ECFC!!!!
Oh man where to start. The beginning I suppose.
I started my journey at 6:30 Friday evening.
5 min drive > 1 hour train > 20 minute walk > 10 hour bus ride
The bus sucked. I was just too excited/uncomfortable to get any sleep. Luckily there were several rest stops to stretch my legs and use stationary toilets. That definitely made it bearable.
I got questioned a bunch at customs which was kinda weird. It's funny cause I told the guard I won at worlds and he asked "so you're like a professional?" and my response was "well I don't make money doing it". That’s not completely true anymore
I finally got to sleep as the sun started coming up.
I arrived at Port Authority bus station about 45 minutes late at 7:45. Jon offered to pick me up at the station but I was pretty worried I would never find him and my phone was not functional across the border.
I needed change for a pay phone and caffeine to wake me up a bit. I asked the girl for some change and was like "just give me a loonie and the rest quarters" and then I felt pretty silly. The girl thought it was cute.
Dollar bills are irritating. So are pennies. Get with it America
I never did get through to Jon on the pay phone and had just started to wander aimlessly when I heard my name. It was Jon! Apparently our timing was pretty good because he hadn't been there too long. Port Authority is huge so I'm glad he found me pretty easily.
I dropped my bag off in Jon’s car and we went for a walk around a bit of the city since it was my first time in NYC and we had some time to kill. I got to see Time Square and some other touristy things. It was a good opportunity to talk to Jon about various things. I really enjoyed that.
We drove to the event site and arrived pretty early – around 11? Some net players were there but no freestylers yet, as expected. I went to clean myself up in the rather grimy nearby public washroom. I'm pretty sure there was a lady doing heroin or something similar in one of the stalls. I tried to ignore that.
I grabbed some bananas and a super greasy breakfast sandwich at a nearby market and hung around the event site for a while. It was a pretty chill morning overall.
Freestylers started to trickle in during the afternoon. I met a lot of new people at this event! It was awesome but tricky to remember all the names.
I think I played my best at the beginning of the day Saturday. The playing surface wasn't really ideal; kinda dirty and uneven. No big deal though I guess.
Drew ended up running and MCing all the competition stuff. It was a little rough but I give him credit for trooping through it even though he hadn't slept Friday night due to some kinds of questionable adventures.
They did the battle style event in place of circle. It ended up taking a pretty long time. I competed in open against Dan who kicked my butt. I had a couple okay runs but choked at the end like always
His difficulty was way higher anyways so I didn't have a chance
I wrote a bit about my routine in the previous post. It sucked to see Dan bail on his very first trick and scratch from the event. I got to go last and I watched Jon and Toolan perform. They did lots of hard tricks compared to my routine and I figured I only had a chance if I killed my routine. That certainly didn't happen but I guess I did well enough. I really didn`t expect to win.
Eventually it got too dark to play and the usual footbagger indecision took place. Normally in these situations I try to take the lead and initiate happenings but being in a new city I had to rely on others to get me get places etc. Most people needed to go back to Bruces but I had my stuff so I went with Drew to hang out at Ben's place. I was kinda hoping everyone would get back together to hang out but we ended up being split in two groups for the evening because the subway wasn't running for some reason.
I got some greasy pizza with Drew and then we met up with Ben and ended up grabbing some more food at a nearby pub. While we were there Hogan, Pete and Boats met up with us. I had only met Drew and Pete prior to this event. It was awesome chilling with these guys. We all hung out on the roof of Ben`s place which has a killer view of NYC. We drank beers and smoked things and Hogan complained about the battle event. We played a little hack and some other residents of the building abandoned some cupcakes and beers which were consumed by our group. The cupcakes were sub-par at best. There was also some chucking of various bbq meats.
Such a fun time!! After we had been chilling on the roof for a while MC arrived and we went downstairs to meet him. Back in Ben's apartment Drew promptly fell asleep and the fun began. I've seen many photos of this phenomenon but this was the first time I got to witness it first-hand. That boy sure can sleep. It got pretty out of hand. Drew ended up covered in stuff and taped to the chair. At one point he kinda stirred and tried to move and then faintly said "oh noo…" and evidently accepted his fate and went back to sleep.
Pete, Kevin and Boatz left and I scored a pretty comfy couch to sleep on. When I woke up Drew had already escaped the chair. He was kinda rattled about it and I can't really blame him. Sorry bro but it was hella entertaining.
Matt, Ben, Drew and I went for breakfast at this place that had kind of a crazy menu. I got a lemon-blueberry pancake thing and bacon which was all pretty delicious. No one else seemed to be satisfied with their food and the coffee was pretty bad but whatevz I just like being with footbag people.
