I thought the members of this forum would be interested to know that I am now licenced as a professional fireworks supervisor.

I took the Explosives Regulatory Division's "display fireworks supervisor" course last November. After that, I had apprentice status which meant that I had to work on three professional displays in order to get my "Level 1 card". So, over Victoria Day weekend I drove over 1750km to work on two displays in the Niagara penisula region for Garden State Fireworks. Then I did my final display for this site's sponsor, Royal Pyrotechnie, on Saturday 5th June in Verdun. Thanks to the local office of the ERD, I received my card last week!

For anyone interested in following a similar path, the ERD has more information available at http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/mms/explosif/edu/edu_displayA_e.htm

Paul.

Paul,

Impressive! I see that it took a lot of hard work and effort to achieve such a goal. I guess I should commend you for your efforts!

I'm also happy that you decided to share this information with us.

One question. What made you take the course? Another question is how does it feel to be a "professional fireworks supervisor? I think that it's nice that you became a fireworks supervisor on the 20th anniversary of the Mondial SAQ. Don't you agree?

Once again, I congratulate you!

Regards,

Trav.

Trav,

thanks for your good wishes. As to why I decided to take the course? Well, after writing about fireworks for such a long time, I thought I should actually start to work with them for real. I've seen so many displays in Montreal that I've been inspired to think about the choreography and design aspect myself. This was particularly the case after I got to play with Alberto Navarro's PyroCreator virtual fireworks software - not only play with it, but win his virtual competition last year.

After the trip to the Symposium in Spain last October, I vowed I'd take the practical steps required to become licenced and, thanks to Michael Bohonos of Garden State Fireworks, this forum's very own Sean (firemaster) and my sponsors, Royal Pyrotechnie, I was able to complete the apprenticeship in time for the summer season.

As to how it feels to by a "professional fireworks supervisor", I'll answer that question once I've been the lead pyrotechnician on a show!

And you're right, it is particularly appropriate that it is the 20th anniversary of the Montreal International Fireworks Competition!

Cheers,

Paul.

Paul,

Once again, congrats. And it looks like you're taking the art of fireworks to the next level, in your own unique perspective!

To tell you the truth, I actually thought that you might persue your passion further someday, rather than only writing reports year after year. Who knows, maybe I might do the same someday! After all, fireworks is also one of my greatest passions, just like everyone on this forum.

Don't mind me asking but, are you still going to write reports? I know it's a dumb question!

Regardless of that, I always had a question that I've been dying to ask you about for years now, but I keep forgetting. I wanted to know something about your note-taking technique. How do you do it??? I mean I know you told me recently that you write page after page of notes. My question specificly is how do you remember what types of fireworks go up? I mean the fireworks are relatively going at a steady pace and often appear in a variety mixed together at times, so I'm thinking that you're constantly looking up and down all the time. I do know that in some finales, like Pirotechnia Igual for Spain in 2001, for example, that you wrote "Out of control." Also, generally, you write "WOW" when finales are intense and the fact that you can't keep up. I know you can't write in extreme detail for this segment, but I mean for the rest of the show. How do you do this? It always puzzles me every year when I think about you taking notes while I'm watching a display! I always wonder how you're managing!

Well I wish you luck in the near future.

Best regards,

Trav.

Paul,

Congratulations on obtaining your third show and becoming a Level 1 Supervisor.

You did a great job helping us on the Victoria Day Long Weekend, and were in no way thought as an apprentice to the crew during set-up.

Good luck in the future.

Sean

One more thing should be added to Paul's accomplishments.
He designed and fired his first show this past weekend along with a small Royal crew (2).

Great job Paul.

You know who....

P.S.

See you in Sherbrooke, and hopefully Sean as well.

Thanks for your note, it is sincerely appreciated. I certainly learned a lot of things that day and will do some things differently in the future, that's for sure. I also now understand why so many pyros are also in the fire department - all the lugging of heavy equipment means that you really have to be strong and fit!

I'm looking forward to going to see the Fete du Lac des Nations in Sherbrooke, though I won't be able to see every display. At least I'll see Michael's (with hopefully Sean on the crew) and Yanick's closing show.

Cheers,

Paul.

Paul,

How was your first professional show, anyway? I know you told me something about it on Canada Day, so I'm just curious. Also, what kind of materials did you use? And finally, how does it feel, after your first experience?

