Nick Polini: THEs Everything

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey everyone, My name's Nick Polini, 2EDIT!:TWO! years old, Mont Clare, Pennsylvania, Penn State Berks College student going for a degree in Biology. Playing "hitty-with-your-handy sack" since age 5, "kicky bags" since 5th grade, "tricky sack" in 9th grade, found out about Freestyle Footbag in 11th grade, been playing hard ever since. Went Guiltless in early 2011.

Edit:

Major Influences/Inspirations:

Nadiah Smith My girlfriend and footbag student. I'm convinced she's the one <3 Check out her footblog in the footblogs section. Huge influence to me as a person and a player. She has a blast learning and I have a blast teaching her
Bob Riefer (Taught me everything I know about footbag, would definitely not be where I am without his help)
Drew Krause (First person to show me freestyle footbag in person, also would not be where I am without him)
Zach Hoffa (Good friend/shred partner of mine. We taught each other a lot.)
The Whole PSU Crew (Fucking awesome and fun group of guys and girls to shred with... Always a good time. Many students with a lot of potential.)
Jackson Raap, Nick Pasquarello, Jeremy Mellor ( 3 of my most promising students who I've taught. Very inspiring when I look at how far they've come. Also all of them are awesome people)
Jon "Outsider" Schneider (Love his unorthodox style. He is the biggest inspiration for my choice of tricks)
Mark Monistere (Awesome guy and has been very helpful to me with tips and whatnot. His style is awesome because he goes after tricks that look cool to him. I want to do this too, but I plan on incorporating much more [uns] tricks) Edit: I got to meet him and kick with him recently and he's the fucking MAN.
Matt Cross (Very encouraging to me as a young footbag player. Awesome guy and I love his choice of tricks and his weird style)
Brian Bear (Gave me some pointers on gyro and spinning at NYJ '10, and my spinning and gyro have greatly improved since then, thanks to him. Also I love his choice of tricks and how he likes to also use weird tricks that not many people use)
Lon Smith & Peter Irish (I love their spinning and torques, always been inspired by these guys)
Gordon Bevier (Never actually met him, but I love his crazy trick choices and his far out style. I had the opportunity to meet him at Funtastiks, but I'm an idiot. Hopefully soon)
Nick Landes (Also never met him, but I love how he incorporates weird stuff with big shred)

I've wanted to do that list for a long time. To all of you guys, whether I know you or not, Thank you for pushing me to get better and better.

FIRST TOURNAMENT:

Funtastik Summer Classic '09 was my first tournament. In that tournament, I took 4th place in intermediate (YEAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!) Not the best, but I still yelled that when they announced my name. I won a Stally Footbag and a snow...boarding...shirt...? Yeahhh... Very cool though haha Someone at Funtastiks also commented on my style and said "he footbags like the world is going to end", which I thought sounded REALLY cool. My family and I have a luxury camper on the Susquehannah River, so we stayed there for Funtastiks. (PS: If you're going to Funtastiks this year, check out Ferry Boat Camp Grounds, and come party it up and kick with some friends and I at our site at night. We also have an island on the river that's perfect for flamebag use javascript:emoticon('8)') ) My parents really got a kick out of the whole tourney and really got to see what freestyle was all about. THE BEST PART OF THE WEEKEND: I was featured in the Harrisburg news for the segment about Funtastiks... I was the upcoming commercial, the intro to the segment, shredding behind Daryl Genz while he was being interviewed, and I ended the segment... a total of 32 seconds of airtime!!!! That was truly awesome. Oh and even better, Daryl and Sunny Genz both used one of my bags for their finals since Sunny forgot her's!!!!! I was honored. I met so many cool new people on this trip. Can't wait til this year's Funtastiks!!!

Edit:
In 2010 year's Funtastiks, I took first place in Intermediate Routines and Intermediate Circle Shred and I competed, but did not place and sucked, in Open circles at NYJ '10

I guess I should add some shit here since I've had a negative turn of events in freestyle for me. Well around xmas break 2011, I got hurt. Mainly from trying to get in that "Xmas Calendar Add Hunt video"... I got in, but I really fucked my leg up doing so. I regret that video so much. ANyway, took off 2 months from the sport and now I'm relearning my basics to hopefully be a better SAFER player in the near future.

Thanks to Erik Chan and Kevin Hogan for helping me deal with my shinsplints and for both being extreme inspirations to my future game. If they can overcome them and continue to shred hard, so can I.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Edit: Looking back on all of this stuff, I never thought I'd reach this level of play when I first started playing.

Thanks to every single person I've mentioned above, plus a lot more.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Just got back from Corey's older brother, Kyle's, high school graduation party... After congratulating Kyle, Corey and I shredded and had Kyle's guests pretty captivated and amazed.

