The Darkshredder's struggle

[Darkshredder]

I'll be heading off to Buffalo next Thursday for the Square sessions with Matt. That should be cool. I haven't been to Buffalo since I was like. Well. Since I was born there. . . And then moved like 2 months later to Central New York.

I may or may not have an infected ankle. I went to the skatepark the other day with a couple friends and we were trying these surf style slides up and down the quarter pipes and ramp things on longboards (we had just watched Lords of Dogtown the day before ) and I was trying some pretty REVOLUTIONARY stuff. Poorly. And fell like a dozen times. Beat myself up pretty bad and got this pretty "gnarly" gash in my ankle which seems to be healing, but in doing so is also looking rather funky and red. My biologist friend tells me that it could just be the anti-infection things all forming around the sore and fighting to protect against anything - hence the redness and the soreness. It isn't like blue or anything. Just red and starting to film over to develop a callus.

On a side note, I watched Ben Roscoe's video trying to decide if he should compete Open or Intermediate at Worlds. Well first of all let me just add a !!! What!? Just like a year and a half ago or something me and Mosher taught him how to do an osis correctly. Now he's hitting stuff I daydream about me hitting. Daaang. Excellent work on his part. I was really impressed and happy for him. It's good to see a good style and trick variety from someone relatively new at the game and who has a real devotion. If I progressed that quickly I'd probably get all cocky and not practice as much anymore. So Ben, if you're reading this PROPS man.

So yeah with my ankle the way it is, I'm kind of hesitant to play a lot but watching that video makes me realize I need to get on the ball this summer and really try to make something happen with my game. I'm playing pretty hard as it is, but I know I can step it up a little. I'll see what I can do. All I can say is thank god I have people to shred with this summer. It'll help a lot.

But some stuff needs to be dialed THIS SUMMER so I can start hitting lots of tricks. Foundation things like:
blenders
fairies
more and more gyro. . more and more
symposium whirls and not just rev. whirls
more consistency and a higher set on my pixies. I can hit catacomb both sides, but I don't feel all that confident with them. For that set, I'm really looking for ease and close to perfection. It's a must for where I'm at right now and I can't keep turning my attention to other things. Like
quantum set and perhaps frantic soon after? ? ?
nuclear set
double dexes. I can't stress this enough.

Those are just some things need getting done. I'm waiting for a friend to come by who's a nurse and look at my ankle. If she gives me the go ahead I'm going to go and play for a couple hours.

[Darkshredder]

1) Sealed my bag again. It's dying faster than I thought it would all of a sudden.
2) Leaving work early to drive to Buffalo to shred with Matt Cross and hopefully a bunch of RFA legtwisters.
3) Past two shred sessions have been AOK in my book - even with my ankle all sort of f'd up somethin fierce. Ducking clip > spinning clip rpt x10. Thought that was pretty l33t.
4) Deciding whether I should shower and head out to play for a bit or if I should rest up for tomorrow. Hmmm.
5) Children of Bodom is a pretty sweet band. Apparently it's pretty popular and I didn't know that. They deserve it. Beats the hell out of a lot of the crap metal out there in the states. So sayeth me and my Irish friend Mike and we're sticking to it.
6) Ben Rea hit dimmiest if you haven't read in his blog. That made my afternoon after a long and hot day at work. Good to hear.
7) Wondering how I'm going to find something new to make a mark in this world. And I came up with a cool realization: South Park is the punk rock of TV. It makes a lot of sense. And I had 3 and a half hours sitting under a tree in a golf cart to think about it.

oh shit. Um. Footbag real quick. I have a neo set - after about a year and a half of quitting trying to get it. Yesterday I found I could do it. So I hit neo mirage, neo ss butter and neo opp butter. If I play today it'll be a real layed back session and I'll probably be just doing a lot of spinning, ducking, neo, and trying to fine-tune an up-and-coming flipside nuke. I can feel matador bsos coming within the week if I keep schooling my flip like I am! Could there be midstring sumos flying around in my strings soon!?

BUFFALO!

