking good for everyone, and I like where I sit in the draw - I'm not seeded, so there's no pressure on me, but I feel confident about my first opponent, and I've been playing well, so I'm just going to focus on that aspect and continue to let my confidence build. Confidence is a big thing for me when I'm playing squash, and if I feel good about things, I play a whole lot better.
Blair Bullus was my first opponent, who plays up at UVic. He was the guy that beat me last year, but I have been training a lot since then, and I think my game has really improved considerably. If he's improved at the same rate, then worst case scenario, I'm going to have a really good match. We get on court, hit the ball around, and while he takes early leads in both the first and second games, I get my nerves and game in check and come back to win them with streaks of points. The third game my confidence was good, so I decided to switch up the game and change the pace to throw him off balance - I'm not taking away anything from Blair, but I was impressed at how the change of pace affected his game, and I took the third game reasonably quickly.
When the smoke had all cleared, most of us were still in the running! We had some drinks, stretched (well, I stretched and people made fun of my awesome back stretch maneuver), and chatted at the club until 1ish. None of us had games until the afternoon, which was great news. We didn't want to go on a bender, but it's fun to catch up with people, and takes a while to let that excitement die down - playing at 9 in the morning would have been a bit of a downer.
We headed back to the hotel to get caught up waiting for some B-looking movie to finish filming, and wound things down around 3 in the morning. We had been listening to tunes on Dan's iPod, which was set up with speakers in our hotel room. Dan left it in my room, and had been controlling it with his remote control. The first thing I did when I went to bed was to unplug the iPod from the remote and the power source. I know Dan pretty well - it seemed like a valid precautionary measure on my part.
First day
I woke up in the morning, and flipped on the tele:
"What, why is this guy eating KFC out of a bucket and selecting women?" "Oh my god, is that Flavour Flav?" "Wow, I love this show". That was my thought process over the first two seconds during which "The Flavour of Love" flashed in front of my eyes. Bahahahahahahaha, what a ridiculous notion, I couldn't get enough. Flavour Flav, one half of the duo behind Public Enemy, now has his own show where he is essentially "The Bachelor. Ghetto edition". Everything about the show feels so contrived, I can't stop watching it. I head next door to wake Dan and Nikki up and get them stoked about Flavour Flav as well. I mentioned to them that the first thing I did when I went into my room was to unplug the iPod so that they couldn't wake me up by turning it on. They looked at each and laughed - apparently the first thing they did when I went into the room was to try and turn it on, and were so dissapointed and confused when it didn't work. Haha! One point for Adam. Eventually we get things started, and head out the door to the club.
The first match I'm playing is against the guy that is the third seed. He looks older than me, so I hope to get him running around the court and just play tight. I initially resisted it, but my game lately has drifted to taking advantage of my movement to the front to cover a weak drop, and a hard low cross court to the back of the court. This shot has been working really well for me, however, I didn't want to become a player that had only hard low shots. One of the things I really like about squash is the fact that it can be so non-linear - playing just hard and low and not taking advantage of shots like lobs and drops is not the way I want to play. I decided that just because I played this shot, it didn't dictate how the rest of my game was played, and so I started to just accept that this was going to be a shot I'd use. Good choice - it put away a lot of rallies for me this weekend.
John Cox played really good - he was nearly twice my age, but played just as hard as I did. I had him at match ball in the fourth game, but couldn't put it away, and we ended up going to 10-9 in the fifth. I thanked him and the ref, and crawled out of the court. A lot of people really liked this match, which I took as a real compliment. People kept coming up to me and telling me how entertaining it was to watch. That's a pretty high compliment when it's coming from people that don't even know you, and I think it's only fair to point out that half that credit goes to my opponent.
I looked to see when I would next play - 5ish tonight. Annnnnd, my opponent won his match in 3 straight games. That's not what I like to see. He'll be going on court with just over half as many miles on his legs than I will be. I grabbed a beer, hung out and watched matches. We rolled back to the hotel for a bit, lay on our beds and watched some lazy TV. We got ourselves together, I pulled my eyelids open (I was getting tired at this point) and got ready to play. This time it would be the number 2 seed that I would be playing.
