west of philly - bob

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 12 May 2008 12:11

edit: If you didn't see my "mega-recap of my entire blog from start to current" on the previous page, go check it out. Turned out pretty cool.

edit 2: Nate wrote: "guess i didn't make the cut"

Ha ha.. The funny thing is that I had a few comments of yours or about you that I was going to put in.. Then I was like "Nate's gonna think I have a man crush if I do that because I've posted in his blog a lot lately".

So, here's ones I was going to include now that I know YOU in fact have a man crush. I mean, you MUST if you read that whole thing up there!

ha ha ha ha.. I'm literally laughing my ass off right now, I'm such a nerd.

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Apr 25, 2006: yo nasty.. is that your pic I saw as a modified banner? you're mmmaaaaddddd skinnny! I mean you were always nasty, but damn. I guess I haven't seen you in awhile! props

Oct 21, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUr5r5oa9Ng
And Nate, thanks for posting a vid here. What fun to have the first Nate footage in a long time (that I can remember at least) right here in my very own "house".

And actually, your footage got me thinking even more about a topic I was already mulling over. Fitting I suppose. I don't know if you remember me saying awhile back that your game is one of the most influential to me.

Feb 10, 2008: I remember the first time I saw Nasty Nate play at Funtastiks (he was robbed in routines btw) I was so impressed. He's not overly amazingly athletic like some players, his windows aren't huge either. But he was sooo smooth and sooo consistent and has such great variety. It's because his fundementals kicked ass. Not long after that tourney, I was in OR and played with him and James and Red and others. And Nate was off the friggin hook. All those fundamentals allowed him to learn the next level of tricks with just as much style and consistency.

I want to do that.

Feb 25, 2008: It's been a good week for the footbag community for me. First Nate sends me a really great PM out of nowhere. And now Ken posts that really nice recap of a previous post that he had. Thanks guys!

edit: here's an excerpt from the PM that I enjoyed I think: "uhhh i think you figured it out, when you drill you get good at drilling, and to get good at strings or shred you need to practice that. Lon Smith once told me, "its very obviouse you practice long strings""

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Ha ha, feel better now?

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 13 May 2008 09:22

Yes much, I can sleep easy tonight.

BTW a few posts back you mentioned that you had trouble with the swirl set... (you have since posted that your swirls feel great so this may be for nothing but I like the sound of my keyboard so I'll keep going) to hit swirl I don't even think of a set. well just a long clipper, a low set, pause, then swirl. I think that swirling set swirls don't look as nice... no no thats to negative... i think swirls with a pause look styleee... yeah i like that. anyway tape yourself again hitting some swirls, i wanna see your game!!!

Drew · Post by **Drew** » 13 May 2008 11:42

Yo Bob,

I twisted my ankle on Mother's day, running down stairs to board the regional rail home

at least I made it on the train though!

Luckily I had it iced and all that stuff pretty quickly so the swelling is gone already, but I'm not certain if I'll be able to play this weekend.

I'll let you know on Friday, but if I can't make it this weekend I'll come shred a following weekend when it's healed and you're around.

I'm currently on a mini-stitching spree so I'll bring some bags too the next time I make it out and see if you're interested in any of em.

take care!
-Drew k

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 13 May 2008 12:18

Drew - Pete Bowler is probably crashing at my place this Saturday night. We're going to shred too. So if ankle heals, we'd love to have you over to shred as well. If not, the following weekend should be cool too.

Nate - Will hopefully vid tape when I shred with Pete. If not, I'll get some solo practice stuff up for critique soon

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 13 May 2008 12:27

oh, we are SO taping when we play this weekend. i didnt even know not taping was an option to consider

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 14 May 2008 04:30

yo pete, your trip here this weekend inspired me to do a project I've been planning to do for awhile.

Previous shred setup in barn:
- very unlevel floor was leveled with sand
- sheet of plywood over sand to prevent sand from smushing out under footsteps while shredding
- interlocking mats and carpet on top of plywood

New setup in barn:
- I broke up the old horrible unlevel concrete down to dirt level
- Leveled dirt
- Built 8' x 8' platform out of pressure treated 2x4's, topped with 3/4" plywood (so this is 2 sheets of plywood stacked side to side)
- Topped that with the interlocking mats and carpet again

So, I went from a makeshift 4x8 area to play, to a solid 8x8 area.

Next project out there is to build walls around that area so my heat tent next winter is a little nicer than the tarp system I used this past year. Sometime this summer I'll do that.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 15 May 2008 04:13

Finished the shred platform last night (my usual off night from kicking) and will try it out tonight. I was able to save time and materials by taking home some pallets from my company's warehouse - I strapped these together with 2x4's, and topped them with 3/4" tongue/groove subfloor grade plywood. Topped that whole thing with interlocking mats and thin carpet. Jumped around on it a bit and it's solid. Will shred on it tonight and see how it holds up. So much bigger than my previous shred area.

