Kinetically Challenged Make For Lots of Laughs

Since I was feeling physically strong enough to walk around and cheer loudly, my family and I decided to attend the 2012 Dr Seuss themed Klamath Kinetic race.  The “race” lasted several days, so we popped in to check out some of the more difficult parts of the challenge: the sand pit, the mud pit, and the water events. We missed the climb up the hill (I heard that some of the contestants ended up pushing their sculptures up it. Talk about a work out!).

For those who have never been to a Kinetic Race, this is not a race in the typical sense. It’s really a chance for adults to behave like children by dressing up in costumes and having a blast. The main slogan is “adults having fun so kids aren’t afraid to grow up.”

The contestants create homemade, human powered vehicles that are designed to successfully (sometimes!) traverse over land, sand, mud, and water.  The sculptures are designed to carry (actually the people are the engines for them) people, usually 1, 2, or 4 of them.

The sculptures can win awards for lots of silly, frivolous reasons like art, speed, engineering/construction, biggest splash on water entry, completion of the course obstacles within time and without cheating, most likely to have an incident while going through the course, finishing dead last, and more.  The awards aren’t the most important part, the race is put on for the fun of it all and the contestants put on a show for the “glory.” 

There are some rules that the contestants follow, many of which are actually for safety and have a specific purpose, but some which are just fun.  My favorite rules include all pilots of sculptures must have a toothbrush on board (dental hygiene is important and they do stop to eat!), the pilots and pit crew must qualify as homo sapiens (if there is any doubt as to the homo sapien status of any member, DNA testing may be required), and a stuffed bird (stuffed animal) preferably a Pelican or Bird of Prey must be present (although the rules specifically state that teddy bears will be tolerated, but a bird is required).

The race itself is great fun.  The theme this year was Dr. Seuss, so lots of contestants either named their sculpture in honor of Dr. Seuss or dressed up like characters from Dr. Seuss. My favorite costumes where Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

A few of the sculptures struggled with the sand pit, but most of them completed it. I personally was rooting for the Dragon Wagon, whom I’ve heard has never successfully gotten through the sand pit.  Although they tried to scoop the sand around it out of the way (totally legal according to the rules); they didn’t complete it this year either. The beauty of the kinetic race is that the crowd loudly cheers regardless of the results.  It’s all in good fun.

 

The Mud Pit was the pit of doom for all of the sculptures. Not one of them made it through, but one got pretty close!  Most notable moments were when two of the sculptures opted for creativity and simply rode along the dirt packed side of the mud pit instead of going through it.  Despite being called cheaters, the crowd roared with laughter and approval for the ingenuity!

In the spirit of the race and for the glory of the contestants, here are my favorite photos that I took of the Klamath Kinetic Race. I may not have spelled names right or even know the names of the sculptures, but I did my best.  I was really impressed with the undeterred, smiling contestants this year.  Glory to each of you for simply being glorious and providing glorious fun!

Here are my favorite photos I took of the Klamath Kinetic Race 2012:

High School Students Stuck in the Dirt Trap

Black Forest Grinch Makes Easy Work of the Sand Pit

Cheaters Avoiding the Mud Pit

Dragon Wagon Stuck in the Sand Pit

Ducks in the Sand Pit

Ducks in the Water

Flower Pot in the Sand Pit

Flower Pot in the Water

Fros' n Peas in the Water

Thing a Majiger (I think) in the Sand Pit

Green Eggs and Sam Stuck in the Mud Pit

Lawnarteau da Grinci in the Sand Trap

Green Eggs and Sam Navigating the Sand Trap

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Trying to Get the Dragon Wagon Through The Mud

Thing a Majiger (I think) Stuck in Mud Pit Before Its All the Way In

Visualize Whirled Peas Stuck In Mud Pit

Visualize Whirled Peas

I didn’t stay for the awards assembly, but if you are interested, the great volunteers for the Klamath Kinetic race usually post the winners with pictures of the sculptures on their website at http://www.klamathkinetic.org/

Any sculpture that gets credit for actually completing all of the obstacles clearly bribed the judges with lots of candy so they would be on a sugar high and think the sculptures made it through, because none of them finished the mud pit.

At any rate, the Klamath Kinetic Race was a ton of fun this year.  My entire family laughed and cheered with the crowd. The creativity and ingenuity, not to mention the sheer engineering, of the sculptures was very much appreciated and was truly inspirational.