crayonblog

Keep a diary of what you're hitting, what's frustrating you, and your goals.
randomcrayon
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crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 28 Aug 2018 11:56

Hey modified!

I've been an avid reader here since nearly the beginning of my footbag career. I actually found the Flipsider forum first though.

I used to post sometimes but more just absorbed what everyone else contributed.

But that's changing now, as I'm striving to be a more actively involved member of the community and pay forward all the amazing lessons and experiences that this sport has awarded me.


Speaking of which, I'm in the midst of creating a YouTube footbag show, which chronicles my training for the US Open Footbag Championships in Las Vegas this December. I competed in it last year when my skills were still a bit rusty, so I'm getting a head start preparing this year, as to rep to the best of my abilities.

You can find the episodes in the Video sub-forum.

A brief summary of my footbag career:

I started playing in 2002 after seeing Ethan, the winner from the 2nd season of Survivor, choose a crocheted footbag as his luxury item for the show.
I bought the same style sack from Hot Topic and had fun circle kicking it with my friends at the mall and in school until my 8th grade math teacher confiscated it for the rest of the school year.

So I got back into it the Summer before high school and was addicted to breaking my consecutive record. I played soccer that Fall as well, so warming up and cooling down at practice was a natural way for me to work on my game.

I tried out for the school soccer team during Spring semester but didn't make it. So I decided to not play rec league anymore after doing so for almost 10 years and focused on my newfound passion, footbag.

I attended my first tournament a few months later, the 2003 Southeastern Regional Footbag Championships. SOUF represent!

More to come later.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by boyle » 29 Aug 2018 00:46

Enjoying the videos so far! Looking forward to some more and seeing some more posts in here. When I was in high school I was also totally obsessed with beating my consecutives record. What's your record now?

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Re: crayonblog

Post by Muffinman » 30 Aug 2018 05:37

Nice. I remember watching Survivor. Season 2 was my first season.
I remember you posting on Modified a lot back in the day. Were you at Worlds 2007 in Florida? I feel like we met before?...
Anyway, really loving the vlog -- it's super entertaining! Makes me wish I had the charisma to do one myself!

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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 30 Aug 2018 23:21

boyle wrote:
29 Aug 2018 00:46
Enjoying the videos so far! Looking forward to some more and seeing some more posts in here. When I was in high school I was also totally obsessed with beating my consecutives record. What's your record now?
Thanks! Around 1000.
Muffinman wrote:
30 Aug 2018 05:37
Nice. I remember watching Survivor. Season 2 was my first season.
I remember you posting on Modified a lot back in the day. Were you at Worlds 2007 in Florida? I feel like we met before?...
Anyway, really loving the vlog -- it's super entertaining! Makes me wish I had the charisma to do one myself!
Same. I read a book about the first one though.
Yeah, Modified used to be my religion :D I was, we met briefly there.
Appreciate it! I wish you would too, love everything you make. You're the man, Erik Chan <3
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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 31 Aug 2018 00:24

So I ended up competing Intermediate at the 2003 Southeastern Regional Championships and won two of the events! Routines and Shred:30. And I got 2nd in Big 3. For one of my prizes, I got an Abshire bag, which I still have to this day.

But more importantly, I met Jon 'The Outsider' Schneider! He traveled from New Jersey to compete and cleaned up with his cool Devil Went Down to Georgia routine and super unique Sick 1 of dragon set reverse swirling paradox mirage. It was an honor to be in the presence of a BAP member. Playing with him and other experienced footbaggers made me thirst for more of this exciting new world.

I practiced hard the next few months with my friend, Alex Heerman. He used to post as RhymesWithAlex here but has since retired. We occasionally got together with Andrew Coleman, aka FuegoShredder, who has also stopped playing as far as I know.

Alex and I got good enough to feel confident about competing at Chilly Philly that following year. So thanks to my dad offering to drive us up to Pennsylvania, we experienced an even better version of the footbag world. There were so many shredders there, probably 10 times as many as there were at Southeasterns. Including Kenny 'The Enforcer' Shults, who I had the pleasure of playing in the same circle as.

They only offered Shred:30 there. And I wasn't advanced enough to go Open, so I went Intermediate again. Unfortunately, I choked horribly and didn't get close to placing. However, Alex did very well, getting 2nd to David 'The Cleaver' Clavens. Although I was disappointed in my performance, I was happy for both of them and had an overall blast at the event.

Andrew Coleman ran Southeastern Regionals a few months later, and I believe this is when I met the great Steve Goldberg. He's from Georgia and would visit family every Christmas, so we got together semi-regularly and became friends. Gordon 'Flash' Bevier traveled to this tournament too, taking the title of routine champion away from The Outsider.

