Nick "Houdini" Polini

Zjeezy · Post by **Zjeezy** » 18 Jul 2011 16:58

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao5YW7KKRL8[/youtube]

I thought you might like this

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 18 Jul 2011 18:37

Doug: Thanks for reading! Glad you liked that story and our video. Jackson and I are... well... we can be numbskulls when we hang out lol

Zach: Haha I actually just left a big comment on your blog about that video. Thank you so much for that shout out! I already feel like that shit will totally push me to shred harder. I blabbed on about how fucking ridiculous that link is... But I'll do it again, because it deserves it. Holy talking dog shit! That link was absolutely unheard of. I feel like that link has never been hit before. Well maybe once by some crazy BAPper. But still, holy crap. I never thought I'd see something like that. Shit. So sick dude. Keep it going.

Ok. So I'd like to start off this post with this...

FLIPSIDE RIPSTEIN IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN THE LAST TIME I HIT IT!... which was about 1 month ago

I seshed with Jeremy, Corey, and Jackson tonight. Corey hit his first flip Atomic toe and another Frantic Toe. Jeremy got his first near Guay bs, plus he's been drastically improving at clippers. Jackson just got back from All Good (music fest in West Virginia), and he was really tired from his 4-day adventure, so he was pretty tired. He had some nice Dimwalks and stuff though. He'll get with it soon. But shit, he just saw Primus and Pretty Lights LIVE. So jealous.

On a side note, this guy that was watching us came up and started conversation. He liked what we were doing because he was a breakdancer. He gave us a demo and it was sick. He had this one move called "Suicide", where he did a front flip and bailed HARD on his back. I could have sworn that dude broke his spine or even his neck. We were all freaking out and just about ready to call 911, but then he did this crazy move to stand up. We gave him props.

Highlights:

Played extremely well tonight. Some of my best stuff I've seen in a while. Felt very controlled. I could estimate that I had one guiltless string around 20 contacts. I hope I play like this from now on. It felt great.

Midstring ss Butterfly Swirl. Felt right.

Like I mentioned earlier... Flip Ripstein. And it really felt easy. I only hit one, because it was towards the end of the session and I was burnt out and tired. I'll definitely experiment with this more next session. I KNOW this is from working with my flipside Symp Swirl. It makes sense... Get good a Swirl, get good at Symp Swirl... Ripstein is pretty much just that.

I forgot to put this in my post a few days ago... Shooting Toe. It felt clean, but I might be wrong... Def not ready for stuff like that yet though.

2 flipside ss Symp Swirls

Reverse Swirl> Whirl> Drifter BSOS to end the session. So happy to end on that one tonight.

WHOA!!!! MY MOM'S WATCHING HAWAII 5-0 RIGHT NOW AND I JUST LOOKED AT THE TV AND SEE A COP WITH A JACKET THAT SAYS "HPD"!!! HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER!!!! Wow, I'm such a nerd. Ahhhh.... footbag.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 19 Jul 2011 19:10

So get ready for one of the most depressing posts in a while... You should probably put some The Cure on your record players before you read this...

Bad News Numero Uno & Dos...

Had a session with Bob and Jackson tonight, and tonight, Bob started talking about his retirement from footbag... and so did Jackson. Bob hasn't been seeing many improvements (I have seen his improvements though... and although they're not huge yet, they're still improvements). Jackson's just talking stupid. He goes for stuff that's way too big for his level... sounds familiar... I used to do that for so long

Anyway, I talked Jackson out of it and said I'd be his coach in drilling basics... 2 days a week, 1 hour of basics drills. That oughta do the trick.. I was really upset about Bob's news though. Bob has taught me just about everything I know about footbag. I told him I wanted him to call me when he has his last session so I can be there. I don't even like talking about this anymore...

Bad News Numero Tres...

Now put some Bright Eyes on your record player. A few posts back, I wrote about how my boss told me something shitty when I told her I was putting in my 2 weeks notice. It's been spread around town now and we've lost a lot of business because of it, so now I'll type it... Irish Joe's Cafe is shutting down after 8 years. Wow. That really sucked to read the sentence I just typed. I've been working here since 9th grade... 7 of it's 8 years, I've been a loyal employee and they've turned into family. It's such a shame to see it go. 7 years, man. And it'll be gone soon. It's more upsetting than you may think. My boss is like a second mom to me. I have my own food item on the menu (Nick's Deluxe Grits $3.95, sucka!). It really sucks to see it go...

So no more bad news, one piece of good news for me tonight...

Highlights:

RIPSTEIN BSOS!!! Felt so nice to finally get that.

Toe Blender BS & BSOS (Brand new trick on both sides!)... In return, toe blender made my toe whirls even better, specifically my flipside toe whirl

Ripwalk> Drifter BSOS

Toe Whirl> Drifter BSOS

Aside from footbag, I did some Slacklining with 2 of my friends I graduated with. It was a good time.

