The party at ECC was one of the most fun parties I’ve been to at a footbag event in America. It went down at Pete and Vince’s place, which was real spacious. The first floor boasted a pinball machine, as well as a Guitar Hero 2 set-up with 2 guitars. Downstairs there was a ping pong table for the first half of the night, which was put away to make space for live bands during the second half. There was also a porch with mosquito netting so people could enjoy fusball and beers on the deck. Very nice party set up. I began the night by playing some ping pong against Strassman, who was surprisingly very good. The rackets lacked real padding, so it was very hard to generate spin on them, which hurt my game. But everybody was using the same rackets, so it was just like playing a different game. I enjoyed watching 2 tight games between Strassman and Benny, and was impressed when Benny pulled out both victories. I had the impression that Strassman had more technical skill, but as is often the case in sports, talent isn’t everything. Definitely the case in footbag too.
It didn’t get dark out til around 8 or 8:30, so I made a point to be outside for a bit just to enjoy the cooler weather. I asked Strassman to show me some beatboxing, and it proved to be one of the best parts of the evening. Kid’s got a lot of talent. Recently I’ve been watching a lot of youtube vids of beatboxing, and I’d like to learn. It was cool that I could request a particular song or routine that I liked online, and Strassman could do it in person. Beatboxing is a lot like magic in that it is something you really need to see in person to fully appreciate. I can watch really hard magic tricks on TV and not be impressed, but a simple, well-executed trick in person will blow my mind. Same with beatboxing; you can see high level stuff on video and not be impressed, but when you see somebody who is competent in person, it’s a different beast altogether. I would trade a lot of my footbag ability to be able to beatbox competently. Alex tried teaching me some basics, but I was pretty hopeless. Like, I can’t even do the basic sounds properly (think of those people you can’t teach toe stall to).
Shortly after beatboxing, Pete unveiled a beautiful birthday cake (bakery stuff, none of that supermarket garbage) and brought it to the basement where Zach and Clavens were. A round of “happy birthdayâ€
Fanzine
Really nice post..
but I still have it exactly that way with footbag.. Maybe it has something to do with me playing alone like 99,9999% of the time..
Looking forward to next chapter.
Maybe you've been in the game for too longBeatboxing is a lot like magic in that it is something you really need to see in person to fully appreciate. I can watch really hard magic tricks on TV and not be impressed, but a simple, well-executed trick in person will blow my mind.
but I still have it exactly that way with footbag.. Maybe it has something to do with me playing alone like 99,9999% of the time.. Culture difference! In Denmark that would probably say (homebaked stuff, none of that bakery garbage) since it's really normal to bake at home and the bakeries in supermarkets is as good as the real solo bakeries.(bakery stuff, none of that supermarket garbage)
Good one!The way I explained it to Mike Toolan, was that at my age, I almost feel like I’m married to my body ......
Looking forward to next chapter.
Ha, that's funny. I just wrote a non-ECC post, come into my blog to post it, and find a post that says: "looking forward to the next chapter." 
It'll come soon, I promise. For now though, you'll have to settle for:
Non-ECC post.
ECC was a great experience. It was kind of weird though, that only 2 days later it was July 4th, which meant that on Tuesday afternoon I was playing footbag again. July 4th was pretty laid back, since it seemed like nobody made plans because it fell on a Wednesday and the forecast was bleak. So I played footbag on Tuesday and Wednesday, and mostly just played for the crowds. My only highlights were spinning blender (only my 2nd or 3rd time ever hitting it, and my first in a long time) and getting my foot on legbeater-flurry repeat. About a week before ECC I also managed to handcatch a PS torque… can’t recall if I blogged that or not.
Recently I’ve been feeling pretty reflective about my footbag career. Seeing Sunil, Vince, Wulff and Tuan at ECC made me realize how many directions peoples footbag careers, and their lives can take. Reading in Dave’s blog about his back also reminded me how much of a role luck plays in footbag. For some reason all of this made me think about Yacine, and it struck me as really weird how out of touch we’ve been. He used to be my closest friend in footbag, so to not hear from him in almost 3 years is really odd. I emailed him on a whim, and 23 minutes later he wrote me back. He now lives in Hawaii, and in his own words has “completely abandoned footbag.â€
It'll come soon, I promise. For now though, you'll have to settle for:
Non-ECC post.
ECC was a great experience. It was kind of weird though, that only 2 days later it was July 4th, which meant that on Tuesday afternoon I was playing footbag again. July 4th was pretty laid back, since it seemed like nobody made plans because it fell on a Wednesday and the forecast was bleak. So I played footbag on Tuesday and Wednesday, and mostly just played for the crowds. My only highlights were spinning blender (only my 2nd or 3rd time ever hitting it, and my first in a long time) and getting my foot on legbeater-flurry repeat. About a week before ECC I also managed to handcatch a PS torque… can’t recall if I blogged that or not.
