As the east coast suffered under a record-high heat index, NASKA competitors were graced with the opportunity to travel to the Coronado Springs Resort in Disneyworld to enjoy hotel air conditioning and recreational pools - a great way to cool down from the heat wave and check out some hot, hot, hot karate competition.. This year's US Open was held the weekend of July 9-10, 2010, conveniently giving competitors a chance to spend the 4th of July weekend however they pleased before an intense week of gearing up for the US Open.
With performances from the US Open Night of Champions being televised on ESPN, competitors were ready to give their best and most difficult performances for a chance on the night time stage and possibly on television. The best of the best from the NASKA circuit as well as from an amazing list of foreign countries were on hand for the event. With competitors from such obscure places as Algeria and returning competitors from countries like Jamaica, South Africa and many countries in Europe, the US Open was a truly international event.
Friday’s competition began bright and early at 9:00 in the morning with the eliminations for the trickz battle. Team Full Circle, Straight Up, USA All Stars, and Paul Mitchell were just a few of the many participating teams in men's team sparring. After some intense competition, Team Paul Mitchell and the USA All Stars advanced to the ISKA nighttime finals.
Just a few rings over, the forms and weapons divisions on stage were drawing more and more spectators after the conclusion of team fighting to watch the four horsemen of Team Paul Mitchell: Matt Emig, Rudy Reynon, Kalman Csoka, and Marc Canonizado. All continued to lead the extreme and creative divisions as expected. In musical weapons, half of the division dropped their weapon, including Rudy Reynon and Marc Canonizado. David Armstrong was on a different streak when men’s extreme forms came along. Armstrong demonstrated one of the best forms of the night with clean hands and a double corkscrew. Although it was near perfect, it still wasn’t enough to drive Marc Canonizado into second place. Canonizado used the plentiful amount of space in the ring to his advantage. He nailed all of his difficult tricks and they were more dynamic than ever.
It was odd to be done with all the competition by 6:00 p.m. on Friday. As competitors and spectators filed out of the competition arena, they were surprised to find the sun still shining and plenty of time to grab a bite to eat, see some of the Disney attractions and rest up for the next day's competition.
Saturday competition got everyone up early - except for the adult competitors. The adults were able to sleep in two extra hours before their events began at 11:00 AM. Many adults took advantage of the later schedule by going to Downtown Disney on Friday night to enjoy some popular shops, restaurants, and some late night entertainment.
After winning their divisions on Friday, Micah Karns, Cole Eckert, Austin Crain, Hunter Crain, and Kyle Montagna all were in the run-offs Saturday afternoon. On the line was the prestige and a chance at getting on stage for the Night of Champions and maybe being on ESPN!
In the 14-17 weapons division, Micah Karns and Kyle Montagna both dropped their weapons, leaving Austin Crain to win by a hundredth of a point, with his brother Hunter in second place. Micah Karns didn't go home empty handed as he won the 14-17 (creative/musical/extreme) CMX forms grands.
It wasn't all about forms though. “This is my division,” shouted Robbie Lavoie during his first fight in the men’s 18-29 super lightweight division. He certainly proved his statement true when it came down to Lavoie and Victor Suarez. It was grueling match but Lavoie came out on top. Both Hamed Firouzi and Niko Negron chalked a win up for Full Circle when they won the 18-29 lightweight and light-middle weight divisions.
The fighting grand championships were held during the day. For the women, Cindy Cote of Team Straight Up defeated Terri Jacoby for the overall grand championship title. For the men, it came down to a rematch between Hamed Firouzi of Team Full Circle and Raymond Daniels of Team USA All Stars. When these two met for the Superfight finals at the New England Open, Daniels soundly defeated a tired Firouzi. This time Firouzi was far more in the game and gave Daniels more of a challenge but in the end, it was Daniels with the 7-4 score and the title for 2010.