I think I'm gonna hold off on footbag tomorrow... I'm planning a stitch session tomorrow night I believe. Hopefully it happens.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 20 Jul 2011 22:33

So I guess the poo-poo-bad-news fairy got a little sad, and offed himself, because tonight was filled with fun things and good news.

Good News Numero Uno!

I can't reveal this yet! It's SeCrEt GoOoD NeWs

You'll know soon enough. If you know already because maybe you saw something... (MARK BULL & TIM HARPER, THAT MEANS YOUS GUYS

), please don't reveal it. I really want it to be a surprise.

Good News Numero Dos, Tres, And All the other Good Newses!

Had a stitching session with Jeremy and Corey tonight. Jackson stopped over to watch footbag videos with us for a bit, but he was entertaining his cousin tonight, so he couldn't really hang out. After a little while of stitching, we took a break to shred Jeremy's new bag that he finished earlier today. That dude can stitch. Crazy shit. His 12th bag looks better than my 21st

We all had a great session. Jeremy is really good at spinning

That kid keeps surprising me with new shit. Oh and he's going to be great at Symp Swirls in the future.... Along with Toe Symp Swirling Gyro!!!! He accidentally hit that set when I told him to try Toe Spinning... SO DEEP AND SO CLEAN. We asked him if he could replicate it.... He did so about 5 more times then got tired. Nuts. His clippers are really coming along. And he can spin out of both of them rather well. Corey was killin it too.

Highlights:

(*clears throat*) MARIUS!!!! So hyped on that. This has been in my dream trick list ever since I started playing footbag. Before I hit it, I footed it every single try for about 7 tries, then finally realized I was being too violent with my osis. If you're trying Marius and getting frustrated, jump into the paradox torque and catch with a relaxed osis. The best part about this was that we were all trying to end our sessions with a new trick and as I'm trying Marius, Corey was trying to hit flipside PLO (new for him)... I hear him yell "I got it!" and then I hit my Marius and yelled "Me too!" And we gave each other simultaneous props. Fun moments in footbag...

Spinning PS Mirage bs (New on both sides... 2nd time I've hit a new 5 add on bs in one session)

FINALLY hit flipside PS Whirl... twice. First one was so clean, but I missed the hand catch and just kinda stared at the bag sitting on the ground... I was in total disbelief. Then the next one was just as clean and I sealed it. So nice to get that out of the way finally. Special thank yous to John Goode and Kevin Hogan for the inspiration on wanting to hit that so damn badly

Maelstrom

Some pretty good strings

The Marius was definitely a highlight of, not only this session, but of my footbag career. Too excited about that one. And the best part is, that now that I know how to hit it properly, I don't think it will be too hard for me to replicate.... Plus I hit it with my weakside spin and weak osis... I know I can nail strongside sometime. With Marius, I'm up to nine 6 ADDS. Never once did I think I'd get this far in footbag. And even though I wanted Marius so badly, I always had my doubts about that trick. Feels good to prove myself wrong.

That SeCrEttTt GooOoOooD NeWs is happening tomorrow. I'll blog later on about it. Verby tired go to bed now

h0ag3yb3atZ · Post by **h0ag3yb3atZ** » 21 Jul 2011 03:43

nice job with the marius and other stuff. ripstein sauce is badass too.

g00d33 · Post by **g00d33** » 21 Jul 2011 05:03

Dude, props! For realz

So just out of curiosity, is that canal day thing still happening on the 28th?

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 21 Jul 2011 20:10

Yo thanks homeslices! Really meanz a lot coming from youz guyz...

So today I had a secret session with SOMEONE, Jeremy, this new player who's really got good basics. We took footage, but I think we lost it all

It might just be in a different format... Hopefully. Either way we're filming tomorrow same people, plus more. Hit some good stuff.

1st Mullet! (10th 6 ADD!) I actually hit my first one with these goofy ass heavy arm waders lol

Strung out of PS Whirl!

2nd Marius! This trick is actually the easiest 6 ADD for me... Either that or Mullet.

Some nice strings...

Like I said, session with the same people tomorrow. Maybe I can recover the footage from today.

Corey · Post by **Corey** » 21 Jul 2011 20:12

What are the 10?

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 21 Jul 2011 21:27

In chronological order (all of which were hit in 2011):

Blurry Torque

Food Processor

Ducking Pdx Torque

Alpine Blurry Whirl

Maelstrom

Whirligig

Godzilla

Motion Sickness

Marius

Mullet

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 22 Jul 2011 06:41

1. What's Godzilla?
2. How are your blenders? Because you could easily add a few sixes to that list if you develop even a basic blender.
3.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic wrote:Zach: I blabbed on about how fucking ridiculous that link is... But I'll do it again, because it deserves it. Holy talking dog shit! That link was absolutely unheard of. I feel like that link has never been hit before. Well maybe once by some crazy BAPper. But still, holy crap. I never thought I'd see something like that. Shit. So sick dude. Keep it going.
.

