Sole Purpose Portland Footblog

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 13 Jul 2006 15:26

Hurt my ribs two days ago and had to go to the hospital. It looks like I'll be fine but for a while I thought I punctured a lung... not the best of times...

It turns out that I just pulled a muscle that was making my rib poke my lungs every time I the muscle (to move my right arm, breathing deeply or even exhaling past a certain point would make it hurt) Anyway, I can't do any physical activity for a while (especially footbag) but I'll be back in action soon.

I love footbag and all the people I've met through it, I almost cried when I thought I may not be able to play anymore. Footbag is a way of life for me, and if I ever had to quit I'd still be a big part of the scene, but there would be a piece of me missing.

sen · Post by **sen** » 13 Jul 2006 15:28

I read that twice... or is it there twice?

Anyways, I hope your recovery goes well!!

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 13 Jul 2006 21:11

Good luck with healing. Injuries blow chunks.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 19 Jul 2006 12:21

I'm better! Not all the way better, just enough to do some basic shred. Some things are still out of the question shred wise:

no 5 add moves
no 4 adds that require lots of movement and/or arm flailing (P drifter, vortex, spinning ducking anything, gyro DLO, torque, and blender)
NO FLIP SWIRLS (I tried this earlier and almost re-injured myself)

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 19 Jul 2006 17:04

Hey Nick. Sorry to hear about your injury. If I may be so bold as to offer some advice: PLEASE do not footbag for at least another 2 weeks! Seriously, just lay off. I know how not playing can burn your mind, but it`s sooooo easy to re-injure yourself during the healing process. Trust me, its better to take your time healing (really laying off shred completely) than to try coming back too early and getting re-injured worse. I still wear Grant Hill`s jersey to remind myself of this, to be careful for the sake of future potential.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 31 Jul 2006 12:40

So I took Ken's advice, and I'm quite glad that I did. I took 2 weeks compleatly off, and last week I started to do some minor freestyle. i don't hurt at all anymore unless I do something that is really wild (movement wise) then I get a little bit of pain while I breathe deeply. For the first two sessions after I got back into it, my style was suffering. I felt choppy, and I couldn't hit anything good, but after a while I got most if it back.

On Sunday I went downtown and met a friend with his Didgerydo (sp? I have no f'ing clue...). that was great fun, we played together and he got like $30 from some guys passing buy. It was great practice for the two minute timed becuase he would do 5 or 6 minute songs and anytime I would drop it, I'd pick it back up and keep going so that he didn't have to stop. Then, after he left, Red called and said that he and Brian were playing at Pioneer Square. So I headed down there to shred with them some more. I had some good long combos, not too bad. The best thign though is my style is back to where it was flow wise, and now I can hit harder moves again.

I hit a new 5 5's: Sspinning ducking osis > PS Whirl > spinning whirl > fog > Alpine Fairy beater (there has to be a better name for that... even fairy ducking butterfly doesn't sound that great)

I'm starting to play every day again in preperation for the US Opens. I also decided to go to church with my girlfriend on sundays (not the US open suday though, unless it starts later in the day.)

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 02 Aug 2006 10:07

I got sorta depressed and sorta angry last night and had a crazy good sesh. It was only 45 minutes long, but it was sweet. here's some highlights:

It seemed that I was already warm when I started. I was able to hit my spiffy warm up drill fisrt try (butter > infinity > infinity butter > rpt > infinity > whirl > rpt > then the entire combo with drifters instead of infinity) into about 40 infinities. Then for the next string I was already shredding guiltless for 30 contacts. Then I did a 13 contact tripless run. Theis is after 5 minutes of picking up my footbag to start playing...

I hit some cool new combos with spinning ducking osis (sdo):
sdo - blurry whirl bs
sdo - mobius bs
sdo - spinning whirl bsos (almost rpt)
I hit some good, long, creative strings
I hit my shred 30, well at least 29 contacts dropless, all planned except one move (but no repetes) I took the liberty of writing it out in color coded format for anyone who wants to double check my score.
3 adds are green
4 adds are in blue
5 adds are in red

matador > ripwalk > sidewalk > blur > legbeater > ripwalk > sidewalk > blur > legbeater > whirl > pdx mirage > fairybeater > spinning butterfly > pdx drifter > pdx whirl > pdx drifter > pdx whirl > spinning mirage > parkwalk > spinning mirage > same butterfly > pdx mirage > op butterfly > gyro butterfly > pdx dlo > dimwalk > pdx dlo > dimwalk > blurry whirl (hand catch)

3 adds: 5 (15 adds)
4 adds: 22 (88 adds)
5 adds: 2 (10 adds)

score = Adds + (uniques*(adds/moves))
score = 113 + (29 * (113/29)
score = 113 + (113)
score = 226

Anyway, i was pretty Psyched about that, so I had to post it. It was only 29 contacts, so I know it was under the time limit, and I'm pretty sure I scored it right. I also plan on throwing spinning whirl into spinning blender at the end of that in case I don't run out of time.