Recently I’ve been feeling pretty reflective about my footbag career. Seeing Sunil, Vince, Wulff and Tuan at ECC made me realize how many directions peoples footbag careers, and their lives can take. Reading in Dave’s blog about his back also reminded me how much of a role luck plays in footbag. For some reason all of this made me think about Yacine, and it struck me as really weird how out of touch we’ve been. He used to be my closest friend in footbag, so to not hear from him in almost 3 years is really odd. I emailed him on a whim, and 23 minutes later he wrote me back. He now lives in Hawaii, and in his own words has “completely abandoned footbag.â€
East Coasts Day 2
Woke up feeling really good mentally and physically. I didn’t play that much footbag the day before and I slept well, so my legs were good, and I had fun (but not too much fun) at the party so I was mentally relaxed. Jon and I checked out from the hotel and bought some brunch at Whole Foods. It was a slow start at the site, which was nice. I got to leisurely eat my brunch, and I felt like a badass because the checkout people put my organic lemonade in a brown bag, and I was drinking out of it before noon. I enjoyed watching Wulff play doubles net; I saw him finish two games in a row (thereby winning the match) by roll spiking the opponent. It was also cool watching Tuan play; I didn’t even know that he was a serious net player before this weekend. Its interesting to see people with aggressive freestyle games transition to net, and see how their game translates. I wonder if Luis Monhollon would even be capable of playing net…
The freestylers slowly got to warming up. It was clear that nobody wanted to play on the asphalt track again. I tried warming up with everybody on the grass, but the uneven ground was too much. I went off to find a better surface, and found some tennis courts in an adjoining area. To my surprise, there already was 2 people playing there: Zach and Mike. It reminded me of the movie Brain Candy, when the corporate boss takes Dr. Cooper to “the real party.â€
Woke up feeling really good mentally and physically. I didn’t play that much footbag the day before and I slept well, so my legs were good, and I had fun (but not too much fun) at the party so I was mentally relaxed. Jon and I checked out from the hotel and bought some brunch at Whole Foods. It was a slow start at the site, which was nice. I got to leisurely eat my brunch, and I felt like a badass because the checkout people put my organic lemonade in a brown bag, and I was drinking out of it before noon. I enjoyed watching Wulff play doubles net; I saw him finish two games in a row (thereby winning the match) by roll spiking the opponent. It was also cool watching Tuan play; I didn’t even know that he was a serious net player before this weekend. Its interesting to see people with aggressive freestyle games transition to net, and see how their game translates. I wonder if Luis Monhollon would even be capable of playing net…
The freestylers slowly got to warming up. It was clear that nobody wanted to play on the asphalt track again. I tried warming up with everybody on the grass, but the uneven ground was too much. I went off to find a better surface, and found some tennis courts in an adjoining area. To my surprise, there already was 2 people playing there: Zach and Mike. It reminded me of the movie Brain Candy, when the corporate boss takes Dr. Cooper to “the real party.â€
Too exhausted from work and life to finish my ECC blog. I got in most of the good stuff anyway.
Here are some photos of me from the day I shot a video with Barrett:
footbag.dacystudio.com/
footbag2.dacystudio.com/
I thought the final video was really well edited, but it wasn't uploaded to YouTube properly, so it looked really bad. If I can't upload a good version of a video, I wouldn't upload it at all.
In good news, I had a nice weekend. I played very lightly on Saturday and made a point not to do any sets. We finished early and I spent most of the day eating cookies and playing video games at Bruce's place. I broke my Wii bowling record by getting a 216.
On Sunday we had one of the best turnouts in NYFA history. We needed 3 circles at times. The overall skill level was also probably the highest ever. I played with the following people: Strassman, Stan, Bruce, Pascal, Willie Digges, Josh Digges, Alex Faber, Drew Martin, Waylon, and a couple others. We played in Central Park and drew some decent crowds despite the heat and the fact that it was a Sunday.
I really enjoyed watching Willie play. The shape of his legs is really good for footbag. Kinda reminds me a bit of Pipenberg, in the way his calves are longer than the quads. Willie's furious is efficient and consistent, but beyond that it just looks more graceful than most peoples. It's really pretty. Willie hit lots of good tricks and combos all day, but I was happiest to see him hit a Big Apple. If you visit NYC and you can hit that trick, you are obliged to hit it at least once.
I felt like I personally played very well, which was encouraging for a couple reasons. Right when the session started, the right instep of my g-unit just totally ripped out. I've never seen anything like it. At first it really threw me off, and I was getting kinda down on my bad luck. But then I made a conscious decision to ignore it, because my only other option would be to not play at all. Happily, I was able to block out the flaw in my equipment, and was able to play at roughly 100%. I felt like my mental game passed a big test. Waylon offered to try and fix my shoe, and I'm crossing my fingers that it turns out OK. I have backup G-Units in Arizona, but my parents are out of the country until the end of July, so if Waylon's fix doesn't work, I'm gonna need to buy and break in a new pair of G-Units before worlds. Has me a little nervous. In any case, I feel the timing of the rip was good. It didn't happen during worlds or East Coasts, and it happened early enough that I should be able to figure something out before Worlds.
