Experienced My First @RedBull @Flugtag in @louisville_ky @waterfp. So Glad We Were In Town #PeopleSoFriendly

Upon arrival to Louisville last weekend, Sue informed us that the Red Bull Flugtag competition was

being held on the Waterfront. Flugtag? What? We had no clue what the even was about, but decided to check out the scene on Friday night where all the competitors were doing final touches on their workmanship for the Saturday event.

Seriously. The individuals participating in Flugtag were some of the most passionate, generous, and enthusiastic people I've ever met. They were more than willing to share with of us their designs, the reasons behind them, and the special presentations they had prepared for the launch. My favorite was the 'hard rock' theme with an electric guitar that lit up. They ran as headbangers (Tunga liked the plane, naturally).

The next morning, after our walk over the Ohio River and back (totally sweating), we joined the thousands in attendance to see how the apparatuses would do. It was hilarious, and despite the sudden downpour following a change in winds and the intrusion of boats on the water, the experience of the day was a total success (just a little wet).

For me, Flugtag was a total geek-fest: design, ingenuity, creativity, humor, and competition. Whoa! How did I not know about this delicious occurrence before? Where else do such phenomena occur? Why am I now a fan of Red Bull, although I've never even tried any of their products? Count me in. Let me bring Red Bull to all my classes and get my students hyped!

And the winner was! Ba dum dum ch'! Dukes of Hazard!

Ah, but here's the real kicker! After seeing so many designs plummet to the Ohio without hardly any airlift, they announced the world's record. Seriously? Holy Cow. It was phenomenal. I couldn't wait to go home to see if I could find the launch online. 

Bingo! I present the world's record from Long Beach, California in 2013. I hope these designers were hired afterwords for serious problem-solving work. Red Bull has created a fan out of me and I'm campaigning to make this an Olympic Sport in 2020. Bravo, athletes, and thank you Louisville, as always, for keeping the world a lil' weird. I loved every second of it.