Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

[boyle]

I am not a big rain fan. It doesn't snow in Canberra much.

Just picked up Juho this morning, he will spend the next week in Canberra. Exciting times.

We saw Nick Cave last night. That's been a lifelong goal for Framcisca so she definitely enjoyed it. The venue was amazing, State Theatre.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I dig Nick Cave. Hope the show was fun.

So cool that you're hanging out with Juho. Maybe you can get him to film something for Day 20, so no one bites my head off for not having any Juho footage, as of now

By the way, I really enjoyed your scenic shred video in the calendar. Watched it several times. Very cool stuff.

Have fun!

[Asmus]

I agree. Nick Cave is cool. How is he live?

Say hello to the homie Juho from me! Such a good guy.

[boyle]

Nick Cave put on a great show. Francisca said it was the best show she has ever seen, though she is a much bigger fan than me. I really enjoyed, except for these two ladies that kept on talking and talking and talking all through the concert, giving a running commentary street.

This is probably my favourite song that they played, Jubilee St. This is a video from a festival performance, but you get the picture.
It was in the State Theatre, and old Mr Cave is a very theatrical performer himself, so it was a really perfect venue for the show. It was kind of like seeing something in the Teatro Municipal in Santiago. We saw ballet there once, I don't think any rock bands have ever played there, though you never know...

So Juho is staying with us at the moment. That's pretty good. We picked him up in Sydney the day after the Nick Cave concert, stopped at our friends for a massive breakfast then drove to Canberra. Unfortunately I had to work that afternoon, but we did manage a bit of a kick in the park during my break. More of just a hack, with some tricks thrown in. He tried a double spinning clipper and dropped, then I had my (rare) opportunity to show him up, but I also dropped...

The following day we walked up Mt Ainslie and had a bit of a kick around up there with Caroline. Then I had to work the evening shift again. Was feeling quite sore after the walk.

Yesterday we had a proper session, played for getting towards 2 hours, which I don't regularly do, so now I'm sore again. I have also been working these evening shifts, then getting up early to help look after Nicolas, so I am not getting enough rest.

Anyway, we played and towards the end we had a game of Horse...which I lost to zero, no surprises there.

I think these were the order of tricks.

I hit blurriest, which Juho matched.
Juho hit mobius, which I matched.
I dropped my trick.
Juho hit stepping ss blender, which I matched.
I hit pixie ss symp mirage, which Juho matched 2nd try.
Juho hit vortex, which I matched.
I hit atomic ss dlo, which Juho matched on the 2nd try.
Juho hit flurry, which I did not match. Despite hitting that about 5 mins earlier. (H).
Juho hit ducking pdx drifter, which I also did not match. I had it off my foot. Have never hit that before. (O)
Juho hit high plains drifter. I have hit it a couple of times. Not in this contest (R).
Juho hit gyro whirl. I didn't hit that either. Actually that came earlier in the things, switch that with the ducking paradox drifter. (S).
Juho hit gyro dlo. I didn't hit this in the 2 attempts, but I did eventually hit it, then I challenged him to hit inside set dimwalk, which took him a few goes to hit. Then he did inside set pixie paradon also.

After that we did a little Sick 3 practice. Juho hit void>butterfly swirl>double spinning osis on his first try, and something better the next one.

I have been watching the video from the 2006 Australian Championships. We had a really good turnout for that one, it's probably when Jeremy and Dan were around the peak of their game, then we had Phil and Dylan Fry out as well. I missed quite a few of the sessions down there at the time though. I just saw myself once in the video playing, and it was not impressive.

[Add Block]

I'd swear Gyro Whirl and DLO are a lot easier than Mobius and Stepping SS Blender.

Were you unlucky on those, or are they harder for you?

[boyle]

Gyro whirl doesn't really match up on each side. Gyro dlo, should have hit first try, but I was pretty tired by then

[boyle]

Today we will have our Australian championships. Since the year is almost over, and there was also no competition last year, I thought it would be best we do something.

Conveniently we already have Juho here, then Dyalan is down from Sydney, he's staying in Hackett, which is where we live, so we will simply have the tournament at the local shops. Ryan is also coming down from Sydney, and Copey will come around too.

http://sportslashlife.com/australian-fo ... -canberra/

It's going to be a pretty low-key event, but I think it will be fun. It will be good to think about the different events for worlds. I'm glad we didn't play yesterday, I was feeling pretty sore each day. That will be something else to get used to ahead of Worlds.
Here is a little action from Juho. I was thinking of making an express video of him for the calendar, but it's not going to be up to the standards of the Joulu Jupe series. I will make something though, it will probably take a bit longer though, so it may not get in time for the calendar.

On one of our sessions the other day, where we will play today, I finally hit atomic dlo (predator, I think...). I had been trying that for a long time, and trying it a lot of times that session, and I finally got it on my last trick of the day. Happy with that. Was also working on double spinning pincher. Didn't get that, but came close.

Doesn't look like Ryan is coming down anymore, but no problem.