Highlights from Sunday shred:
*footed jani-blurriest-pdx torque-pdx blender-ps whirl, but I later learned the blurriest was thin. Still felt cool.
*Hit something like 4 furies. One or two felt very solid. I was surprised by the consistency in any case.
*fusion-bl. torque- muted ducking clipper.
I felt very encouraged by this link. This may be my best shot at hitting my first beast.
* bl. whirling swirl first try. A gig and a food in the seal.
*bl whirl-flurry-pixie torque
*a run with fog-nova, flurry-nova, and smoke-pdx torque-pdx blender.
*Your Mom-pdx torque to start a string.
I also hit a bunch of good individual tricks throughout the day, such as johnny quest, ducking pdlo, ducking pdx torque, HPD, dominatrix, bs fog, etc.
After shred we even got in a game of 4square. I had fun playing with Pascal and Stan. Lots of trickiness. It was also just good generally hanging out with Strassman all day. He keeps things really fun and positive throughout.
We're supposed to have another big session on Wed night with Strassman and Willie. Looking forward to it. I played pretty hard on Sunday though, and my legs are still recovering, so we'll see how that goes.
Here are some photos of me from the day I shot a video with Barrett:
footbag.dacystudio.com/
footbag2.dacystudio.com/
I thought the final video was really well edited, but it wasn't uploaded to YouTube properly, so it looked really bad. If I can't upload a good version of a video, I wouldn't upload it at all.
In good news, I had a nice weekend. I played very lightly on Saturday and made a point not to do any sets. We finished early and I spent most of the day eating cookies and playing video games at Bruce's place. I broke my Wii bowling record by getting a 216.
On Sunday we had one of the best turnouts in NYFA history. We needed 3 circles at times. The overall skill level was also probably the highest ever. I played with the following people: Strassman, Stan, Bruce, Pascal, Willie Digges, Josh Digges, Alex Faber, Drew Martin, Waylon, and a couple others. We played in Central Park and drew some decent crowds despite the heat and the fact that it was a Sunday.
I really enjoyed watching Willie play. The shape of his legs is really good for footbag. Kinda reminds me a bit of Pipenberg, in the way his calves are longer than the quads. Willie's furious is efficient and consistent, but beyond that it just looks more graceful than most peoples. It's really pretty. Willie hit lots of good tricks and combos all day, but I was happiest to see him hit a Big Apple. If you visit NYC and you can hit that trick, you are obliged to hit it at least once.
I felt like I personally played very well, which was encouraging for a couple reasons. Right when the session started, the right instep of my g-unit just totally ripped out. I've never seen anything like it. At first it really threw me off, and I was getting kinda down on my bad luck. But then I made a conscious decision to ignore it, because my only other option would be to not play at all. Happily, I was able to block out the flaw in my equipment, and was able to play at roughly 100%. I felt like my mental game passed a big test. Waylon offered to try and fix my shoe, and I'm crossing my fingers that it turns out OK. I have backup G-Units in Arizona, but my parents are out of the country until the end of July, so if Waylon's fix doesn't work, I'm gonna need to buy and break in a new pair of G-Units before worlds. Has me a little nervous. In any case, I feel the timing of the rip was good. It didn't happen during worlds or East Coasts, and it happened early enough that I should be able to figure something out before Worlds.
Highlights from Sunday shred:
*footed jani-blurriest-pdx torque-pdx blender-ps whirl, but I later learned the blurriest was thin. Still felt cool.
*Hit something like 4 furies. One or two felt very solid. I was surprised by the consistency in any case.
*fusion-bl. torque- muted ducking clipper.
I felt very encouraged by this link. This may be my best shot at hitting my first beast.* bl. whirling swirl first try. A gig and a food in the seal.
*bl whirl-flurry-pixie torque
*a run with fog-nova, flurry-nova, and smoke-pdx torque-pdx blender.
*Your Mom-pdx torque to start a string.
I also hit a bunch of good individual tricks throughout the day, such as johnny quest, ducking pdlo, ducking pdx torque, HPD, dominatrix, bs fog, etc.
After shred we even got in a game of 4square. I had fun playing with Pascal and Stan. Lots of trickiness. It was also just good generally hanging out with Strassman all day. He keeps things really fun and positive throughout.
We're supposed to have another big session on Wed night with Strassman and Willie. Looking forward to it. I played pretty hard on Sunday though, and my legs are still recovering, so we'll see how that goes.
Funny how some things never get old. I love things that never get old, that are just good no matter how many times you hear/see them. Notorious BIG songs. NYC in the summer. Chinatown Ice Cream Factory Ice cream. Hitting a new combo in footbag. Some shit just never gets old.
