Skippy's Footblog (Skippy stars in: FINALLY, SOME PROGRESS)

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 26 Aug 2005 17:43

Camille: If you check back here and didn't notice, I shot you back a pm just requesting some info and whatnot.

I just tried some shred with my brand new personal made footbag. I've decided it's nickname will be Junior. Since it's basically the first one I've ever made, it's smaller than the Mr. Sandbag I have, and it's like a little piece of me! ........or my shirt. Anyhow, point is, although it's a little bit sloppy where I knotted it at the top, it does work. It gives a little spin, but that might be me flicking my feet around. Anyhow! Back to drills!

EDIT: 2ND PAGE. YESSSSSSSS

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 31 Aug 2005 10:45

Haven't gotten to post in here for a bit, although I don't have that much exciting stuff to report on. The most exciting thing, I think, is that today I hit a clipper set mirage! Tom told me to try hitting it, so I did. It's pretty sweet. It feels easier than a toe set mirage, kinda.

Also, this Friday I'm most likely going down to Humber to get in some shred with Ryan Seath. I'm stoked. With any luck I'll learn some new stuff.

Oh yeah, and lastly, I found out that I can hook up my webcam to my laptop, which'll mean that when I'm not doing stuff at school, I'll be getting shred footie.

Torn · Post by **Torn** » 31 Aug 2005 12:32

Skippy! wrote:I hit a clipper set mirage! .

Nice

Just keep shreddin' and soon you will be writing stuff like " just hit nemesis bsos"

No honestly I think it's cool that you became a real footbagger after so many years of being a "hacky sacker"

...It was a bit the same for me and now I'm seriously addicted to footbag

...hope you soon have enough money to get a decent bag (like a docbag

) because it's so much more fun with such a bag believe me

greetings Julian

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 05 Sep 2005 09:36

Haven't gotten much new stuff to put in here. I still don't have much. Lately I've just been trying to drill my left side on the stuff I already know: clippers, mirages, same side mirages, etc. Nothing too complex yet, but I fear that I'm beginning to lean too far on my right side that I'm just gonna end up being rightsided so! Lately all I've been doing is drilling drilling drilling everything left side.

I'm starting school soon, and I'm super stoked about it. I'm gonna be dragging around my laptop everyday, and the best part is, I found a pocket in my backpack for a mini-tripod and my webcam, which means I can shoot anywhere in my school/in the city where I'm haning out or whatever. It's gonna be awesome, in other words. Yess!

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 05 Sep 2005 09:58

Aw dude that's so awesome!

Take your laptop to your session with Ryan Seath!

I am SO glad that you will get to shred with him, he will be a great influence! He's a great teacher and mentor type guy.

Can't wait to see you shred again at KICKASS!

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 16 Sep 2005 19:45

I haven't really gotten in here much lately. But there's a pretty good reason for that: I basically haven't hit anything new. I've been shredding hard, but not really drilling hard enough I think. I tend to have a problem with setting goals, no matter what it is, and so I think that that may be a bit of what's holding me back. But what's most detrimental to my footbag experience right now is not being in frequent contact with other baggers. Or even with other kids to kick it around with. I find myself throwing the same moves over and over again, and not really learning anything, because I don't have someone telling me to do such and such a move. Now I'm sure lots of other people have dealt with this. It still sucks though...I kinda got ss mirage on my left side. It's on its way. I landed left side mirage, like, a few times. I'm definitely stoked about that. But otherwise, nothing new is happening on my footbag front.

I just started at college, and it's awesome. In comparison to highschool, college is so so so much better. There's really hot girls like, everywhere, and lots of really choice spots to shred. My favourites/regulars so far are:

INDOORS:
Front lobby: A really sweet open spot with a wonderful view of the parking lot. It never really gets to busy around there, and there's a half decent flow of people going by. Sometimes I'll get the random hacky slacker who'll join in for some kicks, but for the mostpart I'm left to my own devices.

E Wing Hall: By far the worst possible shred spot ever. There's basically people everywhere. I usually only play a bit before class in this hall, just throwing ATWs and mirages. Sometimes classmates of mine will join in, which is funny, because it completely obstructs the hallway.

My buddy's Apartment: Pretty open space. Nice windows. Music. Water. Cigarettes. And sometimes doobies. A great spot for chill sessions.

OUTDOORS

The Music Department Patio: This is by far my favourite spot to shred of all, out of indoor AND outdoor. Basically, at the end of the music part of the school, there's a door that leads outside to this nice little (maybe 20x7 feet or so) brick patio. The patio overlooks a really big open field and is a really nice, quiet spot for shredding. It's pretty wide open, and sometimes music students will come out and watch. I'll get comments and compliments sometimes. In my head I'm thinking . o O (If I could do a symp mirage or something like that, you'd be so, so much more impressed). Anyway, it's a really sweet spot to shred at, and as I said before, it's by far my favourite.

