Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Thanks for the comments guys. I was hoping to hold out for a top post painting, but I also don't want to lose momentum on the Worlds bloggage. So here's a picture of a flying saucer I accidentally shot from my old apartment, while photographing a sunset:



Back to Worlds 2015 writeup.

Wednesday Part 2.

During the 20 minutes of purgatory when I was awaiting judgment on my routine fate, I was on the fence about doing Circles, regardless of how the routines decision came down. I just couldn't predict how I'd feel. Thankfully the routine finals news came back the way I hoped, and I felt I had a new lease on life. I was physically tired (the emotional stress took a toll), but I was definitely motivated to do Circles now. From a karma standpoint for the tournament, I felt like it would be wrong to scratch in circles after the good luck I had in making routine finals. From a mental standpoint, I also wanted to burn off my anxious energy and show myself and everybody else that damnit, I CAN play this game.

I got a quick bite to eat, and hit the remainder of my caffeine hard. I warmed up with Danny Boyle, Taishi, and Jakub. This would be the only time all week I'd play with any of them, so I'm glad we had the opportunity. Danny had a nice darkwalk-mobius to start a turn, and taishi had some good symposium stuff. Jakub has a very strong bothsided base. I could see him in BAP in a year or two. By the time circles were starting, I felt fully warm again, and incredibly determined to shred hard and put on a good show. I really wanted to get the bad taste of routines out of my mouth, and just channel my angst from before into a strong showing.

My circle had Penske, Alex Trenner, and Jakub M. I had the second seed, and after everybody's first turn it was clear I'd have to work to hold my seed. Overall I was really happy with my circle performance. I missed more of my "opener" combos than I normally do, including a clownface that felt super close. At USO I landed a clownface in Circle, and it just would have been so cool to have done that at Worlds in the same summer.
While my openers were worse than normal, I was proud that I didn't waste a single turn. My string length for all 6 turns were: 28, 21, 37, 24, 34, and 33. I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of my highest trick counts for a circle comp ever.

I also got to do a crazy passback with an eclipse, that actually worked. After pulling it off I immediately pointed to Matt Kemmer in the stands, since he always makes fun of me for doing bad passbacks like that.
Once circle was over I high fived everybody, and left the stage feeling like I could show my face in public again. People were back to making eye contact with me, and I could joke about my shitty routine cause I had just spent the past 20 minutes showing I don't suck. Some people even told me it looked close between Jim and me, which felt good to hear. I definitely left the site that night feeling optimistic for Friday, in a way I wouldn't have if I had skipped Circle. I didn't know it then, but that Circle semis would also be the last time I played freestyle (i.e. not my routine) for the next 3+ weeks.

After cooling down, I grabbed Taishi so we could catch up over dinner. It was raining out, but we figured that wouldn't be too bad if we just grabbed food then took it to Taishi's. We knew there was a famous Danish hotdog place near Taishi's apartment, so we went there first. When we didn't see a line of people, we knew we were in trouble. There was a sign up saying something in Danish, that probably meant: "summer hours, closed early." Damn. Haley checks her phone, and we find a well reviewed vietnamese place a few blocks away. We trudge through the rain, only to find ANOTHER handwritten note on the door. Seriously? Peter PLYS! Its raining hard now, we're hungry, tired, and I just want a drink worse than anything in the world. We end up grabbing beer from the 7-11 and kebabs from a place under Taishi's AirBNB. The kebabs are pretty meh, but at this stage I just needed something in me. Taishi's place is super nice. By the end of the week Haley and I concluded that we got unlucky with ours, since everybody else had much swankier AirBNBs. It's nice catching up with Taishi, though it frustrates me that my Japanese has deteriorated so much. I tell Taishi that we want to go to Japan in the next year or two, before we have kids. I definitely want to go back while I still have friends there, and still haven't completely forgotten the language. We have a couple beers, and it just feels good that comp is over and I can have a beer with an old friend.

Taishi takes a quick shower, then we head out to Christiania for the video contest. Transportation that night would be a bit of an ordeal. The metro only accepted coins, which I didn't even notice because on the way to the video contest I had exact change for the group, and was happy to burn it. On the way home though, our credit cards didn't work, and we had to break a bill carefully at a 7-11 to get back. We also had trouble finding Christiania, and only got close to the movie theater with the help of a local who took pity on us. Even with him, we only got near the theater. Thankfully we were able to find it after asking around a bit more. It sounds like everybody else had the same experience, with varying levels of scariness. Rory, Katrina, and Mathieu sound like they had the scariest one, with a weird drifter dude saying farewell by saying "bring out the gimp."

By the time we got to the venue, the video contest was half over. All that matters though, is that we got there in time to watch "Footbag attitude." We later learned it was a joke video by Mikko Leppisto, but at the time we had no idea what was going on. The first couple of minutes, I thought it was serious. Then I thought it was a joke, but I wasn't sure, so I didn't want to laugh. Then I thought the guy was crazy, but he was serious. Then came the owl photos, and they didn't stop coming. With each new photo I just laughed harder and harder, and kept wishing they wouldn't stop. It was amazing. This must be what it was like to be in the audience of one of Andy Kauffman's shows back in the day. People exchanging looks, not sure if it was a joke or not. Just such a well executed joke video. I felt privileged to be there with the group, experiencing it with everybody else.

After the video contest, I wanted to dance, but it looked like everybody was done for the day. It was definitely a long, exhausting one, so we headed out. Walking out of Christiania felt a bit creepy, since there was almost no lights on, but that ended up being the easy part of the evening. It was late out, so buses didn't run frequently, we had trouble finding the right ones. We get home close to 2 am, completely spent from the rollercoaster day of emotions and the odyssey of going to Christiania. I shower, then crash out hard.

Next: Thursday, day of rest.

[C-Fan]

Thursday:

Feels good to sleep in and not worry about jet lag, or competition. After the emotional rollercoaster that was routine and circle semis, my only goal for Thursday is to rest up mentally and physically. We kick the day off with breakfast at a hip porridge place called Grod, which is surprisingly grood. Strawberry and skyr in there. Unlike the hipster coffee place earlier in the week, the barista at grod took my request for mocha as a challenge, and ground up some cocoa nibs into my coffee. Nice. Typically you don't tip in Denmark, which made it particularly cool to get friendly service, since you knew there were no ulterior motives to get a fatter tip or anything.