[boyle]

Had a cool session today. Hit some new tricks for the first time.

motion sickness. I thought I would have hit that before, but I think this was actually the first time. Not sure on that one. I went for it three times. The first one touched my foot, only just. The next landed pretty much right in the sweet spot, then rolled off. So then I thought, well, I should be able to do this, then I did.

pixie ss symp illusion. In this session I was working on illusions quite a lot, I have been working a bit on ps illusion in particular in recent session, which is not part of my strong suit. Speaking of illusions, I also hit stepping ducking illusion. That may have been first time, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I wasn't planning for much of a session, but it worked out pretty good.

The Christmas festivities are over, we had the family do here, it all went pretty well. I think we are pretty pleased with how it went, even though we had some rain, which wasn't part of the plans.

[boyle]

I would like to learn frigidosis pixie set. Today I did swirl from frigidosis. Also reverse swirl on the other side. I think I will also work on hitting spinning ducking blender. I believe I could do that. That could be a new year's resolution. I hit pdx torque on both sides today. I will probably make some footbag resolutions this year.

At least one won't be "get ticket to Worlds", because I already have it. Which is pretty bloody awesome. Good stuff. Just back from work now, was glad not to hit any kangaroos on the way home through the bush. Dad told me a story about a friend of his smashing into a kangaroo on a bike some years ago and having to go to hospital. That got me quite paranoid. I also saw at least 50 kangaroos along the way, which didn't ease that feeling.

[boyle]

Revup bsos. I am working on bringing my flipside up to speed. That competition put a big highlight on a wide variety of weak areas. Glad I submitted something though.

I haven't spent any money since Christmas Eve. Happy with that. Don't think I will go to Melbourne at this stage, was hoping to go to the tennis, but the days off don't work for me.

It's been a big year, I might write some more on that next time.

[christisgodlike]

Dang man. Well I'll hopefully be around for Australia day in Narooma.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Props on the Revup sauce. One of my favorites!

[boyle]

Dang man. Well I'll hopefully be around for Australia day in Narooma.

I strongly recommend it. Juho will be down in Melbourne, not sure when from, maybe 2 weeks from now. Maybe you could come up together with him. I'm just trying to work out my days off for then. I'm hoping to get the Sunday/Monday off and get down there Saturday evening.

I think I will try and make it to Melbourne the following month.

On revups - they have always been a pretty good trick of mine on the strong side, but I haven't been particularly good at them on flip. That seems to be improving of late. I haven't been able to do blink though. I always add the pickup...

I would like to do far revup, it seems very dangerous though. An easy way to get caught up.

I am just going through and doing a post on the Sport/Life website about the top posts of the year on the site. A huge chunk of that is footbag related. The number one is the cycling crash from the South American Games, because who doesn't like seeing people have their bike smashed in half when they crash into a starting gate.

That was ten times more popular than the next story. Here is the post as a matter of fact, now I have finished it - http://sportslashlife.com/sportlife-top-10-posts-2014/

For those in the TL;DR camp, these were the top 10

1. Irene Aravena cycling crash
2. Sport/Life European Footbag Tour
3. Noelle Barahona interview (Chilean winter olympian)
4. Dzem Jam
5. Evan Gatesman Tour Teaser
6. Juho Marjo interview
7. Sport/Life Fearless Challenge
8. Irene Aravena out of hospital
9. Barmy Union Cricket Club interview
10. Taishi Wins Shred 30

So 6/10 of the top stories of the year were footbag related. Don't think you get that on many other sports news websites.

So something tells me I should focus more on footbag news in the coming year, and maybe that's just what I'll do.

[boyle]

I haven't played too much this year. It's only 6 days old, so there's plenty of time. I did have a bit of a session yesterday, but I wasn't playing that well. Later in the session I managed 39 guiltless, though most of the time my runs were under 10 contacts which was quite frustrating.

I would like to hit 200 tiltless at some stage this year. I think getting that kind of distance would be great for stamina. I have only down 100+ a few times, but once you get to 100, there's no reason to just stop.

I would also like to break my consecutive kicks record. It's currently 2123. I hit 2014 last year, it was in the very early days, already more than a year ago, when I went on a trip up to Arica for my friend's wedding. Being in Chile seems a long time ago already, despite it only being about 6 months since we have returned to Australia.

100 guiltless would be great too, alongside the pre-existing goals of 20 unique tripless and 5 fearless. I hope to even get a few more, but first step to get to 5. My current record is 4, so 5 shouldn't be too far away. Need to work a bit on improving different combinations, especially a couple of flipside tricks.

Hoping to find out my days off around the Narooma Jam. It could be none, which would be a little disappointing. Even if it is, I'll figure out a way to get down and join in the fun. Sounds like we're going to have a good turn out there. Narooma is a great town, and get this thing started was one of the best things I have done related to Australian footbag.

Back in about 2006-7 we were talking a lot about doing some kind of south coast related event, with somewhere like Ulladulla the general thought. Just to get everyone together, have a relax, kick the bag, go to the beach etc. I think Copey arrived on the scene in about 2007 (?). There was a jam in Sydney we went to together, when Phil was out. His family have been a massive help on having the jam in Narooma, there's always a great feast at their place and most people stay there as well.

