The 1997 Wintertime Open took place yesterday, Feb 16th in Pasadena, CA. Oak Grove may soon lose it’s nickname of “Soak Grove” as the temperature hovered around 70 degrees under semi clear skys.
The best routines of the day happened in the 3 minute semi round. The cut was from 8 to 4 to make finals so the teams knew they had to perform well. The poodle boy trio had a dropless and nearly flawless round receiving the best crowd response of the day. Also, in pool B Peter Laubert and Rodney

Sanchez played solid but were edged out by Donnie Wallace and Joel Rogers who had a well choreographed, innovative routine. Although, Pete and Rodney had many less drops, the judges may have emphasized with Donnie & Joel as they had to play through having a water baloon land just 5 feet from them during a co-op.

In pool B Larry & Tommy had only 2 drops and pulled some heinous moves out.

Winning over a 3 way is never an easy task for a pair in a 5 minute final. But pushing the edge of diffuculty on a less than favorable playing surface (to say the least) Dave Schiller & Danny Sullivan shredded their way to the 97 Winter Time Open Title.

Congrats Dave & Danny!

Notes:

Pool B tied a record for most Dans, 4 in a semi. Richi Smitz, Dave Zeff, Arthur Coddington, Dave Lewis, Randy Silvey, Stork, and Gary Perlburg were among the spectators. Chuck Richards threw an epic pre tournament party at the Ritz Carlton.