As one of the few remaining old fart players on the forum, I just want to point out that Chad Devlahovich hit that link way back in 2000. It appears on an old Eli video called "the California Connection." While I agree that the link is super styly, I don't think it's actually all that difficult. If you can hit the second trick, and your mobius is solid enough, it's a pretty straightforward transition.

USO Nick?

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 22 Jul 2011 08:06

1. Nuclear Dyno
2. My blenders are on par with my whirls... pretty reliable. I've hit Food like 4 or 5 times now, haven't tried it for a while. I definitely don't want to spend my time ADD hunting though. I've been drilling a lot and I really just want to get a basic Guiltless game down so I can mayhapsfully slide my 5's and 6's into my runs. Already starting to do this slowly, but I need to school more bread n butter 3's. Thanks for the suggestion though. Ken, it's funny, whenever I hit a new 6 ADD, I'm reminded of you, since I remeber you saying to me that after you hit your first 6, all the others came quicker than you'd expected

3. I had no idea about that. Chad would have been one to hit this though. He ripped. Cool to know that now. Where can I find that video? (If I can even find it anymore...)

U.S.O. = N.O. GO

However, it's been in talk with my parents and I that for my graduation (from college this upcoming year), I'm going on a tour of a lot of the West Coast and I'm hoping to do it around the time when USO occurs. So hopefully see ya next year at the Open.

In other fantastic news!!!! My Bearbags finally came!!!! I love them already

Planning on shredding with most of the crew today, plus Jeremy's friend, who has Lavers already, is driving down from Kutztown to learn the basics of footbag. He's really interested, and he can already hit ATW and clippers. Footbag is poppin up in these parts. YA HEARD!!?!?!

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 22 Jul 2011 08:27

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic wrote:I definitely don't want to spend my time ADD hunting though. I've been drilling a lot and I really just want to get a basic Guiltless game down so I can mayhapsfully slide my 5's and 6's into my runs. Already starting to do this slowly, but I need to school more bread n butter 3's.

Yeah, that's the right attitude. Related challenge: at your next session, get 3 runs of 20+ guiltless on film. Make them interesting too, not too many BOP. Then do that every session, until you start getting it done early in the session, and then bump the number to four.

Ian Brill · Post by **Ian Brill** » 22 Jul 2011 11:46

Had no idea that nuke dyno was called Godzilla, nor that it was a sixer. I assume that was my first sixer then.

Keep up the great work. I knew you were going to blow-up when I kicked with you at funtastiks, but it's still alarming to witness the progress.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 22 Jul 2011 17:38

Ken: Thank you for that suggestion. I love it. I will do it. Thank you once again. I really love it. I'm really excited about this challenge... as you can probably tell from my repetitiveness... Thanks.

Ian: That was real cool to read, man. Props on Godzilla too. Wanna race to Godzilla's arch enemy, "Mothra" (Nuke op Butterfly Kick)? Just for funz... Glad you enjoy my blog. I try to make it... ya know... fun

Just found a new shred spot. It's 5 minutes away from my place, large cement shred pad that drops off into a swim hole of the river... waterfalls coming off to the left of it so you can sit underneath, and if you walk a small walk across a very shallow dam, there is a big whirlpool of cold water that looks like it's made to be sat in.... SO SWEET.

I kicked there tonight with Jackson, Jeremy, and his friend Kevin. Kevin is brand new to footbag and he's already got a great start because he was a hacky slacker for years and got into footbag, because Jeremy started to get into it. Kevin's got solid ATW's on strong side and some basic clipper stuff, along with really good toe stalls. Definitely a great start. I modified his Lavers for him tonight.

Jeremy's getting close to 3 alternating clippers and nailing legovers like a champ now. Jackson had a nice link, Mirage> Dimwalk> Ducking Clipper.

Highlights:

I played with more control than ever tonight. It felt amazing. Madd Guiltless.. Mixed it up a lot. Very few BOPs.

Pixie Diving ss Whirl (New trick)

Darkwalk (New Trick

) I was looking in my "Dream Tricks" list, and saw this in there, and I said "LAWL!" So I remembered it and I hit it. New 5 ADD

It was so PHUCKING HOT during our session, so afterward, I sat underneath the waterfall and the other guys dunked their heads into it. They didn't have water shoes :\ Next time.. SO sick though. Great, relaxing ender to a footbag session.

Da End!

Edit: Oh and I bought a SICK bag from Jeremy. I love it.

Now Da End!

