Muffinman

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 15 Dec 2006 19:05

Shred: Friday, December 15th, 2006
I had a wicked shred with Johnny Suderman today. As always he was blowing my mind, though humble as he is, he insisted that he was playing poorly. (I guess maybe for him -- he said he hasdn't really played in 3 months). I had so much fun. Johnny is the best.

He asked me if I could do some drifter move and I was, like, "drifters hurt", but I tried anyway. To my astonishment I discovered that they don't (or didn't...we'll see in the future). The other day I was trying to think of a good downtime move that I can do that ends on clipper, and now I've got one!

Sooo...I hit tons of stuff that I've either never hit or haven't hit for ages!
-void both sides
-blurry drifter > fog
-blurry drifter > ripwalk [repeat]
-ripped warrior > fog (my stepping ducking is so inconsistant...stupid thighs..)
-eggbeater > same eggbeater [repeat] (but dropped the last one, so not really, but that was neat)
-had both blurry torques roll off (I think I've only hit those once each side ever)
-some sloppy tombstones..
-some neat combos that Johnny requested

...Actually I hope there was more, ha. It felt like a good session, even though my runs were really short -- I was so stoked about drifter moves! I was hitting vortexes all over the place -- I love that move now. I was close to vortex > gyro dlo both sides. Spinning out of vortex feels natural both sides, but it was akward to do a bigger trick.
I was also close to drifter > vortex [repeat], which as simple as it kind of sounds was always a drill I thought was so cool and that I would never be able to hit!

Oh yeah, so some Johnny highlights, haha. Waaay too many to remember. Actually I'm having trouble remembering stuff, but I will have a Christmas Calendar video of the session, I hope...

-fury beesauce (and some other stuff too)
-alpine gybas
-symp whirling swirl > swifter(?)
-fusing legover
-high plains > scorpion's tail
-whirr > swifter?
-lots of double dex combos (like DATWout > DSO [repeat])
-lots of styley stuff, like, fairy diving clippers beesauce and stuff..far non-symple swirls, nuclear op foot clippers.. lots of nuclear in general actually, I think..
-a run with, like, all ducking sets or something...fairy both sides, atomic, stepping, pixie...
-tons of typical original-Johnny-top-form shuffle

Anyway, I'm aching like crazy. It was just the two of us for like, FOUR hours, or something...geez. I'm so stoked on vortex at the moment

Lackey82 · Post by **Lackey82** » 16 Dec 2006 08:54

Erik,

It made me so happy to hear about the things you've been doing lately! You're rediscovering your game in so many new ways, and it seems the consistency that you've built on spins etc. is making you better than ever!
I really hope you can make it out tomorrow (Sunday), even if slightly late. Don't worry, we'll be there long after you get off work!

Just wanted to say how exciting reading your blog lately has been, way to go.

mtoolan · Post by **mtoolan** » 16 Dec 2006 09:09

yea i totally agree with josh, even though i might not know you like josh does i do know youve been injured for a while and its so awesome to hear that your killing it now.

Johnny · Post by **Johnny** » 16 Dec 2006 09:43

Thanks for having me Erik.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 03 Jan 2007 22:03

I had a session with Andrew + Rory today.
Wow, Rory is amazing!! And funny as ever.
Last time I jammed with Rory I think he was still tossing in guilts -- today he was busting, like, consistant 20-contact unique (and by unique I mean unconventional moves) shuffle runs. Wow! His pixie ducking is effortless like crazy.

I filmed, so I hope to have a video some time after I get back to Toronto; should be some good shred!

I guess that's all I really have to say..
Rory and Jess were telling us all about New Years Jam -- it sounds like it was ridiculous! I wish so much I could have been there! Wow -- like everyone was there, hey? Wow.

EDIT: Oh yeah, ironically my knees were fine from footbag (though my hip is still really tight), but I took a spill during a "juggling race" with Rory where you run as fast as you can while juggling cascade and it's hurting a bit now

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 04 Jan 2007 15:39

Will you be back in time for a sunday session?

Lackey82 · Post by **Lackey82** » 04 Jan 2007 19:02

Erik,

I owe you $12.

I don't think anyone was up for pushing Peng to get us the bags... her mind is elsewhere, and rightfully so.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 05 Jan 2007 06:10

Aw man, yeah -- I saw Peng's blog

Poor Pengpeng.

