1.) Gold Argentina
2.) Silver USA
3.) Bronze Canada

Hey guys!

I just got back from the final show of the year.

Anyways, I was surprised with the results, well, most of them!

Jeeze, I never would have guessed Canada to get in there! But I'm happy for them! Go Canada!!!

I had U.S.A and Argentina in the wrong place in my predictions, though! Paul, you were right about U.S.A in second! But, what happened to Sweden??? I think we all agreed on them for first. I was very surprised when I heard the announcement! Well, as I said, we should expect the unexpected. You wouldn't believe how nervous and excited I was! A truly remarkable way to end the competition and the results are sort of what we expected, though Sweden did not make it.

The show, in general was quite exciting, though I felt the beginning was better than the ending! The smoke was also at times a slight problem because of the lack of wind. This is why I worried about the wind speeds this evening. How ironic that last year's Panzera was the same deal, though barely anything could be seen then. I was sort of disappointed with the end, though, but still intense. I actually thought that it was the faux finale and they would use those EXTREMELY LOUD SALUTES that we heard sometime after the beginning. I was looking at the clock and it was 10:30 already and there wasn't anything big, but it just blasted off after that, but not to my expectations. However, the feeling of the end was there!

You know, before I left, and got back to the parking lot, I felt sad. I said good bye to the bridge, La Ronde, the crowd, the usual people, De Lorimier and Notre-Dame and whole environment. I then said "See you in 10 months....." I actually sheded a tear. It's embarassing to say that, but I always get emotional at the end of the competition. It's so hard to say good bye, especially after seing the competition for 16 years.

So......................................................What do we do for the next 10 months?

Best regards,

Trav.

Well, I have to say I'm a little bit dispointed, especially because of Sweden wasn't rewarded. In my opinion, there's two winners there who really deserved it... But how could you possibly say Canada was better than Sweden? All this time, I thought the judges always made the best decision. But now, I understand even more that everyone has different tastes! Well, I guess in general the decision was OK, but I was surprised!

Anyways, as for the display, as usual a "neutral" show from Panzera. Loved those salutes in the beginning (it should have been used in the very last seconds!!!!!!!!). And oh yeah, the finale was not as good as it used to be. Where were the salutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last time, I said to Smoke that Panzera should bring in different finales, but this one wasn't better.... But still, it was the 2nd best finale this year. Though, I wasn't shaking like during France's finale!

I just came from La Ronde... I have mixed feelings about the official results. On one hand, I am happy that the Argentinian team has been rewarded with the Gold Jupiter. This is a well-deserved prize for an almost perfect display. In my initial report about the Argentinian show, I started my text asking: "Is Fuegos Artificiales Jupiter a prophetic name?". Tonight, we have the answer. And it is a big "YES"! I have had the pleasure to congratulate the president of this Argentinian firm a couple of minutes after the closing ceremony. Thanks to Paul who introduced me to him.

On the other hand, I can't understand that the Swedish team was not on the podium. It was so clear for me and many other people that Argentinia and Sweden were the two best contestants... This is not only a shame: it is a tragedy. Seriously, we can't state that the USA and Canada were better than Sweden. I hope that the organizers will carefully analyse the notes written by each judges to understand the "rational" (I am not sure that it is possible to talk about some rationality!) underlying this verdict.

The Swedish team deserves a prize. It had won the first prize 2 or 3 years in a row at Cannes. This summer, it produced an excellent and very creative display in Montreal. Really, I do not understand...

I will write more tomorrow about the Panzera's closing show (which has unfortunately become a secondary issue tonight!). I am sure that we are going to debate about the official results for a time... And we have also to discuss about the assessment of this 21th Montreal International Fireworks Contest.

Fred

Hey Fred,

I truly agree with you. I had mixed feelings, as well. I wasn't surprised that Argentina won! But, I think the biggest surprises were that Canada picked up 3rd where Sweden did not get anything! I thought that this display had one of the best attempts at choreography and excellent use of effects and color. not to mention the unique design of the show, that was so well integrated to the overall display that I, too, am very surprised.