It was good to catch up with them a little while back. Anyway, the jam will be on, I will be there at some stage, it may not be very long, but let's see how the roster gods go. I have had a favourable couple of weeks though, I didn't have to work Christmas, I did New Year's (not that I care), then I just had the past weekend off, which is the "Summernats" car festival, involving many drunk bogan idiots. A good one to miss.

So we will see. I have already put all of my leave into the trip to Worlds, but that's fine. Just means I can't take any other leave beforehand.

[C-Fan]

How did Aussie nationals go?

I like your goals for 2015. Maybe I will challenge you on kicks/tiltless/guiltless.

As for spinning ducking blender, my best advice on that trick is:

1. Make the spin as slow as possible.
2. Try to time the duck right at the peak height of the bag.
3. The blender is fast.

I get screwed up on this trick when I rush the spin. When I hit the trick well, I really feel like it's broken up into 3 distinct beats. Spin. Duck. Whip that blender.

Good luck!

[boyle]

Juho won everything. I have some footage I will have to put together. I don't know if we can realky call it a nationals, it was fun though. Dyalan was in good form despite not playing in a long while.

Thanks for the tips, it's something to work on.

[boyle]

I got home from work at about 10:30 and had a session in the garage. I played for quite a while, a bit over an hour. I hit barfry (nuclear ss butterfly), on both sides, which I have a feeling is a first either way. What felt really good was that the set just popped up beautifully in the right place.

I had a run with double pickup and barrage on both sides, all from clipper, and was working on the xanabox (I think that's what it's called) drill. reaper>dso>paradon rpt. I got one lot of three contacts, wasn't able to power on from there.

Later in the session I worked a bit on routines. I have a couple of song ideas, which I was developing a bit further. I was getting very sore and extremely sweaty as well. Some good progress with one particular song though.

[boyle]

Just had a pretty tough training session. Some new tricks though.

flurry bs. First time on the flipside. Worked hard to get the regular side, but got there eventually.
pixie ss torque. I think that's new. I almost hit it out of fog too, very close.

Was listening to some heavy music, pumping me up. Trained a bit on routines also. Making progress but plenty of work to do.

[boyle]

Good kicking today!

I wasn't really even planning on kicking. We walked up Mount Kosciuszko yesterday, which is Australia's highest mountain, in all of it's glorious 2,228 metres. Which, of course, compared to the Andes is not very high. But, the top is the top, and we went there, with Nicolas on the baby backpack.

I actually felt pretty good after the climb. I have felt much worse going up Mt Majura, which is just around the corner, because it is much steeper. It is 890m apparently. I would like to have a tilt at Bimberi Peak some time this year. That is the tallest peak in the ACT, and it looks like quite hard work.

Anyway, a photo, and on with the story





Don't know how the panorama shot will work on here.

Anyway, first I played a bit in the park while waiting for Francisca. Mobius bs was probably the highlight from this session. I wasn't wearing lavers either. Though this other pair of shoes seem to do just as good a job.

Maybe not quite as good, but they get the job done just fine, particularly on clippers. Anyway, it started raining and I kept playing for a while. Once I got home I had read a bit more about the badges. From the top of my head I did:

(I am going to have to check this and post them up tomorrow. The only one I have posted before was stepping bronze)

- stepping silver
- ducking silver
- pixie bronze
- diving bronze


That wasn´t a bad haul for around 30 mins of play. So I was happy with that, then went to play touch footy in the rain. I wasn't happy with that. There are some people who take the game too seriously, and it just ruins the fun for everyone. We also lost. Anyway, think it's time for bed. Narooma jam is next week and that should be a lot of fun.
-

[boyle]

Haven't posted in a while. Have been playing in bits and pieces, not too many serious training sessions. A couple of sessions with others - Olly Bowman from NZ and Kenneth Law from Hong Kong are both freestyle football blokes, and are in town doing shows for the Asian Cup.

We have had maybe 3 sessions, we played yesterday up on Mt Ainslie. I have been trying to do more with the ball, and they have been trying to do more with footbag. Law is pretty good, he can do some reasonably long tiltless strings, Olly did a diving clipper yesterday.

Speaking of NZ, really glad to hear that Phil will be getting back into action. I hope Mr Pipenberg will make it over to Australia as well.

Back to the session yesterday, I hit ripwalk with the ball, which was new. I had torque off the foot a number of times the day before.

Nothing much new on the footbag side of things. I have been working on flip tomahawk. At the moment it is very poor. I have been building up whirl and paradox whirl.

We have Narooma jam on this weekend, looking forward to that. Will be good to see Juho in action again. The first time we did the Narooma jam was back in 2008.

Went and saw China vs North Korea in the Asian Cup the other day. Someone gave me a free ticket as I walked in, which was nice of them. 2-1 to China, big crowd there. It was "sold out", but there were only about 18,000 in a 25,000 stadium, which screams bs to me.