I'm sure you did a splendid job! Once again, congrats.

Oh yeah, I'm sure looking foward to Caballer on Saturday!

Regards,

Trav.

Finally all my aches and pains have worn off. Honestly, there is so much physical work involved, most people would be very surprised.

I spent a couple of afternoons assembling racks of Roman candles and connecting shells together into chains for the finale. The work took longer than expected because thunderstorms kept passing through which meant that no-one was allowed to be in the assembly room. So I ended up having to go twice rather than the once I thought it would take.

I also spent a lot of time creating the script and site plan for the display to make the setup easier. Every shell was identified with its location in the appropriate firing rack as well as its address for the firing system. This was a lot of work.

On the day of the show, we were a little bit late starting due to having to wait for the truck to arrive at the warehouse. Once we got to the field, it took a lot of manual effort to put all the racks in their correct place. These things are heavy! Especially the wooden racks. The steel ones are lighter, which many might find surprising, steel being denser than wood. But it is also stronger so the rack doesn't have to be as heavy for the same strength. We worked without more than a 2 minute break for around 7 hours to get everything set up. By then, it was getting dark and we had to re-address some of the cues due to the way the wires were laid out.

By the time it was firing time, there wasn't even time to think about how I felt about firing my first show. After the introductory salute, we were right into it with a mixture of electrical firing and hand firing for the smaller shells. It was really cool to hear the audience cheering when the big shells were going or when there was a particularly beautiful part. We put a lot of design into the many Roman candles to give some very pretty criss-crossing effects - watching so many displays in Montreal certainly helped - and the audience seemed to love it. We had a faux finale and the audience were cheering like crazy so we waved our flares. At that point, whoever was in charge of the lights thought it was over and turned them on! We couldn't do anything about it and so went straight into the finale. The audience loved it - they thought it was a special encore.

After the display, more hard work as we had to spend over two hours clearing up and putting everything back on the truck and removing all the debris from the field. I didn't get to bed until 1:30am. It was a lot of fun, but really hard work. It certainly is not a glamorous way to spend a day! Just hearing the audience cheer and listening to the comments afterwards made it all worth while. Finally, it was great to work with the crew from Royal. They are so professional and I was honoured to be on their team for this display. I learned so many things - there's nothing like real hands-on experience.


Cheers,

Paul.

Paul,

Like they say, hard work pays off! And it looks like that was the case in your context!

I'm happy to say that it looks like everything went well and the audience appeared to have seriously enjoyed the show to the maximum! Fortunately, the weather cooperated during the display, too. That's good. Also, it looks like all your "aches and pains" really were worth it!

I guess from your experience, you learned many things, as you said. I guess you can also see the work and effort it takes for all the competitors at the Mondial SAQ to set up their shows! Like you said before, you must be fit for the job, too.

As a final note, I'm glad that you also had fun doing it and seing it to be appealing to the audience! As long as the audience enjoys the show, that's the part that counts, and it really gives you that great feeling from within about the amount of work put into a pyrotechnic display and get such good positive reinforcement and feedback! That's also the feeling that you want after working on a big display. This signals to you, right away, that you've done a fantastic job! I guess you knew that, though!

Once again, I'm happy to hear that it was a terrific success!

Congrats,

Trav.

Paul,

Being a professional pyrotechnician is no where near as glamourous as everyone thinks it is. Its a long/hard day of setting up and then cleaning up for hours after the show.

But if you love the art, its well worth it, I think it is.

Yes I will be in Sherbrooke next week. The crew from Garden City Display Fireworks will be at Royal's warehouse for Tuesday night, Wednesday, and Thursday morning. Then in Sherbrooke on Thursday afternoon, Friday, and Saturday morning. We fire our show on Friday night.

We will be attending the Holland show on Wednesday night in Montreal and then coming back to Montreal on Saturday night to watch Eric Tucker's show. I was very disappointed not to witness those beautiful shells breaking during the Japan show. I saw some similar shells last year at the PGI, nothing in life is more beautiful.

Congratulations Paul on once again becoming a professional pyrotechnician. You should be very proud to fire your first designed show so early into your new hobby/career, some people will never fire their own designed show.

See you next week Paul, and you "lastartificier".

Sean