As you said, it is a tragedy and I still can't believe the results. My predictions were as follows. You wouldn't believe how close I was.

1-Sweden
2-Argentina
3-U.S.A

The offical results were almost like this, except, if I had shifted both Argentina and U.S.A 1 up each, I would have been right. But I was so sure that Sweden was a contender. It doesn't make sense. That's why I put Argentina and the U.S in 2nd and 3rd respectively, because Sweden was going to be first, in my mind.

And yes, I'm sure there will be tons of arguments about this. No doubt!

As I was telling Enkil, there should still be a Special Jupiter!

Trav.

Hi Guys,

Here's a few words from the Swedish team....

First of all, thanks for your support. We were really glad you liked our show.

At first, we were not entirely satisfied with the show for various reasons, involving rain damage, bad connections, smoke, wind direction etc.
We thought we could not bring quite the experience to the spectators that I had envisioned.

Still, many parts of the show were good under the circumstances, and after reading your posts and rankings we were getting more and more confident we were getting a jupiter. So, of course it was disappointing not to go to the ceremony...

But it was a great experience to come to Montreal and do a show. All our crew enjoyed the whole trip a lot. Big thanks also to La Ronde and their crew who helped a lot to make it so enjoyable !

So, we want to come back in due time to make another try. Any advise from you guys would be helpful. We will probably never get to know the actual scores, and I'm sure you jury members on the forum have your lips tightly sealed. But maybe you could tell us something in very general terms, what you think we could improve, what criteria we must consider more next time and so on..?

Thanks again for all kind words about our show - and hope to see you in Montreal i the future!

Martin Hildeberg
Göteborgs FyrverkeriFabrik AB
Sweden

Bonjour les passionnés,

ALÉA JACTA EST. Le sort en est jeté. J'avais choisi dans l'ordre L'Argentine , les Etats-Unis et le Portugal mais le jury 2005 a opté pour la firme BEM du Canada.
Ma réussite est donc de deux sur trois. Comme membre du jury en 99 et 03 j'avais aussi eu la note de deux bons choix sur trois.
Cette année au moins trois firmes avaient misé sur la créativité et l'originalité entre autre la Suède ,le Portugal et la France.
En fait nous réalisons par la décision du jury qu'il en faut plus que cela.
Si on y regarde de près les trois pays gagnants ont offert au public
des feux traditionnels en y insérant des éléments de créativité et d'originalité.L'Argentine a atteint ce but mieux que les deux autres en nous servant un spectacle équilibré de très grande qualité.Il est évident que peu de gens étaient prêts à des changements majeurs dans la facon de concevoir un spectacle pyrotechnique.
Voilà donc la réponse à la question que tu te posais Paul quant à la réaction du jury.
J'avais chosi le Portugal malgré quelques séquences moins bien réussies, à cause de leur audace à sortir des sentiers battus pour nous présenter le met pyromusical d'une autre facon.
Je crois maintenant qu'ils auraient garder la recette gagnante de 2002 en y ajoutant plus d'éléments originaux et créatifs.
En tant qu'ex membre du jury je félicite ceux de 2005 pour leur beau travail qui je le sais bien n'a pas été facile tellement les participants étaient de qualité.Comme en 2003 dans un contexte identique il y aura des critiques mais pour ce qui me concerne malgré mon désaccord sur le choix de BEM je suis solidaire de vos choix.
Merci à Martine Gagnon et à toute son équipe pour nous avoir présenté encore des spectacles de haut niveau.
Merci à toi Paul de nous permettre de s'exprimer sur ton site .
L'autre soir j'ai eu le plaisir de jaser avec Fred sur les résultats de la compétition. Il avait amené ses notes, les prédictions de tout le monde etc...Voilà un vrai addict de l'art pyrotechnique.
Un de ces jours j'aimerais bien voir les autres comme Enkil , Smoke etc..au hasard d'une rencontre sur le site.
Samedi prochain je vais à Québec pour le feu de Parente d'Italie .

