Hey Ken-son
My game is doing well, and yes, i have actually thought of hitting flailing torque!
You will hit toekyo in your next session, and i do play chess. What site do you use for chess?
Do you have MSN messenger or something?
Fanzine
Last night I dreamt I was in Australia. I had forgotten my thank-you-gifts for everybody, and it really freaked me out. Luckily, in waking life, I have already started packing for the trip.
As for chess, if I`m in footbag chat and feel like playing, I`ll ask, and sometimes somebody will get a game with me. Alternately, if you see me on the forums and feel like getting a game, pm me and we can set it up in chat.
Onto the sessions...
Sept. 30th, 2005
As mentioned earlier, the weather was grey, late-autumn cold from Saturday through Tuesday, but the return of late-summer weather on Wednesday looks to hold at least through the weekend!
And so, yesterday the sun smiled down on Yoyogi again, which meant 2 excellent sessions in a row. I love it when that happens.
I started off the session with the usual warmup, listening to my iPod. The first 10, 15 minutes of the session I didn`t hit anything notable, but I felt overall real solid throughout. I felt confident in each move I hit, like I was really focussed on landing each trick, including the BOPs, which I normally do on automatic. I felt like I`d be fine if I had a 2 hour session with no highlights, as long as I continued playing as solidly as I felt so far.
The session ended up being something of a replay of the previous day`s session. I worked a lot of drills and tried some new things, and towards the end I did some practice for my Nestle demos. I skooled dyno for a bit, to check whether or not the previous days dynos were a fluke, or if I had really learned them. A few minutes of practice and I hit "blurry" dyno again, for my second time, and a few runs later, stepping ss dyno for my first time. Since dyno came to me so easily yesterday, I figured I should at least try it on my flipside. I had a bunch of awkward tries at first, but after much thought, I figured it out, and hit flip dyno a few times. Not long after, Dyno BSOS! Then I started getting ambitious, so I put in a few tries at flip "blurry" dyno... and hit it! 
I literally made that face ( ) when it came up, but luckily I was able to recover in time to pdx mirage a seal, and did a small run to make it official. Oh yeah, in that run I also hit... strong "blurry" dyno! 
I felt really happy about this, because until yesterday, I hadn`t hit and sealed dyno on either side, and in the course of 2 days, I had hit "blurry" dyno bsos. Maybe thats why dyno doesn`t get much respect though, its so easy. Still, 3 new dyno tricks in one day made me very happy.
I`m not sure why, but I put in a lot of time working on drills all session. Hit pdx whirl-blur-legbeater repeat. Pdx drifter-ripwalk repeat, again. Pdx drifter-stepping ss osis-pdx drifter-stepping ss drop
I did the Rasheed Wallace "run around the court like a cartoon character whose ass is on fire" jog of amazed frustration when I missed the last osis. 
Pdx drifter-blender-pdx drifter again. Pdx drifter-blender bsos. Pretty sure it was my first time hitting that link on my flip, and I did it a few times during the session. Pdx drifter-pdx egg both sides, but not bsos... hard to hit that link without planting, but I did it. Pdx drifter-pdx blender, no plants. pdx blender-drifter.
By this point in the session, I was pretty self-conscious that all the stuff I was skooling was real clipper-heavy.
I thought about the discussion in the Cod and Wiktor thread, so I decided I should hit at least one new toe based drill. Happily, I managed to hit smear-dso repeat within only 2 or 3 tries, which made me very very happy. With that drill under my belt, I felt less guilty about returning to clipper stuff, and promptly hit: pdx drifter-whirl-drifter repeat directly to pdx drifter-ducking clipper repeat, and closed it out around 20 contacts. I`m happy I extended the initial drill, because I wanted the drifter-pdx drifter link on both sides.
By the end of the session I was pretty tired, but it was still light out, so I figured I should take advantage of the day, and persisted on for a bit more. Since my flip blender seemed so much better in the last 2 days, I decided I would skool flip pdx blender. I had never hit it before, and it really stood out as one of the only "basic" 5 add moves I had never hit. I can hit pretty much all the "basic" fives both sides on demand, and the ones I can`t do consistently, I`ve at least hit bsos. By "basic" I mean tricks like ps whirl, fog, bl whirl, blurriest, pdx torque, flurry, phoenix, etc. Not weird stuff like fairy op blender or stuff like that. Anyway, I spent a good 10 minutes or so working on flip pdx blender, and was very encouraged when I footed it a few times. But I kinda figured I wasn`t going to hit it, considering it was the end of a long session. I think you see where this is going already... yes, I had my second look of the day when I did the motion and saw the bag lift beautifully into the air. Again, I luckily snapped out of my surprise in time to pdx mirage it, and do a run... where I again bsosed the trick in the sealing combo! Yes! So before today I had never hit flip pdx blender or flip "blurry dyno" (or pdx drifter-blender on flip), but by the end of the session I had hit them all bsos. Very, very satisfying. I can`t believe I`ve been playing over 8 years and I still have consecutive good sessions, and get these incredible natural highs.
I fucking love footbag.
As for chess, if I`m in footbag chat and feel like playing, I`ll ask, and sometimes somebody will get a game with me. Alternately, if you see me on the forums and feel like getting a game, pm me and we can set it up in chat.
Onto the sessions...
Sept. 30th, 2005
As mentioned earlier, the weather was grey, late-autumn cold from Saturday through Tuesday, but the return of late-summer weather on Wednesday looks to hold at least through the weekend!
And so, yesterday the sun smiled down on Yoyogi again, which meant 2 excellent sessions in a row. I love it when that happens.I started off the session with the usual warmup, listening to my iPod. The first 10, 15 minutes of the session I didn`t hit anything notable, but I felt overall real solid throughout. I felt confident in each move I hit, like I was really focussed on landing each trick, including the BOPs, which I normally do on automatic. I felt like I`d be fine if I had a 2 hour session with no highlights, as long as I continued playing as solidly as I felt so far.
The session ended up being something of a replay of the previous day`s session. I worked a lot of drills and tried some new things, and towards the end I did some practice for my Nestle demos. I skooled dyno for a bit, to check whether or not the previous days dynos were a fluke, or if I had really learned them. A few minutes of practice and I hit "blurry" dyno again, for my second time, and a few runs later, stepping ss dyno for my first time.
Since dyno came to me so easily yesterday, I figured I should at least try it on my flipside. I had a bunch of awkward tries at first, but after much thought, I figured it out, and hit flip dyno a few times. Not long after, Dyno BSOS! Then I started getting ambitious, so I put in a few tries at flip "blurry" dyno... and hit it! I literally made that face ( ) when it came up, but luckily I was able to recover in time to pdx mirage a seal, and did a small run to make it official. Oh yeah, in that run I also hit... strong "blurry" dyno! I felt really happy about this, because until yesterday, I hadn`t hit and sealed dyno on either side, and in the course of 2 days, I had hit "blurry" dyno bsos. Maybe thats why dyno doesn`t get much respect though, its so easy. Still, 3 new dyno tricks in one day made me very happy.I`m not sure why, but I put in a lot of time working on drills all session. Hit pdx whirl-blur-legbeater repeat. Pdx drifter-ripwalk repeat, again. Pdx drifter-stepping ss osis-pdx drifter-stepping ss drop
I did the Rasheed Wallace "run around the court like a cartoon character whose ass is on fire" jog of amazed frustration when I missed the last osis. Pdx drifter-blender-pdx drifter again. Pdx drifter-blender bsos. Pretty sure it was my first time hitting that link on my flip, and I did it a few times during the session. Pdx drifter-pdx egg both sides, but not bsos... hard to hit that link without planting, but I did it. Pdx drifter-pdx blender, no plants. pdx blender-drifter. By this point in the session, I was pretty self-conscious that all the stuff I was skooling was real clipper-heavy.
I thought about the discussion in the Cod and Wiktor thread, so I decided I should hit at least one new toe based drill. Happily, I managed to hit smear-dso repeat within only 2 or 3 tries, which made me very very happy. With that drill under my belt, I felt less guilty about returning to clipper stuff, and promptly hit: pdx drifter-whirl-drifter repeat directly to pdx drifter-ducking clipper repeat, and closed it out around 20 contacts. I`m happy I extended the initial drill, because I wanted the drifter-pdx drifter link on both sides. By the end of the session I was pretty tired, but it was still light out, so I figured I should take advantage of the day, and persisted on for a bit more. Since my flip blender seemed so much better in the last 2 days, I decided I would skool flip pdx blender. I had never hit it before, and it really stood out as one of the only "basic" 5 add moves I had never hit. I can hit pretty much all the "basic" fives both sides on demand, and the ones I can`t do consistently, I`ve at least hit bsos. By "basic" I mean tricks like ps whirl, fog, bl whirl, blurriest, pdx torque, flurry, phoenix, etc. Not weird stuff like fairy op blender or stuff like that. Anyway, I spent a good 10 minutes or so working on flip pdx blender, and was very encouraged when I footed it a few times. But I kinda figured I wasn`t going to hit it, considering it was the end of a long session. I think you see where this is going already... yes, I had my second
look of the day when I did the motion and saw the bag lift beautifully into the air. Again, I luckily snapped out of my surprise in time to pdx mirage it, and do a run... where I again bsosed the trick in the sealing combo! Yes! So before today I had never hit flip pdx blender or flip "blurry dyno" (or pdx drifter-blender on flip), but by the end of the session I had hit them all bsos. Very, very satisfying. I can`t believe I`ve been playing over 8 years and I still have consecutive good sessions, and get these incredible natural highs. I fucking love footbag.
Third day in a row of good weather, third excellent shred in a row. Since moving to Tokyo, I`d say I`ve averaged probably 4-5 sessions per week, possibly more. I definitely feel an improvement in my game. I feel more solid, more confident in throwing in components which aren`t completely dialed. I am beginning to understand how Vasek got so good. You put in the hours, you see results. Not the sexiest or most inspiring mantra, but there it is: the more time you spend putting adds on the lavers, the better you will become. No big mystery.
Today`s session was mostly about dynos, blenders, and pdx drifters, much like the previous 2 sessions. I`ll write a more detailed entry later, but for the moment, I just felt like commenting how I love footbag for its possibilities. I`ve been playing over 8 years, and still I find new things to work on. If I read a random `zine entry from say, 3.5 months ago, it`s probably about me trying to hit frantic tricks both sides. 2.5 months ago, maybe dexless strings. A few weeks ago: gyro tricks like vortex, mobius etc. This week? Dyno, blender, and pdx drifter variations. There are so many possibilities! I love it.
