Fanzine

[FootbagGuru]

Hey Ken! was nice to meet you man, very very impressive shred...hope to play again soon! cant wait to read your write-up!

[C-Fan]

Rochestah Write Up Part One

A little background before we begin.

After 3.5 years in Japan, I came back to the States in November. I spent most of my life in NYC, but my folks moved to Arizona while I was in Japan, so instead of returning to NY, I came to Arizona. I was enjoying my time in Arizona, but I don't really know anybody here, and only played footbag with other people on 2 occasions. The thought of spending the holidays alone just seemed too horrible to consider, so I decided I'd hit one of the New Year's Jams and ring in the new year with footbag.

I did consider the Chicago NYJ, which was appealing because it was closer and cheaper to get to, but Rochester won out pretty easily since I'd also get to see more friends and my sister. Before I had made a decision, I had contacted Matt Cross to get more info about the jam, to influence my decision. A couple weeks passed as I scrambled to get tickets and feel out people's schedules, so when Matt PMed me again to see if I was coming, I had already bought tickets. Tickets to Rochester were too expensive, but my frantic mailing had presented an even better alternative: visit my sister in Jersey, then get a ride up with Jon Schneider. Around this time I had also injured my right knee, so I wasn't even 100% sure if I could play footbag by New Year's, but I was already determined to go to NY/NJ.

I'd always wanted to make a surprise guest appearance at a tournament, and I figured "what better time than now?" Especially since it'd be my first jam/tourney in the US in over 4 years. So when Matt asked me if I could make it, I sent him a very ambiguous PM:

Hey Matt,

Props again for organizing the event. It really looks like it will be awesome. You can imagine how badly I want to go.

I looked online and it looks like there are no flights that'll get me there for less than $400. My knee has also been bothering me lately, and I don't want to rush the recovery. Life is full of surprises.

Good work on the event, and good luck with the event.
Don't worry, we'll shred together sooner than later.
Thanks for everything.
Best,
Ken
[.

Notice that I never said I wasn't coming. Everything I said is truthful too. I did want to go badly. There were no flights to Rochester for under $400 (but there were cheaper flights to Jersey). My knee was in bad shape, but that was sort of incidental. "Life is full of surprises" is a true statement... I just wasn't referring to my knee Finally, we did shred together sooner than later.

Deception in place, I changed my user location in my profile from "Tucson AZ" to "Shangri-La," based on a song by the Kinks. It's about being where you are supposed to be, and knowing who you are, and I figured that a trip to play footbag fit that description, and would be more truthful than Tucson.

Once in NY, I only played footbag once, with Stan and Bruce in the city. I blogged it, but didn't mention where I played, or that I played with other people. Lots of funny things happened at that session, so it was frustrating not blogging it, but I had to stick to my plan.

Finally, the 31st rolled around. I met up with Jon in New Brunswick and after a hug he showed me his pimpin' ride: a car with Jersey vanity plates that read: FOOTBAG Too cool. I talk to AIvanyo in the car some, then Bruce and Stan meet up, and we hit the road. The trip up was a lot of fun. Typical NYFA silliness, lots of joking, lots of quoting Simpsons/Futurama/Family Guy, and just a ton of laughing. We were pretty lucky with the weather, and the trip really flew. Once in Rochester, we hit the hotel to drop our stuff off. I narrowly avoided running into Katya and the rest of new NYFA, which was a close call. We toyed with the idea of going out and buying masks so we could enter the jam incognito, but we didn't have time, and I figured it'd draw more attention than I wanted.

We hit Bush Mango, and I kept my baseball hat down low, and my hoodie up, and discreetly walked to a corner where I started changing. I peeked up from under my brim once to see Flash pointing me out to Jorden, and I brought my index finger to my lips to get them to keep my presence a secret.

Literally less than 30 seconds later, 2 guys jump over 2 rows of folding chairs and slam into me grabbing me!

...to be continued...

[Jdigges]

hah thats awesome ken! i saw you walk in really discreetly, and i was like is that ken? and i didn't believe it, because i had never met you before, and i still thought you lived in japan. until you were jumped, i was sure haha. i was so stoked to see you at this jam!

