Hop Bines Highland Games

Welcome to the Hop Bines Highland Games, named for hops growing in the field of our host, Victory Brewing Company, in Parkesburg Pennsylvania! At its heart this event is a celebration of the great Scottish tradition of throwing heavy things, and as an opportunity for new throwers to experience the sport under the watchful eye of a pro Highland Games Athlete. In addition to the traditional class breakdown, we are running an extra group for Novice athletes only. This group is restricted to folks who have never competed in a Highland Games competion and will be coached and judged by Emy Brown, a pro athlete and absolutely wonderful person! In this group you will learn the techniques and rules of all 9 events as you execute them and will have all of your distances recorded the same way as you would in an open competition, but with the primary goal of earning your first personal bests instead of your podium placement. Need to know for all athletes: You will see two different $prices$ for the event. The "Earlybird" price is $65 and is for the Novice athletes. The regular price is for Open athletes. Once the Novice group hits the limit of 12 it will close and the price will drop for Open athletes. If you are an open athlete, please either check in every so often, or please sign up early if you would like to contribute the extra $20 to the operation costs of the competition (judges fees, primarily).No memberships to any association are required. It's an unsactioned event.Victory Brewing Company: 3127 Lower Valley Rd, Parkesburg Pa 19365. (Lower field, near Receiving entrance)Throwing will begin by 8am and finish by sundown.We throw rain/snow or shine, so dress and prepare accordingly.All spectators are welcome, at no cost, but will not have access to the food provided to athletes.We will be grilling food for lunch, so let me know of any food restrictions. (There is also a restaurant on premises if you are interested)Victory Brewing is allowing us to use some of their benches, tables, and popups, but please bring your own setups as well, so that spectators can use what Victory is providing.Please plan to park in the two lower parking lots, and not in the restaurant lot.All gender expressions will be respected. Who won't be respected? Assholes. So don't sign up if you're just wanting to be an asshole to folks.Need to know as a Novice: It is Tradition to wear a Kilt for competition, so please plan on doing so! No need to worry about tartan colors, sports kilts and Amazon finds are perfectly fine.Your group is inter-gendered and inter weight-classed, and what weights you throw on the day will be chosen in person by Coach Emy.When signing up the 'Mens' option will be greyed out, leaving only the women's option, so select 'Wonens', then you can enter your pronouns later in the process. (Iron podium is built to only work in binaries, making classes like this difficult to design on the website)You are expected to have no experience competing in the Highland Games for this class. However, all kinds of lifters, of any level and any background, are welcome in this class (strongwo(man), crossfit, power lifting, etc). And you are of course allowed to join in on practice days with your local Highland games group prior to the competition. In fact, Emy leads regular practices in South Jersey and posts times/dates for practices on the South Jersey Highland Games Practice Facebook page.Your signup costs are higher ($65), because this is a coached experience in addition to a full Highland Games experience. (Your costs will also cover a meal and purchases a competition hoodie)The novice price is the "early bird price on this page". Once the novice group is filled the event will go live to the public for open athletes to sign up and the cost will change.Need to know for Open athletes: All gender expressions will be respected.At present the total number of Open athletes is limited to 15 and will run together for the day, throwing appropriate weights for your gender/weight class. This is primarily because we only have a limited number of judges at present, but there is a waitlist and the group may split if we find more funding, so be sure to sign up even if there are no more spots!Your $45 signup also guarantees a hoodie and a meal.This is a fall/winter competition, so we stop at sunset. That means you and your judges will need to stay on top of pacing, so keep each other accountable for shagging and measuring.Kilts, but not stockings, required.