Today`s session was mostly about dynos, blenders, and pdx drifters, much like the previous 2 sessions. I`ll write a more detailed entry later, but for the moment, I just felt like commenting how I love footbag for its possibilities. I`ve been playing over 8 years, and still I find new things to work on. If I read a random `zine entry from say, 3.5 months ago, it`s probably about me trying to hit frantic tricks both sides. 2.5 months ago, maybe dexless strings. A few weeks ago: gyro tricks like vortex, mobius etc. This week? Dyno, blender, and pdx drifter variations. There are so many possibilities! I love it.
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Just call me hagesy
- Atomsmashasaurus Dex
- Posts: 913
- Joined: 15 Oct 2004 21:43
- Location: Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Ah, Saturday already. The weather looks beautiful AGAIN. I could definitely get used to this...
So yesterday, September 30th 2005, I sessioned for my 3rd day in a row. I was mentally prepared to have a lackluster session, considering I had had such good shreds the 2 days previous. Amazingly though, I ended up having another great session! I think the reason these sessions have been so enjoyable, and so productive, is my positive mental game. I haven`t really gotten frustrated or angry at all these last few sessions. I hope to carry on the streak today.
Anyway. I was excited to play yesterday, because I finally washed my Oxana bag, and it looked all fluffy and soft and ready to play. Sure enough, it played a lot better than when it was crusty and dirty. Before heading out for the day`s shred, I had a brief chat with Jeremy, where he challenged me to hit dyno to blender. That`s SUCH a Scott Davidson combo. So I headed out to the shred, pretty much with no goals in mind, except to give a couple tries at Jeremy`s request.
Did my usual warm up, then decided to go straight at Jeremy`s challenge.
1st try: missed the dyno. Not fussed, since it IS my weak dyno, which I just learned yesterday, and it is my first try of the day.
2nd try: hit the dyno, hit the blender?!? Dropped in shock. Shit, I totally didn`t expect to foot it so early.
I took it as a good sign, but then I proceeded to foot the combo 3 more times, each time missing the butterfly seal, or having it come off the blender and hit my chest, or some other silliness. I decided to move on before i got frustrated, so I thought I`d give a try or two at blender x2.
First try: blender x2! Sealed with a run. I had hit this combo before, but not in the last 4 years or so, and the last time I hit it, it felt like a fluke. Today however, I knew my blender practice had paid off, and hitting it first try was my reward.
With blender x2 under my belt, I figured I really should be able to hit dyno-blender, cause its easier. Sure enough, soon enough, dyno-blender sealed with a run.
I mixed up the blender and dyno practice with pdx drifter stuff. I hit barfly-pdx drifter repeat on my first try, and it didn`t feel too hard. Not 100% sure how clean it was, w/o video, but it felt good, and I don`t feel like I need to prove anything to myself. I also hit pdx blender to pdx drifter, which felt real stylish, with one leg off the ground for the whole time. I also got pdx drifter-pdx torque-pdx blender, which also felt high in style.
Unlike the previous couple days, I mixed up my drills/skooling with genuine runs. My runs felt real solid today... decently long, but more importantly, a very genuine mix of shuffle, downtime and spins. I hope I play this well in Australia. Pdx drifter-pdx egg, infinity, other pdx drifter-pdx egg, then a decent genuine run. That combo also felt rad, given the momentum changes and no plants. Blender-dyno, with like 6 dexless in the sealing run. I footed blender to dyno on my flipside a frustrating amount of times, but never managed more than a toe kick seal. Still, not bad progress for the amount of time I`ve been hitting dyno. Also hit blender-pdx drifter on my flipside, but I missed the strong blender out of it. I feel like I should be able to hit blender-pdx drifter repeat, or pdx drifter-blender repeat, if I put just a little more time into it. Either of those combos would be so rad.
Probably my most enjoyable run of the day was hitting dyno x2 for my first time, and in the same run hitting ripwalk x2, drifter x2, pdx whirl x2, osis x2, ducking butterfly x2, and blur-pixie butterfly repeat. Kind of a theme run.
OK! Off to Yoyogi now to play with everybody. Hopefully can show off some of my new stuff...
Wish me luck!
So yesterday, September 30th 2005, I sessioned for my 3rd day in a row. I was mentally prepared to have a lackluster session, considering I had had such good shreds the 2 days previous. Amazingly though, I ended up having another great session!
I think the reason these sessions have been so enjoyable, and so productive, is my positive mental game. I haven`t really gotten frustrated or angry at all these last few sessions. I hope to carry on the streak today.Anyway. I was excited to play yesterday, because I finally washed my Oxana bag, and it looked all fluffy and soft and ready to play. Sure enough, it played a lot better than when it was crusty and dirty. Before heading out for the day`s shred, I had a brief chat with Jeremy, where he challenged me to hit dyno to blender. That`s SUCH a Scott Davidson combo. So I headed out to the shred, pretty much with no goals in mind, except to give a couple tries at Jeremy`s request.
Did my usual warm up, then decided to go straight at Jeremy`s challenge.
1st try: missed the dyno. Not fussed, since it IS my weak dyno, which I just learned yesterday, and it is my first try of the day.
2nd try: hit the dyno, hit the blender?!?
Dropped in shock. Shit, I totally didn`t expect to foot it so early. I took it as a good sign, but then I proceeded to foot the combo 3 more times, each time missing the butterfly seal, or having it come off the blender and hit my chest, or some other silliness. I decided to move on before i got frustrated, so I thought I`d give a try or two at blender x2.
First try: blender x2!
Sealed with a run. I had hit this combo before, but not in the last 4 years or so, and the last time I hit it, it felt like a fluke. Today however, I knew my blender practice had paid off, and hitting it first try was my reward. With blender x2 under my belt, I figured I really should be able to hit dyno-blender, cause its easier. Sure enough, soon enough, dyno-blender sealed with a run.
I mixed up the blender and dyno practice with pdx drifter stuff. I hit barfly-pdx drifter repeat on my first try, and it didn`t feel too hard. Not 100% sure how clean it was, w/o video, but it felt good, and I don`t feel like I need to prove anything to myself. I also hit pdx blender to pdx drifter, which felt real stylish, with one leg off the ground for the whole time. I also got pdx drifter-pdx torque-pdx blender, which also felt high in style.
Unlike the previous couple days, I mixed up my drills/skooling with genuine runs. My runs felt real solid today... decently long, but more importantly, a very genuine mix of shuffle, downtime and spins. I hope I play this well in Australia. Pdx drifter-pdx egg, infinity, other pdx drifter-pdx egg, then a decent genuine run. That combo also felt rad, given the momentum changes and no plants. Blender-dyno, with like 6 dexless in the sealing run. I footed blender to dyno on my flipside a frustrating amount of times, but never managed more than a toe kick seal. Still, not bad progress for the amount of time I`ve been hitting dyno. Also hit blender-pdx drifter on my flipside, but I missed the strong blender out of it. I feel like I should be able to hit blender-pdx drifter repeat, or pdx drifter-blender repeat, if I put just a little more time into it. Either of those combos would be so rad.
Probably my most enjoyable run of the day was hitting dyno x2 for my first time, and in the same run hitting ripwalk x2, drifter x2, pdx whirl x2, osis x2, ducking butterfly x2, and blur-pixie butterfly repeat. Kind of a theme run.
OK! Off to Yoyogi now to play with everybody. Hopefully can show off some of my new stuff...
Wish me luck!October 1st, 2005
4th day in a row playing footbag. Definitely feel good about that. The weather was again perfect for footbag today. I have no idea why only 4 of us showed up.
I even posted on the Japanese forums two days ago that I only have 2 weekends left this month before leaving, and I wanted to play both weekends. Some people, like Kim and Tosh, have jobs and so can`t make the sessions. But 4 people? Come on Tokyo, that`s sad.
I got to Yoyogi around 2 or 2:30, and played til 5:30. Felt good doing a real long session. When I arrived, Ryota OBT and USK were there, practicing for some demo. Unfortunately, USK had to leave at 2:30, so I only got to play with him for like 5 minutes. Still, definitely better than nothing.
Hatsu soon showed up, and for a good hour and a half, it was a 3 man circle. Tiring, but pretty good. Ryota hit blurry whirl to PS whirl real nicely, real easily. It was his first time too, big ups. Hatsu hit merkon to legbeater both sides.
I had fun showing off my new dynos. One time, I got the bag and tried blurrier to dyno, and missed. On my rebate, I tried it flip, and hit it! In the sealing combo, I surprised myself by hitting it bsos! I felt real good, because I had never hit that combo either side before, but managed it
bsos. I felt super-strong for the first hour or so. I love that feeling. I started one string with frantic ss mirage, and in the same string had fog bsos, as well as pdx drifter to blender bsos. I hit ducking torque first try, which got me some props. Vertigo for the first time in at least half a year, if not a whole year. Had a run start with fs food, then had fs blurry whirl with the other pogo. It was my first time hitting fs food, which felt rad. I hit 10 dexless at the end of some run... lately dexless runs feel totally random. There are times when it flows real easily, and other times where it just isn`t happening.
Hit a real clean dominatrix today, which felt nice. Some good toe to toe tricks today: dominatrix, flip frenzy, frantic ss mirage, alpha smasher both sides, oh! and double over swish, sealed, first time in like 4+ years. (double over swish is like double over swirl, but ending in rake, instead of swirl).
Morii showed up for the last hour, or hour and a half. It was a lifesaver having an extra man in the circle, plus Morii is so good, it just pumps everybody up. I saw him try pdx drifter to far swirl, and was inspired to hit it... bsos! Stoked on that, since I had never hit it either side before. I also hit pdx drifter-ps whirl repeat today, on my first try too! Ryota said it was all super clean, and it felt good. Also managed toe ss motion. I think of the first half as double over swirl, then the end part as a dyno. That insures cleanliness imo. Morii didn`t have anything stand out, but was solid overall. He had one excellent try at gauntlet. I`m positive he can hit it. He also had some nice looks at pdx swifter too. He hit it once, but thinks the swirl was thin. Today it looked clean, but he
couldn`t get it on his foot. That move is just crazy. In general Morii just had real nice long runs of shuffle. Plo-smear-plo-dimwalk-blur-dimwalk-ripwalk-blah blah. That sort of thing.
