[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by mynamy1 Eating turkey and cruising the net for the last few days or so, this is my observation: GCs from UK koi shows resemble their homeland relatives. I notice the imposing body and great skin. The GCs, in US, resemble a garden koi. For example, the current 05 AKCA KoiUSA's Champion of Champions is a chisel head, limpy tail and smallish Ginrin showa. Red and shiro are good but head sumi is so so. Just don't mean to insult the owner but I must critic the fish to learn. It seems like in the previous years, many GCs look quite imposing until 2005. MA Le

The Gin Rin Showa you talk of is ok, not great but okay. I have watched that fish at one of the dealers until it was bought. We were at a surprise that this fish took GC at the San Diego Show. It was under size for a GC and considering it won tells me the level of competition.

Back to the question, the level of hobby between here and the UK is different. Maybe they take the hobby alittle more serious compared to here or maybe we are a couple of years behind in the learning. But it is up to the higher end hobbyist to bring out something to compete. There are hobbyist in the Bay Area that spend tens of thousands of dollars that dont compete....