Merci à tout le monde de m,avoir lu.

Roger

P"S Il est très beau ton chandail de Royal Pyrotechnie hi hi

Dear Mr. Hildeberg,

As a member of the 2005 jury, let me say that I completely enjoyed your display. However, there were many misfires, timing errors with roman candles (not synchro wise), height distribution was not always equal, the girandolas's were flying everywhere, ...ect. I'm not saying more since I going to write my entire notes! However, the synchron was almost perfect. The segment with the dancing fountains (cross-shaped) almost knocked me out of my seat! The final was great but more salutes could have been used to end the show. The music slection was incredible, I was dancing in my seat. As a general rule, the montreal public does not generally appreciate narration, unless it is perfectly done. Otherwise, it destroys the momentum and could ruin a great introduction. Please don't be offended by my comments since they could be used to improve any firms display. Let me just say that montrealers are rather fussy about pyrotechnic displays!

Now the presence of Canada on the podium is a discussion of it's own...

Wishing you and your team all the best,
Dan

Hi guys,

The season is already over I just can't believe that one month and a half has already passed. Not so long ago, we were all waiting impatiently for this new season (2005) to start, and now it is all over! I DO understand you Trav. Every year, I feel SO sad, as I watch the last display.....and right after the finale, I turn around and head back towards Montreal on the Jacques-Cartier bridge, feeling deep emptyness and sadness. You must not feel embarassed saying that you shed a tear after the final display. It is only normal to feel this way, when something you love so much, ends! Just think that the next 10 months and a half will go much faster than you think I am already thinking of the time when we will get the list of the countries who will participate in the 2006 season.....hoping that Italy's IPON SRL will be there.....God, how I wish!!!

As for the final results of this year's competition, I was very surprised. I did not expect Argentina to win at all, as I did not really enjoy their display as much as I did other ones. I am no pyrotechnic professional though. Seeing the USA win the silver is no surprise though, as they had a wonderful display, not to mention a great finale! Although Canada is my favorite country in the world, I remain impartial and say that Sweden and France did better overall......so I was surprised and disappointed that neither one of them got on the podium.

Finally, my personal choice for best display for this year's competition, goes like this:

1. Sweden (Gold)
2. France (Silver)
3. USA (Bronze)

In case you are curious, I put Canada in fourth place just missing the podium Oh well, there's always next year!

I think that this was a good year for firework competition again. The only thing that I am disappointed about, is the large number of finales that lacked intensity and length this year. Only 4 finales out of 10 were really exciting, and that includes the show by La Ronde. If I put that aside, I think that we are pretty fortunate in Montreal, to be able to experience this international competition every year.

As a final note, I will put all of my recordings on dvd and send those finales that I have recorded this year, to Paul. This way, you will all be able to see them once again

Have a great week guys!

Pierre

Hola a todos!

Para mí estuvo muy bien reconocido el premio para la Argentina porque fué el mejor!!!

Missile

don't worry, don't listening to us we are a bunch of ignorants

It is now the time for a general assessment about this 21th Montreal International Fireworks Competition.

I understand that some people are disappointed for certain poor finales or anti-climactic starts, but I have found this edition very interesting. We have seen many innovative displays. I have appreciated the experiments with human performers in three shows (France, Argentina and Portugal). I believe that Grupo Luso Pirotecnia has an interesting idea with the shadows and adding some pyrotechnic elements during this sequence would have created a perfect segment. In this show, I also enjoyed the giant "pyrodome" and rotative nautical fountains.

About the lake, we have seen nautical effects in all displays but the Spanish one. I believe that 2005 is the year with most nautical effects! An interesting trend since a couple of years is that the contestants maximize the benefits from La Ronde layout. For instance, it is now common to see a fifth ramp on the lake. The next step can be more effects along the third dimension, that is, by using the depth of the firing site. There is a large distance between the first and the fifth firing ramps and I am sure that it would be possible to design amazing sequences along this dimension.