The plan for the day is to not go to the site at all, since there are no events happening Thursday. Check that. I tell Haley that the only events happening are 2square and footbag golf. After being with me for six years, she is better than most people at detecting when I'm joking around or pulling a fast one. In this case I wasn't, but she is instantly suspicious about footbag golf. I start laughing, because footbag golf DOES totally sound like a bullshit sport I'd make up as a joke. We then spend a while coming up with other footbag variants, including footbag polo (players ride tricycles and hit footbags with croquet mallets). We also come up with alternate names for existing sports, that have similarly tenuous relations to each other. Like "stick basketball," that sport where the basketball is a lot smaller and white, and you throw it at somebody who swats at it with a stick. Or "bowling net," where the bowling ball is a lot smaller and lighter, and green, and you bat it back and forth over a net using rackets. Etc. etc.

The weather is supposed to be good, so we decide to do the botanic gardens to be outdoors. Some nice flowers, but mostly feels like a very well kept park. Its relaxing, which is just what I needed. In the greenhouse we see the corpse plant, which isn't blooming, but I still recognize based off its latin name. Polini would be proud.



The weather in the morning was actually pretty overcast, so we felt kind of dumb when we headed towards the museum and the sun came out. We decided to stop at a random cafe for lunch, just cause their patio was nice and we wanted to enjoy the weather. We got our second smorrebrod of the trip, this time with pickled herring. Also had a beer with it. Really just enjoyed soaking in some sun, knowing I was on vacation, and feeling lucky that I still had routine finals the next day to redeem my routines performance at the tournament.

After lunch we do check out the museum, and I'm impressed. I'm a big fan of Dutch masters, so I'm pleasantly surprised they have a huge collection, including a bunch of Rembrandts I'd never seen before. A lot of the rooms have a little couch/bench, which is nice since I can sit and rest the legs while enjoying the art.

I try not to think about footbag, and just enjoy the day off. That said, I did briefly (but strongly) consider preparing a practical joke for Finals, but decided against it. After my disastrous semis routine the day before, I really almost felt like I was gambling with house money in finals. Like, I almost didn't make it, so why not do something crazy in finals? I remembered that on the first day of comp, Caroline did her routine to "Uptown Funk." Afterwards, she told me that Milan came up to her, told her he dug the routine, and let her know that he was also doing that song. Since Milan's semi routine came in the pool after mine, I actually watched his semis routine, and it wasn't to that song. So I knew that Milan was planning on using that song in Finals... and now I had a full day to work out rough choreo to that song myself. The thought of Milan going into Finals with the #1 seed, but then hearing/seeing me do a routine to his song 15 minutes before he was up...it just seemed so cruel and hilarious. I decided against it though, since I like Milan, and also because I had put too much time and effort into my own routine to NOT do it when it counted the most. I later told Milan my (aborted) plan, backstage on Finals night. His response was to say with a completely straight face: "yeah, I would have had to kill you." In all seriousness though, if it were Honza instead of Milan I probably would have done it.

I can't recall what else we did on Thursday. I think that night we took it easy and stayed in. We got some tapas from the grocery store and played cards, which actually ended up being one of the more relaxing and fun nights for me. Which is good, since the next day was going to be an important one.

Next: Friday and finals

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Always enjoy your writeups.

I've been watching the live stream of the corpse plant because it's supposed to bloom soon.

[boyle]

When Caroline started using that song, I said to her, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody else uses that one. I wasn't certain it would be the winning routine though

[C-Fan]

Quick non-Worlds entry.

I took a week off from playing after Worlds, partially to rest up but also just because I was busy getting caught up with work. Our first weekend back, we went whitewater rafting on the Poudre. We were originally supposed to have gone for our anniversary in late June, but the river was so high back then we pushed it back to early August. In retrospect, that may have been the best decision of the summer. The rapids themselves weren't that bad, and we didn't fall out a single time (unlike a lot of the other boats). That said, at one point we hit a quiet spot in the river, and our guide encouraged us to hop out for a swim. I didn't realize how shallow that point of the river was though, so when I jumped out of the boat I banged my right knee super hard into a rock. Felt like I was shot or something. I walked with a limp for a few days, but I figured it was probably just a bone bruise. If I had fractured it I would have been in a lot more pain. Still, it took a lot longer than I expected to heal up. It's been almost 2 weeks since I banged it up, and it only felt good enough to play yesterday. For you math majors, that means I took off almost 3 weeks from playing. I can't recall the last time I had to take that much time off.

Even with all that time off, my knee still doesn't feel 100%. Twisting motions like dyno, whirl, and double downs feel a little painful, and I haven't even thought about trying symposium. That said, it feels fine cushioning normal stalls, so I figured it would be good to play, as that will hopefully strengthen the other muscles in my leg and speed my recovery. I'm also hoping that I can turn this injury into an opportunity to improve/explore underused parts of my game, like spins and inspins. So for my first few sessions back I'm going to completely play downtime; no sets and an emphasis on variety over difficulty. I think it'll be fun.
Gonna work on wrapping up the Worlds blog in the next couple days. My blogging plan worked out well; its a model I'll use in the future.

[C-Fan]

Friday:

I wake up feeling excited for the day. Its not every day you wake up with a chance to compete for the world championship. Its only the second day of my life where I can say that, so I savor the feeling. I think we go for breakfast at Moller's. Competition isn't until the evening, so the plan isn't to have breakfast tide me over all day, but I still want 2 hardy meals in me before I get on stage.

Confidence wise I'm feeling pretty good. After the disaster that was my semis routine, I assumed I'd be going into Finals as the 8th seed. On Thursday I went on Facebook on Haley's phone to look at the scores, and it turns out it wasn't that close between me and Brian, and the real close finish was Jakub edging Matthias. That made me feel a little better, even if I was going into Finals with the 7 seed. It somehow made me feel like my presence in Finals wasn't as bad a fluke as I thought it was the day before. I also felt like all the pressure was now off me. I couldn't see myself doing worse than in semis, so I expected a regression to the mean. Going into Worlds my goals were to medal, or at least set a new personal best (i.e. finish better than 6th place). The morning of Finals, I had readjusted my goal to the more modest one of: do a good routine, and don't finish in last place.

After breakfast we go downtown. The main goal is to distract myself from competition as best as possible, ideally while not doing anything that'd tire me out too much. The previous day at the museum we noted they had free coin lockers, so we took advantage of that on Friday to store my competition gear there while doing other touristy stuff. It was comforting knowing I had all my gear downtown near the site, so I wouldn't have to make a trip back to the Air BNB then rush to the site. It was also nice not having to lug it around with me. We drop off the bag at the museum, then go walk outside to enjoy the weather. For lunch we grab a turkey sandwich at some place with good yelp reviews. Competition is still 3 hours away, but I'm conscious that I want to eat something easily digestible that will still give me energy when I need it. After lunch we went back to the museum to kill a little more time before heading to the site.

