Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

[boyle]

I hit high plains drifter yesterday for the first time. Also ripstein for the second time. So that was a pretty good session.

Not so many long runs, but a few other bigger tricks as well. The weather has been terrible here, so it was good to get out and play.

[Add Block]

High-Plains is cool. Did you get the idea to hit it from me?

How high do you jump while doing them? I find them easier without a jump, but you can't do a triple drifter like that. But then again most people don't care about triple drifters.

[boyle]

I don't jump at all. I think triple drifter is beyond me. It is something I have been trying for a long time with no success but it finally clicked.

[Asmus]

Props on high plains! Such a cool trick!

[MetZelRio]

I just saw your go pro footage on the waterfront. Looks SO nice. Beautiful. Gave me the instant urge to want to footbag there. And high plains drifter is MAGNIFICENT. Get that trick on video at that shred spot on a day like that. Heck yes!

[boyle]

thanks fellas. I was stoked on HPD, it's been a big goal of mine for a long while now, and I've not been close recently. I always love playing by the water (there's no beach in Canberra, but there are a lot of lakes and things). I was really happy with how that footage from Maroubra came out. It was the first time I really made good use of the gopro.

So we just got the internet connected the other day, the real deal, not using the hotspot from the phone. However, I am already back to using the hotspot from the phone. I just spent serious amounts of time (getting towards 2 hours) on the phone with them and they were unable to get things going again. I was in a fair rage by the end, but managed to hold my calm on the line.

Had a short session at uni today while waiting. Lots of drops...One thing, that I've been trying for a while, and I think I hit for the first time today, was pixie knee bumping dlo (op knee bump, op dlo) these all have names which I have long forgotten. Maybe pimpy, though I think that's pixie same knee bump.

A couple of other highlights from last night - pixie diving ss mirage, pixie ducking ss mirage, spinning swirl, stepping diving butterfly bs, smog bsos, 50 tiltless (that was just to get me warm as it was very cold outside).

Still a fair while until Francisca and Nicolas come back. We talk every day on Whatsapp and every couple of days on Skype, but it's obviously not the same having that interaction when you're there. Nicolas is learning a lot of new skills which I am missing out on seeing in the action, so it will probably be a bit weird at first once they return.

Something that I would have definitely like to be involved in if I was still around in Chile would have been the Homeless World Cup, which starts in a few days. Obviously I'm not around, so that's not going to happen...

[Add Block]

stepping diving butterfly bs

I was always wondering how stepping diving works.

Not that I want to hit it, but it sounds like a mind twist.

Isn't same side diving weaving?

[Asmus]

Same side Diving is Diving.

1. Ducking
SET > DUCK [BOD] > (OP SIDE)
2. Diving
SET > DIVE [BOD] > (SAME SIDE)
3. Weaving (Ducking Same Side)
SET > DUCK [BOD] > (SAME SIDE)
4. Zulu (Diving Op Side)
SET > DIVE [BOD] > (OP SIDE)

[boyle]

I'm guessing you might have meant diving ss buterfly (though that is still diving butterfly). I always get confused about zulu and weaving, but I think I have it down these days. Good to have that little chart in here though.

[boyle]

Had a kick with Caroline yesterday. It was cold and very windy, didn't do anything spectacular, but Caroline was playing pretty well. She seems to have gyro clippers down, and spinning clippers were coming close too. And the thing I've noticed every time we play is that her runs are just very long. I think there's been plenty of busking happening over in Poland and you need that ability to just not drop the thing.

When I did have a good session was on return from Sydney. I just felt that I was catching a lot of tricks I expected to drop, and carrying on with some pretty good long runs. Had a big family do up there over the weekend, mainly the cousins of Dad's generation, then their families as well, so saw some relatives I probably haven't seen in 20 years.

Had quite a good walk yesterday, good views over Canberra.



And there were plenty of good views over the weekend.

For example - this was the view from my bed.



And this was the view from a pub we went to.



Just a couple more weeks until the family comes back. Still a while though, it's been a long time already.

[boyle]

I just saw this quote on Twitter. It was retweeted from a bloke I did a bit of work for in Chile, as well as interviewed for a magazine. Harold Mayne-Nicholls. He has expressed interest in running for the next FIFA presidency, which would be a challenge in itself, but could be a good bloke to stay in touch with.

Anyway, this was the quote

"People too weak to follow their own dreams will always find a way to discourage yours."

