Before modified, before Flipsider, way back when there was [email protected]. I joined that old e-mail mailing list back in January 1998. Since I started writing these stories I've been going back through some of those old posts to make sure I'm not just making this stuff up (unintentionally anyway). Quite a few of the people who used to post a lot have disapeared over the years, but some are still around. Try going through the archives some time, you might be surprised how many names you recognise.
A few of us posted pretty often (I know I didn't know how to shut up back then) and it felt like I really knew them, even though we'd never met. I could recognize individual writing styles and guess who would respond to a given topic and what their opinion was likely to be. One person I really came to respect was Ernest "Scratch" Crvich.
Ernest had a great writing style and wit and an ability most of us lacked, which was to keep perspective. When someone complained that the name "fairy butterfly" was embarassing Ernest suggested we rename butterfly "corpsegrinder." When someone asked how to do a paradox dragon fly, he listed the ingredients as "one (1) pair of shoes (to be worn on the feet), one (1) footbag, and one-half of a fresh lemon. Clothing optional."
He wrote relatively little directly about freestlye, so it came as a surprise when years after I'd last seen him on the freestyle list in conversation Red asked me if I'd ever heard of him. It turns out "Ernesto" was a very talented freestyler (Red mentioned flurry > paradon swirl) and part of the epic Boulder Shred Crew (read about it here, just scroll down for Outsider's story). Acording to Red, like most of us he had to work for a living, had less and less free time and stoped kicking.
There were quite a few people from back then who I exchanged e-mails with pretty often, but they were footbag relationships. It's easy to mistake something like that for a personal friendship, but after 2002 world's I stepped away from on-line community and that was it, I lost contact with a lot of people. I guess it's kind of sad I didn't get to know more of those people outside of footbag, but that's also kind of the beauty of this community. We're a small enough sport that you can go to a tournament and everyone's aproachable. Even if footbag is all we have in common it can be a surprisingly strong bond. I've had a great time hanging out with other player who, outside of footbag, I have almost nothing in common with. And I have met a lot of people through footbag who have become great friends over the years.
Since I was disconnected from the footbag scene for a few years it's been interesting coming back. Every now and then I'll catch a story of what's happened to someone I used to have contact with. Quite often it's someone I only knew through footbag and hearing about thier life outside of the sport can be a little disorienting.
I was currious what had happened to Ernest so I tried to track him down earlier this year and started following the trail of on-line references. I found his name in a review of Belgian beer, several programmer's forums and of course on some footbag discussions, but then in the last few years the trail grows cold. If anyone knows how to contact him, please tell him I'm a fan.
Lest we forget though, I've compiled a list of some of my favorite posts from Ernest. They're all a good read if you have the time:
Loving footbags too much.
About Footbag.com (you might want to read this post for reference).
Corpsegrinder
Corpsegrinder #2
The day Bob Green exploded
Shreding with fish
Ernest, where ever you are, you're not forgotten. Thanks for reading.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld.org
Tales from the Outsideworld
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slapdash21
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Christopholes
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How Brian McKenzie changed the world.
I was fortunate learning to play footbag in Portland. At the time I started there were plenty of players of all levels right up to the man himself Kenny Schultz to play with and learn from. I got started in the wee days of the internet, just after Steve Goldberg posted the very first video on Footbag.org of Rick Reese at World's 93'. If you want an idea of what the internet looked like back then (for footbag) take a look here. Between footbag.org and the Portland scene I had it pretty good, many were not so lucky.
The first time I ever saw Brian McKenzie was from a distance at world's 1997. Watching him play as I walked up on that first day of my first World's I was straining my memory, trying to place who he was. This was back in the days when I could name all members of BAP without effort in a single breath. He was hitting blurry whirl, blurry blender and some other big moves and I just couldn't imagine I'd never seen him play before.
