Photo by Scott D
Dude, its was so great to see you again! Hope you had a great time out here.
Fanzine
Made it back safely from Chicago. Thank you to CIC and Mike Hansen for the hospitality. I'll get to blogging soon, but for now here's a quick vid:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Ntsm34nnU&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7Ntsm34nnU&fmt=18[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 07:53, edited 1 time in total.
You guys look like you're having such a great time!Zeke wrote: Photo by Scott D
Colin Kennedy
[email protected]
[email protected]
Colin wrote:You guys look like you're having such a great time!Zeke wrote: Photo by Scott D
NYJ was awesome, though I caught a nasty head cold on New Year's Day and have been way-laid since then. I've alternated sleep and drinking nyquil for the last 2 days and don't feel much better. Used a sick day at work and everything. Feel like I have cotton in my head.
I'm gonna start blogging NYJ anyway.
Prelude:
Due to injury and other circumstances, I went into NYJ out of practice. I think it was something like 13 days since my last session. That said, I was still really pumped to go to Chicago. I had the impression that NYJ was one of those events that is more about seeing friends and having fun than the competition, and happily it turned out I was right. The only real "preparation" I did for NYJ was letting my hair grow out for a few weeks so I could give myself a mohawk.
Dec 26th.
Age and I take the metro to the airport without any problems. I'm mentally prepared to get hassled by security because I'm young and have a mohawk, but instead the ladies at security ask me: "do you play soccer?" I'm puzzled for a moment, and then I realize they saw me air-shredding after I took my shoes off.
From the terminal I can see the National Monument, and for some reason it makes me realize that DC is my home now, and that I have a good life here. Our flight is delayed one hour, but it doesn't feel that bad because I have a travel buddy. It's such a joy to travel with somebody else. You can go to the bathroom, get food, check flight times, etc. and not have to bring your bags with you everytime. It's a nice luxury. We split a veggie Potbelly sandwich, and finally board our flight. Flight to Chicago is fine. I slept about half of the way, and once we got in we didn't have to wait for our bags since we didn't check any. We take the El from the airport, which proves to be a fun experience. There are long sections where the train is on the same level as highway traffic. When we get off at our stop, I'm amazed how thin the platform is. There's almost no protection from the rain/snow, and just past the tracks on each side is a busy highway. I definitely chose my steps carefully.
Nathan Andersen meets us at the station. I hadn't met him in person before, so I kept an eye out for somebody who looked like the police sketch in his avatar (later on Zeke told me the story behind the avatar, which was hilarious). A 10 minute walk through the ice and snow, and we made it to Nathan's. We dump our bags then go grocery shopping. We got bananas, bread, PBJ and snacks for the tourney, and I bought a Polish beer because it said "OK Beer" on it. It was a little better than advertised.
We went out to dinner at a Thai place which was amazing. We split veggie dishes, and I had durian and sticky rice for dessert. Back at Nathan's we chat for a while, and play some Tony Hawk.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEXmp3DW2vA&fmt=18[/youtube]
We go to sleep and I feel happy I made it safe to NYJ.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 07:59, edited 1 time in total.
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CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
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- Location: Chicago
Awesome that you made it, Ken. I've always wanted you to. All I have left is Jon Schneider and Jim Penske. Next time we'll play some footbag. We'll always have monkey bag though.
This year was a little chiller than normal.. There wasn't even oversized boxing or fishing! I have a feeling next year will be off the chain gang.
This year was a little chiller than normal.. There wasn't even oversized boxing or fishing! I have a feeling next year will be off the chain gang.
Still waylaid by sickness. This whole weekend has been a blur of nyquil and watching basketball. I think I played some footbag during one of my naps, which was comforting.
Back to NYJ recap.
We woke up early on the 27th since Nathan is helping set up the site. I eat a banana and a luna bar and then Tom K picks us up. The snow and ice on the ground has melted since the previous day, but the weather is still nasty. We drive through fog and torrential rain on the way to the site.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMjZWsx5S3E&fmt=18[/youtube]
We check into the hotel room, and as we get off the elevator I get deja vu... and then I realize: this is the same hotel where Worlds 99 was held! It kinda blows my mind that I recognize the spot. In the room Age and I label our food and eat a PBJ sandwich. We go down to the site, but there aren't many people there yet. I say some hellos, then Age and I check out the other sports booths. We play some badminton, then we do the climbing wall. I haven't done much climbing ever, but I really enjoyed it. I made it to the top without too much trouble, and enjoyed it enough that I did it 2 or 3 more times more over the course of the event.
I watch some basketball, then go back to the footbag area. More people have trickled in, but I still don't want to play seriously. I compromise by playing in long pants and G-Units. I hit some fun runs and some surprising tricks (flip mullet!) like this, but soon enough I'm in normal shred gear and playing. I do a good job of avoiding tricks that would hurt my knee, even though its feeling fine. I decide to quit while I'm ahead, and spend the rest of my time at the site watching circles and juggling.
I see Honza and Dave warming up, so I ask if I can film their warmup, plop down, and see the following happen:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWRnepLeN8I&ft=18[/youtube]
Ouch!
