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Idaho Statesman – Footbag Brings Us Open to Boise (2016)

A preview of the 2016 US Open, which was held in Boise, Idaho. There is a large picture of Evan Gatesman and some chat with Red Husted. It is part of a regular column on outdoor activities in the region.

The full article can be read here.

The 2016 US Open Freestyle Footbag Championships are Saturday and Sunday at Boise State’s Centennial Amphitheatre. It’s the sport many remember as Hacky Sack, which is a brand name.

Three of the best players in the country live in the Boise area, tournament director Ethan Husted said. That group includes Jim Penske, Evan Gatesman and Nick Landes. Penske has the most US Open titles in the event’s history, Husted said.

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Dr Jani: An Ortho Doc Who Gets His Kicks (2015)

This article takes a look at Doctor Sunil Jani’s past life as a star of freestyle footbag. Sunil Jani took the game to new levels and his name is on plenty of the tricks to prove it.

Dr. Sunil Jani balanced with ease even though his feet popped into the air like he was playing a kindergarten game of hot potato. He’s a bit of a magician when it comes to keeping a small bag — slightly larger than a golf ball — dancing around his body, a tribute to the discipline and dedication it takes to become so good at an obscure sport.

Read more at UC Health.

Here is some classic footage “Shred With Sunil” along with some young up and coming Czech players at the time.

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Complex – Who is “The Greatest” in (Almost) Every Sport (2015)

There are certainly a wide number of sports covered in this article, which takes consecuvites maestro Ted Martin as the Greatest of all Time for footbag.

I will post the footbag entry in full, as it is just one of many entries in the article.

Accolades: Holds two world records for consecutive kicks, each over 60,000

How amazing a hacky sacker was Ted Martin? On one fine June day in 1997, the Des Plaines, Illinois native stepped up at the Midwest Regional Footbag Championships, started kicking, and didn’t stop for nearly nine hours as he pulled off a world record 63,326 consecutive kicks to cement his place in the Guinness Book of World Records. Of course, going into that outing he already held the record in the Open Doubles One Pass Footbag Consecutive category as well, having set that mark in 1993 along with the Distance Passing record in 1995.

Read the full article here to know the best of the best in sports like Egg and Spoon Race, Haggis Hurling and more!

Here’s another one of the consecutive kicks legends with an example of 1000 kicks.

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Moree Champion – Boyle Brings Footbag of Tricks to Moree (2014)

This one is about a demonstration I did at a school up in Moree, an Australian country town. I stayed with a friend who was a journalist at the paper and he managed to line up a demonstration and then write a story about it.

Full story available here.

A GROUP of Moree students had a ball when an Australian sporting champion gave a workshop at St Philomena’s. This, despite the fact the children had never heard of the champion — or the sport.

Daniel Boyle was the 2010 national champion of footbag, a competition which resembles something of a cross between soccer, breakdancing and a Jackie Chan movie.

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ABC Melbourne – Correspondents’ Club with Raf Epstein (2014)

This is another little bit of putting myself out there. An interview I did while living in Chile with the ABC Radio in Melbourne, Australia. It was a lot about what I was doing with some startup funding in Chile but I managed to weave footbag in the conversation and that’s shown in the bio for the episode.

 

Correspondents’ Club this week comes from the South American country of Chile.

Daniel Boyle moved there with his Chilean girlfriend a couple of years ago.

He now works as a sports journalist for www.ilovechile.cl

His passion for all sports drove him to create sportslashlife.com/

You can see Daniel’s 2010 1st place performance in the Australian Footbag Championships here www.youtube.com/watch?v=4boZh9Oje_E

Correspondents’ Club is on every Thursday at 4:30 PM on 774 Drive with Raf Epstein, ABC Melbourne.

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Williamette Week – Hotseat: Chris Dean (2014)

When I first saw the link to this article, I thought it might be in regards to the 2017 World Championships in Portland as Chris Dean was a major part of the organising team, however this is a few years earlier, previewing one of the many US Open events that have been held in Portland.

Of course Portland has high-level, competitive Hacky Sack. Considering our city is home to sizable Quidditch and unicycle scenes, you shouldn’t be surprised to see serious interest in the lunch-period pastime that brought together soccer guys, band geeks and bad kids in a circle where they could hand-pass low-grade pot while knocking around a small beanbag.

But Hacky Sack—known to die-hards and intellectual-property lawyers as footbag—has grown to the point that there are two specialized branches. These days, few players can be competitive in both “freestyle” and “net” play. We asked Chris Dean, a Portlander who placed eighth in freestyle routine at last year’s World Championships in Montreal and who is organizing this weekend’s U.S. Open Footbag Championships in West Linn, to explain the modern sport.

You can read the full article here.

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Sneakernews – Nike SB Dunk High Hacky Sack (2014)

There are quite a few articles on this but I will just put one up for the moment. It is a shoe from the Nike SB range which has taken up the crochet style pattern of the hack circle and put it onto a shoe.

The last pair of hacky sack Nike SBs will hop into the circle tomorrow with the release of this Nike SB Dunk High. Nikestore still has them as officially releasing next weekend, but we’re seeing a good amount of skateshops preparing for a release tomorrow, so be sure to look out at your local brick and mortar if you’re hoping to grab them. Continue reading for more on the Hacky Sacky Dunks and watch for them at spots like MIA Skateshop or on eBay.

Read more here

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Thurston Talk – The Zaniac’s Journey from Footbag to Comedy (2014)

A profile of Alex Zerbe, now better known as the “Zaniac”. The article talks about his journey from footbag tournaments to appear on major television shows developing his comedy routines.

Full article can be read here.

You can never predict what you will discover while standing on the soccer sidelines.  Although my kids claim I was eavesdropping, I contend that the conversation was exuberant and loud enough for all to hear. Once you meet the energetic and wacky Alex Zerbe, my assertion becomes quite believable. The more important fact is it led me to Zerbe’s hilarious Go Seahawks Go! YouTube video and unveiled the fascinating and unusual profession of Alex Zerbe better known as the Zaniac.

Zerbe’s accolades include appearing on prime-time television in three countries, with debuts on the hit NBC television shows, “America’s Got Talent!” and “Last Comic Standing.”  Zerbe was voted Seattle’s Funniest Prop Comic as well as distinguishing himself as the third best air guitarist in Seattle. Zerbe’s comedic success started when his feet took him on a serendipitous journey.

 

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College Magazine – Hacky Sack: Don’t Call it a Comeback

A story recommending taking up the hack as an activity to do between classes or a 90s revival activity. Some quotes from students at a couple of different universities.

Full article can be read here

To hacky or not to hacky — not really one of Shakespeare’s ponderings but still a legitimate question nonetheless, at least around college campuses.

Invented in 1972, hacky sack’s popularity did not surge again until this decade. Its presence had been dominant in the preceding years until the new millennium. But now it is time to dig up that old bag of beans out of your closet under your neon baseball cap and Backstreet Boys CD. Don’t call it a comeback; call it a revolution.

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Complex – A (Very) Brief Cultural History of the Adidas Rod Laver (2011)

A look at some of the history behind the Rod Laver shoes, the article makes mention of the use in footbag.

It is a shoe that speaks softly and carries a big stick, ubiquitous without over-saturation, and classic more for application than for association. 

The flat toe of the Laver’s second iteration drew attention of footbag-kicking hippies, the most industrious of which developed a special lacing technique to further promote the shoe’s potential in the sport. As the official shoe of the World Footbag Association, denying the adoption of the Rod Laver in subculture is a moot point.

Read the whole article here.