first write-up ever ( first post in 5 years!?), but this was a special tournament.
Pre-Tournament: Derek stayed with me at my house-sitting/kitty caring gig for about 2 weeks.
We played every day and routine practice the final week really got us ready to compete.
The plan was to carpool with Dustin and Nathan Pipenberg, but Dustin ended up flying there and Nathan couldn't get out of work.
All good though, Derek and I were ready!
Thursday (pre-tourney still): We packed up the car and headed over to steve's for the usual Thursday shred.
Derek decided to rest a day, and steve alex and I had just a mini session. I wanted to move around and get my legs loose before the drive, and this was perfect. We then left for our first half of the drive. Stopped at a random rest stop and got our sleeping bags set up to sleep. Not a great night of sleep... around 1230-100, a skunk paid us a visit. It was pretty funny actually. I woke up to see Derek facing down a skunk: Derek still laying on his stomach, peeking out of his sleeping bag and ready to pull it over his head in case of an attack. He was like a statue. The skunk, also statue-esque, had its tail up and was ready to fire, about 5 feet away from Derek. No stinky spray attacks, but sleeping the rest of the night was kinda sketchy.
Friday: (pre-tourney) Woke up early and continued to drive around 7:00am. Took a really nice break stop as we were pretty tired from the night before. I had nice spot set-up on some soft squishy grass. The sun was hot and there were nice little sprinkly rain showers throughout my almost 2-hour nap. We took off from there around 12 and had 4 hours to go til portland. Perfect!
LET THE FUN BEGIN!
We arrive at Nick's place and are greeted by some wonderful people and a beautiful bong
I had met everyone before except one. And I would actually meet another footbagger for the first time later in the weekend.
It was my first time meeting Cass and I was impressed even before footbagging. I always appreciate it when people travel far for footbag tournaments. And, she's the world champion!
After hellos and bowls we scrambled around to get ready for footbag and headed over to a school park to play.
I kicked with a few people here, and was most impressed with good ol gordon. Over the weekend, I would find that he plays a lot like dave, or i should say, dave plays a lot like him. The similarity in body movements and flow can be easily seen now that I have played with both quite a few times in person.
It was a good session, though I was not playing too well. I think the drive had taken a toll on my legs. Good to get loosened up at least!
Off to the registartion party at Kenny Shultz's next. Fun times here, Matt Kemmer showed up and I said hello to him for the first time in about 4 years. Alex and Steve arrive, the last two to get there but now the crew is complete! Lots of good hanging out, eating snacks and an awesome berry desert. Also, saw the live TV segments Chris, Cass, and Nick did. That kind of publicity is great, good job.
Left the place kind of late, and returned to steve and alex's hotel along with Dustin and Derek. Dustin crammed on a small sofa, me and derek on the floor and alex on the bed in one room and steve in the other.
Saturday: Woke up around 9:30-10:00 and I didn't feel well. I had a pretty bad stomach ache and was quite worried for competition. Oh well, I just drink a bunch of water, stretch and smoke a bit which helps my tummy a little. We head out, stopping by whole foods to load up on bananas and other snacks. Arrive at the event site and it is beautiful! Not many people are there, actually we are some of the first freestylers. So we went on a little smoking journey. I was happy to have as much extra time as possible to feel better. Warm up and waiting for the last couple of routine competitiors. I am seeded first, because gordo and nick aren't competing, so I feel some pressure to do well in my routine even though we all advance. Stomach still feels pretty bad, but everything gets focused when that routine music starts. I was pretty happy with my routine, 2 drops, 4 or 5 missed cues. Ended up keeping my seed by a hair.
After the routine, some serious blazing had to go down. There is a beautiful spot down by the river to smoke where we would cruise all weekend. This pretty much healed my stomach, thank goodness. Usually, about half the freestylers are blazin, but this tourney seemed to have everyone partaking, which makes for a great time.
Cirlces next, with my nemesis good ol dustin. We finish next to each other in EVERY tourney, cirlce and routines, and we have had mulitple ties in circles. Also, in the circle is Derek my recent training buddy. And Cass, who's game seemed pretty solid to me at this point. That would be proven!
She started off the cirlce strongly, and gave the next person a reason to step up their game. We each answered each others runs fiercly, and played really well. I believe I gave 2 high fives to Cass, 3 to Derek, and 2 to Dustin. Always good to have people tearing it up in circles. Circle hug! Ended up keeping my top seed here again and now I was exhausted.
Two more events though. Sick one I hit motion sickness first try, and failed to complete double spinning dyno. Sick 3 I hit spinning ducking osis -> mobius -> spinning dyno first try. Failed to hit marius -> spender -> mobius, just missed the mobius catch part. Got 2nd and 3rd with these. Really like Matt K's sick three, was super varietal and cool.
After some more hanging out, Stanford crew decides to peace out to get some hot tub and food action in.
Off to whole foods again and I buy a wonderful 1/2 pound smoked chicken breast. It was amazing. I really needed the protein after this long day.
We did some hot tub and went out to dinner with Steve. Got a california salad (hah) and a strawberry smoothie yummm. Alex was hitting on the waitress which was pretty entertaining
Back to the hotel, and we are exhausted. Steves dedication to making the tourney run smoothly is great. He is always on his computer tweaking his program and double checking results fromt he day. Props!
At this point we are exhausted, and choose to not go to the player's party for the night. Dustin and I really want to take 1 and 2 in both routines and circles so we figure it is best to be safe. As much as I like to have no regrets at footbag events, I do regret not going to party this night. But hey who knows, maybe if I would have gone I would have regretted it lol.
Sleeeep!