Creep's Corner: Creep's Corner (named as such because it's where all the dudes go to check out the hot girls coming out of the school.) is not by any means the best spot in the world, but at the same time, when the conditions are nice, and if it's not too busy (like on a common lunch hour or something like that) it's a half decent shred spot. I definitely get a few spectators when I play there. A few people comment. It feels pretty good. Like drugs. .... moving along.

The GO Station: So, I wake up at 5am and leave my house at 6am to go to school. I arrive at the GO station usually at around 630am and have a good 15 minutes to wait for the train. So what better way to pass up the time than a refreshing game of footbag? This spot has been mentally associated in my brain with early mornings, and thus it's probably the worst outdoor spot I've hit so far. Plus there's trains going by which can be annoying sometimes.

Yeah I guess that's it for now. I'm gonna start just listing, and hopefully photo documenting the different places that I shred at.

On to other things, I met a girl that I'm finally interested in. And I think she's actually interested in me too. I don't really know for sure about anything yet, but I'm feeling somewhat confident. Somewhat. On the really bright side, she's got a bit of an interest in footbag. I'm not sure if she's serious yet, and she hasn't played hacky sack very much either. She knows what to do, but just not how to do it. So the other day her and I got together and practiced a bit. Her top record was three consecutive toe kicks. I tried to emphasize that although it's not much, it's a lot more than she was able to do when we first got there. Anyway, I'm hoping I can get her hooked enough that she get's a pair of lavers and I can have a regular shred partner. Here's hoping.

I think that's all for now. Maybe I'll update this thing again soon.

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 18 Sep 2005 07:20

R.I.P. BIG BLUE

I played a show yesterday in a big field, and I was kickin' around big blue. But it was getting a bit dark and it landed in some long grass. It is gone forever. My first footbag. It's sad, but I must move on. I request that anybody who reads this shares with me a moment of silence for a good friend.

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 19 Sep 2005 16:55

"oh mr sandbag, bring me a bag, make it the sweetest that i ever had, 32 pannels sewn by hand, mr sandbag bring me a bag" My friend just sent me this over msn. It only makes sense if you know the song "Mr Sandman" I think it is. It's in Back To The Future 1.

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 21 Sep 2005 16:56

I played like solid for at least 4 hours today. My moves are still kinda sloppy. And now my knees and hips hurt a lot.

mosher · Post by **mosher** » 21 Sep 2005 17:03

It is a tough time when you first learn to deal with the brutal pain of losing a loved footbag.

Jdigges · Post by **Jdigges** » 21 Sep 2005 17:19

Yea man...its hard loosing a footbag that you've become attatched to. its like losing a good friend

Just call me hagesy · Post by **Just call me hagesy** » 21 Sep 2005 17:44

Keep drilling the basics. Do drills mirage>legover rpt etc until you can do all the twos in your sleep. If you work on the basics really hard the big moves and combos will come. Good luck. The journy is long and fun, and sometimes depressing, and then sometimes exhilarating, and arousing, and tiring.

*Jethro* · Post by ***Jethro*** » 21 Sep 2005 19:23

damn!
I hate losing any bag but losing your first bag, thats gotta suck

anyways, keep up the schooling, there are plenty of relatives sprouting from big blue.

Did you go back and look for it during some good light?

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 22 Sep 2005 01:36

I wanted to go back and look for it, but unfortunately the place where I lost it at was some private farm thing. I don't think they'd like me dropping in. On top of that, I dunno anybody willing to drive a half hour to find a bag. But with any luck my mosher bag will be on its way soon

and I'm saving up some dough to get another sandbag.

Also, I haven't even hit legover yet. My out-in dex is really really sloppy. I can do pickups (that's in-out dex, right?). Ah, sweet! It's nice to have some people read the blog. With any luck I should have some interesting stuff to get in here.

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 25 Sep 2005 12:24

ouch!

So I've played pretty hard the past few days. Haven't learned anything new, but I have however developed a really, really, really, really sharp pain in my left hip. It hurts really bad. Even when I'm sitting down, it still hurts like a bitch. I think maybe I need to start stretching, or something.

Everyday that goes by I get more and more and more pumped to go to KICKASS. I just want it to be right now.

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 26 Sep 2005 14:15

I hit a butterfly! Right side...like...once or twice. But still!

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 29 Sep 2005 09:49

After a life on the brink of death, my t-shirt bag Junior has bit the bullet. I now have no bags at all.

R.I.P Junior. Since it was my first bag I ever stitched, I'm gonna store it someplace, but as far as having a shred life, it is dead.