On a similarly sad note I read the most heartbreaking thing last night. In the Worlds 2007 thread Lon mentioned something about retirement. I think that is the saddest thing in the world to imagine. And then I was all watching old VHS tapes so that I could write good reviews for Daryl, and realized that I haven't even heard about all of these amazing players that I grew up idolizing! I was talking to Andrew the other day about Sunil and he was, like, "Yeah, I don't think he plays anymore."

Footbag can be so sad.

Well I didn't sleep last night (though I woke up at 5 P.M.-ish). It's 8 A.M. and I am waiting for my family to wake up because I am dying to play footbag in my living room (I want to dial mobius already...geez). I am starting to get tired though -- aaah.

I am drinking bubble tea for breakfast.
I bought a ridiculous amount of supplies for my family for Christmas and I am super stoked on stocking myself up when I get back to Toronto (do any of you FATties like bubble tea?? I know Mike doesn't... how silly.) It's pracitcally non-existant here in Winnipeg; there is ONE genuine business -- Double Bubble Tea House by the university...everything else is garbage. I just found an online supplier who sells at, like, less than half the price of what I've been paying!! I bought a 2-litre jug of litchi syrup, like, 9 small packages of flavour powder, and a 3kg bag of tapioca (oh and I got some apricot green tea bags from work). I tote it all around in my "bubble tea bag"

Oh yeah, Adam, umm...well I should be back in the city at 4 P.M.-ish... I don't know how hectic things will be with my roomies starting classes on the Monday and me having no idea when I go back to work and us needing to buy groceries and stuff... it's not looking too good, but I will try to call you if it's possible in the later afternoon... I guess. I'm thinking probably not. But I want to start playing more. I need to school, 'cause my game is so weak..

EDIT: I had kind of bail session with no sleep, on a crappy slippery floor. I ended up schooling osis a bunch again, which was really fun. I beat my record too! I got 34!! Yaaayy. I am so excited to do more.

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 06 Jan 2007 09:41

I don't think super heros like lon or sunil ever REALLY retire...
I remember posting somewhere that I thought Chad didn't play anymore and sure enough saw him busting fat nearly a year later in cali, and I'm sure he still does today...
As maybe you know, shred skillz get rusty but never go away. I'm sure sunil, ahren, ryan and all those old super heros can still lace em up and bust, and when the time is right they still do.

Great to see you tearing it up in the xmas calender btw

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 06 Jan 2007 23:09

Whoa, thanks for the post Nate; what an honour

I guess I never really even considered the possibility of retirement and all of that until I felt close to it myself. My body is definately getting old. I'm kicking myself so bad for NEVER stretching when I did play footbag back in the day. I wish I had someone to push it on me. I hope I can train some superstar-to-be some day (well aside from Andrew Grant, who I'm totally gonna take some credit for

)

Stoked to play in my new Hackrifice shirt too (Andrew just gave me mine tonight!!)

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 08 Jan 2007 21:36

hey erik. hope you're getting nicely settled back into your toronto routine. really looking forward to seeing the footage you got from the holidays. hope i can watch it!

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 09 Jan 2007 17:46

Oh yeah; I just remembered about that footage just now while soloing. The next couple of days probably.

I schooled osis yesterday and today and it's been fun. I also ended up schooling reverse swirl today a bit. It's a BIT rough on my knees, but not aggrivatingly enough... I hit toe same symple reverse swirl, which felt awesome. And then I hit it every try first try when I showed my girlfriend a couple times which was rad. I couldn't hit it flip, which really hurts, since I'm so "both-sided-mentality".

Here's some stuff I hit, that made me happy. Osis is really coming along

-far osis (good 7 / flip 5)
-osis > far osis [repeat] x2
-pausing osis (Byrin style) (13)
-pdx mirage > same butt > osis [repeat] x4
-osis > gyro clip x5 (both sides)
-spin osis > osis > far clip [repeat] x2
-osis > rev swirl [repeat]

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 12 Jan 2007 06:53

I had a session with Mike Faille a couple nights ago (though it feels like last night because I just slept for 29 hours...). I realized finally how worn my body feels. I was very tired with too little sleep, so that probably contributed, but I felt sooo slow and unable to really do anything that requires even the littlest of effort (like dlos, atomic...basically anything noteworthy). My hip is also still really tight from before Christmas so I can't do my refound drifter moves (well, I refuse to do them onesidedly too..).

