The Fast and the Furious: Operation El Kemino, Tokyo Edition

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

You've not been forgotten dude. Recently one of our PSU noobs asked if an uptime whirl is possible, and your name was mentioned and flashed back to the that insane game of 4 square we played at NYFA where we had to yell out the gestation period of an animal before each serve haha Good times. Maybe you can make it to Penn State Jampionships 4/19 - 4/21? It'd be great to kick with you again. I'm also looking forward to updates. Peace man, hope to see you soon.

[Matt K]

That guy ^ requested that I post here more, so here we go!

Last weekend I went to PA for the jam (no pionships, nobody wanted to compate) which was super fun. I missed tournaments a lot and it was a good way to solidify the "I'm back" feeling. I'll see if I can remember some highlights over in the tournaments thread later this week.

Yesterday I had my first outdoor session at home, which is the best I've felt playing footbag since before I stopped in 2011. I didn't attempt to go for anything crazy, but I was more consistent than I've ever felt with better sets than I've ever gotten (watching Nate do pixie helped me to figure out how to do it correctly, finally). I mostly did drills that kept the bag on the same side of my body, which I'm generally not very good at, stuff like: legbeater>sidewalk>stepping whirl>blur>dimwalk rpt.

I realize that this will be the high point for a while, but it's at least nice to see that I can still achieve my old level and hopefully can move toward playing like that more consistently.

[C-Fan]

Just wanted to say "welcome back." If you feel inspired, maybe post a short life update as well? What are you up to these days? Any chance you make it to Montreal this summer for Worlds?

Hope all is well, and glad to hear you're kicking the bag again.

[Matt K]

Sure thing =)

Let's see. I graduated from Siena last May with a BS in Computer Science. Since last June I've been working full time as a software engineer at a local Software as a Service company in my hometown (Saratoga Springs). I'm back with my parents and have a 10 minute commute into work which is really nice. As a result, I'm well into paying off my loans and should be completely free of them before the end of this year.

The past year I've been getting more and more into music (I started piano my freshman year, but started playing more seriously my Junior year). After graduation I started taking piano lessons, listening to classical music, learning analysis from my music professor, and became very engrossed in everything musical. Earlier this year I started trying composing my own pieces, which has been a lot of fun and something I want to continue doing (and possibly look into music as a career later on).

Before Jampionships, the last major thing I did with footbag was the NYC gathering in December 2011. After USO that year I lost a lot of interest, and since I had a new favorite hobby, I basically didn't play at all my Senior year or the summer after. However, earlier this year I wanted to get back into the exercising I was doing in college. I tried running on the elliptical in my basement for a month, but my basement is so cold that I wouldn't start to sweat until I was done. I started warming up with footbag and then running, but then eventually just started playing footbag to exercise again. After a month of that, I started to fall in love again and am pretty back on board with playing seriously.

I'm not back to the level that I was in 2011 yet, but that's to be expected. I'm getting close, but I'm not in a huge rush to get there, in the hopes of not burning out again.

That's it mostly. I do plan on going to Worlds, so we can chat more when we get there =)

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Yay! Matt postts! Nice man, glad to hear that you love sack again I can't believe I thought you were a hardcore Christian for like 2 years hahaha That still cracks me up. Your words continue to benefit my game, so I really have to thank you for a lot of what I'm doing in footbag nowadays, from the inspiration at NYJ '10 to the inspiration at PSU Jamps '13, you've helped me through all the brick walls in my game. Can't wait to shred with you at Worlds!

[Matt K]

Will and I had our first session together in almost 2 years. It's weird to think it's been that long since we've played (we started when I was in high school and played pretty consistently for the next 4 years), but once I got to his house it's like we had never stopped. The footbag was obviously not up to our old standards, but our friendship picked right back up from 2011.

We were defeated by the heat pretty quickly, but we managed to play for 1.5 hours. Nothing really to note, but we'll hopefully be getting together at least once a week this summer.

[slapdash21]

thats cool im glad to hear it.

[Matt K]

Well I played yesterday for the first time in a month. Due to my fervor for playing footbag again, combined with my out of shape body, my old groin tendinitis injury came back on my right side =/ I've been trying to rest it, but it doesn't seem like it's too bad until it's fully back. I saw my doctor today and he gave me some things that should hopefully reduce the swelling so I can sort of get ready for Worlds and play there without too much pain.

But I did finalize staying arrangements with good friends and am looking for to Worlds. I promise I'll play some whether I'm healthy or not.

[Matt K]

Over the weekend I played with Pete, Kevin, and Allen of Boston during a really super last minute trip where everything worked out way better than it should have.

We must have played for close to 3 hours on Saturday, and I'm still sore. It was a lot of fun playing with old friends, and they helped bring out some old good stuff in me that I haven't done in a while.

A few highlights I remember (mostly at the request of Kevin):
-spender b2b
-whirring swirl
-whirlwind bsos sealed with torque>food
-mobius>food (bs? I think)
-a few pretty not bad runs with some neat stuff midstring

It was really a ton of fun and I hope to play with those guys again soon.

[Muffinman]

Awesome possum

[Matt K]

Just read through this old thing from the beginning. Neat to see my progression from an intermediate player to where I am today (or at least, where I was 2 years ago).

Most of this wasn't really that long ago but it all seems so far away. The videos help put me back in the time, but so much of it seems so foreign to me now.

[slapdash21]

that's right we make footbag, a usually boring activity, FUUUN ask anyone.

as weird as it is for you its weird for us too.
well those of us who saw you go from newwwb to big timer. you have great style and a great head for the game. which can translate into a great head for life.

mad fun playing with you too brutha man. have fun sackin, seeya in Kuhnada!

[Matt K]

Played downtown after work today for an hour. It was super crazy hot out and I was drenched almost immediately. Nothing really noteworthy, just worked on stepping drills (that's one of the first things to go when I stop playing). My groin feels better at least. I'm not sure if it's healing or I'm just not agitating it by avoiding motions that hurt it, but oh well. Whichever allows me to play twice a week.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I'm not stoked for Worlds.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

...










JK!


PUMPPEEDDDDDD!!!!!



It's gonna be like 90 for everyone I think. I'll let you know as time gets closer and I know the actual amount.

Hey btw, I too now have disposable income!

You were an imspiration for me to get an after-college job!

Our apartment is gonna be insane!

[Matt K]

I played for an hour and half in what my car told me was 100 degree weather yesterday in direct sunlight. Eek. But it was good. Nothing terribly notable, just working on stuff that I forget how to do when I stop playing:

-legbeater>bw>blur rpt
-ripwalk>sidewalk>stepping mirage>pixie ss mirage>legbeater>stepping clipper rpt

[Matt K]

Nate Pipenberg came through town on the way back from a job interview so we played by my house then got some dinner.

Can't remember too much of what we hit but we ended the session with some semi-hard drills.

Nate got smoke>stepping whirl>stepping mirage rpt, and I got ducking osis>gyro whirl>stepping clipper rpt>something>bw>tombstone>psw>spinning whirl>spender.

Nate had multiple 50+ runs and I had some ok runs. Yay worlds coming up.

[Matt K]

Back from Worlds.

I'd like to do a full day-to-day write up so that I can remember all the awesome stuff that happened, so hopefully expect that this week.

For now I'll just say that I'm sorry if I freaked anybody out who saw me sprain my ankle; I promise it's not as bad as it looked and I'll be back in no time. Thank you to everybody who helped me both physically and mentally. I appreciate it all so much and a few of you really made the rest of the week enjoyable despite it.

[Matt K]

Alright, time to recount one of the best weeks of my life before I forget.

Saturday: Prelude

My Worlds journey started last Saturday. I was saying so long to one of my long-time high school friends before he heads down to Georgia for grad school as Nick Polini and Nate Pipenberg headed up from Pennsylvania to my house before we headed off to Montreal with Doug Tank the next day.

I headed back from the lake after seeing my friend for a short while and pulled in to my driveway to see Nick and Nate sitting on the back of Nick’s yellow car. They said they had just arrived and I was beyond excited to see them. They stretched their legs for a few minutes then we headed to the park to have a pre-Worlds session. I don’t remember anything that any of us hit, but it was pretty evident that Nate was in great shape.

After getting home and showering we were greeted to a lovely dinner from my mom which consisted of hamburgers, hotdogs and the best zucchini any of us had had. The five of us ate outside and caught up; Nate had just stayed a night a few weeks ago but this was the first time Nick had met my parents so we had plenty to talk about. At one point my mom offered to search Doug’s bag once he got here to make sure he wasn’t trying to smuggle drugs up into Canada. Oh mom!

Doug got there as soon as we finished eating and we proceeded to take the dumbest picture of the whole trip while on my porch (put in on facebook, Doug!). We hung around the house for an hour, Nate and I messed around on our instruments for a while, then headed out for a night on the town.

I drove the four of us into downtown Saratoga for a few drinks on Broadway. We sat down and after saying hi to my girlfriend who was walking by, we had our first pitcher. Nate proceeded to hardcore flirt with the waitress with the goofiest grin on his face which we gave him shit for the rest of the night.

After the bar we went to the park so the gang could try the gross spring water that Saratoga has its name from. To everyone’s pleasure, we happened upon one of the worst ones in the whole town, so everybody got to taste the delicious rotten-eggy water that I love introducing people too. Some people may have drunkenly ventured back into the park for some public urination, but for the most part there was no law breaking and we headed home.

Even though it was 1am I convinced the guys to stay up to watch the Flipsider Retrospective video (Aggressive Grounds + Where the Ripwalk Ends) with Eli’s commentary. It’s old footage, but the commentary is interesting, and I think everybody enjoyed it. Nate went up to bed first, and Nick started snoozing on the couch. Despite this, he remained totally conscious, commenting on the shred in the video, and correcting Doug and I on how long it would take to drive to Montreal from my house (“Is it four hours?” “No, it’s three. Zzzzzzzzz”).

Nick joined Nate in the guest bed (head to toe of course) and I gave Doug my bed then headed to the basement to sleep on the couch. It was a good thing we exhausted ourselves because I don’t think we could have slept normally through all of the excitement.

Next: We’re off!

[C-Fan]

Glad you made it home safely. Hanging out with you the day before finals, and the day of finals, was definitely a highlight of the trip. I really hope I can make it to East Coasts, and we can legitly shred then (though I did appreciate your symp whirl) and hang out some more. Hope the ankle heals up well, and I look forward to the rest of your write-up.