Paul Arden | Monday, 12 February 2018
As mentioned last week for the Great Hot Torpedo competition I brought in five judges; Charles Jardine, Mac Brown, Jason Borger, Simon Gawesworth and Bruce Richards and asked them each to pick their favourite entry. Since Ashly managed to make it to the finals (and since I have now married her!) this was the best option.
This is what they wrote...
Charles Jardine: For me; Entry no 12. Life enrichment. (Konstanse Larsen). The others are great and one really does have to put into perspective that, for the most part, these are being written in, ostensibly, another language. In my book, that makes each one a winner.
Seriously.
The elements that attracted me to the piece (Number 12) was a sense of adventure and exploration. The story was not about rod cosmetics, casting prowess or enlightenment and higher plane consciousness. Instead, just a gentle immersion into the sport that we all share and enjoy - irrespective. I loved that.
Mac Brown: I think Ashly because of the excitement and journey of learning to fling a string attached to fur and feathers. Is there anything greater than being outdoors learning more about such a great sport? As long as she sophisticated Paul not using his underwear as a coffee filter-in good times and in bad!
Jason Borger: Well, I read them all this morning early. As a man partial to fishing with my wife and “first fish” stories, I had to narrow it down to Ashly and Konstanse. Ashly presents a problem—she’s your wife and I don’t want to come across as playing faves, but still, I find myself leaning to vote for her story. There are elements close to my own husband/wife story, and I guess I gotta go with my gut, your wife or not your wife. Besides, she included a song about fish. Konstanse gets honorable mention for a similar experience, and she’s pretty funny, too….
Simon Gawesworth: My vote goes to Konstanse Larsen. The reasons why are simple. Her narrative brings out the almost reluctant path she followed from a non interested fly fisher to someone who obviously enjoys the sport now – a path I am always very happy to read about. I like the way she builds the story up as she gains interest and skill in the sport, and I really like that she doesn’t talk extensively about all the fish she has caught, but dwells more on the “beautiful places” and “good memories”. In addition, the green nails rock!
(Currently it's 2:2 at this point with no showing for the guys. If Bruce votes for one of the guys at this point there's going to be a problem. Let's see what Bruce writes...)
Bruce Richards: Wow, a hard decision! All 4 entries were very good. I loved An’s honesty in just wanting the shirt and his accurate description of Paul as the root of all evil! Carl’s story was good too and the photo of him with the big brown was the best!. And Konstanse’s story was touching, new friend, exciting new sport, places, people and first fish on a fly! However, I must say that for me Ashly’s story was the best. Great photos, a nice poem, first fish and romance! What more could a story want? Of course, Paul was involved so I had to deduct a few points, but Ashly’s story still wins in my book!
So we now have a clear winner: Ashly Chan.
(Who has since become Ashly Arden!! It's marginally complicated when your wife wins the grand prize! Only at Sexyloops...
Next year I shall make Ashly one of the judges so she can't enter!!)
All four finalists win a Sexyloops flyline. (We have a new Intermediate DT6 lumi-line which is the duck's nuts...) and every entrant will receive a Sexyloops Stealthmaster Shirt with their name on it. These will be posted out sometime next month.
This year we will run a similar competition. We will drop the Facebook voting and move to Board voting and a separate judge. Once again we will have four finalists but also we will have four random picks out of a sock. These 8 people will receive all Sexyloops Shirt with a Difference (the difference being that the shirt will feature an image of them holding a fish!). Four finalists will win a flyline and the winner will win another new custom-built Hot Torpedo fly rod.
I shall post the rules later this week in the Hot Torpedo Owners' Club.
A big thank you to everyone who entered this year. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every entry. Congratulations to our four finalists. Thanks to both Konstanse and Ashly for two obviously excellent competition entries. Congratulations to Ashly for winning the grand prize (and making my life complicated)! Thanks to the panel of five esteemed judges.
Here are the best entries from 2017:
http://www.sexyloops.com/htoc/2017/05/05/entry-no8-miss-ashly-chan/
http://www.sexyloops.com/htoc/2017/08/01/how-a-hot-torpedo-could-enrich-my-life/
http://www.sexyloops.com/htoc/2017/12/30/round-3-entry-28-carl-martin-vennefjord/
http://www.sexyloops.com/htoc/2017/10/28/round-3-entry-19-an-ren-tan/
Have a fantastic week!
Cheers, Paul