Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Top post painting!

Las Meninas, by Velasquez:



Just an amazing, amazing painting. Picasso did 58 versions of this painting, and its generally considered Velasquez' greatest painting, which is like saying a footbag trick was Vasek's best ever. If you have a moment, worth reading the wikipedia page at least: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas

Now that I've claimed top post painting in my blog, I encourage you to go back a page and read about my shred with Cassy in Denver.

[Kylescook]

Thanks for sharing that Beast vid. Really liked some of those combos.

[C-Fan]

hopefully we can meet up again on Tuesday for a shred. .. crossing my fingers weather is good on Tuesday.

Weather held up! I got out of work a little early on Tuesday, wisely decided to drive downtown, lucked out with parking, and managed to get a solid 60 minutes of comfortable t-shirt and shorts weather. Cass brought her speaker again, so we had good tunes, good weather, and got to play in a nice public spot. We both warmed up pretty quickly, and I was happy to note my hip flexor felt better than it did at our Sunday shred. There are still a few concepts that don't feel great, but if I avoid those for the next week or so I'm sure I can start building back up to where I was. In a weird way, the injury has a silver lining, in that it encourages me to do strings instead of chasing big tricks/combos. And working on strings will ultimately help me more at USO and Worlds anyway.

Speaking of USO, I still need to buy my damn tickets. Also need to start working on a routine seriously. One thing at a time though; at this stage I'm just thrilled to be playing again.

Cass and I both played fairly well. I should have probably toned the difficulty down a bit, and gone for longer runs, but I was having fun so no regrets. My favorite thing of Cass' was some mixup she does with tricks ending in guay to neo sets. And of course her Ripsteins. I tried picking her brain on it, but there's a part of me that wonders if that trick will ever make sense to me.

Here's part 1 of our shred. I decided to break it into 2 parts, since I think people are way more likely to sit through 4 minutes than 8.
After shred we stretched down, but I had to get to my car before my 2 free hours were up. I offered to take Cass to a grocery store or something, but she had food at home so we just said our farewells. Considering we'll see each other in 3 months, then a month later after that, it was an easy goodbye.

The next morning when I was driving to work, it was snowing. Glad we were able to get in 2 outdoor shreds before the snow came. Ah, springtime in Denver.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Awesome video. you're slightly injured shred is better than my dream shred.
Cassy is great at swirls. She tried to teach me a bit about regular swirls in Boston a few months ago but I only understand symple swirls. Thanks for taking footage. It's always fun to see <3

[Kylescook]

Great video. The Guay>Neo set tricks from Cass were awesome. Ken, you make Bedwetter and atomsmasher look too easy.

[C-Fan]

Thanks for the nice comments, Kevin and Kyle. I'd say my hip is 95% healed. I barely notice it, except on right leg atomic/quantum, and that's probably more mental than anything. Of more concern to me, is that my knees have felt achy the last couple days. I'm not sure if that's a side effect of the hip thing, me being out of practice, or something got misaligned at my last yoga practice, but I'm going to monitor it carefully.

I'm still looking for good outdoor spots near the new house. I went to the closest rec center yesterday, and was surprised there were no tennis courts. I think they have raquetball courts inside, which could be a good winter option, but for the summer months I want a good outdoor space. I found a flat patch of astro turf outside the rec center, and had a light session there working on stamina. The astro turf is flat and cushions OK, but it was surprisingly slippery. I eventually figured out that the astro turf traps dust/dirt that the wind blows over it, so its not a good surface to play on. I guess I'll have to continue exploring and experimenting with spots until I find a good one.
Shredwise I'm going to mostly focus on drills and stamina, like I did in that session. Stuff like rubberman, open everything, tripless drills, etc. should help me with stamina/consistency for routines, which is my main goal for USO and Worlds. Along those lines, I want to set a new personal record for tripless. Right now its 29 unique, but I know I can break 30.

Still need to book my USO trip. Been hindered by not having a credit card (lost at Vegas Jam), and complications getting a replacement since I just moved. One thing at a time.

[C-Fan]

Feel like the past month or more has been a series of "start-stops" for me and footbag. I keep wanting to get back into playing regularly, and then something happens to break up my playing schedule. Denver spring weather (i.e. two nice days in a row followed by snow), moving into a new house, work trips, and of course injury have been the main culprits. This weekend though I feel I turned the corner, and am optimistic I can get back to playing regularly. The hope is that between now and Worlds I can play around 5 days a week, and really start getting back into shape. As part of that, I also need to start eating better and drinking less, which are areas I've totally been slacking on lately.

In big footbag news, I bought tickets to USO finally. I was happy to lock those up before prices really started rising, and it also adds urgency to my training. On a related note, I've ordered two new bags from Ivan. My best bag at the moment is an amaretta/USL hybrid I bought from Ivan at East Coasts, but I don't want to count on it surviving the summer as my primary bag. Having three good bags for the summer will definitely be an asset.