[C-Fan]

Raw Chestah Part Dieux

As I continued to discreetly change into shred gear, I remember thinking: "I wonder if people won't recognize me because I'm wearing G-Units now..."

I promptly received my answer by being bowled over by Matt Cross and Tom Mosher, tackled by hugs. I'd been made!

I made a sheepish wave to everybody who looked our way to see what the commotion was about, and then Matt Cross made some sort of announcement on the mic that I was there. I had trouble understanding anything from the mic for some reason, but I felt flattered and embarassed at the same time that my arrival caused such a stir

Once I got my gear on, I hopped into a random circle to warm up. Waylon Lew and Dan ? (not Cyr). I was surprised to find that I warmed up pretty quick, despite sitting in a car for 6+ hours. I played wearing a kolosport shirt with a Jason Kidd throwback jersey over it, and black gloves. As loyal blog readers may remember, I have awful circulation, and my body has trouble warming up during winter. The gloves actually helped a lot.

I did some circle hopping, and played a few minutes with Jorden before the sight of my "thes" made him ill, and he had to sit out. He really looked out of it, I felt bad for the kid. You're at a footbag jam on New Year's Eve, and you can't play? Sucks. Thankfully though, he got better the next day and we got to play. But we'll get there later. I walked around and shredded with a bunch of people I'd never met, like Chris Dean and Pat Tallon. Lots of talent in that area. I remember being very impressed at how clean Pat's whirrs were. Dexes way above the ankle, a pleasure to watch. I signed up for competition, and even though I'd only prepared for Shred 30, I signed up for all the events, cause I figured I should try and help put on a show.

Competition kicked off pretty soon, and I didn't watch much of it at all. I couldn't quite hear Matt's voice, so I wasn't sure when I was up, so I just made a point to stay warm throughout. I think the first event was Sick One. I hadn't prepared anything ahead of time, but I had hit pixie diving torque (pixie zulu torque) earlier that night, so I figured I'd try for that. Officially, players had 7 attempts to hit a trick, but there was some confusion, so I only ended up with 6 attempts. D'oh! It worked out fine though, cause I hit frantic eclipse during one of my first attempts, so at least I hit something. I footed pixie zulu torque a couple times, but couldn't seal it. I felt happy though that I still managed to hit a cool trick during my turn. I saw Pat Tallon hit alpine pigbeater which was pretty cool, and Flash hit fairy ss symp dlo. I'm not sure what other people hit, but hopefully somebody will put out a video sometime. Pat ended up winning Sick Trick.

I think the next event was... man I can't even remember now. There was a Weird Trick contest, where you had 3 tries to hit a weird trick. I thought that was a pretty cool comp. Chris Dean hit "doof" which is like the dragon variant of Monster. Very very cool. Matt Cross hit 3 tricks within 3 tries, including the patented ass-stall. I hit WHAT?!? on my 2nd try, and had ripcurling dragon off my foot on my 3rd go. I'm just happy I hit something. Jon Schneider didn't compete at all, which is a shame cause I bet he could pull off something really wacky. I'm not sure who/what won this event. The crowd dug it, and it moved fast.

Sick3 was a lot of fun for me. Again, I hadn't prepared anything, but for some reason it's an event I feel real comfortable in. I had a couple funny tries where I messed up combos. One try, I hit flurry-parkwalk-pdx torque (I was going for flurry-darkwalk-something) and the bag came up perfectly after the torque, and I missed the handcatch! I just ran my hand through my hair as if nothing happened... I did manage to land a combo pretty soon off the bat: alpine leg-fog-pixie diving eclipse! Felt like a cute combo, and it felt real clean throughout. My final attempt at a combo I messed up, so I just played out of it with a BOP, then did a string of tricks, waltzing out of the competition area while still playing. A good exit.