Takumi says he`ll make tomorrow`s session, so I`ll try to be there for a bit. I really hope more people come out tomorrow, cause it`s just depressing when you have perfect weather on a Saturday, and spend most of the session in a 3 man circle. Still, it was a good session, with some new combos for everybody. It was also nice playing with Ryota extensively, cause it felt like it had been a while. Plus, everybody had a good session today, so I really can`t complain.
4th day in a row playing footbag. Definitely feel good about that. The weather was again perfect for footbag today. I have no idea why only 4 of us showed up.
I even posted on the Japanese forums two days ago that I only have 2 weekends left this month before leaving, and I wanted to play both weekends. Some people, like Kim and Tosh, have jobs and so can`t make the sessions. But 4 people? Come on Tokyo, that`s sad. I got to Yoyogi around 2 or 2:30, and played til 5:30. Felt good doing a real long session. When I arrived, Ryota OBT and USK were there, practicing for some demo. Unfortunately, USK had to leave at 2:30, so I only got to play with him for like 5 minutes. Still, definitely better than nothing.
Hatsu soon showed up, and for a good hour and a half, it was a 3 man circle. Tiring, but pretty good. Ryota hit blurry whirl to PS whirl real nicely, real easily. It was his first time too, big ups. Hatsu hit merkon to legbeater both sides.
I had fun showing off my new dynos. One time, I got the bag and tried blurrier to dyno, and missed. On my rebate, I tried it flip, and hit it! In the sealing combo, I surprised myself by hitting it bsos! I felt real good, because I had never hit that combo either side before, but managed it
bsos. I felt super-strong for the first hour or so. I love that feeling. I started one string with frantic ss mirage, and in the same string had fog bsos, as well as pdx drifter to blender bsos. I hit ducking torque first try, which got me some props. Vertigo for the first time in at least half a year, if not a whole year. Had a run start with fs food, then had fs blurry whirl with the other pogo. It was my first time hitting fs food, which felt rad. I hit 10 dexless at the end of some run... lately dexless runs feel totally random. There are times when it flows real easily, and other times where it just isn`t happening.
Hit a real clean dominatrix today, which felt nice. Some good toe to toe tricks today: dominatrix, flip frenzy, frantic ss mirage, alpha smasher both sides, oh! and double over swish, sealed, first time in like 4+ years. (double over swish is like double over swirl, but ending in rake, instead of swirl).Morii showed up for the last hour, or hour and a half. It was a lifesaver having an extra man in the circle, plus Morii is so good, it just pumps everybody up. I saw him try pdx drifter to far swirl, and was inspired to hit it... bsos! Stoked on that, since I had never hit it either side before. I also hit pdx drifter-ps whirl repeat today, on my first try too! Ryota said it was all super clean, and it felt good. Also managed toe ss motion. I think of the first half as double over swirl, then the end part as a dyno. That insures cleanliness imo. Morii didn`t have anything stand out, but was solid overall. He had one excellent try at gauntlet. I`m positive he can hit it. He also had some nice looks at pdx swifter too. He hit it once, but thinks the swirl was thin. Today it looked clean, but he
couldn`t get it on his foot. That move is just crazy. In general Morii just had real nice long runs of shuffle. Plo-smear-plo-dimwalk-blur-dimwalk-ripwalk-blah blah. That sort of thing.
Takumi says he`ll make tomorrow`s session, so I`ll try to be there for a bit. I really hope more people come out tomorrow, cause it`s just depressing when you have perfect weather on a Saturday, and spend most of the session in a 3 man circle. Still, it was a good session, with some new combos for everybody. It was also nice playing with Ryota extensively, cause it felt like it had been a while. Plus, everybody had a good session today, so I really can`t complain.
October 2nd, 2005
Mercury hit 30C today, as the summer sun made its sweltering return. It seemed like everybody and their mom was out in the park, springing at their last chance to wear that summer dress, before being forced to banish it to their closet for another year. It was so hot out, that I even purposely hit Yoyogi an hour late, to avoid the worst of it.
I was on the pier by 3:20, and was happy to see a good crew of shredders. I was also unhappy to see a big commercial being shot on the same pier. I knew from the start it would be trouble. When they first asked us to move, I said I`d give them 10 minutes because I`m nice, and then after that, f* `em. No way was I gonna give up the best shred spot (which is public, and which we use every weekend) on possibly the last ideal sunny day. Unfortunately, during my 10 minute grace period, Ryota OBT and Masa cooled down, and decided to leave.
The core circle for the rest of the day was Takumi, USK, Hatsu, and myself. Despite there only being 4 of us, it never felt that bad. Probably because Takumi goes so long, and so did USK. The commercial shoot was really annoying, but ended up OK. The highlight was when they asked some drunk crazy guy to move out of the shot, and he belligerently refused, yelling and screaming threats at the producers. I felt like buying him a beer. They ended up doing the shoot anyway, but placing three smiling extras as a human-wall to hide the drunk guy. 
The one plus of the shoot, was that there was always a big crowd nearby, and we wound up stealing the show for most of the day. It wasn`t hard really... considering how shit the dancers were. NO sense of rhythm whatsoever, and any 8 year old who watches MTV enough could have choreographed something better. Plus, Takumi and I had good sessions, which when you add it all up, meant us>commercial shoot.
Takumi was really hot early on, going off on long string after long string. At one point he asked if anybody had counted, and then I realized that he was trying to set a personal record for unique tripless. I think he got something like 14 unique tripless at one point, which is pretty excellent. Overall he just did a good job of mixing bothsided shuffle and spins, which was a joy to watch. The only combos that really stuck in my head was fairy butterfly-blizzard repeat, and another string that started with mobius-pdx whirl.
As for myself, I pretty much spent the whole day going for long runs, with lots of genuine links. Because there was a crowd, I felt inspired to showboat. I figured it was good practice for my demos in Australia. I leave in 10 days... yikes. While my sessions the 4 previous days all felt like skooling sessions, for some reason today felt like a legit shred. Takumi`s presence? The crowds? Not sure, but I decided to go for long strings over drills/weird tricks etc, which was a nice change of pace. I still managed to hit a couple tricks which I hadn`t done in a while. Most notably symp flux (using a flailing set), and pixie flux (using sailing). Oh yeah, I also started a string with pdx drifter-pdx torque-pdx drifter, which I hadn`t done in over 3 years.
We shredded pretty hard til sundown, and at the end of the session, it felt like a lot of high fives had gone down. I felt a little tired, but my muscles felt fine. Hopefully that means my stamina has improved thanks to my constant practice. There was some Indian culture fair happening on the other side of the park, so the 4 of us headed over there and bought dinner and ate together. It was a real nice vibe, just chatting, eating cheap curry, and not drinking. Takumi has Tuesday off from school, so a bunch of us are going to try and have a weekend-type shred, provided we aren`t rained out.
Today (Monday the 3rd) saw the hot streak end. It`s pretty cool out, and may rain tonight. I`m contemplating ending my consecutive-session streak at 5, but I may surprise myself with a short session anyway.
Fan out!
Mercury hit 30C today, as the summer sun made its sweltering return. It seemed like everybody and their mom was out in the park, springing at their last chance to wear that summer dress, before being forced to banish it to their closet for another year. It was so hot out, that I even purposely hit Yoyogi an hour late, to avoid the worst of it.
I was on the pier by 3:20, and was happy to see a good crew of shredders. I was also unhappy to see a big commercial being shot on the same pier. I knew from the start it would be trouble. When they first asked us to move, I said I`d give them 10 minutes because I`m nice, and then after that, f* `em. No way was I gonna give up the best shred spot (which is public, and which we use every weekend) on possibly the last ideal sunny day. Unfortunately, during my 10 minute grace period, Ryota OBT and Masa cooled down, and decided to leave.
The core circle for the rest of the day was Takumi, USK, Hatsu, and myself. Despite there only being 4 of us, it never felt that bad. Probably because Takumi goes so long, and so did USK. The commercial shoot was really annoying, but ended up OK. The highlight was when they asked some drunk crazy guy to move out of the shot, and he belligerently refused, yelling and screaming threats at the producers.
I felt like buying him a beer. They ended up doing the shoot anyway, but placing three smiling extras as a human-wall to hide the drunk guy. The one plus of the shoot, was that there was always a big crowd nearby, and we wound up stealing the show for most of the day. It wasn`t hard really... considering how shit the dancers were. NO sense of rhythm whatsoever, and any 8 year old who watches MTV enough could have choreographed something better. Plus, Takumi and I had good sessions, which when you add it all up, meant us>commercial shoot.
Takumi was really hot early on, going off on long string after long string. At one point he asked if anybody had counted, and then I realized that he was trying to set a personal record for unique tripless. I think he got something like 14 unique tripless at one point, which is pretty excellent. Overall he just did a good job of mixing bothsided shuffle and spins, which was a joy to watch. The only combos that really stuck in my head was fairy butterfly-blizzard repeat, and another string that started with mobius-pdx whirl.
As for myself, I pretty much spent the whole day going for long runs, with lots of genuine links. Because there was a crowd, I felt inspired to showboat. I figured it was good practice for my demos in Australia. I leave in 10 days... yikes. While my sessions the 4 previous days all felt like skooling sessions, for some reason today felt like a legit shred. Takumi`s presence? The crowds? Not sure, but I decided to go for long strings over drills/weird tricks etc, which was a nice change of pace. I still managed to hit a couple tricks which I hadn`t done in a while. Most notably symp flux (using a flailing set), and pixie flux (using sailing). Oh yeah, I also started a string with pdx drifter-pdx torque-pdx drifter, which I hadn`t done in over 3 years.
We shredded pretty hard til sundown, and at the end of the session, it felt like a lot of high fives had gone down. I felt a little tired, but my muscles felt fine. Hopefully that means my stamina has improved thanks to my constant practice. There was some Indian culture fair happening on the other side of the park, so the 4 of us headed over there and bought dinner and ate together. It was a real nice vibe, just chatting, eating cheap curry, and not drinking. Takumi has Tuesday off from school, so a bunch of us are going to try and have a weekend-type shred, provided we aren`t rained out.