On Thursday we looked primarily at the main wings of the museum, which were almost exclusively traditional art from Europe. We didn't even notice there was a humongous modern wing attached to the back of the museum. Friday we mostly spent exploring this modern wing. We saw some cool paintings, but the highlight was an exhibit we almost walked past without stopping. It was a small video screen playing a looped video of an amateur dance troop, doing a choreographed dance with varying degrees of coordination/competence. In front of the screen were two earmuff style headphones, so we decided to listen in and watch for a while:
The video itself was kind of comical, but the real fun came when we started clapping along to it, and doing the dance moves ourselves. Of course, since we had headphones on and were watching the video, we weren't overly aware of our surroundings. When we finished dancing/watching, we hung up the headphones and were surprised to hear a guy start applauding us from an upper balcony. We waved in embarrassed appreciation, and made a beeline for the exit. Even as we were laughing on our way out, I found myself thinking: I hope that's not the best performance, or the most applause I get today.

On our way out of the museum, we asked the information desk the best way to get to the Black Diamond. The employee said she never takes the bus, but that it goes right by there. She prefers walking, but that was like a 30+ minute walk. I consider this option, but figure 30+ minutes of walking isn't my preferred warmup right before competing in Finals. We find the bus, but aren't sure it's headed the right way. I ask the bus driver if it goes to the Black Diamond, and he doesn't seem to understand my question. There are a lot of red flags here right off the bat: the guy was talking on his headset phone in a foreign language, his English didn't seem very good, and he just seemed distracted. Despite these red flags, we get on the bus and pay a fare, and the bus driver tells us he'll tell us when is the best stop to get off. You can probably guess whether he did or not. I know the Black Diamond is on the waterfront, but its hard to tell from the bus where we are. After the first stop I ask him again where to get off, and the way he responds its quite clear he had completely forgotten about us once he got back on the phone, and that it was the previous stop. We spend the next 20 minutes in traffic, going further and further away from the site. When he finally stops again, I have to restrain myself from spitting in his face and assaulting him with my nalgene full of water. If the fucker didn't know where he was going, fine. If he doesn't understand English well enough to tell me his bus doesn't go somewhere, fine. But to tell us he'll inform us when we get to the stop, and to forget about it entirely because he's talking on the phone to bangladesh instead of doing his fucking job...just fuck man.

We get off the bus, and figure we're now even further from the Black Diamond than we were when we were at the museum. I have flashbacks to 2005 Worlds when I almost missed Sick3 finals because I was on the wrong tram, and I am determined not to lose my shit. I am furious at the bus driver for fucking us over, but really I am furious at myself for not paying attention to the red flags, and putting myself in a position where I'm in a bad mental and physical state right before competing in Finals at Worlds. Fuck.

As we powerjog to the site, the Black Diamond comes into view. On the other side of a huge construction project. Really?!? Ach. When we finally circle the construction and get there, we see footbaggers streaming in, which is a good sign. I figure I have 40 minutes before I'm on stage, which is pretty tight for me to get changed and warmed up. At least comp hasn't started. I find Wiktor answering questions, and I go up and ask him where is the warmup area. He starts looking through some list to figure out if I'm judging Circle later, and I do my best to politely explain that I really need to get changed and warmed up, and that we can worry about judging after routines. I also keep bumping into people who weren't at the site during the week, but had come to watch finals and shred that weekend. I have mixed emotions as I am surprised and excited to see people like Roy Klein, Felix, Mikko, and Matthias LS, but at the same time I need to get ready and not waste time with hellos. I dump my clothes and normal shoes with Haley in the beautiful auditorium, then spend the next 5 minutes searching for a place to change. I am told there are changing rooms upstairs, but its like in another building. I find a bathroom, change, then go to the main backstage area where everybody else (except Vasek) is warming up. Seeing everybody else calms me down some. Breathe Ken. You made it to the site, you have your gear on, and you still have 30 minutes to warm up.

The backstage area feels surprisingly calm. Maybe that's because everybody there has been in Finals at least once before, with the exception of Jakub. He sounds like he's just happy to be there, and right after his routine (2 drops he informs us) he says he's happy to take 8th place. The only source of excitement and intrigue is the fact that Vasek has yet to arrive. The Americans speculate whether or not he'll show (there were rumors he might not, since his wife got injured and went to the hospital that afternoon). I mention that his legacy is already beyond secure, but how badass would it be if he showed up 5 minutes before he was called on stage, with cigarette breath and bags under his eyes, and then did a perfect routine in civilian clothes and shoes? We have a good laugh at that, mostly because we knew that Vasek might actually be able to do something like that. As men's finals gets nearer, I ask Milan, and he says that Vasek is in the building, just warming up somewhere else.

Doubles and women's routines happen, but I don't see a single second of them since I'm still trying to settle down from my bus ride odyssey, and get warmed up physically. Paloma comes back from her routine positively glowing. She just went dropless, and she knows she's going to be the World champ. Even as I'm trying to get my own mental game ready, I take a moment to congratulate her on the achievement. Seeing her happiness is all the reminder I need that a strong effort in the next 20 minutes could lead to one of the happiest memories of my life.

Men's routines starts, which means that in 3 minutes or less I'll be competing. I feel decent physically and mentally. Even with the craziness of getting to the site, I feel lucky to be at Worlds, to be in Finals, to have the chance to compete at the highest level in the sport I love best. I look around the backstage warmup area at my friends, I look out at the stage where Mads is in a tuxedo and lavers, and I savor the moment.

Next: Final Routine, and party.

[C-Fan]

Friday: Routines and afterparty

I wait in the wings as Mads reads my introduction. I wrote the joke: "Ken has been competing at Worlds since 1999, and fully plans to continue competing into the next century." The joke doesn't go over as well as I'd hoped, but when I jog out onto the stage the applause from the audience feels warm and genuine. As I bound out on the stage and wave, I feel a certain bounciness to the floor I did not expect. I make a mental note to feel it out in the first few seconds of the routine. Even in the few seconds when I note this new variable, I'm already calming myself down by reminding myself that none of the other Finalists have warmed up on this surface, so it is a level playing field. The lights on stage are super bright, and I make a joke about it to the music table: "Nobody told me there were going to be lights!" I peer out into the darkness of the audience looking for Haley. I blow her a kiss, then motion for my music.