I shredded with him and Sean Wingert for a while. We talked about new moves, they introduced me to whirr (neither of them could hit it) and I told them Ahren had just hit blurriest > paradox baroque, which no one seemed to believe. I was just blown away by Brian's game. He was hitting huge moves with ease and even doing a few things I'd never seen before, like paradox blender > spinning osis. I was amazed someone could get this good without anyone seemingly having ever heard of him. I later found out that I had heard of him before, just not by name.
Sometime in 1997 I heard second hand that Kenny was complaining the whole BAP thing was getting out of hand and "now they're sending me videos". Some kid from the middle of nowhere had sent him a video of himself playing to "audition" for BAP. I later found out it was Brian. He had litterally learned to play in isolation just from watching videos and schooling alone in his basement with no one to play with. He had shown up at 1997 world's having tought himself to play. I tried unsucessfully to find the post where Brian talks about this so you'll just have to trust my memory. Inexplicably Brian was not "Baptized" that year which made little difference. By the next world's he was basically tripless and in the eyes of many neck and neck with Ryan as the best shreder in the world.
Also at world's 1997 were Adrian Dick, Stuart Macferson and Damian Coventry from New Zealand. Way back when they had somehow found out about footbag and become deeply involved in the, then new, on-line scene, eventually maintaining the original freestyle move list. They did it before Brian, but at least they had each other. Also, although nobody knew it at the time, far away in Australia Lynton Stephens was getting serious about footbag, again playing mostly in isolation and with only a few online videos and written trick descriptions to learn from.
I would argue that no sport has benefited from the internet as much as footbag. Conversely I could really see shred having died out without it. Footbag freestlye is largely unique in that you only need a small bag, a pair of shoes and a flat surface to play. It's entirely posible now for someone to pick up the sport without ever meeting another shredder. They can learn tricks on-line, meet people on forums and post video of their progress for comments or just props. I've met people from all over the world because of this sport, some of you I've met in person, but a lot of you live in places I'll probably never see.
At the time of course I had no idea how important this all was, but in retrospect it was the start of something new, something amazing. Thanks for reading (and happy hew year!).
As a last note I'm not entirely happy with how this text turned out, but I'm trying to make myself post semi-regularly so I ran out of time to do a final edit.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld
The first time I ever saw Brian McKenzie was from a distance at world's 1997. Watching him play as I walked up on that first day of my first World's I was straining my memory, trying to place who he was. This was back in the days when I could name all members of BAP without effort in a single breath. He was hitting blurry whirl, blurry blender and some other big moves and I just couldn't imagine I'd never seen him play before.
I shredded with him and Sean Wingert for a while. We talked about new moves, they introduced me to whirr (neither of them could hit it) and I told them Ahren had just hit blurriest > paradox baroque, which no one seemed to believe. I was just blown away by Brian's game. He was hitting huge moves with ease and even doing a few things I'd never seen before, like paradox blender > spinning osis. I was amazed someone could get this good without anyone seemingly having ever heard of him. I later found out that I had heard of him before, just not by name.
Sometime in 1997 I heard second hand that Kenny was complaining the whole BAP thing was getting out of hand and "now they're sending me videos". Some kid from the middle of nowhere had sent him a video of himself playing to "audition" for BAP. I later found out it was Brian. He had litterally learned to play in isolation just from watching videos and schooling alone in his basement with no one to play with. He had shown up at 1997 world's having tought himself to play. I tried unsucessfully to find the post where Brian talks about this so you'll just have to trust my memory. Inexplicably Brian was not "Baptized" that year which made little difference. By the next world's he was basically tripless and in the eyes of many neck and neck with Ryan as the best shreder in the world.
Also at world's 1997 were Adrian Dick, Stuart Macferson and Damian Coventry from New Zealand. Way back when they had somehow found out about footbag and become deeply involved in the, then new, on-line scene, eventually maintaining the original freestyle move list. They did it before Brian, but at least they had each other. Also, although nobody knew it at the time, far away in Australia Lynton Stephens was getting serious about footbag, again playing mostly in isolation and with only a few online videos and written trick descriptions to learn from.
