Just another day in "sunny" Florida

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Well folks, I just shot my show. The crowd loved it. Couldn't say enough good things about it. I even made our HOA Facebook page light up afterwards. Everyone wanted to know who the mystery man is who puts on such a fabulous show every year. I guess none of the 100 people in attendance could figure this out. Anyway... Now my take on today.

What a cluster today was. I woke up at 4:30am to do some last minute prep. I open the garage door and the floor is flooded. The A/C unit decided to stop draining outside, and decided to "stay local." So I had 7 boxes saturated. That led to a mass exodus of fireworks from my garage at 4:45am. There was a shop vac involved, and a lot of expletives.

The weather forecast called for 66% chance of rain between 2pm and 5pm. So I decided to get a jump on the rain and set up the show and cover everything. After the rain I'd go back at 6pm and wire everything into the Cobra mods. Setup ran 4.5 hours and ended at 3pm. We were exhausted, but we got everything set out and covered. 6pm came and not a drop of rain! Cool!! So I head back out to wire. The minute I drove down to the shoot site the heavens opened up. As I was getting in my van I saw two fire orange lightning strands come up from the ground and disappear. I thought I was a goner. It poured for 45 min. Now I'm an hour behind schedule for my 9pm shoot. I wound up wiring the mortar racks by the headlights on my van, while trying to ignore a drunken neighbor and his wife who wanted to know every detail of what I was doing as I was doing it. I was so pissed I had 0 faith anything would light. I also had one fan slice that was supposed to fire immediately after the 236 cans. Nope! Didn't fire. Oh, did I mention my script never ran either? So I ended up firing every single cue by hand. I spent WEEKS developing and refining and testing that damn script, and it flipped me the middle finger tonight! No idea what happened. Anyway...So my 23 minute show wound up being 15 minutes.

All but three of the 236 mortars fired, and I think I have 5 cakes out of 124 that didn't fire. So there you have it. I'm convinced God hates me, but I'm going to come back next year even stronger!!

Anyway.... The show video is SUPPOSED to be shown at https://youtu.be/g1kf4a7uTa8 as soon as You Tube gets the upload. Looking forward to your feedback.

[pistolus]

The Sunshine State is also rather damp!.. The Video is still unavailable to me at 12:57 AM EST.

[Pyro Paul]

I feel your pain Rick, I also feel the resolve to come back twice as strong next year. Way to hang in there and persevere!! Can't wait to see it

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks to my ISP I had to cancel the first upload and try again. Here's the NEW link:

https://youtu.be/VIK_Znoisk0

Here are some setup and an "action shot" from the shoot:

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[PYRODAN]

Rick, wow you had some issues! My pyro heart goes out to you. The show still looked good, and the crowd liked it. LOL, at least you camera guy took the lens cap off! Did you dry run your script? I ran mine 3 times witch was good as I did find a flaw and was able to fix it ahead of time.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Rick, wow you had some issues! My pyro heart goes out to you. The show still looked good, and the crowd liked it. LOL, at least you camera guy took the lens cap off! Did you dry run your script? I ran mine 3 times witch was good as I did find a flaw and was able to fix it ahead of time.

Thanks man. Yeah, I did a half dozen dry runs of the script. What I DIDN'T do was plan on forgetting the basics once the shoot kicked off. So here's what happened...

Because of the 1 hour rain delay and my rush to get the finale wired and the show started, I decided to forgo wiring the two 200G boards I was using to open the show. I just hit them both with a lighter and ran off to grab the R2 to fire the rest of the show. So when it came time to fire the rest of the show, I hit the #2 button (since the #1 button wasn't wired!) and off we went. Not realizing that the script was programmed to start off the #1 button! Duh!!

Total moron rookie mistake. However, a great lesson learned for next year. I can guarantee that will (more than likely) never happen again. :rolleyes:

Much thanks to Ed in Texas for pointing out where I went wrong!!

[FBpyro]

Even though it sucked it rained at least you didn't spend hours prepping everything to be rainproof only to have it not rain haha, but it certainly gave me peace of mind. I also had neighbor problems too as I live in the city next to an annoying ass pothead that can just get on my nerves. He followed me around the entire time I was doing my water proofing prep the day before and I just wanted to rip my head off! Some of my items didn't fire either but I just hand lit them. With as big of a show as yours I could imagine that isn't readily doable.

[PYRODAN]

I use the auto fire button to start the script. Just seemed self explanatory if I have a brain fart.

[Pyro Paul]

me too Dan, Last new years eve I used the #6 button to start the show, #6 was also the first cue in the show and it didn't fire. I assume that it is because of using it for the start of the show but Idk, but I will never do that again. I use the auto fire button to start a script ever since. Incidentally, I was using real e-match for that show so you it wasn't mjg that time in case you're wondering lol.

[Bazerk]

I always use the AutoFire button as well. I chose the start with Channel 1>AutoFire and then return to channel 0 when complete.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I also had neighbor problems too as I live in the city next to an annoying ass pothead that can just get on my nerves. He followed me around the entire time I was doing my water proofing prep the day before and I just wanted to rip my head off! Some of my items didn't fire either but I just hand lit them. With as big of a show as yours I could imagine that isn't readily doable.