For Shred30 I took off my JKidd jersey. This was the one event I was taking seriously, because I had been practicing for it, and wanted to set a new personal best in competition. My record had been 206, and my next best score was something like 196.7 at Worlds. I went up, found a spot with the best light, then went at it... only to drop on my 4th trick! Luckily I didn't panic... at Worlds I dropped on my 1st trick during the first round, so I knew I could recover in situations like that. I stuck to my planned Shred for the first 24 contacts or so, then improvised a bit at the end. I finished with one drop, 2 five adds, and likely over 25 uniques. I finished on bedwetter. Overall, I felt satisfied with my performance. I didn't choke, and I did well with uniques. I think I ended up scoring 202, which isn't a new personal best, but it's still over 200, a mark I'd only reached once before. So I felt really good about it. I'd like to see it on video, if anybody has it, just so I can evaluate my perfomance better, and double check the score. I watched Kovacs' and Flash's Shred30s, since they went after me. I think both of them also only had 1 drop, but I'm not 100% about it. If so, that's pretty good. The top 3 Shred30s only had a drop a piece, and Flash and I scored over 200. Flash ended up with 207, good for first. EDIT: Turns out the scores were miscounted, and Flash ended up scoring 189, taking 2nd.

Once competition finished, we shredded for a little bit more, but we had to be out of the place by 11 pm, which took lots of us by surprise. Since I planned on playing pretty hard the next day, I figured it probably was for the best that Day 1 ended early. I was also in a good mood because I felt like I competed real well. I feel like I turned a corner in 2005 in terms of competing. This was my best year at Worlds, and in general I feel like I'm getting the hang of competition a lot better.

We left Bush Mango a little after 11, so the plan was to go get a quick shower at the hotel, then go to Matt's place to ring in the New Year.

More later...

[Anz]

in Jorden's blog

ps. man I hate poetry with english words...

Kiitos Suomi.
Moy moy Muumi.
Iso hupi!

I must give you props for this, I bursted to laugh when I saw it

[C-Fan]

New Year's Eve 2005

Reborn after my shower, I met up with Jon S, Bruce, Stan, AI in the parking lot, where we debated how to get to Matt Cross' place. After looking at the maps, we came to the (erroneous) conclusion that Matt's place was very walkable, and so we decided to walk it rather than drive, so Jon could drink. Flash joined us, and off we trekked, carrying our beers and joking around. After 20 minutes of walking, we started checking our watches nervously, seeing the minute hand creeping toward the new year. Finally, I poked my head into a restaurant and asked where Matt's street was, and the guy told me it was over the river plus a few blocks

It soon became apparent that we wouldn't make it to the party in time for the new year. And so I celebrated the ringing-in on a snowy street of Rochester, exchanging a hug with Stan and cracking open our Golden Monkey beers in the street. The contrast with last year's New Year's couldn't have been greater. Last year, I rang in the New Year on a beach in New Zealand with Floyd Morgan, John Kingi, a bonfire, and a bunch of underage girls. I reflected that the important thing was that I started the New Year with good friends and good beer. 10 minutes into the New Year, we FINALLY made it to Matt's place.

Props again to Matt for throwing a party at his place. Parties is what makes tournaments worthwhile. I really enjoyed this party, cause there were some non-footbaggers present as well, and I had a good mix of talking to old friends and making new ones. I had a good long NBA conversation with Hugh Martin, which was fun to geek out about. I also had a nice conversation with Peng Peng about our international childhoods. I traded a Golden Monkey to Flash for a bottle of his Maple Porter, which was quite nice. I watched some beer pong, wandered about, and bowed out early. I really wanted to play well the next day, so I only had 3 beers and figured sleep would be useful. When Vince Bradley announced he was driving back to the hotel, I jumped at the opportunity, and savored the ride home. The memory of The Walk was still fresh in my mind after all. Back at the hotel I talked to Rizz for a while, and then Jon and the rest of the crew came back. The original plan was to split a bed with Jon, but he looked pretty buzzed, and I was afraid that our mutual loneliness might lead us past friendly spooning, and into the dangerous realm of coyote ugly remorse. I tracked down Bruce and Stan's room instead, and split the bed with Stan, listening to Bruce fart all night. Ah, New Year's with NYFA

New Year's Day, 2006
Next morning I felt really springy. Everybody had a slow start getting up and ready, but soon enough we got 2 carloads ready to go get breakfast at a diner. My first meal of 2006? 2 sunny side up eggs, 10 oz steak medium rare, and a side of toast. Washed down with chocolate milk. Jon looked like death warmed-over, and had a staring contest with his food I tried to shake him from his stupor by blowing a straw cover at him, blowdart style, but it was real weak. Jon returned the favor, but he must have the lungs of a tenor, cause that shit hurt!

