Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
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hacksterbator
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boyle
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Had a really good kick with Caroline yesterday. It was straight after work, it was just a fun shred session, I was doing some really nice runs, some would have been 30+ contacts. Hit quite a few stepping ducking tricks, which I don't do so much of.
We compared our bags we got at worlds, between us I think Caroline got 17 and I got 13, so that's 30 new bags for Canberra. I played a bit with a chain mail bag. The first time I played with one I hit fog (that was at worlds last year, first day, probably the best I've ever played).
So afterwards we went to my house, drank some beers, then we went over to a pub to watch the Raiders game. We missed the start so we were listening to the radio commentary. Right as we turned it on, something was described as having "more toe than a roman sandal".
So the raiders were down midway through the first half, but they scored right on half time to make it 14-12, only down by 2 points. Then the Bulldogs didn't score again. The second half involve a lot of applauding a TV screen, there were a couple of long distance tries, which is always something to cheer about.
Then my good friend Ben was having a party, so we went there. There was a mean punch. I drank a whole lot of it. The party itself, it was pretty rubbish actually, but then we went out to Transit, and then some more people were there, it was raging. Home at 4am.
I was waiting in the taxi line with my friend, she was going elsewhere, but said we could split, then the people in front were going to Lyneham too, turns out they lived just the next apartment block over from me. So that was an easy way home.
That was a pretty good night out, which led to a big hangover. Now I'm at work, so you can probably expect to hear about some more Worlds action.
We compared our bags we got at worlds, between us I think Caroline got 17 and I got 13, so that's 30 new bags for Canberra. I played a bit with a chain mail bag. The first time I played with one I hit fog (that was at worlds last year, first day, probably the best I've ever played).
So afterwards we went to my house, drank some beers, then we went over to a pub to watch the Raiders game. We missed the start so we were listening to the radio commentary. Right as we turned it on, something was described as having "more toe than a roman sandal".
So the raiders were down midway through the first half, but they scored right on half time to make it 14-12, only down by 2 points. Then the Bulldogs didn't score again. The second half involve a lot of applauding a TV screen, there were a couple of long distance tries, which is always something to cheer about.
Then my good friend Ben was having a party, so we went there. There was a mean punch. I drank a whole lot of it. The party itself, it was pretty rubbish actually, but then we went out to Transit, and then some more people were there, it was raging. Home at 4am.
I was waiting in the taxi line with my friend, she was going elsewhere, but said we could split, then the people in front were going to Lyneham too, turns out they lived just the next apartment block over from me. So that was an easy way home.
That was a pretty good night out, which led to a big hangover. Now I'm at work, so you can probably expect to hear about some more Worlds action.
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boyle
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Where were we? Always avoid alliteration...
Wednesday I think it was. So I think request competition was on that day too. In between the routine semis and the circle semis there was a bit of a break, so I ate lunch and a couple of beers at the brewery. I kind of forgot that there was a competition for me to be in. I also didn't really care about the request contest, I don't really like it that much.
So I had gone over there with Dale, he runs the Shred Global website, he's what I would describe as a "top bloke". Caroline came with us too. It was a good lunch, though they all kind of blur into one.
I think I ate some sort of chicken based sandwich, which was massive and didn't cost that much and tasted great. At a guess I would say the meal was accompanied by 3 beers.
So we went back over and watched the circles, they were insane really, the level was ridiculous, but I already talked about that.
Request was on straight afterwards. I was in a circle, me and Reid were sharing a bag. I think the first combo was illusion>ss mirage or something like that. I think I got about 6 rounds in. I was really feeling that meal in my tummy, but I carried on. There was one combo, can't remember the other option, but the one I did was rev swirl>ducking butterfly
The combo I dropped on was barfly>spinning mirage. I thought I would be able to do that, I don't have too much trouble with either of those tricks, but even since coming back, I still haven't hit it. The other option was eggbeater>pixie pickup. That was probably an easier combo for most people, but my flip of each is really bad and neither linked up for me. So I was out, then everyone gives you a cheer because you lost. Footbag has weird timing for applause.
So afterwards, Clavens and Ken were giving tutorials. It was a great idea, but I was just overloaded on Footbag for the day, and really tired of being in that room under the fluorescent lights where we seemed to spend almost every waking hour. It would have been great to attend these workshops, but I was just about to fall asleep, so I went up to the pool and had a swim.
This was a masterstroke by me. Sure, I didn't learn from the masters, but I went from being about to fall asleep, to feeling alive. It was quite cold in the pool and there was no one else in, it was just what I was after. Spending 24 hours a day with people, it's nice to just get out of that for a while.
Phil Morrison came by the pool for a little while, and I talked to him about coming out for nationals next year. Hopefully we can get a sponsor or something to get him out here, but I would also be quite willing to use my own money to fly some top quality players to our tournament.
Sure it was nice to win nationals this year (tbqh you may say I was "farken stoked" or some other Aussie-ism.), however it's an understatement to say the field was "limited". Look at the last year, we had 2 players who had been in the top 10 at Worlds in Prague.
I think also, a long time ago, for nationals they flew out Ales, flights were super expensive back then, it must have been a few thousand dollars for that. It's much better to target those in the closer areas, I think to get Phil and Takumi, maybe even Taishi too. Flights these days are so cheap as well, if we play the cards right, it won't cost much at all.
I think if we ever want to have a serious tournament...someday we could do worlds in Australia, but we're still a long time away. If we wanted to do it, we'd need government funding, and to plan years in advance I think. The first thing we need to do is be able to attract the top players. It's easy to attract them if you pay their ticket.
I floated the idea of an Aussie worlds with a few people, everyone I talked to really liked the idea actually, it's just a money thing. Maybe within the next couple of years we can do something, some sort of international event, an "invitational" or something.
People have this idea of Australia in their mind, this sun soaked, barbeque land. Then I told them, yeah, it's probably -2 at the moment
So anyway, there's a lot of text here, and I've gone of topic a bit. Let's talk about Oakland...
