GNCTR debriefing [Warning: This is long...]

GNCTR update

First of all I have to say I am very pleased with my team members who were present in Calgary before Iron Ring Ceremony (Kristen, Jeff, and Tim), those who stayed the entire time (Matt, Brendon, Fraser, and Andrew (Clow not Chow, sooo sorry!)), Ioana for coming out on her co-op in Calgary as a pusher, and those who couldn't make it (Misha, Liz, Terry, and Billy)

Wednesday:

Tuesday had rolled into Wednesday without any sleep because I was hanging out with John and packing, so my internal clock at the start of my trip was already off. At 3:00 I meet Andrew and Jeff at Engineering 5 to get picked up by Fraser. Stumbling into a car that was conveniently partly pre-packed, we swing over to pick up Tim and off to the London airport we went. I had not left from the London airport before, it was small but nice enough. As we waited for Kristen, Matt, and Brendon (late because they were making cookies for the tech exhibit day), the Western team started to trickle in just as sleepily as we were. What was great was to see Kristen with a luggage bag dedicated entirely to bags of sugar cookies.

Landing in Calgary, you could see snow-capped mountains on the other side of the city, which was really exciting because it had been a while since I had seen snow and also our competition depended on it. Welcome to Calgary!

The rooms at the hotel were a bit of a bit of mess because they had the two rooms for the Waterloo team under separate names (from ages ago when I thought someone else was going to use their credit card too. So after waiting about 5 hours for the one room (in my name) to be cleaned, I had to find out what happened to that second room and I was getting worried. Eight people in one room wasn't going to work. Turns out 4 people and making the last part of our costumes in one room was more than full as it was. Since we had no room and waited like hobos in the hall after we registered, we had a very narrow window in which to make our swag. Partying in the rooms began while Kristen and I worked the finishing touches on the bandanas and boxers. The coveralls, sweaters, t-shirts and gloves all looked great. We also had a ton of buttons, keychains, and the special patches that Kristen was going to give to the team as a present. In the afternoon we went shopping for our costumes for the two themed nights (Space cowboys and 'What I want to be when I grow up') and food/drink supplies.

At night was the opening ceremonies where the partying continued even harder and we had our first look into the size and breadth of the teams. Queen's was ridiculously spirited, donned in matching firefighter outfits, University of Calgary in Elvis one-piece suits, University of Alberta in Tron morph suits, University of Manitoba in Winnipeg Jets jerseys, and University of Toronto in vintage pilot/flight attendant costumes. The cheers, chants, and opening exhibitions were fantastic. A lot of them became really short and just turned into a dance party to whatever song they had chosen to do a dance to. We had a cute movie that Fraser made before we left, but to technical difficulties, the video and sound cut out!! :(  Here it is actually.

That night we were off to Ceili's, a bar just down the street. This was going to be the first of many clubs/bars on the schedule, and I realized how much swing dancing has changed my expectations of dancing and music in a bar in general, but it was a good time with mainly Brendon, Matt, and Fraser.

Thursday:

As was going to be par for the weekend, we woke up around 5:00 - 5:30 to ship out to Nakiska (for the skiiers/boarders), and Banff for the non-skiiers for curling and a scavenger hunt. The main point of the trip to Nakiska was that our breakfast was a very tiny bagel and an apple when the box we got our breakfast in looked way more promising.

The drive to Nakiska and the hill itself were absolutely gorgeous! It was my first time actually being near the rockies and it was very awesome. The vertical elevation of Nakiska is 2,400 ft, which is about 12 times as tall as Chicopee in Kitchener. I started my morning snowboarding with Fraser and Matt who brought their own board and skis respectively. There was a spirit challenge to form a group of three with people from other universities in order to interact (hence competitor interaction day), but that didn't really pan out because it was way easier to go with people you knew and you matched their ability level. After a little bit, I joined Tim, Jeff, and Andrew for boarding for the rest of the day. I was so happy with all of my team because they were willing to do any hills and were not too far off in the amount of time we took to get down a run. What was noted and appreciated was that a majority of the runs were straight with few splits, which means you wouldn't easily lose people in a group if you lost sight of them. I think the two best times were Tim and I going on the double black diamond that was ridiculously steep and we just went for it and the black diamond run in the middle of the hill with great slopes and conditions (especially in the morning). Below are some pictures of what I saw from the hill, the group, and me at the hill. 