Today (Monday the 3rd) saw the hot streak end. It`s pretty cool out, and may rain tonight. I`m contemplating ending my consecutive-session streak at 5, but I may surprise myself with a short session anyway.
Fan out!
Monday, October 3rd, 2005
So the 5-day stretch of glorious summer weather sadly came to an end yesterday, but I didn`t let my consecutive session die with it. It was cool, grey and lonely out... with a constant, chilly breeze taking the leaves off of tree, erasing summer off the boughs, sketching in ragged branches in their stead.
I really didn`t feel like playing.
Still, I forced myself too, because I`m taking my Australian demos next month seriously, and more generally because I really want to improve. As long as I keep my footbag muscles stretched out, and don`t injure myself, then every session improves me.
I never really felt entirely warmed up, and not due to the weather either. I just never felt like I "got it going" if you know what I mean. My mental game wasn`t great either... a few particularly frustrating combos ripped a few "FUCK!"s out of me, which is something I`d been good about avoiding lately. Still, the occasional bad session is something every footbagger must deal with, especially if they hope to improve. I also took heart that even during a "bad" session like I was having, I still managed to hit some new combos, and some stylish links. Speaking of which...
The move/theme of the session was clearly dynos. I hit my first toe dyno ever, and then sealed it by making it bsos. First time hitting either one. I also hit blurry whirl to dyno, also for my first time, and also succeeded in getting that bsos pretty easily. Dyno-pdx drifter on both sides. My second styliest combo of the day was dso-blender, which I hit real easily too.
After this promising start, things started to go downhill. I hit pdx egg to dyno, and got it flipside pretty easily too. So naturally I decided to try for bsos, and then proceeded to come agonizingly close to the combo for the next, oh, 25-30 minutes. It was killing me. The other combo that sucked the fun out of my session, was blurry whirl-dyno-dlo-dyno. I guess that was pretty ambitious, considering I had never hit any of the links before today, and toe dyno was less than 30 minutes old for me. Still, I knew I could do it... I just had trouble convincing my body of this fact. I alternated between both goals (pdx egg-dyno bsos, and the latter combo), and had a pretty miserable time at it for a while.
Fiiiiiinally I managed to hit the pdx egg-dyno one, and then a few minutes later I also got the second combo too. In both cases it felt more like a relief than an accomplishment. I`m happy though that I got the second combo, because I think it looks really cool, and is very un-Somolinos-y.
So while the session was frustrating, and didn`t have much variety, I did manage to hit some new combos, and I hit the goals I set for myself, despite them being challenging and me lacking motivation to play. Most importantly though, the session was my 6th in as many days, and my body is feeling strong.
Next: weekday session with Takumi?
So the 5-day stretch of glorious summer weather sadly came to an end yesterday, but I didn`t let my consecutive session die with it. It was cool, grey and lonely out... with a constant, chilly breeze taking the leaves off of tree, erasing summer off the boughs, sketching in ragged branches in their stead.
I really didn`t feel like playing.
Still, I forced myself too, because I`m taking my Australian demos next month seriously, and more generally because I really want to improve. As long as I keep my footbag muscles stretched out, and don`t injure myself, then every session improves me.
I never really felt entirely warmed up, and not due to the weather either. I just never felt like I "got it going" if you know what I mean. My mental game wasn`t great either... a few particularly frustrating combos ripped a few "FUCK!"s out of me, which is something I`d been good about avoiding lately. Still, the occasional bad session is something every footbagger must deal with, especially if they hope to improve. I also took heart that even during a "bad" session like I was having, I still managed to hit some new combos, and some stylish links. Speaking of which...
The move/theme of the session was clearly dynos. I hit my first toe dyno ever, and then sealed it by making it bsos. First time hitting either one. I also hit blurry whirl to dyno, also for my first time, and also succeeded in getting that bsos pretty easily. Dyno-pdx drifter on both sides. My second styliest combo of the day was dso-blender, which I hit real easily too.
After this promising start, things started to go downhill. I hit pdx egg to dyno, and got it flipside pretty easily too. So naturally I decided to try for bsos, and then proceeded to come agonizingly close to the combo for the next, oh, 25-30 minutes.
It was killing me. The other combo that sucked the fun out of my session, was blurry whirl-dyno-dlo-dyno. I guess that was pretty ambitious, considering I had never hit any of the links before today, and toe dyno was less than 30 minutes old for me. Still, I knew I could do it... I just had trouble convincing my body of this fact. I alternated between both goals (pdx egg-dyno bsos, and the latter combo), and had a pretty miserable time at it for a while.Fiiiiiinally I managed to hit the pdx egg-dyno one, and then a few minutes later I also got the second combo too. In both cases it felt more like a relief than an accomplishment. I`m happy though that I got the second combo, because I think it looks really cool, and is very un-Somolinos-y.
So while the session was frustrating, and didn`t have much variety, I did manage to hit some new combos, and I hit the goals I set for myself, despite them being challenging and me lacking motivation to play. Most importantly though, the session was my 6th in as many days, and my body is feeling strong.
Next: weekday session with Takumi?
Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
I almost feel like I`m spamming my own blog... I guess that`s what happens when you play every single day for a full week. Yes friends, today was my 7th session in a row. Thankfully, I had friends to play with today, which made up for the weather.
Ah yes, the weather... still grey, still chilly, still unmotivatingly ugly. But its hard to complain, considering rain was forecasted for today, yet we were spared. Despite it being a Tuesday, Takumi had the day off from school because it was his school`s "Foundation Day." Woo! Weekday shred with Takumi!
I hit Yoyogi at 2, and warmed up til Hatsu and Takumi showed around 2:30. I warmed up listening to Wu-Tang`s first album on my iPod. It really got me pumped up to shred, which was helpful, considering the depressing weather. Cee-Ling-Fan ain`t nothing to f* wit`.
What, it kind of works...
We shredded all day with Takumi`s bag, which I normally find a bit rolly and light, but it worked well enough for me all session. Today was sort of a mix of a shred and a skooling session. We were generous with the givebacks and selfserves, and there was a real light vibe throughout. I think we all played well, but we were all also a step slow. Actually, I think Hatsu had a very good session. He`s mixing in a lot of different elements in his shreds these days. Pixies, steps, spins, pick ups, and whirls.
Takumi didn`t hit anything super notable. Hatsu challenged him to hit gyro legeater, and he came real close. Saw him hit reverse egg from toe. Oh yeah, and one run with pdx egg, pdlo, and gdlo. It was his first time hitting pdx egg or pdlo, so to have them in the same run was a big deal. He also hit spinning ducking swirl, but I didn`t have an angle on the duck, so I`m not 100% if it was clean or not. He tried a few more times, but no go. Still, that`s great. After seeing me try pixie dyno, he windsored me, and bsosed it. It was his first time hitting that trick either side. Punkass...
I felt pretty good today, despite being a little tired before the session. Dyno felt good on both sides, and I surprised myself with ducking osis-dyno midstring without even thinking about it. I also hit pixie dyno for the first time, and got it both sides. I was probably happiest though about hitting atomic dyno for the first time, and sealing it with a run. I`ve never hit atomic blender, which furthers my belief that dyno is like 3 times easier and less legit of a move. I hit blurry drifter to pdx egg both sides... i may have hit strong before, but at least one of those was new. Probably the absolute highlight of the session for me, was hitting food and blurry whirl all bsos in a string. I hadn`t hit food bsos in over a year, and today was only my 3rd time ever achieving that feat, so to throw in bl whirl bsos as well... that was icing on the cake.
We closed out the session with a couple games of "two-square." It`s pretty much 4 square, just with 2 squares. Since you can`t do votes with just 2 people, we changed that rule so that the player who is waiting to enter, has the final say in case of debates. We played 2 games to ten, I sucked, we all laughed a ton, and then I went home.
Overall, an excellent, if laid-back session, especially for a weekday. Forecast calls for rain tomorrow, which will put an end to my 1 week shred streak. Probably for the best, as my body could use some rest. I will do shin-splint prevention stretches, and stretch my knees as well. I leave for Australia in just 9 days! I feel in superb footbag condition for the trip. Hopefully the weather will be obliging enough in Tokyo for another week, and then I can go kick ass in Koala-land.
I almost feel like I`m spamming my own blog... I guess that`s what happens when you play every single day for a full week.
Yes friends, today was my 7th session in a row. Thankfully, I had friends to play with today, which made up for the weather.Ah yes, the weather... still grey, still chilly, still unmotivatingly ugly. But its hard to complain, considering rain was forecasted for today, yet we were spared.
Despite it being a Tuesday, Takumi had the day off from school because it was his school`s "Foundation Day." Woo! Weekday shred with Takumi!I hit Yoyogi at 2, and warmed up til Hatsu and Takumi showed around 2:30. I warmed up listening to Wu-Tang`s first album on my iPod. It really got me pumped up to shred, which was helpful, considering the depressing weather. Cee-Ling-Fan ain`t nothing to f* wit`.
What, it kind of works...We shredded all day with Takumi`s bag, which I normally find a bit rolly and light, but it worked well enough for me all session. Today was sort of a mix of a shred and a skooling session. We were generous with the givebacks and selfserves, and there was a real light vibe throughout. I think we all played well, but we were all also a step slow. Actually, I think Hatsu had a very good session. He`s mixing in a lot of different elements in his shreds these days. Pixies, steps, spins, pick ups, and whirls.
Takumi didn`t hit anything super notable. Hatsu challenged him to hit gyro legeater, and he came real close. Saw him hit reverse egg from toe. Oh yeah, and one run with pdx egg, pdlo, and gdlo. It was his first time hitting pdx egg or pdlo, so to have them in the same run was a big deal. He also hit spinning ducking swirl, but I didn`t have an angle on the duck, so I`m not 100% if it was clean or not. He tried a few more times, but no go. Still, that`s great. After seeing me try pixie dyno, he windsored me, and bsosed it. It was his first time hitting that trick either side.
Punkass...I felt pretty good today, despite being a little tired before the session. Dyno felt good on both sides, and I surprised myself with ducking osis-dyno midstring without even thinking about it. I also hit pixie dyno for the first time, and got it both sides. I was probably happiest though about hitting atomic dyno for the first time, and sealing it with a run.
