B_Man wrote:We stole Brian, and the only way you can get him back is by winning a shred duel against us.
It's on at MFJ
Speaking of which...
If you are reading this you need to go and buy a bag from me in the "FOR SALE" section under Fourkast 14's. All proceeds go towards me getting my footbag-lovin' ass to MFJ. Bags are only $12 including shipping, and they will roxor your face.
Busy busy busy. That is the status of the Portland footbag scene. Today it was business as usual, we signed up another 10 people, mostly from high school clubs around the area. They are going to add their clubs under the Sole Purpose umbrella organization, we will probably approach their schools about demos. The US Open is going to be heavily sponsored this year, local attendance of actual kickers from around the area now looks to be numerous. I am getting requests by various players asking to be assigned a jersey, we don't just hand them out however, it's something to be earned. That being said, I am going to soon have to approach our one of our sponsors for 5 more shirts.
Another milestone of sorts happened today, through a local contact, we sealed an agreement to perform at the Rose Garden Stadium for 5,000 kids over Easter weekend. We will perform a few shows and demos, supply information, provide workshops, and sign up anyone interested. This will be the first of many larger scale presentations our group is moving forward on. Much love to Portland and it's community support. Thanks to the contributions of the city/state and various icons in the sport both locally and abroad, there are now several other projects in development, some may be launched by the US Open or soon thereafter. We encourage every player to come visit at any time (my schedule is my own), and experience the Portland scene first hand, all are certainly welcome.
Had a good session yesterday, most of which was Red and I shredding with a bunch of circle kickers cuz no one else showed up. A lot of that is because people are still gone from spring break, and one person was injured, but it was still fun none the less.
Some highlights from me:
Marius > Spinning blender
Blurry Whirl > Spinning whirl > P.S. whirl > Tomahawk > rpt
Tomahawk b2b > Blurry whirl b2b > ps whirl b2b > Viod > drop on other viod
I had one run with a total of 15+ fearless in it, all unique, it was just broken up witha few 3's and 4's after every 4-7 fearless, but it was about 26 contacts.
Flip flurry for the first time (then bsor)
Flip scorpion's tail for the first time (almost bsor)
Blurriest bsor
Spinning whirl > blurry whirl > blurry drifter > ps whirl > void bsor (I could never get all the way through that as a rpt combo, I could only get to the second blurry drifter)
Jani Flipside and then almost bsor a couple of times
Almost hit reverse 69 (reverse the drifter not the whole thing)
Grifter bsor
Tapping DLO bsor
Atomic whirl bsor
Mobius b2b first try
Viod > pdx blender (bsor, almost rpt)
lots of 30+ contact strings including some of the above mentoined things witthin the strings
sidekick wrote:
Marius > Spinning blender
Blurry Whirl > Spinning whirl > P.S. whirl > Tomahawk > rpt
Tomahawk b2b > Blurry whirl b2b > ps whirl b2b > Viod > drop on other viod
Spinning whirl > blurry whirl > blurry drifter > ps whirl > void bsor (I could never get all the way through that as a rpt combo, I could only get to the second blurry drifter)
Almost hit reverse 69 (reverse the drifter not the whole thing)
Mobius b2b first try
s
Make Red make a new video of you. Great editing+ ridiculous shred is a winning combination. And this time you should also wrestle a gorilla.
Nick has certainly stepped it up again. We don't get many sessions anymore where it is just him and I working on his game. There were a few combos he threw that were right on par with Jim and Dave's level of runs. I just got back from Idaho and watching Jim (who is always terrific), and watching quite a few of Nick's runs I had that same feeling as I have when I watch Jim. There was one 20+ move combo in particular that was pretty much fearless, anytime he reset within the combo, within a move or two it was back into fearless again. While we were in Idaho, they were calling him "Mr. Perfect form". I liked that assessment, it's a quality that my game never really achieved, it's great to see such good form is a natural thing to Nick. Definitely proud.
Shawn Johnson
Nick Landes
Kenny Shults
Sean Wingert
Ben Schmaltz
Jake Wren
Noah Jay-Bonn
Red Husted
Alex Bernstein
Carlo M.
