Red Bull Flugtag: Make it. Fly it. Crash it.

In my world of freelance events, the work is generally interesting. I can't complain. Or I shouldn't anyway. But sometimes an event stands out as so rad, so unusual, so totally bizarre that I feel compelled to share it with you.

So, friends, some pictures from last Saturday's Red Bull Flugtag event, held in Downtown Long Beach, are below. For those of you who don't know the event: 30+ teams are selected to build homemade crafts, get them to the Long Beach pier, and catapult them off a 30' launching pad. Most crafts, needless to say, nosedive straight into the water. With their team. To the 100,000 person audience's great joy and entertainment.

A sneak peak at some crafts the night before.

The craft ideas ranged from political to artistic to ridiculous.

The entraceway in. The quiet before the storm.

The pre-show included a stunt from Red Bull's killer skydivers. Skater Ryan Sheckler also skated off the ramp into the water below. I injured myself just watching all this from afar.

Our amazingly fun judges hard at work.

A view from the Judges' Tower of just some of the 100,000 guests.

The Judges: Tenley (The Bachelor), Ryan Sheckler (Red Bull athlete), Nicole Sullivan (MAD TV, Sh+t My Dad Says), Cheech Marin (Cheech & Chong), Dave Sanchez (KROQ)

Before the sunburn set in, my pal & I--talent coordinators extraordinaire (or so they say).