I was feeling mentally tired, but physically, still able to move around. I put a lot of effort into stretching this tournament, and it really made a big difference. Stretching is a thing that benefits you in subtle ways, and pays off in the long term. I started adding the yoga pose "Downward Dog" into my stretching routine this weekend, and that seemed to help pull my back out a little bit and keep it limber. I can't get my feet flat on the ground yet, but will give it time and see how things go.
I went on court the same time Bevan went on against Arnie and duked it out with my opponent. He was a nice guy, but didn't keep me under any pressure, so I was able to completely impose my game on him. After three games, we shook hands and both walked off the court a little relieved - as long as we didn't go five, I think we were both happy, no matter what the outcome.
Second night
So just like that, I was in the men's B finals! I came up to Nanaimo to have fun, and so I had already decided I wouldn't let my standing in the main draw affect having fun with all my friends. I showered and had just enough time to talk to Dan before he finished up against Kevin - he couldn't get his game going, and so he was out of the draw. It wasn't all bad news though, as Nikki was also now in the finals for the women's A draw. That's pretty cool - two Cook st. players both in the finals.
We showered and hung out at dinner. Everyone got their costumes on, and rolled pretty hard in their finest pimp gear. Jarryd finished reffing his match and got into his costume, and in doing so, created what was perhaps the funniest moment I've ever witnessed:
His costume consisted of a basketball jersey, a chain around his neck, and a toaster that he was wearing. Screw wearing a clock around your neck - the new school ghetto way of doing things is to keep your toasting tech onhand and close by.
Jarryd rolled up to us, and I've never seen someone more stoked to plug in a toaster hanging around their neck and start making toast. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that metal conducts electricity, and started twitching when he turned it on and saying "Wha, why is it hurting?" We noticed that the chain around his neck was in the toaster and told him "Hey, get the chain out of the toaster". What we didn't realize was that Jarryd had specifically wrapped the chain around the element in the toaster prior to putting it around his neck, so the look of surprise on his face when he performed an experiment very similar to Benjamin Franklin's was priceless. Fortunately for Jarryd, the toaster came unplugged, and he escaped with a set of marks on his neck that look a lot like one might expect to see if you put a really hot chain against someone's bare neck.
Seriously though, who doesn't like toast?
There were some kids breaking in one of the squash courts during dinner, so I went down to see what was up, and to bust out a little bit of popping - hey, I can't pass up on an opportunity to bust out right? Then, we gathered the crew together and headed out at night to sample some of the dingy bars that Nanaimo had to offer - initially we figured we'd wait in line for an hour to hear some live music, but when that got boring, we checked out "The Cambie" (tagline: Shitty looking stable by day, shitty looking bar by night).
Second day
Sunday morning I woke up and headed into the other room to see if Nikki and Dan were already awake. Sweet, they were, so I didn't have to lay in bed waiting for the rest of the crew to wake up. We gathered our stuff, Dan and I headed to the club to get the vehicle (based on the promise from Nikki that she would return the favour by getting us toast), came back and checked out.
Last day of matches, and its all about the finals. Dan had gotten knocked out the previous night by Kevin Smith, so it was Nikki and I playing in the finals for our divisions, Women's A and Men's B.
I went into my match figuring that I would probably not be leaving with the victory, but knowing that I've been playing well all weekend, and that as long as I carried along with that path, I would be happy. I've played Arnie Clark before, and the kid hits the ball in a way that usually makes people ask "How much steroids does that kid take?". Seriously, it's distracting to play against him because your ears start to hurt from all the sonic booms that his shots make. My game plan going on court was to take pace off the ball - put it up high and move him off the T so that I could control the rallies and make him do the running. When I was able to execute on this plan, I was doing well, but Arnie could hit the ball with so much pace that I would typically just get buried behind him making weaker and weaker returns until I either made an error or he put it away.