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 02 Aug 2006 10:32

congrats on hitting that shred 30. I really like the color co-ordinating. it makes the blog look nice.

see you soon

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 03 Aug 2006 13:42

Had a good sesh yeserday with the posse:

- Hit 23 tripless (repeated a blur and a ripwalk, but other than that it was unique)
- Had some good strings with lots of 5's and lots of control
- Hit 28 contacts of the shred 30, I'm getting more consistant with that
- trying new sick 3 ideas (harder/more creative combos)
- Got a crazy new footbag. It'a bout the size of a baseball and you can shred great with it

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » 15 Aug 2006 23:08

Sporatical_Distractions · Post by **Sporatical_Distractions** » 17 Aug 2006 06:39

Nick after his candy gets stolen

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 17 Aug 2006 08:31

More like Nick with a knife from Fletcher Funk in his back.

ObArA'BaRs · Post by **ObArA'BaRs** » 19 Aug 2006 21:35

sidekick wrote:
Alpine Fairy beater (there has to be a better name for that... even fairy ducking butterfly doesn't sound that great)

fairy+ducking=fucking
Call it Fucking Butterfly

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 10 Sep 2006 22:08

Just a wuick post (I'll post more tomorrow when I'm coherant...) BUT we had an awseom sesh today! Stephan from Germany is here and shredding me a new one with some awseome combos. Again, more later...
Also I've started to make footbags, they're pretty sweet and require little to no break in time. For anyone who reads this blog, I'll send out 5 free footbags to reputable shredders for review. Just PM me and post when you do so that people stop PM'ing me after the first five people... again, I need 5 good shredders to write an honest review when I start to sell these things to help pay for footbag events and school.

redshredz · Post by **redshredz** » 11 Sep 2006 01:31

Been a while since I posted on the blog, I am on a three day break from my travels, so figured it would be a good time to do a write up.

After I wrapped up all the post event details with the Open I headed up to Seattle to visit my sister. While I was up there I kicked with Sam and Scott. It was a fun session, but I also realized I was still pretty out of shape, I believe mainly due to the busy schedule building up to the event in Portland. I had kicked a little at the Water Temple, but was mostly messing around, (was able to hit Blurry Whirling Swirl for the US Champion), but it was when I really tried to have a legit session that I realized I was far removed from being on point. I was introduced to Ong Bak however, that is indeed one kick ass movie that doesn't let a little thing like plot get in the way. Much appreciation Scott, we are going to catch the Protector in Idaho no doubt.

Next I headed down the coast to attend the Beaver Open and shred with our brothas to the south (Eugene). Nate, James, Aaron, Jake Wren and I shredded it up, it was a killer session! After realizing I needed to sharpen my game up again I began stretching a fair amount, which seemed to help a great deal, I felt it all coming back a bit. By the end of the session it was Aaron and I trying out all sorts of stuff, that shred definitely offset my previous one in Seattle. Jake Wren was kicking very well too, throwing twos, threes, fours, fives, and sixes, sometimes all in the same run. I believe in our posse he will be the next one to take off.

Jake and I then attended the Beaver Open, a very long running footbag event. About 70 people at least were there, mostly past and present Sole Purpose/Portland footbag members. The event is essentially a giant 3-5 day camp out held in a renaissance festival park. It of course was off season, so people were running around the labyrinth of wooden structures in the woods most of the time. We played some great night golf with glow bags, a bit of mini net. The Beaver Open is a pretty crazy experience, I will probably end up helping them with the event in the near future.

From there I returned to Portland and flew out to Missouri, where I originally from. After kicking it with my father, I headed down to Columbia, the town where I grew up and got into footbag. It has been about seven years since I have been back. I immediately looked up all the people who got me into it, which were Travis Johnson, Raliegh Green, Joe Marshall, and Derrick Fogle. A couple of them do not kick anymore, but I was able to shred with a few homies.

Ironically, I have heard a lot of people talking about Leonard Griswell lately. What's not commonly know is that Leonard and I basically started footbag at the same time, and went to high school together. Shortly after I started, we brought him into it. I am happy to say that Leonard is in fact still shredding it up, and pretty well too. My first session there we kicked together for about an hour and a half, and I saw him hit Blurry Whirl to Nuclear Tap among other things. Leonard is a bit removed from the scene however, I brought him up to date with what has been happening in the sport, he was pretty impressed. I think I will get him out to Portland next summer for a little while.

My second kick session in Columbia was with Derrick Fogle, who was the king of footbag in Columbia for a long time, a legend essentially. 12 years ago when I was shredding with these guys who I thought were simply amazing, there was always whisper about this one dude who was far better than even them. When I met him, I ran home and told my mom I watched this guy shred and keep the bag going for like "ten minutes straight!" Yup, newby talk for sure. Coming back to kick with Derrick (who was in the top ten in competition for most of the 80's) was an honor, and now in his late 40's, he is still tearing it up. We did some exhibition work for the crowd, that guy plays for hours and hours.