I`ve never hit atomic blender, which furthers my belief that dyno is like 3 times easier and less legit of a move. I hit blurry drifter to pdx egg both sides... i may have hit strong before, but at least one of those was new. Probably the absolute highlight of the session for me, was hitting food and blurry whirl all bsos in a string. I hadn`t hit food bsos in over a year, and today was only my 3rd time ever achieving that feat, so to throw in bl whirl bsos as well... that was icing on the cake. We closed out the session with a couple games of "two-square." It`s pretty much 4 square, just with 2 squares. Since you can`t do votes with just 2 people, we changed that rule so that the player who is waiting to enter, has the final say in case of debates. We played 2 games to ten, I sucked, we all laughed a ton, and then I went home.
Overall, an excellent, if laid-back session, especially for a weekday. Forecast calls for rain tomorrow, which will put an end to my 1 week shred streak. Probably for the best, as my body could use some rest. I will do shin-splint prevention stretches, and stretch my knees as well. I leave for Australia in just 9 days! I feel in superb footbag condition for the trip. Hopefully the weather will be obliging enough in Tokyo for another week, and then I can go kick ass in Koala-land.
Despite rain in the morning, and ominous rainclouds in the evening, the weather obliged my footbagging desires by being beautiful for a few afternoon hours today. After my day off yesterday, I was definitely itching to play. Felt super lucky I had the chance!
Thursday, October 6th, 2005
My muscles felt pretty good after having taken the day off yesterday. The plan for today was to take it pretty easy... not come back too hard. I did a pretty good job of that, mostly using the session to patch up some holes which had developed in my game. I put in some good work on cleaning up one of my pdx whirls, as well as on getting the dex on my weak torque. I also skooled flip pixies for a while, since I noticed my strong frantic set had deteriorated lately.
I met up with Hatsu in Yoyogi at 2:30, and the sun was so strong at that point that I actually regretted not bringing sunblock. Given the recent weather, that`s incredible. I was stoked that I had a 3 man session on Tuesday, and on Thursday I was having a 2-man session. I almost always prefer having somebody to play with to solo sessions. I did my usual warm up, but felt particularly strong with my bops, despite only getting 39 in a row as my warm up. When I saw I warm up with BOPs, I mean that 90% of the tricks are BOPs. I also usually throw in both ducking clippers, whirls, and pdx illusions in there as well.
The general pattern of the session was me giving Hatsu challenges, and him giving me pointers on what he thought I was doing wrong on various tricks. Oftentimes I`m annoyed when people give me advice on tricks they can`t hit. I figure: "hey, you can`t hit whirl, so what makes you think you can give me tips on how to hit alpine whirligig?" But Hatsu has a good eye for how I use my body, and often points out things I wasn`t aware I was doing. Sometimes the things he points out don`t have any bearing on the trick, and other times they prove crucial. I found playing with him today to be helpful more often than not, and hopefully parts of my game will improve because of his advice.
I thought Hatsu played excellent today. One of the best sessions of his I`ve seen. Spinning "pdx" pick up midstring, easy as cake. Clean spinning pdx whirl to start a run. Drifter x2, but kinda iffy seal. Spinning clipper to blur. One epic string where I was waiting for him to drop so I could give him props, when out of nowhere he hit and sealed gdlo on like the 20th contact. That shocked me. No warning.
The advice Hatsu gave me, which improved my flip pixie a lot, was to focus on my support leg. Apparently, I wasn`t bending my support leg before the set, so I wasn`t getting good power on the dex, and the dex leg was forced to do all the work. My flip pixies almost immediately got deeper and felt better. I really think skooling my flip pixie is important, mostly because I think of frantic set as "pixie flip pixie" set. I also cleaned up my pdx whirls by focussing on keeping the bag close and "attacking" the dex. I had 5 or 6 clean pdx whirls in a row using this method.
I also skooled consec ripwalks, and hit 19 of them, but some were slurry. Not big-time slurry like they used to be, but slurry enough that I want to continue working on them. Good stamina drill at the least. Because it was a skooling session, I didn`t really hit anything new. I did hit 9 drifters in a row when I was demonstrating to Hatsu the idea behind consecutive drifters. I also hit flipside pdx grifter for the first time, which is apparently a deeper dex than my strong side. Had a few decent looks at flip blurry grifter, but not yet.
In one week I will be on a plane to Australia. I gotta say, I`m looking forward to playing in warm weather again. Oh yeah, and having positive cash in-flow will also be a nice change too.
Thursday, October 6th, 2005
My muscles felt pretty good after having taken the day off yesterday. The plan for today was to take it pretty easy... not come back too hard. I did a pretty good job of that, mostly using the session to patch up some holes which had developed in my game. I put in some good work on cleaning up one of my pdx whirls, as well as on getting the dex on my weak torque. I also skooled flip pixies for a while, since I noticed my strong frantic set had deteriorated lately.
I met up with Hatsu in Yoyogi at 2:30, and the sun was so strong at that point that I actually regretted not bringing sunblock. Given the recent weather, that`s incredible. I was stoked that I had a 3 man session on Tuesday, and on Thursday I was having a 2-man session. I almost always prefer having somebody to play with to solo sessions. I did my usual warm up, but felt particularly strong with my bops, despite only getting 39 in a row as my warm up. When I saw I warm up with BOPs, I mean that 90% of the tricks are BOPs. I also usually throw in both ducking clippers, whirls, and pdx illusions in there as well.
The general pattern of the session was me giving Hatsu challenges, and him giving me pointers on what he thought I was doing wrong on various tricks. Oftentimes I`m annoyed when people give me advice on tricks they can`t hit. I figure: "hey, you can`t hit whirl, so what makes you think you can give me tips on how to hit alpine whirligig?" But Hatsu has a good eye for how I use my body, and often points out things I wasn`t aware I was doing. Sometimes the things he points out don`t have any bearing on the trick, and other times they prove crucial. I found playing with him today to be helpful more often than not, and hopefully parts of my game will improve because of his advice.
I thought Hatsu played excellent today. One of the best sessions of his I`ve seen. Spinning "pdx" pick up midstring, easy as cake. Clean spinning pdx whirl to start a run. Drifter x2, but kinda iffy seal. Spinning clipper to blur. One epic string where I was waiting for him to drop so I could give him props, when out of nowhere he hit and sealed gdlo on like the 20th contact.
That shocked me. No warning. The advice Hatsu gave me, which improved my flip pixie a lot, was to focus on my support leg. Apparently, I wasn`t bending my support leg before the set, so I wasn`t getting good power on the dex, and the dex leg was forced to do all the work. My flip pixies almost immediately got deeper and felt better. I really think skooling my flip pixie is important, mostly because I think of frantic set as "pixie flip pixie" set. I also cleaned up my pdx whirls by focussing on keeping the bag close and "attacking" the dex. I had 5 or 6 clean pdx whirls in a row using this method.
I also skooled consec ripwalks, and hit 19 of them, but some were slurry. Not big-time slurry like they used to be, but slurry enough that I want to continue working on them. Good stamina drill at the least. Because it was a skooling session, I didn`t really hit anything new. I did hit 9 drifters in a row when I was demonstrating to Hatsu the idea behind consecutive drifters. I also hit flipside pdx grifter for the first time, which is apparently a deeper dex than my strong side. Had a few decent looks at flip blurry grifter, but not yet.
In one week I will be on a plane to Australia. I gotta say, I`m looking forward to playing in warm weather again. Oh yeah, and having positive cash in-flow will also be a nice change too.
Friday, October 7th, 2005
The forecast had me worried. It rained last night, and it was projected to rain today too, but with the chance of just clouds in the morning. Thankfully, the weather turned out even better than I hoped for: blue skies and warm sun from 1pm to around 4 pm.
I got to Yoyogi later than I wanted to, but Hatsu showed up a few minutes later, so it all worked out. We warmed up pretty fast (41 bops) and got to shred as quick as possible, because we weren`t sure how long we`d have ideal weather conditions. I was stoked to hear that Tosh and X+Y were coming too.
Hatsu had another overall excellent session today. I gave him some challenges which he hit within a few tries, and in one instance got it both sides. I think my favorite link he hit today, was gyro legover to paradon. Stylish. Challenged him to atom x2, which had hit before, but it was still good to see him nail it today. Again he had a string where he threw in gdlo towards the end, totally unexpectedly. At the end of the session I challenged him to hit osis-gyro legover without a plant, and he got it both sides.
X+Y hit some good stuff too. Most notable was dlo-ss dlo repeat, super controlled. Overall good shuffle too. Tried to break his atom smasher record... he has hit 7 atoms in a row on 2 separate occasions. Nice.
I felt like I had a strong session. Real early on, I hit stepping illusion to tripwalk bsos. I should try and hit it as a drill. I hit stepping reaper for my first time ever, which felt really cool. Inspired by this, I tried stepping ss reaper, and also managed to hit that for my first time! I sealed it with a real genuine run around 20 contacts. I also hit spinning clipper-ps whirl repeat, and sealed with a genuine, 20+ run that ended on drifter-blender-controlled handcatch, and had dimwalk bsos. Yesterday`s advice on flip pixie paid off, as today flip pixies midstring felt much more solid. My most satisfying run of the day went like this:
Leggy atom x2, butterfly, drifter x2, pdx whirl x2, ripwalk x2, ducking butterfly x2, ducking clipper x2, osis x3, and then like 6 more contacts to finish off the run. I just liked that series of 12 moves in a row which were all repeats linked together.
Around 4:30, it was like somebody turned off the lights. The clouds just ate up the sun, and rain appeared imminent for the last hour of our shred. I ended up taking off when it started to drizzle lightly.
The forecast doesn`t look great for tomorrow or Sunday, but Monday is a national holiday, so hopefully I can get in at least one big outdoor shred before I go to Australia. Man, in one week I will be there!
The forecast had me worried. It rained last night, and it was projected to rain today too, but with the chance of just clouds in the morning. Thankfully, the weather turned out even better than I hoped for: blue skies and warm sun from 1pm to around 4 pm.
I got to Yoyogi later than I wanted to, but Hatsu showed up a few minutes later, so it all worked out. We warmed up pretty fast (41 bops) and got to shred as quick as possible, because we weren`t sure how long we`d have ideal weather conditions. I was stoked to hear that Tosh and X+Y were coming too.
Hatsu had another overall excellent session today. I gave him some challenges which he hit within a few tries, and in one instance got it both sides. I think my favorite link he hit today, was gyro legover to paradon. Stylish. Challenged him to atom x2, which had hit before, but it was still good to see him nail it today. Again he had a string where he threw in gdlo towards the end, totally unexpectedly. At the end of the session I challenged him to hit osis-gyro legover without a plant, and he got it both sides.