That Summer was Worlds in Montreal. My family and I happened to be in Massachusetts during that time, which is just a few hour drive away. So I asked my grandparents if they'd be interested in taking a roadtrip there together. They said yes, and we went up for a couple days. I wasn't there long enough to enter competition, but I got in some solid shred and met footbaggers from all over the world. It was an overwhelmingly amazing experience, and I'm so grateful for Gram and Papa taking me there. It was a dream come true. I even got featured in Eric Windsor's Natural Born Kickers! It was for just a few seconds, but it includes me hitting Alpine Smog, which rarely happens.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by Muffinman » 31 Aug 2018 05:34

Great stories so far :)

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Re: crayonblog

Post by boyle » 31 Aug 2018 14:54

Alpine smog is pretty huge. Particularly at that time. I love hearing those old kind of stories. That trick from Outsider is still pretty wild too.

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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 16 Sep 2018 00:54

Thanks bros!

Yeah that Schneider Sick One will forever standout to me. Would love to see Nick Landes try Dragon Reverse Swirling. Bet he could Paradox DLO/drifter from it.

The next year, I didn't travel for any tournaments. The 2005 Southeastern Regionals was going to be held by Ben Scarborough, like it was in 2003 and prior years. But he had to cancel a month before. So I took it upon myself to host.

Considering the amount of time there was to work with, we had a fantastic turnout. People traveled from Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida, resulting in 20-30 kickers.

Shout-out to Elliott Johns, I couldn't have run it without him. He took care of the net side of things, while my responsibility was the freestyle festivities. I met him with the rest of the TN crew when I went to shred there over the course of the previous year. Him, his girlfriend and now wife, Emily, Andy, Dustin, Travis, Matt, and Brian were all an incredibly friendly bunch to play with.

As an organizer, it was a blast seeing things come together. Going from scoping out potential event sites with Elliott and figuring stuff out on the fly to a few weeks later having it all run smoothly while footbag faces old and new congregated was a dream come true. It was very fulfilling facilitating that kind of fun.

That's my long term goal. To host more footbag tournaments/jams. We have an amazing area for showcasing shred at our town's boardwalk, with a stage overlooking the beach. There's already such a prominent soccer scene here in Mexico, and I've had a lot of interest demonstrated in my footbagging. So it'll be easy to pull a Ken Somolinos and pioneer here. Plus, there's an amphitheater with heaps of seating in San Diego that would be great for a West Coast Championship.

So that's a major motivator for my online poker pursuits. To win enough to help raise awareness for the wonderful sport of footbag and create more opportunities for those that play to get together and compete for lucrative prizes.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by boyle » 16 Sep 2018 03:37

I had some friends who were write into the online poker some years back, but they seemed to be saying that the opportunities dropped off quite a bit so they went and got real jobs. That's a great goal and I hope to see it happen, especially the lucrative prizes. I think the reality of the current footbag situation is that if people want to put up lucrative prizes, they will have to be putting up their own money. Some other sponsors may jump onboard if there is already some serious money being put up but I don't really see sponsors offering much aside from product like a free meal from a restaurant or certain discounts rather than actual cash. At this stage we don't have the size and we don't have the excitement to be a real drawcard for the sponsors.

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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 16 Sep 2018 15:32

boyle wrote:
16 Sep 2018 03:37
I had some friends who were write into the online poker some years back, but they seemed to be saying that the opportunities dropped off quite a bit so they went and got real jobs. That's a great goal and I hope to see it happen, especially the lucrative prizes. I think the reality of the current footbag situation is that if people want to put up lucrative prizes, they will have to be putting up their own money. Some other sponsors may jump onboard if there is already some serious money being put up but I don't really see sponsors offering much aside from product like a free meal from a restaurant or certain discounts rather than actual cash. At this stage we don't have the size and we don't have the excitement to be a real drawcard for the sponsors.
Ya the games have gotten tougher. But there's still a lot of money to be made for those who put in enough hard work and effort. Just like footbag. Shredding a bunch of hours helped shape my mindset to be disciplined when approaching getting proficient at poker. I've been playing professionally for a while and have a lot of opportunities to make life-changing amounts of money. So it's just a matter of time before I get another major score, like my 2nd in the Latin America Poker Tour Peru Main Event in 2010. I won $144K but have since blown through the money, learning many life lessons along the way. So when the time comes that I win a similar sum, my soul searching has told me that funneling money back into the great sport of footbag is part of my spiritual journey.

Speaking of which, I'm actually still playing a significant tourney at this moment. I literally have a chance at winning over $200K today. So if I do, I'll be organizing a tournament on the West Coast whenever it logistically works best.
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A few thoughts

Post by C-Fan » 17 Sep 2018 08:44

I'm also really enjoying the posts detailing your early days in the sport.

