Jeremy

[Jeremy]

Wow, so today was overall a very cool day (of course it's not over yet ) so I'd better post from the start.

I woke up at maybe 10 and got ready to go down to Salamanca to kick. At about 10:30 when I was just about to leave I realised I had lost my cd wallet and my current footbag. The cd wallet was only a very small one but it had my top 10 favourite shred cds in it . The bag was also very choice and probably at the peak of it's life (no holes and I guess close to perfectly broken in). I was pretty annoyed. I think I left them at the PCYC although it's hard to imagine me doing that - I treat my footbags like they are my babies. I guess this means I should never have kids. Anyway after much deciding I burnt a new cd (very quickly) and decided to take down one of the bags I've just finished making I chose one of the ones I had made for another Aussie (Gareth from Brisbane) because I figure I can make another tonight or tomorrow the same. The walk down (15 minutes all through parks and old streets with amazing houses) I spend the whole time working in the bag.

When I got to salamanca and just kicked and did easy stuff for a very long time. Met up with Glenn and Jorden (and also Raff). We played a tiny bit then went and played flying disc. I kind of learnt a few new throws but i wasn't very good at them.

Went back and played some freestyle . The bag was sooooooooooooooooooo sweet. Like maybe the best bag I've ever played with - amazing break in time too although I'm sure it will get a lot better - but none of us had any trouble with roll off etc. I guess that's my tip for breaking in bags - 15 minutes of hand rolling followed by half an hour of kicking. Turned out great. Gareth is very unlucky to have missed out on this bag (although I'm sure the one I send him will sweet too). James turned up too.

I was playing really well - hitting lots of great stuff and long runs. Alot of the things I've been drilling were happening very naturally midstring - flip pdx whirls, spins, quantums and ducking butterflies being the main things. I wasn't going genuine very much so my run length was pretty long and I was hitting some hard moves for me - whirr, mobius, tomahawk. Also some moves I hardly ever try were coming out midstring - tombstones, stepping whirls, pixie ss whirl, pdx flail. I think I hit a new move that I may never have tried before first attempt in the middle of a run - diving whirl. Although obviously this move isn't that hard for me. Still I was pretty happy. My flipside double atw was ok. Reaper was feeling really easy. My furious set was good and my symp furious set was also good (but I only tried on one side). I was hitting lots of fives midstring too. Often I see videos of some good players hitting lots of fives in runs and think "wow that guy is so much better than me" but I realise that I can do that too if I hit more bops. My osis is getting pretty solid too. A guy came up and watched for a while then said "go harder - hit something big" and I hit a run starting on sumo>phoenix>ps whirl first attempt That's my saftey sick 3 now I think. Also the same guy rolled his ankle really badly while playing football nearby. Another guy came up and started of pretty calmly saying "do that with a soccer ball for Australia in November against the South Americans (world cup qualifier)" and then he got really fired up and was like "and if you can I'll give you like $100 right now, no $1000" etc. He was really excited. I nodded and said I'd try etc. but the whole time I was wearing my badge that says "I HATE SOCCER" - I guess he didn't notice Another person threw 50 cents at me. Which I found very annoying. I don't know if people think they are doing me a favour or are trying to be insulting but I find people throwing coins at you pretty insulting.

Jorden and James were playing really well! Jorden is getting mirage down well and also hitting some ofther stylish moves (4 consecutive flying inside kicks ). James has atw down so solidly. He hit some consecutives. Also clippers, outside stalls and pixies. He got really really close to atw>pixie - which was very cool! He's practicing heaps too which is good!

Finally on the way home I bought two beers to try. Both Dark Isle. One I have had before (triple malt) and really loved it. The other that I'm drinking right now is Leatherwood Porter and I really like that too. Fantastic head and a great taste. Only the second porter style beer I've tried but I really like it Very dark and with an interesting flavour. Maybe a hint of a yeasty flavour but very subtle for a medium strong beer.

So yeah, losing my bag turned out to be a good thing and I played really well. Not much else to report at the moment.

[james_dean]

nice stuff man! that's a wicked sick break in time... does that mean it dies faster or do u get your material from heaven?

funniest home videos last night... this guy was balancing his toddler on his hand... like the kid was standing on his hand and the guy was moving his hand around trying not to drop her... WTF call social services someone he drops that baby on its head its gonna do some damage!!

[Jeremy]

LOL - Going for most random post in this blog Jamie? I think you're close. Where did that story come from? People are so paranoid these days.