X+Y hit some good stuff too. Most notable was dlo-ss dlo repeat, super controlled. Overall good shuffle too. Tried to break his atom smasher record... he has hit 7 atoms in a row on 2 separate occasions. Nice.
I felt like I had a strong session. Real early on, I hit stepping illusion to tripwalk bsos. I should try and hit it as a drill. I hit stepping reaper for my first time ever, which felt really cool. Inspired by this, I tried stepping ss reaper, and also managed to hit that for my first time!
I sealed it with a real genuine run around 20 contacts. I also hit spinning clipper-ps whirl repeat, and sealed with a genuine, 20+ run that ended on drifter-blender-controlled handcatch, and had dimwalk bsos. Yesterday`s advice on flip pixie paid off, as today flip pixies midstring felt much more solid. My most satisfying run of the day went like this:Leggy atom x2, butterfly, drifter x2, pdx whirl x2, ripwalk x2, ducking butterfly x2, ducking clipper x2, osis x3, and then like 6 more contacts to finish off the run. I just liked that series of 12 moves in a row which were all repeats linked together.
Around 4:30, it was like somebody turned off the lights. The clouds just ate up the sun, and rain appeared imminent for the last hour of our shred. I ended up taking off when it started to drizzle lightly.
The forecast doesn`t look great for tomorrow or Sunday, but Monday is a national holiday, so hopefully I can get in at least one big outdoor shred before I go to Australia. Man, in one week I will be there!
On and off rain today meant that I was the only person to show for today`s shred. I did a few showboat strings to entertain some US military dudes as we reminisced about California`s superior fast food franchises, like Jack and In `N` Out. Probably played 20 minutes total, and didn`t break a sweat. Still, I stretched out the shred muscles, and my runs were pretty genuine and long, so I finished my "session" feeling confident and good about next week. Oh yeah, at my last session I hit legeater ending on inside- toe drifter bsos. I felt like Ryan Mulroney at 2000 Western Regionals
Weather looks crap on Monday, so I hope everybody doesn`t pussy out again tomorrow. Seriously, the Tokyo crew needs to be more hardcore if they want to really improve. This is my last weekend shredding in Yoyogi before Australia, and when I come back, I only have 2 weekends to shred in Japan before going back to the States. I kinda feel like the last couple weekends I have been let down by the Tokyo shred scene, and I don`t like going out on this down note. We`ll see though, maybe tomorrow will be nice weather, a great session with lots of people, and I`ll feel silly about the way I feel now. I hope so. If not, at least I feel in good shape and ready for Australia. The first Nestle demos went down today, and reading about them on the Aussie forums, they sound like a ton of fun. It`ll be a bit of a shock playing in hot weather again, considering how cool it has been here in Tokyo.
Oh yeah, I also have a cool little surprise I`m going to put in my blog in the next few days. Keep an eye out.
I did a few showboat strings to entertain some US military dudes as we reminisced about California`s superior fast food franchises, like Jack and In `N` Out. Probably played 20 minutes total, and didn`t break a sweat. Still, I stretched out the shred muscles, and my runs were pretty genuine and long, so I finished my "session" feeling confident and good about next week. Oh yeah, at my last session I hit legeater ending on inside- toe drifter bsos. I felt like Ryan Mulroney at 2000 Western Regionals Weather looks crap on Monday, so I hope everybody doesn`t pussy out again tomorrow.
Seriously, the Tokyo crew needs to be more hardcore if they want to really improve. This is my last weekend shredding in Yoyogi before Australia, and when I come back, I only have 2 weekends to shred in Japan before going back to the States. I kinda feel like the last couple weekends I have been let down by the Tokyo shred scene, and I don`t like going out on this down note. We`ll see though, maybe tomorrow will be nice weather, a great session with lots of people, and I`ll feel silly about the way I feel now. I hope so. If not, at least I feel in good shape and ready for Australia. The first Nestle demos went down today, and reading about them on the Aussie forums, they sound like a ton of fun. It`ll be a bit of a shock playing in hot weather again, considering how cool it has been here in Tokyo. Oh yeah, I also have a cool little surprise I`m going to put in my blog in the next few days. Keep an eye out.
Moshman Diaries
His eye watches over us benevolently from the upper left hand corner of the modified screen; a friendly, calming presence on our journey through the forums. His is the face of Modified.ca, both literally and figuratively. His name is Tom Mosher. You probably have read his blog. You may have kicked with one of his bags. You may even have had your bicycle broken by the famed Canadian. But how well do you really know him? I recently asked myself this question, and decided the answer was: "not as well as I`d like." To remedy the situation, I caught up with Tom last week and hit him with a few questions. Here`s the transcript of the conversation:
Ken:Hi Tom. Let`s start at the beginning: How did you get into footbag?
Tom Mosher: There was this hacky sack legend dude in my camp when I was tree planting up north and he could do strings of stalls and zoid legovers and stuff and it blew my mind to tiny little bits. I took up stitching right away and made a 2 panel leather sand filled hack and right away started drilling my stalls with another planter friend of mine who was also enthused with hacky sack. We would have drilling sessions often after planting and this was all months before I ever heard the word footbag. I came back from treeplanting and looked up hacky sack tricks on google, like so many others have done, and from there I was changed forever. It took me a few months to finally decide to go hell bent at footbag but at christmas I got lavers from Santa and that sealed the deal.
Ken: Like many footbaggers, you used to be a skateboarder. How would you compare the two cultures?
Tom Mosher: The two cultures share similarities in that those involved respect and recognize that hard work had to have been put in to reach where they are however since skateboarding has reached such massive levels of popularity they no longer have the close-knit feel that we currently enjoy. Because of this two skateboarders passing on the street don't think much however if one shredder spots another it's reason to throw your hands in the air and celebrate! It's not like you can just send an e-mail to Tony Hawk and ask if it's cool to crash on his couch for a night or two while you are in town, however precisely that same thing happens in the footbag community everyday.
Ken: You are famous for radically modifying your shoes. Did you modify your lavers as much as you do your climas? Do you regret any of the modifications you have done?
Tom Mosher: I haven't done any mods that I regret, however the 'silver marker mod' didn't do much but stink. I did all the standard laver mods and removed basically all I could, after the walls were off and the broka was cut I took the time to stitch everything back together so it looked pretty.
Ken: Do you find the broka mod makes a difference?
Tom Mosher: I think it's efficacy is largely determined by the individual players ankle dimensions, some players need it however for some it makes no difference. I find that without it I am very restricted... however this makes sense considering the broka mod effectively removes the ankle support and 'ankle support' is synonymous with 'crank prevention'
Ken: Does Worlds need a novice division?
Tom Mosher: No.. I think the hazy grey area between Intermediate and Open is ambiguous enough as is and already causes enough problems. When I signed up to compete Intermediate at Euros I got hassled by some people who claimed I was sandbagging and that really killed any trace of fun for me so I dropped out of the competition.. I really wish they would have just respected my decision. I wouldn`t want something similar to happen to a new player to the sport if it would end up discouraging them in the long run.
Ken: Before Worlds, you stated that you hoped to win intermediate routines. How did you feel about your performance at Worlds?
Tom Mosher: That was a pretty crushing experience for me to be honest.. I chose not to talk about it in my blog because I didn't want to be a downer. I didn't prepare nearly enough and that led to me not living up to the potential I felt I had within me. Did I let myself down? maybe.. I feel like I let everyone else down for not giving it my all. It was rather terrifying putting myself up on stage in front of so many people that I respect so much only to have them watch me go through the most embarrasing minute and a half of my life - twice! There was basically nothing I enjoyed about that experience other than I can now say I competed at the World Championships of * something *
Ken: Do you think you will compete at worlds next year, or the next year you attend? Has last year`s experience turned you off from competing, or stoked your fire?
Tom Mosher: I`ve asked myself that lots.. It depends... I will not approach it like I did this year, if I choose to compete I intend on going hell balls ass at it and put together something real slick and entertaining that I can lay down with confidence. Also, I will be competing Open at the next World's so I can't just half-ass it. I am torn... hey, doesn't torn look just like tom?? neet
Ken: Indeed. You mentioned not writing about the experience in your blog because you didn`t want it to be "a downer." Your blog is the most read blog on modified... how conscious are you of your readers when you post? Do you feel like you can`t post as personally as you used to, or as others do, because you know so many people will read what you write?
Tom Mosher: I used to not think at all about who was reading it because it didn't seem to matter. I got involved in a relationship and stuff I had written in my blog came back to haunt me and had a real negative effect on our relations. I have been very reserved about what I write in it now because I don't want to upset a few specific sensitive readers... that being said.. I am getting tired of holding back all the insane shit that's been going on in my life lately, I need to get it out of me ASAP. It was odd meeting people in Europe for the first time and then hearing from them that they'd read my whole blog and hence knew ALOT about me whereas I knew nothing of them.. I guess I was okay with it since I should have expected that would happen.. but it was still strange.
Ken: Next question, bit of a softball but: What has been the most triumphant/happiest/satisfying moment of your 2 years with footbag so far?
Tom Mosher: Wow.. that one is actually really tough to field.. I think seeing the elation in the eyes of all the people I`ve helped to learn footbag has been the best part for me, I love sharing this amazing gift with people. It's been fantastically rewarding building my club and helping everyone develop. I feel effing greatful to have found footbag, it's changed me forever in a bounty of positive ways, I can't help but want to spread this pure simple natural human joy with others.
Ken: Fucking hippie. OK, keep your stories of groupies and quint dexes to yourself. On the flip of the last question, and you knew this was coming: what has been the most frustrating/hardest part of your footbag story to date?
Tom Mosher: That one is easy: recovering from injury. I think the single most upsetting moment of my footbag career was one week before Worlds 2004 when I twisted my ankle very badly. I was devastated... I couldn't believe that after all my months of hard work and intense dedication I would go and ruin everything in one disgusting crunching cracking moment. And as we all know, as soon as one side is damaged it is forced to fall behind which instigates my biggest enemy in footbag - one sidedness!
Ken: Any advice on recovering from injury?
Tom Mosher: Take it seriously. Rushing it NEVER works.