Tim, Jeff, myself, and Andrew at the top of Nakiska

After a very awesome day of snowboarding, we got shipped back to the hotel where we were fed pizza from a white unmarked van in the parking lot across the street from the hotel because the hotel had policies against the group officially ordering food outside of their catering services. That night was Ranchman's which didn't turn out so great for me. Since the night before, I started getting congested and weak from a head cold. Regardless, I get dressed up in my outfit for the 'space cowboys', which was a mustard yellow v-neck long sleeve sweater over my black t-shirt and a phaser à la Captain kirk. Once I was done cleaning up money/admin stuff I ran over. I met some cool people from UofT in line…in line outside when it was wicked cold out. One guy was dressed like Matt Smith with a cowboy hat (series 6 premier), so we got on the discussion of Doctor Who and such, yes apparently I do this wherever I go. After waiting in line for about an hour in the freeing cold, and feeling too stuffed up to breathe or think, I just headed back before I got in, which apparently was a mistake because there was a guy doing 2-step in there and spinning his partner. Though to country music, I would have liked to dance with him, ha! Matt found me in the hotel room passed out in front of my laptop…oh ya I rocked Thursday night :P.

Friday:

Tech Ex day! Another early morning, we're bussed over to the University of Calgary with all of our costumes in order to meet up with our crate that we sent away 2 weeks ago. The organizing of crates took quite a while, which didn't really justify such an early wake up call. Being fed a tasty pancake breakfast, that totally kept us going for the day. When it got to our crate, we were at first really worried because the side of our crate fell off due to the pull out of the screws. Everything seemed alright, and the crate could still be used as our exhibit display (part of the plan to win sustainability points. This proved annoying to set up and longer than the rest of the teams…owell. We got our little body shop for the crash test dummies theme and our rotating impact symbol platform to display our toboggan. Due to the line load of the toboggan, the edges of the platform popped up a bit, making the rotating display a bit touch-and -go. It's a fantastic idea, it just didn't work all the time. 

After the bit of panic for set up, other teams, visitors, industry people and judges walked around for the day asking us questions, taking a cookie from our giant stash that were made Tuesday night, and taking buttons that we put out for people to take. The main events of the tech exhibit were the Circa/concrete, superstructure, sustainability, and spirit presentations as well as the safety/toboggan weighing. The rest was a bunch of cheering and team spirit, which a bunch of schools (especially Queen's) excelled at. Being a new and very small team, we didn't have that much representation, but we did alright for ourselves, more social than previous years I should think. The safety check required us to pick up some grip tape for Andrew on the back and my feet in the front, and some more insulation foam for the back handle, so while the rest of the team continued to reassemble the crate, I made a trip to Home Depot for materials we were to install tomorrow before our races. This is when Kristen, Jeff, and Tim took off for their flight back to Waterloo. They were going back for their Iron Ring Ceremony, which I'll just have to do at a later time :P. The results from the Tech Ex day, the Circa award presentation when well, the superstructure (brakes, steering, frame) not so well with one of the judges being sure that the bolts onto the frame would shear due to bending (and Jeff sure that they wouldn't), spirit was there but not grandiose. We are only 8 people and on a very limited schedule to come up with cheers and spirited stuff. Much credit to Fraser for all of the spirit stuff we did do.

Coming back to the hotel, it was another of those "totally crash" nights. They took us to this club called Desperados where we had dinner and dancing. It was agreed that it was a first for many people to have dinner in a club, mainly because the lights just made all of the food look the same. This theme night was the 'What I want to be when I grow up'. This got funny with Fraser going as Hairy Potter (beard and moustache holding a pot), Matt being a male stripper, Andrew the Clifford dog walker, and Brendon the hoola girl). I was a conspiracy theorist where I covered myself in tin foil (cookie sheets for breast plate), but I started to get an allergic reaction so I took it off. As before, it was club music, and I was more content at my semi-normal spot just hanging out by the bar. There I met the UofT guy from the night before. So chatted a bunch since neither of us were really interested in dancing to the music. Since we got there at 6, it felt like forever and a day until the first pick up party bus (yes, a party bus with poles for dancing) was to pick us up, I considered going to the weekly Calgary swing dance. Unfortunately there were a few uncertain neighbourhoods I had to walk through, multiple buses taking a total of an hour to the other side of Calgary or take an expensive cab. Funny how at one point I just paused and was staring into space and Brendon's like "you're not going to swing, it's ridiculously far", ha! He hasn't known me long but he's already figured that part out :P.

