Nick "Houdini" Polini

[C-Fan]

yayyyyy!

[Eskimo Joe]

this sport needs new players more then it needs the existing ones being eskimo brothers.

Whats wrong with my brother and I?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dude! So funny that you message me randomly! I've just recently started using that bag I bought from you at world's. It's like tan and darker blue amaretta, slightly bigger. It's such a great bag! Thanks again!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Well, now I see that this was not a message... Haha whatever, update: had a very very fun session with joe's bag last night. All sessions are fun, but this was different. It was fun because harder stuff was, all of the sudden, not far out of reach. Had some heavy density. Also figured out a trick for Barfly. Those are attainable now. Need to work on them a bit til they feel natural. Double spins are getting easy. Same with DLO from and set that I have dialed. I made that get well video for Ivan too. That was fun. Anyway, I'm gonna nap now. At work on break. Break time means nap time!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Been a little while since I've posted. Well, I told here that we wouldn't say anything publicly, but whatever, maybe it will help resolve any leftover tension toward either of us. Cassy and I apologized to each other and agreed to be friends again. Sure we both have different views on certain things, but that shouldn't mean we have to be enemies. Feels much better this way, anyway.

So yeah, I've played, just haven't blogged. Definitely been hitting some stuff. I think from now on, I'm just going to post the things I would have typed in bold.

Had a session with Nathan and Jackson the other day. Both hit some new tricks/links. Plus we might have gotten two 14 year old kids into it. They could both kick half-decently. We got the one dude, Elijah, to hit Toe stall bs. Both of them want a bag, so Nate is going to stitch one and I'm going to stitch one. Hoping they meet up with us again.

Drilled solo stuff tonight and the past few.

Highlights:

Torque War (Torque> Pdx Torque *rpt)
Blurry Drifter> Fog bs

That's all the top notch stuff. Definitely hit a bunch of just good links and stuff too, but I think I'll let these be surprises at tournaments.

One new breakthrough I had tonight was my first good Pdx Whirls, where I felt like it was cleanly dexed and stalled well. Funny that I've had so much trouble trying to learn this trick and spent so much time looking at and analyzing everyone's Whirls, like Dave, Anssi, Penske, etc… and in the end, my Whirls end up being pretty similar to how Gatesman does his. I've always been told that he does his weird and it takes a body made of "gumbi" to do Whirls like that… well, I don't know if my body is made of gumbo, per say, but that is the only style that even makes relative sense to my body, so I'm sticking to it. Plus I think he makes them looks awesome. Hope mine are that good one day.

In non-foot stuff, this weekend is the weekend our camper is moved to the new spot in Maryland. Parents leave tomorrow morning, but since I work, I'll be heading up after I get off. Looking forward to it. Maybe I can do some recruiting and get some kids into it up there. We really need a footbag shoe. It's making getting new players pretty tough.

Looking forward to Battle of 12 Ewoks or whatever at NYFA next month, and then ECFC in September. Stoked for both.

Also, got a few submissions in for the funny trick competition I'm hosting. I'm so pleased with what has come in so far. That is what I had been wanting. I hope more players do something funny for the video. If the video gets 10 submissions (6 more), it will most likely be a freaking riot.

Feels good to blog again, knowing I don't have enemies in footbag

Good night, stuff.

[Cass]

You and Gatesman both have unholy crank so this is not surprising.

Torque war is outrageous. Nice.

At this point we should probably just start telling new players to get the new school lavers. They wont know any different. Then when they eventually get a light shoe they will kick ass.

Glad everything is kosher

[boyle]

torque war is awesome. Impressive.

[Add Block]

New Lavers would be fine for anyone who hasn't used the old ones. Unfortunately they're not sold in Europe.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks for the replies, everyone

Had a drill session after work today. It went really well. I accomplished a lot.. Recently, tricks have just been clicking out of the blue. The other night, Pdx Whirls clicked, now tonight, Illusions finally clicked. Messed with Pdx Whirly stuff first. They feel pretty good now, but will feel much better when I do them more. I had some sweet feeling runs with Osis> Pdx Whirl bsos and even some Spinning Osis> Pdx Whirls bsos. Pdx Whirls feel so gooooood when you hit them correctly. After that, I did all the main Pixie and Fairy drills 2x each, one starting on each side. So like Pixie ss Mirage> Smear *rpt 2x, then Fairy ss Mirage> Fear *rpt 2x... I accomplished all but Fairy Illusion drill.. Which Sucks.. But the good news is directly related to that... I DID hit Pixie Illusion drill bs! I've only hit it once before that, about a year ago, but it was flukey.. This time both sides were pretty decent. I want to hit the Fairy Illusion drill before EC... Oh and I'm not going to pretend that the toe shuffle part of the session wasn't inspired by Cassy, because it was thanks for the inspiration, homeslice. That fairy pickup drill was a bitch though! Total mind fuck. But yeah, like i said, I'll only list the biggest accomplishments in my sessions as highlights, from now on, and I really only had one that I was stoked about..

