Cheers Nick...I hope the tour proves to be a great template that can be taken anywhere. Europe is the best place to begin because there are so many active players in a reasonably short distance. In the southern hemisphere, there's just not enough players, and in North America, there are little patches that are generally a long way apart.
Atomsmasher b2b is something I should have been able to do long ago, so good to finally check it off the list. Working towards rubberman next.
While I am writing here in my blog, I played for a little while yesterday. I think I have mentioned previously these two little Peruvian kids that are sometimes in the plaza. I haven't seen them for ages, but they told me they had been to Peru. Their parents work sometimes in the towers, and they just leave the kids to play (they are very young, about 8 and 4, but I guess they don't have anything else to do with them.
Anyway, they come and kick around, the younger one is not much good - but the older one has quite good control, he can get about 5 kicks and we had some good rallies passing it along.
There should be some great footage from this tour - plenty of awesome players, we have Jay as a video maker, there's sure to be good scenery along the way, etc, etc, etc. Juho...
Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle
Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Congratulations and props on the tour launch. I look forward to following this unfold.
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
I have been alluding to these things for a long time, and have already dropped most of the details here in these blog, "pre-edition for special fans..."
But now my two main footbag projects are "Go".
Beginning tomorrow is the Fearless Challenge. http://sportslashlife.com/sportlife-pre ... challenge/
In reality this is nowhere as cool as the European Tour, but is another important point in developing footbag. This idea came after some conversation appeared on Facebook when Jim Penske put out a video a little while back, and there were "a fair few" fearless in it. Some said 19 and some said 21 or 22 or so.
Then a few people, including David Clavens, were talking about why people don't have videos of their biggest fearless records. It takes a lot of effort to do a good fearless run (let's say 10+ - and there are plenty of other things to do instead of destroying yourself to create a big number.
My original thought was to try and do something within a one hour or one day period, but that was scrapped pretty early on, because it wouldn't work that well. Over time we developed the idea of the aim to 25, and having a one month period to reach that mark, and beyond. I would really like to see someone get like, 50 or whatever. That would be great.
The other is the European tour, which is going to be great. Really looking forward to seeing that unfold. As for my own game, forget the fearless challenge - but I was working on my tripless. I did a bunch where I got maybe 10 or so. I am still aiming for that 15 mark, then maybe 20. My general plan of attack is dimwalk>blur>dimwalk>blur>parkwalk>spinning butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ripwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>sidewalk>spinning osis>ducking osis or something along those lines.
But now my two main footbag projects are "Go".
Beginning tomorrow is the Fearless Challenge. http://sportslashlife.com/sportlife-pre ... challenge/
In reality this is nowhere as cool as the European Tour, but is another important point in developing footbag. This idea came after some conversation appeared on Facebook when Jim Penske put out a video a little while back, and there were "a fair few" fearless in it. Some said 19 and some said 21 or 22 or so.
Then a few people, including David Clavens, were talking about why people don't have videos of their biggest fearless records. It takes a lot of effort to do a good fearless run (let's say 10+ - and there are plenty of other things to do instead of destroying yourself to create a big number.
My original thought was to try and do something within a one hour or one day period, but that was scrapped pretty early on, because it wouldn't work that well. Over time we developed the idea of the aim to 25, and having a one month period to reach that mark, and beyond. I would really like to see someone get like, 50 or whatever. That would be great.
The other is the European tour, which is going to be great. Really looking forward to seeing that unfold. As for my own game, forget the fearless challenge - but I was working on my tripless. I did a bunch where I got maybe 10 or so. I am still aiming for that 15 mark, then maybe 20. My general plan of attack is dimwalk>blur>dimwalk>blur>parkwalk>spinning butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ripwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>sidewalk>spinning osis>ducking osis or something along those lines.
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Hi blog - been a little while. The Fearless Challenge and the tour are coming together, we have the travel booked for the players to arrive in Prague and back out of Gdansk, and things are getting more prepared for the big event which will happen in that same Polish city. The Swiss leg is looking better and better, and a "budget" has arrived in Europe for the tour. A key for me was "getting rid" of some of the money.
It's not to actually just throw it away, but to move it out of Chile, have it in Europe.
Back here in Chile, I have my parents visiting at the moment, we went with my brother-in-law to Cajon del Maipo, I got a few shots of footbag, so I put it into this video. Not many exciting tricks, but some great background scenery.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR0q0nh8XiE[/youtube]
Little mr Nicolas had his baptism on Saturday, then we had a huge amount of people in our house afterwards (probably close to 50). He also had his first temblor this morning, just like when the water was poured over his head, he made no reaction. He is a very relaxed little fellow.
This morning I had to give a pitch about Sport/Life. My last one was quite poor, I was very underprepared and underconfident in my idea. This time, I have changed things up a bit, focusing less on the crowdfunding and more on the tourism.
Why that? Well just think about this - I worked 5 years as a tour guide at the Australian Institute of Sport, worked in hostels, including with groups and as a manager, have travelled to watch and compete in sports, etc, etc, etc.
Compared to no crowdfunding experience, no Kickstarter etc campaigns, and even very few donations to the projects, maybe like 3 in total. Anyway, back to the pitch (make sure to keep on point, to keep in the time limit). It was a three minute time limit and I was up first. I was a little nervous, but I had trained well and been to some workshops which definitely helped. I noticed that some of the other guys who were also in the workshops had used the advice to improve their pitches.
Anyway, what does this have to do with footbag? Quite a lot as a matter of fact, so I'm talking about my stuff, and that the sports tourism industry is a $600 billion per year industry and yadadyayada. Forgot to mention it's the fastest growing part of the sports industry also.
Then I mentioned something about footbag, and said, well you may be wondering what this footbag is all about. Conveniently I have one with me - let's have a look". Then I did inside stall>toe stall>around the world>clipper>ducking clipper and carried on with the end of the pitch. People gave a great big cheer, so I was really happy with that. Let's see now if I move through the the semi final. I think that I should, but I will have to make some key improvements to everything, particularly talk a bit more about the current achievements and future plans.
Also with the actual design of the presentation, that can always use a little bit more work.
Let's skip back to the talk of fearless, I was playing around a bit with adding matador to a couple of other 5 add tricks, and I had both darkwalk>matador and ripped warrior>matador come off my foot. Encouraging signs, and I guess that's a good trick to stick in the middle. I'm really hoping I can get 4 or maybe 5 fearless soon. It shouldn't be so hard to hit - phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis, with the option for tomahawk as the fifth.
Something else I had on the foot, but just went flying away, was fog>pixie paradon that would also be my first combination of three dex tricks. Hoping to hit that next session. I was close quite a few times.
We're thinking as well for the next stage (say from about August-November onwards). I think it might be time to go back to Australia. Time to get a real job and settle down. Maybe.
It's not to actually just throw it away, but to move it out of Chile, have it in Europe.
Back here in Chile, I have my parents visiting at the moment, we went with my brother-in-law to Cajon del Maipo, I got a few shots of footbag, so I put it into this video. Not many exciting tricks, but some great background scenery.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uR0q0nh8XiE[/youtube]
Little mr Nicolas had his baptism on Saturday, then we had a huge amount of people in our house afterwards (probably close to 50). He also had his first temblor this morning, just like when the water was poured over his head, he made no reaction. He is a very relaxed little fellow.
This morning I had to give a pitch about Sport/Life. My last one was quite poor, I was very underprepared and underconfident in my idea. This time, I have changed things up a bit, focusing less on the crowdfunding and more on the tourism.
Why that? Well just think about this - I worked 5 years as a tour guide at the Australian Institute of Sport, worked in hostels, including with groups and as a manager, have travelled to watch and compete in sports, etc, etc, etc.
Compared to no crowdfunding experience, no Kickstarter etc campaigns, and even very few donations to the projects, maybe like 3 in total. Anyway, back to the pitch (make sure to keep on point, to keep in the time limit). It was a three minute time limit and I was up first. I was a little nervous, but I had trained well and been to some workshops which definitely helped. I noticed that some of the other guys who were also in the workshops had used the advice to improve their pitches.