[BenRea]

props on neo man, thats a cool set. im glad your doing new shit but also props on the spinning and ducking, wow.


i will try very hard to re-create dimmiest for you...it felt soooo good. you gotta see it.

cant wait till exams are over... june 20

then i start my job...damnit. it has every other weekend off though. and i get back at 5:30 pm. we could still shred after that..right?

[Darkshredder]

yeah we can definitely still play. The way I figure it we're BOTH playing just about every day so I mean if you ever are shredding and figure you'd rather pass the bag off to someone else from time to time, then I'm probably 6 minutes away in Dewitt thinking the exact same thing. Just keep me posted.

Didn't play yesterday. Went to Hooters. Rah and chatted with one of the waitresses about the Warped Tour and how much it's going to suck this year. Odd. A waitress at Hooters who knows who NOFX and Bad Religion is. I give up on judging people prematurely. It doesn't seem to be working out for me

I'm getting off of work early today because I CAN and then I'm heading off to the Square. Just got directions from google. Should be a lot of fun. Hope I can get there before too long. It's pretty much the only thing that's going to be on my mind for the next 4 or 5 hours.

pT

[BenRea]

I give up on judging people prematurely.

Like they always say:

"Don't Judge A Girl By Her Tits"

[DTank126]

Yo man, it was really great meeting you... again. I hope we can play again a few times before the summer ends. Like Chris was saying, just post in the RFA blog if ur ever in town and wanna play, Id be happy to take time out of my extremely not busy schedule.

Peace

[Darkshredder]

What makes a man? Is it the woman in his arms? Just cuz she has big titties? Or is it the way he fights every day? . . no it's prob-ly the titties!

sorry. Ben's post made me think of the song. Good stuff.

Buffalo was amazing. See, we here in Syracuse believe ourselves to be third in the line-up in the four major cities in NY.
1) Albany - . . . it's the capital. By default it's supposedly the nicest.
2) Rochester - I always say Rochester is Syracuse that has its act together and is nice actually goal oriented. And they have garbage plates. The latter is enough to make any self-respecting american move away from their home.
3) Syracuse - We have the Carrier Dome. . and our lacrosse team is pretty damn good. And we have Fayetteville which was voted as in the top 10 nicest places in the country to raise a family. Can't remember exactly where it came on the list.
4) Buffalo. It smells, the Bills aren't popular (except with me and my family and we don't know why), lots-o-crime and crummy neighborhoods. I was born in Buffalo. Moved to the Syracuse-ish region about a month later for other reasons.

what I have come to understand, however, is that this elitist point of view which stems from nothing, really, is completely false. This is my lineup as of last night:
1) Buffalo - not enough can be said about how cool the city is. Tons of activity, nice buildings, two really nice squares, and the biggest shopping street I have ever seen in my entire life. Not that I'm all that big into consumerism. . . it was just damned impressive when I took the wrong exit and ended up submerged in every commercial establishment known to man (and some unknown). Everyone and his sister can at least do an atw as well. With vans. When they're 80. Or 5.
2) Rochester - Reeeeal nice music scene. RFA. RIT. Some real nice suburbs. 'Nuff said.
3) Albany - They have The Egg and the Empire Plaza (which nobody uses God Damn iT!). Digges. Horses. Lots of golf courses. A little yuppie, though.
4) Syracuse - We have the carrier dome. And our lacrosse team is good at what they do. And we have the third most polluted lake in the world.

So anyway, back to the Thursday in the Square. More circle kickers in one place as well as a gathering of people 26 and under in my life. Amazing. Good music, as well. I got there at 5 thinking I would be cool and getting there on time. I think I saw Chris Dean at like. . 7:30 or something. Oops. Oh well. I hacked for quite some time, got tired, and hurt my knee. A kid's hack got ran over by a train, which was both awesome and terribly sad. We mourned for his loss, but delighted in the irony.