Sam Potter
Were missing:
Chrisco Jears
Jack Martin
Stefan Siegert
And happy to hear Brian Cooper is coming back within the month. Will be nice when Andrew McCargar comes back, will still be some time. Now if Savanna Jay-Bonn would return as well...
The last two Sole Purpose kicks have been quite epic. Last week I thought we had the record, something like 30 people kicking, freestylers and kickers alike. This last Sunday I believe broke that record, it was hovering around 40 people. We were blessed with nice weather, which certainly helped the situation. It was again a mix of freestylers (about 14 shredders, up to four circles of aggressive play), newcomers/high school players looking to learn tricks (we advertise that we teach footbag at Pioneer Square on Sundays) and the local circle kicker scene. We took a great deal of pictures of the last two weeks on Kenny's top notch camera, as soon as he burns the images to disk I intend to post at least a few of them. Sundays at Pioneer Square have truly become a footbag event in and of itself.
There are many different people who play footbag in Portland for many different reasons, I try to promote integration between the different kickers. I am happy that we have a strong shredders scene, but and also happy that is not all Portland is. There are many avenues of play, I encourage them all. If people just want to circle kick, we support that. If they want to pick up some freestyle tricks, we of course are down to help them out. The main theme is that everyone has fun and connects, no pressure. Only wish we had a spot for the net guys, but six blocks away on the waterfront there are games going on, not too far. It's a great social web, all centered around footbag, many people will kick and then go hang out and do something else. Of late, we have been getting in the habit of heading over to a great noodles place called appropriately enough, 'The Montage'. Only in Portland, I guess.
There were many highlights from this most recent Sunday session, it lasted about 6.5 hours total. I can't recall all of the goodness, but there were definitely a few things that stood out.
Kenny kicked stronger than I have seen in a long while, with more precision and accuracy. He seems to improve as long as he kicks at least once a week.
Stefan Siegert also kicked amazingly well, and showed some great juggling/freestyle combinations for which he is known for here.
Nick Landes rocked the usual craziness, today was no different. He played straight for close to five hours, I was impressed by just that.
Jake Wren everyday is looking more like Jim and Ryan, he plays with the same intensity (and body type) as them.
Our newest shinning up-and-comer Alex Bernstein is now linking a few fours together. He is pretty much the fastest learner I have seen yet.
Ben Schmaltz was kicking great, he is very into throwing swirl component moves at the moment. The guy plays with pure strength, I did not think I would meet someone who plays with more power than myself until we started kicking regularly. He gets the trophy though, his combos are fierce.
My bet with Daryl was a good motivator to drop about 30 lbs (I still lost that bet however, he dropped 40 and is playing great). The loss of the weight has been a good thing for me, I am able to throw a good amount of symposium moves I would not approach before. My fearless is back, been a while since I hit Blurry Whirl-Blurry Whirl-Blurriest-Blurriest, felt good. Whirly Gig to Superfly was new as well, along with Shaft (or is it called Dolomite, symposium down double down). Last session Nemesis and Nebula were off my foot, but sadly my flip fury set is still suffering. Also popped up Symposium Spanish Fly this session.
Sean Wingert was back in shape as well, but we know it's the DDR that kept him going.
Another old friend has returned after a needed break, Noah Jay-Bonn is kicking again, and well. Two Sundays ago, after a nine month break, Noah jumped back in, and was hitting some great stuff without much difficulty. Some in the group don't believe he really took that much time off, there did not appear to be much rust there. His New Balance shoes are pretty much dead, thus we just ordered a couple of pairs of G Units off the web. His new band is playing at the US Open, and he has lined up 5 DJ's for the event. Welcome back Noah!
Some random things:
We had a short fearless circle, involving Nick, Ben, and myself. It turned into who could hit Blurry Whirling Swirl first in the circle, and admittedly, the bag traveled between the three of us more than a few times. Many "right off the foot" attempts. Nick's attempts looked great like everything he does, and Ben has hit it into a combo before, but in the end I played my experience card and hit it finally so we could move on to something else. Nick's answer was to hit more fearless, and Ben hit Stepping same side Whirling Swirl and Stepping ss Reverse Whirling Swirl in the same run.