In case anyone is interested, here are some of the things I did wrong:
- Volley the serve, nutbar
- Keep the high shots wide
Yeesh, I came off the court after my second game, and Dan walked up to me to give me some advice. The first thing I said to him was "Hey, I should probably start volleying those serves hey?" He laughed and said that I was ahead of him and obviously knew what I was doing wrong - for the first two games, I would just concede the T to Arnie and put myself on the defense letting his serves go to the back and hitting a weak boast for the return. I hit a few winners from back there (which is nice, because I've been working on boasts with Stu, Tim and Jeremy), but this should not be the norm.
After my first game, Dan commented that I wasn't putting Arnie under enough pressure because my shots weren't wide enough - by keeping them nice and high, and a little wider, he was forced off the T that much more, and I was given that much more time to recover and be prepared for his return.
I felt a little bit outclassed, but the crowd was flattering, and when I came off after losing in 3 games, I felt a little better hearing people telling me I'd played well in spite of the fast loss. I didn't feel bad about the loss - I'm really stoked that I made it to the finals, unseeded, and am going to make an effort to play some games against people that have styles of play similar to Arnie's - possibly Dave Wheaton. I think that I can adapt to this fast pace and defeat these people, but it will require that I spend some time playing them in order to learn how to do it effectively.
I showered, and Nikki proceded to dispatch her opponent (Dawn, I think her name was) in 4 games. Nikki was playing pretty well, and I was mostly just glad that she'd decided to play the Women's A draw instead of the Men's B. So, it was on to the final match of the day: Kevin Smith and Adam Radzminski.
There was some drama last year between Kevin and I, as anyone that has been reading this blog knows, but his court composure, at least what I've seen, has improved since I last saw him playing, which was good to see. To me, court composure and keeping your cool is the single most admirable attribute I see in a squash player I respect. It's easy to do drills everyday for weeks on end and get your game to a certain point (okay, it's not easy, but it's easier, I think), but it's very difficult to keep yourself composed, calm and collected on the court when you're being put under mental and physical stress chasing a ball around the court. Throw into that the potential for calls that you don't agree with, and that you don't usually get a choice of who is reffing your game, and it's a recipe that requires real discipline to stay real out there. So, anyhow, I sat down next to Dan after showering, and hoped to see Kevin beat Adam, who was the favorite (I have nothing against Adam, he seems like a good guy, I just wanted to see a local bring home the prize).
The games were good, but Kevin didn't quite have what it took to take out Adam - the guy is 6'4" and makes it to the front and back in one step. It's really quite impressive seeing how little effort he seems to expend covering shots on the court.
Wrap up
We all got our stuff together, and stuck around for the presentation of the prizes. Dope, I got to choose with a lot of awesome prizes left on the table (the sponsorship for this tournament is really good - again, nice work guys), and picked up a gift certificate for Sunday brunch at the Longwood Brew Pub for two. A nice trip for Bay and I to make when we've both got the time for it.
We said our goodbyes, hopped in the SUV, and headed on home. I'm sitting on the couch on Monday night finishing this entry off after having taking the day off to do basically nothing but lay in bed and recharge my batteries and get ready to shift back into work mode. After everything's been said and done, this was an awesome trip, and Nanaimo did not dissapoint in any way - we rolled with a really tight crew, had a blast, and once again, I'm really looking forward to hitting this up again next year - hopefully playing in the Men's A draw this time.
MVPs for the tournament: Nikki, Dan, Bevan, Jarryd, and especially Eric for being good enough to drive us down on Sunday. Also, Blake, Melissa, Amy, and the other members working the club who's names I feel terrible right now for not being able to remember (let me know if you know them and I'll update this). If anyone has any doubt about whether or not it's worth the extra money it costs to go to a tournament that is out of town, let me assure you that the cost is a steal of a deal compared to the amount of fun that you have when you head to one of these. Put Nanaimo on your list of tournaments to check out for the next year's squash season, and until then, keep your eyes open for the Comox tournament in April, and the Jericho Sun and Surf tournament during the summer. We'll be making appearances at both of these tournaments, and we do guarantee fun times and awkward conversations.
I'll be trying to make a new entry within the next couple of weeks as I prepare and train for the Beach Bash, which Dan is running this year out at Keating Squash Club. I'm hoping to pull a good performance in the B division again then, so I'll be training over the coming two weeks in preparation for that.
Until then, laters.