Drew · Post by **Drew** » 16 May 2008 08:59

yo Bob,

My ankle is still a little swollen so I don't think I'll be able to make it tomorrow to shred. Hopefully I can start shredding again this week, I'll let ya know.

-Drew k

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 16 May 2008 13:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_DXSz3KJ14

nothing special. First shred on my new platform (takes a little getting used to) and my first attempt at finally capturing to my laptop instead of my old desktop. I did zero editing, and I don't think there's sound. Whatever.

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 16 May 2008 14:39

Flip pixie is looking like a great addition to your game. Your drifters look really different from mine. I can't pinpoint why either. Just thought it was interesting. Nice looking shredspot too, and you are notably thinner than some of the first vids you posted.

Ian Brill · Post by **Ian Brill** » 17 May 2008 00:26

Rieferman wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_DXSz3KJ14

Your game is looking good! I like the how deliberate everything looks. I like the platform too.

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 18 May 2008 06:45

Pete and Bob, yesterday. Fun as hell session. Fun hanging out after. Sorry for shitty quality and no sound. Just play your favorite CD in the backround. I'll eventually learn to edit a little better. Hope you like it anyways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZoVzNjwe1E

slapdash21 · Post by **slapdash21** » 19 May 2008 06:45

im actually pretty pleased with how i played that session, although watching the video makes the session look a lot better in retrospect

my string length sucked but oh well.

thanks again for your hospitality, bob, your house is freakin amazing and your family is even more chill in real life

come back to boston anytime!!

DTank126 · Post by **DTank126** » 19 May 2008 21:17

Awesome video Bob! It's so cool that your game continues to improve since you used to play then stopped then started again and are now even better than you used to be! Haha, thats a mouth full. Anyway, keep up the sweet shred, hope we're able to kick again soon!

Peace

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 20 May 2008 17:19

anytime Pete! Was great to have you here.

Doug, thanks!!

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really mellow, focus-on-form/posture, easy strings type of night. I didn't push myself on anything and didn't obsess about bsos. And this vid is really just so I can look at my form, so don't hate me if you find this boring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sosjmD9k7Xk

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 26 May 2008 12:28

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

Frank_Sinatra · Post by **Frank_Sinatra** » 26 May 2008 15:06

Nice! Dug the diving/ducking/diving clip run & the Paradon (or was it DOD?) midstring. Also liked your shuffle to end the video two posts up. Props!

Drew · Post by **Drew** » 28 May 2008 15:48

yo man, yeah I'm doin better, ankle healed a lot quicker than expected.

This weekend I might be going to jersey, but are you free the following weekend? Think it's the 8th or 9th of June. lemme know. I might be able to get another kicker from my Temple crew to come out, we'll see.

I may have some bags with me too

We should kick soon,

-Drew k

Rieferman · Post by **Rieferman** » 30 May 2008 04:35

mr. sinatra thanks for the props, I was wondering if anyone was watching these vids or not.

duffle, I PM'd you about some times we can kick, that'll be fun if we can work it out.

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kicked last night, was tired, but it was fun anyways. Consistency is really improving. Been doing a lot of stepping/blurry. Trying to link into and out of those tricks better. Like ripwalk > ripwalk or stepping butterfly > ripwalk repeat etc. Or spinning to stepping etc. Been doing better at pulling some of the bops out. But the bops are extending my string length (last video, my opening run on the vid was my first run for the day.. my warm up run.. I think it went about 29 contacts if I counted right. not too bad) so I don't want to pull them out all at once until the other things become super consistent. But I'm happy that variety is starting to improve as more tricks are comfortable. I think I can happily say that I'm better now than I've ever been before.

Weighed in last night too. 3 pounds to go to reach goal weight. Receiving several comments per week these days from people noting that I'm looking really slim etc.

Got a new awesome lawn mower. It's contractor grade walk behind mower. Huge, powerful, fast. Takes my mowing time from 3 hours down to about 35 minutes, which is why I really got it. 3 hours + string trimming is a lot of time wasted every week. With the new equipment, I can get some exercise on a non-footbag night after work and still be done fast enough to enjoy some relaxation time.

Got the face to face interview with Vanguard coming up on 06/11/08. Really happy about that.

Otherwise, chilling with the family and enjoying our house now that all the projects are pretty much completed. That's my plan for the summer. I do sort of want to do one more drainage project, but it's non-critical because it's a part of the yard we don't use, so we'll see.

here's the basketball court (and trike area)

Keegs and daddy chilling in the truck

Emi is "cruising" like a mad woman these days.. just needs to build her courage to try walking without holding on

Cute pic of keegs from Philly Zoo

Kids together.. She ADORES him. He (mostly) tolerates her.

Poor Piggy is a 2nd class citizen.

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 30 May 2008 04:57

blog pics rule!