DTank126 · Post by **DTank126** » 23 Jul 2011 07:31

That new shred spot sounds so cool. You should do some filming there. Maybe hit some cool whirl variations by the whirlpool, and tricks where you fall down by the waterfalls.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 23 Jul 2011 14:33

C-Fan wrote: Related challenge: at your next session, get 3 runs of 20+ guiltless on film. Make them interesting too, not too many BOP. Then do that every session, until you start getting it done early in the session, and then bump the number to four.

...I DEED IT.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrMMRj2TrXM[/youtube]

Not quite the proper goal, but it's a swell start, I guess. I'm going to keep doing these. My livingroom is not a very great shred spot fyi. I've been hitting better strings than this recently. SO HOT OUTSIDE. Going to try to shred at the new river spot tomorrow.

HEY KEN!!!! Thanks

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 23 Jul 2011 17:46

Had a second real quick session tonight, because I was kind of disappointed with the footage I captured above. Well, definitely not disappointed, but I know I could do better...

So I went outside and played for 5 minutes and hit...

Highlight:

Spinning Clipper> Drifter rpt

Not so amazing, but whatever, it's progress...

Edit: Oh yeah, just remembered...

Tootsie Roll> Ripwalk (I want o get this in my game a lot. Happy about this one)

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 24 Jul 2011 22:56

Didn't really kick at all today. Ever since Jeremy hs joined our crew, he's been stitching like a mad-man and I guess I caught some of the fever...

Stitched 1 bag the other day... 3-stitch

60 grams, Amaretta hexes (Light Brown & Light Blue) & USL Pents (Paisley). Very pancakey. I'm extremely happy with this one. Plays really nicely.

Stitched 2 (#24 & #25) bags today... Both 2-stitches

Fun story behind each one...

I've been saying that I was going to stitch a bag for my neighbor/best friend/shred partner, Jackson Raap for quite some time now. I just never felt comfortable with my stitching up until recently. So I finally gave a bag a whack for him...

THE BADNESS:

I stitched the bag posted above for Jackson today. It's made of some REALLY cheapo shitty Microfiber knock-off or something, because when I finished it, it started fraying up on us as soon as I gave it to him, and it started leaking... FUUUUUU..... So I cut it open and extracted the shot then went to town on another one...

THE RADNESS:

After an hour and a half, I put the final closing stitch on this baby. As soon as I cut the final thread and made the sounds of a baby crying (I like to do that as a tradition every time I finish a bag, because it's like cutting the umbilical cord

), I dropped it on the table and exclaimed "This is the best fucking footbag I've ever stitched in my entire life!" I was so hyped on this one and I still am... Jackson came over to claim it and was astonished. He treated it like a holy grail, like it was the essence of life... He was also quite hammered

He wouldn't stop talking about it. He even said, "Trust me, I know I'm drunk, but this bag is really really really really really really really really really good." Then he hugged me 15 or 20 times. Either way, it made me feel really good that my stitching was finally getting to be almost flawless. Can't wait to kick with it tomorrow with him. Anyway, yeah, exquisitely happy with this one.

The sun always shines after a thunderstorm.

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 25 Jul 2011 12:22

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR83G9KgF8c&NR=1[/youtube]

Frankenstein!!!!

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 25 Jul 2011 12:57

BLURRY TORQUE BS!!!!!!!!!!! 2nd time on my strong side, and 1st time on my flipside!!!!!! Fuck yes, sirs & ma'ams! Kinda funny, my first 6 ADD ever was Blurry Torque on strong side... then I get 9 more on strong side... Now it looks like as I progress, I'm going to try to hit all of my flipside 6 ADDS in order referring to how I hit them on strong side. I think this will be a pretty cool way to get my 6's as I go along. Not going to concentrate on them, but if I feel them coming, I'm not going to hesitate to do a bit of chasing here and there

To hit Blurry Torque on weakside just now, I did something similar to what Vasek recommends in his book... I pretended I was Peter Irish. Before I hit it, I said, "Hey, I'm Peter Irish and I'm going to hit Blurry Torque on my flipside now. After I hit it, I'll probably juggle 20 bags on my feet, then eat some fire or something, so here it goes..." And BAM, got that shit. It really does help to imagine that you are a player who owns at the trick you're aiming for. Just to screw around, after I got Blurry Torque, I said "I'm Peter Irish and I guess I'll duck my stepping set now..." And amazingly, I felt my stepping ducking top anything that it has ever been before. I hit a bunch of step duck clips bs and step duck osis bs... It felt like there was a magnetic field that directed the bag up up up and then down down down. It was so amazing. I'm going to go back out and crack into that again. Peace.

IT PAYS TO PRETEND YOU'RE A PRO WHO IS GREAT AT THE TRICK YOU WANT TO HIT, WHILE YOU'RE TRYING TO HIT IT