Denver, Colorado’s Austin Jorgenson will certainly be remembered after he won both the 18-29 men’s forms and weapons grand championships with his soft style performances. Jorgenson came to US Open for his first NASKA tournament and defeated some world-class competitors like Matt Emig (and it was Emig's birthday! Happy birthday Matt!)
Finals
Danny Etkin of 100 Percent Performance opened the US Open Night of Champions show. Walking out with the audience clapping to his intro music, he made sure he was the center of everyone's attention. Etkin started with a jack knife and a corkscrew and finished his form with hard hand techniques and clean stances. Jacob Pinto of team AKA began his rendition with the “Jesus flip” to get the crowd going. Pinto twisted in almost every trick he did to enhance his difficulty after having to follow Etkin’s flawless performance. ProRank’s Sammy Smith was the last to take the stage in the 13 and under ISKA forms grand championship. She showed how serious she was by slapping the ground after her butterfly twist. With two difficult kick combinations directly after each other, Smith made the judges' decision even more difficult with no mistakes in her form. In the end of a very close contest, it was Pinto who took home his first US Open Night of Champion’s award.
In the 14-17 year-old forms ISKA division, Cole Eckert fell on his webster which meant that he was out of the running.. Dayna Huor landed her webster with synchronicity to a new choice of music in comparison to her previous songs. Micah Karns blew everyone away with his clean and dynamic hand techniques leading into a double corkscrew combination - with his hands behind his back. Karns took home the trophy for his first very first Night of Champion’s win.
The 13 and under weapons division began with Jacob Pinto on stage for the second time of the night. He began his form by spinning his kama on his thumb as he rotated 360 degrees - a pretty impressive way to exaggerate his kama work. Andrew Franklin took the stage with his bo and immediately began his form. Franklin used rock music that gave the audience a relieving break from all the trance music with hip-hop introductions used by many of his competitors. Franklin completed his form flawlessly then bowed out to Jackson Rudolph. Rudolph impressed everyone by taking recognizable maneuvers and adding difficult and subtle changes. Mackensi Emory was the final performer and nailed her kama form and really put her controlled kama work and acrobatics on display. As Rudolph did with his bo, Emory added subtle changes to increase the difficulty in her techniques. In the end, it was Rudolph who was voted the winner by the judges.
Julia Pinto, also of AKA, kicked off the 14-17 weapons grand championship with her bo. Pinto showed clean bo work, which was something on which she had to rely, because Austin Crain was up next. Crain landed many difficult tricks with four different kama releases. Mikayla Johnson, New England Open’s grand champion, took kama releasing to the next level by throwing her kamas in the air and around her legs. Johnson has worked with one of the most creative kama practitioners, Stephen Renney, and it has certainly paid off. Kyle Montagna took a different approach in his quest for the win by performing his traditional bo form. With strong stances and strikes, Montagna brought more difficulty to the judges for their final decision. The final decision was in favor of Crain this evening.
The adults were next on stage with the women's forms championship. Nikki Stanley showed her advantageous flexibility from the get-go of her form and proceeded to show the crowd that she can throw tricks as well. Olivia Wicker brought some Japanese techniques to the stage and completed her form with intensity, giving Becca Ross that extra motivation to do a better form. Ross threw all her tricks smoothly and finished with strong hands. Caitlin Dechelle ended the division. Dechelle has grown to become stronger and faster through her years on NASKA, and that’s what it took this evening as she attained the win.
Chip Townsend, gave the audience a break from forms in a world-record attempt to break 36 boards in less than 8 seconds. Townsend broke 42 boards to beat his previous record by a long shot! Other breaking champions were recognized during the Night of Champions as well. Mick Lennox, Ben Parrah, Kiki Danielle, Larry Fields, Ron Sullivan and John Zurisk were all given their awards for power and creative breaking demonstrations from earlier in the day.