The Shred? Lots of fun. Didn't play as well as I thought and I think I have a theory: I don't play with people. If I do I think too much about what I'm going to do and my strings suffer because of it. I should just relax more and play like I do every day. Oh well. I'll get better this summer playing with Ben and the RFA more. Either way, it was great to see the gang again. Matt made me a bag which was mighty kind of him. I love the design, with black and white panels, and it's probably the nicest bag I've had since Mosher's experimental blue/purple bag he made a looong time ago. GRASS I I think? Yeah pretty sure. I still have that bag. It's in tatters and every once in a while I'll refill it and spottily slam some shoe goo on it and see how long I can play before three more holes form. Meh. Everyone had some real nice strings, Chris' game has never been better, at least for me, and Matt's flails were huge. What was it? Atomic (ducking?) flail? Jeez. Mike Anello was playing well, executing ducks and dives and pdx eggbeaters like it's his job. . . such style. Doug Tank? This guy hits phoenix and foots assassin in the same string as soon as he gets the bag and passes it off to me. Right. Awesome to see. He's gotten much better since what little I saw at YEAH. Pretty sure the first thing I said under my breath when shredding with him and Chris was, "Wish I could do pixies like that". Effortless.

Some good quotes from the jam?
"I could do that." "Dude. You could NOT do that!"
Kid - "It's like freestyle hacky sack!"
Chris Dean mid-string - "That's exactly what it is."
Guy - "Show off!"
Matt Cross - "How about. . fuck off."
and of course the usual: "Quick! People are watching! Do something cool!" at which point I decided to pull out my deep blizzard and a very shaky string. [/i]

[mc]

nice playing with you yesterday. your form is very good. how about a pic of that bag?

[Darkshredder]

I'll see if I can nick someone's camera. I think my friend andrew has a digital camera I can borrow. Oh and there's one more thing I forgot to add shockingly. I found my old abshire mini. When I say old I mean. Four years old. I got it before I started freestyle because I read online that 32s were really controllable and I was getting really good at just circle kicking and I wanted to bring it up to the next level. . meaning now I could kick like. . 30-80 inside kicks NOW! When I started freestyle I got bored with it because the stitching wouldn't break in so I tossed it aside - apparently in my basement. I found it like 10 minutes ago and I'm going to open 'er up and put in lead fill to make it really heavy and maybe playable. I'm thinking the weight will be a catalyst for the break-in process. So If I get a camera I'll take a picture of my new Cross bag, my Aiden bag, and my Abshire 32 which is older than my around the world!

later guys

[Darkshredder]

had a nice session at the local skate park before a few of my buds came by and we went in ourselves with the ol' longboards. Solid 2.5 hrs of gameplay. Good results. I found I could push my stepping a bit further than usual and hit the oh so common drill sidewalk > ripwalk rpt. a few times which I'd never done before and found it rather boring and tiring but kind of necessary.

hit a very ducking symposium string inspired straight from the man in charge of that department: Mike Anello. I think the run went something like ducking pdx mirage > toe ducking mirage > toe ducking legover > symp. mirage > butter > diving pickup > symp. mirage > catch. I couldn't believe the control I had over the bag with this and all I really wanted to do was bsos the symp. mirage (as you could probably tell by the odd appearance of the butterfly as a bail so I could use the other side of my body) I usually never get more than three contacts of toe-y ducking combos. I was pretty stoked about this. Not really my style but it felt damn good.

symple ss pickup > dimwalk rpt. Something I tried in Buffalo but didn't get it. Got it this time 'round. Felt pretty good. I'll probably do it a lot. So if you ever shred with me go ahead and remind me to do this drill because it's fun and probably pretty fun to watch. Win-win.

gyro osis > infinity rpt. - I actually did this a few days ago but didn't blog about it. I really liked it.

legbeater > ripwalk > osis > pdx illusion > dimwalk > pdx mirage > legbeater > catch. Guess I was just trying to bsos legbeaters and trying to find a scenic route to get to it rather than just something lame like legbeater > ducking legover > legbeater. You understand.

