DUSC 2010!

Woke up bright and early on Sunday morning for the Down Under Spirit Championships at Gold Coast. Kelly (we share the same name!) came by to pick me up at 8:20ish and then we picked up Silvia in the city and we were well on our way! Turns out that Kelly is a Glee fan as well, so we were chatting and listening, humming to the music =D Before we knew it, we were there!

I've watched cheer competitions before in Singapore and Thailand, but this is the first time I needed to pay in order to watch! I think it was $15 or $18 bucks for an all-day pass (concession price) but it's cheaper than what the adults hafta pay so I'm not complaining. Shan told us that there's a cheer mall where we can get cheer merchandise, but to be honest... it was nothing fantastic so I wound up just getting a DUSC teeshirt, just for memory sake haha!

The competition starts at 10:30am but before that, people were already lining up to get in. The place was packed with tons of supporters, mainly made up by mums. Some of them were wearing 'costumes' whereas some were just wearing supporter tees. Seeing the level of support these cheerleaders receive really got me feeling all wistful... This is not something I had seen while I was competing in Singapore..

But anyway, when the doors opened, people started making their way quickly into the ballroom. We found seats right in front, though our view were sorta obstructed by the the rows of people in front and the cameras. Halfway through the morning session, we moved over to the side where we sat in the first row and we got a clear view though it's from the side.


Hollywood theme this year


Supporters


Cheer mums of kids from Tea Tree Gully being asked by the host to come onto the competition ground to do a short... cheer for the team they supported while the judges were still busy with tabulating scores.


cheerleaders from various teams all seated on the red carpet on the outlines of the competition ground. best view ever. so during the second session in the afternoon, we moved over there =D


Cheerleaders from various squads doing their tumbling warm-up. It's really interesting to watch because they are from different squads and I don't know how on earth do they coordinate who goes first/next because they were all coming in from different parts of the mats.

To be honest, the competition was boring and confusing to watch. :( There were different levels of cheerleading and they were all mixed up. For example, you can see 1 Level 3 squad competing after 2 - 3 Level 1 squads. If you didn't have the schedule with the difficulty levels indicated and if you didn't pay attention to what the host said, you wouldn't really know which levels the team on the mats belong to. Think it would be so much better if they lump all the squads competing in the same level together, so much easier to watch.


Brisbane Tigers, Level 5 team. They are hella good as compared to the rest, they were in a whole different class of their own.

Their style of uniform reminds me of Thailand's :) Speaking of uniforms, most teams adopted a very.... simple style, very American, nothing too.... creative. *Most teams don't even bare their midriffs!* I think there's potential for cheer fashion here.




They've got me screaming, cheering like a mad person.


Shit happens

Though I've commented that this competition was confusing and maybe a little boring for me, it is an eye-opener. Never had I see freak accidents happen or cheerleaders running off the mats during the competition itself. I didn't snap a picture of the freak accident but to paint a picture in your head, the flyer landed on her neck. major ouch. :( And she just laid there and didn't move a single bit. The competition had to be stopped and the medics came to take her away close to 30 minutes later. A cheerleader from another team probably got elbowed in the nose and she ran off the mats while they were competing, leaving her team slightly lost.

There are many categories in this competition: Team, Group, Partner, Individual and Tumbler.


Fellow team mates competing in the Partner Stunts category! They were really good when they first started, but maybe they lost momentum and the will to carry on after one too many unsuccessful attempts to do certain moves.


Group category: Total Elite. They. Are. Amazing. They are from New Zealand and I love everything about their team. Spirit, skills and yes, the uniforms. :)

So that marks the first cheerleading competition on my cheer calendar. Next up, Winterfest! We are competing in it and it's just next week *gasp* wish us luck!