I dash off and find some very lackadaisical EMTs, who FINALLY arrive with some ice. It really annoyed me how matter of fact and slow-to-respond these guys were. They acted like they were doing you a huge favor, when in fact that's the job they are paid to do. Annoying. Honza didn't play after the injury, and ended up leaving on Monday, which was too bad. While I can relate to the experience of travelling halfway around the world to a tourney and getting injured, at least I got one session before getting hurt.
After watching people shred for a while I got bored, so I rounded up people for 4 square and set up a court with Zeke. I had a lot of fun playing against the CIC guys. They are all really sneaky, which makes the game fun.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eus30ZOlhvA&ft=18[/youtube]
Things wrapped up at the site, and everybody went back to the room for pizza and Scrabble. I played a ton of scrabble all weekend, but only managed to get one Bingo (when you use all 7 tiles on your rack in one turn) once. Given that we always played 4 player games, that meant there were half as many chances to bingo, but even then I was surprised I couldn't bingo more. My one bingo at NYJ was HAGgLERS, but I had a couple other plays I was happy with, such as NAIVELY and DEUCE. Not as good as GRIPTITS, but good nonetheless.
The stuffed pizza we had the first night was solid, but not fantastic. I actually thought the pizza I had on my final night was better, but overall the food was tasty throughout the trip.
After pizza I went out clubbing with Mike H, Emily, Age, and Pepe from Montreal. I was surprised how hard it was to get into clubs...thankfully Emily knew people and that helped us get in. The place we ended up going to was really upscale and fancy. I tried dancing for a bit, but my feet started throbbing, so I (wisely) decided to rest my feet for footbag the next day. When we got home I had to use my cellphone as a flashlight to avoid stepping on footbaggers as I navigated my way to my sleep spot in the suite. Day 1 was a lot of fun, but was exhausting.
I'll finish this post with a vid of Ianek and Evan shredding:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7sVpRFo3U&ft=18[/youtube]
Back to NYJ recap.
We woke up early on the 27th since Nathan is helping set up the site. I eat a banana and a luna bar and then Tom K picks us up. The snow and ice on the ground has melted since the previous day, but the weather is still nasty. We drive through fog and torrential rain on the way to the site.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMjZWsx5S3E&fmt=18[/youtube]
We check into the hotel room, and as we get off the elevator I get deja vu... and then I realize: this is the same hotel where Worlds 99 was held! It kinda blows my mind that I recognize the spot. In the room Age and I label our food and eat a PBJ sandwich. We go down to the site, but there aren't many people there yet. I say some hellos, then Age and I check out the other sports booths. We play some badminton, then we do the climbing wall. I haven't done much climbing ever, but I really enjoyed it. I made it to the top without too much trouble, and enjoyed it enough that I did it 2 or 3 more times more over the course of the event.
I watch some basketball, then go back to the footbag area. More people have trickled in, but I still don't want to play seriously. I compromise by playing in long pants and G-Units. I hit some fun runs and some surprising tricks (flip mullet!) like this, but soon enough I'm in normal shred gear and playing. I do a good job of avoiding tricks that would hurt my knee, even though its feeling fine. I decide to quit while I'm ahead, and spend the rest of my time at the site watching circles and juggling.
I see Honza and Dave warming up, so I ask if I can film their warmup, plop down, and see the following happen:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWRnepLeN8I&ft=18[/youtube]
Ouch!
I dash off and find some very lackadaisical EMTs, who FINALLY arrive with some ice. It really annoyed me how matter of fact and slow-to-respond these guys were. They acted like they were doing you a huge favor, when in fact that's the job they are paid to do. Annoying. Honza didn't play after the injury, and ended up leaving on Monday, which was too bad. While I can relate to the experience of travelling halfway around the world to a tourney and getting injured, at least I got one session before getting hurt. After watching people shred for a while I got bored, so I rounded up people for 4 square and set up a court with Zeke. I had a lot of fun playing against the CIC guys. They are all really sneaky, which makes the game fun.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eus30ZOlhvA&ft=18[/youtube]
Things wrapped up at the site, and everybody went back to the room for pizza and Scrabble. I played a ton of scrabble all weekend, but only managed to get one Bingo (when you use all 7 tiles on your rack in one turn) once. Given that we always played 4 player games, that meant there were half as many chances to bingo, but even then I was surprised I couldn't bingo more. My one bingo at NYJ was HAGgLERS, but I had a couple other plays I was happy with, such as NAIVELY and DEUCE. Not as good as GRIPTITS, but good nonetheless.
The stuffed pizza we had the first night was solid, but not fantastic. I actually thought the pizza I had on my final night was better, but overall the food was tasty throughout the trip.
After pizza I went out clubbing with Mike H, Emily, Age, and Pepe from Montreal. I was surprised how hard it was to get into clubs...thankfully Emily knew people and that helped us get in. The place we ended up going to was really upscale and fancy. I tried dancing for a bit, but my feet started throbbing, so I (wisely) decided to rest my feet for footbag the next day. When we got home I had to use my cellphone as a flashlight to avoid stepping on footbaggers as I navigated my way to my sleep spot in the suite. Day 1 was a lot of fun, but was exhausting.
I'll finish this post with a vid of Ianek and Evan shredding:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z7sVpRFo3U&ft=18[/youtube]
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 08:02, edited 1 time in total.