There have been a few posts recently (mainly from Nick) about thinking positively, setting goals, etc etc. and in reality it's so important, not just in footbag, but in life in general to be in this positive mindframe, and I am trying to do more and more. I've also been studying some positive psychology kind of stuff as part of one of my uni courses (Promoting Positive Learning Environments).

Anyway, I'm trying to think consciously into doing things that create either a better environment for me, or for those around me. In the past I have focused on things in the negative too much, and let that get me down.

I'm sure that will continue to happen to me and I'll let things piss me off, but if you work to actively discourage that kind of thought, then that's halfway there.

You know what is positive - they have started selling footbags in the AIS shop again. Now when kids say "where can I get one of them", I have an answer. The footbags are completely crap (made from plastic)...however it's a starting point.


I bought some new shoes yesterday, I don't want to be walking around in my Lavers, because they're getting to breaking point already. These shoes are also Adidas (maybe Z60 or something like that). Very blue. They have a pretty good clipper. Toe is reasonable too. I think there is too much blah blah blah on the shoes topic.

Even if you don't have the best shoes, you can still be playing footbag, and playing very well. The reality is creating a footbag shoe is basically a pretty poor financial investment, as you would have to bet on the footbag population expanding (and expanding heavily), otherwise it just wouldn't be worth the initial investment, unless you can attract interest from "sneaker enthusiasts", which is probably unlikely with an unknown brand.

Anyway, these are mainly for running and walking around, but I like how they feel for footbag too, I hit some tricks like phoenix and torque on my tours today, so they're obviously good for something.

I'm heading out for some beers with my friend Ben. Haven't seen him in ages. Look forward to catching up.

[Cass]

That quote is pretty on point. I'm definitely with you on the positivity thing. Making the effort to send out positive vibes makes all the difference!

I'm pretty over the shoe topic as well. Everyone seems willing to complain about shoes but it has become apparent that no one is willing to actually do anything about it. It seems like pointless negativity. Just work with what you've got..

[boyle]

There's something in the Vasek manual about playing drunk on a slope etc (I only read it once) but the idea is to challenge yourself, and not having the perfect shoes is a good way to challenge yourself. These new shoes I got are much lighter than Rods so I might come up with a couple of new tricks, they have a reasonable clipper space too (but only in a small area).

There's too much debate on the shoe topic for not enough (ie: none) progress. The reality is though, it's very difficult to justify the cost of a run of shoes, and I think the Planetfootbag crew were very disillusioned with how the Q3 turned out, Nucleus were just pretty rubbish, and that's the attempts. We have the "Lockstitch" project potentially in the works, which everyone says they are ready to throw money at, but the reality of any footbag related campaign on crowdfunding platforms, is that the absolute maximum is probably around $6,000.

Speaking of big world footbag things. I have thrown my hat in the ring to be a director on the IFPA. I have complained many times about the IFPA doing practically nothing, and I have also mentioned there would be minimal benefit with being involved. BUT, think about the last post I wrote and think about that overused quote

Be the change you wish to see in the world (which Gandhi probably never said http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/ ... ot-gandhi/)

So, could be worthwhile getting involved. Have to see if it all pans out, I would like to be the Marketing Director. If I am the Marketing Director of an International Federation and Vice President of a Continental Body of a couple of different sports, then, well, maybe that whole Sports Management thing is getting somewhere after all...

Speaking of freestyle football, I watched the final of the London world tour event this morning, pretty soon after it happened. They are very acrobatic. Both blokes (both South American) did something like a backflip, caught on pincher. Nick was talking about Ivan's footage being the fastest Worlds footage to get out, though in Berlin it was livestreamed and people all around the world were watching. Plus serious amounts of people in the stadium.

I am pretty glad that was my first worlds, though I would like to have been to a few more in recent years. But Berlin was seriously awesome. I had a lot of fun that year.

[boyle]

I played last night in this previously mentioned set of running shoes. I was going pretty well considering the beers I had under my belt by that time. The shoes are a bit more difficult with toe tricks, but the clippers are quite good. Hit a whole bunch of reasonably hard tricks.


Pipebomb to New Zealand on a one way ticket. That's interesting. Hope he comes to Aus. If not I will go there. Might be time for another nz champs....

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks for the mention on the positivity. I've been trying, so it's cool you noticed it. I really hope you get accepted to the IFPA position. You would do a great job as marketing director. Post a pic of those shoes? They sound pretty ok.

[boyle]

Oh yeah, flip stepping ducking was going pretty good with a few of those tips you gave me. I'll post a pic later this evening of the shoes.