Meanwhile as I was away a new shredder moved to town, Stefan Siegert, who took second place in routines at Euros this year. Ironically, one of our shredders (Andrew McCargar) went over to Germany, and Stefan just flew over from there. In fact, he is staying in Andrew's room at his brother's house. We joke that it is a footbag exchange program. The day after I returned we all met up at Pioneer Square for session. It was one of the best shreds there is some time, everyone was on. Besides the random circles of kickers who always play down there, it was Stefan, Nick, Jake, Kenny, a freestyler from the days before I got to town named Chris I believe, and of course myself. Nick was hitting his usual nastiness. I told him I had my camera on me, he told me to turn it on, a proceeded to seal a very nice beast combo. Kenny shredded really hard too, his game looks better than ever. It must be the US Net Champion title! For me, I am just back in shape pretty much as I was at the end of last summer, all the same stuff listed in previous blogs.

As for Stefan, that guy is sick. Super smooth, long combos, hard moves, unique stuff. He is very consistant. His toe Quantum/Wonton game is unreal. I saw some great Symposium Frantics between other hard moves. Also saw some great unique fearless links. I will probably release a vid of him sooner or later, he and Nick compliment each other's game. I have to get Stefan a team jersey, his application is approved.

Anyway, next up the Sole Purpose team is headed to Idaho for their event, it should be great. I am staying there about a week longer, then I have to return so Nick and I can perform a pretty sweet gig in Vancouver Washington. Our group now has an agent of sorts, thanks to a connection by Kendall KIC. After that, chances are I will probably return to the Freedom Shredquarters again for a little while. This sport keeps me endlessly busy, but not one day goes by I don't appreciate that. Freestyle forever!
R

ObArA'BaRs · Post by **ObArA'BaRs** » 11 Sep 2006 06:53

sidekick wrote: I'll send out 5 free footbags to reputable shredders for review. Just PM me and post when you do so that people stop PM'ing me after the first five people... again, I need 5 good shredders to write an honest review when I start to sell these things to help pay for footbag events and school.

I would love to review one of your bags but i think i need to get a reputation first. Ive only been playing for a little less than a year(im pretty good/guiltless)and i really wouldnt know what to say. I recomend asking the Jake and Josh Raye for a review.They'll do a nice job and they understand the properties of a good bag. Also ask matt cross(he know his shit), Jorden moir(very high rep.), or John Mahood(does very good right ups).

If no one writes any replies to your post Ill gladly find some to do it(or ill do it myself).If u need any info about me and my rep check out the Palatine Club FCFC Blog

Stuge47 · Post by **Stuge47** » 12 Sep 2006 16:21

Nick Nick Nick.

Me and Damien have been training a lot lately for SJFF (Yes, Damien is gonna play again!) We kick about an hour or 2 every night, so it would get really worked

Thats about it. I'm cheap, you know me. And I know my bags, being a pro bag-breaker-inner. lol.

How goes it, anyway? I've been meaning to come and stop by this blog, but I couldn't find it... Beeen lazy doesn't have much advantages.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 14 Sep 2006 07:14

I don't post much anymore b/c I've been playing a lot and now I'm going back to school full time. I also don't like to post about the stuff I've hit becuase it often is only highlights from a sesh, and makes me look a lot better than I really am. For instance, here's some highlights from that other session:

Whirr > flurry
Flipwalk BSOR
Rubberman II > Ruberman > String
I hit my first beast (and it was on film!) Maelstrom > Whirlwind > Spinning blender
Symp reverse whirling Legover right after Stephan hit symp whirling legover (stephan is such an awesome shrdder and a great guy to boot)
Came so fucking close to Janiwalker from a dragon to a clipper ( it rolled off of my foot)

That was a fun sesh. Anyway, I'm off to Idaho here in an hour, so I'm gonna get ready. See you all later, and so far I still only have two people that are getting footbags...

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 19 Sep 2006 13:02

Okay, so the people who are *Officially* testing my bags are:

Jim Penske (already has his bag)
Sam Potter (next one I'm making after I finish the one I'm working on right now)
Nate Linscott (A couple away form this one still)

I got a whole bunch of new material in yesterday when I got back from Idaho, so lots of footbags are going to be made! I stil have to make bags for Red, Zeb, Zac, Scott, Sam, Nate, and some test bags with other material that I'm experimenting with (don't worry, all of the bags listed will be made with the real ultraseude light, not the new material)

Idaho Roxored! Holy shit it was a fun experiance, lots of parties, and a lot more shred. Plus glow in the dark foursquare, fire hack, the demos from Jim and I, hanging out with Jim, Lon, Zeb, Zac, Scott, Sunny, Dillan, Kyle, Red, Louis, Dayrl, Chrissy and her boyfriend even made it up and I love haning out with them. Thed onyl bad part is that the RCS crew didn't make it... no Justin and no Ricky. Bastards, its okay though, I'll get to see them in Seattle.

sampotter · Post by **sampotter** » 19 Sep 2006 17:51

Yes!!!!! I've accomplished my only goal in footbag that I've had over the last two years... To be disassociated from RCS!

Looking forward to the bag, old bean. By the way, if you need any crash space for SJFF, let me know so I can keep a tab of who's about to be in this piece.