DWF 2015 : Origins
Divided We Fall is one of the original events in the UK CrossFit Community, bring boxes and communities together from all over the UK. This year it went back to its roots - DWF Origins. Event Director Ed Whieldon explains a bit more abut how this came about and what was involved.....
Words by Ed
All photo credits: BoxRox
The Story.
10 Months ago Matt Evans asked me and Rob Lawson if we wanted to pick up DWF from him, it came via a text message and whilst admittedly there was some hesitation I quickly replied ok, let’s do it.
Having judged and head judged at some of the biggest comps in the UK and Europe I’ve seen the ‘behind the scenes’ craziness but never been ultimately responsible for any of it … more of an observe. Being a co- organiser or ‘Event director’ is something completely new and unknown to both me and Rob.
Back in April Rob and I got together and spent the weekend throwing ideas around of how we wanted this to work, being new to this our thoughts were keep it simple, stick to what you know and pull together experienced people we know who can really help us. With input from Matt, ‘Origins’ was born, the concept of going back to how DWF started, the in house throw down and box comp… the myriad of stadium events that are offering big prize money and sponsorship deals are everywhere, the modest setting of the original team comp and just having a fun throw down seems so long ago.. Great for the ‘sport’ but those who are new to it don’t know any different.
What better way to keep the essence of DWF prevalent than to repeat, combine and update past DWF WOD’s. through rigorous testing and quite a lot of fun we settled on the rough frame work of how the weekend would go down.
The Venue.
An easy choice, CrossFit 3D has a great floor space and has hosted a few comps previously, the fact its my home box too made it sensible from a logistics point of view. Add to that 3D have had a presence at DWF since the 1st one in 2010 where we fielded 7 teams and Steaders has always been ever present either competing judging or assisting with programming and qualifiers… like I say it was easy..
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The Admin.
Far more to this than expected, from the ballot entry, to the payment system and waivers… masses amounts of admin via excel took an inordinate amount of time then there was the insurance, the medical, the marquee, the barriers, the clip boards the pens… and of course the vendors. Scott from SGF helped pull the vendors together all of whom kindly donated prizes for our winning teams, the largest of which came from KITBOX.
The Weekend.
Aided by the kit team of Ben Robinson and Iain Worswick , Rob's Mum and even a few of the competitors, Friday was a late night setting everything up, as always with any competition timing is key, nobody wants to be waiting all day for a WOD at 8pm at night… Saturday started well everyone turned up and seemed happy, a great mix of old faces and new faces some who until now weren’t even aware of the legacy of DWF, an equipmentless easy to judge WOD 1 helped us to iron out logistics of how things worked best…. After that we were rolling, our scoring guru Ian Jones was on point, the judging crew made up of friends and 3D members were smashing it and we finally got to enjoy the weekend
The programming worked well and everyone was enjoying it… even down to the ‘wall ball off’ to decide the final 5…
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Sat having dinner at 6:30pm on the Sunday we didn’t know whether to down 20 beers or just sit in a dark room for a while… in the days after as the pictures and videos were published we received countless private and public messages of thanks and support allowing us to sit back and feel just a bit chuffed with our hard work, Matt trusted us with what he and Dicko built up over the years and I think we nailed it… it was a huge learning curve and not without its stresses but we WILL be back and we WILL see you in 2016 for more of the same - a huge heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers and judges who gave up their weekend to help us, to the guys who supported us all the way through the preparations, to Matt for trusting us to carry this on and to our nearest and dearest who have been ever-present when we needed them! - DWF-origins
Congratulations to the winners:
1st CrossFit Teeside
2nd Dragon CrossFit
3rd CrossFit Tyneside
Spirit of DWF - CrossFit Spectrum
