Chris Tristano

[christisgodlike]

yo blog, Wuz good dood?1!

History:

2004 - 9th grade

On First Day of cross country practice I see this strange sac filled with cheap plastic pellets being kicked around by a few of the older fellas. Being fascinated with skateboarding for 5 years of my life at the time, I naturally was attracted to "trick" or "freestyle" sports. I immediately went over and joined.

Most of the teenagers could keep it up for about 10 consecutive kicks with a "jester" or toe stall some other funny freestyle moves. Two of the older players are all I can remember now, Tim Morris and Dave Beyers. We played what we thought at the time was called "Hacky Sack", and we played almost everyday that year. Edit: And scarcely any time after that year.

2014 - 25 years of age

So I've decided to layoff the skateboarding after 16 years deeming it inherently dangerous. With financial obligations becoming a reality, a broken ankle or leg was unacceptable. So I'm an out of shape slob that forgot what its like to freestyle and I think " O hey that freaky dood boatz still hacky sacks maybe I should contact him and get back in the game."

Messaged the dude in the end of May, played that week, and my mind was blown on the complexity of it all. Ducking, Spinning, Mobius, Fairy, Blender, John Hancock, Solar Flare, lightpost, McTasty w/ fries....WTF?!?! Seriously who named these tricks so ridiculously. Probably just me having a sensory overload of gnar-tastic shred....But that was my first experience of footbag.

So with Dave Beyers mentoring me the past (almost) five months and letting me use his footbag till I bought my own, this is what I got (I may not be naming these right, Sorry) :

ATW - flipside both directions
Clipper - strong and flip
Mirage - strong and flip
Leg Over - strong and flip
Pickup - strong and flip
illusion - strong and flip
Clipper near mirage - strong and flip
Clipper near pickup - strong and flip
Clipper near legover - strong and flip
Clipper far legover - strong and flip
Clipper far pickup - Strong and flip
cross body-rake - strong and flip
butterfly - strong and flip
osis - strong and flip
pixie far clipper - strong and flip
DLO - strong and flip (only once on the flip) (the mirage type one??)
pixie cross body-rake - strong and flip
Pixie LO - strong and flip
stepping set > LO - strong and flip
torque - strong
clipper > illusion - strong
pixie > osis - strong
mosher tail - strong
double ATW - strong
dimwalk - strong

most recent:

ducking clipper - strong
spinning clipper - strong
ripwalk - strong
dyno - strong
squeeze > LO (kind of like a DLO) Strong


I Think thats good enough for a recap...Ill try to keep this a little more up to date as a break personal records and get new tricks.

Later blog-dood,

CT

[boyle]

How are the plans for coming to Aus coming along? Hope all that's going well. There's some fun skateparks and spots around, so you might have to come out of retirement...

Having a blog on here is a great way to keep track of progress, sounds like you're doing pretty well so far.

[Cass]

I'm pretty jealous that you get to shred it up with Dave all the time. He's the best.

Nice progress so far. Keep going!

[PrunusAberration]

Welcome Chris to the blogging world of Footbagging. Dave is an awesome individual. I am glad I got to kick with him before. Keep the updates rolling!

[christisgodlike]

boyle The plans are going well! Less than a month and I'll be in Sydney (It hasn't really hit me that I'm going yet)!! I've come out of retirement three times already, so I don't think this one will be that permanent either ha! I'm excited to play with you !

@cass thanks! I am lucky to shred with Dave, such a good dude.

@PrunusAberration Thanks!

[christisgodlike]

Monday, October 13, 2014: Yo flog-boi

Just got a pair of casually used 2011 Rod Laver originals (made in China!). Dave hooked me up with the toe mod, laced them up to perfection. What a difference!! They actually feel like athletic shoes. So Light!

Enough about the shoes.

Good session with Dave. My clipper sets are becoming more consistent, still weaker on my left side. I may finally understand the osis but it was late in the session so I wont be sure until tomorrow. illusions and leg overs feel so natural with the new kicks so I busted out a couple mid string clipper>illusion's. My stepping set has definitely improved slightly with the new kicks also (got another ripwalk first try!)

Played Dave in BAGGED (horse) and I got bagged (meaning I got shut out obviously, but i did land toe>gyro>rake to keep myself in the game). We played skateboard rules (the way I like): 1 try on all letters except the last, where you get two tries (toe>gyro>rake second try). I am going to try and play him every time so we can add a little extra flavor to the shred. And it will also allow us both to try moves we wouldn't normally try(mostly me because of my nooby-ness).