[boyle]

Had a kick with Caroline today. Despite the fact we are living in the same house, we having been kicking together super regularly. She works in the night and I have been away a fair bit, and working quite a lot as well.

Caroline got very frustrated in her session, but she did a few good things, including ducking osis and some long runs. I didn't like the bag too much that we were playing with, it was very rolly. However, I hit a couple of new things.

whirl war - this is the first time I've done that and I was pretty pleased with myself. My flip whirl is not great and my flip pdx whirl is a bit of a joke. But it was heavily improved today, so that was that.

Spikehammer bsos - Nick gave me some advice on my flip stepping set the other day, which has come in handy. It has also improved my strong side.

I hit smog bsos. Not new, but not a regular part of my tricks. Took a tour this morning with Narooma Primary School, told them that we regularly have a footbag event down there. Hopefully we will do that again next year.

Went to see The Living End last night. Great band. They put on a good show and played plenty of classics. I'm pretty sure every time I've seen them has been at a festival, so it was good to see them in their own show.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsIS3If6y-0[/youtube]

Here's a video from them in 2003 at the Big Day Out. I think this is from Gold Coast and I went to Sydney, but that would have been the first time I saw them I do believe.

[boyle]

Had another good session today, solo. Played for a bit over an hour. New stuff: stepping ducking osis bsos, improving more and more on the pdx whirls, with a few pdx blenders. Very close to atomic ss blender bsos, hit it well on the strong side and very close on flip. Had some good long runs as well.

Went up to Sydney for a 30th birthday on the weekend. Was a friend who I hadn't seen in a long while. Lots of beer. Rough, rough day yesterday. You can really see the hangovers seeping through this photo.



Got to catch up with a number of people that I hadn't seen in years. A couple of us have recently returned from overseas, and we were saying that it's a good excuse once you're back: "oh, I've been away for 2 years, that's why I haven't seen you in seven years..."

It's not such a good excuse, but it is a good chance to reconnect with people. There was one girl at the party who I definitely didn't want to have anything to do with, she is a massive bitch and terrible person, so when she arrived she just walked in and didn't talk to any of the people I was around with. Which worked just fine for me.

Heading up to Moree tomorrow, which is a long way north. Seems like it's 9 hours of driving. I'm going to try and leave real early, around 6 I think. My friend Joe is going to try and line up a demo in one of the schools there. That would be pretty good. I have been looking into the skateparks along the way and there are a whole bunch. Some pretty good ones for country towns, so I'm keen to check out a few of them along the way. That will be a good way to break up the trip.

[boyle]

I am up in Moree, which is far away. From anywhere. On Tuesday I drove the whole day to get up here. Stopped at a bunch of skateparks along the way, which was quite fun.

Here's a video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDBe3SonDI[/youtube]

So I'm pretty happy with how that turned out. I didn't put too much extra into the edit, just cut it down and put things together the way they happened. I did some mini commentaries on each place, but decided to get rid of them. I remember Ken saying that the audio on the gopro is not particularly good, especially with the housing on. He is definitely right.

So today I did a footbag demo at a school in town here in Moree, we had about 80 kids in for it, they had a lot of fun. There is going to be an article in the local newspaper next week, so that's pretty good too.

I came up to visit my friend, who is writing for the local newspaper "The Moree Champion", so that's my connection there, or why I'm here at all. Back down to Sydney tomorrow, and the family is reunited the next day. That's pretty exciting.

So is the fact that Chris Tristano arrives tomorrow in Sydney. So I will try and have a kick with him. I'm sure he will have some serious jetlag. But, what better way to wear it off than to have a kick. Or to dive into the ocean, and it seems they are staying at the beach. I will be arriving from about a 7 hour drive, so I will be keen to jump into the ocean too. I will probably do that somewhere along the way.

Back on the topic of footbag and skate etc, the first major event I went to was at the "Planet X Games", which was basically an Australian version of the X Games, and was definitely a big deal when I was growing up. Footbag had managed to get in, kind of like a sideshow (along with breakdancing).

Here's a video, featuring Steve Goldberg giving an interview, a very young Dan Ednie. Couple of other old heads in there too. http://www.footbag.org/media/220/aus_planetx.WMV

I reckon there would have been some overall event videos made with skate, bmx, some footbag as well, but I couldn't find any off a quick Google. Anyway, enjoyed getting back into the skateparks, especially ones I've never been to before.

[Add Block]

Good shred

Your game is clipper heavy, yet you don't use bails, which is cool. Good that you can play in wind. I can deal with rain, but not wind.