Miami Super 7 2003

The World Cup and NPPL Super 7 were back to back this year so I've combined both events into one story. Florida was hit pretty hard by Katrina, although in Orlando the only indication was how busy it was. People moved north from Miami and its environs to escape the devastation of the storm - many hotels were booked solid and rental cars were hard to come by. The weather was also quite cool in Orlando with nights dipping into the high 40's (under 10 celcius). This was by far the coldest World Cup I've ever been to. The event is always scorching hot and insanely humid so I'm glad LB told me to bring some warmer clothes.

Smart Parts launched their SP8 at the Cup. This marker brings the performance of the Ion to a marker sure to appeal to scenario players and milsim enthusiasts.

Left: Todd Martinez is growing back his fro.

Above: Cody Szmik, Dynasty Dynamics.

Left: XSV's new camo jersey.

Dynasty ended up winning the event with XSV taking second place.

There was no point going home after the Cup with the NPPL event starting a few days later so many players and industry people stayed in Florida. I stayed on and drove down to the Keys with my friends from Dynasty.

Monday morning, after a hillarious night spent in the houses Dynasty rented for the event, we packed up and (eventually) headed off to the Keys. The trip took about 8 hours. Todd and I shared the driving in one van while Ollie, Alex, Johnny, and Ryan crashed in the back.

As we travelled south the damage became more and more apparent. Trees and lightposts were knocked over by the storm and most billboards were blank or lying, twisted on the ground.

Monday was Halloween and Todd wasted no time getting into costume.

We arrived in the Keys and shortly thereafter the power went out. That sucked. Here it was Halloween, we had just driven 8 hours to get to the Keys and party, and now the power was out. We made the best of it and decided to go out and find a place that had a generator.

Of course, it's Halloween and you can't go out without a costume so we hit Walgreens and got suited up - 5 of us as Santa Claus (Yosh, Jon, Danny, Ollie, and myself). Todd was, as you know, a slice of pepperoni and black olive pizza, and Ryan was a ghost. Alex was the Witch, Angel the Cowboy, and Eric took on a twister suit of his own design. BC joined us, but not in costume.

In our travels down darkened Key West streets we ran into a Mrs. Claus. Mrs Claus was a litte tipsy and apparently thought she was in New Orleans - but I can't post those pictures on this website. Old ladies gone wild!

We eventually found a couple of places that were open but let me tell you something - a santa suit is the wrong costume to be wearing in southern Florida inside a packed bar with no air conditioning.

Johnny also donned a cowboy suit but not the hat.

If you ever go to Key West (don't) make sure you rent a scooter. Especially if you're there with 15 other guys - then you can drive around the town like some mad biker gang of metrosexuals honking your horns incessantly until people on the street yell at you and tell you to quit it. I'm not speaking from experience here, mind you, I'm purely speculating.

The evidence of Katrina was everywhere to be seen in the Keys. Streets were still flooded and most houses had piles of their ruined possessions piled on the curb, waiting to be picked up by the trash disposal teams. It was quite sad to see. Then again, talking to the locals, this happens like five times a year and they think it is normal. Weird. I think I'll stay in Canada and deal with winter, thank you very much.

Left: The southernmost point in the USA.

Above: Mapp beside the Love Boat.

When in the Keys, take a boat trip and go snorkelling with your buddies. Especially if the trip back to shore offers you an hour of all you can drink beer. You can drink a lot of beer in an hour if you put your mind to it. Especially if one of the boat hands (aka Captain Ron) cuts the bottom off a 2 litre bottle of Pepsi and uses that, along with a flotation noodle, as a massive beer bong. And if your name is Mapp, you might just spew all over the deck. But of course, that never happened.

The reef where we snorkelled was a little worse from wear. Probably too many tourists have eroded it over the years. Some of the guys saw nurse sharks and barracuda but the scariest thing we saw was on the boat. Some grizzled old hippy had the spookiest toenails we'd ever seen. Dude! Stay away from that guy in the water because if he slices your neck with that talon, it's all over and you're shark bait! Needless to say we gave Nosferatu lots of room in the water. Creepy.

Sadly, fun times must come to an end. We turned in our scooters, packed out bags and drove four hours to the NPPL field in Miami. The venue was on the water side with a great view of the massive cruise ships that start and end their tours in Miami.

Pure Promotions and the NPPL did their best to deal with a difficult situation. Miami was hit pretty hard by the storm and there was some question whether the event was even going to take place. In the end they pulled it of and ESPN was there to catch the action from a high platform far above the main field.

Dyansty took first place with XSV coming in second - also their respective standings for the season. Badlands is proud to sponsor the top two teams in the world and we're looking forward to another great season in 2006.

See you all next year.