Sunday: Slept very well and my tummy feels all better, so I am ready to go! Blaze up right when we get there to make sure I am ready. Then I go off to listen to my routine a couple of times and just be alone somewhere in the park to gather myself. I prefer not watching routines before mine as to not get worried or scared by others' performances. Ready! First drop on simple drifter, a drop I have had a single time during routine practice go figure. This throws me off a bit, but I just know I can't drop anymore. Hit my biggest cue at spinning ducking osis -> walkover and kept going.
Hit some more cues at the end but then had another silly drop (far legover) as I was attempting to set up for the last trick. oh well, 2 drops ain't so bad. Let the judges deliberate, I know it must be close between Dustin and I. I win! YAY! I am very happy, even with the low number of people competing. Celebration bowl time before circles. This brought me to a really nice place, where I am one with the footbag. It showed in the variety round of circles. We were all busting pretty hard in variety, I felt like my runs were just sooo long and pretty darn varietal. I thought I won the variety round, but I knew Matt K. had proabably lost it. Density was a mess. Matt K. was the only one had multiple good runs. I think the rest of us didn't even have a single good run between us. Oh well, it happens. Seems like a toss up for who will win. But, I take 1st! and Chris and Matt battle it out for 2nd. I really did not expect to win circle, I am really excited. Dustin did really well for taking 4th.
Some good circles were happening after this. I started with Matt K. and Dustin. Got some good tips from Matt on seperating my footwork a bit for stepping/ some good atomic tips. He is very strong and has a good style. I also got to shred with an older freestyler I had never met, I can not remember his name for the life of me. But he had a great style and was fun to play with!
Hang out and watch some net, eat some bbq, and chill waiting for the awards ceremony. Pretty nice, I got like $140-160 (I can't remember) for winning both circle and request! Covers my gas and registration which is prettty cool
Also Tuan Vu from the bay area repped it hard for net! SFBAYAREA for all the medals woot.
Say farewell to Steve Alex and Matt K. and continue on to Nick's place for the night.
Sunday night: Arrive at Nick's and we play some cards against humanity and some beer drinking. It was my first time playing and I did not do very well, just got like 3 cards or something. It was really fun game but my favorite part was when matt emmings looked up to someone else playing the game and said," well, you can just do me now." it was hilarious and we all had a good laugh. We then venture off to the park, for a ton of fun! They had BIG swings, seesaws, and the round circle things that go really fast and make you dizzzy. There is a playground where a few of us try to swing past a bunch of rings to reach one really far away. Probably my best acheivment this weekend, lol. I skipped like 4 rings or something.
I love feeling like a kid, so this park trip was one of the top highlights of the trip.
We return to Nick's for the night and settle down for some sleep on da flooor. A bit of a scattered sleep, but some good cuddles and muscle rest make for a good night.
Monday Morning: Beautiful weather! Cruise to the coffee shop accross the street for some banana bread and tea with Cass. Portland is just wonderful, the vibes of the people and the look of the town are right up my alley. Maybe I will live here one day for a bit. Anyways, get back to Nick's and he makes fun of me for getting plain tea at fancy coffee shop! hah, i just don't really drink coffee. Talk of the water temple began the day before, and I was very excited for it!!! Only 5 people left (Me, Nick, Derek, Cass, and Eudora), and 2 of them had never been (derek and cass) so we had to go. But before that, a walk and some yoga. Eudora is Nick's very cool lady friend, last year we went to a 4th of july party together and had a drunken blast!
I have done yoga with Nick a few times at different tourneys and it has been pretty good. But this time it was wonderful. Not sure if my mood was better or I was just getting more compfortable with the poses, but I was breathing well and feeling the stretch everywhere. After, my body felt better than it did all weekend, and my playing later would show that. I will have to go buy a yoga mat.
WATER TEMPLE! this is my fave part every year. All the top shredders shredding their little hearts out, with no worry of competition or getting tired.
Being crowned US champ, i felt i better bring my A game. Started with a one on one circle with Cass which was a blast. She has really good control, I really love the rakes and gyro toes. She also busted some symp whirls, a trick I had not seen from her all weekend. Super fun!
I just kept playing and playing at water temple, and had some awesome strings in a bigger circle. hit my marius -> spender -> mobius combo 2nd try. Derek was tearing it up with his toe style and Chris had some cool combos (fairy ducking butterfly -> jani walker) I also had some good steps and fairys going, on my way to some shuffle. Although once Nick says he is going to start filming, my game kinda poops. I fear the camera!
A little pre goodbye goodbye with Cass by the waterfall was the best. Footbag crush <3
Goodbyes to everyone, so sad. Drive the long drive, refelecting on life and footbag.
THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS:
I am now the US champion in cirlce and routine. What?! Yes, I am! I know I am not the best player in the US, actually I am probably just out of the 5. So now I have to really work my game to the next level to feel like I own the title. It think getting the gold will push my footbag game more than anything has before. I have been playing a crazy amount, and will continue to play at least 5 days a week. My new main goal will be to actually have solo sessions, I KNOW drilling will bring my game to the next level.
Never worry about partying too hard. I have partied too hard at previous tournaments, and have been unable to play or just feel horrrible playing the next day. But, I also had awesome times with awesome people. I know the awesome times/ awesome people are the best part of tournaments and I just need to make sure I remember this. It can be hard when you work on a routine soo hard for soo long, just to have it messed up by partying too hard the night before. But if you are a baller like Vasek, it is no problem. Party Hard, Play Hard shall be my newest tourney motto.
Keep tuned, I may actually blog it up a bit.
really looking forward to it man. Huge props on your victory dude.