Nice shred in the city on Thursday. Strassman made it out, which is always a treat. Waylon also repaired my torn gunit, and I was very impressed with the job he did. My right instep is now black facile. I've only done one session in it, but it felt as good as new. I was a bit concerned the fabric would be too slippery, but I had no problems. It actually looks better than the original, modded g unit surface. Big props to Waylon for helping me out, especially considering that I could find new units o ebay in my size.
Some highlights:
*1 drop run through of my routine.
*haze-pixie dod, then I bsosed the haze.
*flurry-leg-flurry-atomic drop
*pixie ss dlox2
*tapping dlo-pixie ss dlo
*fog-enterrage first try
*good both sided pixie shuffle
*dropless 26 contacts of my shred 30. I only dropped because I didn't know if time was up yet, and I started to dick around.
*tomahawk-mullet-pdx torque
I want to learn to beatbox.
Nice shred in the city on Thursday. Strassman made it out, which is always a treat. Waylon also repaired my torn gunit, and I was very impressed with the job he did. My right instep is now black facile. I've only done one session in it, but it felt as good as new. I was a bit concerned the fabric would be too slippery, but I had no problems. It actually looks better than the original, modded g unit surface. Big props to Waylon for helping me out, especially considering that I could find new units o ebay in my size.
Some highlights:
*1 drop run through of my routine.
*haze-pixie dod, then I bsosed the haze.
*flurry-leg-flurry-atomic drop
*pixie ss dlox2
*tapping dlo-pixie ss dlo
*fog-enterrage first try
*good both sided pixie shuffle
*dropless 26 contacts of my shred 30. I only dropped because I didn't know if time was up yet, and I started to dick around.
*tomahawk-mullet-pdx torque
I want to learn to beatbox.
I wrote this around 8 weeks ago:
I guess what I'm getting at, is that I feel I have a better shot at finals now than I did 2 months ago. Part of that was under my control, and part of it was circumstances. In any case though, it's kind of exciting. My goal still is to do a good routine at Worlds. If I do a dropless routine at worlds and don't make finals, I will be personally satisfied. If I make finals, that would be great too, but I prefer to set goals which are more under my control, like doing a good routine. If I do a great routine and the judges f*ck me, so be it. It's happened. But it would mean a lot to me if I could get in one great routine before retiring from comp.
Lately I've been super-busy, but I've also been good about playing footbag and studying my routine song. Had shreds on Thursday (blogged), Saturday, and Sunday. On Sunday I really didn't feel like playing, but I convinced myself to play just to get adds on the shoes, and to try and build stamina before worlds.
Waylon did a great job of repairing my g-Unit, but now a different part of the same shoe is tearing (right toe). It still burns me that good quality footbag shoes still don't really exist. But then, I like G-Units so much more than Lavers, that the tearing seems like a small price to pay. This pair lasted 7 months before I had any problems with tears, so that was good. When I first modded them, I put some crazy glue on the part of the toe that normally tears, and that part held, so next time I should just make a point to glue the whole toe area.
I'm so busy with work and other stuff, that I don't have much time to think about worlds, but I am definitely getting more excited about it as the date draws nearer. The plan is to take it very easy the whole week, and save most of my energy for routines.
Since that time I've been pretty good about studying my routine music, and I did my best routine ever in competition (1 drop) at East Coasts. Not only do I feel in good shape for routines, but I have now learned that Felix and Juho aren't coming to Worlds, and Dave isn't going to be able to practice his routine for a month before worlds. Dave still has a shot at Finals, but its hard to say how the back situation will affect him. Before the injury, he would have been a guaranteed lock; now its more in the air.C-Fan wrote: If I can really drill a good routine over the summer, it might be fun for me to go down and try and make finals (I've never made finals in routines). Given the list of people who have committed to worlds though, I think this year could be really hard for somebody like me to sneak into routine finals. Look at this list and tell me any of these guys aren't making routine finals:
1. Vasek
2. Clavens
3. Jorden
4. Felix
5. Honza
6. Jim Penske
7. Juho
That's pretty much 7/10 spots guaranteed.
I guess what I'm getting at, is that I feel I have a better shot at finals now than I did 2 months ago. Part of that was under my control, and part of it was circumstances. In any case though, it's kind of exciting. My goal still is to do a good routine at Worlds. If I do a dropless routine at worlds and don't make finals, I will be personally satisfied. If I make finals, that would be great too, but I prefer to set goals which are more under my control, like doing a good routine. If I do a great routine and the judges f*ck me, so be it. It's happened. But it would mean a lot to me if I could get in one great routine before retiring from comp.
Lately I've been super-busy, but I've also been good about playing footbag and studying my routine song. Had shreds on Thursday (blogged), Saturday, and Sunday. On Sunday I really didn't feel like playing, but I convinced myself to play just to get adds on the shoes, and to try and build stamina before worlds.
