Hollywood Swinger: North American Open Swing Dance Championships

On Decemeber 3rd-5th in the great city of San Francisco I attended the North American Open or Balboa Battle or SF Bal Fest...they really need to find a name and stick with it. I had arranged with Burnie, the event organizer, to volunteer and be the videographer for the event. So a free weekend pass and some good times were soon ahead. I drove up Friday afternoon w/ Karen, Augie, and his wife Delphine. Thanks for the lift guys! And it was a good thing I did go up early with them because I ended up having to teach a beginning Shag class later that evening. It actually was a great experience and a fun class. I have to thank Karen for teaching with me, she was great! Friday night there was an awesome Django inspired band called Goucho. I had never heard of them, but they kept the dance floor packed and the feet moving for a good hour or so. Saturday Night they brought back Stompy Jones to the stage and Sunday the California Honeydrops played a great set of early blues, jump swing, and rock 'n roll.I shot all the contests and helped with the class recaps for the DVD. I was able to stay with some friendly locals in their awesome new townhouse with 2 others. Thanks Jeff and Rachel for a fab pad for the weekend! There were contests all weekend long in everything from Balboa, Charleston, Shag, Blues, Lindy Hop and of course being that it was held in SF, a same sex partner contest. For the full list of winners and tickets to next years event please check out http://www.swingchampionships.com/

My personal highlights of the event were being able to watch the class recaps and gain some knowledge on many new moves and techniques that I hadn't thought about before. It helps when most of the instructors are also your close friends :) Also just being able to fellowship with of many of my favorite people and catch up on their lives was a blast. Philip took Karen, Marissa and myself on a really cool afterdark tour of the city and we got some amazing views of the cityscape and some sweet shots of our own. All and all it was a great weekend in the friendly city. Thanks again to Burnie Gibson for an always interesting event. Here's some pics from the trip.