I would argue that no sport has benefited from the internet as much as footbag. Conversely I could really see shred having died out without it. Footbag freestlye is largely unique in that you only need a small bag, a pair of shoes and a flat surface to play. It's entirely posible now for someone to pick up the sport without ever meeting another shredder. They can learn tricks on-line, meet people on forums and post video of their progress for comments or just props. I've met people from all over the world because of this sport, some of you I've met in person, but a lot of you live in places I'll probably never see.
At the time of course I had no idea how important this all was, but in retrospect it was the start of something new, something amazing. Thanks for reading (and happy hew year!).
As a last note I'm not entirely happy with how this text turned out, but I'm trying to make myself post semi-regularly so I ran out of time to do a final edit.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld
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Christopholes
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Happy New Year
Hi everyone. I just got back from Brandenburger Tor. They announced there were over a million people there, which apearently is some sort of record. I'm just stopping back at my flat on the way to another party and just for the hell of it I did a quick paradox torque. So can I claim the first 5 add move of 2008? 
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld
P.S. Christopholes: glad you liked the story, thanks for reading.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld
P.S. Christopholes: glad you liked the story, thanks for reading.
I never hit nemesis either! Portland 1997 was my most memorable tournament too - meeting all the legends of the game - and in particular, Rippin' after studying that short clip for months, disecting what he hit, and assembling our move list!
Strangely enough I ended up going to Rippins wedding in Vegas in 1999! It was part of Daryl Genz Vegas Jam.
Then in my last Worlds in 2000 Rippin made a special point of having a shred with us Kiwis, which was very cool.
Now I'm playing footbag with a Czech guy staying in NZ who says he used to be Vaseks neighbour - Petr. He is pretty good!
It's a crazy footbag world.
Adrian Dick
Strangely enough I ended up going to Rippins wedding in Vegas in 1999! It was part of Daryl Genz Vegas Jam.
Then in my last Worlds in 2000 Rippin made a special point of having a shred with us Kiwis, which was very cool.
Now I'm playing footbag with a Czech guy staying in NZ who says he used to be Vaseks neighbour - Petr. He is pretty good!
It's a crazy footbag world.
Adrian Dick
Kiwitastic
I was at FC Footstar's 10th Anniversary Party this weekend and thanks to this stupid blog people kept asking me to try NemesisAdrian wrote:I never hit nemesis either!
On the bright side I think I'm healed again, I was careful to warm up ->stretch -> repeat and other than feeling sore the next day I have no complaints.I'll try to write about the FC Footstar party later, but I will say briefly I was finally given a beer for my stories <b>[edit:</b> almost forgot, thanks Rene!<b>]</b>. But now I think I've written <b>5</b> stories. Come on people, support the system!
<b>Anyway</b> it is fantastic to hear from you Adrian, I'd heard disturbing rumors that all three of you guys had quit footbag for good. You were all such an interesting part of the footbag scene for so long I hate to think of the sport withou you
Last edited by MrMeebles on 16 Jan 2008 10:06, edited 1 time in total.
TODEXON #1 on no sleep!
Back in 2000 I had a Czech girlfriend named Jana, so the first time I ever saw the Czech Rep. was with her acting as tourguide. Her version of Prague included a multitude of museums and old buildings. I got to see the house Kafka lived in (you would not believe how small that building is) and took some lovely pictures of suits of armour and tapestries. And so, for a while, that's what I thought of Prague, quaint, old world, a little quiet and half a step behind modern Europe.
Although in retrospect I had already met Dexter the previous year I couldn't remember that at the time and I ended up going to Todexon 1 completely by accident. I was bord and pulled up footbag.org to see if there was anything new and there it was. I remember thinking "There are freestyler's in Prague?" I didn't have the time to spare, but that had never stopped me before so I fired off an e-mail asking if I could crash with someone.