Wednesday I think it was. So I think request competition was on that day too. In between the routine semis and the circle semis there was a bit of a break, so I ate lunch and a couple of beers at the brewery. I kind of forgot that there was a competition for me to be in. I also didn't really care about the request contest, I don't really like it that much.
So I had gone over there with Dale, he runs the Shred Global website, he's what I would describe as a "top bloke". Caroline came with us too. It was a good lunch, though they all kind of blur into one.
I think I ate some sort of chicken based sandwich, which was massive and didn't cost that much and tasted great. At a guess I would say the meal was accompanied by 3 beers.
So we went back over and watched the circles, they were insane really, the level was ridiculous, but I already talked about that.
Request was on straight afterwards. I was in a circle, me and Reid were sharing a bag. I think the first combo was illusion>ss mirage or something like that. I think I got about 6 rounds in. I was really feeling that meal in my tummy, but I carried on. There was one combo, can't remember the other option, but the one I did was rev swirl>ducking butterfly
The combo I dropped on was barfly>spinning mirage. I thought I would be able to do that, I don't have too much trouble with either of those tricks, but even since coming back, I still haven't hit it. The other option was eggbeater>pixie pickup. That was probably an easier combo for most people, but my flip of each is really bad and neither linked up for me. So I was out, then everyone gives you a cheer because you lost. Footbag has weird timing for applause.
So afterwards, Clavens and Ken were giving tutorials. It was a great idea, but I was just overloaded on Footbag for the day, and really tired of being in that room under the fluorescent lights where we seemed to spend almost every waking hour. It would have been great to attend these workshops, but I was just about to fall asleep, so I went up to the pool and had a swim.
This was a masterstroke by me. Sure, I didn't learn from the masters, but I went from being about to fall asleep, to feeling alive. It was quite cold in the pool and there was no one else in, it was just what I was after. Spending 24 hours a day with people, it's nice to just get out of that for a while.
Phil Morrison came by the pool for a little while, and I talked to him about coming out for nationals next year. Hopefully we can get a sponsor or something to get him out here, but I would also be quite willing to use my own money to fly some top quality players to our tournament.
Sure it was nice to win nationals this year (tbqh you may say I was "farken stoked" or some other Aussie-ism.), however it's an understatement to say the field was "limited". Look at the last year, we had 2 players who had been in the top 10 at Worlds in Prague.
I think also, a long time ago, for nationals they flew out Ales, flights were super expensive back then, it must have been a few thousand dollars for that. It's much better to target those in the closer areas, I think to get Phil and Takumi, maybe even Taishi too. Flights these days are so cheap as well, if we play the cards right, it won't cost much at all.
I think if we ever want to have a serious tournament...someday we could do worlds in Australia, but we're still a long time away. If we wanted to do it, we'd need government funding, and to plan years in advance I think. The first thing we need to do is be able to attract the top players. It's easy to attract them if you pay their ticket.
I floated the idea of an Aussie worlds with a few people, everyone I talked to really liked the idea actually, it's just a money thing. Maybe within the next couple of years we can do something, some sort of international event, an "invitational" or something.
People have this idea of Australia in their mind, this sun soaked, barbeque land. Then I told them, yeah, it's probably -2 at the moment
So anyway, there's a lot of text here, and I've gone of topic a bit. Let's talk about Oakland...
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PoisonTaffy
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A day after my post I felt like I overreacted over something I didn't know the context of, and it was pretty much inappropriate. I'm glad it didn't ricochet.
BTW I told your routine story to a friend and she was like
I can't believe they fucked him over so bad. When retelling it I totally got why you justly got so angry.
BTW I told your routine story to a friend and she was like
I can't believe they fucked him over so bad. When retelling it I totally got why you justly got so angry."Childhood is short, immaturity is forever"
Roy Klein
Roy Klein
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boyle
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I wrote a masterpiece last night, well enough words for a masterpiece anyway.
Something happened and I lost my whole post. I was using a computer at work which only has a super outdated version of IE, I was quite peeved at that.
Working in the evenings for the next three nights, I'd say I should get my writeups complete by the end of the week.
It'd be just like that episode of black books where they write the childrens book, then decide, they won't be able to handle the fame and it must be destroyed.
Something happened and I lost my whole post. I was using a computer at work which only has a super outdated version of IE, I was quite peeved at that.
Working in the evenings for the next three nights, I'd say I should get my writeups complete by the end of the week.
It'd be just like that episode of black books where they write the childrens book, then decide, they won't be able to handle the fame and it must be destroyed.
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boyle
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Let's go back to the Marriott in sunny Calllllllliifornia.
So where were we? We were in the pool I think. So I finished in there. The last post I tried to make, it must have clocked in at over a thousand words, so don't know if I'll be able to describe all the action again, but let's see.
So I went from the pool, up to my room, then went to check some emails or something. Then Dale told me he was in the hotel bar, so I met with him. The hotel bar was sure no PCB, I'll tell you that much. But I guess a change is as good as a holiday, or at least that's what they tell you.
So we went upstairs to put our computers and things away, next stop was going to be the Smart & Final for some beers. So we went into my room and he claimed I had a bigger room, he may be right, but I think the case was that we had smaller beds.
So waiting for the lift, Lon Smith comes by with a soccerball. We were having a bit of a kick around in the hallway, I hit ducking clipper and Lon gave me props. I was wearing jeans as well.
So we went over to the supermarket, got some 12 for $12 heinneken cans, Caroline was in there too, she got some enormous bottle of Jack Daniel's, like 2 litres or something, then we all headed over to the shred area. It was great we could use that area at all times.
So a poker game was happening, there were a lot of people involved, so another poker circle spread from the table to the floor. I really dislike poker, but I thought I should at least get in one round at worlds, and maybe I could make some big bucks.
So sure enough, I must have been the first person out. I saw a circle I wanted to get involved in, and I told Marco to take my turn, soon after he told me it was all over. I didn't care though, I was glad I didn't have to go back.
So I think I was actually kicking around a soccerball with some others at this stage. Ben Kellman had one, he does demos for a Major League Soccer team. That would be a nice little earner I think.