Highlights:
New PR with same side clippers: 13 (thanks Dave, because I never count).

new tricks:
flipside clipper>ducking>clipper
flipside reverse whirl
clipper>DLO
clipper>whirl
swirl !!!!!!!!!!(I want to get this move solid so bad!!)

Peace FLOG

[christisgodlike]

Bloggy Bloggy Blog Whats da deal???

Drill sesh in ma appartment today...went for almost two hours.

Started with toe kicks (which i suck at) and then outside kicks ( which i also suck at ). I did them until i sucked a little less at both . Did a little on ithe nside stalls but I felt pretty strong with them so I didn't pursue them for that long. then I did toe stalls for approx 30 min. I focused mostly on my flipside. I have issues keeping balance and setting it at a consistent height. I definitely felt much better when I moved on to ATW's which I did for approx 30 min. I focused mostly on my flipside. My set improved from just doing toe stalls but my dex was more diagonal then I wanted. Getting the set straight up definitely helped flatten out the dex. big improvement on the ATW's today.

I then began LO>LO which I PRed at 20 contacts . Did some consecutive mirages. Moved on to Illusions and immediately felt a more powerful dex on my flipside. I got about 5x on my flip which might be a PR.

Then I clipper'd for the rest of the session. I went with some infinity action too but I maxed out a 3x. my set into each butterfly felt much better. i landed a couple clipper>whirls and got very close on my flip (thanks to ATW session). Landed a couple more swirls(wooooo1!!!!! ). They felt much better than last session. I got 2 swirls on my flip (Woot woot!!) (new Trick).

I've determined that while I can do 3 contact back to back osis', the sets are weak and erratic .The concept does not correlate with my leg movements past that...back to the drawing board for osis.

I ended the session with no bag just swirling my legs on both sides, slow and fast. I'm hoping this will help with the muscles used in swirls for next session.

Overall I feel much better than I did yesterday. So good session.

I'm going to try and start playing at least 5 days a week from now on. I'm currently on day 3.

Love,

Your Creator (of Flog, the soggy blog)

[christisgodlike]

Another drill session today. My legs were beat from yesterday, but I wanted to play...

I worked heavily on ATW and clippers. Hit a new PR of 22x same side clippers. I hit 8x on my flip clipper. My legs were too weak to keep enough balance to get any work on infinity. I got a few more swirls on each side. And I got 2x whirl on strong side .

I started fluxing with fairy sets which now make alot more sense. My pixie sets also improved along with the stepping set. BSOSed stepping>same LO.

Landed some new tricks:
clipper>whirl flipside
clipper>reverse whirl both sides

Almost landed reverse swirl on both sides. Hopefully tomorrow Ill have that.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Reverse Swirl is the bomb of all bombs. Dave is also a fantastic person to have around to mentor you. I hope you pick off parts of his style. His style is one of the most unique in the sport. Seeing as you're in NY, I'll probably bump into you eventually, once you get back from Australia. Good luck there and try to learn a lot from every player you meet.

[boyle]

Ps fuck Melbourne, move to Canberra. While you won't hear that often, it's good advice.

[christisgodlike]

"@F[uns]tylin' Eclectic I definitely will be seeing you sir.

@boyle We will definitely be visiting Canberra at some point. We have a contact from New York in Melbourne so that is our first stop.

[christisgodlike]

Friday, October 17, 2014

Met up with Dave at the high school track. My legs were dead from the previous 4 days of playing prior so I wasn't able to go all out. The only highlight I remember is I hit a new link: stepping LO > Pixie LO. I think it was a first for Dave too.

There was a football game happening as we played so we got a lot of attention. At one point there were a lot of young teenagers watching Dave and I freestyle. They were a little shy to join but I kind of threw the bag at them and they kicked around a bit. We eventually gave out 3 bags and had four circles going with about 15 total people kicking. I think a few of them took an interest to it and claimed that they were going to get a bag.

Back pain prevented me to play as long as Dave. I requested a 50 clippers in a row which He did with ease on his strong side. His flip was shy ( mid 20's or 30's) as was his alternating. It was getting dark and at the end of a 2 hour session so I think he could definitely do more. I now see the value in being able to do a move many times consecutively(properly).

