Post
by pips » 18 Jul 2014 21:52
I logged on to post this yesterday and then walked away or went to bed. Then I just got done showering after another session and meant to get onto this but have been watching awesome footbag videos back-to-back. Now it is getting late again. So here goes...Epic Skydiving Footbag Camping, PSU Arts Fest, solo-sessions...
Skydiving was amazing! The drive up was pretty chill. A long, 8+ hr drive but chill. I was enjoying the great weather and views and jammed all the way to Canada. I arrived Friday evening. Everyone greeted me and insisted I pitch my tent ASAP, because the bugs were coming! Ok...so with a few other hands, I put my tent up. Everyone else was wearing pants and long sleeves (because of the bugs!), so I changed into some pants, too...ended up in my hoody later on, too. They weren't kidding about the bugs!
So anyhow, my first impression of the airport was kinda iffy, and I was like questioning the validity (?) of the whole skydiving she-bang. It was very old-fashioned and I don't know. I just kinda shrugged it off and went with the fact they've been around for years. The hangar was real cool, though. Cass showed me around the camp and hangar. I was surprised we were allowed to roam free in the hangar, but it was cool. Loved the huge Con-air style plane that was there.
We didn't do much that night but hang out. The bugs were starting to come out as the sun was setting, and we discovered they weren't as bad out front. So we hung out there for a good bit. Drew, Tom, and Dave were kicking around a little. I didn't kick much cuz my back was hurting/recovering, and I didn't want to upset it before the jump in the morning. There was a point where Dave was busting some weird move, and Drew attempted it. They argued over the difference each of them hit the trick, and it was amusing.
Will, the crazy skydiving Canadian, came around and started talking to us. There was talk about the fire and he was off to go grab some firewood. Jon went with him and we were cracking jokes as if he was being taken and never going to return...he did come back alive and well and with plenty of freaking pallets of firewood. I didn't realize when Will said pallets, he meant those big, huge pallets everybody keeps making cool projects out of. Well, we burned them.
The other skydivers came out while we were chilling in the front, and they were amazed with footbag. I think he name was Justin??? He was like WOW! Oh my gosh, FOOTBAG! I don't know, but he seemed quite entertained. I think I experienced every saying you hear coming from a non-footbagger that night. Caro (not our Caro!) called it ball-sacking then began to carry on about skydiving. She mentioned how she jumped 11 times that day, and I jumped in the conversation with a bunch of questions about their sport. It was interesting.
At some point in the night, we moved on to the fire-pit. As I said...Will is insane! I thought I was a pyromaniac. Nope. This guy is. You know...it is an airport, so they had gas on-site. The guy was filling bottles up with gas and throwing in the fire...creating fire trails close to his friends if not practically burning them. Tom bought Canadian fireworks and brought them with him to celebrate the 4th of July. We had a blast, though, Will was setting them off a little too close to us for comfort. After the fireworks were over, we moved on to kicking the fire hack. Jon had gloves and was wringing the hack out every time he dipped it in gas. If Will got his hands on it, he'd soak the hack in gas, light it, and toss it into the circle dripping wet! We were all showered with flaming gas as it was first kicked. I didn't like that and backed off. We were all on fire somewhere at one point, but Cassy's foot lit up and didn't go out so easily. I remember watching her struggle to get it out and then it was like, crap! She is on fire! Everyone jumped to save her. Jon almost dumped water on her, but luckily she got it out just in time. I backed out of the circle at this time and just hung out at the fire. That thing was huge and hot! Be burned or be bugged!
Oh, yes, and the stars were amazing! And Ianek and Mathieu brought some jalapeno Cheetos that everyone went to town on.
That was pretty much the end of Friday. I went to bed earlier than the others since I had just finished driving. I could hear them shuffling around for a while and I tossed and turned a bit but finally passed out at some point in the night.
I was up early (as usual). I took a shower and returned to my tent. Cassy was up, too. I chilled in my tent while she showered and then disappeared. The bugs crawling all over the outside of my tent amused me. Cassy came back with coffee. Awesome!
Again, we had a chill-kind of morning. Then the time came around to start getting ready for the jump! We filled our stuff out, kicked a bag around while we waited. Jon and Cassy's friends went first. I was grouped with Johnny, Nate, and Dave.
My tandem instructor was awesome. So he strapped me in and all that...went over the details. Our plan was to do a backflip out of the plane and end it with a twist. I was overwhelmed with all that needed to be done to make that happen. Cross you arms, arch your back, feet inside his legs, arm back out for the twist...sounded like a plan!
So it was time to get on the plane. I was cool at this point. We all got on the plane. It was a quiet trip up. I enjoyed the view, asked Scott how long he'd been jumping, which was like 7 years and over 2,000 jumps. Geesh! One girl and a guy jumped out of the plane super early. We continued up in the sky. Scott turned on the camera at some point. I didn't know that was it on his wrist. I thought it was just a device to measure the altitude or something. You can see me checking it out unaware in the video of my jump (on my fb page).
Time to go!
So Scott tells me to head for the door. Again, I am pretty chill at this point (I think). We approach the door, Scott is going on with his instructions, I look out the door then suddenly all I hear is wind...