I strongly believe that this international competition is the place for innovative and creative displays. Unfortunately, the jury has rewarded more conservative shows this year. Two days after the final verdict and despite the explanations of PyroDan, I can't understand why the Swedish team did not receive a prize... It is not just me, since so many people were agree to reward Sweden for their fantastic display. I begin to consider a research project to achieve a better understanding of the judges’ decisions in the framework of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition. I will keep you informed about it.

On the technic side, we have not experienced any major failure this year: no delay to start the shows, no long blackout... Congratulation to Paul Csukassy and his team of pyrotechnicians from La Ronde! We should also recognize Martyne Gagnon's work. These two people are the heart of this event and I am sure that they have to work hard throughout the year for these fantastic 10 nights!

This year, La Ronde has given to former judges of 2003 and 2004 an opportunity to buy tickets for all displays at an affordable price. I really appreciated that. I did not have to stand for a long time before each display to be sure to have a good spot. Moreover, this allowed to bring with me friends and relatives who would not have enjoyed the fireworks otherwise. Since the terraces are not full for each display (in the Silver section, I saw many empty seats each time but for the closing show), this kind of special package should be offered to more people, for instance to all season pass holders.

Furthermore, it was a great pleasure to meet many interesting people throughout the competition, like former judges (comme Roger – merci pour tes bons mots… C’était aussi très agréable de jaser avec toi le soir de la clôture et j’espère te revoir l’an prochain), some pyrotechnicians and, of course, the webmaster of Montreal Fireworks, Paul Marriott. He is a very sympathic guy, really passionate for fireworks and I appreciated to talk with him. We are very fortunate to have this website to discuss with other fanatics and some professionnals, and to share our passion for the fireworks.

Frédérick

I think there is something most people here will agree on; it's that we all disagree with the Judges decision regarding Canada's final results in this year's competition.

When I learnt the news, my first reaction was one of disbelief. I have seen most of the shows and BEM was towards the last position in my personnal ranking, as seems to be the case with most posters here.

I am trying very hard to understand the judges decision but I can't. Nothing new was done in this show, as opposed to France's show, Portugal's show, etc... It was a very, very traditionnal show with nothing exceptionnal at all.

My worries are that poor judging might lower the prestige of Montreal as the top fireworks competition in the world. If the contestants start to think that you must shoot a "safe" show to win here, then we might see less companies use Montreal as a laboratory to push the limits of Pyro design.

Altough they had their weaknesses, I think it's a shame to see shows from Sweden, France and Portugal being beat by what was, IMHO, a very safe and traditionnal show.

They should have Paul Marriott head the jury next year!

Hello PyroDan,

Thanks for your advice. I am not offended at all by your comments!
Here' my further comments:

I am aware of the errors, such as rain damage to cakes and one shots, and some by cues connected to the wrong channel... We are not used to see so many errors, but the massive rain fall, and the working conditions it caused, made them possible in this (for us anyway) very large show.

As for the narration, I would gladly have skipped it. But for our theme I think it was necessary to build the story. Just the music would'nt have made the theme comprehensible. This brings me to a question we disucssed a lot before we designed the show - just how important is the theme? Is it better to skip narration even though the theme will be less comprehensible? What's your opinion?

Salutes: In fact we had a bunch of salutes and multibreak salutes lined up for the finale that did not fire. One firing module had a bad day it seems....

I hope everyone understands that I am not writing here to criticise the jury or anyonbe else. I have not seen the three jupiter winning displays so I don't really have an opinion of which one was the best!

Regards,


Martin Hildeberg

Missile,

"how important is the theme? Is it better to skip narration even though the theme will be less comprehensible?"

I'd like to give you my opinion about this.
*I am no professional, just an amateur .*

I think the theme is a very important aspect of a display, A lot of firms, I don't know why, but they often don't take it seriously. A good theme really adds originality to the display, for me.