I was picked up at the station by Ondra who took me imediately to a bar still carryng my bags. This was a ritual we would repeat every time I visited Prague. There I met Dexter, TMS and a bunch of other people, ate Fajitas (living in Germany has made me savour every chance I get to eat Tex-Mex cuisine) and drank a lot of beer. I don't remember when we got back, but I know that no sane person will ever challange a Czech to a drinking contest. Sometime around 5 in the morning, when I was just getting to sleep I got woken up by a bunch of groggy Germans. The Berlin crew had taken a night bus with a broken heater (broken as in sauna-like). At some point I just gave up on sleep.
TOmas, DExter and ONdra (TODEXON) wanted to play 3 rounds in one day starting at 10 in the morning. I later found out Dexter showed up at 7 to help set up, briefly lay down on a couch, threw up and went back home. Much later I would find out they had told the guy they were renting the sound system from to bring everything over at 9. Being a sane person he had assumed they meant 9 pm. We only ever cought bits and pieces of this though, the whole day we were just told to keep warm because we were going to start any min. Because none of the Germans spoke Czech, having studied Russian I could at least make out bits and pieces and somehow became unofficial translator. Everytime an announcement was made telling us everything was delayed again one of the Germans would come up to me asking what had been said.
While we were warming up my first surprise came from berliner Alex Michelewski. He was hitting blurriest all over the place all day, a trick I'd never seen anyone in Germany do. I asked him about it and it turns out I'd hit one on video the first time I was in Berlin. For the next year he'd watched that tape of me over and over trying to learn all the tricks I'd done. I think I was also a little surprised how much energy there was in Prague. These were the days before Vasek, before Ales, before Honza or even Moglum. They weren't exactly world class, but it didn't matter. They had tons of players and a wonderful scene. The last (pleasant) surprise was the fans.
Once everything finally started rolling it's hard to describe exactly what it was like being there. From a strictly practical stand point it couldn't have been worce. Todexon 1 took place in a small, poorly lit, poorly ventilated club called Luxor. The floor was covered in a dark carpet and since no one from Berlin seemed to have remembered a bag we all ended up playing with mine, which was black and dark purple. I hadn't played for 2 months and none of us had slept the night before. So there we were, playing for hours on end in a dark smoke filled room reaking of alcohol, crowded in by the unrestricted masses playing to exhaustion and beyond and it was fantastic.
Every trick, every kick the crowd went wild. I've never experienced that kind of energy again and I needed it. By the end of the final shred we'd been playing more or less constantly for 13 hours. When we finally got to the final I was so worn out I could barely hold on for 5 tricks at a time, but proped up by the cheering crowd, force of will and a fair amount of beer I won. We briefly went back to Dexter's to shower then came back where I was treated like a rock star and everyone kept buying me drinks. After I'd tipped the bar tender for the second time he refused to let me pay for anything. I spent hours getting drunk with a beautiful girl and then we went off to Roxy where we danced till 5 in the morning.
Later at 10 in the morning while everyone else was peacefully sleeping off their hangovers I had to get up to catch my train back to Germany for school the next day. Without exageration after playing all day one day and spending a big chunk of the next sitting in a train, at school on Monday I couldn't stand up under my own power. I spent that Monday and most of Tuesday carefully avoiding stairs and choosing where I sat where I was able to pull myself up with my arms. After that the Prague crew couldn't get rid of me. Fuck Disney Land, Prague is the happiest place on earth.
As a final memory, one of the Berlin crew, Lars, was so tired he actually fell asleep between rounds and was only woken up when he heard the MC call his name to perform. Thanks for reading.
Although in retrospect I had already met Dexter the previous year I couldn't remember that at the time and I ended up going to Todexon 1 completely by accident. I was bord and pulled up footbag.org to see if there was anything new and there it was. I remember thinking "There are freestyler's in Prague?" I didn't have the time to spare, but that had never stopped me before so I fired off an e-mail asking if I could crash with someone.