We had the appearance of two new straight up freestylers. One kid named Jeff from a local high school who is working clippers and osis, and an amazing juggler/footbag player named James Chance. The guy showed up armed with clubs and the ability to juggle up to seven balls without much difficulty. He then threw on some Lavers and hit some nice two, threes, and fours. Good stuff!
This week is going to be busy, the after school footbag classes have begun in the area, and then we have to gear up for a road trip next weekend. With any luck I will get at least a little sleep this week. We'll see!
R
Oh yeah, Savanna Jay-Bonn is kicking a little bit again, mainly on her own, but we'll take it.
Stefan Siegert is our footbag exchange guy. One of our own, Andrew McCargar, went over to Germany. Roughly the same time, Stefan came over here on a student exchange program. Now Stefan lives at Andrew's house, and Andrew lives in Berlin. We were very happy to get Stefan, he said while researching locations to go to school he was also checking out footbag scenes. After a bit of research he went with Portland. Unfortunately, we don't get to keep Stefan permanently (though there is a way to bring him back possibly if we "hire" him on with the Fourkast Project), but he still has to leave and come back, and with school he has other plans. Not so coincidentally, when he does take off, a new player may be coming in to take his place at Andrew's, but that is a few months away. Good times right now.
Welcome back Brian Cooper. Great combo, congrats on hitting 5 fearless. There will be another guest in from out of town on Weds. Look forward to kicking it!
R
I was in Southern California and this woman knew about footbag because she used to live in Portland. I thought that was neat.
P.S. Hi!
"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Thanks to everyone for the kind words. We appreciate the support of everyone, and certainly look forward to working with the community on some things coming up.
5/17/07
Today was a surprise day for shred for sure. There are have been sessions the last five days around the Portland area, (sometimes two a day, depending on where you are in the PDX area). I was lucky enough to view the most recent one today. For a change, the kick was moved to another location downtown, onto PSU campus to promote for the college group. I arrived late not properly suited for play, but instead got to watch quite a show. The circle was simply four players; Sean Wingert, Stefan Siegart, Brian Cooper, and Ben Schmaltz. Sean was just wrapping it up, so we took a seat on the sidelines and watched the action. What unfolded was a great throwdown. All three players have stepped up their game. Stefan has been kicking more seriously (and everyday), and it shows. Brian has advanced greatly (as I expected he had, nice five fearless), and Ben Schmaltz has been cross training and is in far better shape than I have seen in years. Whenever you put players all kicking at such peak levels in one circle, there's a lot of heat. It was a great scene, everyone was super positive and encouraging, but also played with the fire. There were quite a few aggressive combos, to everyone's cheering. I caught only one pic on my cell phone;
If the Portland scene is a microcosm of the larger scene, then I certainly see similarities. Usually one player (Kenny, Peter, Vasek) steps out ahead, and that inspires the pack to advance as well. In Portland, Nick Landes certainly stepped ahead. But after watching a few of the recent sessions, the other players now have stepped it up as well, many to very comparable skill levels. It's great watching such high levels of shred all from the Portland area.
We are going to try a few new things out. There are enough people here now that it feels much like an event when we all congregate, so running on that we are going to start having mock/exhibition events at our sessions from time to time. It will be good on a spectator level, but also help train and give our players experience for real competitions. As long as attitudes aren't negative (in competition I promote professionalism over competitiveness) and everyone is encouraging and having fun (most important), it will be a great way for the kids to gain experience. More likely than not we will focus on all six major events, and have our "training events" probably once every couple of months.
We are looking forward to our Sunday session as usual. This weekend we are greeting old friends in from out of town. Riley and Nate are rolling up, I certainly hope the weather stays nice for a Pioneer Square kick. If not, we will pack our gym with great players!
To end on a somewhat entertaining note, I got chewed out via email by the team leader of one of our high school groups the other day. He basically told me that since I missed the last two sessions, I should really make the next two. I didn't even know I was supposed to be at the first two! It showed he was on top of it though, I respected that and will make it out for their kick next week. I will have to "bring slick nick and other cool people" if possible. Snap Red, get on it!
