Before I start, I just want to point out that all the shredding really molds together so I am only listing what comes to mind about that session. Basically everything was captured on video so yippee!
Alright, here it goes from memory...
ShrEdmonton for me started Thursday evening at the arrival of Kevin Regamey's condo. When I got there, I was greeted at the door by Joe Kulacz. Despite his age, he's real mature and is such a blast to be around, I think I spent more time talking and hanging out with him than any other person at the tournament. An hour or so later Rory came by and soon we were all on our way to have a footbag session at the YMCA.
We played for 3 hours that night with some highlights:
Joe
- Mobius several times, sealed with tricks for the first
- Close to Blurry Whirl > Spinning Whirl
- Blurry Whirl and PS Whirl in a string
Rory
- huge long strings
Kevin
- came very close to Symp Flux.
Myself
- Spinning Matador
- Gyro Rev. Torque and Spinning Eggbeater again
- Mobius bsos
Afterwards we all went back to Kevin's place and went over the footage from the session prior. We were all very tired and eventually went to sleep at around 2 in the morning.
Friday, June 24th
I awoke at around 11 o'clock that morning, had some pasta breakfast with Joe and we basically hung out all afternoon. Kevin and his brother left to go have brunch with their mother so it was just Joe and I, me and Joe, him and myself. We watched a lot of footbag footage on Kevin's computer which lead to an outdoors session. Some highlights from this one:
Joe
- Bigwalk off the foot (super clean surging sets)
- Good runs
- Nearly killed himself bashing (what I thought to be) his head into the side of the building
Myself
- Surging Whirl > run
- Atomic Osis bsos
- Paradon > PS Mirage > rpt
- Bigwalk almost bsos
- Rev. Swirl bsos many many times
Soon, Kevin returned and not too much longer Rory phoned announcing the completed task of picking up Andrew. That makes three out-of-town arrivals completed! Ben came along and picked us up to go meet everyone at the YMCA.
An hour or so later, we were back within the studios of the multi-purpose room kicking, but this time not only with Andrew and Jess but also with the Saskatoon crew! There was enough people to form 3 circles and for about another 2.5ish hours we all kicked. I can't say all the highlights of everyone so here are the ones that ring a bell:
Andrew
- Blurry Whirl > Blurry Drifter bsos
- Tombstone > Tombstone > run
- Blurry Torque > Food Processor?? Food Processor > Blurry Torque?? One of the two I do believe since I only got a glimpse of it
Joe
- Bigwalk
- Whirlwind - I'm pretty sure of this.
Myself
- Lots of zooming
- Smoke bsos a few times
- A lot of Osis-ending tricks to Torque links (I like Atomic Osis > Torque)
After the session we all headed over to Red Robin for some dinner. It was very delicious, especially the Groovy Smoothie (bananas, peaches and strawberries in a vanilla cream mixture). We all chilled and ate for an hour or two then eventually Jess, Andrew, Joe, Rory, Kevin and I went back to Kevin's place for a bit of extended drinking (though it was mostly just Kevin and Jess who did that). By this time I was starting to feel fatique's icy grip and wasn't up for much of anything except stretching and more chilling. Again, I don't think we went to bed until around 2am or so.
Saturday, June 25th
I awoke to a banana poking my cheeck and Kevin holding back a chuckle at, like, 10 in the morning. In a groggy state I got up, ate the banana then commenced with some Vector cereal with Joe. We left at around 11:30ish towards the ShrEdmonton meeting place in Ben's car with the Saskatoon folks right behind us. By noon we were there and already started to kick. I was still tired and it took what felt like forever to get properly warmed up and in my groove. An hour later, it was time for the competition to start...
Rory went first and totally blew everyone away. He did so well, dropping only about 3 times and scoring +120. He was the clear representation of Edmonton during the competition, taking third in Shred 30 and first in the Sick 3. I placed fifth in the big trick competition with Whirlwind but unfortunately my Sick 3 did not qualify due to my really bad hand-catching ability at the end - dissappointing but that's the way it is. Shred 30 I bombed so bad
. I went up there totally nervous and dropped 7 times, each drop adding on to the nervousness. It was a great learning experience nonetheless and it is just something that I need more mental preperation for - would public speaking help?
After the competition my legs felt like lead but after the anxiety passed I felt like I was shredding the best I ever have been. It was so great!
- Rubberman > run
- Gyro DLO > Atom Smasher > Legbeater bs (going for the repeat - got as far as the second Gyro DLO I think)
- Mobius > Mobius
- Two or three good attempts at Irish Cream
- Zooming Scorpion's Tail bs, Zooming Mobius bs and Spinning Osis > Pdx Torque bs
- Lots of solid runs!
