Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 13 Mar 2009 01:38

I had a kick this morning. I just moved house a little while back, unfortunately there is nowhere to kick. At my old place I had a really sweet place to shred (complete with basketball hoop), however there was a dog which was pretty keen on harrassing you all the time.

So anyway, I kick now at my local shops, which is conveniently just down the road. Today I played for about an hour and half, just by myself. I haven't been kicking enough lately, so it's mainly been practicing for competition lately (nationals are next month).

I was having a bit of just general kicking midway through my session, I hit gyro rev swirl which was pretty sweet. I hit that when Flavio was here, but didn't really expect to hit it again, ever.

So it's currently Friday night, and I'm currently working. And it really, really sucks. There are so many better things I could be doing right now.

Cope · Post by **Cope** » 19 Mar 2009 06:03

Lets start kicking everyday. Starting next week.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 01 Apr 2009 13:40

I did a demo last night at this Twilight Fair at my old uni, as part of SHAG (Sexual Health and Guidance) week. I did my routine that I will do at nationals, and probably also worlds, and had 3 drops. Was quite happy with how I went, as the only other public performance I've done of it was when I was last down in Melbourne, I did a performance at the O-Week at Melbourne uni.....that I had not factored into my planning when having approx 1000 beers the night before at the Evergreen Terrace/Poison The Well/Every Time I Die/Dillinger Escape Plan show. So I rocked up the next day, much to all the Melbourne guys suprise, to the uni...which I don't go to...in a state, that I don't live in. So we had some good kicks that day, nearly all the Melbourne guys were there.

Anyhow, I did a demo then, same song...I had maybe 10 or 12 drops, I was really not prepared, however yesterday, I was feeling quite good, and midway through I started getting those familar thoughts in my head "wow, this could be a dropless routine" (drop). So I dropped twice in my routine, once on a terrage, once on DATW, and then, just like at nationals last year, my third drop was on my handcatch at the end. Maybe I should just practice catching....

Anyway this night last night was all about sexual health awareness etc, they had all this carnival style games where you had to answer questions and then you would win a prize. Caroline and I were to add to the carnival atmosphere. Thhe guy running the show, he bought around 20 footbags from Lotus, which was really, really awesome to have. There were a number of carnival style ones, with little streamers coming out of them. I'd barely ever played with them, but they actually played quite well for something with things coming out the ends.

We had a lot of people just hacking it up with us, at one stage we had a circle of around 12 people and most of them took a bag once they were done. There was this one girl who learnt a couple of stalls and things almost immediately, she said she sees us playing a lot at Lyneham, and said she would be keen to come along.

So overall the event was quite succesful for us. Matt, who organised it, seemed not so happy, mainly with the uni. His organisation and a couple of others paid for the whole event, but the uni was peeved that they kept getting mentioned all the time.

After the match we watched the socceroos win 2-0 over Uzbekistan, and now I am work, and that's not as satisfying, but I am very pleased with my performance yesterday.

Cope · Post by **Cope** » 01 Apr 2009 18:32

Nice work on the demo dude. Im disappointed I didnt make it!

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 01 Apr 2009 22:15

yeah man, I was going to get some 4 square going...but we didn't bother without the NATIONAL CHAMP!

Pretty stoked on how the demo went though.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 10 Apr 2009 01:40

So I don't think I have ever posted a video of me in here before. I was just playing around with my digital camera a while ago, and filmed myself playing. This is probably from around February this year, just after my trip down the coast with Andrew Grant.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJNyBzyyggs[/youtube]

I have not edited it at all or anything, I was really just wanting to see what sort of picture quality it would come out in once uploaded onto Youtube. It's not all that high really, but it is nice to have some footage of myself. I plan on doing some more stuff from time to time, but that will have to wait.

Nationals next weekend. Feeling reasonably prepared. Pretty excited. Going to the 2001 Nationals was probably a major turning point in my life, really finding out that you could do more than just kick around, it also marks my only victory in a footbag competition (Consecutives kicks). Although it wasn't until about 05 that I started kicking seriously, that event was a big event.

Kicked today by myself at the shops at Lyneham. I had a little crowd gathered round me and they asked all these questions about footbag, although unfortunately none of them seemed particularly interested in taking it up.

Anyhow, I felt I was playing pretty well. I was mainly practicing my shred 30, I am starting to get it down pretty well, but sometimes when I drop I find it really hard to come back in and find the focus.