The XMA trickz battle brought the crowd to its feet with a ton of action. Marc Canonizado, Matt Emig, Mindy Kelly, and Kalman Csoka were the experienced judges for the contest. Donovan Sheehan walked out to battle Jacob Pinto in the two minute round for the junior championship. Pinto was a little energizer bunny and kept going and going as his non-stop tricking power garnered him the win.
The next battle was for the adults as Team Massive (Mike Gutherie, David Armstrong, Nelson Zuniga, and Tyler Powell) took the stage to battle Team Destruction (Daniel Graham, Anis Cheurfa, and Sammy Vasquez). In a five-minute session of “anything goes” which included aggressive tricks, near-collisions and a whole lot of attitude, Team Destruction took the win. Destruction was awarded $1,000 for first place and Massive was given $500 and the crowd was provided with a really entertaining battle!
Mike Welch brought Team Infinity out of Wisconsin and to the US Open for the Team Demo competition. Team Infinity had the tricks, charisma, and creative bo techniques needed to put on a great performance as they threw their weapons back and forth to each other. Team 100% Performance was up next with a dramatic music track. They had smooth tricks, intensity, and swords - a weapon not as popular in the Midwest, where Team Infinity mainly resides. 100% Performance came out with the win and the ISKA title.
The men's forms competition was next and William Cornell kicked it off with his strong Japanese form. Matt Emig came out next to compare his tricks to Cornell's powerful stances. After breaking his leg awhile back and making a recent comeback, Emig showed he can still hang and rise above everyone else. Marc Canonizado stepped out with his new hair style that, well, stood up. Canonizado also brought strong hands, clean standing kicks, and his signature “spider man” back-flip. In the end, the judges loved the smooth flow of Canonizado and awarded him the ISKA title.
Team Synchronized Forms sponsored by Paul Mitchell products was a Paul Mitchell event as Paul Mitchell Black (Austin Crain and Matt Emig) faced Paul Mitchell White (Marc Canonizado and Caitlin Dechelle). Paul Mitchell Black bowed in first. They were strong all the way through in an aggressive spectacle of one of the longest trick combinations seen in Team Synch. Paul Mitchell White added interesting choreography and were synchronized all the way through but Paul Mitchell Black, in their first time performing together, took the win.
Robbie Lavoie and Chris Rappold were the first to fight in the team fighting finals. Lavoie racked up three points for the All Stars and Rappold wasn’t able to get anything in, leaving Paul Mitchell at 0. Jack Felton and Travis Plowden fought second. Plowden gained two points for Paul Mitchell whereas Felton racked up six more points for the USA All Stars. It was looking gloomy for Team Paul Mitchell as Deandre Walker took on Raymond Daniels of USA All Stars in the final round. Almost all exchanges awarded one point to either fighter and in the end, the All Stars came out ahead by a respectable margin.
With some of the most exciting performers on the circuit today, it was fitting that the final event of the evening was the adult weapons competition. Austin Jorgenson the US Open Cinderella story, took the stage first with another drunken-style routine with a broadsword. It was something many audience members had not seen so they responded energetically as he wobbled around the stage as though intoxicated. Rudy Reynon, one of the most mimicked competitors on the circuit, came out next. Reynon hit his form solidly with his kama tricks rising to new levels as he spun the blade around his finger and one kama around the other kama. Matt Emig was on stage next to heighten the audience experience. He was on a roll, but lost his weapon on one of the most impressive releases seen with a nunchuck. Kalman Csoka brought both of his swords out to wrap the show up. Csoka was the most charismatic and changed the timing on his double release for an incredible performance. It was Csoka's closing performance that took the win and the ISKA title for the evening.
With the final performance over, it was like the audience could finally let out the collective breath it had been holding through all the amazing performances. But the magic was not over as many of the competitors and spectators were planning additional fun at Disney the next day. It was still hot outside but the night's festivities continued at the resort bar and swimming pool as the lights over another US Open Night of Champions dimmed.