Highlight:

Mobius> Ps Whirl bs always wanted this on flipside. Can finally do it. Pretty happy that it wasn't a reach. Both were clean too.

Oh, some of you might interested to hear this.. Pipenberg texted me today that he was kicking and to give him challenges. I have him Torque War and he said he hit it. Didn't really surprise me. Just nice to hear that he played today

Small update on the startup.. I came up with a name today. Seriously dopeass name, at that. Also, a chemical we need for it has finally arrived. Excited to start diving in.

Also really pleased about who was bapped and who placed at the tops. in the comps

[DC Clinks]

You know, it's kinda funny, but I noticed a distinct lack of Nemesis Flapper in those highlights. Must have just skimmed by it too quickly.

For real though, props on that Mobius> Ps Whirl steez. BS anything always feels good. Is Whirl just a Swirl but opposite direction?

I'll hit you up for challenges on my next session if you don't mind (I suspect Clippers will be involved ).

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hey Dan, thanks for the comment. Yeah, I'm goats can finally do Fearless PS Whirl combos on flipside. Feels good... Not great yet. But much better than before. I need to completely crack flipside Pdx Whirls first... Also Reverse Swirl is the opposite direction of Swirl... A Whirl is....... Just watch Kemmer next time you guys play. Chances are, 3 out of 5 tricks are Whirl-based lol and yes, I'm basically serious. Matt love Whirls. And I'm also starting to love them.

Today has been eventful. Remember that new campsite in Maryland that my family was switching to? And that we were relocating in early August? Well, it is early August and we did the relocation today. It was my first time seeing the place in person this morning and is just gorgeous. Bay, pond, camp sites, boats, people, everything. All of it. Oh man, I'm so excited about this place. Plus, I found out that our site is along the Atlantic flyway (popular migration route for lots of birds), so that is really exciting for me. Already spotted ospreys, eagles, falcons, hummingbirds, swallows, shore birds, etc.. And we're super close to a national park! Well, I won't bore you with bird talk. I can sum it up with: Kenny Shults would highly approve.

This place even has a tram that you can call and they'll take you into town. Only a dollar a ride. Can't beat that.

Anyway, footbag! I christened the new camp spot with no drop Swirl> hand bs> Reverse Swirl> hand bs> Reverse Swirl> Osis *rpt> hand. Later on, I had a real session. Played today at this little basketball court and drilled Whirls. Only had one goal for the session and ended up buying it, plus one other bigger trick..

Highlights:

Accomplished goal: Reactor bs!!! never hit this on either side. Really glad I wiped this off of my list. Strong side felt easy too. Flip wasn't as pretty, but it was a clean dex. I think I have to work on that atomic set a bit more and pivot into the Whirl more. Well work on more Whirls later.
Also got a nearly effortless Alpine Reactor! though it was only on one side... Still cool. Just not quite ready for that one. Some day.

So during the session, I was remembering one of Bob Reifer's predictions about my game. He always said that I would own at Whirls one day. He said the same for Swirls and Reverse Swirls. I always thought it was cool how he was right about the Swirls And Reverse Swirls (not trying to be pompous lol but I am definitely not bad at Swirls and Reverse Swirls, I think it's safe to say that), but I was always awful at Whirls. I never could get the leg position correct. I felt like that could have been one of Bob's failed predictions... Until recently. Now, the Whirl that used to feel stronger but was always 'the' or thin is so on. Almost every Whirl on that side is good. Now the side that used to be clean is still clean, but just doesn't feel as fresh as the real strong side.. But once I get that flipside up to speed, I feel like I will actually become a new player. My body always wants to Whirl and me it can on one side and is coming out in strings in the form of bigger tricks... Once my flip is there, I think big Whirl tricks will be a big asset to my game and I'm very excited for that.

Sorry for the Whirl rant. I just wanted to get my game's Whirl predictions in my blog, just to kinda say "I told you so..." to myself in a few weeks.