Bush-Mango didn't open til 2, so we killed an hour with the Buffalo crew just playing hacky slack outside, which was lots of fun. There was like 10 of us just trying to get hacks, which was harder than you'd think. Granted, lots of us were wearing boots/non-footbag shoes, but still. I had lots of fun blaming Pat McGurran everytime the bag dropped, even if he was nowhere near it

Finally, the venue was open. I warmed up with Flash and Cheebs, both who warm up real quickly. This was a real fun circle. I think it was my only time playing with Kovacs all weekend. Vortex to spinning swirl was cool, and just overall real nice bothsided combos. Very strong style. Flash played his usual stylish self, but with more big tricks thrown in than usual. Some inspins were a nice addition to his game.

After a while Cheebs bowed out, and Jorden tagged in. This was likely my favorite circle of the whole tournament... I really like Jorden and Flash's games, and to be in a 3 man circle with them really was a treat. Great way to start off the year. The bad thing about Jorden is that he hits so many huge tricks and combos in all of his runs, that nothing really stands out. It's like, if I did a long run which had bigwalk in it, people would remember the bigwalk. But Jorden will do these runs with so much good stuff in it, and the runs are so long, that when they finish, you kinda are just shellshocked. Other times, he'll hit something huge out of nowhere and ask if its clean, but since you didn't expect him to try stepping diving merlin, you don't even know. Crazy crazy stuff, and super consistent. One combo that really stood out for me was double blender-whirlwind-void.

I didn't do lots of big tricks in my runs on Sunday, but I felt happy with my 4 add combos and alpine tricks. Flip pixie felt real natural, and I was happy that I was using it in my game w/o thinking too hard. Bed-toe whirling swirl first try felt cool, bs bed, symp whirling eclipse, stepping egg to paradon swirl was a first, and symp blazing infinity to pdx torque to start a string were all nice highlights for me. This circle was the most fun all weekend, but also the most draining. Once Scott left, I bowed out, and just did random circle for the rest of the day, til I literally had trouble standing. That's the way I like it though; leaving a tournament with no more bullets in the gun.

Lots of people impressed me with their shred at this tourney. Tom Mosher gets so much better every single time I see him, it's really inspiring. I wish I played with him earlier in the day, cause by the time we had a circle, I was already spent, and had nothing. I think the "new" shredder (somebody I hadn't met before) who impressed me the most at this tourney was Chris Dean. Real consistent, good links, good style, great form. Stuff like atomic drifter to blur no problem, big tricks thrown in casually, and a good vibe in the circle. I was also encouraged at the sight of so many promising young kickers, like Pat McGurran and Josh Lewis. So strange, being one of the old timers on the scene.

I did a round of goodbyes before heading out, thanking Cross again, cause none of this would have happened without his work. Seriously big big props. I hate saying goodbyes, but with footbaggers, you'll usually see them at the next tourney, so it was pretty light. NYFA piled into Jon's FOOTBAG car, and cruised down.

Overall, one of my best New Year's, and one of the most fun Jams I've ever attended. It was great meeting everybody and shredding, I hope we do it again next year!

[Skippy!]

Thanks for posting all this stuff, Ken. Even though I was there, it was still neat to read it how you saw it. It was really fun watching you shred in competition, and playing in a circle with you was neat too. Your style gets me so pumped about footbag. Hopefully we'll shred again!

[C-Fan]

Your style gets me so pumped about footbag.

Wow, what a nice compliment! Thanks Dan, it was definitely cool meeting you and shredding.