I should get better at freestyle football and become rich.
I had a bit of a chat with Honza about freestyle football. He was saying he's organising the first Euros. It seems weird that they don't have these histories of competitions like Footbag does. It's not like freestyle football is a new thing. They only had the first Australian championships last year. So of course, they had thousands of people in the crowd and it was on TV. It's a different world, that's for sure.
I was talking to Honza about how he plays, and he was saying these days he's aiming to play a lot more for fun, have enjoyment as the number one priority.
From the freestyle football circle, I somehow ended up in a game of "beer pong". Now that's an American experience. I'd never played before, I guess it showed.
It was me and Armin (team Austrialia) vs Barrett and Sunny. I think we now know how Barrett spent his time at college. He was shooting sharply, and seemed to have a profound knowledge of various rules of the game.
So anyway, we lost to zero, which according to the games, results in a naked lap. At first I'm like, no way, get stuffed. So anyway, then I said..."well I've got my shred shorts on underneath my jeans, I'll run around in them".
So Armin was in his jocks, and I've gone to my shorts, and said "let's go, it's a race" and we headed around the net courts. So I get about halfway, I decide that I should be doing it the real deal, and off come the shorts. I think in a smart move, I carried them, so I wouldn't have to go back and do another lap once I finished.
So anyway, I got to the end, and everyone cheers, because nobody really does the lap.
So we were at the bottom. We were the losers, we needed redemption.
So we were in a battle, some may like to call it a losers challenge. We were up against Anssi and Linda. So this game started off differently, my first...I guess you'll call it a serve, I went for a bounce pass. You get two cups down if you do one of these. I didn't get it in, but it caught them off guard.
So my next throw, it went straight in, a direct hit. There would be no nude running from me this time around. Next up I had another goal and we were looking good.
So things started going well in this match. I went to throw a bounch pass, it went so far away from the target it wasn't funny...then hit Anssi's shoe, and went into the cup. Goooallll. That's a two pointer as well.
Sorry for the mixed terminoliges, I can't say I know the correct terms for beer pong. I think from the actions I've used, we could have a mix of cricket, baseball, tennis and soccer. Rather than the more aimless activity of trying to get a ball into a cup.
So we got down to shooting for one, I think Armin made the throw, it went astray, but Linda has batted it away, on the full, that's our point. Our rules guru Barrett was in to bat for us on that one.
The precedent had been set, down to nothing meant that you went down to nothing.
So they have a round at redemption, The Accelerator throws like a girl...you may say he had ulterior motives...Linda is a girl so her throw was even worse, we win.
We had lived The American Dream. We went from the bottom and now we were at the top. And Anssi was off for the sprint, no clothes. You would have thought he was heading towards the nearest sauna. He was definitely doing it truly "in ze Scandinavian style". As he said later, everything he knows about English and America, he knows from the Simpsons.
So anyway, back at the scene, everyone's waiting for Linda to do the run. In the end she did the run in her undies to resounding cheers. Not really the first thing I would expect at a footbag tournament....
So anyway, me and Armin combined our beers into a more easy to drink one cup apiece, and wandered back into the main room. I joined into a shred circle, I think Ryan was in it, then maybe some of the Canadian guys. Dante and co maybe. I really don't remember, it was a while ago.
So I started off slowly, as I had drunk a large number of beers, but I started to warm to playing. Some way through I hit food processor, to say the least I was suprised.
So I asked someone to give me a challenge, they said ducking drifter, I didn't hit but I came close. Instead of drinking water through the circle, I had a nearby supply of more beer.
So I couldn't hit the challenge but I decided I needed to finish on a winning note, the trick I hit was locomotion....not such a bad session for the condition I was in at the time...
So on that note, I said I was going to bed. Walking back there was a bit of a freestyle football circle happening, I joined in that for a little while. I hit DATW with the big ball, and decided that my night had been a success and that now it really was time for bed.
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boyle
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So we must be up to Thursday.
This was the first time I actually went into San Francisco.
In no surprise, I slept in, I think I woke up around 11 or so. I got $20 for the BART because I knew that I would have to at the very least, catch a train back to SFO to go home.
So I got off at the Embarcedeno BART. I was by myself, I think I had a map...I got one from the BART station, but I didn't really know where I was going.
I was really hungry so I went to a burrito place..la salsa. Disappointingly it was some kind of chain place. The burrito I had was ok, nothing to write home about though. I wanted one to write home about.
I didn't really have a plan, so I wandered. I had heard good things about the Haight district, so I headed in that direction, which turned out to be quite a long way away. I think I took another train a couple of stations down, and after getting a bit lost, got onto Haight St.
There were some record stores and some cool bookstores, I went to one, I think it's called Bound Together..I made some good pickups there, they sold a bunch of zines and stuff as well. I got one called "Raider Nation" which is all about the discrimination of the police to non white people in Oakland, police shootings etc. It was a bit full on.
I went up to Buena Vista park, it was a surprise to see this big hill right in the middle of the city, but it was a nice walk, a bit steeper than I expected. I was actually quite sore after all my walking.
I went by bus to get back to a BART station. I was thinking how it had been a nice day to just be away from Footbag for a little while, then Jon Schneider was in a seat a couple of rows away.
We had a good chat and got back in time for the beginning of Shred 30. After my disastrous routine, the last thing I cared about was the rest of the competition. I have always said that routines is my main event, the rest is just a little bit extra.
So with my sore legs, I started warming up. I'm not sure what score I got, but I think it was below my expectations, just like the rest of my championships. It went "ok" though, it wasn't terrible, I did drop phoenix and spinning ducking osis right at the end of the 30 seconds, which was more annoying than anything.
Not sure what I did after that, think I just went to read some of my new purchases. I was also reading "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (Hemmingway) before I came over, and I finally finished it on the plane...I must have started reading that quite a few months ago. Actually, come to think of it, I bought it the day before going to Nationals this year. So I've had that one going for 4 months or so.
I went back down to the playing area to see what was happening, Marco was talking about this place which sold IPAs, which the Smart & Final did not...so we headed down there, it was a couple of blocks away.