I think that is the point where like I didn't freak out but my mind went completely blank and body shut down. All that I knew to do was to cross my arms and lay my head back. I don't even think I jumped. Haha. AND APPARENTLY, I SHUT MY EYES AND MISSED THE DANG BACKFLIP OUT OF THE PLANE!!! What the heck.
We didn't do the twist.
So I don't know. At some point I snapped back into it and realized I was super tensed up and had my eyes shut, and all I could tell myself was, "Hey! Idiot! You just jumped out of a plane! Open your eyes and look at the view!" So I opened my eyes and looked around. Couldn't turn my head too much. It was awesome! It was like looking out of a plane except there was no plane. It didn't feel like falling. Then as time passed, I noticed my cheeks were moving in the wind (had no idea they were flailing in the wind like freaking flabby arms! - see video) and then I noticed how cold it was getting. Brr! Kinda wishing I did put that suit on that Will offered down on the ground.
Plenty of time passed to experience the fall. Scott pulled cord and the chute came out. OUCH! I think I was the only one to experience the pain of having my chest ripped off from freaking falling in the sky and suddenly changing direction back up into the sky! Whew! That was an uncomfortable hang the rest of the way down. I was so relieved when Scott told me to stand on his feet to re-adjust, but it didn't fix everything.
The parachuting was real cool. Scott gave me the rings and showed me how to slow down and spin around and whatnot. Tougher than you think to pull down on them suckers!
So that was that. Awesome experience. I could see me working up to jumping solo in my lifetime. Next time I will keep my eyes open jumping out of the plane.
Oh yes! Kristin made some coffee that morning that smelled so freaking amazing. Like chocolate. Oh my gosh!
I left shortly after the jump with Alex and Drew to go pick up Camille in Kingston. Drew just wanted to come along for the ride. Alex wanted tomato juice for some bloody mary drinks. So we picked up Camille and went searching for a grocery store and alcohol. We ended up downtown Gananoque and grabbed what we needed. Trip turned out to be like 2 or 3 hours long.
Everyone was kicking in the hangar when we returned. We joined them. We started the competitions shortly after. I still wasn't totally up for kicking much and backed out of the weird 3 comp since I didn't really have anything up my sleeve. I competed in the requests but was one of the first to be knocked out. Oh well. I like requests. I like to see how far I can get.
After the competitions, I busted out my beers and started drinking. I was ready to relax. I was hoping to repeat Friday night and hang out with the skydivers again, because I didn't drink with them then. They never really came out. Anywho, we partied as usual. There was food and games...hooping and netball with the soccer ball. Everyone moved into the screened tent as the bugs were coming out. Jon hosted a footbag and random facts trivia game that was pretty interesting. After a while when we realized the skydivers were not coming back out, we took our party to the fire-pit again. We didn't have as much wood or any gas, but we got something going. Camille and I were singing along to some Red Hot Chili Peppers. I started to get tired and rested on Ianek while everyone else talked.
My blow up bed felt so much better with Camille on it Saturday night! Haha. I didn't toss and turn as much as I did the first night since it was fuller. I guess I didn't blow it up as tight, and it was squishy and noisy with just one person on it. I was out pretty quick that night.
Sunday morning went the same as Saturday. I was up early, took a shower, Cassy came back with coffee again. Yum yum. I almost took a trip to Tim Horton's actually in Canada, but I talked myself out of it, planning on going once I hit the road.
I waited a while for everyone else to wake up...slowly broke down all of my things and packed the car. I didn't want to leave but I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. We all kind of chilled and cleaned up some. Camille and I were playing with the hula hoop. And oh my, I've never seen a guy try to hula hoop until this weekend. Mathieu was awesome, let me tell ya. Haha.
My trip back was not very enjoyable. I never did make it to a Tim's in Canada. There was a line at customs, but it was a breeze after that and they didn't tear my car apart like they did coming in. I hit traffic. I finally found a Tim's in NY, but I miss breakfast. Oh well. By the time I got near Erie, my head and neck were killing me and I really didn't want to finish my drive. I chilled at a rest-stop and then kept on keeping on. More traffic. Guy behind me smashed into my rear-end and I rolled into the car ahead of me. We were all fine, thankfully, but my bumper is smashed and the guy's car was disabled. I wish I had handled myself a little more civilized while we exchanged info. I wasn't rude, but my head hurt so bad and I just wanted to be home, I didn't say much at all. Oh well. I did make it home! Went straight to bed.
So I returned to work for the week. At some point, I saw Ben post about PSU Arts Fest. I am only 2 hours away, why not?!
I barely even unpacked from my trip to Canada. I threw stuff together at the last minute and left for PSU Saturday around lunch. Everyone had just gathered and started kicking by the time I arrived. I still haven't totally figured my way around campus, but I did find my way to the soccer fields parking lot near Old Main, and I was glad I gave it a shot at parking, because I was prepared to pay at least $25 to park all day/night. Was only $5 there! Sweet.