Still sick as a dog. Called in sick to work. This suuuuuucks. No footbag in 2009 yet. That said, I suppose the timing is pretty good. I'm out of school, there's no tournies coming up, and things are quiet at work. If I had to choose a time to be this sick, this would be the ideal time I suppose.
NYJ: Dec. 28th
I wake up feeling pretty good, considering all the footbag, walking, rock-climbing, and dancing I put my body through the day before. I forgot to mention it in my last entry, but I also competed in 2 square before going dancing. I won my first match 21-1, and then drew Sebastien in my next round. I lost in straight sets but had a good time there too.
It was cool seeing the suite slowly wake up. Matt Cross played guitar, CIC started making banana pancakes for everybody, and I got a game of Scrabble going.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p48vUbGeg_A&fmt=18[/youtube]
After eating I think we watched some Edward Scissorhands, then made our way to the site. I did the climbing wall again, but my camera mal-functioned so I don't have footage of that. My legs felt good enough that I decided at the last minute that I'd compete in Circle comp even though I was out of practice. I warm up in a circle with Ben Skaggs and Jay Boychuk which proves to be one of the most fun circles I'm in all weekend. I challenge Ben to hit mobius-fog, and he proceeds to hit it first try. Sick! Jay challenges me to see who can hit DSC in a run first, and I surprise us both by hitting DSC bsos! That's probably the best shred highlight I have all weekend. I'm pretty sure that's only the second or third time I've ever hit that. Overall this circle gets me warm and gets my confidence up, which is all you can ask for before comp. Soon enough pools are announced.
I'm in the first pool with:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnd4inALfZU&fmt=18[/youtube]
and
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9TKxymd7BE&fmt=18[/youtube]
I don't remember much from this circle other than hitting ducking pdx torque first try. Overall this wasn't my best performance in circle, but it was good enough to make the cut, which was nice for my ego. Given that there were 3 pools after mine, I put on long pants and rested. I went around and requested combos from people. Here's one of my favs:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nS3Q3RWqRA&fmt=18[/youtube]
I watch bits of Circle comp too. Seb hits one of my fav combos all weekend: spinning pdx egg-massacre! Cool.
I warm up again for Circle finals, and feel alright. Finals are Clavens, Gatesman, Seb and me, in that order. Seb and I joke before it even starts that our goal is not to embarrass ourselves too badly.
Things don't get off to a great start for me. On one of my first turns I miss a hard trick and get a giveback. I decide to go for a conservative easy run... and proceed to drop my first trick. That's never happened to me in Circle comp before. Despite essentially losing a turn, I finish out the round pretty strong. I turn one of my turns into a Stephen Barnes One Shot, which puts me in a good mood. Then the difficulty round hits, and I feel my quads shut down on me. It's like I hit the wall. I chug some water and eat a banana between turns in the hopes that I can heal my legs instantly. Unsurprisingly, I can't. I enjoy my front row seat in the Evan and Dave show, and muscle through my turns as best as I can.
You can see some Circle Final highlights starting at 3:45 in this vid by Scott D:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPt4bliYwqY&fmt=18[/youtube]
More later.
NYJ: Dec. 28th
I wake up feeling pretty good, considering all the footbag, walking, rock-climbing, and dancing I put my body through the day before. I forgot to mention it in my last entry, but I also competed in 2 square before going dancing. I won my first match 21-1, and then drew Sebastien in my next round. I lost in straight sets but had a good time there too.
It was cool seeing the suite slowly wake up. Matt Cross played guitar, CIC started making banana pancakes for everybody, and I got a game of Scrabble going.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p48vUbGeg_A&fmt=18[/youtube]
After eating I think we watched some Edward Scissorhands, then made our way to the site. I did the climbing wall again, but my camera mal-functioned so I don't have footage of that. My legs felt good enough that I decided at the last minute that I'd compete in Circle comp even though I was out of practice. I warm up in a circle with Ben Skaggs and Jay Boychuk which proves to be one of the most fun circles I'm in all weekend. I challenge Ben to hit mobius-fog, and he proceeds to hit it first try. Sick! Jay challenges me to see who can hit DSC in a run first, and I surprise us both by hitting DSC bsos! That's probably the best shred highlight I have all weekend. I'm pretty sure that's only the second or third time I've ever hit that. Overall this circle gets me warm and gets my confidence up, which is all you can ask for before comp. Soon enough pools are announced.
I'm in the first pool with:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnd4inALfZU&fmt=18[/youtube]
and
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9TKxymd7BE&fmt=18[/youtube]
I don't remember much from this circle other than hitting ducking pdx torque first try. Overall this wasn't my best performance in circle, but it was good enough to make the cut, which was nice for my ego. Given that there were 3 pools after mine, I put on long pants and rested. I went around and requested combos from people. Here's one of my favs:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nS3Q3RWqRA&fmt=18[/youtube]
I watch bits of Circle comp too. Seb hits one of my fav combos all weekend: spinning pdx egg-massacre! Cool.
I warm up again for Circle finals, and feel alright. Finals are Clavens, Gatesman, Seb and me, in that order. Seb and I joke before it even starts that our goal is not to embarrass ourselves too badly.