I am going to Melbourne tomorrow. I have a week off work and that's really exciting. My girlfriend Kate is going to a family thing in Albury, so I am going down with her to there, then catch a bus and train to arrive in Melbourne about 8pm- we plan on leaving Canberra at 8am

I fly to Sydney on Tuesday, then will have a couple of days before everyone gets in, and then the fun begins.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 15 Apr 2009 16:24

So the Australian Championships are fast approaching. I'm feeling pretty good for it, I have probably prepared better this year than any other year before. I was having a kick by myself yesterday outside the Lane Cove Library. I practiced mainly stuff for competition....hit my routine with 1 drop (first try), hit my planned Sick 3 on my second attempt and had a reasonable go at Shred 30. Shred 30 is probably my worst event, I am still yet to score over 100, and that is something I hope to reach in this competition.

Went to Melbourne and Bendigo over the Easter weekend. Had a kick with Jamie in Bendigo, that went quite well, I hit some good long runs, he also hit some really hard links. We watched this cool parade with a chinese dragon section and then had a few beers, good day all up.

Have taken a week of annual leave, enjoying making some money without actually being at work, pretty great indeed.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 16 Apr 2009 07:05

Tonight I convinced one of the best footbag players in the world (and his bosses) it would be much more in his interest to compete at a national championships of a sport you're really sweet at than go to work.

I was also not allowed to see A Secret Death. So cut. I'm actually planning on getting the guy fired, not sure if I have this kind of power, but I definitely act like it before.

I've done all the dumb things.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 17 Apr 2009 16:25

So had the footbag golf day yesterday. I came second. Unfortunately we only had a field of four, but the course was pretty sweet, with harbour views and lost of old historic buildings. It was also a beautiful sunny day.

The placings were

1. Lotus
2. Daniel
3. Ian
4. Caroline

So today we go to the Easter show, this is the big day of competition. We have request, shred 30, sick 3 and shred battles. Should be a pretty good day out.

Caroline, Ian and Lotus prepare for the first hole of golf.

This is the view from my room.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 19 Apr 2009 18:00

Back from Nationals. Got back last night after a long drive home with Copey.

Things I did in Sydney

- got really drunk, a lot
- swam in the rooftop pool, a lot
- found out that most of our booking were completely wrong, and fixed them
- threw a glass in a guy's face (although it was made out of plastic)
- came second in footbag golf
- had a lot of hangovers
- Watched the Canberra Raiders lose, though they scored an awesome try
- got home at 2:30am the night before a comp
- didn't play that well, ever.
- Met some backpacker girls in a lift and got them to come to a footbag competition in a hall in the burbs, pretty impressed with that effort
- Someone said "where's your drink"...I said "I'm going to have a bit of a rest". About 20 seconds later I said "let's do shots". So we spun the wheel to get ourselves a random shot
- Didn't get let in to see one of my favourite bands because I was too drunk
- Locked myself out of the room at 4:30 in the morning
- Had too many drops in my routine, and moreso, lots and lots of bails to toe, which were not in the original plan.
- came 4th or 5th in most events.
- Watched an incredible dropless Phil Morrison routine, that guy is an incredible player, and so far ahead of all of us.
- Drove Copey's car, because he was still drunk in the morning
- We took Andrew back to Gerroa to his surf camp, about a 2.5 hour detour.
- Had some of my best playing of the weekend in a petrol station carpark in Gerringong, in the dark.

Pretty good overall, would have liked to play better, but that can wait til next time.

I am going to put on a jam in June in Canberra, on the Queens Birthday long weekend. That will give me a chance to practice my routine again before heading to worlds.

Here's some photos

Everyone after the presentation ceremony

Jamie, mid air in the post show shred.

Phil gets a birthday cake

Getting on the jars.

Doing my routine.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 21 Apr 2009 17:03

So on Friday when we were playing Footbag Golf, I got a call from my mum saying I was in the local paper, as I had sent them an article through the "Send your news" feature. I am quite pleased because it appeared in the sports section, whereas most articles about footbag are more of a "general interest" sort of story.

My mum just sent me a scan of the article. I think she may have photocopied it first, so it's not all that great quality. I also got a mention in the article I got down for Jamie in the Bendigo Advertiser. Unfortunately they called me "Daniel Doyle"...close....