It was also a place where people could cash in food stamps. On the way back we talked about how terrible the US social security system is. In Australia or Germany, sure there are some bums on the streets, but they're not absolutely everywhere, and they have options. It seems in the US, if you're at the bottom, you don't live The American Dream.
It's funny actually, I didn't see much of my roomies the whole time I was around. Well, you saw them, they were around, but I didn't really have in-depth chats so much. They were all good guys though. It was a good room to be in.
So I bought some beers, but I didn't really feel like drinking them straight away, so I took them up to my room. I came downstairs and hung out for a little while, but I just wasn't into it that night.
It was a comparatively early night, I think I was done by midnight.
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boyle
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Friday on my mind...
So the competitive events were quickly coming to a close.
I think I did some laundry this day, this was a good idea as it meant I was coming back with clean clothes, rather than a bag of dirty washing.
Genvieve (no idea on the spelling on that one), the star of net...she was doing her washing...even the champs have to do their own washing in Footbag.
So I came out and on that little wooden platform by the pool, Marco was filming Anssi doing some tricks with this enormous red bag. Later on I was looking at him continuing from my window. I would look out the window and say to Ryan "Anssi just hit nemesis" etc.
I think I went over to the Brewery by myself for lunch. I got a hamburger there, that wasn't as good as the other meals, and I was just a bit over it. I should have gone somewhere else for that meal.
Actually that morning I took a bit of a wander around Oakland, there was a farmers market on the street just in front of the brewery which happens every Friday, I think that's pretty good for a city, they block of the street every week for sellers of fruit. I had a couple of samples of fruit but I didn't buy anything.
I walked past some kind of theatre place and saw that Crystal Castles were playing. I hadn't heard their music but I'd heard the name before....more on that later.
I didn't have any particular aim (or a map), but it seemed I was just headed in the direction of nothingness. In some places I'd see some weirdo on the street, only for a worse specimen to be on the other side of the road, so I'd cross back over. Oakland is not a place I plan on revisiting, I'll tell you that much.
After lunch I headed for the pool, there were a bunch of people around, we were splashing around, doing some kicks with this little ball Caroline had brought and other stupid things. Diving in whilst posing for a photo, just relaxing and having fun. It was nice that the finals didn't start until later, it gave people a chance to relax.
I might wait until tomorrow to do a finals writeup, I've written a lot for the evening.
So the competitive events were quickly coming to a close.
I think I did some laundry this day, this was a good idea as it meant I was coming back with clean clothes, rather than a bag of dirty washing.
Genvieve (no idea on the spelling on that one), the star of net...she was doing her washing...even the champs have to do their own washing in Footbag.
So I came out and on that little wooden platform by the pool, Marco was filming Anssi doing some tricks with this enormous red bag. Later on I was looking at him continuing from my window. I would look out the window and say to Ryan "Anssi just hit nemesis" etc.
I think I went over to the Brewery by myself for lunch. I got a hamburger there, that wasn't as good as the other meals, and I was just a bit over it. I should have gone somewhere else for that meal.
Actually that morning I took a bit of a wander around Oakland, there was a farmers market on the street just in front of the brewery which happens every Friday, I think that's pretty good for a city, they block of the street every week for sellers of fruit. I had a couple of samples of fruit but I didn't buy anything.
I walked past some kind of theatre place and saw that Crystal Castles were playing. I hadn't heard their music but I'd heard the name before....more on that later.
I didn't have any particular aim (or a map), but it seemed I was just headed in the direction of nothingness. In some places I'd see some weirdo on the street, only for a worse specimen to be on the other side of the road, so I'd cross back over. Oakland is not a place I plan on revisiting, I'll tell you that much.
After lunch I headed for the pool, there were a bunch of people around, we were splashing around, doing some kicks with this little ball Caroline had brought and other stupid things. Diving in whilst posing for a photo, just relaxing and having fun. It was nice that the finals didn't start until later, it gave people a chance to relax.
I might wait until tomorrow to do a finals writeup, I've written a lot for the evening.
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boyle
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The results from Worlds are on Footbag.org
http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1265745512
I ended up getting 106.5 in Shred 30. It's not as much as I was hoping for, but that's only the third time I've scored over 100 in Shred I think...maybe the 4th, I don't know what my score was at last year's nationals, but it was probably not over 100, I think it might have been 90 something.
So anyway...I feel I underperformed to my expectations, but I'm also looking at the fact that my expectations seem to have been too high.
So today I had a session. In the last week I have been looking at the worst parts of my game, and trying to make them better. Today was my flip whirl, which is probably the least reliable part of my game.
So I worked on improving the actual trick, doing handcatch>whirl>catch, seeing how many I could do out of 10. Come to think of it I didn't get 10 of any of them. I got a couple of 9s.
I think the most whirls I did in a row was 4 on that side. It's really quite an issue, it's going to need much more than one session.
I started to work on doing tricks into or out of whirl. I think this will build my confidence on the trick, I was hitting things like whirl>barfly, ripwalk>whirl rpt, whirl>osis rpt
Overall it ended up being a reasonably successful session in the end. I'm still not great at whirl, but I think things will improve.
I did a couple of longer strings at the end, which felt nice after dropping it so many times on the whirl tricks.[/quote]
http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1265745512
I ended up getting 106.5 in Shred 30. It's not as much as I was hoping for, but that's only the third time I've scored over 100 in Shred I think...maybe the 4th, I don't know what my score was at last year's nationals, but it was probably not over 100, I think it might have been 90 something.
So anyway...I feel I underperformed to my expectations, but I'm also looking at the fact that my expectations seem to have been too high.
So today I had a session. In the last week I have been looking at the worst parts of my game, and trying to make them better. Today was my flip whirl, which is probably the least reliable part of my game.
So I worked on improving the actual trick, doing handcatch>whirl>catch, seeing how many I could do out of 10. Come to think of it I didn't get 10 of any of them. I got a couple of 9s.
I think the most whirls I did in a row was 4 on that side. It's really quite an issue, it's going to need much more than one session.