Anyway re: the bag. It's not the material - it's the stitching and the filling that makes the bag so good to play with. The material still feels brand new. Also I think a big part of it could be ability - I mean I hit smear with a shuttlecock yesterday and almost hit double atw with a soft football - I've been really working on my stalling technique and also going and playing in random circles with guys playing with crotched bags a lot so I think I can probably play reasonably well with any kind of bag. The other thing is that if you look at my bags the hexegons are about the same size as the pentagons - while as with lots of bags they are smaller. In my opinion, having given this some thought, a bigger change in size between hexes and pents leads to longer break in time. A bag is slow to break in mainly because of the seams - which are stiff because they're bunched together and there is lots of thread holding them together. The bag is soft because of the are away from the seems where you just have material. There is obviously a certain distance away from the seems where this happens. If your hexes are too close together you'll get barely and "soft" part to the bag until the seems soften up. If you keep the stitching loose it won't be as much of a problem but by using calculus and the relevent details I am pretty sure that for any given size the best "performance" of a bag is when the pents and hexes are approximatly the same size - from the outside - and before they were stitched together. There's a lot more to it than that - but basically I'm saying that it's not about the material at all but the manner in which the bag is put together. As I mentioned somewhere - I've been making bags for half a year or longer now and experiementing that whole time until now when I think I've come across the best design. While I think my bags look pretty sweet I said when I first started making them that my goal is to make the best bags to play footbag with - not the best looking bags - although hopefully I'll achieve both.


Finally let me say:

Happy Birthday James Hilliard!! James has made one post on modified so far and he turns 18 today (which is the legal drinking age in Australia). I'm going to his party on Saturday next week (after footbag of course) which is the day after my 21st. James is one of the regular Hobart Footbag Club members and doing really well. His game is very impressive and I'm sure if he keeps practicing hard he'll be one of the top players in Australia in no time

[Jeremy]

So the Hobart Footbag Club is holding a jam. Not a big or one or anything like that. Actually I basically came up with the idea and emailed everybody I know in Hobart who plays footbag I'll do over the footbag.org members list soon too

It should be heaps of fun. If you're actually a visiter to the site who just happened across this blog (as if that would happen ) and want to come - it's at 12:00 at Salamanca on Saturday on the lawns across from Knotwoods. Send me an email for more details ([email protected]). Should be heaps of fun.

In other news I made a fucking sweet bag for Jesse today. Will put it in the mail to him shortly

[james_dean]

hah, i wasn't going for random... i was just still in shock from seeing that video

thanks for the bag tute twas interesting reading... something to keep in mind for if i ever stitch (which i doubt )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES AND JEREMY!

[*Jethro*]

Happy b'day boys.

Sweet bag ay Jeremy?!?!?! yay I posted your money "express post" this arvo. You should get it tomorrow.

BTW I hit DATW with a soft ball first attempt. Also, I have hit it with about 30 different objects, including a vegemite jar

Cant wait for bag!

[NotHisRealName]

Yeah, happy Birthday guys.

[Jeremy]

Cheers. It's not actually my birthday for another 4 days . I'm not a big fan of birthdays to be honest. I guess I think they're pretty pointless. Also I'd prefer people to just give me presents/be nice because they are nice to me - not because of any sentimental reason regarding the position of the Sun to the Earth.


Jesse - sounds good! I sent of your bag today as well as Dyalan's bag and Cody's 2 bags - so they should all arrive soon. I'll send some emails to let those people know as well. I've nearly finished Joe's bag and have the material cut out for Garaths. Planning on finishing both of those tonight. Then onto my remaining 3 orders which should be done by Wednesday at the latest

[Dylan]

aaaaawwwwwww!

poor Jer

if I was there I would kick with you.

just save up some funds and come to Europe and you will have 100s of peole to kick with.

[Dylan]

hahahah

I just realized that last post was in answer to the end of the fosrt page. Jer said he wished he had someone to kick with.

it must have seemed a little off topic.

[Jeremy]

n00b




I will get to Europe one day and then I'll walk around everywhere with the biggest grin on my face. I won't be able to play well because I'll be too busy watching everybody else and being stoked on having so many people to play with! Good to see you at modified Dylan I will go get a beer right now to drink in your honour

Actually I have people to kick with now - so that's cool. I want to build the Hobart Footbag Club up into the best footbag club in the world - and then one day we'll host worlds and it will be massive! I have started writing the bid now - for worlds 2029

[Jeremy]