A few random thoughts on your last couple posts:

:arrow: Worlds in Mexico would be super cool. There's definitely a lot of untapped talent South of the US, and a well-run Worlds in Mexico could have positive ripple effects for the sport. Did you know Paloma was also hoping to set up Worlds in Mexico? She was thinking Queretaro because she has family and hometown support there. Maybe worth pooling efforts, or at least having that conversation with her?

:arrow: If you do host a big footbag tourney in the future, it'd be cool to have a poker tournament as part of it. I remember setting up a poker game at Worlds 2010, which ended up being one of the most fun moments of the week.

:arrow: Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Steve G hosted Western Regionals at Stanford most years. When I was starting out, I remember thinking it was super cool there was an East Coast Champs and a Western tournament. Once the Colorado Shred Symposiums started happening, that functionally took the place of Western Regionals. Once CSS stopped happening around 12 years ago, nothing really took its place though.

:arrow: My wife has a lot of family in San Diego, so if you do ever host a tournament there that greatly improves the chances I would make it.

:arrow: In my experience, building a robust footbag scene involves a lot of luck. That said, there are a few elements that I notice over and over again in the best budding scenes. I don't have time to get into it now, but maybe I can vlog about it later.

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Re: A few thoughts

Post by randomcrayon » 18 Sep 2018 21:55

C-Fan wrote:
17 Sep 2018 08:44
I'm also really enjoying the posts detailing your early days in the sport.

A few random thoughts on your last couple posts:

:arrow: Worlds in Mexico would be super cool. There's definitely a lot of untapped talent South of the US, and a well-run Worlds in Mexico could have positive ripple effects for the sport. Did you know Paloma was also hoping to set up Worlds in Mexico? She was thinking Queretaro because she has family and hometown support there. Maybe worth pooling efforts, or at least having that conversation with her?
Absolutely. With the futbol-permeated culture of the country, it has the groundwork set for an explosion of footbag popularity.

I was unaware of Paloma's idea to get World's going on in this neck of the woods, but that's encouraging that there's already some momentum generated. The closest major city to fly into seems to be Mexico City, but that's 3.5 hours away from Queretaro. So it may be more practical to host it in the Tijuana area, as it's a 30 minute travel from the San Diego airport. Whenever it's within my means to place a bid for Worlds, I'll certainly contact her and see if we find a way for collaboration across the nation.
C-Fan wrote:
17 Sep 2018 08:44

:arrow: If you do host a big footbag tourney in the future, it'd be cool to have a poker tournament as part of it. I remember setting up a poker game at Worlds 2010, which ended up being one of the most fun moments of the week.
That's a fantastic idea. I have a separate vision of hosting a series of poker tournaments down the road as well, a la my poker playing peer, Jason Somerville, who hosts a bi-annual event in Reno. But it could be more awesome to have them overlap with a footbag competition. It really just depends on how many people I have helping, since they both will require a lot of energy to run smoothly.

I also remember poker being played at Worlds 2007 in that seemingly footbag exclusive neighborhood, but I somehow missed out.
C-Fan wrote:
17 Sep 2018 08:44

:arrow: Back in the 90s and early 2000s, Steve G hosted Western Regionals at Stanford most years. When I was starting out, I remember thinking it was super cool there was an East Coast Champs and a Western tournament. Once the Colorado Shred Symposiums started happening, that functionally took the place of Western Regionals. Once CSS stopped happening around 12 years ago, nothing really took its place though.
Right on, Steve's the man. He's done so much for this sport and has inspired me to do the same. It'd be an honor to resume where he left off, in regards to building up the scene on this side of North America.
C-Fan wrote:
17 Sep 2018 08:44

:arrow: My wife has a lot of family in San Diego, so if you do ever host a tournament there that greatly improves the chances I would make it.
Nice, that's music to my ears that you'll likely make it out here. You were a major influence on me when I got started. Doubt you remember it, but we were 4-square partners at Disneyworlds for a brief time. I bet we'd get Goldberg out of retirement if we hosted that at the San Diego Open :lol:
C-Fan wrote:
17 Sep 2018 08:44

:arrow: In my experience, building a robust footbag scene involves a lot of luck. That said, there are a few elements that I notice over and over again in the best budding scenes. I don't have time to get into it now, but maybe I can vlog about it later.
Indeed, having a regular group of shredders is key. Am solo most of the time, which is why I greatly value whenever I get to kick it with Damon Mathews. I'd love to hear thoughts about how to build one up like the Idaho or Michigan crews.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 21 Nov 2018 20:56

So I've got my flight and hotel all set for Las Vegas. Getting hyped!

