Memorial Day once again brings the Kinetic Sculpture Race to Humboldt.
Traditionally, the race begins on the Arcata Plaza with the noon siren. Due to the dismantling of the fire house, the siren had to be carted in and manually started, which happened 15 minutes late, and the mishaps didn’t stop there.
There were a lot of racers dealing with new art or equipment, and some big newcomers.
This zombie pink elephant was exactly what I like to see in the race. It was original, attention grabbing, and gave the impression that an equal measure of attention had been given to both art and machine.
I don’t say this often, but this steampunk shark was such a well polished design that I would welcome seeing it back without much alteration in future years. As much as I like to see new stuff, I hate to see something like this scrapped in the name of progress. The tophats of the riders even popped open to reveal shark teeth.
I think this butterfly was the first catastrophic casualty. It only made it a few blocks before breaking down and calling it a day, which is unfortunate. Better luck next year.
This Blue whale skeleton was just shy of life size, and it was their first time on the course after traveling all the way from Sacramento. Things were looking good until they hit a crosswind that broke the head loose.
The couple on the right are getting married at the finish line, so turning back was not an option. Half an hour later they had it back together and were back in the race, though they had to repeat the whole procedure again later.
These guys boldly went until about Dead Man’s Drop before they broke down and spent the night on the wrong side of the bridge.
As always, Kinetic officials were everywhere, looking for infractions and heavily laden with bribes.
This Borg was apparently finding plenty of culture to assimilate.