ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
Arts + Entertainment
THE MINARET | OCTOBER 13 2011
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Red Bull Flugtag Flies through the Convention Center
Melissa Guarino & Sophie Erber/The Minaret
Clockwise from top left: A group at Flugtag gives their flying machine a go, but it nosedives into the bay; A parrot flying machine glides through the air; A couple of members from the Oompa Loompa group strike poses for the camera; and Barry Potter brings back the series in a big way with his Harry Potter and Voldemort dueling float. By SOPHIE ERBER
Arts + Entertainment Columnist
This Saturday, Harbor Island hosted the much anticipated Red Bull Flugtag, German for “flying day”. Red Bull’s Flugtag travels throughout the country and invites people to build flying machines and launch them off piers and ramps. The last time that Tampa hosted this 19-year-old competition originally founded in Austria was back in 2008, when the city’s own Team Tampa Baywatch took home the grand prize with a 109-foot flight. This year, the grand prize went to four little orange men. “What’s short, round and orange all over? And no, it’s not your favorite Jersey Shore character,” said Kevin Riley of his team. Riley was Willy Wonka’s Amazing Flying Flugtag Adventure’s team leader. Most in the 100,000 plus crowd had no idea that Riley, Dave West, Keith Humphrey and Christopher Elmore were the men of Team Tampa Baywatch three years ago, making this their second consecutive Tampa Bay Flugtag win. Second place went to Adventure Team BigStuff, third was U.S.A. team and the people’s choice award went to Stumble Force-Android Wings. The winds were strong but the rain held off, and all 39 teams tested their wings as they made the leap off the 30-foot high launching pad. Inevitably, all ended up in the Harbor Island waters. Before each launch, a skit and sometimes a dance were performed. The crowd seemed to enjoy these pre-shows
more than some of the flights or rather, the failed flights. Judges scored based on these skits and the overall creativity of the craft, in addition to the flight itself. There were flying guitars, anchors and sharks. There was even a flying pink bra, fitting for breast cancer awareness month. Although the bra itself didn’t go too far, the pilot did, and in this competition, that’s what counts. A common misconception with Flugtag is how the flight is actually judged. Of course it helps if the float itself goes far, but it’s the distance of the human flight that matters. In many cases, the flight machines were simply there to propel the pilot and fling them farther across the water. Spectator Sarah Shiveley made the trip down from Ocala to support her friends’ team, Pirates of the Care Free Being. She said she was “thrilled with how it turned out” despite the trouble they had getting off the launching pad. The crowd was amped up, cheering as the pirates pushed the craft down the runway until it swerved and had to relaunch. Like many crafts in the competition, Pirates’ was built almost entirely out of donated materials from various airports. The University of Tampa’s own Sigma Chi attempted human flight with their Techno Teletubbys Styrofoam craft. Christian Priskos, Matthew Brault, Breenan Aman and Gabe Windschauer were the brothers in disguise. You might’ve seen Dipsy around campus before, but it was something else to see the Teletubbys flying off the flight deck.
“Flugtag was awesome!” said nursing major Caitlin Oline. “I didn’t realize it was going to be that big of an event.” Although I personally expected more flight to take place, the floats themselves were impressive. Oline echoed this response. “I couldn’t believe how good all those floats were,” Oline said. “I mean, clearly some were not going to make it that far, but it was fun to see them try. My favorite craft was the First Basemen. I loved how they were raising breast cancer awareness.”
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“It was fun for the first five or six,” said UT student Steve Guarino. “Then it got repetitive.” Even the competition’s announcer voiced disappointment with a few floats. Team Shake It Off shaped their craft like a giant Shake Weight. The dumbbell broke off from the wings prematurely and the pilot was left to make the plunge with only a small glider still intact. He jumped anyway. “What the frigg, O.M.G. … that pretty much sums that one up,” said the
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“I loved Barry Potter and the Deathly Shallows. Their characters were fun and I can’t believe they came all the way from the UK. That’s dedication.”
“It’s so cool to see all the crafts after the teams have been working on them for months,” said UT student Gia Puopolo. “I loved Barry Potter and the Deathly Shallows. Their characters were fun and I can’t believe they came all the way from the UK. That’s dedication. I guess they really love Red Bull.” The lack of significant flight didn’t seem to bother communications major Jeff Fiore. In fact, it was quite the opposite. “I loved watching all the teams crash into the water!” Fiore said. “I wish I took a kayak out to watch everything up close. That would have been awesome. But some were less entertained than others, and the routine of song, dance and crash got old quickly.
-Gia Puopolo
announcer. The absence of free Red Bull was a problem for others. Although there were stations where Red Bull was handed out, there definitely wasn’t enough for the whole crowd. “I feel like that’s a problem,” said UT student Nick Lorusso. Other UT students left Flugtag feeling inspired to build their own flight machines. “I feel like I could’ve made it farther than all those guys,” said UT junior Dan Leyden. Until then, the world record for a Flugtag flight stands at 207 feet in St. Paul, Minn. Red Bull really can give you wings, even if it’s only for a few seconds. Sophie Erber can be reached at serber@ spartans.ut.edu.