I hit a real flowy string:

flip osis> ducking clipper> rev. hopover> hopover> ss xbd sole> clipper > xbd sole> clipper> xbd sole> rev. swirl> spinning legover

That's the best string I've had today. Nothing else too notable. Buh bye.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

No footbag today, although I dreamt about it all day, even up to right now, which is why i'm on here instead of doing Calculus. God damn summer Calculus courses to hell. I was thinking about substituting little footbag icons in for variables and maybe then I'd be more interested in it. Muh.

I needed a day off though, because my legs are starting to get too much use and starting to feel a lot of pain with all the footbag I've been playing lately. I had a big warning sign last night when I went to a friend's party with an aching leg and had to put some sort of heat on it... but all I could find laying around the house was a CLEAN UNOPENED 8 hour Therma Patch menstrual cramp reliever... So I wore that to the party. If that's not an omen, I don't know what is. So it's probably a good thing to take today off. TOMORROW I SHRED <3 Back to calc. Namaste.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So today, I'm trying my hand at stitching footbags with my Dad. My Dad isn't like the every day ordinary Dad, he's my number one role model in life, he's the funniest, most awesome older dude I know. We do everything together, (kayaking, hiking, fishing, biking, camping, etc..) it's always been like that. People have described my Dad as "a guy who's interested in everything". He's the smartest guy I know and I try to learn all I can from him and his ways. He's picking us up some microsuede fabric at this fabric store next to his work right now and we're gonna try stitching our first bags tonight. I can't wait! I've been wanting to learn how to stitch ever since I found out that Drew K made his own bags. Hopefully it goes well. Once my Dad finishes his bag, I'm going to teach him some of the basic stalls for footbag, because he said he also wants to try to get into the sport more than just playing "kicky bags" , which he already does sometimes.

Shredding with Bob in the shred barn at 7 tonight, can't wait for that either. Today should be cool.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

About an hour and a half session with Sir Robert Rieferman tonight. SUPER SICK AS HELL. We both hit some really nice strings and new tricks.

Personal Highlights:

Dragonflyer> Rev. Swirl (Bob and I raced to hit it and it was neck and neck, but I took the cake!)
Stepping clipper> spinning legover> ducking somethingorother> clipper rev. swirl>xbd sole (the rest escapes me, but it was a really nice lengthy run )
Stepping Rev. Swirl

Some other really decent stuff was hit by both of us, including Bob's Pixie Swirl.

I'm definitely bringing a tripod and a camera next time we shred, because our sessions lately have been ridiculously awesome.

Bob said he had some old fabric that I could use once/if he finds it. He gave me a computer chair I can use for my new apartment too. SWEET. I'm also going to try to repair his old bag that exploded when it hit a wall. I've got some Ultrasuede fabric now, so my Dad and I are going to start stitching in a little bit. I wish myself luck. LUCK!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Started stitching that first footbag of mine last night. Purple and green ultrasuede 32 panel. 25 panels are stitched as of now. WORD. My Dad effed his bag up real hard. I'm gonna show him how I did mine later.

Aside from stitching, I went to Corey's place to shred tonight, and we had a really sick... 5 and a half hour session We kicked on and off, but for the most part, we were kickin.

Personal highlights:

linked a lot of cool, decent length strings with ripwalks and stepping clippers
hit my first Rev-Up! Plus 4 or 5 times after that too. a few of them were in pretty nice strings.
Footed a couple twirls
outside stall> double legover
footed a couple double spins
footed ducking clipper> ducking clipper> (downtime) rev. swirl

Best part: we got one of our friends, who recently lost A LOT of weight, into footbag!!! He said he'd wanted to get into it for a while and he's finally decided to get himself into it. We took a pair of his DC's and customized them. They weren't too bad for a first footbag shoe.

Can't really say much else except for that I plan on carrying some Kerosine around with my footbags from now on, so I get to use my firebag more often THAT'S IT

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

TERRIBLE session with Corey today. Really off day. Recorded a 20 minute session and out of those 20 minutes, I only hit 1 or 2 nice tricks and maybe one half-decent string. PHUCK tonight's session. I don't even wanna talk about it. To end it, I couldn't even bring my legs to hit terrage because I was so worn out, so I had to end on clipper> xbd sole> ducking toe. Half decent. One of the best things I hit today. I think we wore ourselves out yesterday, and that's partially why we sucked so badly tonight. BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD session. I have nothing else to say.

Go cut myself, beat off, and cry moar nao.

NIGHT!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So I forgot to say, every Friday in a local town near my home, I'm a hired street performer. I entertain the town's people by blowing their minds with Freestyle Footbag. Getting paid for what you love doing IS the greatest thing in the whole world. Anyway, I usually do pretty well, around 60 bucks on a crappy night, 70-80 bucks on a pretty good night.