It's difficult dealing with moron neighbors while you're trying to set up your show. They just don't understand what it takes to put these things together, and they don't have the sense to give you space to do the work without their BS. Hand lighting for me wasn't an option since I removed the visco to use initiators. I had six cakes not fire out of 124. Two I know were yanked out of the firing module. The other four... No idea yet. But I'll save those for New Years Eve!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I use the auto fire button to start the script. Just seemed self explanatory if I have a brain fart.

So where were you when I needed you!? :p

Honestly, that was my theory with using the cue 1 button. Seemed like a no brainer to me. You have to hit the first button, right??! Apparently not....

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I always use the AutoFire button as well. I chose the start with Channel 1>AutoFire and then return to channel 0 when complete.

I just burned that information into the pyro section of my brain!! :cool: Lesson learned.

[Bazerk]

It's difficult dealing with moron neighbors while you're trying to set up your show. They just don't understand what it takes to put these things together, and they don't have the sense to give you space to do the work without their BS.

Boy do I feel your pain here buddy. We had about 200 people make it to my party this year and I will be damned if 170 of them didnt come out in the field to chit chat, ask questions and otherwise distract myself and my helper. My setup took me the better part of 4 hours with 2 of us. I had 13 boards, 14 1.3g cakes and 210 3in shells that had to be wired...I about lost my shit because I was exhausted and running on 3 hours of sleep in the 48 hours that led up to the party. Next year I will be using my police contacts to get the area taped off with caution tape or crime scene tape because it may become just that if I have to deal with that again.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Boy do I feel your pain here buddy. We had about 200 people make it to my party this year and I will be damned if 170 of them didnt come out in the field to chit chat, ask questions and otherwise distract myself and my helper. My setup took me the better part of 4 hours with 2 of us. I had 13 boards, 14 1.3g cakes and 210 3in shells that had to be wired...I about lost my shit because I was exhausted and running on 3 hours of sleep in the 48 hours that led up to the party. Next year I will be using my police contacts to get the area taped off with caution tape or crime scene tape because it may become just that if I have to deal with that again.

Lol... Amen brother!! I hear ya. I bought stakes and "caution" tape and completely forgot to set it up around the display. The drunk wife of the other drunk neighbor came down to ask what the problem was (as if she'd understand anyway!) as I was frantically trying to finish wiring my finale by car headlights, and she almost walked right down the center of my setup and through all the wires. We all screamed STOOOOOOOOOOP!!!! Go back!!! Talk about almost losing your shit. I would have choked her ass out right then and there if she stumbled through my wiring.

Good call on using your police contacts. If I had any I'd use them too! It's just ridiculous dealing with these idiots.

[Pyro Paul]

Bout time you burned something Rick :p

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Bout time you burned something Rick :p

OMG... You are not kidding!! I was wiping down my Cobra cases today and one of them has a nice 2" burn mark on it. My first thought was to be pissed because it's burnt! Then I thought, hey! It's not a pyro virgin anymore!! Cool! Lol...:cool:

[shake the cove]

It has rained here in Tennessee since june 28th every day for an hour or so,sometimes T-storms. This is the 10th day now. Just got over another T-storm sigh. But did manage to get small display off on the 3rd.. Shot professionally july 1st and 4th. good show anyway Rick ... and you too Bazerk.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks STC. It's always a challenge in "sunny" Florida.

[cherrybomb1]

Hey Rick looks like that guy in the tank top in your pics can take care of your light work!lol

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Hey Rick looks like that guy in the tank top in your pics can take care of your light work!lol

That's my son in law. He definitely earned his keep that day.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

So here's what it was like at 6pm on July 4th. I just went back to the shoot site to wire all my effects.

Sunny Florida my butt!!

https://youtu.be/-lzbDtN2ii0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lzbDtN2ii0&feature=youtu.be

[cherrybomb1]

I don't think I've ever been on vacation in Florida where it didn't rain at least once a day and then just be humid as hell.But I'm still going to retire there someday!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I don't think I've ever been on vacation in Florida where it didn't rain at least once a day and then just be humid as hell.But I'm still going to retire there someday!

If you live in a house by a lake maybe we can swap homes and just call it even. :cool:

[cherrybomb1]

Sounds like you might be on to something.Pitch it to HGTV!lol

[Rick_In_Tampa]

My neighbor was kind enough to take some pictures of my setup and show. He does awesome work. I'm still struggling to figure out You Tube, but I wanted to share his work with you folks. So I used the You Tube slideshow creator function to create a slideshow to share. Here's the link. Let me know what you think!

https://youtu.be/QkI-ysg3D5A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkI-ysg3D5A&feature=youtu.be

Here's a link to the show video if you haven't checked it out yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIK_Znoisk0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIK_Znoisk0

[adultuser]

Great Show Rick!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Great Show Rick!

Thank you Sir!