My second pair of eBay G-Units arrived today! I really can't get over how cool eBay can be... 2 pairs of brand new, in-the-box, beautiful black g-units, delivered right to your door, for $39.99(S+H included) a piece. Incredible. Today I went to the pool to swim and rehab my knee. Did a few laps of pool-shredding, which was fun. I'm half tempted to sneak in a light shred before sundown today, but probably shouldn't push it.

Yesterday (January 8th, 2006) I played some footbag. I had a light session early in the day, where I mostly did easy strings with my Ilja bag. I think it will become a nice bag, but definitely a little too big for my taste. Maybe I should trade it. Didn't hit anything notable during this session, but it did feel nice to just play casually.

Later that day, I had another session, where I decided to go for new tricks and forego long strings. I picked up atomic ducking (one side only) last month, and had gotten comfortable enough with it that I even used it during competition at the Rochester Jam. I got to thinking: "if I can duck my atomic set, I bet I could dive it too." After a few minutes of adjusting to the new motion, I started feeling like I was getting the hang of it. My ducks and dives are pretty equally strong, but diving after atomic felt really awkward at first. Soon enough though, I managed to hit atomic diving butterfly (like alpine legbeater, but with a dive instead of a duck), and I hit it so solidly, that I sealed it with a paradox torque Yeah! Shortly thereafter, I hit it again, sealed with pdlo-pixie butterfly-blur-blah blah.

Encouraged by the new set/trick, I set my mind to hitting more tricks out of the set. Pretty soon, I had hit all the following tricks with a dive in the middle: legbeater, tapdown, eggplant, atomic eclipse. After hitting tapdown with a dive in it, I realized that I had never hit alpine tapdown, so I tried it and got it within a couple tries. I sealed all of these tricks with short runs, usually including one or two "hard" tricks in it, like flurry, pdx torque, fog, blurriest, etc. With all the new tricks under my belt, I decided to try atomic diving mirage, like alpine atom but diving-style. I remember Jeremy Mirken writing about this trick, and saying it felt like it had "head paradox" in it. After a few tries, I sort of understood what he meant. I don't think it's worth more than 5 adds, but it definitely is a very awkward trick. Despite the trickiness, I managed to seal a good one into a small run. So I finished the shred with 6 new alpine atomic tricks.

Satisfied with my new atomic diving stuff, I started working on pixie spinning. I don't know why I did... I was just taken by a whim I guess. Up until yesterday, the only pixie spinning trick I had hit was pixie spinning mirage, and never that controlled. Yesterday, I thought about the set a little differently. I focussed on keeping my pixie leg real straight, and bringing it down before spinning. I also made a point to not try for a real high set, and I also sort of envisioned the set as a little to my side, like I'd set a pixie ss whirl. Using this method, I hit pixie spinning mirage really solidly. I also hit a bunch of pixie spinning tricks for my first time. Pixie spinning butterfly, pixie spinning osis, pixie spinning clipper, pixie merkon, and pixie spinning eclipse! I kinda wonder if anybody had hit that trick before. I often wonder about eclipse tricks... not a lot of people do eclipses, and those who do often aren't the people who do weird sets. So whenever I hit something like frantic/sonic/atomic gyro/pixie spinning/ducking inspinning/etc eclipse, I wonder if I was the first or not. Not that it really matters, but you DO wonder, ya know?

I felt real satisfied with my session. 11 new tricks in 90 minutes is pretty good for an old timer like me. You don't expect sessions like that after playing 8.5 years. I continued to mess around anyway, and put in a couple attempts at phoenix-fog repeat. My best attempt yielded phoenix-fog-phoenix..... blur Oh well. I decided I'd close out the session by putting in a couple silly attempts at Johnny Vodka. To my complete amazement, I actually footed it! Some would say I even hit it, but when it came up off my clipper, I fumbled it a few times like a hot potato, and dropped it Gah! I gave it a few more attempts, and incredibly, i managed to hit it! Pixie mobius! My 12th new trick of the session under my belt, I called it a day and went in for a well-earned shower.