I was picked up at the station by Ondra who took me imediately to a bar still carryng my bags. This was a ritual we would repeat every time I visited Prague. There I met Dexter, TMS and a bunch of other people, ate Fajitas (living in Germany has made me savour every chance I get to eat Tex-Mex cuisine) and drank a lot of beer. I don't remember when we got back, but I know that no sane person will ever challange a Czech to a drinking contest. Sometime around 5 in the morning, when I was just getting to sleep I got woken up by a bunch of groggy Germans. The Berlin crew had taken a night bus with a broken heater (broken as in sauna-like). At some point I just gave up on sleep.
TOmas, DExter and ONdra (TODEXON) wanted to play 3 rounds in one day starting at 10 in the morning. I later found out Dexter showed up at 7 to help set up, briefly lay down on a couch, threw up and went back home. Much later I would find out they had told the guy they were renting the sound system from to bring everything over at 9. Being a sane person he had assumed they meant 9 pm. We only ever cought bits and pieces of this though, the whole day we were just told to keep warm because we were going to start any min. Because none of the Germans spoke Czech, having studied Russian I could at least make out bits and pieces and somehow became unofficial translator. Everytime an announcement was made telling us everything was delayed again one of the Germans would come up to me asking what had been said.
While we were warming up my first surprise came from berliner Alex Michelewski. He was hitting blurriest all over the place all day, a trick I'd never seen anyone in Germany do. I asked him about it and it turns out I'd hit one on video the first time I was in Berlin. For the next year he'd watched that tape of me over and over trying to learn all the tricks I'd done. I think I was also a little surprised how much energy there was in Prague. These were the days before Vasek, before Ales, before Honza or even Moglum. They weren't exactly world class, but it didn't matter. They had tons of players and a wonderful scene. The last (pleasant) surprise was the fans.
Once everything finally started rolling it's hard to describe exactly what it was like being there. From a strictly practical stand point it couldn't have been worce. Todexon 1 took place in a small, poorly lit, poorly ventilated club called Luxor. The floor was covered in a dark carpet and since no one from Berlin seemed to have remembered a bag we all ended up playing with mine, which was black and dark purple. I hadn't played for 2 months and none of us had slept the night before. So there we were, playing for hours on end in a dark smoke filled room reaking of alcohol, crowded in by the unrestricted masses playing to exhaustion and beyond and it was fantastic.
Every trick, every kick the crowd went wild. I've never experienced that kind of energy again and I needed it. By the end of the final shred we'd been playing more or less constantly for 13 hours. When we finally got to the final I was so worn out I could barely hold on for 5 tricks at a time, but proped up by the cheering crowd, force of will and a fair amount of beer I won. We briefly went back to Dexter's to shower then came back where I was treated like a rock star and everyone kept buying me drinks. After I'd tipped the bar tender for the second time he refused to let me pay for anything. I spent hours getting drunk with a beautiful girl and then we went off to Roxy where we danced till 5 in the morning.
Later at 10 in the morning while everyone else was peacefully sleeping off their hangovers I had to get up to catch my train back to Germany for school the next day. Without exageration after playing all day one day and spending a big chunk of the next sitting in a train, at school on Monday I couldn't stand up under my own power. I spent that Monday and most of Tuesday carefully avoiding stairs and choosing where I sat where I was able to pull myself up with my arms. After that the Prague crew couldn't get rid of me. Fuck Disney Land, Prague is the happiest place on earth.
As a final memory, one of the Berlin crew, Lars, was so tired he actually fell asleep between rounds and was only woken up when he heard the MC call his name to perform. Thanks for reading.
Last edited by MrMeebles on 15 Jan 2008 14:57, edited 1 time in total.