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 28 Apr 2009 04:05

Winter has struck in Canberrra (actual winter is not due for more than a month). But since Friday the weather has been seriously bad. Up until then the weather was actually unseasonably warm. Maybe that's because I wasn't actually in Canberra for a week or so before this, and had great weather nearly the whole time I was on leave. I'm not so sure. All I know is that Copey is going to Hawaii tomorrow and I am 100% jealous.

Been kicking a bit. Have been kicking every day, but in this freezing weather it's hard to warm up and I don't really have an indoor spot at the moment, which is really something I should look into, as most days it has been below 10 degrees. Not warm.

So today I was mainly just working on stringing together long tiltless runs, after a while I got a little bit warmer and I hit a new trick, fairy ss drifter, so that was nice. I was a bit disappointed with the tiltless runs, I think the most I got to was only 25. I think my current record is about 70, I'm aiming for 100+ before I go to Europe.

I also hit diving clip> ripwalk (rpt)> ripwalk> diving clip (rpt) .

So things are starting to come together a bit for my trip to Europe. Thanks to the Australian government giving everybody $900, my credit card debt is halved, and looking much easier to pay off. I am trying to keep my expenses right down for the moment, which is going successfully for the first couple of days of this week, but we shall see how long that lasts.

Anyhow, I have booked in 3 free nights at the HI Frankfurt, pretty pleased with that. Then I will stay 2 days with my Dad's cousin, then I will probably stay with Flavio for a couple of days. One of the things I plan on doing whilst in Europe is walking from one side of Liechenstein to the other. Apparently this is about 6km.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 13 May 2009 01:33

So one of my jobs is taking tours at the Australian Institute of Sport, mainly school groups and that kind of thing. I got talking to one of the teachers on my school group and he said he was really into footbag circa 2000-2001, learnt a few tricks like around the world and mirage, but eventually gave up when he thought no one else played footbag in the country. He said he still plays some hack from time to time (he had a crochet bag which he said he carried with him everywhere).

It's sad to hear about this kind of thing...if only he had've met Lynton or someone (he was from a small town outside of Melbourne), you never know, he could be a footbag superstar. But hopefully I will be organising to do a demo at this school in the near future.

I have just put together an article on footbag for my friend's zine "Screwdriver Guilts". On Monday night, my friend played an interview on the radio in Western Australia that he did with me on the phone about going to worlds and that kind of thing.

I have been playing quite a bit lately, I hit my routine dropless in practice the other day, that was a pretty awesome feeling. I don't think I've done that before. Pretty stoked on that. I'm having a lot of trouble with my shred 30 practice. I find every time I drop, I start dropping a lot more, start rushing, etc. I guess I just have to slow myself down, steady the pace.

I went to visit my parents over the weekend, went to the beach a couple of times. That was pretty good. Kate and I broke up. That probably wasn't as good. I have to work for the next 10 days in a row, not that keen. And I'm quite sick. I went to the doctor and he told me I didn't have the swine flu, which I guess is reassuring...

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 13 May 2009 14:58

Sorry to hear about you breaking up with your girlfriend Dan, but props on doing your routine dropless.

Regarding shred 30, I think it's really good to prepare some fallbacks for when you drop. I did that this year for the first time, and I think it made a big difference. Although I didn't get to put in anywhere near the practice of it I wanted, I wrote down the parts where I dropped the most and identified the two places I was most likely to drop, and then worked out two new shreds for when I drop at those places. They were basically a few easy unique moves back into the original shred. It's very easy to get flustered and to lose your place in a shred 30 when you drop, especially on stage, so having some preparation specifically for drops can be really helpful.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 14 May 2009 14:24

thanks for the advice Jeremy, that's exactly what I've been trying to do, but I seem to drop it on my planned fallbacks as well....practice makes perfect I guess.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 24 May 2009 14:43

had a pretty wild weekend, I went down to Bega with my friend. We drank about a box of goon each, this lead to him sleeping in the streets of Bega and waking up with frost on his face.

The next day we went for a bike ride. I fell over the handlebars into a pile of cowshit.

I played a little footbag whilst I was down there, I hit spinal tap, which I have been trying for a while. I am putting on a jam two weeks from the weekend just gone by. We won't have all that much of a turnout, but it should be a lot of fun.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 01 Jun 2009 04:46

I kicked for the first time in a few days today. Today was a pretty good day. I got a new zine in the mail, it came with a card and everything, was pretty awesome. I also got a new housemate. This other girl was meant to move in on Thursday, but called me up on the day saying she didn't have enough money.