I started to work on doing tricks into or out of whirl. I think this will build my confidence on the trick, I was hitting things like whirl>barfly, ripwalk>whirl rpt, whirl>osis rpt
Overall it ended up being a reasonably successful session in the end. I'm still not great at whirl, but I think things will improve.
I did a couple of longer strings at the end, which felt nice after dropping it so many times on the whirl tricks.[/quote]
maybe I shouldn't try to update from work.-
boyle
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Have worked a few tours at the AIS on the last few days. I have been doing demos for the kids and they have been loving it. Everyone keeps asking for my autograph, which after a while, believe it or not, becomes tiresome, when you are not at all famous.
I hit a couple of things today, I hit that stupid combo from the request (finally) barfly>spinning mirage. I also hit the combo I was working on the other day- fairy muted clipper>vortex.
I am working til midnight tonight. That's still a long, long way away. Should get my worlds writeup complete by then.
I hit a couple of things today, I hit that stupid combo from the request (finally) barfly>spinning mirage. I also hit the combo I was working on the other day- fairy muted clipper>vortex.
I am working til midnight tonight. That's still a long, long way away. Should get my worlds writeup complete by then.
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boyle
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- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
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Ok, let's talk finals.
I've been hoping to see more and more blogs on Worlds, but the constant refresh doesn't bring up much.
Ken's Worlds writeups are always awesome, but he's got a busy life on at the moment, I want to read the next edition already!
So anyway, I went down to the shred area, that room that had captivated us for the past week. I decided to get a good place for the finals, so I sat down the front, just outside the perimeter that had been marked off. In the end I was sitting with Anssi and Tuukka. Good preparation for a Finnish worlds, although that might be off the cards now, I'm still planning on going to Finland next year.
So I think the first even was the Open Doubles. I mixed the mixed doubles the night before, but it was probably even more surprising than Vasek not winning, was Wiktor and Gosia, the newlyweds, not winning the mixed doubles.
So anyway, there were only 3 teams this year. It was Damian/Norek, Wiktor/Gosia and the Ostrowski brothers. So it was going to be Poland 1-2-3 no matter what.
Vasek and Honza were also registered, but they scratched, which was a little disappointing.
Damian and Norek are both incredible players, so it was interesting to see them in the doubles. They had some pretty simple doubles crossovers to beging with, but the highlight of their routine was the synchro stuff. I don't remember the exact combos, but I think there were things like synchros janiwalkers and that type of thing in there.
In the end though, they had quite a few drops, it was still really cool though.
Wiktor and Gosia always have this really dramatic style, it is much more like figure skating or rythmic gymnastics, it's much more choreographed, a lot more than shredding to music.
The brothers O, they may have done the same routine as Worlds last year, I'm not sure. I remember the part last year, where there was a gunshot in the music, so one player fell down, then another gunshot, other player down, then they did some work on the ground.
They had a lot of drops though, which was really disappointing, they really had a great routine last year.
So in the end, it was the newlyweds, Debski and Debska (which all the announcers continually mixed up), it was them taking out the prize.
So Peter Irish was on the mic for the finals, in between each event, he would do some kind of juggling stuff, to impress the crowd, but really, what crowd. Looking at some of the videos now, it seems there were more not-footbaggers than I thought, but especially at the beginning, it just seemed like the same guys that were there all week.
When the events begun, the net game hadn't finished yet. For some reason, there were only enough of these bleacher style seats for either the net, or the freestyle, but both events were scheduled for the same time. I think the net game went longer than expected, each night they seemed to play on a lot long than expected, the games wouldn't finish til 11 or midnight.
So anyway, the finals kicked off with the crowd sitting on the floor. After the doubles, I think it was women's. Tina won with a one drop routine. No surprises there, although I would say she'd be disappointed to drop it.
Hania had a routine to this really creepy music from Alice In Wonderland, from the new movie, that song was pretty intense. She played quite well in the finals, to take second place. Tanja was in 3rd, that's a player who's going to be GREAT in the future. Her first round routine, she only had one drop, but this one she had a few more.
The most disappointing number from this worlds was somehow the women's field dropped from 22 to 8. Only 2 competitors from the USA. Pick up your game USA. Speaking of other players who are going to be awesome, Taylor is getting really good too. She has a good style.
So the intermediate routines were the next event. There wasn't much time between events, just a small little juggling show from Peter Irish, then onto the next event.
I think there were only 5 in the intermediate, but it came down to a two man battle really, second seed was one of the many Team Japan, they came out well and represented hard, also the nicest guys. I can't remember this guy's name...Hiroshi I think it might have been, but he did a great routine. It was some kind of marching kind of song, and he had a whole lot of marching on the spot added into his routine. Lots of cool cues, and the traditional style Japanese bow to the crowd at the beginning and the end. ily Team Japan. The other contender was the top seed, Nathan Deschamps from Canada. His first round routine was much better than mine (not saying much) and he was hitting some really hard stuff over the week of the tournament. Probably too hard to be going in intermediate. He dropped early on, and I think that did his confidence no good, he ended up in second place.
31st World Footbag Championships- Finals
Without further ado, into the finals we go, the main event, what you've all been waiting for.
First up, Milan Benda.
I guess we're looking at the results from the pools, because if they looked at any other tournament results from this year, there's no way Milan would have been the lowest seed.
So he did the same routine he did in the earlier rounds, it starts of with this 1920s style music or something, it turns out to be that song "All That Jazz".
With some of these European players, you really wonder...how did they find this song? Do they enjoy listening to this, is this what they listen to every day?
So anyway, he started out at a pretty fast pace, a lot of shuffle stuff which was kind of on the beat, then he'd have a knee bump or something right on the beat, right through the routine there's really hard tricks. You've probably seen it on video, so I'll just say he hit ripstein early on and the final trick was stepping whirling swirl and it was dropless.
My first thought was actually "he just won" but I managed to convince myself out of that, right up until it was announced that he won.
So I think Gordon Bevier was up next. He was in my pool, I had some pretty tough contenders in my pool, but I think it was about the same as last year. Last year was probably worse.
