The Geek Flip Contest at the Mole Olymbig Geek-flip Pool

Long-lasting tradition dictates that the Mole Motel pool be the staging ground for this competition of dare devil's.

In the memorable tradition of such stunt masters as Evil Knievel and Stone Cold Steve Austin, this contest involves a number of physically less-than-fit, motorically challenged but extremely brave geeks, launching themselves into the pool with various body-parts first.

The contest serves the triple purpose of 1) roasting said geeks in the sun, 2) attempting to prove that said geeks are at least as nimble as the baboons stoically watching the spectacle from a nearby tree, and 3) annoying any hotel guests naive enough to attempt to have dinner at the pool side with the extreme splashing caused by launching 100kg of geek at the surface of a pool.

The contest consisted of an as yet undisclosed number of rounds. Each round involved one or more geeks, launching themselves of the diving board (and into the pool), while attempting to embellish the dives with wild flips, spins and animations....

The scoring of each round was mostly a question of diving enough times to tire the opponents into reaching a consensus. At times we did involve unwitting travellers (who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time) in our decisions, forcing them to watch the unbearable contest and grade each of an almost infinite number of dives.

The contest, as with most other geek sporting events, was extremely interesting due to the differences in styles amongst the 4 competitors. Each competitor adding his or her interpretation to what makes an interesting flip dive.

From the stylish but seemingly quite painful 3/4 flips of Peter "I'm almost there!" Beardsley, over the death-defying reverse flips of Jason "How close to the edge of the pool?" Varsoke, to the stunning, but ultimately unsuccesful attempts at a back-flip from Tomas "I can stand here for hours, but my body refuses to jump" Krag, and the completely failed attempts at the forward, reverse flip from Stophe "I used to be on the high school dive team" Landis, each contestant added valuable stylistic contributions to the show.

Already on the first day of competition a clear ranking seemed to evolve.

On the first day of competition Tomas took an early lead with his frequent and highly splashing forward flips. With a reasonable score for workmanship, and a high score in the categories of repetitiveness and splash-factor, Tomas was aided by the stability and extra splash-effect given him by his rather large beer belly.

The first day also introduced the crowds to Peter's repeated, but not quite succesful attempts at a forward flip, that would remain a mainstay, and crowd favourite, for the duration of the contest. His ability to continuously  perform these belly-flopping flips, gave him the lead in the dare-devil category right from the beginning of the competition. Stophe started the competition in his usual, self-assured style, keeping his best jumps for later, while lulling his competitors into a false sense of security by performing a few, for him, sub-standard front flips.

Jason in the meantime, was working his way through a number of miserably failed front-flips, but his perseverance, like Peter's placed him high in the dare-devil category, and his subsequent completion of a rather forced front-flip, tied him with Tomas in the 1st spot.

As the rounds continued, and each contestant was forced to pull new, and even more crowd-pleasing flips out of his hat, a pattern soon emerged.

Jason took the lead in the daredevil category, by defying his resistant mind, and performing a number of back-flips that brought him to within inches of the pools rather hard, stony edge. While  Peter's extreme perseverance brought him a large group of local fans, his insistance on ending the front flip with a belly-flop, lost him some points in the style category. Tomas, in the meantime, was consistently placing himself at the end of the diving board, with his back to the water, contemplating the survival chances of a back-flip. Depite all evidence to the contrary he consitently reached the conclusion that a back flip was a bad choice at the time, whereupon he meekly stepped of the diving board, eliciting jeers and laughs, but also the rare call of support, from an increasingly animated crowd. Stophe then non-chalantly proceeded to perform an almost flawless back-flip,  once again proving the efficiency of a medium-sized beer-belly in maintaining rotation and speed in mid-air.

This succesion of different flips from the feet of Stophe, proved enough to catapult him into the lead in the style and variation categories, and his insistence on closing the other categories, lead him to try the fateful, forward reverse flip. Peter, had at this point, almost pulled out of the contest, but continued to fitfully attempt the simplest of forward flops. His ranking unfortunately dropped through the floor, through this lack of perseverance and variation, and he subsequently was quoted as saying: "I need to work  on that beer-belly".

Jason continued to perform a variation of forward and back flips, the back flips espeially gaining favour with the critical masses, as they continuously and despite serious eforts to correct this, propelled him dangerously close to the edge of the pool.

Tomas, being forced to come up with an alternative to his continuous failings as a reverse diver, during an exclusive interview with geekhalla.org, admitted that "My mind is more powerful than my body, and will not let me jump at something I can not see". Given the pure mass of his body, the concept of his mind being stronger, is not a thought we at geekhalla.org enjoy entertaining. Yet Tomas, using that very same mind, staged an incredibly cunning comeback, by forcing open a new category in the contest. While this is a technique allowed for in the official rules, it has never before been employed in the history of the Mole Geek Flip Contest. By performing, to the extreme entertainment of the crowd, his now famous "Elephant Dive", succesfully emulating the splash and antics of a 15 ton elephant entering a small puddle of water, he opened up, and took the lead in the animal flip category.

Unfortunately for him, it was too little, too late as Stophe Landis had effectively closed the contest by adding to his leadership in the style and variation category, by taking and holding the dare-devil category with a revere forward dive, and continuous unsuccesful but brave attempts at the forward reverse flip.

In another geekhalla.org exclusive interview, given late in the evening after the first days contest, the now 2-time Geek Flip Champion commented on the extreme heat at the Mole Olymbig Geek Flip Pool: "If somebody has some butter and Garlic, could they please come and Baste me?"

Words worthy of a true champion flip-diver.......