I was happy not to have to worry about competition on Sunday. The battle comps finished up but I didn't really pay too much attention tbh. What I did watch was mostly disappointing cause everyone tries to go to hard and then drops right away. I do remember one sweet 30+ contact run from Polini and Outsider had some really good runs also.
I think my favourite circle of the weekend to play in was with Hogan, Polini and Cross. So awesome.
At one point I grabbed Ben and got some one on one time with him. I've never played with him so that was really cool. Didn't last long enough though cause he wanted to watch the competition.
Near the end of the day Saturday there was only one circle left. It was Matt K, John Goode, Dave and Toolan. It was pretty jokes playing with these guys. So much 'guy' talk. It was funny cause everyone would try crazy hard shit and self-serve like 3 times each and then it would come around to me and I would do an actual run. They were giving me props almost every time lol! I know I wasn't playing that well but at least I was hitting tricks I guess
I really liked playing with Boatz! He surprised me a lot with his unique style. I love seeing people do unexpected stuff and his game is full of that shit which is super cool .
Jon and I were the last people playing on Sunday. Playing one on one with him is awesome! He gave my some good tips/inspiration with dragons and things.
There were sooo many people from PSU! So awesome! It's nice to have some fresh blood around cause pretty much all the people I usually play with have been in the game for many years now.
I kinda wish April and Nadiah would have actually joined a circle! They seem super cool and I would have liked to have a circle with them but I guess I'm a little intimidating or something..
I scored a pair of G-Units in my size! I never expected this to happen. Mikies girlfriend Alyssa brought them to give back to MC cause she didn't use them. They just happened to fit me perfectly. They are in pretty awesome condition too which is perfect because I really need to stop playing in my poor old lavers.
This event had super sweet prizes! Bruce made really fucking cool trophies for us and we got to choose which colour middle piece we wanted for it. So neat! To my pleasant surprise I also won the pretty Ivan bag that I was kinda hoping for. Not only that but this even actually had prize money! I definitely wasn't expecting that. Who know you could actually get a little money playing footbag. I decided to stash it away for the next time I visit the states
The organizers of this event were so awesome! I'm really grateful for the work everyone put in to make this happen. Especially Jon, you made my life so much easier by driving me to and from the bus station. Thanks soooo much
A lot of people left pretty early on Sunday but my bus wasn't until 10:30. After everyone was burned out on shred we decided to grab some Mexican food. I rode with Jon and we met up with David, Drew, Bruce and Ben. It was a really nice last meal of the event. Jon treated us to a pretty tasty tequila shot. I got four tacos involving four different kinds of meat and a lime soda. Soooo good.
At around 9pm Jon dropped me off at the Bus station. My bus was supposed to leave at 10:30 but ended up running late. It left around 11. I ended up near the back of the line and was limited in my seat options but I really wanted a window so I grabbed one at the back. Right next to the bus bathroom which proved to be quite smelly. On the bright side a pretty sexy hipster girl sat next to me. She was super cool.
I slept a little better on the way back although never for more than an hour at a time. We stopped in Buffalo and when the bus left it had to turn back around cause apparently it hadn't fueled up. That was annoying.
Customs on the way home is always less stressful. I told them why I was in the states and they asked me if I won. It was cool to be able to tell them I did! I showed them atw because that's all I could muster the energy for at 6am after two days of footbag and 7 hours on a bus.
Finally my phone worked again. I missed being connected haha. I checked fizzied and made the above blog post on the bus. The rest of the drive to Toronto was very slow due to rush hour but I managed to sleep a little more at least. Finally the bus arrived an hour and a half late and around 10:30 this morning.
Subway>Train>Car>Shower>School
Luckily my bro Baxter texted me at around 11:30 just as I was getting back to Oshawa. Apparently I had to be at school for a seminar at 12:40 so I rushed to shower and get my shit together. I made it just in time. Then I proceeded to finish the school work I had due at five with 45 minutes to spare and then do chemistry until 9pm.
It's been a crazy few days! Definitely looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight
I'm super stoked to make it to more events like this. I've stopped spending money on silly things like clothes and started using most of my disposable income on footbag related things. So worth it. See all you guys at New Years
Ever increasingly stoked on footbag. I didn't know it was possible
<3
Hopefully next time we can hang out more and stress about competition less. I tend to prefer casual jams for that reason. In general I tend to switch circles a lot because I want to get a chance to shred with everyone!