But yeah, new camper spot is great. I'd love to host a mini jam here. It would be a sick town for it. Definitely a street performy town. (also, just to clarify, I don't live here now.. This is just a vacation spot. I still have my house in PA... Doug Task thoughts i was moving, so I wanted to make sure no one else thought the same... Then again, it's Doug Tank that we're talking about, so he's probably the only one Jk Doug, love ya dude. Stoked for NYFA Jam Ocho!!!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Had a footbag dream last night that I had to document. Summary: NYFA event... With base jumping... And players from all around the world.. Couldn't see the foreign players, but they were all wearing their flags on their base jump outfits... Arrive to NYFA, say hi to everyone... Including TJ, the giant footbagging pirate squirrel with a bad alcohol problem. Ryan Thomas had the exact same car (yellow hyundai accent) as me... Oh and Johnny Breakdown offered me peyote. TJ was in my car driving me around in my car, while he was drunk... Almost wrecks my car. Turns the corner.. Sees his car that just got totaled by side tractor trailer. Thankful that he is ok, and wasn't in his car during the time of the accident, but that alcoholic pirate squirrel really had to calm down with the drinking.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I ended up having 2 good solo sessions today after work. I really have to take care of some mandatory stuff tomorrow though. But I was thinking about footbag all day, and I hadn't played since Saturday, so I really just had to, ya know? I have finally figured out why my flip Pdx Whirl was lacking a bit. My leg wasn't coming into the right position quickly enough. Well, at work, I ghosted it and I could feel that I finally fixed that problem. When i got the bag on my feet after work, finally, I tested it out and I was right. Got a bunch of new stuff today. Some various pretty good drills/links were hit too, but I won't bother listing those, just the best stuff.

I must say, my sessions were largely inspired by Nathan Bonslaver today. He hit his first VERY CLEAN PS Whirl today and also hit Symp Whirls bs for the first time. So I wanted to riff off of that stuff. Other inspirations from today were Lon, Bear, and Penske.

Highlights:

Void> Spinning DLO bs Sickness. I want to see this on video because I feel like it looks as awesome as it feels.
Void> Symp Whirl bs, almost hit the drill
Double Spinning Osis b2b Add me to the list of Vasek and Brian Bear to be the only ones to hit this… Well, I guess I have to get it on tape first to be part of that list? That link felt smooth.
Pdx Torque> PS Whirl bs Hi Lon!
New tricks: Flipside Maelstrom & Flipside Alpine Blurry Whirl! I feel some new Beasties falling into my lap in the future.

Figured out some other little tricks for some concepts that I was stoked about. I also love how, one week, you suck at a concept, you drill it and drill it, but don't feel like it's getting much better. Then a few weeks later, you try whatever link you were trying before and all of the sudden it's madd attainable and pretty easy. This sport is awesome.

I really meditated during the second session and started thinking about some things. I came up with 2 things, slight epiphanies, I wanted to share to end this post...

1) Evan once told me that "dexes are imaginary". I said I understood, but really, I had no spot of a clue what he was talking about. Tonight, I understood what he meant. Basically, what got out of it, was that freestyle footbag shred should be no harder than ghosting tricks in your room. Basically, your legs just have to move in the right ways, it just so happens that there is a bag floating inside that negative space between your legs. It's such a mental sport. Thats why I sucked for so long. I treated it as pure physical. the minute you start THINKING about the tricks as not just "ok, so to do a Mirage, I just Mirage", but rather thinking "to do a Mirage, my dex has to be this quick, the bag must be set this high, my foot must plant onto the ground this quickly, my hips must turn this much, I can clear the dex more efficiently by doing this, etc…" At first you think it while you're going about your day (studying the trick in slow motion with these things in mind REALLY helps you understand how to do stuff), then you can incorporate them while ghosting the trick, then you can go try it with a bag. Just some food for thought. This sport is so damn mental.

2) This realization, although not as important as above, was kind of a cool thing that I came up with. Freestyle Footbag shred is kind of like a microcosm to our lives. The footbag is like our "world" that we're trying to keep it under control. The dexterities/spins/ducks is like all the chaos surrounding our world. This bit sort of reminds me of the butterfly effect. Not exactly, but kind of similar. The bag is so calm. It goes up and down and pauses after every few seconds. Meanwhile there is just a barrage of chaotic movements going on all around it, that the bag sort of created. I thought about this a lot and I think this is one reason I really enjoy footbag. Because it's like 2 total opposite extremes. Calm bag, chaotic surroundings. Something about that really called/calls to me. You can't find many other things like that in this world, I don't think. Baseball: sorta, not constant on either end… Fishing?: again, sorta. not constant. I can't think of anything. Maybe you can. Regardless, thinking about this makes me love footbag so much more.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Got the Double Spinning Osis b2b on tape today. Took just a few tries. Nice to see that double spins are coming along.