This year: Bevier, Marcin, Michal Ostrowski, Taishi, me
Last year: Marcin, Anssi, Rafal, TJ, me, Armin
about the same really come to look at it.
So I think Gordon's execution on his finals routine was really poor. I think he was feeling the pressure that a lot of people thought that Marcin's routine was better than his. I'm not sure about that, maybe it was just the whole "worlds finals" thing, but as I said before, it was mainly just the same people has the rest of the week watching.
So he had lots of drops and was not going to come into calculations.
Sorry, Damian was actually before him. The seeding really needs to look at previous competitions. It's a joke that Milan and Damian are the bottom seeds in the final. So anyway, Damian's routine was sick, but he dropped on a DATW I think. That was going to cost him.
So Bevier, then Penske. Penske's was good, he had some drops, but I think even dropless, it wasn't quite enough to take it out. I really don't remember it actually, I haven't seen it on video, it was pretty good, but for a start it didn't match the bottom seeds, so why take it into consideration.
The 5th seed (waddya mean) was Vasek. Although it was a reasonably strong routine, just as in Euros, he had a drop where he kicked it away, and didn't seem in such a hurry to pick the bag back up and get straight back into the routine. Still pretty good, but that wasn't the championship routine.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66N6XB59gnU[/youtube]
For my mind, Milan was still in the lead, though the Finns thought Damian would be up. I thought the drop was really going to cost him though, and I think he had a couple of slight mistakes mid routine.
So 4 to go. I think Norek was next, or maybe Nick. Norek had a lot of difficulty to some classical song. I remember my friend Dan Smiley after coming to Berlin "urgh, I'm so sick of these Polish guys and their stupid classical songs"
So he had some drops, basically a drop sent you plummeting down the order.
So we'd seen Nick beat out favourite no 1 and favourite no 2 in the semi finals with that amazing dropless routine, could he do it again? He just needs to not drop it. So he dropped within the first 3 contacts, and that was it.
Pressure's on.
Nick had said when we went for lunch a few days before that was the first time he'd ever done a dropless routine, so I think it would have been a big surprise for him to pull it off again.
Still, for all these guys, it's a big deal to be in the finals at all. So we've got two to go, Honza comese out, I've probably got all this order wrong. Here's the man the TAB would have had my money if they let you gamble on Footbag, although I guess I'd have to withdraw from the competition otherwise I'd be accused of some kind of insider trading.
So Honza, I thought he had great choreography, but he had that killer drop. I felt he was so due for a title. So many seconds, and this year, he finally had a Euros worthy winning routine, but Clavens comes along to win.
Speaking of, there was one competitior left. So all the cards were on the tables, but really, David had shown his hand already, he was using the saem Ke$ha song as the semis and the Euros routine as well.
Here's his semis routine. I didn't really film much during the finals, I wanted to watch the show.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqLkjFRM0fE[/youtube]
Unfortunately from watching the Euros video quite regularly, it seems I've learnt all the words. What a terrible song. So he did the routine just the same has he had before, super professionally, no drops, no worries. The question was though, was that better than Milan's, all that time ago. Would some of the other players come into contention?
So the judges are scribbling away and it comes to the main computer for tabulation. It was unfortunate there was no live feed this year, I thought that was an awesome aspect of Berlin, especially the Aussie players having parties and watching it at 3am.
So anyway, this was a real lowlight I thought, the scores are being computed, and all the players are gathered around the desk, trying to find out their scores. This should not be on at all, there's every chance of a player trying to pressure the scorekeeper into giving them a better score.
So anyway, reading the body language, Milan looks really unhappy, I say to someone, Milan hasn't won, he looks cut. So eventually all these players have been shoo-ed away, and the scores can be finalised.
Peter Irish reads out the results: Bevier, Landes, Penske, Norek, Vasek, Honza, 3rd DAMIAN GIELNICKI 2nd DAVID CLAVENS, new world champion MILLLLAAAAANNN BEEEENNNDDDAAA.
Just before that moment, he had a different look to before, he looked absolutely -on top of the world- (sorry). Like maybe he had just won an important event, such as the World Championships. Chris Ott came and shook his hand, that signalled what was happening.
So it was all over. People went different ways to get dinner etc, I ended up going to the hotel bar with Tuukka, I got a pizza and he got a hamburger. It was pretty expensive and took approximately one hundred years to come. While we were waiting this other guy gave us his unwanted pizza, which was weird but awesome because I was really hungry.
So once I food finally came, we went down to watch the net. It was just beginning, the Finnish guy was up against Flo from Germany. Tuukka was yelling encouragement and advice to him in Finnish.
I watched the first set, then Tuukka said there was going to be some good shred coming right up ft. Norek and Honza. I thought that was pretty exciting, so I went to have a look and was also thinking urgh too much pizza.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Dga4jqSvA[/youtube]
I've been hoping to see more and more blogs on Worlds, but the constant refresh doesn't bring up much.
Ken's Worlds writeups are always awesome, but he's got a busy life on at the moment, I want to read the next edition already!
So anyway, I went down to the shred area, that room that had captivated us for the past week. I decided to get a good place for the finals, so I sat down the front, just outside the perimeter that had been marked off. In the end I was sitting with Anssi and Tuukka. Good preparation for a Finnish worlds, although that might be off the cards now, I'm still planning on going to Finland next year.
So I think the first even was the Open Doubles. I mixed the mixed doubles the night before, but it was probably even more surprising than Vasek not winning, was Wiktor and Gosia, the newlyweds, not winning the mixed doubles.
So anyway, there were only 3 teams this year. It was Damian/Norek, Wiktor/Gosia and the Ostrowski brothers. So it was going to be Poland 1-2-3 no matter what.
Vasek and Honza were also registered, but they scratched, which was a little disappointing.
Damian and Norek are both incredible players, so it was interesting to see them in the doubles. They had some pretty simple doubles crossovers to beging with, but the highlight of their routine was the synchro stuff. I don't remember the exact combos, but I think there were things like synchros janiwalkers and that type of thing in there.
