Getting into Footbag Part 1: High School Hack Exposure and Portland Summer 1996
I started my first regular job my junior year of high school at a dog track in Post Falls, Idaho that has since been closed down for many years. My official job title was “Lead Out”. We would collect the dogs from the trainers and bring them to the paddock for a physical exam prior to the race. It seemed to me at the time that this primarily consisted of the Vet lifting their tail up and checking out their asshole. Looking back, it still seems that is what the exam consisted of. After the dogs were checked out, there would always be some down time prior to the start of the races. Once it was time for the races, we wold walk the dogs around the track prior to each race, and eventually load them in the starting box a few moments before the actual race and collect them afterward to bring them back to their trainers. As with many first jobs, it kind of sucked but the down time between the physical checkups and the start of the races was my first regular exposure to hack as that was a staple break time activity. I was interested enough that I got a Sipa Sipa, but I wasn't totally into it. It didn’t help that the game we played involved getting pelted with the hack if you dropped or accidentally touched it with your hand out of reflex.
In my first year of college I was still working at the dog track, and was cruising along taking about 8-9 credits per semester. I took a road trip to Oregon to visit my Uncle in Portland, and he offered me a free place to stay and summer job making $8.00 an hour plus time and a half if I worked more than 40 hrs per week. I think my dog track wage was on the order of $5.25 per hour, and I did some calculations and figured out that if I saved the bulk of what I made that I could start going to school full time and actually graduate some day. Score!
So after my first year of college, I went to Portland to work for the summer. That first year (summer 1995), I was kept pretty busy and worked about 60 hours a week the whole time so I didn’t have much time for anything else. I came back in summer 1996 to work again. I was still working 40+ hours per week, but I had more time on my hands. I decided it was time to do something other than just hanging out at my Uncle’s condo, so I started going downtown in the evenings. I didn’t know anyone, and somehow I ended up going to Pioneer Square to hang out and just watch people. I still love to just watch people. At Pioneer Square, there would frequently be people circle kicking. The kids there were a lot more advanced than the people I played with in high school, they seemed to get on well, and I was fascinated watching them. I watched from a distance for a week or two.
Eventually I bought a bag I found in a mall so I could start practicing.
I started casually practicing out front of my Uncle’s condo. I’d play for maybe 15 minutes until I got bored, then go back in until I got bored again, then come hack for a while again. Rinse, lather, repeat. I remember the first time I kicked it more than 10 times in a row felt like a huge accomplishment. All along the way, I would continue to go down to Pioneer Square and watch kids hack with each other.
After watching from a distance for a week or two, I finally worked up the nerve to join the circle. Very shortly thereafter I was a regular with the group. There were a lot of people who rotated in and out, but the core of the group Kerstin, Jane, Mike*, and Hacky Chan. Last names were a foreign concept to 20 year old me, so I have no idea what their full names are. Kerstin’s signature combo was to do inside stall > toe stall > outside stall > heel stall > pass (all ‘muted’). Mike* was the most advanced of all of us and he could hit a variety of things including a a move I thought was awesome which I’m pretty sure was eggbeater. Jane was doing toe stalls, inside stalls, and flying clippers. Hacky Chan was a an immigrant from Fiji who I’m pretty sure was older than the rest of us. He had very broken English, and he specialized in crazy high kicks (regular and fliers). I don’t even know his real first name, and I realize it is probably culturally insensitive but we all called him Hacky Chan. That said, that is what he referred to himself as and he very much belonged in the group. Anyway, we were kind of an odd bunch, but this was my first experience of now inclusive footbagers can be.
*I can’t really recall what his actual name was, so I went with Mike. You weren’t there and it is my story, so I’m sticking with it.
I started kicking regularly with this crew and became friends especially with Kerstin and Jane, hanging out with them a ton that summer and getting into all kinds of Shenanigans with them, even outside of the hack circle. By the end of that summer I was kicking somewhat consistently and could hit toe stall and inside stall. I already was pretty hooked on the game, but I had not yet seen truly serious freestyle. I already loved kicking, but I had no idea how awesome footbag really is!
Next Flashback: Summer 1997 - Footbag Summer part deux and how I stumbled onto the 1997 Worlds
