THE ISLAND CUP 2006

When you have to start off saying nobody is perfect or shit happens you just know the following isn't golden.
The final day of Island Cup 2006 and the fatigue and patch worked plans were finally catching up with us.
One of the towing competitors left his lights on in his tow rig about 20 minutes back down through the Redballs course. It was decided that Mud Monkey would make his way back to the rig to shut off the lights while the rest of the crew would proceed ahead. Unfortunately lost in translation was the fact that only Jo knew where the prooving grounds were. Somehow the group got split up, with half following jo, and the other half searching for the right route to take through the maze of logging roads. Thankfully Dirt Bag came back down to round us up and we were on our way to the trail.
When we finally came into the clearing that has been dubbed the Prooving grounds I was amazed.
The area is all rock and there are some seriously killer lines in pretty much every direction.
jo-jo was already marking out sections and competitors were eager to get going, but the mornings happenings were still affecting the run, it was late in the day already and we hadn't even finished the layout.
There was alot of disorganized discussion and some scoring changes to fit the terrain.
We had finally started to get things moving when almost on queue it began to rain and the wind started to pick up. This made the rocks extremely slick and the sections that were laid out absolutely unforgiving.
Uncle Jesse cleared the first section, which was dominated by a rock wall covered in roots from a stump,
U_Can_2 also cleared section one with some very nice driving.
At this point we were pushing even harder to get through this day, the rain and wind were now foul and making things pretty unpleasant. Jesse was on section two and his crazy off camber attempt was becoming interesting.
Some of us had moved over to section two to watch Jesse's attempt, behind us a v-8 could be heard coming up the other side of the ledge, there peering over the edge was a Jeep front fender high in the air at an angle that there was no getting out of. The Jeep flopped hard on it's drivers side in a crash of metal and rock.
Fearing the worst spectators jumped down and rounded the corner, Jack was laying there under his Jeep with eyes as big as saucers. The roll bar had landed on his foot pinning him, with a little manpower we managed to lift the Jeep off Jacks foot and we got him down to the first aid people. Once the Jeep was righted it was decided that this day was not meant to be. Too many loose ends had taken it's toll and we called a drivers meeting. We agreed to call it a day and return to camp, there were enough points from the previous days wheelin' to award prizes and most of us were just happy to returning to camp in one piece at that point.
After a short drive back to the Redballs area spirits were once again high and all were laughing and joking as usual. The group split up and we headed back to Sunny Daze to eat drink and be merry.

Monday morning it was raining and typical wet coast weather, we gathered around under a tarp where sponsors were listed off and the points were broken down. Thanks to Roadkill and the Beav a prize table was properly organized and in order of finsihing competitors stepped up to claim their prizes.
Tired, wet and cold, yet strangely not wanting any of it to end, we took to packing up our camps and heading for home....