Saturday:

RACE DAY! By this point, although the snowboarding and tech ex were fun, it felt like it was *finally* what we came for. Shipping out at again at 6:30, we got to the Canadian Olympic Park, which is about the elevation of Chicopee, but full of runs with giant jumps, rollers, and terrain park stuff, plus the traditional large, built-up ski jump. Getting into the chalet, we had our first look at our track…holy shit!

It was built out from a regular ski run on the hill where the top quarter was incredibly steep for our purposes (like blue square on Nakiska). I could see teams starting to shake and not knowing what to think. In a captain's meeting the previous day, we were told that instead of hay bails, there were to be three rows of tires because there was a large drop off after the track onto a highway. As a few from the team went to go unload the crate, there was a captain's meeting where we were shown around the track and to ask any questions. People asked technical questions about starting and such, but no one commented on how the track is still sloped downwards after the finish line, the steepness of that top quarter, the three rows of tires (only one tire high), and the giant ice wall after the tires. Regardless, we assembled our toboggan (with a little difficulty because duct tape doesn't stick well to anything except kinda itself at -20 C.

The first to race were two Alumni teams (UofA and UofC). The first went spectacularly and stopped within the first line of tires, things looked good. Then came the next team, and they overshot the finish line, the tires, and bumped into where the sidewall met the giant ice wall. They got thrown from the sled, but since they had slowed significantly, everyone was ok and they hit a whopping 77 km/h! Our team was working on the finishing touches of our grip tape not even a few meters from where they bumped into the wall, so we had to move just in case it happened again. Next came the first undergraduate team from UofA. Having a successful start, everyone cheered as they crossed the finish line, but cheering quickly turned into gasps as the Tron sled hurdled through the tires and rammed into the giant ice wall, flipped sideways, bounced up and did a 180, landing on the riders.

After the ball of snow cleared, officials ran over to check on them, and called that everyone was ok, though 5 seconds later there was urgent yelling for a medic. One of the riders (Aaron) dislocated his ankle. The front rider was thrown forward and sheard off the steering system without sustaining too much damage, and the other two sustained heavy bruising. Everyone was shaken especially since at a top speed of 67 km/h, it happened in an instant. Everyone was called back to the chalet as discussions began of what to two after two big crashes.

While people were inside, the University of Alberta crash was the topic of everyone's discussions. There was shock, worry, and dread for the racers of teams who were yet to run. After a while, cheering began in order to change the topic and improve people's spirits. The snow groomer and modified the track by opening up the walls about half way up the hill in a much gentler section and piling all of the tires onto one run. Once they were done, there was a general announcement talking about the modified course and how disqualifications happens when the sled hits any tires.

From there on, the race went much better. The speeds were significantly less than the first teams, but the general consensus was that it didn't matter as much, it's better to be intact and safe. Ryerson (the first sled after the break) had a fantastic run! They had a hydraulic release for their brake. Since the crash, our team had someone not comfortable with the idea of racing on the track. Still persistent on staying out, Ioana, who was originally supposed to be on the sled, then decided she didn't want to (weeks before the competition so it's ok), agreed to take his place in the sled. Being in the front, I was going to see everything, for good or ill. As we climbed the hill with our toboggan towed by the skidoo, my heart raced about all the possibilities, contingencies, and what could be done by our driving (Andrew). so we got into our sled, tucked ourselves in, got tucked in and away we went. things seemed good at first, though a bit crooked, we started to veer to the left but was corrected at the last minute as to not hit the wall but we hit the "centering" pylon (point deduction). Partway through there was a gentle roll and I felt my butt lift off the sled and I thought "oh jeez I need to anchor my butt better, I don't want to bounce off'. Then we starting veering to the right wall and bumped it slightly right before getting to the finish line, and I remember wincing a little trying to prepare myself for a jostle but it wasn't really there. Ah, and comes the tires. As the tires came closer, I tried leaning back more and tucking my feet in, but the grip take wasn't giving me much to go off of. One row, then second row, and nudged the third row of tires. We came to a stop with no one hurt or anything, but I remember feeling trapped by the leaning back position from the toboggan and the tires piled up on my lap and legs. Though we were disqualified from taking anymore runs, we hit 45 km/h (maximum ended up being 52 km/h by Ryerson), we still had a fantastic run and enjoyed the fact that we made it, competed and came out the same way we came in. We were able to borrow a GoPro camera from the spirit director by the name of Blackslip, and I'll try and upload that shortly!