Waylon did a great job of repairing my g-Unit, but now a different part of the same shoe is tearing (right toe). It still burns me that good quality footbag shoes still don't really exist. But then, I like G-Units so much more than Lavers, that the tearing seems like a small price to pay. This pair lasted 7 months before I had any problems with tears, so that was good. When I first modded them, I put some crazy glue on the part of the toe that normally tears, and that part held, so next time I should just make a point to glue the whole toe area.
I'm so busy with work and other stuff, that I don't have much time to think about worlds, but I am definitely getting more excited about it as the date draws nearer. The plan is to take it very easy the whole week, and save most of my energy for routines.
I actually have a good idea on how your shoe looks in my head, especially the tear on the right toebox, and I think can do a good repair job with black facile. Like a good engineer in some absurd way, I've been replaying on how I can do a good mod job on that particular area of your shoe. It's strange! I don't know how to describe it.
Please don't call me out on some shoe fetish.
I feel fairly confident in doing the repair. If you want to use glue and fabric to patch up the entire area, that's fine as well. Your toebox mod is very stable and well, so anything you do to that area won't affect its performance. Just let me know through e-mail [ [email protected] ] or by phone.
Take care,
Waylon
Please don't call me out on some shoe fetish.
I feel fairly confident in doing the repair. If you want to use glue and fabric to patch up the entire area, that's fine as well. Your toebox mod is very stable and well, so anything you do to that area won't affect its performance. Just let me know through e-mail [ [email protected] ] or by phone.
Take care,
Waylon
Waylon Lew - maker of Wasabi bags
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
Thanks to work and wacky weather, its been difficult to get in shred time lately. We get some summer storms these days which are really something to behold. One day it rained so hard that after 10 seconds of running in the rain, I was drenched to my boxers. At that point you wonder "what's the point of running?" because you can't possibly get any wetter.
Rain thwarted my shred plans on Wednesday, and Thursday looked iffy enough that I didn't want to risk a trip to the city and get stuck in the rain. I ended up staying in Newark and having a light shred by my house.
I felt pretty stiff and out of practice at first, but I eventually warmed up and had a lot of fun playing. A bunch of Rutgers law students in suits and fancy shoes stopped by and played with me for a good 15 minutes. One of them could even do clipper and ATW on one side.
Very cool. It always makes me feel good to show people that footbag has come a long way since they days when they played.
Because of the law students, I didn't have a lot of solo time to play seriously, but that may have been a good thing since it forced me to go slowly.
Highlights:
*A run with smog bsos, fog bsos, and a flurry.
*9 contacts of rubberman. Good to see I can still do it.
*ps whirl-ripwalk bsos
I also had some veeeery promising looks at psw-flurry, which would be really hot.
The right toe of my g-unit has a tear, but at the moment it doesn't affect how I play. The part that normally tears (the area near my big toe) is still intact, possibly because I reinforced it with crazy glue when I first modded them. I think the current tear could be easily fixed with simple needle and thread, but I'm worried that the big toe area may tear later. I'm contemplating whether I should fix the small tear and hope for the best, or get Waylon to try and replace the entire toe area as a preemptive measure.
I feel like the end of summer is coming faster than I'd like. Better eat as much Chinatown Ice Cream Factory Ice Cream as I can.
Rain thwarted my shred plans on Wednesday, and Thursday looked iffy enough that I didn't want to risk a trip to the city and get stuck in the rain. I ended up staying in Newark and having a light shred by my house.
I felt pretty stiff and out of practice at first, but I eventually warmed up and had a lot of fun playing. A bunch of Rutgers law students in suits and fancy shoes stopped by and played with me for a good 15 minutes. One of them could even do clipper and ATW on one side.
Very cool. It always makes me feel good to show people that footbag has come a long way since they days when they played. Because of the law students, I didn't have a lot of solo time to play seriously, but that may have been a good thing since it forced me to go slowly.
Highlights:
*A run with smog bsos, fog bsos, and a flurry.
*9 contacts of rubberman. Good to see I can still do it.
*ps whirl-ripwalk bsos
I also had some veeeery promising looks at psw-flurry, which would be really hot.
The right toe of my g-unit has a tear, but at the moment it doesn't affect how I play. The part that normally tears (the area near my big toe) is still intact, possibly because I reinforced it with crazy glue when I first modded them. I think the current tear could be easily fixed with simple needle and thread, but I'm worried that the big toe area may tear later. I'm contemplating whether I should fix the small tear and hope for the best, or get Waylon to try and replace the entire toe area as a preemptive measure.
I feel like the end of summer is coming faster than I'd like. Better eat as much Chinatown Ice Cream Factory Ice Cream as I can.
Weekend was a pretty mixed bag. Last week I worked from Monday-Saturday, and I put in long hours each day. I snuck in that light session on Thursday, but overall I felt like I wasn’t playing enough footbag. I was good about listening to my routine and playing it out in my head though.