The first 10 seconds of a routine always freak me out. No matter how many times I've prepared, no matter how big or small a tournament, there's something about the first ten seconds of a routine that floods my brain with adrenaline. I've gotten to the point though that my choreo is practiced enough that I almost always get through that initial surge, and calm down afterwards. I get through my opening section, and when I make it past the face-chest-lap transition without a drop, I feel good. Maybe I exhaled too much mentally after that, because not 2 seconds later I drop strongside barfly. I'm not sure I ever dropped that trick in the 100+ times I practiced the routine over the summer, so it really surprises me. I get through my 5 adds section, and come to the dramatic fusion cue. My last 3 times in competition I messed this cue up: USO finals I dropped it (only drop of the routine), Worlds first round I bailed to legbeater, and Worlds semis I dropped it. Because of this, I made the decision before hand to swap it out for pigbeater-pixie whirl-PSW. I think it was the right decision to dump Fusion, but doing so at such a late stage was a calculated risk, and it didn't pay off. I drop, and then a few contacts later I body foul the bag on a spin and almost drop again. Oof. That fusion was a choreo mistake, and man did I pay for it throughout the summer. Lessons to be learned there. Thankfully the rest of the routine goes pretty close to plan. My shuffle section goes better than in any other routine I did this summer. The fliers section started a bit early, so I tacked on a few more fliers to fill time. I wonder if that ended up helping me, since a long section of fliers in a routine in 2015 is pretty unique. I mis time the final trick in the routine, finishing a second off beat, but at least I hit. I handcatch, and take a bow. Definitely not my best routine, but it feels night and day better than my semis. I can walk off stage with my head up, and I do.
Offstage I high five most of the other finalists, and tell them it went OK. I know already that I won't medal with my routine, but even if I finish 8th it won't be an embarrassing fuckup of an 8th place either. The adrenaline is still draining from me as I take a knee backstage, and watch the remainder of the routines. At most tournaments I have a pretty high seed, so I don't get to watch a lot of routines. Similarly, when I do get to watch the routines after me I always feel conflicted, because I am rooting for my friends but I am also aware that I will finish higher if they mess up. At this year's Worlds though, I feel different. I feel like I can watch all the remaining routines purely as a fan, and not worry about how people do. I feel lucky just to have made Finals, and while my routine wasn't great, it also didn't go badly, and I feel relieved knowing I can finish my tournament season with a good taste in my mouth. As I watch the remaining routines from backstage, I feel happy to be at Worlds, and privileged to have an up-close view of the competitors before, during, and after their performance. It's a great feeling.

Penske's routine starts off great, but the drops catch up with him. Taishi's routine goes OK, but after seeing his first round routine its clearly not his best. I can relate. Nick's routine looks solid, but I'm distracted by conversation, and I see a drop. I wonder if that's enough to keep people off the podium this year. I am later happy to see it is not. Evan's routine looks perfect until the last trick (blurry whirling swirl) which looks more hit than not. He comes offstage saying something to the effect of: "that drop is going to cost me a lot." I disagree, since 99% of his routine was perfect and it was such a hard trick he dropped. Unfortunately, he ends up being right. Vasek shows up backstage maybe 1 minute before going on. He does some clippers before walking up to the stage, and we joke that maybe we just witnessed his entire warmup. His routine is pretty great, though the difficulty for the first 2/3 of it seems a bit low. When he hits the montage at the end and finishes dropless, all I can think is that he has done exactly what he needed to do to put pressure on Milan. At this stage I figure Vasek is probably in first, and Milan's performance will determine who gets first and who gets seconds.

Milan walks up, and the first notes of "Uptown Funk" start. I chuckle to myself, as I try to imagine the audience's reaction at this moment, had I stolen that song for my Finals routine, as I had planned. Milan proceeds to do 2 minutes of fun, hard footbag, marred only by a single drop. When the drop happened though, I remember turning to Penske and saying; "that's it. That's the moment Vasek won!" A few minutes later though, I reassess that evaluation, and decide that Milan's difficulty probably makes it a closer call than that. When Milan comes offstage, he looks distraught, and says something like: "I fucked up so bad!" I find that funny, since in my estimation his routine is clearly either 1st or 2nd, but on some level I also get where he's coming from. He has left the door open for the judges to decide his fate, instead of forcing them to give him the gold.

I'm still processing everything when Haley shows up backstage. I give her a hug, and I think she senses my relief that it's all done. We head back into the audience and take a seat, where a number of people give me high fives for my routine. I tell most of them that it feels a lot better to end on that note, than my semis. Sergio gives me a swig of Jager, and it makes me feel like comp is over, and I can sit back and relax as I watch the Circle semis. I sit next to Bear, Cassy, and Derek, and its fun exchanging commentary with them after each player's turn. Evan comes out of the gate guns blazing, and I really hope he can keep the pressure on and win another gold. For some reason, I expected the Czechs to go in more quietly, since their routines went well, while I expected Penske to really turn it on since his routine went poorly. Instead, Vasek surprises everybody in the room by turning it to 11.
By the 6th turn, the folks in my row all share the same verdict: Vasek pretty clearly won. We all also agree that Evan came second, then Penske or Milan. When the results are announced, I am very surprised Evan slipped to 3rd. When they announce routines, I brace myself for 8th place. I'm really hoping I at least held my seed, and hopefully even moved up to 6th. "In 8th place, from Poland..." I sigh in relief, then clench again. "In 7th place, from Japan..." I share a look with Haley, happy that I will at least tie my personal best. "In 6th place, from the USA..." I get ready to stand up and wave at this point..."...Jim Penske." Whoa! When my name is announced in 5th place, I stand up and wave, smiling as I'm genuinely surprised and happy to have finished that well. When Evan is announced a second later, I am a bit surprised, since I thought he might still make bronze with his routine. Instead, Vasek is announced 3rd, Landes second (yes!) and Milan first.

I feel a bit shellshocked to get all this information in the course of just a few minutes. I feel super stoked for Landes for getting 2nd in the World in a tough field. That's fucking awesome. I feel a little bad for Vasek, since he did a hard dropless routine and only finished bronze. I feel bad for Evan, since I know he was gunning for Gold and the one drop cost him a medal. And of course, I'm still processing how I feel about my own win. 5th is my highest finish ever, and I did it in a tougher field than 2013 Worlds. It's only a one spot difference, but "top 5" rolls off the tongue a lot easier than "top 6," and to pull it off at age 35 feels like an accomplishment. My thoughts on my competitive ceiling evolve over the next few weeks, but that's a blog post for later.