[C-Fan]

Ugh, just learned that the other 2 guys who play footbag in Arizona won't be going to CSS7, so my chances of going (driving up with others) have just plummetted I looked into plane fares, and it's like $250 plus to go there. I can do RT to Tokyo for $500, so my jobless ass is leaning F* dat. I suppose there's the bus option, but I dunno if I'm that hardcore anymore. 23 hours on a bus... and at $154 it ain't exactly cheap either.

Crap, I live in Arizona, 1 state away from the biggest tourney in the Americas, and it looks like I won't be able to go This blows really hard.

I had a good shred today, but this news bums me out so much, I'll blog it tomorrow. Fuckness.

EDIT: checked out Southwest flights. Their cheapest option is $270.

[NotHisRealName]

Yo ken

I am at gareths and i am watching the footage he took of you and jeremy when you were in brisbane for the milo demos. Your style is radness man.

keep up the good work.


Oh yeah it is hagesy signed in as gareth.

[max]

I think it will become a nice bag, but definitely a little too big for my taste. Maybe I should trade it.

Hey Ken, I'd suggest you keep the bag. I have a couple of big fat plush bags with me. I don't use them very often but they are just magic if you're going for some long dexless strings (think ducking / diving / spinning run with lots of osii). For the record, I call these bags lon bags because that's the kind of bags Lon likes playing with. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

[Jdigges]

Yea i really like larger plushy bags, as well as ilja bags. I can't imagine how a larger ilja would break in. The ilja i have was soooo dreamy that i could marry it...until it died...again. I can stitch it up, but like 5 of the panels have a bunch of not holes, but dents in the facile. i estimated that after a couple session there will be a bunch of holes in it. So i figured i'd just invest in a new one.

Thanks alot for the write-ups on the Rochestah jam. It was really cool seeing your perspective of it. Huge props on the new alpine and pixie spinning tricks . The only atomic ducking trick i've hit was alpine legbeater. Since then both of my atomic sets have become much stronger. you inspired me to try some new ones . im pretty sure i can hit atomic diving mirage, and alpine atomsmasher. HUGE PROPS on Johnny Vodka, i never knew thats what that was called. I always thought that was such a styley trick.

Best of luck to you in the new year man! i really hope we get to chill and shred together again. It was awesome meeting you at rochester!

[Asmus]

12 new tricks in 90 minutes. Thats nice even if you had only been playing for a year.
I think its awesome that you are doing eclipses.
I only sealed it once or twice on my goodside but its definitely a trick Im going to use a lot when i get better.
Keep pushing the game and your game!

[C-Fan]

That was a fun shred in Brisbane... too bad you couldn't make it down. Are there any plans to upload that footage? If not, maybe you could just give it to Nic Bathgate when he's over for Aussie Nats. For some reason or other, footage of me never seems to make it online. It's really kind of weird.

My Ilja bag is pretty nice, and I'd hold onto it if I had other usable bags, but I'm not real happy with any of my bags at the moment, so ideally I'd like to trade with somebody for like, a lonn mini or a felix or something. My mini-Abshire is serviceable, but after playing with a couple nice bags at Rochester (Lesh bags, Mosher bags), I definitely want something perfect, not just "serviceable."

Yesterday I did pool rehab, but still had the urge to shred, so I put in a small but productive session right before sundown. The goal of the session was to continue working on my pixie spinning set; make it more efficient, play in and out of pixie spinning tricks, and just overall check to see the previous shred wasn't a fluke. By all accounts, my shred was a success.

I also realized that 2 days ago I also hit atomic diving ss mirage for my first time. So I actually hit thirteen new tricks on Sunday, not 12. Thirteen new tricks in a session is very likely a record for me.

My first new pixie spinning link was: pixie spinning butterfly-pdx torque. Personally, when it comes to difficult sets, I think it's more impressive being able to play into them, rather than out of them, so I spent most of the session trying to sandwich pixie spins into combos. Blur-dimwalk-blizzard-pixie spinning osis to kick off a good string which had something like 7 unique tripless in the string. Flurry to pixie spinning eclipse would have been supercool, except that I eclipsed the bag right into my face. I think I heard a hummingbird laugh at me Atomic diving ss mirage to pixie spinning clipper felt great, considering that both tricks were only a day old My best combo was probably: fog-pixie spinning clipper-pdx torque to start a string. Played in and out of it. I also started strings with pixie merkon and pyro mirage again, so I ended up hitting all of my pixie spinning tricks from the day before (except pixie mobius) once again, but more controlled.

