Flugtag takes off

UPDATE:  Tampa Baywatch, a homegrown team of old friends, beat out 35 other teams today to win a wacky competition that sent a menagerie of people and flying machines plunging into the Hillsborough River.

The key for the champions of the Flugtag competition: on a day when nearly all "flights" turned into nose dives, Baywatch's handglider traveled some 100 feet. Pilot Keith Humphrey even worried for a moment that he might crash into one of the hundreds of boats crowded outside the landing zone.

The three-hour competition, sponsored by the Red Bull energy drink company, lured more than 35,000 spectators to pack the grounds of the Tampa Convention center, filling every downtown parking garage. They hooted and howled as teams danced, then pushed their craft off the end of a 30-foot tall ramp.

Into the drink fell giant versions of cowboy boots, Cuban sandwiches, a rubber duckie and a silver minaret with wings that flapped and dancing Trojans.

Baywatch won because of its flight, but also thanks to the dance routine, featuring red lifeguard buoys, said auto racer Scott Speed, one of the judges.

"It's more about the style," he said.

-- Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer

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More than 35,000 people have gathered at the Tampa Convention Center, on land and in hundreds of boats, to watch the Red Bull Flugtag competition.

Times reporter Bill Coats says the 23rd of 36 teams is about to go in the water. The vast majority of the aircraft have taken nosedives off the end of the ramp, but everybody survived unscathed.

With thousands of people converging on downtown Tampa, traffic is congested and parking lots are full. The closest spots are in Ybor City at this point.

***

Times photographer Daniel Wallace captured the photo above of Davey Jones getting ready to fly his team's Big Rubber Duckie in the Tampa's Red Bull Flugtag competition  today. Look for a slideshow later today from Wallace and photos from tbt* photographer Luis Santana.

Santana was allowed access to fly in the Red Bull 1957 Grumman HU-16E “Albatross” during some flights around Tampa on Friday.  Santana will be taking photos throughout the day today and will post them here.

Are you there? Send your photos to photos@tampabay.com.

Comments

[Fugilebrity]

This report says 35,000 spectators at this event and the other paper says 100,000. That is a big discrepancy. Who is doing the estimation??

[Elisabeth]

Did anyone watch this on tv? It was the worst broadcasting ever! Those announcers and producers should be embarrassed.

[Kenneth]

Are they replaying it on any of the Brighthouse channels? We were there, but I'd like to see the TV coverage for some of the ships we missed.

What a bunch of queers.

[Anthony]

PLEASE tell me you were there to see all the freaks in the convention center!?!?

[DC]

Ahem, it is "hang glider" not "handglider"

[Elisabeth]

Kenneth - it was on Channel 47. They are replaying it a few times over the next month.

[Jimbo]

I believe they left off a "0".
More like 350,000 and 1,000 boats.

We were there and it was packed on the water and off!

[Sheri]

The attendees of this event were some of the nastiest, most obnoxious drunks it's ever been my misfortune to encounter.

I was working at the anime convention being held in the Tampa Convention Center this weekend. When the folks from the Flugtag came in, they were uniformly drunk, obnoxious and aggressive.

They stole from convention-goers, shoplifted from vendors, snuck into or tried to force themselves into convention-only rooms, started fights, grabbed props and costume pieces from individuals, and - worst of all - sexually harrassed and assaulted young women. I spoke to three **11-13 year olds*** who had sexual overtures made to them by Flugtag attendees. (So in an aside to 'Anthony's' comment, it's clear that the 'freaks' weren't the children and teens having well-behaved fun by dressing up as favorite characters.)

Red Bull AND the Convention Center had insufficient security to deal with the jerks who thought that being dressed differently and full of alcohol entitled them to criminal behavior and bullying.