I had my first real session in a while today. Filming episodes of My Footbag Journey got me into a good rhythm of playing regularly, but it's been over a month since we've churned out a new episode, and there's been a lot of stuff that's happened since, which has prevented me from training as much as anticipated. But now it's crunch time, so I'm making sure to set aside a few days a week to shred hard.

Still, I'm feeling a lot better about my game than I was going into US Open last year. Thanks to having shred sessions with a couple other people this year, as opposed to 2017 when I was completely solo, and having a better playing regiment in general, I've got a much better foundation than before. I'm entering all the freestyle events and will be trying my best but honestly am fine with however I place. I'm just excited to be at another footbag gathering. It's a pretty rare day that I get to kick in any circle, especially ones filled top-tier players.

As far as new episodes of the show go, it looks like we'll be able to get out either 1 or 2 more before the competition. While my girlfriend and I were in Vegas in October for our friends' wedding, we got some shots of me shredding around town. The theme of episode 8 is events not offered at US Open. So we got clips of me demonstrating Sick 1 and Big 3. But unfortunately the footage didn't come out right, which means we need to reshoot somewhere around Tijuana. I'll also be doing a Shred :30 demo.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by Muffinman » 27 Nov 2018 05:59

Sounds fun. Looking forward to it!

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How'd it go?

Post by C-Fan » 03 Jan 2019 11:44

Looking forward to the episodes recapping your experience at USO. Very unique and neat to see a video series leading up to an event, so curious to see how it closes out.

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Re: crayonblog

Post by boyle » 04 Jan 2019 22:25

Yes, would love to see the conclusion of the series. It's an awesome idea and it's one that I'm definitely going to steal if I can go to Worlds or similar in the coming years.

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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 06 Jan 2019 22:26

Muffinman wrote:
27 Nov 2018 05:59
Sounds fun. Looking forward to it!
C-Fan wrote:
03 Jan 2019 11:44
Looking forward to the episodes recapping your experience at USO. Very unique and neat to see a video series leading up to an event, so curious to see how it closes out.
boyle wrote:
04 Jan 2019 22:25
Yes, would love to see the conclusion of the series. It's an awesome idea and it's one that I'm definitely going to steal if I can go to Worlds or similar in the coming years.
Thanks guys.

I posted it in the Facebook page, meant to do it here sooner.

Right on Daniel, my desire is to inspire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw-EzbDPnWI

Ended up saving the Sick 1/Big 3/Shred :30 episode for next season.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 15 May 2019 21:19

I've been playing footbag progressively more recently. I took a break at the beginning of the year due to the cold, but now that the weather is nice again, I'm back in the swing of things.

Am super amped about US Open being in Boston this August. Was pleased with my performance in Vegas but hoping to represent better this time around.

So I sometimes post videos of me playing footbag on Instagram, and out of the blue, Dragonfly Footbags sends me a message asking if I would be interested in promoting their company. I humbly obliged, and they sent me a whole pack of goodies, including my new favorite bag. An 8-panel!

I've been shredding with it a bunch since it came in last week and finally got out to the boardwalk yesterday to get some proper footage.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxf73SRA1kU/

I'm so grateful for them reaching out to me and look forward to representing the Dragonfly brand to the best of my abilities.
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Re: crayonblog

Post by randomcrayon » 22 Jul 2019 23:30

US Open is next month!

I'm so excited. It's a rare opportunity for me to play with other footbaggers, so tournaments are heaven for me.

I had a nice sesh today. Nothing too crazy, just brushing up on my baseline stuff.

Created a modified version of my pixie same clipper>paradox mirage drill, adding a magellan after the pdx mirage.

Have started to "bail" to gyro clipper after doing osis. I used to have trouble zooming, so doing this naturally now is satisfying progress.

Reminds me of a cool link I did from earlier this year: pixie ducking legover>blender>spinning osis
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Re: crayonblog

Post by Muffinman » 23 Jul 2019 06:19

randomcrayon wrote:
15 May 2019 21:19
So I sometimes post videos of me playing footbag on Instagram, and out of the blue, Dragonfly Footbags sends me a message asking if I would be interested in promoting their company. I humbly obliged, and they sent me a whole pack of goodies, including my new favorite bag. An 8-panel!
So rad! Congrats!
randomcrayon wrote:Have started to "bail" to gyro clipper after doing osis. I used to have trouble zooming, so doing this naturally now is satisfying progress.
Also, your style is so distinct that I could immediately picture what this looks like. Zooming is super unnatural for me too, but I also have been thinking about trying to zoom instead of butterfly out of osii, like how Nick Landes does -- you rarely see him do another BOP out of osis -- usually zooming or something harder. But he's got that pause going for him. My crank isn't great. Do you try to do the zoom on both sides?

US Open sounds like it's gonna be a blast. Are you going to film?

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