Here is the video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oixKaJrA2Qg[/youtube]

Yeah, I know one side has different footwork than the other. I'm working on that. I'm thinking the first one is better footwork, but I'd love if brianbear would let me know what he thinks.

Drilled a little bit today. Legs need a rest though.

Also finished half of my demo bag. It's turning out well… and big. Which is good. Cant wait to finish it. I like bags that I'm excited for, because they're more fun to stitch.

Gotta get my ass to bed, but here's an older band I used to be into and rediscovered them tonight and now I'm.. well.. back into them!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYw3AoLG3Fo[/youtube]

[boats]

Including TJ, the giant footbagging pirate squirrel with a bad alcohol problem.

hahahaha I wish we had this member in our club!

[brianbear]

First footwork is better in my opinion, though I have seen quite a few high level players hit it with that kind of muted ending, also seen a different muted ending on normal double spinning clippers. Whatever gives you the most control is best, for me it is the more planting version

[Ryan_Morris]

that alcoholic pirate squirrel really had to calm down with the drinking.

I died.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

that looked incredibly easy. fucking awesome man.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hogan: Thanks man. I appreciate it. It really isn't too difficult now that I've spent years Zooming out of Spinning Osis.

Brian: Yeah, I agree. Thanks for the input. I'll be working on getting flipside to look like the first one.

Dream commenters: My mind makes strange things in my sleep. Glad you appreciated my sleep hallucinations.

Tonight, I got home from work around 6 and passed out until 8:50. It was strange because, I guess I've had Double Spinning on my mind a lot lately and when I woke up, I thought I had been "Double Sleeping"? If this doesn't make sense to you, then you've interpreted it correctly. My mind basically convinced me that I was doing this "Double Sleeping". Sometimes I think I might be slowly going crazy.

Anyway, session tonight. Worked on a few concepts. Pdx Whirls, Double Spins, Pdx DLO, & Pdx Drifters.

Highlights:

Fog> Dimwalk *rpt Finally… both fogs and both pixies feel good enough to hit this with a bit of ease. I know this isn't huge for a lot of players, but these have been troublesome concepts for me for a very long time. This is actually one of the things I can cross off of my "goals for 2014" list.
Ducking Swirl bs It's been several months since I've hit this on either side. Getting easier, but still kinda tough.
Reverse Swirl War, once starting on each side.. I think this might be the first time I've actually been able to start it on flipside? Either way, this drill feels pretty easy now, which shows me I've come a long way, because when I first hit it, it was sofa king tough.

There you have it. Nothing major tonight, just wanted to get something down. Pretty happy with the Fog> Dimwalk drill. I think I can turn Dimwalk into Phoenix soon.

I'm pleased with my progression since just a few weeks ago at PSU. Really stoked for NYFA Ocho, then ECFC. I'm going to try to be good at Double Spins for ECFC, as well as a few other things. I'd really like my flip Ripstein to be consistent soon. Cant wait to hit stuff like Void> Ripstein *rpt and other junk.

I just looked behind me at my "way-too-big-for-what-I'm-using-it-for" whiteboard of footbag goals. I read down the list and it really excited me. A nice chunk of them are attainable right now and a lot of others are right around the corner. I'm glad I made that list. It's really helped to push me this year. And I personally think this has been my biggest year for footbag improvements. 2011 would have been sick if I hadn't been add hunting as much. But I'm really pleased with 2014, so far. It's not even finished and I think I might even be able to hit the hardest one on the list by the end of the year.. Alpine Rubberman. Wishful thinking.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Another weekend at the new campsite! This will be a hell of a post. I had a really awesome weekend, inside footbag and outside footbag. I'll also throw in some pictures I took.

First new news: We're going boat shopping next weekend! (Warning: this paragraph is ramble.. basically, getting a new boat, and I feel like I'm still on the water due to a "wavy" full-body feeling). We've realized our John boat isn't going to cut it for the Chesapeake Bay. It was fine on the Susquehanna River, but we took it out on the bay this weekend, and we got ROCKED by the waved. I'm actually having quite an unpleasant feeling of being rocked up and down right this moment. I've only been fishing on salt water one other time and I got terribly sea sick. As soon as I got to shore from that very first trip, I was having this current "wavy" feeling, but 10-fold. So the fact that this feeling isn't as intense is a good sign. My dad told me that if you have this feeling when you get off of salt water (some people do, some don't), you wont get seriously sea sick ever again, so I'm pleased to hear about that. I think we're going to be looking at 16 ft Carolina Skiffs next weekend. They're pretty gorgeous. It's nothing enormous, like some of the boats on the bay, but it's much bigger than our John boat, and it will be great for fishing, company to hang out on and hanse some drinks, and towing tubes, skis, wake boards, etc.. I'm really excited. Will post pictures the moment we get it.