Things don't get off to a great start for me. On one of my first turns I miss a hard trick and get a giveback. I decide to go for a conservative easy run... and proceed to drop my first trick. That's never happened to me in Circle comp before. Despite essentially losing a turn, I finish out the round pretty strong. I turn one of my turns into a Stephen Barnes One Shot, which puts me in a good mood. Then the difficulty round hits, and I feel my quads shut down on me. It's like I hit the wall. I chug some water and eat a banana between turns in the hopes that I can heal my legs instantly. Unsurprisingly, I can't. I enjoy my front row seat in the Evan and Dave show, and muscle through my turns as best as I can.
You can see some Circle Final highlights starting at 3:45 in this vid by Scott D:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPt4bliYwqY&fmt=18[/youtube]
More later.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 08:09, edited 1 time in total.
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CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
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full nelson
- 8-Bit Ninja
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Frank_Sinatra
- Avenging Disco Godfather
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Still super-sick. After 4 days of nyquil and TV (called in sick Friday and Monday, sick through the weekend) I decided to mix things up by going to work. Its my second day of this, and I think I preferred being in bed. At least now I have a chance at getting others sick too. This sucks. This weekend is a 3 day weekend, and the next weekend is a 4 day weekend, so if I can slug my way through this week, at least I'll have some rest-time coming to me. Can't wait. By my calculations, this is my 10th day without playing footbag.
I was going to finish blogging NYJ last night, but Bevan Skaggsman Ustreamed a session, so I watched that instead. I like watching his game a lot. For an old-timer like me, it's really fun seeing how both-sided and consistent this new generation of top players is. Vasek, Clavens, Gatesman, Byrin, Takumi, Johnny, Olav... It really is a treat.
I was going to do an extensive recap of 2008 since it was one of my best years in footbag, but due to my backlog with the NYJ recap, I think I'm going to do a breezy quick one instead. Here's my 2008 summary... by the numbers.
*11- 2008 marked my 11th year playing footbag.
*3- I hit 3 dropless routines in 2008. NYFA Jam, Funtastiks, and East Coasts
*0- The number of times I competed in Shred 30. Granted, I only had two opportunities, but it's interesting that I never did it.
*380 ish- I uploaded something around 380 footbag videos to YouTube this year.
*7- I attended 7 major tournaments in 2008. Shred for Savvy, USO, NYFA Jam, Worlds, Funtastiks, East Coasts, and NYJ.
*1 (tie),4,1,?,3,1,3. My ranking in the major events I entered.
*3- I hit 3 quad dexes in 2008, 2 of which were new for me. I'm happy to say I hit all 3 cleanly on video, and all of them at least twice, so none were flukes.
*410- There were 410 posts made in my blog this year.
*2- I only played footbag in 2 countries this year: the US and Czech Republic. Compared to past years, that's really low. And I was lucky to make it to Worlds at all.
*141, 245. My best bowling and wii bowling scores in 2008.
*3- I played footbag in 3 different pairs of shoes this year. I started off the year with my black G-Units, which I still use, I've been using my blue and white G-Units off and on since late summer, and I've been messing around in Q3s since November or so.
I was going to finish blogging NYJ last night, but Bevan Skaggsman Ustreamed a session, so I watched that instead. I like watching his game a lot. For an old-timer like me, it's really fun seeing how both-sided and consistent this new generation of top players is. Vasek, Clavens, Gatesman, Byrin, Takumi, Johnny, Olav... It really is a treat.
I was going to do an extensive recap of 2008 since it was one of my best years in footbag, but due to my backlog with the NYJ recap, I think I'm going to do a breezy quick one instead. Here's my 2008 summary... by the numbers.
*11- 2008 marked my 11th year playing footbag.
*3- I hit 3 dropless routines in 2008. NYFA Jam, Funtastiks, and East Coasts
*0- The number of times I competed in Shred 30. Granted, I only had two opportunities, but it's interesting that I never did it.
*380 ish- I uploaded something around 380 footbag videos to YouTube this year.
*7- I attended 7 major tournaments in 2008. Shred for Savvy, USO, NYFA Jam, Worlds, Funtastiks, East Coasts, and NYJ.
*1 (tie),4,1,?,3,1,3. My ranking in the major events I entered.
*3- I hit 3 quad dexes in 2008, 2 of which were new for me. I'm happy to say I hit all 3 cleanly on video, and all of them at least twice, so none were flukes.
*410- There were 410 posts made in my blog this year.
*2- I only played footbag in 2 countries this year: the US and Czech Republic. Compared to past years, that's really low. And I was lucky to make it to Worlds at all.
*141, 245. My best bowling and wii bowling scores in 2008.
*3- I played footbag in 3 different pairs of shoes this year. I started off the year with my black G-Units, which I still use, I've been using my blue and white G-Units off and on since late summer, and I've been messing around in Q3s since November or so.
Happy New Year! At least that what it finally feels like to me. I woke up on New Year's Day with a sore throat, which turned into my worst headcold in a few years. 11 days later (including 2 sick days away from work) I finally began to feel better, and now I feel firmly on the path to recovery. Only now do I feel like 2009 is beginning.