Anyway, what does this have to do with footbag? Quite a lot as a matter of fact, so I'm talking about my stuff, and that the sports tourism industry is a $600 billion per year industry and yadadyayada. Forgot to mention it's the fastest growing part of the sports industry also.
Then I mentioned something about footbag, and said, well you may be wondering what this footbag is all about. Conveniently I have one with me - let's have a look". Then I did inside stall>toe stall>around the world>clipper>ducking clipper and carried on with the end of the pitch. People gave a great big cheer, so I was really happy with that. Let's see now if I move through the the semi final. I think that I should, but I will have to make some key improvements to everything, particularly talk a bit more about the current achievements and future plans.
Also with the actual design of the presentation, that can always use a little bit more work.
Let's skip back to the talk of fearless, I was playing around a bit with adding matador to a couple of other 5 add tricks, and I had both darkwalk>matador and ripped warrior>matador come off my foot. Encouraging signs, and I guess that's a good trick to stick in the middle. I'm really hoping I can get 4 or maybe 5 fearless soon. It shouldn't be so hard to hit - phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis, with the option for tomahawk as the fifth.
Something else I had on the foot, but just went flying away, was fog>pixie paradon that would also be my first combination of three dex tricks. Hoping to hit that next session. I was close quite a few times.
We're thinking as well for the next stage (say from about August-November onwards). I think it might be time to go back to Australia. Time to get a real job and settle down. Maybe.
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Let's start with something non-footbag. It's been a while since I've posted at all, but haven't been playing too much. This last week and a bit has been the "Juegos Suramericanos", or South American Games. The last ones were in Medellin, which is where we had the South American Champs in 2012. The facilities there were excellent.
The crown jewel in the new facilities here was meant to be the velodrome, but in reality it has become the crown of embarrassment after a disastrous crash in the cycling.
You can read about it here - http://sportslashlife.com/ugly-crash-le ... -hospital/ - I wasn't there at the time, but one of my friends, who is a photographer was there for the action. An incredible display of stupidity/poor training of the volunteers (which is part of the stupidity), and I guess some bad luck thrown into the mix.
Anyway, we all have press passes for the games, so we have been to a bunch of things. We even took Nicolas out to the tennis and the athletics yesterday. I have been to Rugby Sevens, BMX, road cycling, hockey, gymnastics, athletics, tennis and today I may go to the bowling (which is in a mall....) and to the track cycling, as it's the last day of that. I am kind of interested to go and check out the sailing, as they have a boat to take the journalists out on - that could be fun.
In footbag news, I don't have much personally. The tour is getting ready to start, I only had a couple of sessions this week, also not wearing lavers. In one I hit scorpions tail quite easily and was coming close to bl. whirl>scorps - I would really like to get to "4" in this "fearless month". It doesn't look like anyone will crack the 25, so I may look at making that a yearlong contest or something. Will have a think about it once the 25th hits.
Due to the fact that people really like seeing cyclists through the air due to other people's stupidity, the Sport/Life site has had a really big boost in numbers (which still isn't all that big, but has vastly increased, say like 10x or more). There will be a new Juho video for his "teaser" for the tour tomorrow, so that should give things a nice boost. Here is the interview that Jay did with Juho if you didn't see that - http://sportslashlife.com/juho-marjo-in ... -eurotour/
Speaking of the tour, we've had a mini/unofficial launch in Finland at the Go Expo. This is something great for me to say, "oh yes, we were a part of this major sports event, one of the biggest in the world, etc", when I was pretty much as far away from there as you can possibly be.
The next event is Todexon, with some performances in schools beforehand. Though plenty of the touring party will be at the Swiss Jam this weekend. Todexon is also at a major sports expo from what I have read.
In terms of the "business" side of the project, well, probably the less said the better. Let's just say there's probably not going to be enough to go on once the "incubation" period is finished, but there are a couple of opportunities. I also talked to some people from a different program in Colombia. I though it was in Medellin, but it's in Bogota. I had applied a while back, but wasn't expecting anything. Now they said they would get back to me, though I haven't heard anything yet, and also we are not sure if Colombia will really fit into our plans.
Speaking of plans, I'm going to Australia in a couple of weeks. I haven't been back since coming here, so I am going to have to try and fit in over 2 years of catching up in the space of about 10 days. In order to do that, I'm think of going to Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. My parents have just been here, so I don't think I will go to Bega, my hometown, this time around.
There is also the fact that we just booked tickets to go as a family in June. It means I will miss any potential opportunities here relating to the World Cup, but that doesn't really matter, because there's nothing booked in, or being considered. One thing I will be a part of beforehand is the feria del futbol, which I did a bit at last year. This year I would like to either have a stall or have a competition there.
Another thing to note is the COALAR grant submissions have just opened. I think I will submit an expression of interest for a combination of footbag and freestyle football. I tried last year, but I think my scope was too wide. These two can go together well and it's something that can definitely spread through South America and a pile of cash to do that wouldn't be at all harmful.
The crown jewel in the new facilities here was meant to be the velodrome, but in reality it has become the crown of embarrassment after a disastrous crash in the cycling.
You can read about it here - http://sportslashlife.com/ugly-crash-le ... -hospital/ - I wasn't there at the time, but one of my friends, who is a photographer was there for the action. An incredible display of stupidity/poor training of the volunteers (which is part of the stupidity), and I guess some bad luck thrown into the mix.
Anyway, we all have press passes for the games, so we have been to a bunch of things. We even took Nicolas out to the tennis and the athletics yesterday. I have been to Rugby Sevens, BMX, road cycling, hockey, gymnastics, athletics, tennis and today I may go to the bowling (which is in a mall....) and to the track cycling, as it's the last day of that. I am kind of interested to go and check out the sailing, as they have a boat to take the journalists out on - that could be fun.
In footbag news, I don't have much personally. The tour is getting ready to start, I only had a couple of sessions this week, also not wearing lavers. In one I hit scorpions tail quite easily and was coming close to bl. whirl>scorps - I would really like to get to "4" in this "fearless month". It doesn't look like anyone will crack the 25, so I may look at making that a yearlong contest or something. Will have a think about it once the 25th hits.
Due to the fact that people really like seeing cyclists through the air due to other people's stupidity, the Sport/Life site has had a really big boost in numbers (which still isn't all that big, but has vastly increased, say like 10x or more). There will be a new Juho video for his "teaser" for the tour tomorrow, so that should give things a nice boost. Here is the interview that Jay did with Juho if you didn't see that - http://sportslashlife.com/juho-marjo-in ... -eurotour/
Speaking of the tour, we've had a mini/unofficial launch in Finland at the Go Expo. This is something great for me to say, "oh yes, we were a part of this major sports event, one of the biggest in the world, etc", when I was pretty much as far away from there as you can possibly be.
The next event is Todexon, with some performances in schools beforehand. Though plenty of the touring party will be at the Swiss Jam this weekend. Todexon is also at a major sports expo from what I have read.
In terms of the "business" side of the project, well, probably the less said the better. Let's just say there's probably not going to be enough to go on once the "incubation" period is finished, but there are a couple of opportunities. I also talked to some people from a different program in Colombia. I though it was in Medellin, but it's in Bogota. I had applied a while back, but wasn't expecting anything. Now they said they would get back to me, though I haven't heard anything yet, and also we are not sure if Colombia will really fit into our plans.
Speaking of plans, I'm going to Australia in a couple of weeks. I haven't been back since coming here, so I am going to have to try and fit in over 2 years of catching up in the space of about 10 days. In order to do that, I'm think of going to Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. My parents have just been here, so I don't think I will go to Bega, my hometown, this time around.
There is also the fact that we just booked tickets to go as a family in June. It means I will miss any potential opportunities here relating to the World Cup, but that doesn't really matter, because there's nothing booked in, or being considered. One thing I will be a part of beforehand is the feria del futbol, which I did a bit at last year. This year I would like to either have a stall or have a competition there.
Another thing to note is the COALAR grant submissions have just opened. I think I will submit an expression of interest for a combination of footbag and freestyle football. I tried last year, but I think my scope was too wide. These two can go together well and it's something that can definitely spread through South America and a pile of cash to do that wouldn't be at all harmful.