As for the narration, a lot of people hate it. However, when it comes to intelligent and short narration, it is always acceptable to me, that is. In your display, it was.

There was a real connection between your theme and your narration and that made the show more enjoyable.

Believe me, your display was, for me, excellent!

Dear mr. Hildeberg,

Don't worry about your narration since it was properly used to explain each different segment of the show. The worst use of narration was by the australian team since instead of explaining the segments, they were complimenting their own display. Not only was it annoying, it's down right arrangant! Especially considering that their display was just average.

Considering the theme. Some firms simply pick music based on a genre. For example, the states in 1998 called their show Cinema. It was simple, exciting, everyone knew and loved the music selection; resulting in a gold jupiter. This year, Panzera blow me away with a somewhat complex theme called "big bang". It was very well done since the narration set the tone for each segment. The narration was interesting and gave the audience a clue of what to expect (including the intensity). As you can see, a winning display can be either complex or simple. With the arrivial of complex firing systems (such as fireone and pyrodigital), the public is more interested in multi-layered (bottom, middle, top) displays using fast synchro and good quality materials. It is for this reason why a gold winning display cannot be decided just on the theme, or music, or synchro. It is a winning combination of quality, synchro, theme, and most of all; the general appreciation of the jury. What truly determines the podium standings is originality mixed with simplicity. As what happened to Spain this year, the most complexily synchronized show is not always a winner (they used a good 6000+ cues). It was nice, but a little repetitive. Your show used many different products and was never boring. Now that I think about it, why isn't Sweden on the podium? This was a hell of a year to be a jury member!

BTW, if anybody is interested in talking about the technical aspect of fireworks, I'm in. I'm studying software engineering so don't worry.

Dan

Martin,

sorry for the slow reply - I've been in the process of moving. I'm very disappointed that the judges failed to be impressed by your creative display. Sure, there were a few mis-fires, but these were not fundamental design flaws. It is my belief that the Canadian show, whilst enjoyable, suffered from too many element design errors to be worthy of a podium position this year. It seems, to my mind, that the judges are somewhat over-impressed by displays which use a lot of large shells and bright colours. However, as many aficianados understand, firing lots of shells and loud cakes does not a pyromusical make. There were several periods in the Canadian show where the music was quite yet loud cakes were bombasting the sky and drowning out the music. This is a fundamental flaw in my opinion.

I guess, though, at the end of the day, everyone has their own idea of what makes a good display. I suspect that for some of the judges, it was their first time watching displays from the grandstand seating at La Ronde. In this case, I'm sure, everything else being equal, a large and loud display would feel more exciting and impressive than a more nuanced effort.

Finally, just to note, that I'm not criticising the Canadian effort per se, I'm just pointing out some of the errors, which, in my humble opinion, would preclude such a display from being amongst the winners - especially given that fact that we had several displays (not forgetting France of course) that didn't have these flaws.

Cheers,

Paul.

Martin,

I'm also sorry about the slow rely, like Paul. Anyways, I'm so sorry that you did not make it on the podium this year. Do you have any idea of how sure we were? The entire display, in my mind, was totally flawless. The show was never repetitive and was probably the most creative and had the best shot at choreography, I think. The entire design and complexity of the show was apparent, too. Although I was not at La Ronde, I could not identify the problems that were cause, but I can tell you this. These problems did not take absolutely anything away from the display. Through my eyes and ears, I could tell that there was nothing that could take you away from that podium.

The appearance of Canada was amazing;y surprising. We must ask ourselves, how was Canada better than Sweden? The show was seriously missing out on originality and the effects were somewhat repetitive. Don't get me wrong, the show was exciting, which is definitely to my tastes, but if we match the kevek of flaws in this display and match them to that of your flaws, I honestly can't see that these were higher level flaws. According to some members here, as I read, there was even some trouble in the finale. Also, as Paul said and as I stated in my review, there were times where some moments were drowning out the music. Also, this show did have some redundancy.

