Well back from my 12 days in Asia which saw me go to the Asia Bullshooter followed by a few days in Subic Bay Philippines and then was SUPPOSE to play the world but as we know I came home instead. It was a great trip and a ton of fun. My performance in the Bullshooter was not what I had hoped but overall did do ok hitting top 8 or better in 3/5 events with one top 16. I was given my new fantastic darts by Trinidad right before I started Friday and LOVED the way they felt so I shot with them.... in hind sight maybe I should have waited as my play was basically beat the people I should have but lost to those that you need to beat to win. I was not on my normal game but was still ok... I did no think much of it until Ray Carver questioned my decsion when we were vacationing. Until then I never even thought about it because I really do love how my darts feel but he did have a point that it may not been the place to make such a change. Yet another lesson I should already know ;)
Congrats to fellow TRiNiDAD player Ben Dersch fro winning the SUPER ONE for Team USA at the Bullshooter as he played very well. Also big congrats to Ray "the Razor" Carver for winning the Cricket singles Friday night in style.
So the new darts will come in both steel at 21.5gm and soft at 18.5 gm barrel weight. The rear grip is much more aggressive and designed for that light touch so it won't slip. They are slightly thicker then my previous models but this is due the new grip and maintain a neutral balance dart. The length is a hefty 54mm making them among the longest soft tip dart if not the longest you can get...definitely a new look for Japan which is normally shorter stubby darts.
So once again had a terrific trip in Subic Bay Philippines, the people there are so cool and really enjoy their darts. Ray "the Razor" Carver came along with me and was instantly in love with the place. We enjoyed the sun and the sea doing snorkeling, fishing, jet skiing and enjoyed a few adult bevarages at a cost of about 85 cents US :)
We played darts everyday there and that is adventure in itself as every bar is basically a outdoor bar with no walls so you get a ton of draft....sorry won't be seeing the PDC having a event there anytime soon ;)
If you go, which I strongly urge you to check the place out if in Asia, you have to do Tree Top Adventures!!! It is a jungle zip line park and definitely left my heart pumping ( you can find some videos of us on youtube and I will add one here under the videos) to the point me and Ray both backed out of doing the free fall "ride". It was a repelling line which yo lay flat out and they just plain drop you...supposedly they will stop you before you hit the ground but.... Thanks but NO!!! A big thanks to Eddie Engel the team manager of TEAM ONE of the Philippines for letting us stay at his place. Eddie is a great guy and really enjoys high level darts.
So I have the next few weeks to get used to my new darts and ram up my game for a return to the D-Crown Tour in April. I will play the NDA World Finals the week long before that so I should be firing on all cylinders by then. I plan to do at least the 4 D-Crown events in a row starting mid April ( the first one is just WAY too expensive with the airfare being about 2300 US). I really like the D-Crown format as the play a few different games. In the round robin it is Cricket and full bull 501 but in the knock-out rounds it goes to best of 7 cricket 701/split bull double out. The knock-out format really falls into my comfort zone and now having one event under my belt I will be a lot more comfortable on my return in April.
Until then...stay safe ;)