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
I was commenting a little on Ken's blog earlier on, about a few different things in recent days. First of all the Fearless Challenge. Today I came really close to breaking my record, which is three. I had phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly then had spinning ducking osis drop off the foot. I wasn't filming that then, I had pretty much decided to stop, then picked things up for a couple of last tries.
I put together a couple of my attempts. Don't think I got more than 2 on video, but I hit some combos I had never hit before. One I quite liked was stepping ducking osis>tomahawk. I might try again, I think if I get three or four good ones I will put it into the fearless thread. That could be worth building on for the rest of the year.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWWRUlvZLL8[/youtube]
I also added a bit of stuff from the South American Games. I did up a bit of an overview of the Games, which finish tomorrow, here http://www.ilovechile.cl/2014/03/17/sou ... gly/105556 - It's definitely been interesting watching them unfold. Crazy match in the women's basktetball last night, Chile pushed Argentina into extra time, but they couldn't go on with it, they ended up losing 85-80. That was the fifth time that day that Chile had lost to Argentina in a final (hockey x 2, women's football and both basketball).
I think we have done a reasonable job of the coverage on the Sport/Life site. Some days have been difficult, but we have got some great photos, covered a big variety of sports and been on the scene at some important moments. It's very interesting to see this unfold, then to think about what covering something like the Olympics would be like. Like someone said to me during the week "otra nivel"...
So I'm going to Australia in two weeks. I haven't been in more than two years, so I'm looking forward to that. It's seeming that the big option is going to be to move back to Australia in the not too distant future (within this year). Have made contact with a few people there about some different option and there is already one that could be a possibility.
We've also got tickets to go again in June, as the whole family. It may even be time to go for good then. Let's see...nothing to know right now.
Two more good videos coming for the pre-tour series, there will be one for Aleksi tomorrow in the morning and one of Anssi later in the week.
I put together a couple of my attempts. Don't think I got more than 2 on video, but I hit some combos I had never hit before. One I quite liked was stepping ducking osis>tomahawk. I might try again, I think if I get three or four good ones I will put it into the fearless thread. That could be worth building on for the rest of the year.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWWRUlvZLL8[/youtube]
I also added a bit of stuff from the South American Games. I did up a bit of an overview of the Games, which finish tomorrow, here http://www.ilovechile.cl/2014/03/17/sou ... gly/105556 - It's definitely been interesting watching them unfold. Crazy match in the women's basktetball last night, Chile pushed Argentina into extra time, but they couldn't go on with it, they ended up losing 85-80. That was the fifth time that day that Chile had lost to Argentina in a final (hockey x 2, women's football and both basketball).
I think we have done a reasonable job of the coverage on the Sport/Life site. Some days have been difficult, but we have got some great photos, covered a big variety of sports and been on the scene at some important moments. It's very interesting to see this unfold, then to think about what covering something like the Olympics would be like. Like someone said to me during the week "otra nivel"...
So I'm going to Australia in two weeks. I haven't been in more than two years, so I'm looking forward to that. It's seeming that the big option is going to be to move back to Australia in the not too distant future (within this year). Have made contact with a few people there about some different option and there is already one that could be a possibility.
We've also got tickets to go again in June, as the whole family. It may even be time to go for good then. Let's see...nothing to know right now.
Two more good videos coming for the pre-tour series, there will be one for Aleksi tomorrow in the morning and one of Anssi later in the week.
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Hi blog. Let's have a chat. Some interesting topics of conversation to think about.
Money and Footbag
Some comments from Jay and Ken got me thinking, I guess I have a fairly well detailed knowledge of some of the specific moments, as I am the one backing the European Tour right now, and I was also involved slightly in the Australian events that Ken came out for (in that I did one or two demonstrations along the way, not that I was doing any of the organising.
It's always going be tricky in footbag. In reality close to nobody gives a shit, within the playing community, let alone outside of it. That is always going to make sponsors and other funders harder to come by. If we're not going to fund ourselves, why would anybody else.
So that is the main idea of this footbag tour. It is to have something that is "a product" to sell in the future. Say when there is a football tournament, like the Asian Cup, or Copa América, that something like this could just latch on. Or a business wants to have a chain of events, maybe in malls, and they want to have something that goes to each place, hey, here we are.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlPJeA7Phww[/youtube]
I don't know if this tour will be beneficial, nothing, or negative for me personally in the long run. We will see if "Sport/Life" continues to be a "real entity" after the funding runs out, which is pretty soon. At this moment I am in a bit of a tight space, as I need to wait til coming back from Australia to get my second installment of the money. It's not very long, but that's more about the day to day right now. I've lived the day to day on a tight budget most of my life, so that's not going to be a problem.
The second thing is going to be using that money adequately, in such a short time frame. The tour funding I have budgeted out, and I'm not particularly interested in adding more funding to that tour. I might try and do something in Australia, where I will basically fund "somebody" (probably my sister), to create some kind of series of events, that will happen at a later date. I don't know if that will work, but it could be an option.
I just want to say that it's very disappointing how things turned out with Jeremy and Ken. I remember (vaguely, it was a really long time ago), but I'm pretty sure that Jeremy was incredibly excited to have Ken come to Australia, particularly with his Japanese heritage and the fact he had already visited New Zealand, etc, etc. I can't remember what the key problem was, but I think some of the final demonstrations were cancelled by the marketing company, as the whole tour wasn't deemed "a success".
With that money thing, I am going to a massive sports conference, with leaders from all kinds of sports, from someone from skateboarding, through to someone from the ATP. The beauty is that within these last few weeks, despite being "not much", we can say Sport/Life has been to the Go Expo in Finland, the South American Games in Santiago and the Business of Sport Summit in Sydney, as well as creating our own sporting tour.
Worlds 2014, 2015, 2016
I don't think I will go to Worlds this year. The late announcement means that the turnout is going to be low, and the "hype" is just not there. Even people within Europe don't seem to be talking much about going.
I think 2015 will be in the US, but someone is going to need to put in a good bid. The US Open joining with net in Portland is very interesting, may be a sign of things to come (?) I am just saying these things as someone (very) far away. I foresee Ted Fritsch making a lot of noise on social media but not changing his bid from the one that hasn't been accepted year on year on year.
The key to making noise on social media is making it pleasant music that gets people activated, not squawking feedback. I got a new gig on social media actually, I will be looking after a Facebook page with 175,000 likes. If I can sneak something about footbag on there, I will...but it could be difficult, as it is a client page, something to do with the government, etc, etc.
I think the PSU club would be ripe to do something, but I don't really see a uni campus being the place for worlds. If they teamed up with the New York people, especially some net-heads, then you have a bid.
I would like to help do a bid for Medellin, Colombia in 2016. 2015 is probably too soon. Asmus has said Copenhagen will bid for 2015. I don't know what Caroline will do in terms of Gdansk for these major tournaments. Maybe a Euros would be the first step.
Looks like you're getting bored of the rambling, here's a baby photo. We took Nicolas to the tennis the other day. The Chile F1, which is basically the third division of tennis (you have the challengers below the ATP, which still have pretty good players, and then the futures, which have "the best players in Chile"...(It wasn't so many years back that Chile had a number one, or dual gold medalists, but I definitely missed that era).
The thing I want to mention about tennis is that for this tournament, I can find out every single piece of information. And also the thought of a good possibility for tournament organisation. The general schedule in tennis is that you have x plays y at 10 am, followed by a vs b. The next match will take place at *not before 1pm*. This is an ideal option to give people a break, let viewers come back.
The beauty with the tennis sites is you can see the rankings of even the worst places, the results are updated daily, even from the Tanzania Futures 4, or wherever.
Maybe that was a bad example -
So what's this got to do with footbag? Let's put the info up, straight away. How can people care if there's no result to show. How can you refresh your feed on Twitter or Facebook, when there's nothing to see.
On intermediate players. The "too cool for school" attitude, and the "too cold to play" weather won't help anything. Nick Polini has been a great example, but we need his style to be "global". In reality footbag needs to be paying somebody to be getting the intermediate players in to competitions and to keep playing from there. I guess the first thing to make the sport become more "professional" is to get some people on the payroll. But then you have to make sure they do a good job, and that's always hard to keep track of, unless you have someone invested in monitoring that situation.