In the end though, they had quite a few drops, it was still really cool though.
Wiktor and Gosia always have this really dramatic style, it is much more like figure skating or rythmic gymnastics, it's much more choreographed, a lot more than shredding to music.
The brothers O, they may have done the same routine as Worlds last year, I'm not sure. I remember the part last year, where there was a gunshot in the music, so one player fell down, then another gunshot, other player down, then they did some work on the ground.
They had a lot of drops though, which was really disappointing, they really had a great routine last year.
So in the end, it was the newlyweds, Debski and Debska (which all the announcers continually mixed up), it was them taking out the prize.
So Peter Irish was on the mic for the finals, in between each event, he would do some kind of juggling stuff, to impress the crowd, but really, what crowd. Looking at some of the videos now, it seems there were more not-footbaggers than I thought, but especially at the beginning, it just seemed like the same guys that were there all week.
When the events begun, the net game hadn't finished yet. For some reason, there were only enough of these bleacher style seats for either the net, or the freestyle, but both events were scheduled for the same time. I think the net game went longer than expected, each night they seemed to play on a lot long than expected, the games wouldn't finish til 11 or midnight.
So anyway, the finals kicked off with the crowd sitting on the floor. After the doubles, I think it was women's. Tina won with a one drop routine. No surprises there, although I would say she'd be disappointed to drop it.
Hania had a routine to this really creepy music from Alice In Wonderland, from the new movie, that song was pretty intense. She played quite well in the finals, to take second place. Tanja was in 3rd, that's a player who's going to be GREAT in the future. Her first round routine, she only had one drop, but this one she had a few more.
The most disappointing number from this worlds was somehow the women's field dropped from 22 to 8. Only 2 competitors from the USA. Pick up your game USA. Speaking of other players who are going to be awesome, Taylor is getting really good too. She has a good style.
So the intermediate routines were the next event. There wasn't much time between events, just a small little juggling show from Peter Irish, then onto the next event.
I think there were only 5 in the intermediate, but it came down to a two man battle really, second seed was one of the many Team Japan, they came out well and represented hard, also the nicest guys. I can't remember this guy's name...Hiroshi I think it might have been, but he did a great routine. It was some kind of marching kind of song, and he had a whole lot of marching on the spot added into his routine. Lots of cool cues, and the traditional style Japanese bow to the crowd at the beginning and the end. ily Team Japan. The other contender was the top seed, Nathan Deschamps from Canada. His first round routine was much better than mine (not saying much) and he was hitting some really hard stuff over the week of the tournament. Probably too hard to be going in intermediate. He dropped early on, and I think that did his confidence no good, he ended up in second place.
31st World Footbag Championships- Finals
Without further ado, into the finals we go, the main event, what you've all been waiting for.
First up, Milan Benda.
I guess we're looking at the results from the pools, because if they looked at any other tournament results from this year, there's no way Milan would have been the lowest seed.
So he did the same routine he did in the earlier rounds, it starts of with this 1920s style music or something, it turns out to be that song "All That Jazz".
With some of these European players, you really wonder...how did they find this song? Do they enjoy listening to this, is this what they listen to every day?
So anyway, he started out at a pretty fast pace, a lot of shuffle stuff which was kind of on the beat, then he'd have a knee bump or something right on the beat, right through the routine there's really hard tricks. You've probably seen it on video, so I'll just say he hit ripstein early on and the final trick was stepping whirling swirl and it was dropless.
My first thought was actually "he just won" but I managed to convince myself out of that, right up until it was announced that he won.
So I think Gordon Bevier was up next. He was in my pool, I had some pretty tough contenders in my pool, but I think it was about the same as last year. Last year was probably worse.
This year: Bevier, Marcin, Michal Ostrowski, Taishi, me
Last year: Marcin, Anssi, Rafal, TJ, me, Armin
about the same really come to look at it.
So I think Gordon's execution on his finals routine was really poor. I think he was feeling the pressure that a lot of people thought that Marcin's routine was better than his. I'm not sure about that, maybe it was just the whole "worlds finals" thing, but as I said before, it was mainly just the same people has the rest of the week watching.
So he had lots of drops and was not going to come into calculations.
Sorry, Damian was actually before him. The seeding really needs to look at previous competitions. It's a joke that Milan and Damian are the bottom seeds in the final. So anyway, Damian's routine was sick, but he dropped on a DATW I think. That was going to cost him.
So Bevier, then Penske. Penske's was good, he had some drops, but I think even dropless, it wasn't quite enough to take it out. I really don't remember it actually, I haven't seen it on video, it was pretty good, but for a start it didn't match the bottom seeds, so why take it into consideration.
The 5th seed (waddya mean) was Vasek. Although it was a reasonably strong routine, just as in Euros, he had a drop where he kicked it away, and didn't seem in such a hurry to pick the bag back up and get straight back into the routine. Still pretty good, but that wasn't the championship routine.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66N6XB59gnU[/youtube]
For my mind, Milan was still in the lead, though the Finns thought Damian would be up. I thought the drop was really going to cost him though, and I think he had a couple of slight mistakes mid routine.
So 4 to go. I think Norek was next, or maybe Nick. Norek had a lot of difficulty to some classical song. I remember my friend Dan Smiley after coming to Berlin "urgh, I'm so sick of these Polish guys and their stupid classical songs"
So he had some drops, basically a drop sent you plummeting down the order.
So we'd seen Nick beat out favourite no 1 and favourite no 2 in the semi finals with that amazing dropless routine, could he do it again? He just needs to not drop it. So he dropped within the first 3 contacts, and that was it.
Pressure's on.
Nick had said when we went for lunch a few days before that was the first time he'd ever done a dropless routine, so I think it would have been a big surprise for him to pull it off again.
Still, for all these guys, it's a big deal to be in the finals at all. So we've got two to go, Honza comese out, I've probably got all this order wrong. Here's the man the TAB would have had my money if they let you gamble on Footbag, although I guess I'd have to withdraw from the competition otherwise I'd be accused of some kind of insider trading.