I helped a hacker/bmx'er with his 'game' in between strings. He came over because he thought I looked lonely and we chatted for a while about footbag and he thought I was the shit. So I tossed him a bag and he and I hacked for a while and let him use it while I continued on my own. He broke in the abshire quite well. I don't want the Cross bag broken in by anyone but me. . . Not that he was scraping the bag or anything - he was actually very polite and good about not punting or scooping or nuthin'. It's just I love that little thing and I'm protective of it.

A few punky girls walked by and screamed out "Show me your MOVES!" and I tried to do an ass stall but I'll leave that up to the Master to do that. Couldn't get it. Don't really want to steal it anyway. It's a trademark and I don't want to get sued. I already kind of stole the hands on the head duck thing.

. . . the skatepark was fun. I briefly dislocated my shoulder in the pool bowl thing which freaked the hell out of me and I stopped skating for the day after that. Other than that the shortboarders were very impressed by our slides and surf-style carves up and down the pipes and ramps. All in a days work. They were like "hey weren't you just out there playing hacky sack?" "Yep." "You do this too?" "Yep."

[mc]

awesome post, pat. good footbag strings and cool stories about the skatepark. I liked the term "shortboarders" a lot, I've never heard that before. hope you can make it out for more thursday.

[BenRea]

i just got a new camera you can take it with this one.


we should take some nice midair pics of us when we shred...damnit i wanna shred with you! too much freakin stuff going on.

[Darkshredder]

thanks guys. Yeah Ben we should definitely take the mid-air shots. I'm hardcore aerodynamic and probably look like a million bucks busting huge symple butterflies.

going up to Alexandria Bay with my parents for fathers day to visit a friend of ours who has a cottage up there. Nooo footbag probaby That's quite alright. We get to ride in this flatbed party boat this guy has and we'll probably go out to dinner at some fishery. Going out to dinner is probably one of my favorite things in the world. Mostly.

Oh here's something fun for all my fans and readers: I like energy drinks. I don't know why. It's a hobby of mine. But I also like to make fun of the kids who drink waay too much red bull and all that like it's water and they think it's good for them. But I found a video on youtube that makes fun of the whole energy drink scene better than I could - ever. Alright so here's what you do. Go to YouTube and type in Powerthirst. Click the video. Watch. Laugh. Repeat? I know I do. Post back here if you liked it. I want to hear some other people's reactions. In person is usually better but whatEV.

pT

[BenRea]

that was funny, i giggled at that.

[DTank126]

SPORTS! Awesome video man. You think you'll make it out to Buffalo next Thursday?

[BenRea]

considering your internet is broken, you probaby wont see this bag untill tomorrow. so im posting it here for you

[BenRea]

[Darkshredder]

Thanks for posting that Ben. I look all footbaggerish in those pictures. . . Those were all mohawk attempts, for those of you wondering. That was a great session. Nice strings from both of us and it left me in a really good mood (other than the fact I thought I had lost my Cross bag) . It's the black and white crossed one. Very nice. Can't wait till it breaks in fully. It'll shred nicely.

One highlight of the session I could talk about real quick is that I hit frontside blizzard second or third try. It might not have been the cleanest ever but I know it wasn't slurry because it killed my knee. Just a bit tweeked for the illusioning dex. I'll fix that. We'll get to playing later today (hopefully Greg will get back soon)

Doug - Yeah I'd love to come out again. I told a few of my pals to come with me next time. Good music and lots of circle kickers for them. They can still hold their own in a circle from years ago and they enjoy a hack now and again still.

When my internet comes back on - hopefully monday or tuesday, I'll post more. I'm using my friend's computer right now.

[Darkshredder]

Internet is back up. Like I thought, the problem was right under my nose.

I had a session yesterday with Greg P. I have a feeling he's pretty much gone from the game. He's lost most of what he had this winter and it pains me to see it. He hit toe ducking clipper both sides on my command though which was cool, but it's a bit too little too late, if ye know what I mean. Oh well. The river of life ebbs on. The schoolbus makes another righthand turn. The wheel keeps rolling. C'est la vie. Catchers catch can. You are what you eat. Less is more. Do nothing and nothing will be left not done.