On the bright side of things, however, a friend of mine who's really obsessively into sewing/fashion, and who's taking fashion in college, has decided he wants to start stitching bags. He has a really obsessive nature, and liked the kinda possibilities for colours. This could mean huge things. So I sent him to some of those pattern sites in hopes of him being able to figure it out. I've been trying to figure out the templates on footbag.org but can't seem to grasp the idea. I dunno.

I hit out-to-in atw last night. And my butterflies are getting tighter. But I'm still having a huge problem with being bothsided.

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 04 Oct 2005 07:05

I need more shred!!! After meeting up with Mr. Mosher on sunday for a quick lunchtime shred, I realized that although I'm still new, there's still a lot more things I can do with my game to inspire more improvement. Unfortunately, I have trouble keeping up to practicing things like bothsidedness and drillng and whatnot. Ah well, I just have to stick to my guns and give'r hard.

Another thing that came out of the sunday session was a fresh pair of bags for me. One being a mr. sandbag, the other being a BRAND NEW MOSHBAG shit yes. At first I didn't get it when people said I would be rubbing it all the time but...I've definitely had it out just about every chance I get. It's SO sweet, and it's already breaking in sort of noticeably. This came at the perfect time, seeing how my last bag fell apart just the other day. Phew!

Kickass is in less than two weeks. This is going to be my first real footbag event, so, needless to say, I'm ready to get knocked on my ass by sheer awesome.

There's not much else to say, really. I'm kinda making a video, but the concept lost direction kinda, so, it's still in production. Keep your eyes open, for the next chance you get to see a dirty n00b bouncing around the screen!

YEAH

Skippy! · Post by **Skippy!** » 18 Oct 2005 18:34

I'm gonna start this entry off with a: Wow.

KICKASS was, I think it's safe to say, one of the best things I've ever done ever. I had an unbelievably wicked awesome time. Here's my version of what went down.

Friday Night:
Friday night was a little bit tense for me. After I had gotten home from school, I had to wait a few minutes for the crew to show up. I was a little bit nervous cause it was getting a bit later than was arranged, and I hadn't gotten a call about it. But I figured they wouldn't just not come and not call, so I waited. Jon, Laura, and Johnny showed up at my house first and went and got pizza down the street. Then they came back and Seath came by. Sweet. So we loaded in to the car, and off we went. Throughout the ride we talked about Counterstrike and grabbing "Bawls". The ride was pretty fun in it's own regard. We finally arrived in Kingston a few hours after leaving my abode and stopped outside of Mosher's place. The rest of the crew went upstairs while I stayed down for a smoke. While I was standing there, I saw Paul Agostinelli walking down the street. I didn't comment to him about it, but this was pretty big for me: It's my first tournament, and I watched some RFA vids and knew he was a good player. So I told him who I was, and he told me who he was and then we were all like, "Let's go inside". Then there's a blank spot where I don't quite remember what happened. There was a magic card game going on in the middle of the floor and a few people were into it. So after a while of sitting and watching the magic game, somebody asked, "Who wants to go shred?" This brought about the "parking lot shred". This part was soooo much fun. I'm not sure if everybody came out, but just about everyone was out on the top floor shredding it up. I was blown away. I'd never seen so much sweet-shred other than on the internet, basically. I mean, sure I've played with Tom Mosher and Ryan Seath before, but this was more than just 1 on 1 shred. This was like...people shredding all over the place!!! It was such an inspiring experience. Halfway through playing, I had remembered that I brought some computer speakers, so as to be able to listen to my iPod while shredding. These came in handy, as it was used throughout the weekend. That made me happy right there. Anyhow, I busted the wutang and watched some wicked shred. At some point in the evening, I consulted Matt Cross about trying to get pixie sets. He tried to help me, but I think I've got a long way to go before I can land pixie sets. This, also, was a huge part of the weekend for me, because I realized that being into footbag, and being interested and going to events is much more different from anything else. Footbag players are so generous about teaching new players, it's insane. I mean, somebody who I'd never met, or talked to before, was now teaching me how to make my game better. There were other times throughout the weekend that I had people showing me how to do things, or giving me advice on how to improve my game. It was so helpful. Anyhow, after a while of shredding in the parking lot, i think a few people started getting tired, so some headed off to the hotel, others to wherever they needed to go. Everybody basically just chilled out at that point. I found my spot on the couch, and passed out for the night.

Will post saturday tomorrow...I'm too tired to type anymore.

Bander87 · Post by **Bander87** » 18 Oct 2005 19:03

Hey Skip, that was a really good post to read! I can't wait till I go to a tournament! Maybe I will be in good shape for chilly-philly. Kickass seemed so fun!

"This was like...people shredding all over the place!!!"

Oh man, so sweet. I've never seen anyone at all shred besides me in real life, I can't imagine seeing stuff being hit that I've only seen being hit online.

So cool, keep everything up!