As for my own game, I've barely been playing. I've been doing a bunch of other sports. I went to my first aussie rules training session yesterday and put my foot in a rabbit hole, which was an annoying part of an otherwise good session. We had a really good turnout, particularly for the early days of the year, about 20 people to training. (We only have one team, and we generally just play games of 9 on 9 or so on a half field.
It was a nice day for it and the ground was in good condition. I think this may be the year we finally get our shit together.
Talking of not having the things together, last week I got a call, and they said "oh hey Daniel, I just got a call from Carley"
"Who's Carley?" showed how much I knew about it. I had agreed long before (like months) to give a talk, mainly about the World Cup at the "International Association", which is an expats group, mainly made up of older ladies. What I was trying to do (once I got there in a taxi as quickly as I could...) was to give them some tips that even the most casual of observers could drop in during the World Cup.
"That Sampaoli did a good job with La U, didn't he." "Bravo to the captain," "Gary Medel" http://www.ilovechile.cl/2013/09/20/gar ... wers/92450
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ec7aILIAw0[/youtube]
Anyway, this Saturday I'm going to Australia. I haven't been there in over 2 years, and I haven't been anywhere out of Chile since we went to Colombia. This trip will probably shed a lot of light on what the next step from here is.
Let's see...
Money and Footbag
Some comments from Jay and Ken got me thinking, I guess I have a fairly well detailed knowledge of some of the specific moments, as I am the one backing the European Tour right now, and I was also involved slightly in the Australian events that Ken came out for (in that I did one or two demonstrations along the way, not that I was doing any of the organising.
It's always going be tricky in footbag. In reality close to nobody gives a shit, within the playing community, let alone outside of it. That is always going to make sponsors and other funders harder to come by. If we're not going to fund ourselves, why would anybody else.
So that is the main idea of this footbag tour. It is to have something that is "a product" to sell in the future. Say when there is a football tournament, like the Asian Cup, or Copa América, that something like this could just latch on. Or a business wants to have a chain of events, maybe in malls, and they want to have something that goes to each place, hey, here we are.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlPJeA7Phww[/youtube]
I don't know if this tour will be beneficial, nothing, or negative for me personally in the long run. We will see if "Sport/Life" continues to be a "real entity" after the funding runs out, which is pretty soon. At this moment I am in a bit of a tight space, as I need to wait til coming back from Australia to get my second installment of the money. It's not very long, but that's more about the day to day right now. I've lived the day to day on a tight budget most of my life, so that's not going to be a problem.
The second thing is going to be using that money adequately, in such a short time frame. The tour funding I have budgeted out, and I'm not particularly interested in adding more funding to that tour. I might try and do something in Australia, where I will basically fund "somebody" (probably my sister), to create some kind of series of events, that will happen at a later date. I don't know if that will work, but it could be an option.
I just want to say that it's very disappointing how things turned out with Jeremy and Ken. I remember (vaguely, it was a really long time ago), but I'm pretty sure that Jeremy was incredibly excited to have Ken come to Australia, particularly with his Japanese heritage and the fact he had already visited New Zealand, etc, etc. I can't remember what the key problem was, but I think some of the final demonstrations were cancelled by the marketing company, as the whole tour wasn't deemed "a success".
With that money thing, I am going to a massive sports conference, with leaders from all kinds of sports, from someone from skateboarding, through to someone from the ATP. The beauty is that within these last few weeks, despite being "not much", we can say Sport/Life has been to the Go Expo in Finland, the South American Games in Santiago and the Business of Sport Summit in Sydney, as well as creating our own sporting tour.
Worlds 2014, 2015, 2016
I don't think I will go to Worlds this year. The late announcement means that the turnout is going to be low, and the "hype" is just not there. Even people within Europe don't seem to be talking much about going.
I think 2015 will be in the US, but someone is going to need to put in a good bid. The US Open joining with net in Portland is very interesting, may be a sign of things to come (?) I am just saying these things as someone (very) far away. I foresee Ted Fritsch making a lot of noise on social media but not changing his bid from the one that hasn't been accepted year on year on year.
The key to making noise on social media is making it pleasant music that gets people activated, not squawking feedback. I got a new gig on social media actually, I will be looking after a Facebook page with 175,000 likes. If I can sneak something about footbag on there, I will...but it could be difficult, as it is a client page, something to do with the government, etc, etc.
I think the PSU club would be ripe to do something, but I don't really see a uni campus being the place for worlds. If they teamed up with the New York people, especially some net-heads, then you have a bid.
I would like to help do a bid for Medellin, Colombia in 2016. 2015 is probably too soon. Asmus has said Copenhagen will bid for 2015. I don't know what Caroline will do in terms of Gdansk for these major tournaments. Maybe a Euros would be the first step.
Looks like you're getting bored of the rambling, here's a baby photo. We took Nicolas to the tennis the other day. The Chile F1, which is basically the third division of tennis (you have the challengers below the ATP, which still have pretty good players, and then the futures, which have "the best players in Chile"...(It wasn't so many years back that Chile had a number one, or dual gold medalists, but I definitely missed that era).
The thing I want to mention about tennis is that for this tournament, I can find out every single piece of information. And also the thought of a good possibility for tournament organisation. The general schedule in tennis is that you have x plays y at 10 am, followed by a vs b. The next match will take place at *not before 1pm*. This is an ideal option to give people a break, let viewers come back.
The beauty with the tennis sites is you can see the rankings of even the worst places, the results are updated daily, even from the Tanzania Futures 4, or wherever.
Maybe that was a bad example -
One of the Chilean blokes has been playing the futures in Egypt, and winning most of them. He's now number 2 in Chile, but hasn't been selected for the Davis Cup. The guy who has (Jorge Aguilar) got knocked out in the first round by a bloke ranked 700 and something two weeks in a row.Mbajo also said lack of big courts is hindering the country from having a Davis and Fed Cup teams.
“We have good players who can ably compete at the Davis and Fed Cup tournaments, the only problem is that we do not have courts where they can play. Should we build a team to play in a foreign country?” he asked.
So what's this got to do with footbag? Let's put the info up, straight away. How can people care if there's no result to show. How can you refresh your feed on Twitter or Facebook, when there's nothing to see.
On intermediate players. The "too cool for school" attitude, and the "too cold to play" weather won't help anything. Nick Polini has been a great example, but we need his style to be "global". In reality footbag needs to be paying somebody to be getting the intermediate players in to competitions and to keep playing from there. I guess the first thing to make the sport become more "professional" is to get some people on the payroll. But then you have to make sure they do a good job, and that's always hard to keep track of, unless you have someone invested in monitoring that situation.
As for my own game, I've barely been playing. I've been doing a bunch of other sports. I went to my first aussie rules training session yesterday and put my foot in a rabbit hole, which was an annoying part of an otherwise good session. We had a really good turnout, particularly for the early days of the year, about 20 people to training. (We only have one team, and we generally just play games of 9 on 9 or so on a half field.
It was a nice day for it and the ground was in good condition. I think this may be the year we finally get our shit together.
Talking of not having the things together, last week I got a call, and they said "oh hey Daniel, I just got a call from Carley"
"Who's Carley?" showed how much I knew about it. I had agreed long before (like months) to give a talk, mainly about the World Cup at the "International Association", which is an expats group, mainly made up of older ladies. What I was trying to do (once I got there in a taxi as quickly as I could...) was to give them some tips that even the most casual of observers could drop in during the World Cup.
"That Sampaoli did a good job with La U, didn't he." "Bravo to the captain," "Gary Medel" http://www.ilovechile.cl/2013/09/20/gar ... wers/92450
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ec7aILIAw0[/youtube]
Anyway, this Saturday I'm going to Australia. I haven't been there in over 2 years, and I haven't been anywhere out of Chile since we went to Colombia. This trip will probably shed a lot of light on what the next step from here is.
Let's see...
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
I just put in an "expression of interest" for some new funding. It's from the Australian government, pointed to Latin America. I asked for $36,500. That would be nice, wouldn't it.
I won't find out about it until May or June, and then I'll only know if I'm welcome to submit a full application.