Being sick resulted in me missing out on a lot of fun stuff, including Bruce Dole's surprise 40th birthday party last weekend, and a $10 NBA game last week. I also haven't played footbag or drunk alcohol since Chicago. I'm gonna try and keep the latter streak going for a while, but end the former streak this weekend? I need to be careful not to rush back too quickly either. I pushed my body really hard at NYJ, which I think left me more open to getting sick. Until the weather improves (March?) I'll probably be limited to one session a week, which may not be a bad thing for me in the long run.
I'm going to try and finish my NYJ write-up tonight. I have a lot more energy now, so I'm catching up on all sorts of stuff. NYJ was such a fun time, I really want to be able to read about it in the future.
On that note, I was reading old entries in my blog last month, and I found a post from October 2006 where I wrote:
The only other big footbag news on my end is the video Age made of me. I thanked her in the original video thread, but it doesn't hurt to thank her again. I'm really happy with how the video came out. I feel like the footage is of some of my absolute best stuff, so its nice to have a 3 minute snapshot of that moment in my game, which I can keep and watch when I retire or my game starts declining. I like that there's almost no fat in the entire video; every string and trick that we put in has some value. I think 2-3 minutes is the ideal amount of time for a footbag video, especially if it's of one player.
In more somber news, I learned today that a friend from high school died. 2 years ago, my best friend from middle school died, and I'm feeling similar emotions now as I did then. It makes me feel very fortunate to be alive and healthy, and it helps me put my priorities into some perspective.
I may be in NYC the weekend of Feb 7th for the funeral, so if time allows I'll try and meet up with NYFA to play.
Being sick resulted in me missing out on a lot of fun stuff, including Bruce Dole's surprise 40th birthday party last weekend, and a $10 NBA game last week. I also haven't played footbag or drunk alcohol since Chicago. I'm gonna try and keep the latter streak going for a while, but end the former streak this weekend? I need to be careful not to rush back too quickly either. I pushed my body really hard at NYJ, which I think left me more open to getting sick. Until the weather improves (March?) I'll probably be limited to one session a week, which may not be a bad thing for me in the long run.
I'm going to try and finish my NYJ write-up tonight. I have a lot more energy now, so I'm catching up on all sorts of stuff. NYJ was such a fun time, I really want to be able to read about it in the future.
On that note, I was reading old entries in my blog last month, and I found a post from October 2006 where I wrote:
I think I wrote that before I'd even hit TATW barefoot, but even after I got it barefoot the goal was still to get it in shoes. Anyway, the reason I found that entry so interesting, is that I hit blurry flurry and TATW in shoes in a 3 week period spanning October and November of last year. You can see them both in the new video Age made of me. In some of my posts in November I talked about how Quantum3s enabled me to hit a trick I couldn't do in GUnits; that trick was TATW. Hitting 2 of my dream tricks is another reason that 2008 was one of my best years in footbag.C-Fan wrote: I've been thinking a lot about big tricks lately. ... I was particularly excited to see the footage of blurry flurry. That's a trick I was thinking about recently, but now that I have seen it hit, it removes a lot of guesswork on my part about how to hit it; now I have a model to work off of.
I was also thinking I'd like to skool 3ATW and maybe work on nemesis as well. I think those 3 tricks are all worthy, pre-retirement aspirations. Blurry flurry especially seems like a possibility, cause I'm pretty good at fog and flurry, and the sides line up for me.
The only other big footbag news on my end is the video Age made of me. I thanked her in the original video thread, but it doesn't hurt to thank her again. I'm really happy with how the video came out. I feel like the footage is of some of my absolute best stuff, so its nice to have a 3 minute snapshot of that moment in my game, which I can keep and watch when I retire or my game starts declining. I like that there's almost no fat in the entire video; every string and trick that we put in has some value. I think 2-3 minutes is the ideal amount of time for a footbag video, especially if it's of one player.
In more somber news, I learned today that a friend from high school died. 2 years ago, my best friend from middle school died, and I'm feeling similar emotions now as I did then. It makes me feel very fortunate to be alive and healthy, and it helps me put my priorities into some perspective.
I may be in NYC the weekend of Feb 7th for the funeral, so if time allows I'll try and meet up with NYFA to play.
New Year's Jam 08
Sunday (cont)
After Circle Comp wrapped up, I pounded a banana to combat the cramps
that I was already feeling, then dashed up to the suite to take a
shower before a line formed. The view from the hotel was really nice:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrxCg_6dl5w&fmt=18[/youtube]
It was already getting dark out, and Age
and I hadn't done any sightseeing on the trip yet, so we cabbed out to
Navy Pier to look around. The last time I was at Navy Pier was at
Worlds 99, watching the freestyle finals. It was a little trippy
being back there again...ghosts of freestyle past.
The pier looked pretty dead. Inside the building, there was some cool
museum-like displays of stained glass art. It was only when we got to
the second floor that we discovered that the building was far from
abandoned. There was a humongous convention hall which was hosting
"winter wonderland." I saw the biggest xmas tree this side of
Rockefeller center, as well as rides, vendors, a skating rink (!), and
a big area for people to sit and eat. Here are some videos to give
you a sense of scale.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGY1Hq5wP60&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVNcMLhJM44&fmt=18[/youtube]
We had fun walking around, seeing the sites, though my legs hurt badly
enough at this point that I had to sit down frequently. One of my fav
exhibits showed Santa Clauses from different countries, and described
the different holiday traditions. Very cool. We had a churro and
some fresh-squeezed OJ, and eventually Mike and Emily came and picked
us up. Big thank you to Mike for driving us all over the place during
NYJ. That was so helpful.