Saturday was absolutely perfect weather. I got to WSP around 6 pm, and had fun just hacky-slacking with Bruce and Barrett. I played in my walking shoes, which are bulky skate shoes. Kicking in them is like tying your shoelaces while wearing thick gloves. Just feels totally alien and weird. They were surprisingly good for fliers though. In one string I linked around 15 flying clippers without any effort at all. I bet I could break the world record for that trick if I wanted to. Hackyslacking was relaxing, which is just what I needed. After kicking (can’t call it shred) we went to see the Transformers movie, which was really excellent. Not something I could watch repeatedly, but it was a very good summer movie. The girl was beautiful (she’s like a young Jennifer Connely), the effects were amazing, there were some good jokes, and it was generally fast paced. Good summer popcorn fare. I actually think it could have been a legitimately good movie if they tightened up the editing. The movie was a good 30 minutes too long, with lots of throwaway material.
After the movie I went to Bruce’s and played videogames and had some beer. It felt so good to not be working for a change. We played a Tony Hawk skate game (project
which I really enjoyed. I just love the freedom of linking tricks and doing whatever I want. It reminded me a lot of footbag.
Sunday was also excellent weather. Hit the city early, and took our time warming up. I saw the hottest girl of the summer to this point on the L train, which put me in a good mood for the shred. I warmed up slowly, but felt in pretty good form once I broke a sweat. Mostly did showboating runs until the very end of the session, when I took some combo requests from Bruce, Waylon, and Brian Damato. I did pretty well, despite how tired I was, but at the end I pushed it too hard, and twisted my right ankle. I fell pretty well though, and took a lot of the impact in my wrists, which probably helped. Still, the ankle feels weird when I point my toes, which means I should take off at least a week. Worlds is 3 weeks away, so hopefully I’ll heal quick, be able to get back in shape in a week, and then play normally at Worlds. Oy.
Highlights before the injury:
*fog-smog-pixie torque
*bl. Whirlx4
*tapping dlo-smoke-pdx drifter-pdx torque
*pdx torque-spinning butterfly
*other pdx torque-inspin butterfly
*flurry-atom bsos
*bl. Whirl-gdlo
*toe drifter-gdlo-smudge
*tripwalk-pdlo-toe blur (nearly bsos)
*blur-leg-barfly rpt
I also hit ps whirl-flurry, but the flurry felt thin, and Pascal said it looked bad, so I need to try that again.
Before the injury we got in a few games of 4square, which was a lot of fun. For Bruce, Brian, and Ken David, it was their first time playing, and I think they had fun with it. I did my usual strategy; try and win the first game, and then just be an annoying sniper in subsequent games. Had a lot of fun with that.
At the end of the shred session I injured myself. Overall it didn’t feel that bad, because I could put weight on it. Even so, I decided to skip dinner with everybody and go home early so I could ice, compress, and elevate sooner than later. Jumped on the PATH and made it home by 7 pm.
Saturday was absolutely perfect weather. I got to WSP around 6 pm, and had fun just hacky-slacking with Bruce and Barrett. I played in my walking shoes, which are bulky skate shoes. Kicking in them is like tying your shoelaces while wearing thick gloves. Just feels totally alien and weird. They were surprisingly good for fliers though. In one string I linked around 15 flying clippers without any effort at all. I bet I could break the world record for that trick if I wanted to. Hackyslacking was relaxing, which is just what I needed. After kicking (can’t call it shred) we went to see the Transformers movie, which was really excellent. Not something I could watch repeatedly, but it was a very good summer movie. The girl was beautiful (she’s like a young Jennifer Connely), the effects were amazing, there were some good jokes, and it was generally fast paced. Good summer popcorn fare. I actually think it could have been a legitimately good movie if they tightened up the editing. The movie was a good 30 minutes too long, with lots of throwaway material.
After the movie I went to Bruce’s and played videogames and had some beer. It felt so good to not be working for a change. We played a Tony Hawk skate game (project
which I really enjoyed. I just love the freedom of linking tricks and doing whatever I want. It reminded me a lot of footbag.Sunday was also excellent weather. Hit the city early, and took our time warming up. I saw the hottest girl of the summer to this point on the L train, which put me in a good mood for the shred. I warmed up slowly, but felt in pretty good form once I broke a sweat. Mostly did showboating runs until the very end of the session, when I took some combo requests from Bruce, Waylon, and Brian Damato. I did pretty well, despite how tired I was, but at the end I pushed it too hard, and twisted my right ankle. I fell pretty well though, and took a lot of the impact in my wrists, which probably helped. Still, the ankle feels weird when I point my toes, which means I should take off at least a week. Worlds is 3 weeks away, so hopefully I’ll heal quick, be able to get back in shape in a week, and then play normally at Worlds. Oy.