After the awards ceremony, I had a little fun using a prop I packed for the trip. Back in Denver as I was packing, I kept finding old keepsakes from old tournaments in my footbag drawer. Among them was the players booklet from Worlds 2009 in Berlin. It was in remarkably good condition too. I decided to bring it with me to Worlds 2015, so I could mess with people on Finals night. Basically, I'd walk up to a group of people, and the conversation would shift to "where's everybody eating?" and "where's the players party at?" At that point, I'd whip out my player's booklet, flip to Friday night, and then show them the party location and map. Reactions to this generally fell into one of three categories:

1. People who didn't buy it for a second. This included Mikko and Matthias Lino-Schmidt, both who live in Berlin and therefore immediately recognized the names of all the Berlin nightclubs. Aleksi and Verena similarly don't buy it for a second.
2. People who were initially confused, and then realized it was the old 2009 Worlds booklet. They tended to be more shocked that I had it in my possession, than annoyed that I tried to trick them.
3. People who didn't realize it was a booklet from a different Worlds, and decided that the final party was at "Glashaus." In a couple cases, players I tricked with this even said: "Oh yeah, that must be that big glass building we passed on the way here." I don't bother to correct them.

After the awards, a bunch of us went to the meatpacking district for dinner, since the party was supposed to be in that area too. It was a fun walk over, with the energy of Worlds being over buzzing through the group. Anna and I discovered a shared love of Depeche Mode, and had fun singing Ramstein's cover of Stripped. The sun was slowly going down during dinner, and when we finished it was well on its way to being freezing out. I gave Haley my jacket and put on a beer jacket, but even so I think the cold is what got Haley sick. We spend a good long while outside drinking, and as more and more people show up that I didn't know would be at the tournament (Serge Kaldany! Samu Ahola! Phil Morrison!) I begin to wonder if the booze is hitting me harder than I expected. I have some good conversations with people, but when I begin to tell bad jokes to the Spanish team, I know its time to go home. I don't say a lot of goodbyes, since I figure I'll see everybody at the site the next day.

The walk home is an odyssey. It's freezing out, and the beer jacket is fading. At some point we duck into a 7-11 for warmth, and I find myself buying a hotdog and hot chocolate from there just to get us home. Miraculously, we make it, and I crash out hard.

Next: Saturday

[C-Fan]

Saturday

I'm surprised to wake up without a hangover. Haley is notably low energy, which I initially think is a hangover, but turns out to be the beginnings of a bad headcold. We go to another Grod location for porridge, but they can't break our bill, and we know our credit cards don't work. Definitely one of the worst days energy wise to be turned away from breakfast. As we exit that Grod in search of another breakfast venue, we bump into Bear, Samu, Asmus, and Jones. There's something slightly off in our communication, and for a second I wonder if I really am more hungover than I thought. Sensing my confusion, Asmus and Bear set the record straight for me: they never went to bed! It's like 10:30 in the morning, and the four of them have been up for over a day! Samu is rifling through a box of old LPs and triumphantly holds up a greatest hits album of Rod Stewart, excitedly showing me: "look! America!" I sadly inform him that Rod Stewart is Scottish. Not that America ever wanted him. We talk with them just long enough to get clues as to how epic a party night they must have had.

We part ways, and eventually Haley and I find a breakfast place that will take our big bill. The breakfast perks me up, but Haley is still low energy. That should have been a clue that maybe it was more than just a hangover. We decide to go downtown to check out the canal tour, since the weather is maybe the best its been all week. Of course, the combination of it being sunny and a Saturday means the waterfront is mobbed with tourists. We somehow manage to get onto a boat, and its a lot of fun. The boat guide points out scenic areas and little trivia tidbits for each, but does so in English, Italian, and Danish. I'm surprised she did Italian and not Spanish, but maybe they get a lot of Italians or something. We also get an extra language, from an old Korean man who is leading a group of like 20 tourists and who (I assume) was translating the tour guide's comments to his group. I had a lot of fun with this, as I would then re-translate his comments back into English for Haley. For example:

Tour guide, pointing to a lime green building: This building to our left once was a factory, but is now a trendy restaurant.
Korean man: 우리의 왼쪽으로 한 번 에 이 건물은공장 ,하지만 지금은 트렌디 한 레스토랑
Me: "I painted my house that color without consulting my HOA, and now they are fining me! I was told pastel colors were ACCEPTABLE!"

I had fun with it. The canal tour was pretty relaxing, and we saw/learned a lot. It was particularly cool when we passed the Black Diamond, since we were just there less than a day ago, not just as tourists but as participants.

Tour guide: The Black Diamond is a modern waterfront extension to the Royal Danish Library's old building
Korean man: 블랙 다이아몬드 는 덴마크 왕립 도서관의 오래 된 건물의 현대적인 물가 확장
Me: "I was here last night! This is the stadium for Danish Riverdance national championships! Trust me, EVERYBODY lost!"

The tour was great, but took a bit longer than expected, so when it was over I had to make a snap decision on whether or not to go back to the site to compete. We hadn't eaten lunch, and we would have had to return to our Air BNB first if we were to make it in time. With Haley feeling low energy, I decided that rather than stress us out by rushing to get back and power up for comp, it was probably smarter to stay downtown and eat and relax. We end up finding a restaurant where we split a really good steak sandwich, and then head to the site. Since I'm not competing, we don't even have to stop by the Air BNB.

While I didn't prepare a ton for Sick 1 and Sick3, I did have planned entries for both. I planned them out early in the summer, and made a point to hit them every few sessions. On Saturday morning I felt optimistic I'd be able to get at least one, since I played so little footbag during the week and my legs felt fresh. I don't regret skipping comp on Saturday for the sake of tourism and picking up Haley's spirits; that was definitely the right call. For the sake of posterity though, here are the submissions I was planning on doing:

Sick 1: Sick 3: I wonder how those would have placed. Of course, I also wonder if I would have hit them. There's no way to know. In any case, just the fact that I'd consider doing clownface in sick 1 feels like I've made a lot of progress, considering I couldn't even do deep janiwalkers a year and a half ago.