I'm pretty glad though, because she is pretty crazy and would have driven me insane. So I go overseas in about 5 weeks. Pretty amazing to think that. My parents have offered to help me with my rent when I go...I'm pretty excited about that too. That will help me out a LOT. And, I will have somewhere to live when I return.

So anyway, my kick. Not too many highlights, it was pretty cold, so it took me quite some time to warm up. The highlight was the fact that I went and had a kick. My last combo was pixie diving osis>ducking clipper>spinning ducking osis. I was working a little on Sick 3, but mainly struggling. I practiced my routine, just the tricks, no music. I had about 3 drops, but ran through quite smoothly.

So I have the Queens Birthday long weekend coming up this weekend, I'm holding a jam here in Canberra. Haven't got too many people coming down, as it's a very busy time for exams etc, and most players in Australia have some sort of uni commitment.

I have a fair few friends who are keen on just kicking and four square etc. So hopefully I get a bunch of them to come out, and have a round of footbag golf, and just have a bit of a fun weekend. As there was no AGM held at Nationals, we are going to hold it here in Canberra this weekend. That is a bit of a disappointing way to do it, but I have started some discussion on the forums about a few different things. Looks like Nationals will be in Sydney again for next year.

I am starting to formulate plans for next year. I am planning on going on a surfing trip with my Dad to Northern Papua New Guinea. This will be a pretty amazing, though expensive (about $5000). I'm looking at getting a Canadian working visa for next year, they don't seem to be too hard to get. I was thinking of trying to get some kind of volunteer work on the Winter Olympics, maybe with the Australian team or something, but I think I will stick in Australia until Nationals, maybe even live in Sydney for a while. But I like the idea of basing myself in Vancouver for a while, and do some travels around North and South America.

james_dean · Post by **james_dean** » 01 Jun 2009 05:45

Sounds pretty awesome. Got some cool stuff going on! Looks like you've caught the travel bug pretty hardcore...

Pretty excited about America in a few days myself. Only 2 weeks, pretty lame

Hope the jam goes well and you get those people along

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 02 Jun 2009 04:17

The national "youth" radio station, Triple J each year has something called the "Hottest 100". Right now they are doing a "Hottest 100 of all time" to celebrate the occassion of 20 years of hottest 100s.

I haven't voted properly and will probably change my 10, but this is a list I came up with so far.

Machine Head- Davidian
Rage Against The Machine- Bulls On Parade
Eric Clapton- Layla
Radio Birdman- New Race
Midnight Oil- Blue Sky Mine
Led Zeppelin- Whole Lotta Love
Refused- New Noise
Nirvana- Territorial Pissings
Silverchair- Israel's Son
The Police- Message In A Bottle

Have been working night shifts all week at the hostel and then doing tours during the day at the AIS. I'm getting really tired, but I should be paid reasonably handsomely next week. Pretty excited on that front.

boyle · Post by **boyle** » 12 Jun 2009 15:46

from last Sunday it was one month until I leave for Germany, I can't really describe how excited I am about this trip.

Last weekend I had Ian and Kayleigh down from Sydney and Leon up from Melbourne to have a bit of a jam. The weather was incredibly cold, but we got in a bit of kicking, drank lots of beer and had a round of footbag golf. I enjoyed my weekend.

Just before the weekend my new housemate Teigan moved in, she's pretty awesome. I've got to say that things are going much better than I hoped for, and that I really couldn't hope for a better housemate.

So my plan for my overseas trip is as such... I wrote it all out in here a while ago, but then I went to post and the window closed down.

Leave Sydney on 7th July

Sydney>Seoul (catch up with my friend who is teaching English in South Korea)> Frankfurt (free night at the Haus der Jugend)> Karlstadt (stay with my Dad's cousin)> Switzerland (hang out with Flavio)> walk across Liechtenstein (aobut 6km)> couchsurf in Innsbruck and Munich> Worlds in Berlin> a few days in Prage> back to Frankfurt (two more free nights)> back to Sydney via Seoul.

Yesterday I purchased my Eurail pass. I've pretty much got everything now, and I'm working incredible amounts in the next fortnight, I should be sweet for money as well.