We get back to the suite and find there is a huge stack of eggrolls,
which are still hot. I get in a game of Scrabble with Reile, his
sister, and Age. We watch a national geographic special about
elephants as we eat and play. Finally I make it down to the shred
room. My legs are blown out by this point, but I really want to
compete in request contest. I watch a lot of shred circles, play some
4square, and drink some beer. I particularly enjoyed watching one
circle with Clavens and Suderman. Here are some standout runs:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_FJAU-F-C4&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyNlpd7ncM&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMQq2A79SNQ&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcVZuD1wSjQ&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRKQ-5DY-2c&fmt=18[/youtube]
Request starts really late, but I'm in no hurry. I warm up a bit, but
my body is telling me its over before it even begins. I remind myself
that I will never have to do more than 2 tricks in a row, and that
makes me feel better. Request begins, and there's lots of joking
around. There are so many of us, that after each turn we have to
huddle back in in order to hear the next set of combos. In the first
rounds I challenge myself by hitting a bunch of requests flipside.
Then, we finally get to a combo which involves fairy set. I don't
even remember what it was, but I didn't have confidence I could hit it
in 3 tries, so I opted for the other option: stepping ss osis-gyro
mirage. Not that hard right? For some reason though, I got nervous,
and started thinking to myself: "maybe I should plant on the gyro
mirage to make it easier...no, that's not cool...but then..." I
decided to go for it true gyro, but all that thinking must have
distracted me, because I dropped the stepping ss osis on my first try.
D'oh! Second try, I actually foot the gyro mirage, but it goes off
my toe funny and I miss the handcatch. Third try, my zoom set isn't
good enough, and just like that I become a spectator and not a
participant. Oh well. I had fun, and I'm glad I got to compete.
Eventually the field is whittled down to just Johnny, Clavens, and
Evan. I'm amazed as they proceed to hit some ridiculous combos just
to stay alive. It's a lot of fun to watch.
We go back upstairs, and I think I check out pretty early.
Monday
Monday I wake up and my legs still feel trashed. I know right away I
won't be playing any footbag that day, and that's fine by me. The
plan is to do some sightseeing in the morning and get back in time to
help judge Sick 1 and Sick3. Age and I cab it out to the Art
Institute, and meet up with Erik Chan a little later. It's a weird
experience for us DC people to have to pay for a museum, since they're
all free at home (as is the Zoo).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIooilT9Qzk&fmt=18[/youtube]
The last time I was at the Art
Institute was at Worlds 99, and I remember spending an entire day
there. This time, however, my legs won't allow that.
We check out a lot of French art from the 1800s, and I'm excited to
see some Honore Daumier sculpture. I take a bunch of pictures which
have served me well as desktop backgrounds for my laptop at home.
We take a break and eat lunch in the Institute's cafeteria. There are
several different stations where you can get food, much like a
university cafeteria. This sets the stage for one of my trip
highlights. As I am standing in line at one of the stations, 3
Japanese ladies queue up behind me. I overhear one of them say to the
other in Japanese: "what I really feel like is soup, but it looks like
they don't have any." The other nods and empathizes with a "yeah..."
I turn around and say in Japanese: "actually, they have soups over at
that section of the cafeteria" and point them in the right direction.
They are really flustered for a moment, and then thank me before
shuffling off to get their soup. It made my day. Lunch itself is
quite good too. I got a fancy roast veggie sandwich that was
excellent, and we had some almond bread pudding for dessert. It was
also nice to talk to Erik.
After the art institute we walk around Millenium Park for a bit, which
is nice. It's not that cold out, so its a pleasant walk, and we spend
a lot of time taking photos and videos at this large metallic bean:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zttos7siTTk&fmt=18[/youtube]
We eventually decide to go back to the site. We get there just as
they are cleaning up. I ended up taking third place in Circles, so I
won a Footfighter bag and a copy of Eric Chang's DVD demo.
Considering there was no entry fee for the event, and I didn't expect
to even make it to finals, I was very happy with my haul. I help CIC
break down the event site, and then wait with everybody in the lobby,
so we can all walk to Chinatown for dinner. As we wait, we decide to
take a group photo. The infamously rude security guard Reynaldo tells
us we can't sit on the couches, even though we were paying guests. In
his defense, some players put their feet on the table when we were
told not to, but he was still out of line with how he treated us. I
got some of his tude on film:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27EzH8ZAkE&fmt=18[/youtube]
While the whole scene was unpleasant, the real bummer is that it made
security crack down on us, which I think made it harder for us to find
a night shred spot for the final night. Because of this, I didn't get
to say some farewells that I wanted to.
We all made the trek down to Chinatown for dinner. It's your typical
dim sum set up, with big circular tables with a lazy susan on top.