The other cool news is that my dad's friend, Jeff, came by our camper this weekend and brought his family. He is the reason we chose Rock Hall, MD for our new spot, since he has a big boat at a marina in Rock Hall and he told us how great the area is. Anyway, I met Jeff's wife and his 2 young kids, Robert and Michael… who were impossible to tell apart because they were twins. Of course, when I see younger kids, I think "maybe they'd enjoy footbag?", but I wasn't going to mention it to them, because I wasn't feeling extremely social at the moment and I just kind of wanted to let everyone's conversation sort of wash over me and chime in every now and then. We were kind of just talking and looking out at the bay and all the sudden, Robert just starts talking to me out of nowhere, like he already knew me. He wasn't shy at all and I thought that was cool as hell, because I was always shy at his age (11 years old). So, I saw that he was being social, so I decided to chat with him about some random stuff that he brought up. Eventually, he says to me, TOTALLY OUT OF THE BLUE, "So I heard you're a professional hacky sacker". I kind of laugh a bit, then reply, "I guess our dads talk a lot, huh?" I asked him if he kicked at all. He said he did and he could get a few kicks with his footbag. His parents bought him a hack at the beginning of the summer, because he asked for one after he saw my videos on youtube. Apparently, this kid has been wanting to meet me and talk to me for a while! I was like a legend in his eyes, and that felt really cool! I asked him if he wanted to go to the basketball court and learn some tricks, and I could almost see his eyes light up. He was truly S.T.O.K.E.D. So we went to the basketball court and I taught him some of the basics. He was having a blast learning. Soon after, his brother Michael came over. Robert had told me that Mike wasn't as into it as he was, but as soon as Mike saw it in person, he was hyped too and wanted to learn. So I ended up teaching them kicks and toe stalls. They got them pretty ok and I could see how much they enjoyed it. They both had sandals on, so it was kind of hard for them to kick straight, but I could tell they would have gotten it if they had shoes on. After I helped them with kicks and toe stalls a bit, we went back to the camper, because these dudes were begging me to teach them how to stitch footbags now! In my head, I was cracking up about how awesome this was. I told them I'd stitch them both a footbag for free. We pulled our chairs into a circle and I did a stitching demo for them and we talked about a ton of random stuff from footbag to cars to boy scouts. These kids are pistols, dude. I was dying from some of the stuff they were saying… "Yeah we're in boy scouts, but we don't like to tell anyone in school, because it's not really something to be proud of." hahahaha another one about the boy scouts thing: "There's this weird kid who loves boy scouts and he'll try to say hi to us in school and we pretend we don't know him, so people don't realize we're also boy scouts". By the way, I could relate, because I was also once a boy scout. Seriously the coolest 11 year olds I've ever met. I talked with them for about an hour straight, enough time for me to finish one 14 panel, which I gave to Mike. I told Robert I would finish his bag that night and give it to him today, but it didn't quite work out, so my dad's going to deliver his bag to him tomorrow at work. Their mom asked me how much I wanted for the bags and I told her I didn't want any money, as long as they enjoy it. She slipped me a 10 anyway, which was really nice. Also, these kids don't live far from my house at all, so I'm going to be giving them weekly/semi-weekly lessons from now on. I will keep my blog updated on Robert and Michael. I really want to be a good role model for kids and young teens, and I think footbag is a cool way to do it. Just look at Nathan Bonslaver nathan08, he hasn't had an urge to use drugs/beat kids up since he's met me

Did not catch any fish or crabs (we set out crab traps both nights), but we did see a family of Cow-Nosed Rays swim in front of our boat. That was really sick.

And in the end, I did have a pretty cool session today, and I hit a huge milestone of mine, finally.

Highlights:

Pdx Drifter> Pdx Torque *rpt I hit this 2x on each side. Only filmed it once on each side. Video below:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY5q73S_UbY[/youtube]

(Totally inspired by Kevin Hogan)

And yeah, Ryan Thomas had to bail on this weekend, which sucked, but I understood why. And I also never heard back from the dude in charge of the pirate weekend street performers, so that sucked too, but I still had a wicked weekend!


Panorama of the bay and my dad in the corner


Panorama of the view from our campground's private beach around sunset


Panorama of the very center of Bayshore Campgrounds. They have everything so nicely landscaped. So unreal here.


That's all I took, but I'll get some of our actual RV and campsite later on.

Back to real life tomorrow :/

But here's an open invitation to any footbagger that wants to come down to Rock Hall, MD and crash for a weekend.

Night all.