When we get to the site, we see people shredding outside. It looks idyllic, but I don't have my gear, and net doubles finals are starting soon. We grab some snacks from the 7-11 and stake out a good seat to watch. The German team is heavily favored and has Yves, a former freestyler. But I am definitely rooting for the Finnish team, since Matti Pohjola has been one of my favorite net players for at least 8 years now. During the match several times the ball rolls or flies to me, and I field them back to the appropriate players. This usually earns a faux earnest thumbs up from Matt Kemmer, except for the time I bobbled the netbag and it smacked some old man in the face. Horrible, but also hilarious. The Finns lose, and I get ready to leave the site to do my interview with Verena.

I say a few heartfelt goodbyes to people, but around the 4th one somebody says "what, you aren't coming to the party tonight?" Somehow I didn't know there was even a party (I should have checked my player's booklet from Berlin). I feel liberated by this knowledge, as I feel it postpones my farewells for a few hours. As it turned out, I missed the party, so I'm glad I did get in a few earnest farewells before then. The one I remember best was with Aleksi. I basically gave him props for keeping such a great attitude all week despite the injury, and thanking him for doing judging. As a player, it just felt really good having a judge who has the technical ability to hit all the tricks in everybody's routine, as well as the experience of having competed at the highest level as well. That's definitely a luxury, since most players with that background usually are IN finals, instead of watching. At the end of our farewell Aleksi casually mentions that Worlds is rumored to either be in Portland, or Slovakia next year. I immediately respond: "that makes sense, since Slovakia is like the Portland of europe." Haley and I later discuss whether it is more insulting/flattering to be known as the "Slovakia of America" or the "Portland of Europe." Cue "dream of the 1390s" in Slovakia.

Verena comes over to our Air BNB to do the interview. We end up having a really interesting, albeit really long conversation, touching on topics including sexism in footbag, why footbag demographics are the way they are, and what keeps us motivated as players. I think we end up talking a good two hours or longer over beer and pistachios, and when we're done Verena says she only asked about 2/3 of her questions. This is what happens when I get going talking about footbag. Verena heads to her flat or to the party, and I tell her we plan on showing our faces there later. We head off to Matt Kemmer's Air BNB by the site, since we told him we'd meet him and Alex for dinner after my interview. Of course, we didn't have a cellphone to communicate, and we didn't count on me blabbing on as long as I did. We head over and Alex buzzes us up, but Matt has already headed out to the party. I feel really bad we were so late, but I'm glad we at least made the effort to go hang out. We head back in the direction of the Air BNB and the party, but as we get near the Air BNB I realize that I'm pretty tired. Haley looks straight exhausted. While I do want to say goodbye to everybody, I also figure that will take a minimum of another 90 minutes, and based on the temperature experiences of the previous night and what it did to Haley, I decide to just call it an early night. We go home and pack our bags, do some cleaning of the apartment, and hit the sack.

Next: Sunday and closing thoughts.

[C-Fan]

Sunday:

While the decision to skip the final Saturday night party was a hard one, it definitely felt great to wake up on Sunday fully refreshed, with our bags already packed. We did some cleaning up, and our Air BNB contact showed up early to let us know we could just leave the key in the mailslot. This meant we had a bit more time and flexibility, which was nice. We went out to Moller's for breakfast one last time, and while we were waiting in line for it to open, we see Daryl Genz walking down the street with his luggage in tow. We catch up with him real quick, tell him I may be in Boise in October, and wish him safe travels. At Moller's we have one last really good meal with our fav dishes from there from the week. Goat cheese mashed potatoes, rye bread with gooseberry jam, and of course skyr with granola.

After breakfast we check our Danish cash situation. We have enough to get to the airport, and just enough extra to get some snacks for the road too. We hit the grocery store one last time, and get cookies for ourselves and licorice for our coworkers back in Colorado. We really wanted to buy pickled herring to take back, but it sounded like there was no way to do it without it spoiling. Daim.

We grab our stuff from the Air BNB, pack sandwiches, and head out. We decide to walk to the metro stop, since we have plenty of time and its beautiful out. Yeah, we're dragging our luggage through town, but its gorgeous out and I'd much rather be experiencing the streets of Copenhagen instead of seeing it fly by from the inside of a bus. We get to the airport no problem, and I secretly hope we'll bump into more footbaggers there. As it turns out though, Daryl would be the last footbagger we see on the trip. We burn the last of our Danish kroners in the airport, on a hotdog, some wine, and a beer. When I take a sip of the beer, I feel like Denmark is trolling me, as it totally tastes like licorice. Amazing.

The flight back is uneventful. I don't feel overly celebratory since my routines didn't go as well as they could have, but I also don't feel depressed since I finished higher than ever in routines, against a harder field than 2013. Thoughts about my competition goals and my training goals are already forming, but I'm not even home from the tournament yet, so I feel OK relaxing on the flight and just watching TV. When we finally do get home to our place in Denver, it feels good to be back. Its definitely a mix of emotions, as I already miss my friends, I'm sad tournament season is over, but I'm also happy it went as well as it did.

I'm going to do one final Worlds post wrapping up my thoughts, but I'll end this post with some thank yous:

Asmus and the entire staff: thank you for pulling off such a well-run tournament. All the venues were top-notch, everything ran on time, and it just felt like one of the smoothest Worlds I've been to. On more than a few occasions Haley would ask questions like: "is the Finals venue always this nice?" and I'd tell her that she just came during a particularly well run year. Bravo. Also thanks Asmus for the Faxe Kondi.

Derek Littlefield: Thanks for letting me win chess games against you the day of semis. My mental game was shaky in general that day, so that was nice of you to throw the games to put me in a better mental state.

El Kemino: I'm sorry we didn't get to hang out more, but I'm glad we at least got in one real session. Thank you for not getting injured trying one of my requests this year. You're always a calming presence for me.

Haley: Thank you for being so supportive of my crazy obsession of kicking around a beanbag. Thanks for being my rock during the highs and especially the lows of this year's Worlds. Thank you for finding us good food to eat, and fun things to do to distract me during the week.

Taishi: 世界大会で 会えって よかった.毎年たいし くん は うまく なります. 今年の 結果 は おめでとう ございます.

Evan: I'm glad we got to spend some time together early in the week, and we got to meet Anna. I really value our conversations about footbag, pushing ourselves, and competition. Its a nice feeling knowing that others are sharing the same path you are, and processing the experiences in a similar way. I hope I get to see you as much in the coming year in Boise as I did the previous year in Vegas.

Aleksi: If I got injured and was put on crutches at Worlds, I can't imagine how unpleasant I would have been. You basically embodied the exact opposite of that, judging everything, exuding positivity, and still getting out to party. What a class act. Even though we didn't get to play together, and didn't talk as much as I would have liked, you still reminded me why you are one of my favorite people in the sport. Get well soon.

Mikko: Thank you for making me laugh harder than I have in...about as long as I can remember. All about the Footbag Attitude. Congrats on the request medal too!

Sergio: Its always a joy to catch up with you. Thank you for showing me support after my semis routine, for the shot of Jager after my Finals routine, and for sharing bad jokes with me on Finals night in the freezing meatpacking district. When Haley and I go to Spain to visit Spanish family, I'll feel like she has already met some of my favorites in you, Maria, and Paloma.

Verena: Thanks for geeking out with me for 2.5+ hours, just talking footbag. Even if none of my blatherings are of use to you, I feel like it opened up some new avenues of thought for me on a topic that is central to my being, so that's very cool.

Red: Thank you for making Team USA jerseys this year. I really feel like it upped our level of camaraderie, and gave us a sense of united purpose. On the first day of routines when Jim, Nick, Evan, Brian, and myself all finished with a total of 2 drops between the five of us, I thought that sent a great message to the World that Team USA was in town and ready to compete. I hope we can catch up in Boulder or Boise sooner than later.

Danny Boyle: Congrats on having your routine go better than in 2010. Also, thank you for not throwing up on me the night of the video contest.

There are so many people I left out, but I want to thank everybody I got to hang out with. I wish there were more time to spend with you all, and we could do this more than once a year. Thank you all for making Worlds 2015 such a great experience.

[C-Fan]

Not a lot of blogging on my end, mostly due to the lack of footbagging lately. I've only had one serious session since Worlds, and I feel my motivation to shred is at the lowest point I can remember in a few years. I'm not overly worried about it though. I think on some level I just needed a break, probably both physically and mentally, and I understand its not a bad thing. There are a few events on the horizon which might reignite my spark to play too. Next Thursday night I'll be in Vegas, and hopefully can get dinner with Evan and maybe hang out. I'm not optimistic about shred, due to a tight schedule. But maybe just seeing Evan and talking will help. The week after that, Monistere is visiting Denver for a few days. I'll probably throw shoes on for that. There's also been talk of getting an "old-timers" session in, since Sunil, Irish, and Rippin all live in the area. Those 3 already had a session, but it was on a weeknight kinda far from me, so I passed. I'm hopeful though they'll do another one and I can go.

In the meantime, I've been having fun getting into skateboarding. I bought my skateboard for $6 in a Goodwill back in May, but I was scared to play with it until tournament season was over. I've only had 3 sessions messing around with it, but I feel like I'm already hooked. I was kind of surprised how quickly it grabbed my interest, but on a lot of levels it makes sense. As a footbagger, I like figuring out tricks, and there are a lot of parallels between figuring out a footbag trick and a skate trick. Foot placement, timing, balance, minor adjustments, and of course that adrenaline rush the first time you either hit a new trick, or come close to it. That may be one of the things I find appealing about skateboarding. Since I'm new to it and I suck, every session I get to work out the parts of the brain tied to hitting new tricks. With footbag, the gains are more subtle and gradual, and in a lot of ways less rewarding.

One thing that's different about skating though, is there's so much more information out there. This is both a good and a bad thing. On one hand, online tutorials have saved me a ton of guesswork about foot placement and technique. On the other hand, I've also gotten a lot of conflicting information from videos vs. what other footbaggers have told me. In footbag, there's so little info out there, I feel its harder to get conflicting advice. Anyway, I'm way early in the process, so as long as I continue to have fun and not get injured, I'm going to try out different styles for everything and see where it takes me.

I was going through some old blog entries the other day, and was stoked to see a picture from CSS7 that hadn't died to linkrot:


Zach Jahner took that almost 10 years ago. Made me nostalgic, so I looked up a video from that event, and that was a fun trip back in time for me too: It's crazy looking back on that video now. It makes me happy that I was just at Worlds with Gatesman and Penske, and they're still playing 9.5 year later, and they're even better now. It makes me miss a bunch of friends I no longer see at tournaments, like Regamey. It's also crazy to think about how different my life is now from then. That trip was my first time ever in Denver, I was unemployed, and I wasn't really sure where I'd be even in the next year. At that stage I don't even think I had applied to grad school. Flash forward 10 years, and I've been living in Denver for about 5 years, I'm married, I own a house, and I have a career and am thinking about children. Its weird, because on one hand my life is completely different, but on the other hand I don't feel all that different as a person than I did back at CSS7. Like, I could see myself playing footbag and getting dinner with my 2006 self, and feeling like we'd be able to hang out normally and see eye to eye on most things. I wonder if that's a sign that I haven't grown much as a person since then.

[Kylescook]

I've never seen that video. Thanks for that.

I think skateboarding like footbag is confusing at first because you should really be just riding around getting comfortable but you also want to get try new tricks, like trying osis and butterfly, even though you can barley inside stall. I say do it all, you'll have fun anyway. I spent a long time on a skateboard before I felt comfortable enough to ollie up a curb, you have to get comfortable with doing tricks while moving for that reason. As you get better you'll want to be able to link tricks and go up curbs and down stairs and all that comes from getting comfortable with tricks while moving. one of my favorite tricks to do while moving that doesn't require good "pop" but does require good balance is nollie shuvit. I used to love doing nollie shovit>manual>shovit/or 180 powerslide. Maybe i'll get my shoes out of the closet and skate before it gets cold.

[Asmus]

Hey Somolicious

I made a playlist with some of my fav skate videos. Thought you might find something you like. Not many big stairs and ledges so you even get inspired to try some of it.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... FSHwMjpkin

[christisgodlike]

That first video on that playlist is wacky as hell

[C-Fan]

Some quick updates on my end.

- Still skating, still having a lot of fun with it. My main goals for now are getting more comfortable just pushing in both normal and goofy, and getting more comfortable turning/controlling the board when I go down a ramp. I tried going down a ramp switch for the first time, and totally ate shit. Worst fall to date. In good news, my shuvits and ollies feel like they're making progress. I'll try and shoot some footage this weekend.

- Thanks for the skate playlist Asmus! Some good stuff in there, some weird stuff. I liked the Shiloh Greathouse one a lot, and a lot of the other ones have raised my interest in no-comply variants. I will probably start giving those a try soon.

