Something Old, Something New and Something Buttery Smooth

My dad and footbag

On Wednesday I was hanging out in inner Copenhagen with my dad and littlebrother. We saw some art (nsfw) and ate some traditional greasy Danish food. At one point we walked past this old church and my dad told that this was the first place he evered experienced footbag back in the 80s and that his best friend bought a footbag from the guy. This was of course interestering for me but even more interesting because I remembered this photo:

The photo is of the Danish HoF member Allan Petersen. He recently did a recreation of it and wrote some more about it here.

I sent the photo to my dad and he was absolutely certain it was him his friend bought the bag from. Pretty cool. It’s a small footbag world.

Thursday Party

When I got to the spot yesterday Mathias, Mads Hole and Nis were already standing outside. We went in and I played with Mathias and Mads and Nis played. We played with this buttery smooth 12 panel made by my guy Derek Littlefield. I might have to pick up a couple of those. Mathias said some nice things about where my game is. That felt good. I feel pretty good about it and footbag in general. Footbag is fun. After 40 minutes we merged the two circles. It’s probably been years since I’ve played with Mads and that is always fun. 

Then Frederik showed up and hung out.

Pdx Talk

Back in 2004 when I started playing footbag – FootbagDenmark had an actual physical members magazine and for the last month or so we have been working on during a new issue and now it is out. I wrote two articles and did the layout. Nis’ wife Inna did the amazing painting on the front cover. 

A New Hope

Two Thursdays and two sessions in a row.

We were Kim, Nis and our newest player Ole. I was there early to test the toilet facilities, they were quite acceptable. Rough and thin toilet paper though, but that is to be expected at a public primary school.

I think Kim played well, though he complained a little about fatigue and sore knees. Nis practiced the art of restriction, which is rarely the strength of kings. Ole practiced his Clipper and you could see clear progress after some good tips from both Nis and Kim.

The highlight of the evening was when Hole called Nis’ phone and the call went through on the hall’s speaker. He had just woken up from a nap and was still hovering somewhere between Dreamland and Nørrebro. You’d almost think it was rehearsed, so confusing and poetic at the same time.

I ended the session with getting impossibly close to Mobius. Unfortunately, footbag is a harsh lover and the beautifully flowing trick flowed away from me. But then it is good that there is a Thursday Party again soon!

The Thursday Party is dead, long live The Thursday Party!

For as long as I have been playing “The Thursday Party” at Medborgeren has been the most important weekly session in Copenhagen during the winter. It was also where the first Danish Champs in recent time was hosted, it was an important place during Euros in 2004 and it was where I organized my first big tournament (Danish Footbag Open 2013) which led to us hosting Worlds.

Last winter the municipality in Copenhagen decided to not renew our weekly time slot and it was a big blow. Pretty much since then Nis and Mathias has been working hard to find us a new spot and about a month ago they succeeded.

The new spot is an old gym at a school. There is no cafeteria and no stage but everything else is pretty much better;

  • The floor is good for footbag
  • There is a choir of about twenty girls in their twenties practicing right next us
  • The showers are better
  • The room is a bit bigger, but not too big for us
  • Our time slot is better (moved from 21 – 23 to 20 – 22)
  • And most importantly – it is located only 500 meters away from where I live and a 100 meters from where Kim does

Kim and Mathias played there last week, but this week I made it.

In attendance: Mathias Blau, Kim Mortensen, Jasper Johansen, Nis Petersen and Yours Truly

It’s been a while since Copenhagen have seen five people at session and it definitely felt like the start (restart) of something!

I played with Jasper and Kim. Kim didn’t play the best I’ve seen but I always love playing with him. Jasper has been battling weird injuries for the past couple of years, but I think he looked good. He also said he felt fine, so he plan on showing up regularly.

I played surprisingly well for not having played for a while. Short runs but I think I hit pretty much everything I can do and a lot of it first try.

I am already looking forward to next week. I hope we can keep this up.

Here is something cool I made for school: