Edit: Top Post Painting! This is one of my favorite artists. Johnathon Stolter
Fanzine
Re: Fanzine
Whatever the case, I hope to be watching this many more times.
Edit: Top Post Painting! This is one of my favorite artists. Johnathon Stolter
Edit: Top Post Painting! This is one of my favorite artists. Johnathon Stolter
Re: iphone test video
I was actually seriously contemplating legal action to challenge that. I'm THAT invested in that video. I've won one video dispute, so it's not out of the question. Hopefully I don't have to waste my time again. Really happy that video is back up, makes me feel better considering I'm editing two videos right now...C-Fan wrote: 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.
Re: Fanzine
Kyle: GREAT top post painting. Really dig it. Neat to see other people's art taste being shared.
Ivan: I'm not celebrating yet, but it looks like the video is still up. I hope it stays up, but if they take it down again I'll work with you on a challenge. It's not like anybody is making money off it.
It's the last day of April, which means there is now less than 2 months before USO, and only 3 before Worlds. It's time to start getting serious about training, which means less chasing tricks and combos, and more working on stamina. In good training news, I sent my edit requests for my routine song to Kevin Regamey, so hopefully he can make the cuts soon and I can start practicing to my actual routine song. I feel like I have plenty of time to get my routine in good shape, especially since I've already been working on stamina, and I already have rough choreo planned out for the song. We'll see if I'm saying the same thing after the first couple days of doing it for real.
The other notable part about April ending, is that in Denver that usually signals the official start of spring. April usually coughs up a few final snows, but May you're usually guaranteed good enough weather to play outside after work most days.
My experience with YT blocking a video of mine due to copywrited music, led me to experiment with using the free music on YT. Overall I was satisfied with it, though I don't think I'd ever use it to edit a video that goes with music. But for having a long video where you just slap a track on it, it works: I'm in Vegas again next week, and the following week I'm in Utah/Wyoming border. I'm optimistic about shredding while in Vegas, but the other trip not so much. We'll see.
Ivan: I'm not celebrating yet, but it looks like the video is still up. I hope it stays up, but if they take it down again I'll work with you on a challenge. It's not like anybody is making money off it.
It's the last day of April, which means there is now less than 2 months before USO, and only 3 before Worlds. It's time to start getting serious about training, which means less chasing tricks and combos, and more working on stamina. In good training news, I sent my edit requests for my routine song to Kevin Regamey, so hopefully he can make the cuts soon and I can start practicing to my actual routine song. I feel like I have plenty of time to get my routine in good shape, especially since I've already been working on stamina, and I already have rough choreo planned out for the song. We'll see if I'm saying the same thing after the first couple days of doing it for real.
The other notable part about April ending, is that in Denver that usually signals the official start of spring. April usually coughs up a few final snows, but May you're usually guaranteed good enough weather to play outside after work most days.
My experience with YT blocking a video of mine due to copywrited music, led me to experiment with using the free music on YT. Overall I was satisfied with it, though I don't think I'd ever use it to edit a video that goes with music. But for having a long video where you just slap a track on it, it works: I'm in Vegas again next week, and the following week I'm in Utah/Wyoming border. I'm optimistic about shredding while in Vegas, but the other trip not so much. We'll see.
Re: Fanzine
In Vegas now. Always feel like I'm running a sleep deficit on my trips here, and the coffee only makes up for part of it. The coffee definitely helps, but you can never fully make up for lack of sleep. I got in late on Monday, so no footbag or hanging out with Evan. I planned on a shred on Tuesday, but my meeting went surprisingly badly, and I was forced to stay almost 3 hours late. That killed the chance of a session with Evan, but we still got to hang out and get dinner, which was nice of him. Yesterday I was finally able to get out on time, and we were able to get in a shred. I really really needed that. It's been a stressful trip workwise, and shred is my best stress relief.
We shredded at Sunset Park, which is one of my favorite places to shred in Vegas. That's where we shot Evan's swirling whirring swirl. When we got there, we were surprised to find a group of high school kids hacking a super shitty 2 panel light footbag. We hackyslack with them for a bit, and I give them a 4 panel sandman when we leave. I gave them some links to websites too, so hopefully they look into them. That'd be cool if we planted a seed with them.
Evan and I pop over to a picnic area to shred. There's a Mexican family there with instruments who appear to be having some kind of singing competition, so we had live music the whole time. I filmed, so I hope some of that background music gets captured. I didn't bring a card adapter, and I filled up the card with our shred, so that'll be my only footage from this trip. Evan hit some good runs, and I played decently too. I'll try and whip up a quick video this weekend when I get back.
In the meantime, here's some footage from last week. I was going to slap music over this from YouTube, but I've just been too busy. Got a couple new tricks in the session, including flip atomic torque and furious pickup.
We shredded at Sunset Park, which is one of my favorite places to shred in Vegas. That's where we shot Evan's swirling whirring swirl. When we got there, we were surprised to find a group of high school kids hacking a super shitty 2 panel light footbag. We hackyslack with them for a bit, and I give them a 4 panel sandman when we leave. I gave them some links to websites too, so hopefully they look into them. That'd be cool if we planted a seed with them.
Evan and I pop over to a picnic area to shred. There's a Mexican family there with instruments who appear to be having some kind of singing competition, so we had live music the whole time. I filmed, so I hope some of that background music gets captured. I didn't bring a card adapter, and I filled up the card with our shred, so that'll be my only footage from this trip. Evan hit some good runs, and I played decently too. I'll try and whip up a quick video this weekend when I get back.
In the meantime, here's some footage from last week. I was going to slap music over this from YouTube, but I've just been too busy. Got a couple new tricks in the session, including flip atomic torque and furious pickup.
Re: Fanzine
I love watching every video you post, thanks for so frequently inspiring me to get out and train. props on flip atomic torque.
Re: Fanzine
The variety and spontaneity is impressive, along with the consistency and stamina of your shred.
Re: Fanzine
Thanks for the comments guys! I've been quiet here lately since I've spent the past 2 weeks on the road. I was in Vegas for the first week, and in Flaming Gorge Utah last week. Travel is always exhausting and throws my footbag schedule off, but this time I did decent about playing regularly. In Vegas I managed to get in 2 shreds, both with Evan. Only filmed the first day, which I've broken up into two videos. We played at Sunset Park, near a family/group that was singing Mexican songs. It was cool to play to live music, and definitely such different stuff than we normally play to. Here's part one:
Flaming Gorge is a fishing area, and I wasn't optimistic I'd find a shred spot. As it turns out, I found a deck that was flat and wide open, and nobody hassled me when I played there. It wasn't perfect, since there was this weird gray dust that covered the place, and I could never wash it off since it appeared to repel water. Weird. Still, I was able to play 3 days in a row, which was better than I could have hoped for. Maybe this weekend I can put together a video of my shreds there.
In big news, Regamey sent me the edit of my routine song for the summer. I haven't tried any run-throughs of it yet, so I don't know if it needs minor tweaking or not. It sounds really good though. I figure I have just about 6 weeks to get the routine solid, which I think should be enough time. Day 1 of routine practice is today. I expect it will be physically grueling to get back into routine shape/rhythm, even with my recent focus on stamina. I'm excited to get working on it though. I like the discipline that comes with preparing for tournaments, and I've already started making small strides to show myself I'm serious about the summer. I've been cutting back on bad foods, I went 5 days in a row without alcohol, and I'm trying to be better about sleep hygiene too. Hopefully all this will pay some dividends at USO and Worlds.
In big news, Regamey sent me the edit of my routine song for the summer. I haven't tried any run-throughs of it yet, so I don't know if it needs minor tweaking or not. It sounds really good though. I figure I have just about 6 weeks to get the routine solid, which I think should be enough time. Day 1 of routine practice is today. I expect it will be physically grueling to get back into routine shape/rhythm, even with my recent focus on stamina. I'm excited to get working on it though. I like the discipline that comes with preparing for tournaments, and I've already started making small strides to show myself I'm serious about the summer. I've been cutting back on bad foods, I went 5 days in a row without alcohol, and I'm trying to be better about sleep hygiene too. Hopefully all this will pay some dividends at USO and Worlds.
Re: Fanzine
wow that video had some insane shred in it
Re: Fanzine
You look so bored in that video, like 'I'm so tired of all these ADDs' 
I hate bad form and I'm a hypocrite.
Vojta
Vojta
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Lycanthrope
- BSOS Beast
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Re: Fanzine
I don't recall shredding a hole in the time-space continuum that day...
Damn scotch... ice cream
Damn scotch... ice cream
Evan 'OP' Gatesman
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Lycanthrope
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Re: Fanzine
You're a good friend, Ken.
Your blog is getting long.. you should extract some info and compile a tome =)
Your blog is getting long.. you should extract some info and compile a tome =)
Evan 'OP' Gatesman
Re: Fanzine
Yeah man, I definitely feel lucky we've got to hang out as often as we have over the past couple years. When I left Vegas last time, it was a weird feeling knowing I wouldn't see you til Worlds.
Worlds...USO...eep. I was out of town for 2 weeks (1 in Vegas, then 1 in Utah) and apparently it rained non-stop while I was gone. And the rain continues. I lucked out and was able to play on Saturday and Sunday before the rain came, but so far this week it's been cold and rainy all day every day. This is highly abnormal for this time of year in Denver. The 5 day forecast doesn't offer much reason for optimism either. USO is still 5 weeks away, so I don't want to panic yet...but I may need to do something drastic like get a gym membership if I want to ensure I'm in shape for comp by then. I didn't expect May to be a total rainout...that wasn't even a consideration for me when I was planning my training.
Saturday and Sunday I did my first real work on my routine. As expected, it was a physical challenge getting through the full 2 minutes. That said, I think my exhaustion towards the end of the routines is more due to lack of planning, and less about the physical shape I'm in. I think that once my choreo firms up and I know what sections come when, when I can snag rest, etc., I should be able to make it to the end with no problem. I already feel like my 2 days of practice have paid off a little, in that I have the first 25 seconds of the routine pretty well planned, and I think I know where I want to put the juggle and flier sections. It still needs a lot of work though, and I still feel like I'm expending more concentration and effort than I should be trying to listen to the song for my cues, as opposed to just knowing where the cues are. That will come with time, assuming I get to practice enough. On days when I'm rained out, I should make a point to watch my filmed routines. I should also get in the habit of listening to my song every day.
In bad news, the speaker I've used in past years appears to have degraded significantly. The volume isn't any better than if I play my song directly off my phone, and the speakers actually degrade the sound quality to boot. I really need to find a replacement, because its a challenge to hear my song well enough off the phone to really know where my cues are. I shouldn't make things harder for me than they already are.
Random story. You may know that I'm obsessed with a game called Team Fortress 2. It's a team FPS, but there's also a whole item economy to the game with trading that I find equally entertaining. Long story short, I was on a trading website the other day observing an item auction (man that sounds pathetic) when I saw a user with an intriguing screen name: "FootbaggerNick" (my screen name is just my clan name followed by Somolinos). Intrigued, I messaged him, and found out he's some hackysacker in Minnesota who is interested in getting better at footbag! I sent him a few links to modified.in and footbag.org, and as I was doing so he asked: "hey, are you Ken Somolinos?" Apparently, he was serious enough about footbag that he had seen videos of mine on YT. Mind. Blown. I gave him some encouragement and advice on chat, and I may follow up with him in the future. But yeah, I was pretty shocked to see my two hobbies converge so unexpectedly.
I'm not filming much these days, because on the non-rain days I'm playing, I plan on working just on routines. It's not a lot of fun, but I firmly believe it is the best use of my footbag time. It also gives me a reason to start clearing out some footage backlog I have on my computer, which I should be doing anyway. Here's part 2 of my Vegas footage with Evan:
I just noticed Evan's signature says: "Evan OP Gatesman." I think that's a callback to when Goldberg used to call him "Opie," as in Opie Taylor from the Andy Griffith show. But now I think "OP" in the videogame sense may be more appropriate, as in "over powered."
Worlds...USO...eep. I was out of town for 2 weeks (1 in Vegas, then 1 in Utah) and apparently it rained non-stop while I was gone. And the rain continues. I lucked out and was able to play on Saturday and Sunday before the rain came, but so far this week it's been cold and rainy all day every day. This is highly abnormal for this time of year in Denver. The 5 day forecast doesn't offer much reason for optimism either. USO is still 5 weeks away, so I don't want to panic yet...but I may need to do something drastic like get a gym membership if I want to ensure I'm in shape for comp by then. I didn't expect May to be a total rainout...that wasn't even a consideration for me when I was planning my training.
Saturday and Sunday I did my first real work on my routine. As expected, it was a physical challenge getting through the full 2 minutes. That said, I think my exhaustion towards the end of the routines is more due to lack of planning, and less about the physical shape I'm in. I think that once my choreo firms up and I know what sections come when, when I can snag rest, etc., I should be able to make it to the end with no problem. I already feel like my 2 days of practice have paid off a little, in that I have the first 25 seconds of the routine pretty well planned, and I think I know where I want to put the juggle and flier sections. It still needs a lot of work though, and I still feel like I'm expending more concentration and effort than I should be trying to listen to the song for my cues, as opposed to just knowing where the cues are. That will come with time, assuming I get to practice enough. On days when I'm rained out, I should make a point to watch my filmed routines. I should also get in the habit of listening to my song every day.
In bad news, the speaker I've used in past years appears to have degraded significantly. The volume isn't any better than if I play my song directly off my phone, and the speakers actually degrade the sound quality to boot. I really need to find a replacement, because its a challenge to hear my song well enough off the phone to really know where my cues are. I shouldn't make things harder for me than they already are.
Random story. You may know that I'm obsessed with a game called Team Fortress 2. It's a team FPS, but there's also a whole item economy to the game with trading that I find equally entertaining. Long story short, I was on a trading website the other day observing an item auction (man that sounds pathetic) when I saw a user with an intriguing screen name: "FootbaggerNick" (my screen name is just my clan name followed by Somolinos). Intrigued, I messaged him, and found out he's some hackysacker in Minnesota who is interested in getting better at footbag! I sent him a few links to modified.in and footbag.org, and as I was doing so he asked: "hey, are you Ken Somolinos?" Apparently, he was serious enough about footbag that he had seen videos of mine on YT. Mind. Blown. I gave him some encouragement and advice on chat, and I may follow up with him in the future. But yeah, I was pretty shocked to see my two hobbies converge so unexpectedly.
I'm not filming much these days, because on the non-rain days I'm playing, I plan on working just on routines. It's not a lot of fun, but I firmly believe it is the best use of my footbag time. It also gives me a reason to start clearing out some footage backlog I have on my computer, which I should be doing anyway. Here's part 2 of my Vegas footage with Evan:
I just noticed Evan's signature says: "Evan OP Gatesman." I think that's a callback to when Goldberg used to call him "Opie," as in Opie Taylor from the Andy Griffith show. But now I think "OP" in the videogame sense may be more appropriate, as in "over powered."
Re: Fanzine
My favorite parts of this entry. Cool to see the different ways people get to discover footbag,C-Fan wrote:Random story. You may know that I'm obsessed with a game called Team Fortress 2. It's a team FPS, but there's also a whole item economy to the game with trading that I find equally entertaining. Long story short, I was on a trading website the other day observing an item auction (man that sounds pathetic) when I saw a user with an intriguing screen name: "FootbaggerNick" (my screen name is just my clan name followed by Somolinos). Intrigued, I messaged him, and found out he's some hackysacker in Minnesota who is interested in getting better at footbag! I sent him a few links to modified.in and footbag.org, and as I was doing so he asked: "hey, are you Ken Somolinos?" Apparently, he was serious enough about footbag that he had seen videos of mine on YT. Mind. Blown. I gave him some encouragement and advice on chat, and I may follow up with him in the future. But yeah, I was pretty shocked to see my two hobbies converge so unexpectedly.
I just noticed Evan's signature says: "Evan OP Gatesman." I think that's a callback to when Goldberg used to call him "Opie," as in Opie Taylor from the Andy Griffith show. But now I think "OP" in the videogame sense may be more appropriate, as in "over powered."
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Lycanthrope
- BSOS Beast
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Re: Fanzine
wrong, ken. It stands for Optimus Prime because I am planning to beat Milan in circle at worlds. 
Evan 'OP' Gatesman
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h0ag3yb3atZ
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Re: Fanzine
^ the man.
nice stuff lately Ken. thanks for dropping so much gatesman footage lately.
I'm stoked to see you in a month man!
nice stuff lately Ken. thanks for dropping so much gatesman footage lately.
I'm stoked to see you in a month man!
Kevin Hogan
BSC
BSC
Re: Fanzine
Evan: Nice answer!
Hoagie: Stoked to hear you'll be at USO! I recently learned the tourney is in a suburb of Portland, so I'm not sure how much time I'll spend at the site, since I don't want the wife to get bored out of her mind. Still, I should be down to shred both days, and if people are social in Portland I'm down to hang there too.
Speaking of the Northwest, I'd be thrilled if they took back their miserable fucking weather. Seriously, its been overcast and rainy here in Denver for pretty much the past 3 weeks. That combined with a stressful stretch as work has drained me mentally and emotionally. I rely on footbag for stress relief, so not being able to play lately has been a double whammy. One, I dont blow off the steam I accumulate naturally. Two, I get even more stressed since USO is coming up soon and I'm not practicing.
Today we had a brief spot of sun in the morning, so I dashed out to shred. Even as I was playing though, I could see/hear storm clouds approaching (first shot in the video). I decided not to work routines, cause I didn't want to stress out more, and I knew I needed stress relief more than anything. I compromised a bit by trying to work stamina, and I had one long run that made me feel good about my routine, since the run was all guiltless and my routine is not.
Real highlight of the shred though was when I met a cute puppy towards the end. He was like the ray of sunshine in the middle of the rainstorm. Oh yeah, I got rained out in my last run:
In good news, I'm expecting my Ivan I bags this weekend. I've leaned really heavily on the one I bought at East Coasts, but I don't want to rely on it surviving the summer, and I really want a second bag for my routines in case I drop on a juggle or something.
Hoagie: Stoked to hear you'll be at USO! I recently learned the tourney is in a suburb of Portland, so I'm not sure how much time I'll spend at the site, since I don't want the wife to get bored out of her mind. Still, I should be down to shred both days, and if people are social in Portland I'm down to hang there too.
Speaking of the Northwest, I'd be thrilled if they took back their miserable fucking weather. Seriously, its been overcast and rainy here in Denver for pretty much the past 3 weeks. That combined with a stressful stretch as work has drained me mentally and emotionally. I rely on footbag for stress relief, so not being able to play lately has been a double whammy. One, I dont blow off the steam I accumulate naturally. Two, I get even more stressed since USO is coming up soon and I'm not practicing.
Today we had a brief spot of sun in the morning, so I dashed out to shred. Even as I was playing though, I could see/hear storm clouds approaching (first shot in the video). I decided not to work routines, cause I didn't want to stress out more, and I knew I needed stress relief more than anything. I compromised a bit by trying to work stamina, and I had one long run that made me feel good about my routine, since the run was all guiltless and my routine is not.
Real highlight of the shred though was when I met a cute puppy towards the end. He was like the ray of sunshine in the middle of the rainstorm. Oh yeah, I got rained out in my last run:
In good news, I'm expecting my Ivan I bags this weekend. I've leaned really heavily on the one I bought at East Coasts, but I don't want to rely on it surviving the summer, and I really want a second bag for my routines in case I drop on a juggle or something.
Re: Fanzine
Overall nice 3 day weekend.
On a more optimistic note, I think the routine is slowly improving. I’m getting a better feel for where the cues are, and what stock combos to put at various points. The end of the routine is still very sloppy, but I think it’ll improve once I lock down my choreo for the first ¾ of the routine. The main issue with my ending is that I’m too tired, but well-planned choreo will help immensely with that.
Over the weekend I mixed in some shred with my routine practice. Part of that was to deal with the frustration of dealing with the cursed juggle bag, and part of it was to ensure I got a better workout. I was pleasantly surprised to hit a few big tricks, though I am aware that long runs are probably more valuable to my preparation this summer.
Here’s the video from this weekend’s shreds, including a funny moment in the middle:
Slight improvement here. While the days of dawn to dusk overcast skies with rain appear to be gone, they’ve been replaced with mornings of sun followed by thunderstorms and hailstorms in the afternoon. Those PM thunderstorms might continue to mess with my ability to play after work, but seeing the sun during the daytime helps me out a bit emotionally. I was also able to play all 3 days over the long weekend, by getting an early start on the day and shredding before the rain came. I probably can’t do that during the week, but we’ll see how bad/prolonged the thunderstorms are before I panic.C-Fan wrote:Speaking of the Northwest, I'd be thrilled if they took back their miserable fucking weather. Seriously, its been overcast and rainy here in Denver for pretty much the past 3 weeks.
Jinxed myself with this one. Bags did not arrive on the weekend, so all 3 sessions I did my routine practice with one great bag (my Ivan from East Coasts) and one shitty shitty bag. I had so many routines fall apart because my juggle bag was too light, or I timed the end of the juggle wrong and was stuck playing with the shitty bag. Super frustrating. USO is one month away, and I’m not even practicing with adequate equipment. Blergh.C-Fan wrote:In good news, I'm expecting my Ivan I bags this weekend. ...I really want a second bag for my routines in case I drop on a juggle or something.
On a more optimistic note, I think the routine is slowly improving. I’m getting a better feel for where the cues are, and what stock combos to put at various points. The end of the routine is still very sloppy, but I think it’ll improve once I lock down my choreo for the first ¾ of the routine. The main issue with my ending is that I’m too tired, but well-planned choreo will help immensely with that.
Over the weekend I mixed in some shred with my routine practice. Part of that was to deal with the frustration of dealing with the cursed juggle bag, and part of it was to ensure I got a better workout. I was pleasantly surprised to hit a few big tricks, though I am aware that long runs are probably more valuable to my preparation this summer.
Here’s the video from this weekend’s shreds, including a funny moment in the middle:
Routines gelling
I'm feeling more optimistic about competition this summer. The weather looks like it's finally turning away from rain and snow, and into decent spring/summer weather. In a related story, I've now played 6 days in a row, and feel like I'm getting more into competition shape.
The routine also feels like its starting to gel. The ending still needs tightening up, but at least the first half of it feels solid and automatic. This is huge, because by getting the first half solid, I'm setting myself up with more energy for the last half, even if I'm still improvising parts of the last half. The hope is that in the next month I can get the whole routine completely planned out, and get to the point where I can hit the cues even if there's no music playing. I think that's a realistic goal.
The past 3 sessions, I've only done one routine runthrough each time. That's because each time I've managed to do the routine dropless. I felt strong enough each time and wanted to end on a good note. As USO gets closer and closer, I will probably ramp up my routine practice, but for being one month out I feel comfortable stopping after one dropless.
In addition to doing routine runthroughs, I've also started doing some stamina drilling, and just drilling of combos and tricks I know I'm putting in the routine. I should probably do this type of drilling even when I'm not working on routines, but I definitely think its a good idea as I get my stamina up for the summer.
In other good news, my new Ivan bags arrived and they are SWEET. I'm talking no break-in required, and playable as hell off the bat. I'll make my next post about them.
The routine also feels like its starting to gel. The ending still needs tightening up, but at least the first half of it feels solid and automatic. This is huge, because by getting the first half solid, I'm setting myself up with more energy for the last half, even if I'm still improvising parts of the last half. The hope is that in the next month I can get the whole routine completely planned out, and get to the point where I can hit the cues even if there's no music playing. I think that's a realistic goal.
The past 3 sessions, I've only done one routine runthrough each time. That's because each time I've managed to do the routine dropless. I felt strong enough each time and wanted to end on a good note. As USO gets closer and closer, I will probably ramp up my routine practice, but for being one month out I feel comfortable stopping after one dropless.
In addition to doing routine runthroughs, I've also started doing some stamina drilling, and just drilling of combos and tricks I know I'm putting in the routine. I should probably do this type of drilling even when I'm not working on routines, but I definitely think its a good idea as I get my stamina up for the summer.
In other good news, my new Ivan bags arrived and they are SWEET. I'm talking no break-in required, and playable as hell off the bat. I'll make my next post about them.