FDU 2012 Day 3
I awoke to an amazing sight out my window this morning, the sun! The sun and large portions of blue sky were actually visible! This was fantastic, particularly so, because first up was the fursuit beach walk!

So we headed off, maybe about 50 of us in total and made the short walk to the beach. Wanting to get as much camera coverage of everyone possible, I was constantly shooting, running up ahead, shooting, running, etc. Was quite the work out.

I seemed to arrive ahead of most of the group with Oz, Tzup and Cake, so that gave me a few minutes to get some really nice shots and video with just them while we waited for everyone else. Once everyone caught up, we headed down the path to the beach, and you could not have asked for a better day for it. It was sunny with a bit of a breeze, all the tourists were loving it and getting pics with the suiters, and from a photography/video stand-point, you could not have asked for a better backdrop of the beach and the surf.

We did a few group photos, then preceded to just play around, throw the frisbee, pose for individual photos, before we saw that to the south down the coast, there was some rain moving in, and no one likes the smell of wet-dog at the best of times. So we packed up and headed back. Again, I was fortunate enough to walk with Tzup, who's fursuit antics and mischief amused to no end.

So we got back, realized we had a few hours to kill before the next thing we wanted to do, so Carnie, Crazy, Kraden, Vixen, Jen, Tom, Kell, Fuzzy, Kyle, Kaz and myself all decided to embrace the über tackiness and tourism of the Gold Coast, and get a big group photo done at one of those old-Western photo places. I was initially a little reluctant about the whole idea, but just like Ripley's on the Friday, I quickly fell back into tourist mode and had a great time.

We did a big group shot with everyone at the bar, one serious and one that was like a bar-room brawl had just broken out between us, then another setting with Kell, Kyle, Kaz, Fuzzy and me playing poker, which had a great sequence to it: the first was serious, then we were all trying to cheat and look at Fuzzy's cards, then another great fight scene.

We then grabbed a quick bite to eat before going our separate ways, some to the con, while Ray and I met up with the bowling group. Played a reasonable first game after a rubbish first few rounds, finished second with 80-something, then bowled a respectable 102 on my second game, I can't remember the last time I've broken a hundred bowling, so I was quite pleased with myself.

Finished up at the bowling and headed back just in time to catch the start of the fursuit games. I always love seeing what the organizers of these come up with, games that would normally not really be much of a challenge, if at all, to someone out of suit, but can be near impossible to someone in a fursuit who has limited hearing, vision, movement and dexterity. Here in lies the fun for a spectator, and part of the reason I love to film furry events, stuff like this looks great on camera, and even better when it goes wrong.

Everything seemed to be going well, they even managed to get through musical chairs without incident, but it was "bacon" that would be their undoing. Bacon is where there are two teams, everyone on each team is paired off with a number againat someone on the other team, they throw some kind of object, on this case, a pool noodle, and the first one to get to it, wins. What could possibly go wrong, right? Well, funny thing, turns out that two fursuiters running full-bore at each other and do a bit of damage to themselves. I won't mention names, but one basically ended up with a minor concussion that sat him on his arse for a good few hours, but was taken care of by Tom, so he was in good paws.

After a short dinner break, it was time for the Charity Auction! I've always looked forward to these at MiDFur, so I was very interested as to how FDU were going to run theirs. To my delight, my good friend, Kell, and more importantly, vocal master of the English language, was running the event, with some help from the ever fluffy Jeneara. Kell fell into the roll of auctioneer/ring-master in seconds, it was the roll he was born to play! Unfortunately, I was out-bid on every item I had my eyes on, continuing my record of charity auctions. But in less than an hour, we had raised over $1k for the Australia Zoo, a very worthwhile cause. The banner print from Tani Da Real alone fetched over $500, so that was fantastic. Everyone had a great time, a bunch of money was raised for a great cause, what more could you want.

Then, after a few closing words from Oz, Drake and Joey, it was time for the dead dog dance. I have to admit, I was a little worried when about half an hour in, there was still hardly anyone there. But soon enough, people started coming back from dinner and/or getting into fursuit, and the dance-floor was quickly pumping. Oz came down in his inflate-a-roo suit and did his best impression of a blue-berry, after which we rolled him up and down the hall a couple of times, all for the sake of a good con vid. Say what you want about Oz, he's dedicated to his art, no one can deny that!

More and more people converged on the dance floor and it was just fantastic. This was the last chance for everyone to party, and they knew it. Glow-sticks and glow poi were out in force, probably best demonstrated by Flicker, who was essentially a walking/dancing Christmas tree on the dance-floor, and it looked great.

One of many highlights for me, was when Ray let an un-named person wear his Satimo suit. I got a few photos of them together, before Satimo went out onto the dance-floor, soon after followed by Ray. It was really weird seeing them dancing together like that, after knowing them as one and the same for so long, but looked fantastic on camera none-the-less.

Oz came back down in Duke, got up on stage with pretty much all of the ACTfur crew on the stage, along with Kaz, and tore it up, it was fantastic. A re-mix of Coldplay's Viva La Vida came on, and not long after, a huge conga-line formed with Oz leading the way. It snaked its was around the dance, outside onto the large kind of smokers area, then back in again in time for the end of the song and, the end of the dance.

When the house-lights came back on, everyone was panting, sweaty, and had a big grin on their face. The good byes and the hugs started with friends old and new, sad to see the weekend end, but I think we all knew that it meant it would just make us all keener to see each other again at the next meet or con, which couldn't come soon enoughzl.

There was so little I could fault the convention on, it's not even worth mentioning here, it's been the most fun at a fur-con I've had probably since MiDFur X. The organizers, staff, volunteers, and attendees were all so wonderful and open and friendly, after feeling more than a little disheartened with the fandom over the last few months, the last weekend has completely restored my faith in the community, and reminded me of why I became involved in it in the first place.

I can't wait to get back to Melbourne to start uploading photos and editing video to share my experiences with everyone, not just those who came to the con, but to others who might be thinking of making the interstate, or even international trip to this convention.

Even though I'm not on staff or had nothing to do with organization of the con, I felt a massive sense of pride knowing the Australia not only now had one, but two world-class fur-cons. Make the trip, you won't be disappointed. I know I'll be booking my rego flights and accommodation as soon as I can for Furry Down-Under 2013.