[cherrybomb1]

Awesome show Rick!.First year with a cobra you did yourself, your family and your neighbors proud.Did you purchase everything from 76?.Also at about 53sec,1:31 and 4:26 there were some annoying screaming stuff i thought was neat. And at 6:58 were some pretty cool comets you remember what those were?.Also were those Hellcat cans.I bet next year will a lot bigger!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Awesome show Rick!.First year with a cobra you did yourself, your family and your neighbors proud.Did you purchase everything from 76?.Also at about 53sec,1:31 and 4:26 there were some annoying screaming stuff i thought was neat. And at 6:58 were some pretty cool comets you remember what those were?.Also were those Hellcat cans.I bet next year will a lot bigger!

Thanks cherrybomb1! Yes... Everything was from SO76 this year. Very impressed with their products. Will definitely be ordering from them again next year. As for the annoying screaming stuff... Yeah. I don't know what the hell that was, but I'm going to have to re-watch the videos on the SO76 website again. I usually can't stand that whistling stuff so I don't order it. It looks like this year I lost my mind and ordered LOTS of it! I'll check the comet thing when I get home and let you know what they were. The finale was a mixture of Hellcat cans and Smoke N Mirrors cans. I started with the Smoke N Mirrors in the outside crates and finished with the Hellcat cans in the center crates and 36 shot fan rack. Very happy with how it turned out. I'm already planning on adding another 200 Hellcat cans for next years show. Not sure next year will be a lot bigger. This year I had two helpers and it was still an exhausting venture. I'm getting too old to be doing more and more. Right now my plan is to bump up my order to 50 cases for next year. That's 10 more than this year. I think that will be pushing the limits of my sanity and physical capabilities. Lol.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Also at about 53sec,1:31 and 4:26 there were some annoying screaming stuff i thought was neat. And at 6:58 were some pretty cool comets you remember what those were?.

Okay... Here's the rest of the information:

At 53 sec – We had GM214 Airboss
At 1:31 – We had GM639 Ole
At 4:26 – This was a combination of GM100 Da Big Bomb Box (20th Anniversary Label) and GM123 Shotgun Wedding. Both whistle.
At 6:58 was a cake called GM116 Backyard King.

Hope that helps.

[cherrybomb1]

Thanks Rick!.That was a big help.You start looking at firework videos on there website and time get away from you!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks Rick!.That was a big help.You start looking at firework videos on there website and time get away from you!

Glad to help! I've been watching videos on SO76 website all night tonight trying to put together my 2018 show. My wife told me I need to give the pyro video watching stuff a break already. I told her I'll take a week off next month when I'm in Fargo at PGI. Lol... She didn't see the humor in that for some reason...

[cherrybomb1]

You seriously going?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

You seriously going?

Yes. I'm seriously going.

[cherrybomb1]

Make sure you post some pics(hopefully with Dave lol).Hopefully i can talk the wife into next year.Its tentatively scheduled for Mason city IA.Only about a four hour drive from my place.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I haven't heard ANYONE say they're going this year. Maybe I'll start a new thread to find out who's headed up there.

[PYRODAN]

Yeah, I got the same speech from the wife Rick. I am hiding under a blanket typing.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Yeah, I got the same speech from the wife Rick. I am hiding under a blanket typing.

Lol... Never give in!!!! NEVER!! Lol...

[MtnViewPyro]

Glad to help! I've been watching videos on SO76 website all night tonight trying to put together my 2018 show. My wife told me I need to give the pyro video watching stuff a break already. I told her I'll take a week off next month when I'm in Fargo at PGI. Lol... She didn't see the humor in that for some reason...

I think you're the reason the videos were so slow last night lol. I kept getting kicked off about every third video. You see anything that is a must have next year?

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I think you're the reason the videos were so slow last night lol. I kept getting kicked off about every third video. You see anything that is a must have next year?

Lol.. Wouldn't surprise me.

For the past few years I've been shooting nothing but cakes and mortars. Next year I want to shake things up a bit and add some lateral movement and ground effects. So right now I picked out a few different types of fans, some roman candles, and some gerbs. I'm probably going to add some strobes if I can figure out how to fit them into the show. I'm just not visualizing them in the show yet. I'd really love to incorporate some set pieces like an American flag or the letters USA. Not sure if those are commercially available of if I'd have to build them myself.

Lots to do. Lots to think about, and only 11.5 months to do it! Lol...

[MtnViewPyro]

I hear ya. I have so much room to grow and so many ideas on my next steps. Next show I do, I will shoot from 3 positions like some of you guys do. My last show, I actually shot from several different positions but only one position at a time. Only concern about 3 positions is spacing. Any ideas? What is the smallest recommendation left, center, and right?

PyroDan did something really cool in the beginning of his show with 1.4pro comets and I think I'm going to take that idea and add it to my beginning. I also want to use some gerbs, flame pots, and slices. My dad gets really sick from strobe lights, not sure if he would be bothered the same with a strobe pot.

I might fit in a show on New Years to test out some ideas lol