The awards dinner was funny because it was supposed to be formal and "clean", though all the normal cheers while standing on chairs ensued. Ryerson University swept the competition with fastest speed, shortest time, best overall design and such. Queen's got the spirit award and best use of fly-ash, and Western got the best concrete mix (having made 25 sample batches). Honourable second place mentions went to Waterloo for the most sustainable sled and for the spirit challenge of the first snack (homemade sugar cookies and chocolate milk). It was unfortunate to come home a little empty handed but considering the circumstances of the team and timing, this was just a learning process for the team members. Firstly, there's co-op, it's terribly disruptive to the design process because civils have September to December in co-op, which is key primary built/test time. Additionally, it wasn't originally set in Calgary, but in Ottawa. Then Ottawa backed out of their offer and the competition ceased to exist for part of the summer. Once we found out that it was going to be in Calgary, it was exam time and the captains didn't see much of each other until more urgent emails started saying we needed to kick this into high gear. Another issue was that the new date for GNCTR in Calgary fell on the same day at the UW Iron Ring Ceremony, which meant that all of the 4th years participating or in captain position (save a few) left the team. This meant we either had to find a new team or not go this year.The competition was something Misha, Kristen and myself didn't really want to die in our year, but we couldn't do it by ourselves. We tried reaching out to all of engineering, especially younger civil students and mech engs. We had a medium-sized group for an information session, but the people who persisted were those who came with us to Calgary. Also, our original mech guys disappeared on us in the fall term, which threw a wrench into Kristen's planning of the technical design. We were lucky to get Jeff (who I went to school with in WCI) and Tim.

After the awards dinner, people went back to their rooms and the hardest partying of the weekend began. The hotel security, lovingly called "the Russians" or "the KGB" roamed the hallways and for the first time tried to actually enforce order. Crazy things happened like the continuation of the 4th floor DJ-ed party in the hall, and a hot tub in a hotel laundry hamper with three people in it, being pushed into the elevator. It was a sight. Also, I gained more realization that men really like to take their pants off and go running around the halls, somehow I forgot about this. It was a wild night where people were also trading shirts and gear with each other. The Queen's fireman hats and t-shirts were desirable, as were the UofT pilot shirts. This is when we traded most of our buttons, extra bandanas, patches, and gave away stickers. The patches were well sought out because they were very well done and our whole logo. People also wanted our safety coveralls, sweaters, and the one extra hat that was in the spirit kit. Since everything was custom made for us in a small team, people didn't really part with the main articles of clothing (especially the comfy sweaters).

Sunday:

We got to sleep in! Bus departure with Western to the airport was for 9:45, but I told them 9:30 just to be safe ;). Brendon had come up to me the night before being all excited that he had found the hot tub in the basement and I was like ya we gotta check it out. So it was decided that we'd go the morning we left. Waking up just a bit earlier than we would have needed to for packing (but later than every other day at the event), Brendon, Fraser, Andrew and I chilled out in the hot tub before our plane ride home. I found that the bus/plane ride with Western was even more enjoyable because we knew the people much better. Western is great, but I really liked this Waterloo team. I know they have a billion of midterms this week that they've had no time to study for, and I wish them the best. I know Kristen, Tim, and Jeff got their iron rings, and I hope that was great. Many silly/awkward/epic times were had, and I'm kinda glad we had a small team so that we could all be there to enjoy those times. I say this as I'm on the plane home with the team and peacefully writing before the week starts anew. Congratulations guys, you all rock!