- I was in Vegas for a day and a night last week for work. I was able to hook up with Evan, and in a random stroke of luck Johnny Breakdown flew in that night too, and we were all able to hang out. I didn't play any footbag with Evan, but we threw some frisbee and it was just good to hang out. That night was Evan's younger sister's birthday, so we hung out with her and her friends and just drank and played a game (like Cards Against Humanity, but where you write answers instead of just choosing cards). That was a lot of fun.

- Mark Monistere and his wife were in the Denver area this week. I tried to set up a shred with Sunil, Irish, and Rippin, only to see each of them bail one after another. Bit annoying, since if I'd known everybody would bail I would have picked a shred spot closer to me, and a day that worked better for Mark. We ended up meeting in Boulder, and shredded for about an hour. I got there a good hour before Mark arrived, so I took my time warming up just kicking a bag. A guy and a girl even joined me and I had a good time hacky slacking to warm up. This was probably a good thing, since I'm not sure how my body would have reacted to a real session, after pretty much not playing for the past 6 weeks.

The first half we were chasing the last dregs of sunlight, and the second half we played under streetlights. So for everybody else who was hoping to get some non-blurry Monistere footage, sorry. We ended up having a real fun session, even if neither of us played that well. The thin Denver air affects even the best of athletes, and with Mark coming from pretty much below sea level to over a mile of elevation, I think it hit him pretty hard. As for me, I played better than expected given how little I've played lately, but my stamina and consistency were notably worse than over the summer.

Here's a short vid from the first half of the session:
I'm not sure I'll even make a video of the second half, since you pretty much can't see the bag during runs.

There was some talk at work about a week-long training in Boise in October, but I haven't heard anything recently. If that ends up happening, I'll try and get back into training footbag, since it'd be a waste to go to America's footbag mecca out of practice. We'll see if it even happens though. In the meantime, I'm probably going to skate more than footbag, since I'm still not feeling the motivation to shred.

[Sporatical_Distractions]

Thanks for the vid Ken. Fun angle. It's always reassuring to see that good shredders have tough shred days too.

[Allan]

I tried going down a ramp switch for the first time, and totally ate shit. Worst fall to date.

Can I make a suggestion? Look into getting a pair of wrist guards.

[C-Fan]

Spent this past week in Montrose, Colorado on business. Had the option of taking my skateboard, since I drove, but decided to leave it home and bring my shred gear instead. I also brought some needle and thread to patch up the instep of my right G-Unit, since it was blown out. I ended up playing all 3 days of my trip, which is the first time I've had multiple sessions in a week since Worlds. First day I was chasing daylight and didn't hit much of note. Second day I found a nice scenic satelite campus of a college, and had a really good session which I filmed. Third day I found an empty skating rink by a skate park. I shredded for a good 45 minutes, then some kids came by and I taught them foursquare. They were way into it, so hopefully they spread it to their school. I also gave away a sandbag while there.

When I got home to Denver, I found my files from Day 2 were corrupted, but Ivan can work with them, so hopefully he can make a short video out of it. Here's a short vid of my Day 3 stuff. Nothing mindblowing, but I was pleased to see I can still do some furious and atomic, even if my consistency and stamina are down:
In bad news, I learned that my trip to Boise in October has been relocated to rural Washington. I'll likely cancel it entirely, since I had my heart set on seeing everybody in Boise. Poop.

Weather is supposed to start getting cooler soon, so I'm hoping to transition from a combo of footbag and skating, to just skating when its too cold for shorts outside. We'll see how that goes.

[Allan]

Had the option of taking my skateboard, since I drove, but decided to leave it home and bring my shred gear instead.

This is illogical. Both things fit in your car Do both!

[C-Fan]

Shredding very infrequently, due to a variety of factors. Pleasantly surprised that when I do play, I'm still able to hit some decently hard stuff (for me at least). The stamina and consistency are definitely down, but I'm still able to hit some tech-y tricks and links, which makes me feel good. Skateboarding is still really hard, but I've only skated 11 times, so its too early to draw any conclusions. I'm trying to force myself to shred while its still nice out, since in a month or so it'll be too cold for footbag, but probably good weather for skating.

Monistere has been posting a lot of cool paradon swirl stuff lately, so I came up with a bunch of challenges for him. I thought they'd be good for me too, since double over swirl isn't a concept I use a lot. Ended up having a lot of fun pushing to get them:
Next weekend the wife and I are running a 5K. I don't think I'll bother to train for it. Hopefully we can get it done in under 30 minutes though.

[C-Fan]

Main news on my end is I have a headcold, so no footbag OR skateboarding the past few days. Bit of a shame too, since we're enjoying a bit of an indian summer right now, and it's due to end this coming weekend, which is when I hope to be healed up. Still, can't complain too much, since I had such a long streak of health before this. I made it through the tournament season of summer, and the prep season of spring without any major problems, and in general I feel like I haven't had a cold in over a year. I attribute that to better sleep hygiene and regular exercise. Still not sure how I got sick this time around, since I hadn't done anything out of the norm.

Before getting sick I had a few sessions where I'd footbag near the skatepark, then skate afterwards. Lots of fun, but I need to learn to pace myself, since my body isn't used to that much exercise. I've made it a point not to show off my footbag skills at the skate park. I'll join hack circles, and I introduced 4square once, but nobody there has any idea that I can link stalls, much less that I go to tournaments, etc. I think the reason I'm keeping my footbag side a secret is that I want to be accepted by the skatepark community as a skater, even if I'm a shitty beginner skater, rather than "that hacky sack guy" who just dabbles in skating. The other day at the skatepark a 12 year old kid asked me if my goal was to "go pro." It was an interesting question, and I was happy to realize my answer was "no, I just want to be able to skate around the entire park, do some basic carving, and hit some cool street tricks." It's nice to have unambitious goals for a change, unlike in footbag where I always felt the need to push myself to my limits. Don't get me wrong, that's fun too, but going into skating with no expectations has felt liberating too.

Here's a short vid of my last shred near the skate park. I'm enjoying the fact that tourney season is over, and I can just mess around: Life-wise, the big news on my end is that we may be getting a dog soon. While we had talked a lot about rescuing a corgi or border collie, circumstances beyond our control have aligned in such a way that we may have the chance to adopt a Golden Retriever. He comes from a family that just had a baby with bad dog hair allergies, which is the only reason he had to leave. We're meeting him on Friday, and if we hit it off I think he'll join the family. Crossing your fingers and paws: