Mikie's Blog'ofoot

[etphonehome]

Sup duders,

I'm a couple years late on this blog and I'll try my best to keep this up. Currently I am traveling Europe and shredding with whoever I run into along the way. So far I've shredded with the crew out of Berlin. The Vienna crew in Austria although I always got there late and never actually got to shred with them lol. The dudes from Budapest who made this gem of a video for the christmas calendar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... sv6sjfmObk and also the amazing guys from Slovenia that have a couple prodigies in their midst.

I've been filming footbag and other random shit along the way, but I have no way to edit it or even look at it until I come home haha. My computer is so shit! Anyway, I'll go through a list of shit i've hit so you can see where I'm at. Mind you, some of this stuff is pretty flukey and I can't hit it all the time.

Best/Hardest tricks hit: Vortex, Vertigo, atomic drifter, Blurry drifter(notice the trend?)
Hardest trick I can consistently hit: Paradox drifter, Paradox whirl
Most contacts tiltless: I had one of my longest runs ever yesterday which I didn't count but it had to be close to 40 contacts or so. It felt like an eternity haha.
Drills: Here's the thing, I don't even drill haha. So please, just shoot me some challenges and I'll see what I can do to complete them =)


So I've begun busking in the streets of Europe and I may have inspired some Croatians to start playing haha. I was shredding on a ferry on the way back from this island called Brac close to Split and I had like 15 teenagers all trying to shred. Anyway, needless to say, Croatia would be prime for starting a new area for shred. They REALLY seem to enjoy it and they LOVE football. I did some busking on the beach in Barcelona yesterday and made a couple of Euros so that was fun. I'm taking a train to Bilbao, Spain tomorrow to meet my girlfriend and I'll probably shred somewhere in the streets there too. My trip to Slovenia was a real turning point to where I didn't stop shredding because I was tired. Now I have an endurance built up and I solo'd for 2 hours straight yesterday. It was dope. I've been starting off lately with DLO>whirl which looks really cool and makes it seem like I know what I'm doing. I'm also trying to work on Posture because I can tell that i'm looking down and off balance. I blame it on the glasses and I just really need some contacts that don't dry my eyes out completely.

I'm really bad at posting highlights though so I'll do my best to write them down or something. Lots of like Drifter>osis and then just trying not to bail too many times lol. Anyway, yea, that's my long ass blog post and feel free to call me out when I'm not updating it enough.

Cheers!

Mikie

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hell yes dude, great job on the overtheborders busking! Way to promote the sport to some new players.

I'm pretty amazed at the ridiculous drifter tricks you've hit. I haven't hit atomic drifter or vertigo ever. You should try Void though. I know you have a good spin. Well, You could hit Void if you tried it a good few times, but if you wanna get really good, just drill gyro clippers b2b and pdx drifters/drifters, etc... You're on your way dude. Can't wait to check the footage.

Props on the trip, highlights, and starting this blog! I'll be reading!

[mtoolan]

Yeah, Mikie! Blog on, brother-man! Glad you're having a blast in Europe.

[boyle]

Travelling around Europe is so good. Austrian crew is super fun. Looking forward to seeing more in your blog

I don't have any idea what kind of music you are into, but if you like hardcore/metal, my friends from Australia play in a band called I Exist and they are just beginning a European tour....if you are into that style of music, there is a very good Chilean band called En Mi Defensa, also doing a European tour.

Would love to see some travel/footbag footage, that would be fun. Enjoy the journey!!

[etphonehome]

Thanks for the support guys. So I shredded again near the beach in Barcelona and this time I put out money from the very start and ended up making like 3.20 in euros lol. I think this is a good and bad thing because now I try to keep my strings long with very little density to make it look like I don't drop often, but it's bad because I don't want to feel that I have to busk to enjoy playing. I'm hopefully gonna shred with the guys in Madrid soon and I think that will be a good test because I've been soloing for a while now.

Anyway, Barcelona was pretty sick. My girlfriend and I rented bikes and just cruised the streets haha. I had this giant yellow bike and I was just being super silly with it and I almost crashed with another biker who scoffed at me and just rode away haha. I met up with some friends at a house party later that night and drank whiskey, wine, and beer and you can guess that I had one of the WORRRSSTTT hangovers ever the next day. Although, after I slept a while the next day I ended up going to this tunnel converted into a climbing haven. Sooo sick, I wish I had climbing shoes to check it out.

Anyway, been having an issue with my clippers since I started back full swing but I'm working on it. I will tense up my leg and try to set but it will set low and shoot forward. I've figured it's because I'm not relaxed enough and I have had a bit more success but sometimes when I'm midstring it will happen and piss me off.

Anyway, I was playing in Roses, Spain and met a couple Morrocan guys who were like "This is crack." hahaha, I loved it and they were super into it so that was cool. I also went through this crazy mountain pass to a small whitewashed town on the eastern coast called Cadaques. It was crazy cool just going through the mountains and slightly scary being on a giant bus and seeing cyclist cruising by like it was nothing. Anyway, I'm off to explore Madrid today and will update with a more footbag related post than this. I feel like I'm always rushed haha.

Peace.

*edit* Danny, I'll check out those bands. I'm more into punk and I'm trying to catch Propagandhi in Madrid on the 17 but we shall see. I'm going to Morroco and not sure I'll be able to make it back in time.

[boyle]

Me, Roy Klein from Israel and Caroline Birch went and saw Propagandhi in Berlin when we were at Worlds in 2009, it was great. I also saw them a couple of times on their Australian tour just before leaving for Chile. How is your Spanish? Any plans for visiting South America sometime?

[etphonehome]

Damn! That would be sick seeing Propagandhi in Berlin! I saw them at the Magic Stick in Detroit and that was super awesome. De todos maneras hablo suficiente español pero tengo que mejorar. Si es algo muy filosófico no puedo comunicarme bien. Ademas desde he llagado a España necesito practicar mas jeje. Es que puedo entender mas que hablo pero entre los españoles no puedo entender nada jaja.

But yea, I would love to hit up south america. You could hook me up with some crash space I realize I would like to be absolutely fluent though and that means more studying. I think this go around I could really do it since I have a decent base of phrases and vocabulary, although the grammar could use a touch up. I find my spanish is just english translated and it needs to just flow like spanish.

Where in Chile are you located? Would love to hit it up.

[boyle]

I'm in Santiago, the capital. I am married to a Chilean, been here about a year and half. Looks like we'll be here a few more years, I would love to have some footbag players come visit. I think the key is getting the combination of the good level of vocabulary and the good level of grammar - without either one, you can't really "compete" in a conversation.

Colombia and Venezuela also have good footbag scenes. I was in Colombia last year and would like to see some more of South America, but money is always a problem...

[etphonehome]

Travel can't be that bad dude! Couch surfing and ride sharing! That's whats up, and you get to meet cool people along the way.

Anyway, super cliff notes of today's solo sesh in Madrid:

Highlights:
Atomic SS Whirl although it's pretty flukey, it will be better the next time I go for it.
Atom Smasher B2B2B

Low lights:
Scratched the fuck out of my glasses after flinging them off my face during a trick attempt. FUCK!

Also, I worked on clipper a fuck ton today and hopefully the next few sessions I will reap the benefits.

Time for nom noms.

[boyle]

Chile es el fin del mundo! Es caro a viajar a todos partes.

I have mainly been getting to see Chile first, I am getting there - but there's 5,000km of coastline (not so much across). The other problem is it's not so easy to make a buck/peso here. Atomic ss whirl is a sweet trick. Can you hit atomic op whirl?

[etphonehome]

Hmmm, well now that I think about it, maybe I did hit atomic op whirl. So the foot that I set with is the same foot that I dexed the bag with. If it was SS, wouldn't that just be tapping whirl or whatever? Noob status here.

[etphonehome]

Today I had the pleasure of Playing with Paloma in Madrid, albeit only for a short 1 hour shred session. I'm still feeling my session from 2 days ago and I kinda played like shit. Basically, the last session I just decided to keep playing, and playing and playing after my glasses flung off my face and got scratched up. I was super pissed off haha. Now I have to finish the rest of my travels with shit vision in my right eye. I facebooked the company though and I have scratch protection, woot! Check out www.warbyparker.com to help the little guy cut through the monopoly.

Anyway, I didn't hit anything spectacular today, but I forgot to mention my highlight from last session which was DATW on strong side. I hit it like 4 times and it's starting to flow. Now I just have to keep practicing on my left side so I can up my bothsidedness.

Paloma shreds hard! She hit ripstein and lots of spinning ducking tricks. Also, blender back to back and she is working on some juggling stuff that looks AWESOME! She's super cool too, and invited me to chill in Madrid on my way back north. I can totally see why she won Euros.

I can't think of anything else worth mentioning except that my atomic drifter is getting more consistent(one sided, yea yea, I know) because I hit it 2nd try today, so that was fun. I hope my legs heal up soon because I'm sure the people in Morocco would LOVE to see some shred and I think my game will be up for it. I just gotta shred through the pain! I'm currently writing this on the train down to Algeciras from Madrid and then I'm taking a ferry over to Tangier. Not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous to walk through the Medina on a Friday night with all of my bags and shit. I have it all mapped out but somehow, once you arrive somewhere, it completely changes and left looks like right, and right looks like left. At least for me it does. Anyway, google maps still somehow tracks my phone even without service so I should be fine and so will the NSA knowing my whereabouts . I have a hostel booked already and I hope I don't encounter those nasty bedbugs like I did in Madrid. Sooooo grosse!

I'll keep you guys updated!

[Max Power]

Mikie! Sounds like you're having a blast and playing a lot of footbag. Be safe and get back soon. I think you'll be back just in time for the big up but you might want to chill out for a bit. Keep it in mind though it should be a blast, a great welcome home party haha.

[etphonehome]

Totes havin' a blast. Anyway, now I'm back in Madrid. I had an awesome session last night, however, I can barely fucking move and i'm supposed to play with Angelo Rendon. Last night we were in front of the Palacio Real kicking with some football freestyle guys, Paloma, and some old school kicker that seemed to really enjoy himself. I forget his name.

Highlights for me:

Super long strings, like can I even drop? Bitch pleaaaase
Vertigo again
pixie torque x2(don't know the name)
Ripwalk>Ripwalk
Drifter>Drifter BSOS and Paradox Whirl> pdx whirl BSOS
Ducking pick up

Made some progress on Diving symposium mirage which is gonna be a sick trick once I can hit it. I should also mention that in Slovenia a WHILE back I hit ducking whirl =D

Progress rules.

[dolercoaster]

Nice highlights!

pixie torque is "porque" which I can't hit only because I'm a vegetarian


Glad to hear things are going well! Looking forward to your return to NYC!