If I had to answer your question and tell you what exactly to "improve." my answer would be complicated, as most of your problems were weather related. This puts me in the postion to tell you that there simply wasn't anything to improve and, to me, the display was techically perfect. According to my rankings, I gave you guys the higest mark. And trust me, you really deserved it. All I can tell you to improve is probably the finale and to make it more intense, colorful (which it was) and longer. You should try to "kill" us! Other than that, I suppose you can find some other innovative and original ideas.

I'm not going to offend you in any way, but I personally hate narration and late starts to a show after the countdown, even during the display as I feel that some of those pauses could have been taken advantage of, but to me, it worked best for the first time with your show. Despite what I said about it being too long for my tastes, at least it worked well with your theme. This brings me to my next point. Theme is very important to, as it is to the overall criteria. It also makes me enjoy a show more when the selcted soundtrack is in perfect harmony with the music. Your show was a perfect example of this, ranging from dramatic slower parts to a sudden quick change. This is always a good idea. The selected music also makes it enjoyable when the theme sort of "builds" over it, meaning like the way the narration worked. However, it's never a good idea to keep narration lengthy as it does distract the audience. However, if it's short and makes sense to the main theme, then it can be enjoyable. My point is that you should always focus on the theme and keep our minds on what you're trying to execute, as you've clearly shown us that night. You guys had no problems in this area, but I'm just saying what we all look for, so keep the good work! Finally, always look for a variety of different paces of music so this way it will allow you to attempt different things. And yes, always ALWAYS save a fast paced song for the ending, but once again, still relating to your theme.

Anyways, your team followed all these aspects and it' still so hard for me to actually believe that you didn't even make 3rd. What I've mentioned up there is what should be done for all entrants that compete. The way I see it, you should have been in 3rd place, despite your flaws. It's still not clear to me. I think this is one of those years where the judges were that extreme! But trust me, in recent years, I've seen decisions like you wouldn't believe.

Regardless, even if you didn't win, miraculously, your display will be remembered as one of the best. You guys truly did a fantastic job and the next time you're here, I want you to blow us away win originality and a hude variety of effects! Also, as you should know, an unforgettable finale!!!! Otherwise, congratulations to you and your team and good work!

Thank you for your contributions on this forum and it was a truly an honor to speak with you. It's so rare to talk with people like you! Please check in as often as possible as a regular poster!!

Pierre,

I have that same feeling as you and Enkil. This year was poor in finales. In fact, out of all the years that I've been attending the competition since 1990, this is the first year where there was about 33% of the competition where finales were impressive, especially France and Sweden and not too far behind, U.S.A. I'm not really that much impressed with La Ronde's, either. It was also well below average for a decent ending for the season. To be honest, I felt the beginning was more intense than the end at times. Heck, I thought the end was the faux finale and they would surprise us with a "Big Bang". However, despite finales, as you all said, we were definitely treated with various products and designs, and my reviews emphasize that enough! Like last year, there was so much creativity that it felt like the competition was takes to another level of art and conceptuality. I was truly impressed with many aspects of this year's shows!

Another thing that I want to point out was the feeling of tempo. Many parts of the musci concept was incredible ranging from extremes in music. In many shows that had impeccable synchronization also had that feeling of rhythm, like Spain, for example.

The other shows, in general, also were very different, though some really repetitive, in which all were presented before us. On the other hand, this year, we were treated with so many effects that it was hard to compare exceptional displays! I found that hard when comparing my notes and reviews and coming up with decent rankings. You can also see how close I was in my predictions, but I felt that I would have been correct if the those astonishing surprises in the results did not show up. To be honest, the competition has become so entirely cmplex over the years that one can argue that there's a correlation between our fussiness and the way shows are designed now! I suspect that this will continue in the years to come as the competition continues to get more and more complex and, at the same time, technological innovations equally continue to emerge.

To conclude, the conflict of the winners will be a apparent for some time, especially for me and many of you. Sometimes, it's rather confusing that the results turned out the way they did, not including U.S.A and Argentina.

Regards,

Trav.