Ken: You have thrown a few jams in the last year, notably GLASS, the Erik Chan Birthday jam, and the upcoming KickASS. If you could go back in time to the day when you first thought about throwing a jam, what would you tell yourself?
Tom Mosher: Are you asking me what I would tell myself as advice for throwing a good jam?
Ken: Well, its assumed you`d tell yourself winning lotto numbers, etc. So yeah, pretty much anything you`d tell somebody who is considering throwing a jam, who has no experience organizing.
Tom Mosher: 1) make a pretty logo, 2) tell people it will be alot of fun, 3) hype hype hype! (if it is just a jam and not a tourny you can leave out step 1) it's seriously this easy. Of course you have to pick a suitable place to play, but so many different places can suit that need. And then they come in droves
Ken: What would you have done differently at the first jam you ran?
Tom Mosher: Organized it in the town I lived in. It was a frigging pain in the ass trying to throw GLASS in a town three hours from where I live. We pulled it off but I had to do some serious people juggling. KICKASS is going much more smoothly because I get to sink my tallons into every little detail and make sure it all gets done right.
Ken: What is your favorite footbag event to compete in? Favorite event to watch?
Tom Mosher: It's not an event but I love the game where you do a trick then the next person has to do that trick plus one more and you keep going around the circle adding tricks until nobody can hit the string anymore. The rule I always impose on that game is that each time you get the bag you have to start from the other side. I love watching sick 3 when people actually hit stuff. Oh yeah, and sick 1 can be insane when it works out. When James McCulossdjf from Montreal slammed out Crossfire (atomic gs whirl) at TOFU jam it was incredible, the whole place errupted.
Ken: What is your opinion on self serving?
Tom Mosher: It has a place.. but anyone choosing to use it needs to have a firm grasp on tact. There are MANY instances where it is totally inappropriate, however I think logic is the best guideline. When I am with any new player I *always* serve to them and if I see that they are taking alot of self-serves I politely inform them that it is generally considered kosher to pass the bag to others.
Ken: What do you think about the presence of secret forums on modified?
Tom Mosher: Bad bad bad alll bad. Closing doors to people and drawing lines in the sand never helps build a community. It is disrespectful to those not invited and they (secret forums) really have no place in our community. We are too small of a group to be forming 'cool kid cliques' for any reason, period.
That being said, there is still a place for an all-girls forum, it just doesnt have to be a secret.
Ken: Do you think BAP has a positive influence on the sport now (2005)?
Tom Mosher: It depends on one`s idea of a positive influence... it definitely doesn't have the SAME influence it once did however it certainly gives something for motivated shredders to shoot for and on their quest they often achieve amazing things they never thought possible. Also, as people shoot to reach that level thet wind up pushing the level of the sport to crazy heights, the level of play that is considered standard is constantly getting more and more absurd. So yes, I think it does have a positive effect on the sport.
Ken: More specific question: what do you think of people whose quest is to make bap, as opposed to reaching the BAP level?
Tom Mosher: It is tough to stay motivated long enough and work hard enough to reach that high level if your only source of drive is the eventual acceptance of some Posse. I think footbag is great because ones motivation essentially *has* to be pure because the payback rate simply isn't quick enough for someone of impure desire.
Ken: If you came down with some mysterious illness, which robbed you only of your ability to play footbag (like, you could still use your legs, just not to shred), what would you do?
Tom: I am a passionate guy and I find myself motivated towards achieving alot of different things. I would invest alot of myself into completing the footbag shoe project that I have started even though it would be such a foot-tease. I really don't know if I could ever separate myself from the footbag community, I feel quite strongly attatched to it. Wow.. weird.. I am having lots of trouble thinking of what I would do without footbag, perhaps that means that it fills a huge void in my life. I guess I'd take up tennis and find a nice wife and settle down. I love life alot, there are many ways to enjoy it, even without footbag.. I think.
Ken: Thanks for your time Tom. Any last advice or message you`d like to leave the readers with?
Tom Mosher: Fun comes first. =) Thanks alot for picking me to be interviewed Ken, it's been a really enjoyable experience.
Ken: Thanks again for the interview Tom, good times.
Ken:Hi Tom. Let`s start at the beginning: How did you get into footbag?
Tom Mosher: There was this hacky sack legend dude in my camp when I was tree planting up north and he could do strings of stalls and zoid legovers and stuff and it blew my mind to tiny little bits. I took up stitching right away and made a 2 panel leather sand filled hack and right away started drilling my stalls with another planter friend of mine who was also enthused with hacky sack. We would have drilling sessions often after planting and this was all months before I ever heard the word footbag. I came back from treeplanting and looked up hacky sack tricks on google, like so many others have done, and from there I was changed forever. It took me a few months to finally decide to go hell bent at footbag but at christmas I got lavers from Santa and that sealed the deal.
Ken: Like many footbaggers, you used to be a skateboarder. How would you compare the two cultures?
Tom Mosher: The two cultures share similarities in that those involved respect and recognize that hard work had to have been put in to reach where they are however since skateboarding has reached such massive levels of popularity they no longer have the close-knit feel that we currently enjoy. Because of this two skateboarders passing on the street don't think much however if one shredder spots another it's reason to throw your hands in the air and celebrate! It's not like you can just send an e-mail to Tony Hawk and ask if it's cool to crash on his couch for a night or two while you are in town, however precisely that same thing happens in the footbag community everyday.
Ken: You are famous for radically modifying your shoes. Did you modify your lavers as much as you do your climas? Do you regret any of the modifications you have done?
Tom Mosher: I haven't done any mods that I regret, however the 'silver marker mod' didn't do much but stink. I did all the standard laver mods and removed basically all I could, after the walls were off and the broka was cut I took the time to stitch everything back together so it looked pretty.
Ken: Do you find the broka mod makes a difference?
Tom Mosher: I think it's efficacy is largely determined by the individual players ankle dimensions, some players need it however for some it makes no difference. I find that without it I am very restricted... however this makes sense considering the broka mod effectively removes the ankle support and 'ankle support' is synonymous with 'crank prevention'
Ken: Does Worlds need a novice division?
Tom Mosher: No.. I think the hazy grey area between Intermediate and Open is ambiguous enough as is and already causes enough problems. When I signed up to compete Intermediate at Euros I got hassled by some people who claimed I was sandbagging and that really killed any trace of fun for me so I dropped out of the competition.. I really wish they would have just respected my decision. I wouldn`t want something similar to happen to a new player to the sport if it would end up discouraging them in the long run.
Ken: Before Worlds, you stated that you hoped to win intermediate routines. How did you feel about your performance at Worlds?
Tom Mosher: That was a pretty crushing experience for me to be honest.. I chose not to talk about it in my blog because I didn't want to be a downer. I didn't prepare nearly enough and that led to me not living up to the potential I felt I had within me. Did I let myself down? maybe.. I feel like I let everyone else down for not giving it my all. It was rather terrifying putting myself up on stage in front of so many people that I respect so much only to have them watch me go through the most embarrasing minute and a half of my life - twice! There was basically nothing I enjoyed about that experience other than I can now say I competed at the World Championships of * something *
Ken: Do you think you will compete at worlds next year, or the next year you attend? Has last year`s experience turned you off from competing, or stoked your fire?
Tom Mosher: I`ve asked myself that lots.. It depends... I will not approach it like I did this year, if I choose to compete I intend on going hell balls ass at it and put together something real slick and entertaining that I can lay down with confidence. Also, I will be competing Open at the next World's so I can't just half-ass it. I am torn... hey, doesn't torn look just like tom?? neet
Ken: Indeed. You mentioned not writing about the experience in your blog because you didn`t want it to be "a downer." Your blog is the most read blog on modified... how conscious are you of your readers when you post? Do you feel like you can`t post as personally as you used to, or as others do, because you know so many people will read what you write?
Tom Mosher: I used to not think at all about who was reading it because it didn't seem to matter. I got involved in a relationship and stuff I had written in my blog came back to haunt me and had a real negative effect on our relations. I have been very reserved about what I write in it now because I don't want to upset a few specific sensitive readers... that being said.. I am getting tired of holding back all the insane shit that's been going on in my life lately, I need to get it out of me ASAP. It was odd meeting people in Europe for the first time and then hearing from them that they'd read my whole blog and hence knew ALOT about me whereas I knew nothing of them.. I guess I was okay with it since I should have expected that would happen.. but it was still strange.
Ken: Next question, bit of a softball but: What has been the most triumphant/happiest/satisfying moment of your 2 years with footbag so far?
Tom Mosher: Wow.. that one is actually really tough to field.. I think seeing the elation in the eyes of all the people I`ve helped to learn footbag has been the best part for me, I love sharing this amazing gift with people. It's been fantastically rewarding building my club and helping everyone develop. I feel effing greatful to have found footbag, it's changed me forever in a bounty of positive ways, I can't help but want to spread this pure simple natural human joy with others.
Ken: Fucking hippie. OK, keep your stories of groupies and quint dexes to yourself. On the flip of the last question, and you knew this was coming: what has been the most frustrating/hardest part of your footbag story to date?
Tom Mosher: That one is easy: recovering from injury. I think the single most upsetting moment of my footbag career was one week before Worlds 2004 when I twisted my ankle very badly. I was devastated... I couldn't believe that after all my months of hard work and intense dedication I would go and ruin everything in one disgusting crunching cracking moment. And as we all know, as soon as one side is damaged it is forced to fall behind which instigates my biggest enemy in footbag - one sidedness!
Ken: Any advice on recovering from injury?
Tom Mosher: Take it seriously. Rushing it NEVER works.
Ken: You have thrown a few jams in the last year, notably GLASS, the Erik Chan Birthday jam, and the upcoming KickASS. If you could go back in time to the day when you first thought about throwing a jam, what would you tell yourself?
Tom Mosher: Are you asking me what I would tell myself as advice for throwing a good jam?
Ken: Well, its assumed you`d tell yourself winning lotto numbers, etc. So yeah, pretty much anything you`d tell somebody who is considering throwing a jam, who has no experience organizing.
Tom Mosher: 1) make a pretty logo, 2) tell people it will be alot of fun, 3) hype hype hype! (if it is just a jam and not a tourny you can leave out step 1) it's seriously this easy. Of course you have to pick a suitable place to play, but so many different places can suit that need. And then they come in droves
Ken: What would you have done differently at the first jam you ran?