Ok so some stuff to report. Firstly my brother (who actually owns the computer I use) decided today to reinstall windows so that his new HDTV card thing would work. So I was downstairs cutting out footbag panels and annoying his girlfriend . Regarding the computer things still need a lot of work etc. so I will probably not be on much until he gets it all sorted . Anyway I was making my bags and then Emma (my brothers girlfriend) went upstairs and I put on a new cd I had just burnt - DanceClub 7 or some silly name like that. It was very girly dance music - or I guess very mainstream. I don't know. Anyway it was playing for a while and it really got me in the mood to shred - which just goes to show that I should listen to more commercial dance music more often. Anyway I couldn't be bothered getting changed into my footbag gear but I was wearing lavers so I had like a 4 hour shred (not drilling) in board shorts and a fairly loose t-shirt. Because of what I was wearing I couldn't really do many hippy dex moves although occasionally I would hit a couple. So instead I mainly hit these moves:

blenders, pdx blenders and double blenders all both sides. Also Eli style crsipy blenders - like up time whirling muted ss osis - which is a very fun and stylie move. I was pretty stoked on my double blenders too. That move is not about speed at all - but just control and I'm starting to get it downish
Pdx whirls, symp whirls and whirrs - all both sides. I remember Felix once told me that he thought whirr was a lot easier than most people thought. At the time I thought he was wrong and it was more a case of him being fucking good. Anyway now I understand that he was totally right - whirr is 99% technique and once you have the technique it doesn't really feel hard at all. I was also hitting consecutive symp whirls - vasek style which was cool - both sides of course.
Flurry, high plains drifter, symposium flurry. I haven't hit these moves very much at all but tonight flurry just totally clicked for me. High plains still needs some work - mainly because my knee gets in the way right at the end. Symposium flurry I can hit on one side but it's more like a symp furious legover. Today I totally fluked it on my flipside but then hit it again on purpose. I was just trying to hit a flurry and was focusing on starting the first dex as early as possible and I guess forgot to plant the legover foot at all.

I was hitting all these moves in runs and sometimes in combos. Also some swirling stuff - reverse swirling pickup and twirl being the highlights I guess. I think the highlight of the night was definitly this combo unsealed - whirr>double blender. Fuck yeah. To quote one of my favourite Fins: "Who's the daddy?"

I also came stupidly close to the plastic man drill (I think that's what it's called) - barfly>barrage>paradon>barfly>barrage>drop. I was pretty gutted about the drop since it was my strong side paradon which is so fucking solid that I can hit it out of anything. But I was stoked that I did well on the combo - especially the first 3 moves that are all flipside and I've struggled to hit well in the past.

All in all in was a fucking awesome session and maybe I will have more sessions like that - totally just trying hard and cool moves rather than drilling stuff I think I should work on.

Well I'm tired now so I'll probably go to bed soon.

[Jeremy]

Got a call from Glenn today and went and played at the PCYC. Good session - mainly drilled stuff and fucked around. My strong whirr is getting really good which is sweet. Also hit two new moves - sonic clipper and sonic osis. The second was my first attempt at the move ever so I was stoked on that. Sonic is like peeking but when you spin back it goes to the far side. So you back spin spot the bag then do a spinning osis in the opposite direction. Fun.

Also Glenn and I played flying disc tennis which was fun - basically you bounce pass the frisbee to each other - it took me a while to get the bounce passes happening but I started getting pretty good at it I think. I also improved on my club juggling and 4 ball juggling. Glenn hit four new footbag moves - atw both directions, legover and pixie. Had a nice cigar and beer afterwards Also organised my 21st birthday party and arranged for a DJ! I was talking to Glenn about the dj actually (who is a good friend of mine) and he came up and said hello right at the moment - it was pretty cool.

[Jeremy]

Just became a life member of the IFPA Best birthday present ever

Well it hasn't been processed yet but I've paid - well somebody else paid

[bigdirtyfoot]

Happy friggin' birthday mate!

Glad to see you got what you wanted.

[Jeremy]

Cheers Dave!!

Dave actually called me today on the telephone which was so cool!! He has a cool American accent . We discussed a few things - it was definitly the highlight of the day

My birthday on Friday was fun - I got some cool beers which I've tried a few of and were tasty. Mainly Euro beers and an aussie beer. There was only one beer I haven't tasted before so I'm saving that one for a few days.

My step dad didn't get my shot for my bags so I currently have no filler which really sucks! I already have like 3 or 4 bags that are made apart from being filled . He is going to send me some very soon though.

On Saturday was the first Hobart Footbag Club Jam. We had a great turn out with 8 footbaggers (5 with lavers) I think and about 5 - 10 groupies/friends who came along to chill on the lawns and listen to music - we play at a big market. Everybody were playing well. Alex hit spinning butterfly for the first time I think. Ivan almost hit ducking butterfly>ducking osis. James hit atw>pixie. Jorden has almost mastered atw now - made significant breakthroughs with it anyway. I was playing well. Hitting stepping ducking much more consistantly both sides now. Footed some pretty hard moves and made a good impression.