I think I've picked out my routine song for the summer, but I need to edit it so its the right length and works better for a routine. I'm hoping Kevin Regamey can help me out with that, and then I can start working on routine sections in the next month or so. It's been almost exactly half a year since I've done a routine or routine practice, so the other thing I'm going to work on is just stamina and longer runs. I'm also going to drill some tricks that I know I will include in a routine, since it can't hurt to solidify them.

This past weekend was gorgeous out. Warm, sunny, but not too hot. On Saturday we were downtown, so I brought my gear with me and shredded at one of my favorite parks from when I lived in Denver proper. I probably pushed a little too hard, but I didn't feel any pain, and made a point to really stretch down when I was done. On Sunday I played again, and listened to my body. The last time I got injured, it came from playing too hard one day, and then playing again the next day, so I wanted to avoid a repeat of that. Thankfully I did. Today I'm going to play after work, which will be my first time in over a month that I'll play 3 days in a row. I just need to listen to my body, and not push too hard.

Here's a video of my shred from Saturday, at one of my favorite parks in Denver:
The last trick was a nice surprise, but the real highlight was doing a few strings that were long enough to get me breathing hard. Quad dexes won't help me win tournaments, but long strings might.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

http://youtu.be/4m48GqaOz90

[C-Fan]

Still struggling to play consistently, mostly due to weather. I still don't have an indoor spot, so if the weather is cold and breezy after work, I basically can't play. I'm also not 100% sold on my current outdoor spot (small basketball hoop) since sometimes its taken, and the nearby backup (broken down tennis courts) is gritty and dirty, and I fear it wears down my shoes even faster. Hopefully the weather gets more consistent over the next month, and I can just start doing regular outdoor sessions.

In good footbag news, I bought a new pair of shred shorts yesterday. I haven't gotten a new pair of shred shorts since 2009 or 2010 or so, so this is a big deal. The shorts look a little baggier than I'm used to, and have a weird boxer-brief type lining on the inside, but they appear to play very well. I didn't notice any components where they messed me up, so that's promising.

Here's footage from yesterday, my first session in them:
In other news, I think I've found a second routine song for the summer. I still need to get my primary routine song edited the way I want. At this stage though, I think just working to get my stamina up is fine. Hopefully by May though I'll be doing runthroughs with my song and trying to learn my cues.

[C-Fan]

Still struggling to play consistently, mostly due to weather.

On a related note, the forecast for yesterday was 75 degrees and sunny. They didn't mention the 20 mph winds, or that there would be gusts up to 30 mph. I still made the trek to my favorite park in Denver, and tried to treat the insane weather as an exercise in playing in bad conditions. I managed to hit some good stuff, but I also lost my shit a few times when the wind moved the bag on me and kicked sand in my eyes. So who knows if it helped my mental game at all. That said, I'm proud I gutted through it and still managed to get some highlights like 10 fearless. I didn't plan that combo out at all, so that was a cool surprise:
On Thursday I go to California to attend a wedding and celebrate my birthday. We're flying Frontier though, which is THE worst airline ever. We're going to pack one bag between the two of us, so I probably won't bring my shred gear with me. I might bring my honeymoon shoes though, since they can double as walking and shred shoes. We'll see how full the suitcase gets.

PSU Jamps happened this past weekend. I can't wait to see the footage and read the accounts. I really wish more top players blogged. At Vegas Jam, finals was Penske, Lon, Evan, and Landes, while PSU had Landes, Penske and Evan in finals (I don't know who the 4th was). I would love to read their thoughts on how they prepared, how they competed, and their overall experience...but none of them blog. I wonder if their approaches differ a lot from mine.

Gonna try and get a shred in after work today, since the weather is supposed to turn in the next couple days.

[boyle]

Yep, it would be great to have a first person account from each one of them, and see how the preparations go differently. That's why your blog is great, you can see the preparations and the "backstory" to some of your routines and things.

[Kylescook]

Yep, it would be great to have a first person account from each one of them, and see how the preparations go differently. That's why your blog is great, you can see the preparations and the "backstory" to some of your routines and things.

Totally agree with both of you on this.

[Add Block]

Clean Clownface, that stuff can win you a Big One.

[Tjuggles]

Ken,

vertigo > tomohawk > rpt was sick. Nice work.

[C-Fan]

Thanks for all the nice comments everybody!

Tomorrow I turn 7 fearless. I think that means that I'll have officially been freestyling for over half my life, which is pretty awesome.

I really need to get my routine song edited, and order myself some new footbags soon. USO is only 2.5 months away, and right now I don't even feel I'm in game shape. Somehow though I'm not panicking. I know I have a ton of work to do, but I also know I have a track record of doing that work. The real goal for the summer is to make routine finals at Worlds again, and try for the podium. In that context, USO is just a means to an end, and an opportunity for practice. In reality though, I would be pretty thrilled if I won it again. What's the saying though?