I feel like I'm beyond "retirement".
I realize that there's of course the possibility of getting better, since, for example, Mike is quite a bit older than me and getting better every day, but I think I really beat up my body and didn't take care of myself over the course of my "career" and I'm seriously paying for that now.

I have no desire to work on video projects at the moment either. It takes so much work and I don't feel like I'm creative enough with it now. I have some footage of Rory and Andrew from Christmas, but I don't feel like going through all the work that it would take just to make a crappy tripod-footage video. I feel like going to FAT sessions and filming instead of playing, but I wouldn't even feel like watching the footage after. I also have TOOONS of KICKASS footage that I never finished editing, and I feel like it's outdated already... I was all excited to show Dave hitting Nemesis beesauce, and not he's hit it back to back in the NYJ videos... and nemesis > whirlygig swirl!

Blah.

I wanted to go to Worlds, but my game is only deteriorating more and more. I think I need Monhollon footage to inspire me... where is that video??..

I still love footbag.
I'm very excited to watch Bringing Out The Shred when Mike's copy gets here!! (And maybe order one myself, and the Art of the Game (which I never saw) when I have more than enough money to pay for rent and food...)

I wonder what it's like for other players who no longer play anymore.

hacksterbator · Post by **hacksterbator** » 12 Jan 2007 09:16

sorry to hear you're feeling that way erik. you seemed so up about getting better and going to tournaments and just playing in general when we talked at christmas. hope these dark days pass you by quickly.
chin up mate!

dp · Post by dp » 14 Jan 2007 16:46

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXf6HJczUZE

I think the first person playing there is Sunil, and that was only 7 months ago or so.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 14 Jan 2007 18:02

Oh cool -- I hadn't seen this video before.
Looks like some reeeeaaallly rusty Tsunami footage though

Very cool to see Bevier and Dave though! And... Caleb Abraham? Cool.
Thanks for the link Danny.

I need to start doing more pickup moves (and osis).
Rory suggested symple pickups because you can make them look like ps whirls until the last second -- should be fun. Fakey-montage here I come!

Missed today's FAT session though

I read Byrin's latest blog entry. He's hitting some rad reverse swirl stuff as usual -- makes me want to push my reverse swirls, since I JUST learned the symple variation. REALLLY want that flipside before I try spinning and ducking and spinning ducking and stuff though. Maybe I will be able to hit reverse riptide some day

Osis was getting better last session (seemed like some of the practice actually stuck for once). I tried mobius a bunch near the end too, and I will try that more from now on, if I remember.

Lackey82 · Post by **Lackey82** » 14 Jan 2007 21:25

Yeah, Erik, sorry to miss you today.

However, I thought up some great practice for you!

As many consecutive Diving Osis as possible. Great practice.

Be in touch before next Sunday, it looks like later in the day might work out just fine for a bunch of us!

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 17 Jan 2007 00:15

I hit a dream move today!
Scorpion's tail!!

It was so out of the blue -- I haven't done double downs in, like, 2 years. WOW that felt good!! I wish my body still worked

Mike and I had some wicked pipe shred in the parking garage after too. Yeesss.

Wiktor · Post by **Wiktor** » 21 Jan 2007 13:46

Hello Eric!

I realized that i`ve made a video which is simmilar to yours....
Somehow /subconsciously?/ i set a widescreen ratio on my DV camera,
and because of bad colours I used b&w mode....

Now i know how cool your video was. Not only because of great music and editing, shred level was also awsome ofcourse!

Thanks, I hope you don`t mind....

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/10868

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 29 Jan 2007 21:36

Shred: Monday, January 29, 2006
Had a pretty good session with Mike.
Started doing more torques near the end, which is cool -- I finally have a downtime toe-set move again that doesn't hurt! I hit a few pdx torques, which was cool, mobius was okay, and hit ripwalk out of weak side. Here's some stuff:

-toe torque > pdx mirage [repeat]
-tombstone > tombsto...
-merlin [both sides] (first try on good side!! I think I will be able to do this semi-consistantly)
-gyro eggbeater [both sides]

That's all...it was fun for once.
Last session I started trying for my 100-contact run again and got lots of 60s, today I tried a bit and got a 50... will keep trying every session; that's, like, my goal for before I "retire".

I had more energy than usual today. I did some minor shuffle and some bigger tricks.