Here are the people at my table (bad quality):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdGY1WsKwOk&fmt=18[/youtube]
I think all the vegetarians ended up at the same table, which worked
out well because we shared our dishes. There was a lot of
camera-viewing at the table as we waited for food. Clavens passed
around his camera with a photo of him and Eoghan lying on a bed, and
said the title was "Eoghan's first time." Then he passed around
another foto of Dave's face looking like it was screaming, with Dave's
shirt off. I proposed that THAT photo should be called "Eoghan's
first time," and Dave proceeded to laugh so hard I thought he was
going to pull a muscle. I showed people the video of Honza's ankle
blowing out, which was a gruesome hit. At some point Waylon comes
over, and proposes a toast for Ted F, who couldn't make it due to
health reasons. Very sweet gesture. Unfortunately, during his first
attempt he ended up spilling his glass of water over Eoghan and Evan:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfuKIGNHZY0&fmt=18[/youtube]
Second try went better:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0lURIgrFE&fmt=18[/youtube]
After dinner people got bubble teas. I had some of Age's, and it was pretty bad. I got the impression though that it was a matter of knowing what to order. Like, some drinks are probably good, and if you were a regular you'd know which ones.
We walk back from Chinatown, and one aggressive homeless guy follows us the whole time, making conversation with us. It's funny to me because he's obviously was trying to shake us down, and I could see that working if it were a small group of people, but there were 25 of us. He follows us all the way to the hotel, and says things like: "I'm a walk in with you all." Really? I wonder if even he believed that. Poor guy.
We get to the hotel, and part ways with the homeless guy. Unfortunately, hotel security now hates us, and hassle us from the second we get into the building. They ask for room cards and everything. It soon becomes apparent that we won't be able to sneak in a shred there, so we go to Reile's house to relax and hang out. We play some Scrabble and I have some good beer, and then on one of my trips to the fridge, I see a stuffed animal on a table. It's a monkey, and apparently it's been used as a chew toy by Reile's dog...and I can't resist the temptation to play footbag with it.
More later.
Sunday (cont)
After Circle Comp wrapped up, I pounded a banana to combat the cramps
that I was already feeling, then dashed up to the suite to take a
shower before a line formed. The view from the hotel was really nice:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrxCg_6dl5w&fmt=18[/youtube]
It was already getting dark out, and Age
and I hadn't done any sightseeing on the trip yet, so we cabbed out to
Navy Pier to look around. The last time I was at Navy Pier was at
Worlds 99, watching the freestyle finals. It was a little trippy
being back there again...ghosts of freestyle past.
The pier looked pretty dead. Inside the building, there was some cool
museum-like displays of stained glass art. It was only when we got to
the second floor that we discovered that the building was far from
abandoned. There was a humongous convention hall which was hosting
"winter wonderland." I saw the biggest xmas tree this side of
Rockefeller center, as well as rides, vendors, a skating rink (!), and
a big area for people to sit and eat. Here are some videos to give
you a sense of scale.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGY1Hq5wP60&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVNcMLhJM44&fmt=18[/youtube]
We had fun walking around, seeing the sites, though my legs hurt badly
enough at this point that I had to sit down frequently. One of my fav
exhibits showed Santa Clauses from different countries, and described
the different holiday traditions. Very cool. We had a churro and
some fresh-squeezed OJ, and eventually Mike and Emily came and picked
us up. Big thank you to Mike for driving us all over the place during
NYJ. That was so helpful.
We get back to the suite and find there is a huge stack of eggrolls,
which are still hot. I get in a game of Scrabble with Reile, his
sister, and Age. We watch a national geographic special about
elephants as we eat and play. Finally I make it down to the shred
room. My legs are blown out by this point, but I really want to
compete in request contest. I watch a lot of shred circles, play some
4square, and drink some beer. I particularly enjoyed watching one
circle with Clavens and Suderman. Here are some standout runs:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_FJAU-F-C4&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhyNlpd7ncM&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMQq2A79SNQ&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcVZuD1wSjQ&fmt=18[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRKQ-5DY-2c&fmt=18[/youtube]
Request starts really late, but I'm in no hurry. I warm up a bit, but
my body is telling me its over before it even begins. I remind myself
that I will never have to do more than 2 tricks in a row, and that
makes me feel better. Request begins, and there's lots of joking
around. There are so many of us, that after each turn we have to
huddle back in in order to hear the next set of combos. In the first
rounds I challenge myself by hitting a bunch of requests flipside.
Then, we finally get to a combo which involves fairy set. I don't
even remember what it was, but I didn't have confidence I could hit it
in 3 tries, so I opted for the other option: stepping ss osis-gyro
mirage. Not that hard right? For some reason though, I got nervous,
and started thinking to myself: "maybe I should plant on the gyro
mirage to make it easier...no, that's not cool...but then..." I
decided to go for it true gyro, but all that thinking must have
distracted me, because I dropped the stepping ss osis on my first try.
D'oh! Second try, I actually foot the gyro mirage, but it goes off
my toe funny and I miss the handcatch. Third try, my zoom set isn't
good enough, and just like that I become a spectator and not a
participant. Oh well. I had fun, and I'm glad I got to compete.
Eventually the field is whittled down to just Johnny, Clavens, and
Evan. I'm amazed as they proceed to hit some ridiculous combos just
to stay alive. It's a lot of fun to watch.