We need to work on recruiting people from the Syracuse area to play. Like. . seriously. I'm going to print out more glorious flyers for our next shred at the skatepark and I'm going to make it a point to go to the Jazz Fest and Party in the Plaza downtown as often as I can to promote footbag. Syracuse is getting more and more used to going bowling and playing tag in Wegmans and other grocery stores. And there are too many sports they excel that don't require the feet : lacrosse, football, basketball. Too much of it going around. We need more skaters and soccer players 'round here. Ugh.

I'm going to maybe go out to dinner with my mom in a little bit and then I'm going to go down to some tennis courts behind a school near me and shred for a bit. I'm feeling I'm playing at 98% of my abilities the last three or four sessions and it's a great feeling. I'm hitting some pretty various strings, using pixies, stepping, ducking, spinning, and even atomic all together. Nothing too unique and jaw-dropping - I bail to smear > dimwalk and BOPs a bit more than I'd like. But drifters of all sorts and pixies on both sides are the newest things for me and they make me happy.

and I have bags. I have four shreddable bags in my possession right now. A slowly breaking-in abshire mini (old school), a Matt Cross bag, Aiden bag, and a Rea 12-panel. Pretty sure I've never had so many to choose from. It's pretty cool. My car looks like a footbag car. It's got a flipsider bumper sticker and busted 32s and sandbags all over the seats and floor and in odd cracks and holes. When I drive anywhere I usually have at least one of my Four on the dashboard like a beacon(s) of hope.

Ben - Jazz Fest is on at OCC. Wanna go? I'll be going probably on Saturday (Sunday. . . ).

and to who wishes to know, I'm going to see if I can make it over to Buffalo this week. And for the sake of my wallet I hope I won't be coming alone so I can carpool and save. A PLAGUE ON YOU, MOBILE STATION!

pT

oh wait. blizzard bsos strung with a dimwalk at the end of each. HUGE for me. I was excited.

[Darkshredder]

oh crap. . it was hotter than balls today.

had an interesting session. I played, tried not to dehydrate myself and played on the playground in between XTREMe RUNS. There's this little disk you can stand on and tilt to one side and it'll spin you around and it's at an angle so somehow the momentum of your first little nudge makes it spin forever. I had a lot of fun with this and was confused by it so I remained on it for a while before losing my footing and falling off. It was awesome.

ANYWAY: : I did work on a few things, some easy and some not so much, that I needed to just skool and get records for.

gyro clippers back to back NEW RECORD. 6.

infinity NEW RECORD. 40. meh. . . probably could've done more. It was hot.

spinning clip > gyro clip rpt. NEW DRILL 4 repetitions. Pretty stoked about it.

gyro mirage bsos with one simple addless string attaching about 3 on each side. They're getting there. I lost a lot of momentum on the dropped flipside gyro mirage. It just took way too much out of me to swing over and spot the bag. I need help with my flip.

gyro butterfly bsos

SOME NEW THINGS STRUCK -
1) ps illusion . . or paradox flail. . or whatever you want to call it. I made up my own name for it which no one will ever acknowledge but I thought it was cool. I'll call it MYST or maybe MYSTERIOUS since I'm .4% sure there's a trick already called mist. Anyway I was really happy when I hit this. I did it at the end of the session for about 20 minutes straight. it's a good thing the symp dex is on the flip symp leg or else I'd probably have broken it and that'd have been that.

2) a sick three: pixie ss whirl > blur > legbeater. Wasn't too bad but I want to start forming a more INTENSE CHOCOLATEY shred style with as few flowy and osisish strings as I can. Well my ultimate goal is to be able to turn on and off a number of types of strings at will. Like one string I could throw in lots of pixies and fairies, DLOs and torques. The next I could be dishing out atomics and stepping and whirl-based tricks. And THEN I could be more spin, duck, and stylie. We'll see.

3) pandora > dimwalk > ducking clip rpt.

4) blur out of osis both sides. Needed to know I could do this.

ps. I'm going to Canada this weekend.