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slapdash21
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Christopholes
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And I look forward to drinking that beerslapdash21 wrote:i look forward to buying you a beer someday.
glad you like the stories.Every time I go to Prague I'm still taken aback by how beautiful the city is. The buildings are old world, but the people are full of life. Prague's one of the rare places where your mom can enjoy sight seeing and you can still go out and party till you don't remember what happened (ok technically you can do that anywhere, but it's more fun in Prague). As a final fun fact the Czech Rep. consumes the most beer per capita of any country on earth. They <b>average</b> a pint a day for every man woman and child. I have lots of stories about drinking with Czechs, but I probably shouldn't name names (*cough* Vasek *cough*).Christopholes wrote:I to thought prague was an old world place was well.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny Outsideworld
The Brian story was very cool - you should write more about oldschool players, I remember you told me lots of stuff like that in Lausanne, and I'm sure other people would like to read about it too. You can show the whole history of footbag through the life stories of people I guess.
Pozdrawiam
Szymon Kałwak (Ners)
Pozdrawiam
Szymon Kałwak (Ners)
The tragic story of my club
<b>[sorry guys, no famous players this time, just my own sad history]</b>
Way back in the summer of 1998 I moved to Munich to study. I had left behind me one of history's great footbag scenes in Portland OR. Most of the names wouldn't mean anything to any of you reading; Mike Parker, Saul, Clancy, Eric Anthony and many others I can't remember, but the sheer number of quality players meant there was always someone to play with. I didn't know how good I'd had it.
I'd had the good sense before I left to check Footbag.org for local clubs so I could contact them before I left. There weren't any. There weren't even any clubs anywhere close. No matter, I'd teach them. There was at least a player registered at footbag.org who listed his location as Munich. Durring that summer I met Kai who for a while was the only other person in Munich who could hit a two add move. I think we managed to meet up every two weeks or so.
I set up a new club at footbag.org called "the Underground" (now renamed). I built a website for my club, which looked like crap, but ironically eventually got me a job at Siemens. I kept meeting hacky sackers all the time, and did my best to teach them tricks and get them motivated, but no one seemed interested. In the land where organisation and beaurocracy are forms of religion no one was even willing to pay lip service and add their name to the club. People came and went but still the "club" consisted of me and an increasingly hard to find Kai.
In 2000 I was done with Munich. Wading through Bavarian beaurocracy is a horror I never care to repeate and I never quite came to grips with the culture. After 2 years I had more friends in German cities I'd traveled to only a couple times than I had in Munich (if you're thinking of coming to Germany, Munich is a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn't live there again even for a million Euros and a date with Natalie Portman). I got a job on the other side of the world and took off. One of my fond memories is how one of the few friends I did have in Munich, Grischa (who actually lived in Paris) came over to see me off and make sure I didn't sleep before my flight. Thanks again for the beer Grischa.
Going from semi isolation in Munich to total physical isolation in South Korea (in my city, counting me, there was one footbager), somehow I managed to get really good. I skooled my weak side, learned a ton of new moves, started working my consecutive 5s and hit my first 7 add trick, blurry miraging dino, a brand new move I named spinal graft. Sadly it didn't last, like every foreign worker in South Korea I got horrendously ill with some sort of bug and then my employers tried to work me to death. About the time I started working 13 hour days (yes, 13 hour days. I did a picture diary at one point. It was dark when I left home, it was dark when I got back) I got an e-mail in broken English from some kid named Daniel who had moved to Munich and was excited about footbag.
His timing of course (I write with dripping sarcasm) couldn't have been better. I wrote back in German to sadly inform him that the club, much like my being at that point, was nothing but an empty shell. He was dissapointed but asked, since there was already a club with a nifty name, if he could take it over. But of course. I checked back now and again to see to my surprise how names kept being added to the club. No surprise isn't the word, something closer to raw frustration tempered with a dash of joy and hope. I'd tried for 2 freaking years to start something in that city and everyone had waited till I left to get interested in footbag, it felt like some sort of conspiracy.
Towards the end of my year in Korea I managed to work out a deal with my employers to leave early to attend the 2001 European Footbag Championships in Prague (see "I made Vasek"). On my way I stopped in Munich to say hi to some people and see my club. As luck would have it they were having a tournament while I was there. Yes that's right a tournament. Now I knew there was a conspiracy against me. Anyway I had a great if brief time. Later that year Daniel organized another tournament in Nuremburg which is where I'm told former German Champion Stefan Siegert got his start.