I also did a few runs without pixie spins. One of the combos I was happiest about wasn't even that hard: barfly-reaper. Both tricks felt really deep and controlled, and I just think it looks really cool. The other combo I was happy about, was when I hit this midstring: drifter-duck clip-far swirl-duck clip-duck clip-far swirl. Again, not super-hard, but felt stylish.

I've been a little bit down lately for several reasons, so I'm real thankful that I'm healthy, I live in good weather, and I can footbag everyday. I'm really glad I have footbag as such a positive part of my life.

[david]

Hey. Good writeup of the jam. I have a lonn you might be interested in, it's still pretty new. PM if your intrested.

david

[brian relly]

OMG OMG please come! It is going to be a suuuuper ill jam. Maybe if we get some good sponsors we could even help out with that plane ticket

[C-Fan]

I really want to go to CSS, but there's still lots of variables which may affect my chances of attending. All I know is that it sucks I live in a neighboring state, and can't get there for a reasonable price (can't find anything for less than $200) I'll definitely keep you abreast of my plans, both here in the blog and pm.

The ilja bag thing, I'm still waiting on what people offer, and I'll make a decision from there.

I played a little footbag today, but it was weird, I wasn't that into it. Maybe cause I've got a lot on my mind. In any case, "adds on the shoes." Not too much notable stuff hit. Pdx whirl-spin clip repeat to kick off a string. Darkwalk bsos, with a phx thrown in the string. Pix spin osis, pix spin butterfly, pixie merkon, and pixie gyro mirage again today. I also hit a new trick: pixie gyro clipper. Definitely an awkward trick. The session highlight was probably a string with toe, bubba, and pdx eggbeater all bs in os, first try.

I gotta say I'm overall pretty happy with my game. I'd like to hit longer strings with more variety and fives more regularly. That said, even bad/mediocre sessions these days aren't really bad. I still hit some good tricks, I usually get at least 2 or 3 strings I'm pleased with. Usually I hit a new link or two that I like. I think it's important to remember and appreciate the progress I've made, so I stay positive, and don't get down on myself needlessly. So my good sessions are good, and my bad sessions are... OK. Not a bad place to be.

[quadgun]

I might be coming to Arizona in April ... I don't know where in Arizona ... but in Arizona ... i'll let you know if that happens

[C-Fan]

I just saw my Rochester NYJ Shred30 video. On the whole, not too bad. I didn't choke, and it likely is my 2nd best Shred 30 in competition to date. Still, 26 uniques is too low. A couple more unique 4s would have guaranteed a new personal best. But yeah, overall I can't complain.

Raw Chestah Shred 30 calculation

Ken Somolinos
31 contacts
1 drop
12 three adds
16 four adds
2 five adds

110 total adds.
3.5484 add ratio
26 uniques

Total: 202.26 points.

EDIT: I was just looking at the Shred30 video from Rochester, and noticed that the timecount on Scott's Shred was weird. My understanding was that the time counter starts on the first add, and the add count starts on the first guiltless trick. By these standards, I calculated:

Flash Bevier
30 contacts
1 drop
13 3s
14 4s
2 5s
3.5 ratio
105 adds
24 uniques

Score: 189?

Chris Kovacs
29 contacts
1 drop


Am I miscounting something? I'm starting the timer on the first toe stall, and ending the count on the 2nd ps whirl. Is my math wrong?

[cd]

oh hey i just saw this post, but i just replied in the rochester video thread about this. I'm glad that my new scoring is almost identical to yours, except that you have one extra (non-unique) 3-add than I counted. Did you count the butterfly that he dropped on?

It's only the difference between a 186 and 189 anyway, no big deal. Thanks for clearing this up.

edit: ok i found my mistake. i omitted a butterfly. 189 exactly.