TONIGHT WAS THE MOST AMAZING NIGHT I'VE EVER KICKED FOR. After kicking for 3 hours, I managed to scrounge up ONE HUNDRED AND TEN DOLLARS! WORD TO THE MOTHER (record scratch) BIRD. I hit a lot of really tight runs tonight too. I guess it totally makes up for how shitty last night's session was. Took video of it and will post the video once I edit it, which also means once I study for Calculus... shit... calculus...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

My Dad's such a thoughtful guy. He just came back from Canada on a business trip and he brought me back a souvenir. It's this really cool and fun thing called "Stomach Virus". My new Stomach Virus and I have been hanging out for a few days straight now. He prohibits me from footbagging and just kinda makes me throw up a whole lot. THAT'S IT!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So, 2 days off of footbag with the stomach virus... I played for like 10 minutes today in the morning and everything was still a little achy, but I managed to pull off a trick I'd never hit before. Toe set> ss xbd sole. I have them as easy as my clippers, so that's awesome to know I have a new bail move to mix into the pot... haha... pot... I mean the pot of tricks I can do

*Note to self: try xbd sole> diving xbd sole

NOTHING ELSE!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Bob and I kicked last night. We decided to film our session. IT WAS SO HOT, even inside the shred barn. Bob was killing it with almost every run. I, on the other hand, was psyching myself out with the camera. I kept trying to hit my newest big tricks and failing. Then Bob told me to just hit easy stuff at first then slowly get bigger. After the advice, I was hitting longer runs and some sweet tricks. Definitely not the best of my best, but towards the end, I had some sweet strings and other crap thrown the heck on in there. We're taping next session too, and I'll take the best stuff from each and post a video of that. NO MORE TYPING WORDS!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Last night Bob and I made goals for each other. My goal for Bob was try to hit swirls from every basic set. His goal for me was to get more tricks on my weakside. I started this morning.

Highlights:

BSOS whirl! (this is a huge improvement for me, because, quite frankly, whirls aren't my bread OR butter) Really starting to feel them out and they're cooperating nicely.

flipside xbd sole> clipper> xbd sole

toe set> ducking xbd sole (strong side)

BOOP!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Session tonight with Bob! Filming again, I have a good feeling about tonight's session. Just hit ghost in my livingroom, as well as clipper> ss xbd sole> rev. swirl> xbd sole> dragon> spinning opposite toe. Also hit another bsos whirl, as well as a pretty. Tonight's gonna be a good session.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So the session tonight wasn't AS GREAT as I had originally intended, but it was definitely a good and fun session. I hit some cool stuff, as well as Bob. I took video again, so I'll be posting that soon enough. After the session I went home and decided to get some friends of mine to go on a night-time kayaking trip. 4 of my friends and I kayaked for a solid hour and a half. I love playing footbag, then going kayaking, because footbag gives the legs a nice workout, and kayaking works your upper body. It just feels great to have done the whole body some good today. THAT'S IT!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Just drilled in my attic for about an hour. Flipside xbd soles are looking smoother than before. Getting more consecutive with bs whirls.

This is just for me, so I know how's staying at my camper for Funtastiks:

Me
Corey Gerges
Tyler Adam
Jordan Alejandro
Jordan's Friend
Nick Pasquarello
Zach Hoffa
Darren Newman (?)
Drew Krause (?)
Leon Do (?)

So far that's all the definites and possiblys. If you're gonna be going to Funtastiks this year, please feel free to come chill at my camp site. It's 10 minutes from where Funtastiks are held. It's a river front spot, so if you have fishing rods, bring 'em. We'll be cooking over campfire a lot too so come chow down, as well. Will update list as more people solidify answers.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Sitting in my livingroom, listening to Ratatat, still stitching my first footbag. I screwed up here and there, but it's nothing I couldn't fix. I finally just reached the part of stitching that persuaded me to get into it in the first place...



Putting the bag on your nose. FINALLY. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Finished! It's a little small, but I tend to like small bags. I really like this one too! I've been shredding with it all day. I kinda got my neighbor into footbag. He had an old pair of Supras that he asked me to customize, so I did, and they're actually really really decent. He's getting alternating toe stalls and strongside inside stalls now. Anyway, my bag shreds very nicely, it's like McDonald's... ba-da-ba-ba-ba I'm lovin it. Ordering more fabric ASAP. I PART NOW!

[Darkshredder]

That bag reminds me of the second one I made. Same colors scheme and same size. It wasn't made well, though, as I tended to not tie off the last pent tightly so it fell apart after I kicked it a few times.

That must be a huge camper, too. That's a lot of people. Funtastiks always sounded epic!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey cool man! Yeah, the bag's definitely not the best ever made, but it's really not that bad. I actually never intended my first bag to be this good. I had a feeling it would be falling apart with extra strings of thread hanging out of it like intestines in a b-list horror flick. But yeah, my camper's sorta like a smalll house. Funtastiks should be a really fun time this year, it's supposedly the last time they're holding it. They said that before too I think, we'll see if it holds true. You should totally road trip it to PA for them!