Highlights before the injury:
*fog-smog-pixie torque
*bl. Whirlx4
*tapping dlo-smoke-pdx drifter-pdx torque
*pdx torque-spinning butterfly
*other pdx torque-inspin butterfly
*flurry-atom bsos
*bl. Whirl-gdlo
*toe drifter-gdlo-smudge
*tripwalk-pdlo-toe blur (nearly bsos)
*blur-leg-barfly rpt
I also hit ps whirl-flurry, but the flurry felt thin, and Pascal said it looked bad, so I need to try that again.
Before the injury we got in a few games of 4square, which was a lot of fun. For Bruce, Brian, and Ken David, it was their first time playing, and I think they had fun with it. I did my usual strategy; try and win the first game, and then just be an annoying sniper in subsequent games. Had a lot of fun with that.
At the end of the shred session I injured myself. Overall it didn’t feel that bad, because I could put weight on it. Even so, I decided to skip dinner with everybody and go home early so I could ice, compress, and elevate sooner than later. Jumped on the PATH and made it home by 7 pm.
Ankle is making very promising progress; I can point my toes without feeling much, and I can do clipper position without pain (but it feels a little strange). I can also walk normally, ie the ankle can take the weight.
Still, I am going to play it safe and lay off footbag until next week. I was very good about icing, compressing, and elevating for the first 48 hours, and I think it paid off. The ankle never really swelled up or anything. Feel very lucky about this.
I'm slowly getting more and more excited about Worlds. I recently was sent this series of pictures from a Team Japan member's blog (USK):
http://usako30.jugem.jp/?day=20070623
I was also happy to help a European modified member (Andres Hoffman) get in touch with the Tokyo crew, and they were able to shred.
In English: http://guiltless.blogr.at/stories/173989/
and the Japanese perspective:
http://usako30.jugem.jp/?day=20070624
The funniest part to me was when Andres referred to Kim's wife Sonomi as "Suomi." (Suomi is the Finnish word for Finland).
I'm at Cornell now, cause I needed to move stuff from my old apt to my new one. Gonna hang out with Luis tonight, but we caught some bad luck since he has to work for most of the time I'm here, and I can't shred due to my ankle. Still should be fun to hang.
Oh, and I just remembered that last shred I hit merkon-dimwalk rpt on my first try, which I was happy about.
Still, I am going to play it safe and lay off footbag until next week. I was very good about icing, compressing, and elevating for the first 48 hours, and I think it paid off. The ankle never really swelled up or anything. Feel very lucky about this.
I'm slowly getting more and more excited about Worlds. I recently was sent this series of pictures from a Team Japan member's blog (USK):
http://usako30.jugem.jp/?day=20070623
I was also happy to help a European modified member (Andres Hoffman) get in touch with the Tokyo crew, and they were able to shred.
In English: http://guiltless.blogr.at/stories/173989/
and the Japanese perspective:
http://usako30.jugem.jp/?day=20070624
The funniest part to me was when Andres referred to Kim's wife Sonomi as "Suomi."
(Suomi is the Finnish word for Finland).I'm at Cornell now, cause I needed to move stuff from my old apt to my new one. Gonna hang out with Luis tonight, but we caught some bad luck since he has to work for most of the time I'm here, and I can't shred due to my ankle. Still should be fun to hang.
Oh, and I just remembered that last shred I hit merkon-dimwalk rpt on my first try, which I was happy about.
Ken mentioned her, but he failed to say that she was hitting a 90+ trick combo on Tony Hawk Project 8, while playing footbag on the subway.bdams19 wrote:Not even one mention of the girl on the train?
But I digress.
Waylon Lew - maker of Wasabi bags
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
NYFA represent.
"Footbag can be pretty frustrating when it's supposed to be fun. I was partly driven by this forum - practice, practice, practice... As that is true, I think someone can be too focused on progressing and training that they miss the fun aspect of it." - Bander87
Took 2 days off work to go back to Ithaca and move out of my old apartment, and store my stuff at my new place. It was a real productive trip and I got to hang out with Luis for a bit. The only real downside was I got shin splints, because my body wasn't used to walking up and down steep hills. It happened to me last year when I first got to Cornell, but I had forgotten about it. Pretty crazy.
I got back into the city yesterday around 6, and went to Union Square even though I wasn't going to play. Ted, Bruce, and Waylon showed, and we had a real casual kick. I played in skate shoes and baggy cargo shorts, which was good because it forced me to go easy. Mostly did flying clippers and a few DATWs; nothing that could hurt my ankle. I was also smart enough to call it quits early.
Truth be told, my ankle already feels fully healed. I feel lucky that it was such a minor tweak, and that I was so aggressive with the rehab. I'm gonna go for a light solo session on Monday or Tuesday, and then go for a real session next weekend hopefully. I should be back in playing shape by Worlds, provided I don't overdo it and re-injure myself.