Next week I am going to focus on consecutive moves. My goal is to get to 50x on all the basic moves. ( ATW(both directions), clippers( same side and alternating), pixie>op toe, LO, mirage, illusion, pick-up, rakes...etc)

[christisgodlike]

yoooo!!!

Good session today. Played with Dave and two new cats, Jon and Cody. They can kick around a bit. They were getting toe stalls and a little bit of inside stalls. Jon had a sandbag already but Cody did not have anything so I gave him a mr. sandbag that I don't use. I'm not too sure what they expected. They got the full footbag experience thanks to Dave ripping it up.

I had much longer strings today which felt awesome. I was in the 20's most of the time when I wasn't drilling.


Highlights:

BSOSed ducking clipper

PR's:
26x same side clippers strong side
16x same side clippers flip side
~10 mirages (I'm not sure which side is flip on my mirages but this I did starting with right toe)
bunch of ATW's (I need to start counting)

New moves :
eggbeater (starting from left toe)(strong-side?)(first try )
drifter (woof)

Got real close to paradon?(thats what Dave said it was called)(toe>op out to in dex > butterfly??) (illusion butterfly??)

Getting some shin splints unfortunately and my back is definitely taking a beating from work and footbag combined.

Later

[christisgodlike]

Oh yes and osis is a bitch...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey man, for the shin splints, try standing more on your toes. Not only standing on them, landing on them, jumping off of them, etc.. Essentially, keeping your weight centered over your toes, so that your heels don't touch the ground but for a split second during landings and whatnots.

Nice job on the Drifter. Promising stuff from you lately. You gotta go meet and play with NYFA.

[christisgodlike]

So tired from work today...my legs were moving so slow. But I got some footage to show my highlights...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC-Zg2ekhrU

Can anyone help with the embedded youtube tags? How do the work?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dude I watched this a little while ago. Forgot to comment. You're very impressive. I talked with Boatz about you and he told me you're a quick learner. Keep it up man. You're going to be so fucking good. Please keep it going.

[christisgodlike]

Thanks Nick!

I have been playing once or twice a week for the past two weeks trying to let me shins and joints heal. I think last weak I hit a crispy torque? ( stepping>osis?) which was nice. I had a painfully terrible session with Dave also one of those days. I would drop after 4 contacts no matter what I was doing. I ended up trying to drill anything and I couldn't even get +4 on consecutive toe stalls (woof). It was bad. Though I think my Pixies are feeling better from that day. I am setting them closer to my body, aiming for the inside of my knee. It has significantly decreased the spin cause by the toe box.

Yesterday I had a real nice freestyle session with Dave. I didn't really drill at all. It was the first time I actaually felt like I was freestyling. Basically the strings were lasting long enough to come up with new links on the fly. I started inserting a lot more butterfly's into my strings. And also alot more strong side osis (left leg catch). I was trying to get a swirl into a link. They were definitely looking a lot stronger on my strong side( left leg dex ). Almost bsosed swirls. Did some dynos. some whirls(flip also).

New moves:

clipper>ducking LO (both sides) ( almost bsosed on the first try )

Dave also killed it yesterday. He was playing stylee as FUCK. He land this ridiculous move like 3rd try. It was like a pixie butterfly swirl. It was fucking pretty as hell. The thing is when he lands a new move, I usually just think "Oh, I'm not really sure what just happened. Legs just flailed then he landed it and it looked dope. He must have done it before." So I don't give him props right away LOL.

So my flight to Sydney, Australia is tomorrow...I'm bummed that today is my last session with Dave. Kinda last minute nervousness happening but I anticipated it. I'm gonna miss all my homies. But ya know, there's a world out there and only one life (i think) and I gotta see what is the deal with it.

20hrs of flying....woof. Can I footbag on a plane?

[krustykrakk]

Sick mustache and also hacky stuffs. It's cool to hear that even people who play with boat regularly still get surprised by his trick selection. How long will you be in australia? I think there are kickers there. Also, I am Ben. Kick? When kick?

[christisgodlike]

krustykrakk Hey Ben. Kick? When Kick? (Not to sure what you meant by that ha) I am going to Australia for a year (atleast, anything can happen in a year). I am in contact with mister boyle and I think we are going to meet up at some point. From what I know now I will be staying in Melbourne because I know someone from college who works at the University there.