I know Jay has been working on an application for Start Up Chile today too, the new round closes in about 6 hours, but if you have a genius idea there are other rounds opening in June and September.
I'm going to book a couple of tickets for my time in Australia. Looks like we've at least got a session with me and Dyalan on the Saturday, hope I can get a few more in, for this "special kind of international guest".
I won't find out about it until May or June, and then I'll only know if I'm welcome to submit a full application.
I know Jay has been working on an application for Start Up Chile today too, the new round closes in about 6 hours, but if you have a genius idea there are other rounds opening in June and September.
I'm going to book a couple of tickets for my time in Australia. Looks like we've at least got a session with me and Dyalan on the Saturday, hope I can get a few more in, for this "special kind of international guest".
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F[uns]tylin' Eclectic
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Caught up on more of your blog just now. Glad Nicolas is doing well and you're doing well with him. Still love that name! 
Watched your scenic shred video above (must've missed it before).. it was a great watch! Superb scenery and awesome shred for hiking shoes and pants! ope the new funding goes through for you. That would be gnarly. Best of luck with life man!
Watched your scenic shred video above (must've missed it before).. it was a great watch! Superb scenery and awesome shred for hiking shoes and pants! ope the new funding goes through for you. That would be gnarly. Best of luck with life man!
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Yeah, we're in an interesting place now, with a couple of options opening themselves up. I think I will know a lot more once I go to Australia. Personally I would like to move back to Australia, as it's a lot easier to earn a few bucks there, though there are opportunities presenting themselves here now too.
That Cajon del Maipo area is pretty impressive, it's only just outside Santiago, and just really opens up into the Andes. It's always impressive being somewhere in Chile that seems relatively "flat", but it's at a much higher altitude than anything in Australia.
Here is the "little monster" with another monster friend. He's a good guy. I think we are doing a pretty good job so far, we haven't had any major disasters as yet and we are working well together. It will be more difficult for Francisca while I'm away, but she is going to stay with some relatives, so they'll be able to help her out.
I had a pretty good session yesterday. I was feeling sore still from the footy training, so I said I wouldn't go to play frisbee. I decided that I hadn't played much recently, so it would be a good opportunity. Now of course, I feel the legs even worse, however, I hit a few ok things - something I was happy with was to hit sidewalk>ripwalk rpt x 2 first try. I would say before coming from Australia, just doing that once was still an effort, now doing it twice is no problem.
I was aiming again for 15 unique tripless, I think the best I got was 11. I have been working on a bit of a formulaic combination, but maybe I should look to just "flow". The problem with that is you forget the tricks already done, and end up with four ripwalks or something.
Speaking of people called Nick, looks like Nick Landes is the winner of the Fearless Challenge. It was fairly disappointing the action seen for that. A lot of players said they were "up to the challenge", but maybe the timing wasn't right. However, because nobody got to 25, that saves the cash...which is nice. Too bad we don't have a giant cheque or something...
I'm not going to extend the period, though it could see the numbers smashed. I think we need to start implementing key times and then stick to them, even if there's a lower turnout.
Hopefully people will make some "tribute" style videos, and when they do a great run they will say "I'm out of breath"
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pp8e4QUcGo[/youtube]
That Cajon del Maipo area is pretty impressive, it's only just outside Santiago, and just really opens up into the Andes. It's always impressive being somewhere in Chile that seems relatively "flat", but it's at a much higher altitude than anything in Australia.
Here is the "little monster" with another monster friend. He's a good guy. I think we are doing a pretty good job so far, we haven't had any major disasters as yet and we are working well together. It will be more difficult for Francisca while I'm away, but she is going to stay with some relatives, so they'll be able to help her out.
I had a pretty good session yesterday. I was feeling sore still from the footy training, so I said I wouldn't go to play frisbee. I decided that I hadn't played much recently, so it would be a good opportunity. Now of course, I feel the legs even worse, however, I hit a few ok things - something I was happy with was to hit sidewalk>ripwalk rpt x 2 first try. I would say before coming from Australia, just doing that once was still an effort, now doing it twice is no problem.
I was aiming again for 15 unique tripless, I think the best I got was 11. I have been working on a bit of a formulaic combination, but maybe I should look to just "flow". The problem with that is you forget the tricks already done, and end up with four ripwalks or something.
Speaking of people called Nick, looks like Nick Landes is the winner of the Fearless Challenge. It was fairly disappointing the action seen for that. A lot of players said they were "up to the challenge", but maybe the timing wasn't right. However, because nobody got to 25, that saves the cash...which is nice. Too bad we don't have a giant cheque or something...
I'm not going to extend the period, though it could see the numbers smashed. I think we need to start implementing key times and then stick to them, even if there's a lower turnout.
Hopefully people will make some "tribute" style videos, and when they do a great run they will say "I'm out of breath"
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pp8e4QUcGo[/youtube]
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
I don't know if I wrote about going for it, but I had applied for another accelerator in Colombia. I had originally applied for one in Medellín, but they got back to me about one in Bogota. In reality I was surprised to be considered as it was something I basically did as an afterthought. Needless to say, I didn't get in. It was interesting to be considered though, but I think I need to have something more on hand to show some strong progress.
I think that's something that I will have after the tour. Whether anything else comes after that, we'll have to see. It's interesting that there is a great range of tournaments in the US in the next months. It would have been good to do something similar there. You've got Vegas, PSU, Nola all in the space of a few weeks. The problem with the US, just like in Australia, and other countries, is that places are fffffffffffffaaaarrr. Same with South America.
I'm pretty excited to go to this sports conference next week. I have got in touch with a few of the speakers on Linked in. One bloke I'm particularly interested to talk to is the General Manager of Skateboarding Australia. The other, who I have "asked to connect" on Linkedin is the main man in digital media from FC Barcelona.
So if I can get him to get Alexis Sánchez to kick a footbag a few times. Game over, Sport/Life has won...
So I've paid off the money to Nick for the Fearless Challenge. I am hoping that Evan can do something in Vegas as a kind of "ceremony" for the "Fearless King" - what would be great would be trying to get them all to do as many as possible at the same time. That'd make a cool video.
I handed in my "financials" for Start Up Chile today. Hopefully everything goes smooth. Even if it only goes "reasonably smooth", that should still be enough to put me through and get the second round of money. A crazy thing that I'm going to have to do is spend a huge amount of money in a short amount of time. So let's see how that can go. There are some expenses that are already marked out, but there's some other options that are still available. There are also some big ideas that I have that could be great to make happen, but the whole short time frame could make things difficult.
If it doesn't go smoothly, then it's going to be an even shorter amount of time to use said money, as I'm going to be in Australia for two more weeks, though I think any problems that can come up should be able to be resolved by email. One key problem, which has been a problem all along, is that I can't claim the travel to Australia, until I come back. But now I'm going to be back soon enough, so that will be good.
I got some business cards printed up today. This is srs bznz. Will be good to have at the conference. I think this trip to Australia is really going to tell me a lot about what the next step will be.
So, maybe I mentioned earlier about plans for a new competition. The fearless one was about pushing the top level, but the next idea should be more about the "masses". I'm thinking of doing a one minute consecutives tournament. I'm trying to figure out the best way to make things more interesting for both contestants and judges, while being easy for everyone as well.
What I'm thinking is that all should be dropless (no stalls), and should have a minimum amount of surfaces (maybe 6). I was thinking about penalty points for not changing feet, drops, etc - but I think I will leave that out. It should be a good way to get net players and veterans involved as well as new players. It should be good fun I think. Much more accessible than the fearless.
We had a good writeup on the Aussie Rules club here - http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.p ... 6232637266
I'm a big media man lately, I was talking on the ABC in Melbourne yesterday, they have an "international journalist" on the line each week. Last week it was a bloke from the New York Times...this week was me. Hopefully there will be a podcast of that shortly. I talked about footbag, about the startup, and life in general in Chile. Funny that it came about just as I'm about to go to Australia. Hopefully in can help in some way...
I think that's something that I will have after the tour. Whether anything else comes after that, we'll have to see. It's interesting that there is a great range of tournaments in the US in the next months. It would have been good to do something similar there. You've got Vegas, PSU, Nola all in the space of a few weeks. The problem with the US, just like in Australia, and other countries, is that places are fffffffffffffaaaarrr. Same with South America.