My club has since been renamed, but it's still there. It tought me a valuable lesson though, everything works better if I don't try to organize it. My apologies to the Munich crew and thanks for reading.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld
Way back in the summer of 1998 I moved to Munich to study. I had left behind me one of history's great footbag scenes in Portland OR. Most of the names wouldn't mean anything to any of you reading; Mike Parker, Saul, Clancy, Eric Anthony and many others I can't remember, but the sheer number of quality players meant there was always someone to play with. I didn't know how good I'd had it.
I'd had the good sense before I left to check Footbag.org for local clubs so I could contact them before I left. There weren't any. There weren't even any clubs anywhere close. No matter, I'd teach them. There was at least a player registered at footbag.org who listed his location as Munich. Durring that summer I met Kai who for a while was the only other person in Munich who could hit a two add move. I think we managed to meet up every two weeks or so.
I set up a new club at footbag.org called "the Underground" (now renamed). I built a website for my club, which looked like crap, but ironically eventually got me a job at Siemens. I kept meeting hacky sackers all the time, and did my best to teach them tricks and get them motivated, but no one seemed interested. In the land where organisation and beaurocracy are forms of religion no one was even willing to pay lip service and add their name to the club. People came and went but still the "club" consisted of me and an increasingly hard to find Kai.
In 2000 I was done with Munich. Wading through Bavarian beaurocracy is a horror I never care to repeate and I never quite came to grips with the culture. After 2 years I had more friends in German cities I'd traveled to only a couple times than I had in Munich (if you're thinking of coming to Germany, Munich is a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn't live there again even for a million Euros and a date with Natalie Portman). I got a job on the other side of the world and took off. One of my fond memories is how one of the few friends I did have in Munich, Grischa (who actually lived in Paris) came over to see me off and make sure I didn't sleep before my flight. Thanks again for the beer Grischa.
Going from semi isolation in Munich to total physical isolation in South Korea (in my city, counting me, there was one footbager), somehow I managed to get really good. I skooled my weak side, learned a ton of new moves, started working my consecutive 5s and hit my first 7 add trick, blurry miraging dino, a brand new move I named spinal graft. Sadly it didn't last, like every foreign worker in South Korea I got horrendously ill with some sort of bug and then my employers tried to work me to death. About the time I started working 13 hour days (yes, 13 hour days. I did a picture diary at one point. It was dark when I left home, it was dark when I got back) I got an e-mail in broken English from some kid named Daniel who had moved to Munich and was excited about footbag.
His timing of course (I write with dripping sarcasm) couldn't have been better. I wrote back in German to sadly inform him that the club, much like my being at that point, was nothing but an empty shell. He was dissapointed but asked, since there was already a club with a nifty name, if he could take it over. But of course. I checked back now and again to see to my surprise how names kept being added to the club. No surprise isn't the word, something closer to raw frustration tempered with a dash of joy and hope. I'd tried for 2 freaking years to start something in that city and everyone had waited till I left to get interested in footbag, it felt like some sort of conspiracy.
Towards the end of my year in Korea I managed to work out a deal with my employers to leave early to attend the 2001 European Footbag Championships in Prague (see "I made Vasek"). On my way I stopped in Munich to say hi to some people and see my club. As luck would have it they were having a tournament while I was there. Yes that's right a tournament. Now I knew there was a conspiracy against me. Anyway I had a great if brief time. Later that year Daniel organized another tournament in Nuremburg which is where I'm told former German Champion Stefan Siegert got his start.
My club has since been renamed, but it's still there. It tought me a valuable lesson though, everything works better if I don't try to organize it. My apologies to the Munich crew and thanks for reading.
-Andrew McCargar
Don't mess with the bunny, Outsideworld