I really haven't kicked much at all in the past month at this point. Skydiving was the first time I kicked in a while and then once more during the week. Everyone commented on how well I was playing, thinking I had been practicing. I don't know what came over me. My back was even hurting, but I was playing very decent! I hit my usual bag of tricks Saturday. I didn't last very long, though, between the heat and my back acting up. I took sporadic breaks. Ryan taught me a bunch of juggling tricks like how to juggle 4 bags. Cassy, Marc, and I left to grab some ice cream I kept seeing people walking around with. Death by chocolate seemed like an awesome choice but I went with the lime sherbert. Sounded much lighter and refreshing after kicking in such humid weather.
After kicking, we all went different ways to get ready for the night. April and I took the bus with Cassy, Ryan, and Ben. We went to the grocery store to grab stuff for spaghetti dinner. They went to get alcohol. We all showered, ate, and headed for the Shredhaus to chill. April made some amazing cookies and angel food cupcakes for us to chow down on throughout the night. The white chocolate oatmeal cookies were my favorite. I only took a couple shots this time around. I had my fun skydiving. I fell asleep on the couch while the other either went to bed or went for a walk or whatever outside. Cassy woke me up when our taxi arrived to take us back to Ben's.
Cassy, Ryan, and I were up early and went to grab breakfast at the Corner Room downtown. Was a cute little place. Afterwards, we walked around to enjoy the artwork until the others arrived. It started to rain and we re-located to the cool bridge-walk building thing by the soccer fields. I spent more time trying new tricks this time. Ben showed me symple osis or something like that. He tried other stuff. I followed. I tried whirling swirl. I never hit it but I could see me hitting it soon if I keep at it. Oh yeah! And there was some discussion about drifter, and I started to try it and hit it on like my second attempt out of nowhere! I thought I had lost it after not playing so much lately. Cool cool! It rained some more and it was about time to go. I stayed a bit to watch the guys and Cassy kick. Nick is amazing, and I looove his style. That's about it. I said my goodbyes and headed home.
I kicked again on Wednesday down on the river in front of Heinz Field. That was my first time downtown this year! I had a bunch of good runs. I was hitting far illusions and came up with this awesome idea to hit same-side illusion from a clipper set. I hit it. How did I play over ten years now and not realize this was bubba, I do not know! I always thought bubba was a same-side pickup from clipper. Oops! I fail at recognizing tricks once again! Won't be the last time!
Oh! So I think it was Matt K. (or maybe it was Tom K...) talking about a good trick to try pixie was same-side mirage. I was working on that before, but to see him execute it made me realize I needed to work the second dex faster rather than waiting like I was. I hit it. Sweet! Both sides, too! I felt bad, though. This guy approached me just before I hit it and wanted to join me for a game of hacky sack, as he said it. I was in the moment and turned him down. I didn't want to but I didn't want to not at the moment, either. I apologized and asked if he'd be returning (he was riding his bike along the river), but he was already on his way back. Oh well.
I also hit some ducking and diving strings. Clippers, mirage, osis...was fun. I have been attempting spinning more (by the way, I learned at PSU that my spinning osis are not spinning osis. Boo!), but I still can't get it down. I am pretty sure I was entertaining to watch on the river and I was laughing at myself as I failed to execute anything like spinning. Haha
So before my session, my work had a "tailgate" party for us where I got a free Redbull. I don't really drink them much anymore but took it since it was free and saved it for my session. Then after ducking and diving, my head was starting to hurt, so I took Exedrin. I think I psyched myself out that my heart was going crazy after having so much caffeine that I finally called it a day and stopped playing. It had been an hour and a half. I wanted to keep going, and I kept pushing, but I scared myself.
I FINALLY BOUGHT NEW LAVERS!!
They were at my doorstep yesterday. Unfortunately, they are the new new ones (I thought they were old...from ebay). So I was a little disappointed but couldn't wait to try them out...to be done with my old ones! They pretty much had seen the absolute end of their days Wednesday. My big toe was poking through and I don't think any more shoe goo would help at this point.
So I went out to kick some today. I only meant to test them out. I was going to try some of the stuff from Ianek's requests list from skydiving. I did that...pretty much hit the easier requests bsos. I couldn't link the osis to drifter though. So close, but with those new shoes, I feel like I had lost my crank/clippers. Can't feel the freaking bag at all with all that cushion.
I eventually got the hang of the new shoes. I felt super blocky and restricted at first, but I ended up kicking for well over an hour again. Clippers still kind of stunk, but I didn't fully mod the shoes, yet. The weight really wasn't so bad, but I did not like how puffy the sides and toe were. The bag rolled everywhere and I couldn't hold a string for very long at all.
I hit blender, though! I remember hitting this a long time ago when I was new and really not at the level to be hitting the trick. I don't even count it as hitting it, but now I did! For all I know, I may not have dexed the bag correctly, but it did something. Is it still blender if I did it from toe, though? I found it easier to work with the bag from toe.
That is all! Sorry for the long post and good night!
Chrissy Fryer
My condolences. 
It's always fun to shred with you, Chrissy. You have a cool sense of energy you add to a tournament. I enjoy that. Also those Whirls were looking good. 