That night Jorden and Glenn and I went to James' 18th birthday party which was a huge event - 120 people approx with a door list and a bouncer. Definitly put my 18th to shame . Was lots of fun. I was drinking Tiger Gold Medal beer and then Coopers Extra Stout (both great beers). Also smoked a nice cigar. A lot of people knew me as "the footbagger" so that was cool. Some guys even had their photo taken with me - I'm so famous . Glenn, and I were probably the only non parents at the party over 20 so we felt a little out of place but talked to some cool people. I met a guy I've known most of my life (although never very well) there so that was cool. Glenn got mobbed by some drunk 15 year old girls . I also talked to a really nice girl who I'm sure I could have got things on with but she is only 17 and I'm not a big fan of dating younger girls much - hopefully she'll be at my 21st in a few weeks and I'll get a better chance to judge her maturity. Oh for some reason when we were dancing people asked me to shadow shred - so I hit some hardcore shadow runs. Then this cute girl came up and was like "wow can you teach me how to do that?" Hopefully I managed to attract a few people to come down on Saturdays for footbag.

I was meant to meet Jorden, Glenn and James today to juggle and stuff at Salamanca but I slept all day! I feel pretty guiltly now. Jorden sent me a message about it too but I slept too much

I'm becoming a big fan of d n b.

Oh and I have a sweet footbag demo organised for next month

[bigdirtyfoot]

Haha, really quick, a few things:

Cheers!

A) What was the first thing I said on the phone? I seem to remember you saying "Jeremy speaking" and me saying "Jeremy, this is David Wilder from modified, what's up?" or something, haha. Is that about right?
B) I have an accent? I can't even tell, I guess. What is it like?
C) Glad your birthday was fun.
D) Can I have the 17 year old?
E) D n B is cool indeed.

Anyways I guess that's all. I had more stuff I was going to ask but guess I don't really even need to, haha. I might respond to your post in my blog later.

[Maraxus]

Cheers Dave!!

Dave actually called me today on the telephone which was so cool!! He has a cool American accent . We discussed a few things - it was definitly the highlight of the day

My birthday on Friday was fun - I got some cool beers which I've tried a few of and were tasty. Mainly Euro beers and an aussie beer. There was only one beer I haven't tasted before so I'm saving that one for a few days.

My step dad didn't get my shot for my bags so I currently have no filler which really sucks! I already have like 3 or 4 bags that are made apart from being filled . He is going to send me some very soon though.

On Saturday was the first Hobart Footbag Club Jam. We had a great turn out with 8 footbaggers (5 with lavers) I think and about 5 - 10 groupies/friends who came along to chill on the lawns and listen to music - we play at a big market. Everybody were playing well. Alex hit spinning butterfly for the first time I think. Ivan almost hit ducking butterfly>ducking osis. James hit atw>pixie. Jorden has almost mastered atw now - made significant breakthroughs with it anyway. I was playing well. Hitting stepping ducking much more consistantly both sides now. Footed some pretty hard moves and made a good impression.

That night Jorden and Glenn and I went to James' 18th birthday party which was a huge event - 120 people approx with a door list and a bouncer. Definitly put my 18th to shame . Was lots of fun. I was drinking Tiger Gold Medal beer and then Coopers Extra Stout (both great beers). Also smoked a nice cigar. A lot of people knew me as "the footbagger" so that was cool. Some guys even had their photo taken with me - I'm so famous . Glenn, and I were probably the only non parents at the party over 20 so we felt a little out of place but talked to some cool people. I met a guy I've known most of my life (although never very well) there so that was cool. Glenn got mobbed by some drunk 15 year old girls . I also talked to a really nice girl who I'm sure I could have got things on with but she is only 17 and I'm not a big fan of dating younger girls much - hopefully she'll be at my 21st in a few weeks and I'll get a better chance to judge her maturity. Oh for some reason when we were dancing people asked me to shadow shred - so I hit some hardcore shadow runs. Then this cute girl came up and was like "wow can you teach me how to do that?" Hopefully I managed to attract a few people to come down on Saturdays for footbag.

I was meant to meet Jorden, Glenn and James today to juggle and stuff at Salamanca but I slept all day! I feel pretty guiltly now. Jorden sent me a message about it too but I slept too much

I'm becoming a big fan of d n b.

Oh and I have a sweet footbag demo organised for next month

Whoa, you and Abshire's birthdays are a day apart. Hopefully my next deployment will drop me off down under.

[Nightmare]

Hey dude whats up

[Jeremy]

Hey dude whats up

Without a doubt the best post in my blog ever. Props Cody

Aaron - it would definitly be cool if you came to Australia. US navy ships come to Hobart sometimes. Australia is very big so it would be hard to play with you unless you came to Hobart. I would join in the protest when the boat arrived and then we could go off for a shred I'm sure the humour would be appreciated by a few people