Down by the Charles River for the finals of the open pairs division was truly a treat. I had just completed my competitive rounds and I was gearing up to take in all of the action and jot down some notes in order to report what transpired that beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. As with my experience in Boston, winds can be very swirly and inconsistent which proved to be the case for most of the competitors during this round. However, the first team who had to suffer didn't even experience the wind on the competitor’s field! Instead, Erwin Velasquez and Ted Oberhaus had to drop out of the round due to a severe calf strain that Erwin experienced during their warm-up thereby surprising Matt and Jacob Gauthier as the team that had to play first in the round.

Jeff O'Brien Vacation catch

Jacob and Matt chose a classical piece of music this year. Their Hawaiian shirt attire seemed to match the relaxed nature of the routine. Matt opened with a combination to a lovely flowing front body roll set to a foot brush which he misaligned to miss the consecutive flying crow catch to open their routine. Jacob had some bright moments with a big coop combination that fed into Jacob’s big phlaud catch. Each had some solid individual combinations until the music shifted into a ticking clock sound effect. Matt and Jacob’s strong moments began to weaken. Simple under the leg passes were finding the ground and the energy seemed to be sucked into a black hole. Was it the wind...or mental mistakes, only Matt and Jacob knows for sure. Matt and Jacob finished where they started, in seventh place.

Playing next were Rodney Sanchez and Randy Silvey. Their play was much cleaner than the Gauthier brothers. Some coop highlights included Randy’s body roll combination passing to Rodney’s standing gitis catch and a sweet under the leg set to Randy’s spinning crow catch. Individually, Randy completed three consecutive back rolls with an around the neck grab to get a big crowd response. Both Rodney and Randy completed solid double-spinning under the leg catches. Uncertainty of the wind as well as a few minor errors may have made this team a bit cautious when it came being more consecutive and turning on the difficulty. However, the judges seemed to like what they saw, granting them a fourth place finish.

Tom Leitner and Pat Marron Co-Op

I was unsure whether the next team had lost a contact prior to play, or they were both in search of a lost nail as the team of Dan Yarnell and Paul Kenny were bent over at the waist to begin their routine. Accompanied by a bluesy number, both players used a total of five discs within their choreography. Mirroring each other’s combinations seemed to be the on-going theme throughout the routine. Their coops flowed quite nicely as they passed the five discs with only a few minor bobbles prevented them from executing the multi disc work perfectly. As the music changed mid-way through to the television theme of "Identical Cousins" from the 1960’s Patty Duke television show, Paul and Dan matched coop moves. As the music changed into percussive beats, Dan had an extensive tipping combination to an under the leg pass to Paul’s tip back to Dan’s big final catch. The combination was mirrored by Paul and closed with Paul’s big air catch. At the end of the routine, Dan fed Paul the multiple discs for another coop combination that ended with Paul clamping down on each of the five in successive scarecrow catches. All in all, the energy and flow was evident for the judges and the errors were insignificant enough to make this routine a runner up for the division title. Both Dan and Paul were given the third place nod for their efforts that afternoon.

Matt and Jake Gauthier

Following Paul and Dan were the tie dye team of Jeff Kruger and Pipo Lopez. Opening to the beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and shifting into "You might as well be walking on the sun" by Smashmouth, Pipo and Jeff started off well. However, early on and changing the mood, Jeff misfired a throw into the crowd. Ironically, as Jeff yelled to the crowd to "catch it", the freshly injured Erwin Velasquez was able to be in path of this wayward disc and assisted Jeff with his request. Pipo looked rather relaxed during the round but was playing very cautiously. (I later learned Pipo had lost a custom "Yarnail" during the routine rendering him equipment challenged for the majority of the routine and explaining why he was playing so cautiously). Unlike Pipo, Jeff went "balls out" for his big air moves. However, the timing gods were not on Jeff’s side as he missed most of his patented moves such as his "table-top" gitis catch. Pipo had a very nice double spinning flying under the leg catch as an individual highlight. Jeff closed the routine strongly with a feed from Pipo into a big-air phlaud catch. The shakiness of the routine was evident and the judges scored this team in sixth place when the results were turned in.

Third to last was another tie-dye team consisting of Tom Leitner and Pat Marron. They opened with a nice skidding coop. However, it was stopped short when Tom’s body roll pass to Pat rolled beyond Pat’s reach. The disc started finding the ground as the wind started to unleash it’s fury on these two. Both played with determination in the face of these conditions. Tom executed a bad attitude brush that went wayward into the crowd which Pat was able to save with an under the leg catch. Tom had a nice roll combination with a behind the neck pull into a double spinning combination into a big triple fake close. Pat had several pulls against the spin but often the wind would get under the rim and the disc would fall to the ground. The ending was quite disjointed and the final coop didn't go smoothly due to the crumb wind. I think there was a collective sigh of frustration when these two walked off the field as the gnarly wind dominated. The judges were sympathetic though, they awarded fifth place to Pat and Tom.

What’s this.... another team wearing tie-dye? Joel Rogers and Larry Imperiale must have been a part of the fashion consultation prior to this tournament because they donned the colorful attire as well! Playing to Santana, and a noticeably lighter wind, Larry and Joel opened with a big upside-down coop to Joel’s feed through Larry’s hoop and closed by Joel’s flying gitis catch. Larry followed suit by going big with a foot brush into a spinning crow catch. The crowd could feel the energy change as both Larry and Joel both hit a multi-tip combination to the music. As the tune slowed, Larry pulled off three consecutive body rolls to a 50/50 body roll closer. As they neared the end, both Joel and Larry brought out the scarecrow moves. Joel fed Larry with a crow brush to Larry's consecutive crow brush back with Joel's set back to Larry’s crow catch. Larry fired an upside down throw to Joel that he quickly closed with an upside down crow catch. The air was filled with excitement as both players knew they had only dropped one and the difficulty was executed too! But was it enough to beat the next team?

Arthur Coddington and Dave Lewis stepped onto the field to challenge Larry and Joel. These guys definitely play to a different drummer. Their custom shirts displayed a picture of each of their faces on the front and the back - the front, the serene expression and the back, the frantic face. Set to percussion, Dave launches into a big double-spinning move into a flying under the leg catch. As he loses his footing into the catch, he lands on the ground but doesn't lose grip of the disc! Arthur also produces a big opening double spinning combination into a stabbing crow catch. Dave has a great consecutive spinning leg-over over an upside-down clock throw. There were a few drops though as Dave missed an Oliver pull which he mostly pulls off without a hitch and Arthur executed a double spinning somersault but dropped a behind the back pull out of the somersault. Closing out this energized routine, Arthur and Dave pulled a big coop combination into Dave’s flying gitis catch. After the explosive ending, the armchair competitors wondered whether it was enough to win.

When all was done and over, the judges rewarded the Open Pairs title to Joel and Larry with a 2.3 point differential. Dave and Arthur played well, but would have to accept runner up for this year.

Congratulations to all finals competitors and cheers to those who achieved the title of 2002 World Freestyle Champions! I'll be looking forward to next year’s event!

1) Larry Imperiale / Joel Rogers
2) Arthur Coddington / Dave Lewis
3) Paul Kenny / Dan Yarnell
4) Randy Silvey / Rodney Sanchez
5) Tom Leitner / Pat Marron
6) Jeff Kruger / Pipo Lopez
7) Jake and Matt Gauthier
8) Ted Oberhaus / Erwin Velasquez (scratch)

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