To avoid a vid-less post, here's part 2 of my shred with Cass: I'll be offline for a bit, but hopefully some footbag will happen over that time.

[bluevampire101]

[C-Fan]

Thanks for the cake April!

I'm back from my California trip. I ended up packing my G-Units for the trip, though I only managed to get in one short session. Better than nothing though. While I didn't get to shred much on the trip, I did get a lot of exercise. I walked probably 5 miles each day I was out there, if not more, and some days I supplemented that with dancing and bike riding. So at least I wasn't totally sedentary, though all the eating and boozing probably meant I broke even at best. I think the trip was good for me mentally at least, since it was a few days away from work and quality time with Haley.

A few scattered thoughts:

I bought two hybrid bags from Ivan. I have high hopes those will be my competition bags this summer. While I haven't started training regularly (still fighting spring snows here, still a choppy life schedule), it feels good at least knowing I have good equipment on the way.

Youtube took down the video Ivan edited of me from over the summer. That really pisses me off, since that was the best video (edit, video quality, shred quality, you name it) of me ever, and I really liked having it be the first thing that popped up when my name was Googled. I kind of wish they just took it down after one day, instead of leaving it up for 9 months, since that link was well established out there (like in the Modified banners). I guess I can repost it on Vimeo, but I just don't feel that gets the same kind of exposure as YT, and I don't want to repost to YT just to have those greedy fucks take it down. Its not like anybody was profiting off the video either. Assholes.

The LOTW competition is over. I ended up getting 12 of the 13 combos both sides, and one combo on one side. I had bad luck with it though. There was only one triple dex out of the 26 tricks, and it happened to use my worst flipside set, and it also happened to be the final combo released. If it were released in the first week of the competition, I would have had 13 weeks to hit it. Instead, since it came out in the last week, I only had one week to hit it. I was able to hit the other 12 combos both sides within a few tries, so that felt like really bad luck. In the grand scheme of things I guess it doesn't matter, though it kinda kills my motivation to participate in the future.

I didn't bring my GoPro to California, so I decided to try out my iPhone5 for footbag filming. I only shot a few clips, and I don't want to read too much into the preliminary results. Like, is the iPhone a lot shakier than the GoPro, or was that just due to the surface I was playing on that day? Similarly, is the iPhone really bad at light contrasts? Or was it just super bright in the sun that day, and my white shirt accentuated it? The jury's still out, so I may try filming with it again on some future road trips. At least now I know I can edit the clips on my laptop, and I also can say that the footage is less blurry than I expected. Good to know I have a backup in case I have a problem with my GoPro in the future. Here's a short vid I made with my test clips from my cali session:

[Allan]

Youtube took down the video Ivan edited of me from over the summer. ... I guess I can repost it on Vimeo,

I'm sorry to say that if YT took it down, so will Vimeo. If anything, Vimeo is less permissive than YouTube. Vimeo is tailored towards people creating original content, soundtrack included. They flag videos for copyright before they even get published.

To be fair, and I say this as someone who really doesn't like YouTube very much (the ads!), but copyright issues aren't really their fault so much. For the most part, I believe they're likely just following the law. We had a free ride with them for 5-6 years, but now the lawsuits from MPAA et al are likely too much for them and they've been forced into this shitty situation. I don't know. I'm cynical enough to think that might not be the case ...

Shitty though. It's a cool video that deserves to be seen

[C-Fan]

I'm sorry to say that if YT took it down, so will Vimeo.

It just kills me, because Ivan worked so damn hard on the edit, and I still feel like that was some of my best shred to date. Hell, the wife even took some of her time to help by doing hand held shots, so it just crushes me seeing all that effort disappear like that. Really demotivates me from making videos.

Not a lot of footbag on my end recently, but I'm aiming to fix that. In California I got a lot of exercise but only one shred, and when I got back work crushed me pretty hard. Weather was ugly yesterday, but I still squeezed in a shred. I think it was my first one in like 5 or 6 days. For some reason I was messing around with blink tricks and combos, which proved to be a lot of fun. I also hit far blink, which was new for me:
Weather is supposed to be good all weekend, so hopefully I can play outside every day. I still haven't edited my routine song, so that's on the to-do list as well. If I can get my routine song on my ipod in the next week, I should be able to start practicing in May. I should be able to get it in decent shape by USO, provided work trips don't mess me up too badly.

[C-Fan]

I'm sorry to say that if YT took it down, so will Vimeo.

It just kills me, me seeing all that effort disappear like that. .

And just like that, the video appears to be back on YouTube again. I'm not sure if Ivan challenged it, or if this is just a programming error, or what's going on...but I'll take it. Hopefully it's back for good, but I guess we'll see.