Joe hit Whirlygig that day in a circle and then hit it second attempt for Sick 1! It was so awesome and he placed fourth for that trick. Way to go Joe, you are the man!
Andrew, Joe and I were the last to kick. We headed out at 6 (so about 6 hours of kicking that day) and prepared for the players party at Ben's. At 7:30 we got a ride and after a bit of confusion found our way. By the time we got there everyone was already eating and drinking - the burgers were DELICIOUS and after having a few drinks everyone was laying the FUN down. With all honesty, this party was off the hook. The party really didn't begin until people started doing keg stands. The policy was "no keg stand, no footage of you in the video
" according to Mr. Campbell. Unfortunately for him, Saskatoon only represented 80% during this event
. A few hours and many drinks later, we started scoring Shred 30's. I helped Andrew do that and finally we got to announce the top three Shred 30 participants. We celebrated with more drinking, then more drinking after that. I did one last keg stand before we - Joe, Rory, Kevin and I - left at 4am. I got some water in me then went to sleep soon afterwards.
Sunday, June 26th
I awoke at around 11:30 with a bad taste in my mouth, a headache, a gurgly stomach and sore legs. I drank even more water and offered my assistance to Kevin whenever he needed it at making breakfast. By around 12:30 Ben came around and we were off again to the meeting place. Instead of playing indoors that day, we made the bold move of shredding outdoors across the street from a festival going on. It turned out to be a good choice however and many spectators stopped to appreciate the art of footbag. By 1:30 we were all kicking but unfortunately the Saskatoon crew had to leave by around 3. Before their departure, we gave out the prizes for the competition held the day before and said our farewells. So now we were reduced to Andrew, Joe, Mike Graves, Ben, Kevin and myself.
Andrew
- Food Processor so close to bsos
- Rubberman midstring like nothing
- Ripped Warrior > Ripped Warrior (may have been midstring) > run
Kevin
- Atom Bomb on Andrew's request (holy crap!)
Myself
- Rubberman > run
- Tapping Drifter bs
- 5 consec Atom Smashers (tied record)
- Skull Smasher bs, each into a good run
- Some good runs
I think we all just called it in in a few hours later (not sure when - maybe by 5pm) and had one big circle going with fancy circle-kicking tricks. Soon after, we all dispersed and stretched. I did some tricks with two bags (got up to like 7 alternating clippers) then got some fries. Kevin and Joe moved across the street and started kicking by all the venues and performers. After Rory and Andrew left, I went across the street as well. We kicked for two more hours.
Kevin (barefoot session resulting in like black dirty feet! Gross!!)
- Pandemonium like nothing
- Smudge > Omelette > rpt off the foot
- lots of close attempts at triple > triple dexes
Joe
- Blurry Whirl > Blur
- Blurry Whirl > Blurry Whirl off the foot
- Torques improved ten fold
- BLURRY WHIRL > JANIWALKER HOLY CRAP WE ALL SHAT OURSELVES!!
Myself
- Blender > Torque > Blender
- Torque > Butterfly x maybe 4 or 5 or something
- A few Janiwalkers, almost hit it midstring
- Lots of crowd-pleasing runs that had many flyers and Gyro/Spinning Legovers/Pickups
- Mobius bsos again
It wasn't until around 7:45 that we left. On the public transport, Joe and I began our epic Pokemon duel. He bested me, winning two games to one. In my defence, however, the team that I had originally planned to use was too strong (like 10 levels higher) so I had to use Pokemon that had the shittiest moves ever. I'm going to be trying hard to get into the city Tuesday or Wednesday before Joe leaves so we can kick one more time and have an all out, totally fair pokemon duel. Anyways, we got in at around 9 and shortly later I had to leave to be picked up at West Edmonton Mall. I said my farewells to Mr. Grant, who I hope to meet again at the Hackrifice jam in August/September then left with a smile on my face and some new determination to push my game. Thanks for everyone who ventured out and made ShrEdmonton an awesome time. For those who did not make it, you missed a lot.
Three words for the video we will be putting out:
Epic. Shred. Beer.
:D:D:D:D
Thanks for reading my novel
"
YOU'RE GOING DOWN MISTER!!!!!!!!!
. We each did one attempt for Sick 3 and I hit Phoenix > Blurry Whirl (couldn't set it up for Mobius) and Rory hit Spinning Clipper > Spinning Butterfly > Ducking Butterfly.
. I had a 2.5 hour session yesterday and almost 3 hours today outside. I started off doing some good runs but the heat and sun got to me pretty quickly 
I enjoyed that! You should try and hit mobius to scorpion`s tail.
as long as I can crash in one of your igloos eh 