I'm pretty excited to go to this sports conference next week. I have got in touch with a few of the speakers on Linked in. One bloke I'm particularly interested to talk to is the General Manager of Skateboarding Australia. The other, who I have "asked to connect" on Linkedin is the main man in digital media from FC Barcelona.
So if I can get him to get Alexis Sánchez to kick a footbag a few times. Game over, Sport/Life has won...
So I've paid off the money to Nick for the Fearless Challenge. I am hoping that Evan can do something in Vegas as a kind of "ceremony" for the "Fearless King" - what would be great would be trying to get them all to do as many as possible at the same time. That'd make a cool video.
I handed in my "financials" for Start Up Chile today. Hopefully everything goes smooth. Even if it only goes "reasonably smooth", that should still be enough to put me through and get the second round of money. A crazy thing that I'm going to have to do is spend a huge amount of money in a short amount of time. So let's see how that can go. There are some expenses that are already marked out, but there's some other options that are still available. There are also some big ideas that I have that could be great to make happen, but the whole short time frame could make things difficult.
If it doesn't go smoothly, then it's going to be an even shorter amount of time to use said money, as I'm going to be in Australia for two more weeks, though I think any problems that can come up should be able to be resolved by email. One key problem, which has been a problem all along, is that I can't claim the travel to Australia, until I come back. But now I'm going to be back soon enough, so that will be good.
I got some business cards printed up today. This is srs bznz. Will be good to have at the conference. I think this trip to Australia is really going to tell me a lot about what the next step will be.
So, maybe I mentioned earlier about plans for a new competition. The fearless one was about pushing the top level, but the next idea should be more about the "masses". I'm thinking of doing a one minute consecutives tournament. I'm trying to figure out the best way to make things more interesting for both contestants and judges, while being easy for everyone as well.
What I'm thinking is that all should be dropless (no stalls), and should have a minimum amount of surfaces (maybe 6). I was thinking about penalty points for not changing feet, drops, etc - but I think I will leave that out. It should be a good way to get net players and veterans involved as well as new players. It should be good fun I think. Much more accessible than the fearless.
We had a good writeup on the Aussie Rules club here - http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.p ... 6232637266
I'm a big media man lately, I was talking on the ABC in Melbourne yesterday, they have an "international journalist" on the line each week. Last week it was a bloke from the New York Times...this week was me. Hopefully there will be a podcast of that shortly. I talked about footbag, about the startup, and life in general in Chile. Funny that it came about just as I'm about to go to Australia. Hopefully in can help in some way...
Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
"So if I can get him to get Alexis Sánchez to kick a footbag a few times. Game over, Sport/Life has won..."
This makes me all fuzzy inside! Visca el Barca i visca Sanchez!
This makes me all fuzzy inside! Visca el Barca i visca Sanchez!
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
About to board my flight to Sydney, though they have just announced a 30 minute delay.
Had a great session. Tested out my consecutives in 1 minute. 102, always changing feet, no drops. Used toe, inside, outside, knee, cloud, sole.
Also hit flip stepping diving butterfly for the first time, came close to 15 unique tripless too many times.
Also had fairy ss dlo-pixie dso off the foot. Still haven't done the triple to triple, but it's coming soon.
Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 mediante Tapatalk
Had a great session. Tested out my consecutives in 1 minute. 102, always changing feet, no drops. Used toe, inside, outside, knee, cloud, sole.
Also hit flip stepping diving butterfly for the first time, came close to 15 unique tripless too many times.
Also had fairy ss dlo-pixie dso off the foot. Still haven't done the triple to triple, but it's coming soon.
Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 mediante Tapatalk
-
boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Hi blog
I am in Australia. I came here on Sunday, so been here five days now. This is going to be a quick post, more on a lot of thoughts another time.
Played today with Ryan Richardson at Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour and its iconic things in the background, as well as a big fuck off boat.
The good things of the session were the following:
4 fearless (new pb) - darkwalk>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>tomahwak. I have been working on that a while, so happy with that.
11 rev swirl (new pb, possibly Australian record). My previous record was 9, but it wasn't hit in Australia. I don't know if anyone has bothered to hit an Aus record for the trick. I used to have it at 3 but that was a long time ago and I have beaten it many times.
15 unique tripless. Unfortunately the first trick didn't come out on film. The final tricks were ducking osis>pdx whirl>spinning osis. This is something I've been working on far too long, so very happy with that.
In general, a reasonable session. Good to kick with someone else. Ryan had some pretty good runs, 10-15 guiltless from time to time, but he hasn't played in ages. Nobody in Australia has.
The other day after the conference, I was playing in "business" shoes. I wanted to hit something kind of good, so I hit blurry drifter in said shoes.
In this session, not one, but two, people came up to me and started playing. Both of these guys were travellers, but more importantly both of them *had* footbags for their travels. They both had sandmasters. Neither were of a top level, but that's not important, they're getting into it. Hopefully one of the guys will come out when I kick with Dyalan tomorrow in Lane Cove.
After two days at a conference about "best practices" in sports business, all I can say is that footbag has a lot of work to do, but that things like the European tour are a step in the right direction.
That's looking pretty good, almost a thousand kids in demos in Prague. Great start, hopefully the tour-ers will do well in the comp at Todexon.
I wrote this yesterday, but forgot the little matter of pressing "Submit"...going to have a kick with Dyalan shortly. Great to be able to re-awaken the shred in Sydney...
I am in Australia. I came here on Sunday, so been here five days now. This is going to be a quick post, more on a lot of thoughts another time.
Played today with Ryan Richardson at Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour and its iconic things in the background, as well as a big fuck off boat.
The good things of the session were the following:
4 fearless (new pb) - darkwalk>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>tomahwak. I have been working on that a while, so happy with that.
11 rev swirl (new pb, possibly Australian record). My previous record was 9, but it wasn't hit in Australia. I don't know if anyone has bothered to hit an Aus record for the trick. I used to have it at 3 but that was a long time ago and I have beaten it many times.
15 unique tripless. Unfortunately the first trick didn't come out on film. The final tricks were ducking osis>pdx whirl>spinning osis. This is something I've been working on far too long, so very happy with that.
In general, a reasonable session. Good to kick with someone else. Ryan had some pretty good runs, 10-15 guiltless from time to time, but he hasn't played in ages. Nobody in Australia has.
The other day after the conference, I was playing in "business" shoes. I wanted to hit something kind of good, so I hit blurry drifter in said shoes.
In this session, not one, but two, people came up to me and started playing. Both of these guys were travellers, but more importantly both of them *had* footbags for their travels. They both had sandmasters. Neither were of a top level, but that's not important, they're getting into it. Hopefully one of the guys will come out when I kick with Dyalan tomorrow in Lane Cove.
After two days at a conference about "best practices" in sports business, all I can say is that footbag has a lot of work to do, but that things like the European tour are a step in the right direction.
That's looking pretty good, almost a thousand kids in demos in Prague. Great start, hopefully the tour-ers will do well in the comp at Todexon.
I wrote this yesterday, but forgot the little matter of pressing "Submit"...going to have a kick with Dyalan shortly. Great to be able to re-awaken the shred in Sydney...
-
boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
So, just got back from Australia today.
Had a ten day trip there, was my first time back in over two years. Since being here in Chile. It was only the second time out of Chile in this whole time as well, the last trip out was Colombia in 2012.
The basic conclusion is that people in Australia have not been playing. Mostly not since nationals in 2012.
I got to play with Ryan, Dyalan and Copey, all in separate sessions. The good thing is that despite none of them playing regularly, none of them said "sorry, I don't play any more". They're still following what's happening, still interested. Just need something to keep them on their toes.
Here's a couple of runs from me.
I played it in the airport before coming, had a few good runs.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBl8Ket-uS4[/youtube]
The session with Ryan was quite good, by the harbour, couple of new records, which I mentioned on the previous page.
Here's something from the session in Lane Cove with Dyalan.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzJ0XIDVGk[/youtube]
I didn't film anything with Copey, it was only a quick session in Glebe Park, bringing back the old days.