Had a crazy footbag nightmare last night. Penske, Kool Czyk, Fletch Funk and myself were hanging out by the sea. It wasn't a beach; it was like a bunch of boulders by the ocean. Fletch and Emily were sitting on the boulders facing the sea, where Penske and I were shredding. I can't recall if we were shredding on rocks in the water, or if we were shredding underwater, but during one of Penske's runs he went underwater and dove down deep while spinning. It was like a combination between a freestyle trick, and him showing off how long he could hold his breath. I decided to play a trick on him by diving down after him, so when he emerged from the dive he wouldn't know where I was. After I emerged from my dive, I saw something like 15 shark fins above the sea level, and Fletch and Emily were pointing at them and yelling "sharks! Sharks!" at me and Penske. I ducked my head just under the water level, and I saw the sharks quite clearly. They were snapping their jaws and looked hungry. The cool thing was that I still heard Em and Fletch, but their voices were muted in the dream because I was underwater. The sharks were between me and land, so I started swimming out to sea, and then realized that was a dumb idea. Around this point I realized that I was having a nightmare, so I willed myself to wake up... and I did. It was a sucky way to wake up.
I got back into the city yesterday around 6, and went to Union Square even though I wasn't going to play. Ted, Bruce, and Waylon showed, and we had a real casual kick. I played in skate shoes and baggy cargo shorts, which was good because it forced me to go easy. Mostly did flying clippers and a few DATWs; nothing that could hurt my ankle. I was also smart enough to call it quits early.
Truth be told, my ankle already feels fully healed. I feel lucky that it was such a minor tweak, and that I was so aggressive with the rehab. I'm gonna go for a light solo session on Monday or Tuesday, and then go for a real session next weekend hopefully. I should be back in playing shape by Worlds, provided I don't overdo it and re-injure myself.
Had a crazy footbag nightmare last night. Penske, Kool Czyk, Fletch Funk and myself were hanging out by the sea. It wasn't a beach; it was like a bunch of boulders by the ocean. Fletch and Emily were sitting on the boulders facing the sea, where Penske and I were shredding. I can't recall if we were shredding on rocks in the water, or if we were shredding underwater, but during one of Penske's runs he went underwater and dove down deep while spinning. It was like a combination between a freestyle trick, and him showing off how long he could hold his breath. I decided to play a trick on him by diving down after him, so when he emerged from the dive he wouldn't know where I was. After I emerged from my dive, I saw something like 15 shark fins above the sea level, and Fletch and Emily were pointing at them and yelling "sharks! Sharks!" at me and Penske. I ducked my head just under the water level, and I saw the sharks quite clearly. They were snapping their jaws and looked hungry. The cool thing was that I still heard Em and Fletch, but their voices were muted in the dream because I was underwater. The sharks were between me and land, so I started swimming out to sea, and then realized that was a dumb idea. Around this point I realized that I was having a nightmare, so I willed myself to wake up... and I did. It was a sucky way to wake up.
Man I hope so. I had so much fun at Worlds 03, I would love to go back to Prague. But I honestly don't know how possible that will be, given that I will have just finished grad school, may still be finishing my thesis, and will (hopefully) be moving somewhere to start a job. But you never know, there may be a convenient window of opportunity somewhere in there.Asmus wrote:
See you in Prague next year?
Funny, today during lunch my boss and I started talking about sharks around here and at the same time I was kind of day dreaming about seeing them or being in the water with them. Mostly seeing them from on land.
"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."
Emily Kulczyk
Emily Kulczyk
I haven't played footbag since last Sunday, so 8 days off without playing. I think it was a pretty minor twist, so I could have played earlier, but I think it was good to play it safe. Even though I didn't play, I was very diligent about studying my routine music. According to my iTunes, I've listened to my routine song at least 45 times this summer. In reality I've probably listened more than that.C-Fan wrote: I am going to play it safe and lay off footbag until next week.
I just realized today that July 28th was my 10 year anniversary of knowing about, and playing freestyle footbag. Kind of a big anniversary to forget, but given that I was injured, I think that's forgettable. Still, I'd like to do something to commemorate the event. Maybe I'll do something at Worlds. In any case, I'm happy I've been in the sport for 10 years. That's pretty insane. It makes me happy.
-
mosher
- brutal footbag cronie
- Posts: 6177
- Joined: 22 Jan 2004 23:30
- Location: Toronto, Ontario
- Contact:
Hey Kenny Ken!
I really hope this isn't the first post on the next page of your blog.
I am excited to get to make stupid/awesome jokes with you and all that.
See you soon!
edit: This is like the twelve thousandth time I've done this to someone in the last day and a half. Sorry Ken!!
I even really hoped!
I really hope this isn't the first post on the next page of your blog.
I am excited to get to make stupid/awesome jokes with you and all that.
See you soon!
edit: This is like the twelve thousandth time I've done this to someone in the last day and a half. Sorry Ken!!
I even really hoped!
Tom Mosher
hate is a waste of passion!
hate is a waste of passion!