Tom Mosher: Organized it in the town I lived in. It was a frigging pain in the ass trying to throw GLASS in a town three hours from where I live. We pulled it off but I had to do some serious people juggling. KICKASS is going much more smoothly because I get to sink my tallons into every little detail and make sure it all gets done right.
Ken: What is your favorite footbag event to compete in? Favorite event to watch?
Tom Mosher: It's not an event but I love the game where you do a trick then the next person has to do that trick plus one more and you keep going around the circle adding tricks until nobody can hit the string anymore. The rule I always impose on that game is that each time you get the bag you have to start from the other side. I love watching sick 3 when people actually hit stuff. Oh yeah, and sick 1 can be insane when it works out. When James McCulossdjf from Montreal slammed out Crossfire (atomic gs whirl) at TOFU jam it was incredible, the whole place errupted.
Ken: What is your opinion on self serving?
Tom Mosher: It has a place.. but anyone choosing to use it needs to have a firm grasp on tact. There are MANY instances where it is totally inappropriate, however I think logic is the best guideline. When I am with any new player I *always* serve to them and if I see that they are taking alot of self-serves I politely inform them that it is generally considered kosher to pass the bag to others.
Ken: What do you think about the presence of secret forums on modified?
Tom Mosher: Bad bad bad alll bad. Closing doors to people and drawing lines in the sand never helps build a community. It is disrespectful to those not invited and they (secret forums) really have no place in our community. We are too small of a group to be forming 'cool kid cliques' for any reason, period.
That being said, there is still a place for an all-girls forum, it just doesnt have to be a secret.
Ken: Do you think BAP has a positive influence on the sport now (2005)?
Tom Mosher: It depends on one`s idea of a positive influence... it definitely doesn't have the SAME influence it once did however it certainly gives something for motivated shredders to shoot for and on their quest they often achieve amazing things they never thought possible. Also, as people shoot to reach that level thet wind up pushing the level of the sport to crazy heights, the level of play that is considered standard is constantly getting more and more absurd. So yes, I think it does have a positive effect on the sport.
Ken: More specific question: what do you think of people whose quest is to make bap, as opposed to reaching the BAP level?
Tom Mosher: It is tough to stay motivated long enough and work hard enough to reach that high level if your only source of drive is the eventual acceptance of some Posse. I think footbag is great because ones motivation essentially *has* to be pure because the payback rate simply isn't quick enough for someone of impure desire.
Ken: If you came down with some mysterious illness, which robbed you only of your ability to play footbag (like, you could still use your legs, just not to shred), what would you do?
Tom: I am a passionate guy and I find myself motivated towards achieving alot of different things. I would invest alot of myself into completing the footbag shoe project that I have started even though it would be such a foot-tease. I really don't know if I could ever separate myself from the footbag community, I feel quite strongly attatched to it. Wow.. weird.. I am having lots of trouble thinking of what I would do without footbag, perhaps that means that it fills a huge void in my life. I guess I'd take up tennis and find a nice wife and settle down. I love life alot, there are many ways to enjoy it, even without footbag.. I think.
Ken: Thanks for your time Tom. Any last advice or message you`d like to leave the readers with?
Tom Mosher: Fun comes first. =) Thanks alot for picking me to be interviewed Ken, it's been a really enjoyable experience.
Ken: Thanks again for the interview Tom, good times.
-
hacksterbator
- Washed-Up Child Star
- Posts: 4141
- Joined: 12 Jul 2003 18:33
- Location: Winterpeg, Manisnowba
- Contact:
Monday, October 10th, 2005
National holiday meant it was a 3 day weekend, but I woke up to see it pouring rain out. I think the high for the day didn`t crack 20 Celsius either, so I felt like the prospect of a good shred today was slim to none. The previous two days were wet and grey, but shreddable, and nobody bothered making those sessions. So I was ready for my last (3 day!) weekend before Australia to be a footbag bust.
Luckily however, people got a bit more motivated and a session went down in Nakano. Nakano is our rain spot, and it`s far from ideal. It`s small, the floors are slippery, and we compete for space with a bunch of dancers. But it beats the hell out of not shredding at all.
I make it to the session and am amazed to see 10 people shredding! Off the top of my head: Tencho, Takumi, Hatsu, Nari from Shizuoka, Kussy, Bunko (when was the last time 2 shreditas were at a shred?), Paul, Tosh and one other guy whose name escapes me. Not a bad turnout for such an ugly day.
I hadn`t played with Tencho in ages. I thought he had a particularly good session, though nothing really stands out. It was funny playing with him, because while everybody else had seen me slowly add vortex and dynos to my repetoire, Tencho hadn`t seen me play in over a month, and so was totally surprised whenever I threw in any of those components.
The highlight for me was having success stepping out of my ps whirls. Before the session, I had only stepped out of ps whirl once before: ps whirl to blur over a year ago. Today though, I managed to hit ps whirl to blur on both sides, as well as ps whirl to ripwalk on both sides! I was real stoked because they felt controlled and clean, and getting the links on both sides was a plus.
Other random highlights for me: pixie leggy atom smasher. pixie flux (sailing osis) again. Frenzy both sides. Blurry whirl to spinning osis bsos. A string that started tripwalk-fog, then had the other tripwalk to blur, then had drifter-spinning osis bsos all in a run. Schmoe ending on inside, to ss swirl. I felt I did well with my mental game throughout. I recognized that I was lucky to play at all that day, and I also was pretty aware that it would be my last session with the Japanese crew until November, when I will only have at best 1 or 2 more sessions before saying my final goodbye.
Bunko improved a lot I thought. Both toes look more comfortable, pdx mirage is pretty consistent, and she is using her flip clipper more. Came close to pixie clipper-ducking clipper. Osis occasionally. Hatsu hit atom to legbeater, which was sweet. Takumi had a decent session, but seemed a step slow. Still, long strings with good variety. The floor at Nakano didn`t help anybody. Saw him hit spinning whirl-mobius-pdx blender super clean. At the end of the session he put in some attempts at montage and gangsta, and gangsta looks promising.
Towards the end of the session it was real cold and everybody looked exhausted. We closed out the session with 4 or 5 games of foursquare... I left at the beginning of the 5th game, so maybe they played even longer. It was a real good scene. Usually 6 people played, so there was incentive to really play well. Much laughing as always. I won the first game, Hatsu won the 2nd or 3rd, and Bunko won a game too
I`m pretty sure that`s the first time a Japanese shredita has won a 4 square game, so big props.
Before heading out I told everybody I`d see them in mid-November when I get back from Australia. They all wished me luck, and I headed home. I definitely feel good I was able to shred with everybody before leaving. If nobody shredded today, I would have been going to Australia on a down note, a wasted 3 day weekend where nobody showed to shred even when the weather was conducive. Instead, I`m going to Australia with another fun session with the Tokyo crew under my belt, the good vibe of 4 square games fresh in my mind. I think it`s key to leave your local scene with a good shred before embarking on future footbag journies.
National holiday meant it was a 3 day weekend, but I woke up to see it pouring rain out. I think the high for the day didn`t crack 20 Celsius either, so I felt like the prospect of a good shred today was slim to none. The previous two days were wet and grey, but shreddable, and nobody bothered making those sessions. So I was ready for my last (3 day!) weekend before Australia to be a footbag bust.
Luckily however, people got a bit more motivated and a session went down in Nakano. Nakano is our rain spot, and it`s far from ideal. It`s small, the floors are slippery, and we compete for space with a bunch of dancers. But it beats the hell out of not shredding at all.
I make it to the session and am amazed to see 10 people shredding! Off the top of my head: Tencho, Takumi, Hatsu, Nari from Shizuoka, Kussy, Bunko (when was the last time 2 shreditas were at a shred?), Paul, Tosh and one other guy whose name escapes me. Not a bad turnout for such an ugly day.
I hadn`t played with Tencho in ages. I thought he had a particularly good session, though nothing really stands out. It was funny playing with him, because while everybody else had seen me slowly add vortex and dynos to my repetoire, Tencho hadn`t seen me play in over a month, and so was totally surprised whenever I threw in any of those components.
The highlight for me was having success stepping out of my ps whirls. Before the session, I had only stepped out of ps whirl once before: ps whirl to blur over a year ago. Today though, I managed to hit ps whirl to blur on both sides, as well as ps whirl to ripwalk on both sides!
I was real stoked because they felt controlled and clean, and getting the links on both sides was a plus. Other random highlights for me: pixie leggy atom smasher. pixie flux (sailing osis) again. Frenzy both sides. Blurry whirl to spinning osis bsos. A string that started tripwalk-fog, then had the other tripwalk to blur, then had drifter-spinning osis bsos all in a run. Schmoe ending on inside, to ss swirl. I felt I did well with my mental game throughout. I recognized that I was lucky to play at all that day, and I also was pretty aware that it would be my last session with the Japanese crew until November, when I will only have at best 1 or 2 more sessions before saying my final goodbye.
Bunko improved a lot I thought. Both toes look more comfortable, pdx mirage is pretty consistent, and she is using her flip clipper more. Came close to pixie clipper-ducking clipper. Osis occasionally. Hatsu hit atom to legbeater, which was sweet. Takumi had a decent session, but seemed a step slow. Still, long strings with good variety. The floor at Nakano didn`t help anybody. Saw him hit spinning whirl-mobius-pdx blender super clean. At the end of the session he put in some attempts at montage and gangsta, and gangsta looks promising.
Towards the end of the session it was real cold and everybody looked exhausted. We closed out the session with 4 or 5 games of foursquare... I left at the beginning of the 5th game, so maybe they played even longer. It was a real good scene. Usually 6 people played, so there was incentive to really play well. Much laughing as always. I won the first game, Hatsu won the 2nd or 3rd, and Bunko won a game too
I`m pretty sure that`s the first time a Japanese shredita has won a 4 square game, so big props. Before heading out I told everybody I`d see them in mid-November when I get back from Australia. They all wished me luck, and I headed home. I definitely feel good I was able to shred with everybody before leaving. If nobody shredded today, I would have been going to Australia on a down note, a wasted 3 day weekend where nobody showed to shred even when the weather was conducive. Instead, I`m going to Australia with another fun session with the Tokyo crew under my belt, the good vibe of 4 square games fresh in my mind. I think it`s key to leave your local scene with a good shred before embarking on future footbag journies.