I was happy to hit a bunch of stuff that I was pretty impressed with myself.
- ripped warrior>mobius
- finished the session on double spinning osis
- sailing butterfly
There were a couple of other things too. I also played wheelchair basketball that night. That was pretty good fun.
We're back to Australia in June, so hopefully I can continue the "reawakening" of the Australian scene.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_EW-H5rRs[/youtube]
Had a ten day trip there, was my first time back in over two years. Since being here in Chile. It was only the second time out of Chile in this whole time as well, the last trip out was Colombia in 2012.
The basic conclusion is that people in Australia have not been playing. Mostly not since nationals in 2012.
I got to play with Ryan, Dyalan and Copey, all in separate sessions. The good thing is that despite none of them playing regularly, none of them said "sorry, I don't play any more". They're still following what's happening, still interested. Just need something to keep them on their toes.
Here's a couple of runs from me.
I played it in the airport before coming, had a few good runs.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBl8Ket-uS4[/youtube]
The session with Ryan was quite good, by the harbour, couple of new records, which I mentioned on the previous page.
Here's something from the session in Lane Cove with Dyalan.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzJ0XIDVGk[/youtube]
I didn't film anything with Copey, it was only a quick session in Glebe Park, bringing back the old days.
I was happy to hit a bunch of stuff that I was pretty impressed with myself.
- ripped warrior>mobius
- finished the session on double spinning osis
- sailing butterfly
There were a couple of other things too. I also played wheelchair basketball that night. That was pretty good fun.
We're back to Australia in June, so hopefully I can continue the "reawakening" of the Australian scene.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_EW-H5rRs[/youtube]
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boyle
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Evan Gatesman is really good. I haven't seen much video of him, not really too much since Worlds in 2010. Here's a video I took of him then, in a circle (must have been semis, I think) - with his tour buddy Anssi, and with Phil Morrison.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtzTYAoyh4M[/youtube]
Here is a video Jay put together on the tour. Swirling double blender
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y81AHkkRi0[/youtube]
This bloke is so smooth. I guess that would have been great to have Milan on the tour, for that really variety, he is not really smooth at all, his style is much more explosive. Something like that was bound to happen, and at best, we hadn't already paid for him to fly here and there, so there wasn't the financial loss.
Colo Colo won their 30th title today, and that does not make me happy at all. I go for La U, who are their bitter arch rivals. Last week I got up at 5am to watch the "superclasico" which La U lost (by an own goal). So that's not much good.
Speaking of the "Cacique", we went to watch Colo Colo play River Plate in basketball yesterday. Two of the biggest South American clubs, going for something different. It was kind of weird, and disappointingly Colo Colo won that one too. Not that I particularly like River, or any Argentina club, I don't follow it too much over there, but it's probably going to be some Brazil and some Argentina in the Copa Libertadores finals.
I thought that the trip to Australia would tell me a lot, I was thinking there'd be a definite plan after that. Unfortunately there is nothing of the sort. I guess some doors need to slam shut to narrow down the options. We go again in June, and there is a slight idea of simply not coming back, but it doesn't really seem feasible.
There would still be the task of packing up the house and all that kind of thing. Not to mention of getting a place there, etc, etc, etc. What I did find is that Canberra is probably the place to go back to. I am kind of stuck in a loop with the Start Up Chile stuff right now, I need to complete this, which will be about another month, and most especially, I need to get my second half of the money.
There have been some big delays because of the change of government, which is not really very promising, when I've only got a short time remaining to actually do the work. I am thinking that I will be able to get things invoiced that are going to happen in the future, but it everyone has the same problem, then there's nothing I can do about it, but wait in the line and just hope for the best.
It is funny to think about though, if I was just earning a salary like any other bloke in Australia, I would probably be able to do something similar. I also have picked up some work, so at least there will be some payments coming in shortly. Aside from that, I have also done my tax return here. It is so very simple, I'm not going to get a huge amount, but it's something.
Oh yeah, I'm meant to say something about my own game. Have been playing in little bits and pieces. Have been trying out gyro barrage. Not really getting there yet, but getting my head around the idea. I feel I was playing much better in Australia, but I guess I was trying to impress.
I'm glad that worked out ok, because it is easy to overdo that kind of thing. I'm looking forward to going back there again, and in reality I don't like the idea so much of coming back. On that note though, I have applied for a job at the Australian embassy in Chile, and if I was to get that, that could make things worthwhile to stick around.
I have also been working a little on alternating knee kicks. It's pretty hard to do a high number of them, because the bag needs to be pretty straight up and down, which is quite different to just kicks. I got about 30 the other day, but I saw Derick Fogle did 900 or so, so there is a very long way to go...
I'm not really "feeling it" lately. I guess I'm still recovering from my short journey to Australia, and I haven't come to any conclusion and I have things to do which are piling up on me.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtzTYAoyh4M[/youtube]
Here is a video Jay put together on the tour. Swirling double blender
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y81AHkkRi0[/youtube]
This bloke is so smooth. I guess that would have been great to have Milan on the tour, for that really variety, he is not really smooth at all, his style is much more explosive. Something like that was bound to happen, and at best, we hadn't already paid for him to fly here and there, so there wasn't the financial loss.
Colo Colo won their 30th title today, and that does not make me happy at all. I go for La U, who are their bitter arch rivals. Last week I got up at 5am to watch the "superclasico" which La U lost (by an own goal). So that's not much good.
Speaking of the "Cacique", we went to watch Colo Colo play River Plate in basketball yesterday. Two of the biggest South American clubs, going for something different. It was kind of weird, and disappointingly Colo Colo won that one too. Not that I particularly like River, or any Argentina club, I don't follow it too much over there, but it's probably going to be some Brazil and some Argentina in the Copa Libertadores finals.
I thought that the trip to Australia would tell me a lot, I was thinking there'd be a definite plan after that. Unfortunately there is nothing of the sort. I guess some doors need to slam shut to narrow down the options. We go again in June, and there is a slight idea of simply not coming back, but it doesn't really seem feasible.
There would still be the task of packing up the house and all that kind of thing. Not to mention of getting a place there, etc, etc, etc. What I did find is that Canberra is probably the place to go back to. I am kind of stuck in a loop with the Start Up Chile stuff right now, I need to complete this, which will be about another month, and most especially, I need to get my second half of the money.
There have been some big delays because of the change of government, which is not really very promising, when I've only got a short time remaining to actually do the work. I am thinking that I will be able to get things invoiced that are going to happen in the future, but it everyone has the same problem, then there's nothing I can do about it, but wait in the line and just hope for the best.
It is funny to think about though, if I was just earning a salary like any other bloke in Australia, I would probably be able to do something similar. I also have picked up some work, so at least there will be some payments coming in shortly. Aside from that, I have also done my tax return here. It is so very simple, I'm not going to get a huge amount, but it's something.
Oh yeah, I'm meant to say something about my own game. Have been playing in little bits and pieces. Have been trying out gyro barrage. Not really getting there yet, but getting my head around the idea. I feel I was playing much better in Australia, but I guess I was trying to impress.
I'm glad that worked out ok, because it is easy to overdo that kind of thing. I'm looking forward to going back there again, and in reality I don't like the idea so much of coming back. On that note though, I have applied for a job at the Australian embassy in Chile, and if I was to get that, that could make things worthwhile to stick around.
I have also been working a little on alternating knee kicks. It's pretty hard to do a high number of them, because the bag needs to be pretty straight up and down, which is quite different to just kicks. I got about 30 the other day, but I saw Derick Fogle did 900 or so, so there is a very long way to go...
I'm not really "feeling it" lately. I guess I'm still recovering from my short journey to Australia, and I haven't come to any conclusion and I have things to do which are piling up on me.
-
boyle
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- Posts: 3180
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Worked a bit on those knee kicks. Upped my record to 162. A significant improvement on last time.
So, I got to the next step with the paperwork. They wanted more info for the tour payment, but I think that will be fine.
There were also two key payments which my account man said were fine, but that they don't like. So hopefully that will be resolved shortly.
I also can't claim any taxes that I have paid...including part payments, which is pretty annoying.
Hopefully though this tour will inspire others to try something similar. There is also the hope it can be a kind of package which can be sold to a sponsor.
Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 mediante Tapatalk
So, I got to the next step with the paperwork. They wanted more info for the tour payment, but I think that will be fine.
There were also two key payments which my account man said were fine, but that they don't like. So hopefully that will be resolved shortly.
I also can't claim any taxes that I have paid...including part payments, which is pretty annoying.
Hopefully though this tour will inspire others to try something similar. There is also the hope it can be a kind of package which can be sold to a sponsor.
Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 mediante Tapatalk
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3180
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
- Location: Canberra, Australia
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Seeing all these competitions (Todexon, PSU, New Orleans, etc, etc) makes me really wish I could make it to one of them. It's been too long.
The future is kind of unclear at the moment, but well one big blip on the map is we are going to Australia in June. The biggest question for me is, am I going to come back?
I would say probably yes, but it might just be to back our bags and carry on the next step of our life.
The tour was in Fribourg in Switzerland today. It's funny thinking of this Austria/Switzerland leg, as that was the area where I really had a great time going to Europe. But I didn't have too much input in saying that was a "must". Actually, I wasn't so keen on Switzerland, because it's very expensive - but Planetfootbag in both Switzerland and Austria have been super helpful.
And that's been the most important thing for the tour (for anyone thinking of putting a large pile of money into transporting sweaty blokes obsessed with the kicking of a small ball from place to place), is good people at each local leg.
Here is a picture of me as a matter of fact, playing in that Swiss town.
After playing we jumped into this very cold river and it was so refreshing.
I was talking to Jay a bit this morning and he was saying that Evan Gatesman has been so positive to be around, and a real benefit to the tour. It is interesting, because of course I wasn't considering having any US players come as it's very expensive, but he ended up getting a very good deal and Caroline helped him out a bit I believe, but it sounds like he's really happy to be there and it's a huge opportunity.
The other thing is, from what Jay said, he's really killing it in the demos at schools, huge performances, always dropless, on the beat. Will be one to watch at Worlds this year.
It is interesting though, because a long time ago, Evan had written on the Facebook group, something about wouldn't it be cool if there was a tour of South America ahead of the world cup. The logistics of that are a little more difficult, but let's see what happens after the world cup...
I played a bit today. No real highlights. Ducking mirage>paradon>spinning mirage was an interesting combo that I probably haven't hit before. I wasn't really working on anything particular, just kicking along.
The future is kind of unclear at the moment, but well one big blip on the map is we are going to Australia in June. The biggest question for me is, am I going to come back?
I would say probably yes, but it might just be to back our bags and carry on the next step of our life.
The tour was in Fribourg in Switzerland today. It's funny thinking of this Austria/Switzerland leg, as that was the area where I really had a great time going to Europe. But I didn't have too much input in saying that was a "must". Actually, I wasn't so keen on Switzerland, because it's very expensive - but Planetfootbag in both Switzerland and Austria have been super helpful.
And that's been the most important thing for the tour (for anyone thinking of putting a large pile of money into transporting sweaty blokes obsessed with the kicking of a small ball from place to place), is good people at each local leg.
Here is a picture of me as a matter of fact, playing in that Swiss town.
After playing we jumped into this very cold river and it was so refreshing.
I was talking to Jay a bit this morning and he was saying that Evan Gatesman has been so positive to be around, and a real benefit to the tour. It is interesting, because of course I wasn't considering having any US players come as it's very expensive, but he ended up getting a very good deal and Caroline helped him out a bit I believe, but it sounds like he's really happy to be there and it's a huge opportunity.
The other thing is, from what Jay said, he's really killing it in the demos at schools, huge performances, always dropless, on the beat. Will be one to watch at Worlds this year.
It is interesting though, because a long time ago, Evan had written on the Facebook group, something about wouldn't it be cool if there was a tour of South America ahead of the world cup. The logistics of that are a little more difficult, but let's see what happens after the world cup...
I played a bit today. No real highlights. Ducking mirage>paradon>spinning mirage was an interesting combo that I probably haven't hit before. I wasn't really working on anything particular, just kicking along.
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3180
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Well well well, in the bottom of my signature it says Canberra, Australia and now Santiago de Chile, or something like that.
Looks like I'll have to put another > in the title, as we've decided we're going back. We were already flying to Australia in June, but we've come to the conclusion that if we're going to move, that's the time to go.
One thing that I'd like to follow up on is re-booting the footbag scene in Australia. We will continue along the planned holiday we had, which will be less of a holiday and more of a "moving to another country". I guess it's less scary for me to move to another country, which is my country, where I know I can begin working practically immediately.
Fact of the matter for me here is that I haven't been able to earn a real wage, and my "genius idea" hasn't taken off, though I don't think there were ever expectations that it would be getting to be a profitable business from absolutely nothing in such a short term.
I will have to have a look at what exactly to do, I still have a fair bit of money that is not yet earmarked for spending, and am running out of time to spend it. One idea I have is to do any necessary "business set up" in Australia, that will make that process easier in the future.
Interesting mention from Rory Dawson on his ten year Shredmonton post on the vital need for good content creation in the footbag community. That is something I have tried to do through the Sport/Life project, and hopefully that's going to get others inspired. It's not just videos, but a whole host of information.
That includes blogs on here - if the people within the community don't talk about what's coming up, the events they went to, the great time they had, what incentive is there for others to do the same. The whole idea is to have that for a range of sports.
Here is a small video I put on my Instagram, had a quick session at a family do. I don't think you can embed instagram on to forums, not directly anyway.
http://instagram.com/p/m_mBY6mIKP/
Anyway, very exciting/nerve wracking times. I guess it's like the downhill mountain bike version of things. Very fast with very great potential for crashing, but looks very smooth if you make it.
Looks like I'll have to put another > in the title, as we've decided we're going back. We were already flying to Australia in June, but we've come to the conclusion that if we're going to move, that's the time to go.
One thing that I'd like to follow up on is re-booting the footbag scene in Australia. We will continue along the planned holiday we had, which will be less of a holiday and more of a "moving to another country". I guess it's less scary for me to move to another country, which is my country, where I know I can begin working practically immediately.
Fact of the matter for me here is that I haven't been able to earn a real wage, and my "genius idea" hasn't taken off, though I don't think there were ever expectations that it would be getting to be a profitable business from absolutely nothing in such a short term.
I will have to have a look at what exactly to do, I still have a fair bit of money that is not yet earmarked for spending, and am running out of time to spend it. One idea I have is to do any necessary "business set up" in Australia, that will make that process easier in the future.
Interesting mention from Rory Dawson on his ten year Shredmonton post on the vital need for good content creation in the footbag community. That is something I have tried to do through the Sport/Life project, and hopefully that's going to get others inspired. It's not just videos, but a whole host of information.
That includes blogs on here - if the people within the community don't talk about what's coming up, the events they went to, the great time they had, what incentive is there for others to do the same. The whole idea is to have that for a range of sports.
Here is a small video I put on my Instagram, had a quick session at a family do. I don't think you can embed instagram on to forums, not directly anyway.
http://instagram.com/p/m_mBY6mIKP/
Anyway, very exciting/nerve wracking times. I guess it's like the downhill mountain bike version of things. Very fast with very great potential for crashing, but looks very smooth if you make it.
-
boyle
- Post Master General
- Posts: 3180
- Joined: 19 Sep 2007 23:42
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Re: Canberra, Australia>Santiago de Chile - Daniel Boyle
Dear blog, I am writing this with a mean hangover. Before starting what ended up being a long drinking session, I was playing in pants while waiting for my friends.
I hit motion-pdx blender and a couple of nice long runs also. I was playing a little way off the main road and a guy in a taxi yelled otra otra.
Now I have a lot of work to do and a sore head....
Glad that Ryan is back to kicking and blogging. Will be good to play some more when I go back to Aus.
Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 mediante Tapatalk
I hit motion-pdx blender and a couple of nice long runs also. I was playing a little way off the main road and a guy in a taxi yelled otra otra.
Now I have a lot of work to do and a sore head....
Glad that Ryan is back to kicking and blogging. Will be good to play some more when I go back to Aus.
Enviado desde mi GT-I9300 mediante Tapatalk