So Honza, I thought he had great choreography, but he had that killer drop. I felt he was so due for a title. So many seconds, and this year, he finally had a Euros worthy winning routine, but Clavens comes along to win.
Speaking of, there was one competitior left. So all the cards were on the tables, but really, David had shown his hand already, he was using the saem Ke$ha song as the semis and the Euros routine as well.
Here's his semis routine. I didn't really film much during the finals, I wanted to watch the show.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqLkjFRM0fE[/youtube]
Unfortunately from watching the Euros video quite regularly, it seems I've learnt all the words. What a terrible song. So he did the routine just the same has he had before, super professionally, no drops, no worries. The question was though, was that better than Milan's, all that time ago. Would some of the other players come into contention?
So the judges are scribbling away and it comes to the main computer for tabulation. It was unfortunate there was no live feed this year, I thought that was an awesome aspect of Berlin, especially the Aussie players having parties and watching it at 3am.
So anyway, this was a real lowlight I thought, the scores are being computed, and all the players are gathered around the desk, trying to find out their scores. This should not be on at all, there's every chance of a player trying to pressure the scorekeeper into giving them a better score.
So anyway, reading the body language, Milan looks really unhappy, I say to someone, Milan hasn't won, he looks cut. So eventually all these players have been shoo-ed away, and the scores can be finalised.
Peter Irish reads out the results: Bevier, Landes, Penske, Norek, Vasek, Honza, 3rd DAMIAN GIELNICKI 2nd DAVID CLAVENS, new world champion MILLLLAAAAANNN BEEEENNNDDDAAA.
Just before that moment, he had a different look to before, he looked absolutely -on top of the world- (sorry). Like maybe he had just won an important event, such as the World Championships. Chris Ott came and shook his hand, that signalled what was happening.
So it was all over. People went different ways to get dinner etc, I ended up going to the hotel bar with Tuukka, I got a pizza and he got a hamburger. It was pretty expensive and took approximately one hundred years to come. While we were waiting this other guy gave us his unwanted pizza, which was weird but awesome because I was really hungry.
So once I food finally came, we went down to watch the net. It was just beginning, the Finnish guy was up against Flo from Germany. Tuukka was yelling encouragement and advice to him in Finnish.
I watched the first set, then Tuukka said there was going to be some good shred coming right up ft. Norek and Honza. I thought that was pretty exciting, so I went to have a look and was also thinking urgh too much pizza.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Dga4jqSvA[/youtube]
Last edited by boyle on 18 Aug 2010 18:34, edited 1 time in total.
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boyle
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So anyway, this circle expands, it's Norek, Honza, I think Clavens was in there soon after, but he wasn't in there at the start. Evan Gatesman came in, and apparently this was his "test circle" for BAP. He passed the test with flying colours.
There was also a girls circle which seemed to keep going all night, with always nearly 10 girls in the circle.
And over in a back corner with nobody watching, you had Phil Morrison, Dylan Fry, Red Husted and Wiktor Debski. I watched for a while, then I went to the room for a little while. I wanted to be out of the shred room because the pizza was still heavily weighing upon me.
So I came back down, probably too early, but I was keen to shred, it was finals night. I was way too keen about it last year, and it ended up being crap, on that sandy surface, but at least this year I knew it was going to be a surface I had been playing on all week.
So I got to play with a whole bunch of people, I was playing ok, but not great, and the whole time I had this overwhelming feeling I had eaten way too much pizza.
A couple of times I switched over into the girls circle and did a little bit of the doubles stuff Caroline and I have been working on. See you next year, mixed doubles routine. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Caroline also pulled out some 2 bag tricks, which really took some of the girls by surprise.
Waylon came and gave me a beer, I took a few sips and set aside, because my stomach was not having it at all. Shouldn't have really been shredding, but you're quite simply there, you're meant to shred.
So after shredding, then it was definitely beer time. I sat down watching this main circle that first started up with Reid, it was pretty insane. Clavens was totally dominating, if there was a contest for the after-shred, he won.
My "outstanding achievement" award though, that goes for Taishi Ishida. He's here in this circle with (at varying times) Clavens, Evan Gatesman, Honza, Ken, Lon, I think Dylan Fry may have stepped in sometime during his 8 hours of shred. That's intimidating for most. Almost every run, he was going for 30 contacts, there was one run, it was really long, then he just hits tomahawk>tomahawk with no worries. What a guy.
Wow, it's nearly time to finish work. More on this later.
There was also a girls circle which seemed to keep going all night, with always nearly 10 girls in the circle.
And over in a back corner with nobody watching, you had Phil Morrison, Dylan Fry, Red Husted and Wiktor Debski. I watched for a while, then I went to the room for a little while. I wanted to be out of the shred room because the pizza was still heavily weighing upon me.
So I came back down, probably too early, but I was keen to shred, it was finals night. I was way too keen about it last year, and it ended up being crap, on that sandy surface, but at least this year I knew it was going to be a surface I had been playing on all week.
So I got to play with a whole bunch of people, I was playing ok, but not great, and the whole time I had this overwhelming feeling I had eaten way too much pizza.
A couple of times I switched over into the girls circle and did a little bit of the doubles stuff Caroline and I have been working on. See you next year, mixed doubles routine. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Caroline also pulled out some 2 bag tricks, which really took some of the girls by surprise.
Waylon came and gave me a beer, I took a few sips and set aside, because my stomach was not having it at all. Shouldn't have really been shredding, but you're quite simply there, you're meant to shred.
So after shredding, then it was definitely beer time. I sat down watching this main circle that first started up with Reid, it was pretty insane. Clavens was totally dominating, if there was a contest for the after-shred, he won.
My "outstanding achievement" award though, that goes for Taishi Ishida. He's here in this circle with (at varying times) Clavens, Evan Gatesman, Honza, Ken, Lon, I think Dylan Fry may have stepped in sometime during his 8 hours of shred. That's intimidating for most. Almost every run, he was going for 30 contacts, there was one run, it was really long, then he just hits tomahawk>tomahawk with no worries. What a guy.
Wow, it's nearly time to finish work. More on this later.