Furry Down Under 2017

Thursday

I took a short plane ride up to the Gold Coast. I checked in to my hotel Chateau Beachside Resort. I went and collected my convention badge. When I was returning from picking up my badge I ran into Arti Husky who I gave my photo print that I had made up for him.

I found Austin Nova in the lobby and picked up my art badge of Silver Sheep. The badge was fantastic and it was my first art badge for a furry convention. As I was about to return to my hotel I ran into Trak and Diego who were unloading their car. They invited me up to their room. I gave them their photo prints.

I went back to my hotel and put away my convention swag. I returned to the Mantra and hunted down Regis who invited me to his room. I loaned him my old camera. We got together with Arti, Diego and Trak and went out for dinner at an Asian place. We returned to the Mantra where I took some photos in the lobby.

Lord Darius Foxworth and Warbrin Flof and a dragon fellow that I see around my local furry meets but have not asked his name yet went to Timezone and walked around for a while. We came back to the Mantra and I chilled with Darius Foxworth for a bit. Lamenting my lack of photos so far. All of a sudden Lupe suiters stormed out of the lifts and were posing for videos and photos in the lobby.

Faux was there and I gave him a hug. Not even the start of the convention and I checked off one of my goals for the convention. I planned for Friday to get some art commissions and take some photos of Regis at mini golf.

Friday

The convention got into full swing. I cruised around to the dealers den and ordered a dance party themed art commission. I went over to Silvixen and purchased a character pack for Silver Sheep. The character pack is great value. She didn't think that they would sell but some of the first sales of the convention where character packs.

I met up with Regis and he went up to his room to get in suit. I walked around the convention space and took photos of fursuiters. Tabu Lion had his new husky fursuit. It has glitter on the hair fringe, it was beautiful. I spotted Lucian coming out from one of the panels. I didn't get a photo of his fursuit and missed my opportunity.

Later that day I took some photos of Arti with his home made boomerang plush. I set my camera on high speed burst mode and get a sequence of him throwing it towards me. I got a photo of Freon Fox when he walked in. Arti Husky was on the Balcony posing for photos with his friends.

The Friday night dance was a great time. I took my camera and I was stalking the green fox ibbY who wasn't even at the convention. I did manage to take photos of fursuiters dancing even Muttasaur's new fursuit. I attempted to live stream a part of the dance party on Facebook but after it streamed it wouldn't save because of copyright music. Periscope worked much better.

Saturday

Saturday morning was the Lupe fursuit photo shoot at surfers paradise beach. The sun came out for the shoot. I took some photos of the fursuiters in the lobby and Faux marshalled them to the beach. As always I loved the Lupe shoot some of the fursuiters had upgraded from partial to full suits. I will have to look at my photos from last year to compare.

A drone was flying around and Faux was livestreaming the shoot. I spotted new Lupe fursuits and got their photos. Furries love their technology and live streaming video of events. It is great to see Australian designed and built fursuits. It shows the world what we have to offer.

Next was the main event the fursuit walk to the beach. There was so many fursuiters and many new ones. We all formed up in the lobby and walked down to the beach. The road crossing was handed much better this year. There were organised and had some traffic control to stop the traffic. I later found out that axle Husky had forgone being in the fursuit walk so he could manage the road crossing. Good on him for keeping the hundreds of fursuiters safe.

Lord Darius Foxworth gave me his camera for the fursuit walk I took some photos on it for him. I didn't get a good photo of the group shot this time because there was so many fursuiters there. Even the official photo was a panorama shot.

The main photos I took at the beach fursuit walk were with my zooming lens sniping shots from a distance paparazzi style. I took some good ones I reckon. One of the things that make FurDU special is the beach fursuit walk. Sunny Dingo was wearing Australian flag board shorts in the group shot.

Instead of going to the sponsors cocktail party I went to the fire breathing dragon show with Lord Darius Foxworth. I chatted with Axel Husky who was part of the team doing the dragon show. I wish I wasn't so shy I could have talked about how Axel is from Katoomba or something.

The dragon show was great it was a fursuit that breathed fire from its muzzle. It was such a great time to get photos of puff the dragon. Lord Darius Foxworth shot a video of it. I took photos with Regis who rocked up. Warbrin was close to the action himself. It was much better than drinks at a cocktail party.

I went to the Saturday night dance party and got some more photos. I felt a little down on Saturday night it could have been post con depression striking early or just a bit of loneliness on my part seeing all the happy couples dancing together. I got over it for Sunday morning.

Sunday

On Sunday I went on a adventure hunting down a selfie stick with my friends. We walked around to different shops until we found a phone shop I purchased one myself and used it to take some selfies myself. We headed back to the hotel where I took a selfie with the fursuit heads of my friends.

Regis had me help him suit up and we headed down to the beach for photos with Blutooth. Some time later Arti, Diego and Trak joined us on the beach for more photos. Kai took some photos of me taking photos and I got some selfies of my fursuited friends. I walked back with my friends and took some more photos in the lobby.

Later that afternoon I went up to the main convention area and found Ham and Toasted Lynx and Kai Dingo. I took some more photos. We were soon joined by some Made Fur You fursuiters who were doing a small photo shoot.

The Dead Dog Dance was quite good with many fursuiters out at the party. I took some great photos of Diego dancing and Ham turned up as well. I enjoyed dancing and taking photos of the fursuit dancers.

Conclusion

FurDU 2017 was an excellent event. The extra space upstairs was good for the dealers den. The fursuit walk was safer this year. They had new events such as the fire breathing dragon. Staying at another hotel nearby was a good idea, no waiting for lifts. More time hanging out with my friends than at ever before.

I achieved my convention goals. I took more photos then at ConFurgence (Over 3000 photos), I had some great times with friends, I got a couple of great photos of Faux and I have more artwork of Silver Sheep on the way.