Trav.

If you noticed, I did not try to predict who would be the winners this year, as I know that my tastes certainly differ from the judges' by a big margin.

My personal choice for this year, goes like this:

1. Sweden (Gold)
2. France (Silver)
3. USA (Bronze)

Of course, my choices are "clouded" by their respective finales, as I think that it is VERY important to go with a huge BANG! I don't care if this is not the right way to judge a firework display.......I just don't like it when a participant ends their display without intensity, without a build up and without SALUTES!

Yesterday, it was Wednesday.....so it felt weird staying home and not going on the bridge There's such a feeling of relaxation, fun and peacefulness on the bridge during fireworks I will really miss that for the next 10 and a half months to come..............but on the bright side, we already have 5 days down and only 315 days to go, before the next firework season!!!

Pierre

Pierre,

Sometimes, I feel the same way as you and I feel somewhat clouded! But at least we never forget the main concepts and consider the important stuff! But yes, we ALL have that deep down feeling on what is an EXCELLENT show and what is a good finale. No one here can dey that.

Your predictions were also to my tastes, but it appears you and I had U.S.A for third place! At least we had something in common! Actually, we also agreed on Sweden for first! However, I wouldn't mind if France had hit third!

My predictions were VERY close, though! I can't believe it. But seing Canada there was the biggest surprise of them all, but I don't feel so bad that they made it there. Why not say that I'm patriotic!

As for the countdown, well, less than 315 to go now, but I don't want the rest of August to go by so quickly. But yes, everyday that goes by counts!

Trav.

Trav,

Your predictions were VERY close to what actually happened this year, regarding the winners. You'd make an EXCELLENT judge, Trav....I mean it! As for myself, I did not predict anything, as I thought I am not in the same state of mind as the judges.....and I certainly don't attribute points the same way they do for different aspects or portions of the display. To be a "little" sarcastical, let's just say that I let the finale influence me A WHOLE LOT!!!

My list of best displays of this year, was just my choice of best displays, not what I had predicted that the judges would go for.

Of course, like you, I am so proud when Canada gets on the podium...the higher, the better I feel! It's just that I did not think they deserved to be there this year, so I kind of have mixed emotions about it.

Yep, 309 more days to go, before Season 2006!

Pierre

Pierre,

I had mixed feelings, as well, about Canada's appearance on the podium. But don't feel bad about finales influencing your judgement. Trust me, I think everyone, deep down, does that, too, especially Enkil and I! And, I don't know about you, when a show is really intense and it's to our likings, like it has been many times this year, and the finale just wasn't appealing, your mood changes about the show for some reason. This always happens to me, even since 1990! For 16 years, so far, I think that habit will always be there for me. However, I still look for the important aspects of the show, but my feeling about the finale is always there, so don't feel discouraged. Also keep in mind that a finale IS taken into account and it is, indeed, part of the show and it is BY FAR the part that people look foward to the most. Seriously, we all wait for about 2 hours all thinking about the finale!

As for being a judge, honestly, I was thinking about it, but I'm not so sure about it. But I would love the experience! And yes, I was very close with my predictions...............but yet so far!

Good to hear from you, Pierre!

Regards,

Trav.

Hi Trav,

I think the same as you do.......most people really look forward to the finale. During a display, I often think of how the finale will be.....and when a segment gets real intense, my first reaction often is: "Oh, I think we're going to get it during the finale!!!" LOL I just can't help to think like that, but sometimes, I realise after the finale, that I was completely off the track! Oh well, there's always room for hope!

Pierre

Hey Pierre,

I totally agree. All the time, even if the show is intense, I still worry about the ending. Sometimes I feel that when a lot of fireworks are being fired throughout the show, I get that perception that they're "wasting" everything for the ending. I know this isn't true for more than 90% of the time, but it's a gut feeling I get. But, like you, I also get that automatic feeling of delight about an ending when some segments are intense. But this year, we were deprived of great feelings for finales. In essence, I have mixed feelings.

Trav.