We go back upstairs, and I think I check out pretty early.
Monday
Monday I wake up and my legs still feel trashed. I know right away I
won't be playing any footbag that day, and that's fine by me. The
plan is to do some sightseeing in the morning and get back in time to
help judge Sick 1 and Sick3. Age and I cab it out to the Art
Institute, and meet up with Erik Chan a little later. It's a weird
experience for us DC people to have to pay for a museum, since they're
all free at home (as is the Zoo).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIooilT9Qzk&fmt=18[/youtube]
The last time I was at the Art
Institute was at Worlds 99, and I remember spending an entire day
there. This time, however, my legs won't allow that.
We check out a lot of French art from the 1800s, and I'm excited to
see some Honore Daumier sculpture. I take a bunch of pictures which
have served me well as desktop backgrounds for my laptop at home.
We take a break and eat lunch in the Institute's cafeteria. There are
several different stations where you can get food, much like a
university cafeteria. This sets the stage for one of my trip
highlights. As I am standing in line at one of the stations, 3
Japanese ladies queue up behind me. I overhear one of them say to the
other in Japanese: "what I really feel like is soup, but it looks like
they don't have any." The other nods and empathizes with a "yeah..."
I turn around and say in Japanese: "actually, they have soups over at
that section of the cafeteria" and point them in the right direction.
They are really flustered for a moment, and then thank me before
shuffling off to get their soup. It made my day. Lunch itself is
quite good too. I got a fancy roast veggie sandwich that was
excellent, and we had some almond bread pudding for dessert. It was
also nice to talk to Erik.
After the art institute we walk around Millenium Park for a bit, which
is nice. It's not that cold out, so its a pleasant walk, and we spend
a lot of time taking photos and videos at this large metallic bean:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zttos7siTTk&fmt=18[/youtube]
We eventually decide to go back to the site. We get there just as
they are cleaning up. I ended up taking third place in Circles, so I
won a Footfighter bag and a copy of Eric Chang's DVD demo.
Considering there was no entry fee for the event, and I didn't expect
to even make it to finals, I was very happy with my haul. I help CIC
break down the event site, and then wait with everybody in the lobby,
so we can all walk to Chinatown for dinner. As we wait, we decide to
take a group photo. The infamously rude security guard Reynaldo tells
us we can't sit on the couches, even though we were paying guests. In
his defense, some players put their feet on the table when we were
told not to, but he was still out of line with how he treated us. I
got some of his tude on film:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27EzH8ZAkE&fmt=18[/youtube]
While the whole scene was unpleasant, the real bummer is that it made
security crack down on us, which I think made it harder for us to find
a night shred spot for the final night. Because of this, I didn't get
to say some farewells that I wanted to.
We all made the trek down to Chinatown for dinner. It's your typical
dim sum set up, with big circular tables with a lazy susan on top.
Here are the people at my table (bad quality):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdGY1WsKwOk&fmt=18[/youtube]
I think all the vegetarians ended up at the same table, which worked
out well because we shared our dishes. There was a lot of
camera-viewing at the table as we waited for food. Clavens passed
around his camera with a photo of him and Eoghan lying on a bed, and
said the title was "Eoghan's first time." Then he passed around
another foto of Dave's face looking like it was screaming, with Dave's
shirt off. I proposed that THAT photo should be called "Eoghan's
first time," and Dave proceeded to laugh so hard I thought he was
going to pull a muscle. I showed people the video of Honza's ankle
blowing out, which was a gruesome hit. At some point Waylon comes
over, and proposes a toast for Ted F, who couldn't make it due to
health reasons. Very sweet gesture. Unfortunately, during his first
attempt he ended up spilling his glass of water over Eoghan and Evan:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfuKIGNHZY0&fmt=18[/youtube]
Second try went better:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0lURIgrFE&fmt=18[/youtube]
After dinner people got bubble teas. I had some of Age's, and it was pretty bad. I got the impression though that it was a matter of knowing what to order. Like, some drinks are probably good, and if you were a regular you'd know which ones.
We walk back from Chinatown, and one aggressive homeless guy follows us the whole time, making conversation with us. It's funny to me because he's obviously was trying to shake us down, and I could see that working if it were a small group of people, but there were 25 of us. He follows us all the way to the hotel, and says things like: "I'm a walk in with you all." Really? I wonder if even he believed that. Poor guy.
We get to the hotel, and part ways with the homeless guy. Unfortunately, hotel security now hates us, and hassle us from the second we get into the building. They ask for room cards and everything. It soon becomes apparent that we won't be able to sneak in a shred there, so we go to Reile's house to relax and hang out. We play some Scrabble and I have some good beer, and then on one of my trips to the fridge, I see a stuffed animal on a table. It's a monkey, and apparently it's been used as a chew toy by Reile's dog...and I can't resist the temptation to play footbag with it.
More later.
Last edited by C-Fan on 16 Aug 2012 08:15, edited 1 time in total.
-
CIC flurry
- Amazingly Sexy Man-Beast
- Posts: 3426
- Joined: 28 May 2003 16:06
- Location: Chicago
-
Jack Stutler
- Multidex Master
- Posts: 287
- Joined: 25 May 2008 18:14
- Location: Twin City Land, Minnesota
