Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

[boyle]

Midnight regulations.

It's exactly midnight as I start this post. I have played for about 1.5 hours and smashed out a great session despite the rain belting on the roof.

I am actually waiting for the rain to subside before I go back inside, despite the fact I am wet from sweat.

The soundtrack to this session has bern Soilwork and Funeral for a Friend. I am seeing both these bands in Feb so that should be a fun little trip to Sydney.

Luca Brasi was the first band in the background. I am very late in getting into this band but they are great.

Onto the footbag. How about 3 new 6ers.

LEVIATHAN
pixie ss motion
Stepping ss motion

Also hit flip pixie ss drifter for the first time and had some nice long runs.

I feel like I have started this year kicking arse and if I can keep that up hopefully I will get much better.

But anyway. The year is just ticking over to the fifth day and I feel a good energy with footbag.

[boyle]

Played a bit today. It was really hot, but I got three different short sessions in. A friend invited me to have a hit of cricket in the nets. We also played soccer. Afterwards I kicked a bit and finished with around 30 contacts. I arrived one hour too early to come to work, but made use of that time by having a kick at the skatepark. I had a few combos there, but it was really hot, so I didn't really get any long strings going.

In my break I played again for about 15-20 mins, and I was going really well. Phoenix>mindbender was probably the highlight of the day/me playing footbag, ever. I'm looking for that elusive fifth fearless contact. I think I will get that soon enough.

I hit a new combo of 5>5>5. phoenix>blurry whirl>mobius

I came close to this combo, which was kind of interesting- spinning diving butterfly>diving pdx whirl. I'm considering to play again once I get home, but I have been up since 6am and I finish work at 11, so we'll see how that pans out.

[boyle]

Good session tonight in the garage. Went on a long bike ride/hike (about 30km all up. as well as the usual 6km each way to work). Considering I will be at work again at 7am, maybe I'm going to feel rough tomorrow, but I wasn't ready to go direct to sleep.

Highlights

Spikehammer>pixie op motion
Ripped warrior>double spinning osis

Quite happy with those two. It took me a long time to get the second one, so it felt good to get it within that session. Very sweaty.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Whoa. Both of those are super heavy links. Shit, that Ripped> DS Osis. That's huge. Nice stuff dude. I love those specific kinds of links. Anything Stepping Ducking or Double Spinning has a weird little place in my heart. Footage?

[boyle]

Not much footage lately as I've only been playing in short sharp bursts (breaks from work etc). I would like to get some of these bigger combos I've been hitting lately on video. My schedule is a bit better next week so hopefully I can get some video sorted.

Good combo a few days ago.

Ripped warrior>motion sickness.

I guess since doing this link of the day I've been looking at these two trick links a lot. I really want to get some longer links of tricks together.

A couple of weeks ago a girl that does freestyle football here started following me on Instagram. I got in touch and we're going to meet for a session this evening. Hopefully Caroline and Copey are going to be able to come out too. That would be really good.

It seems there should be some good freestyle football events in Australia this year, and I am hoping to get footbag incorporated into them in some way.

[Kylescook]

A couple of weeks ago a girl that does freestyle football here started following me on Instagram. I got in touch and we're going to meet for a session this evening. Hopefully Caroline and Copey are going to be able to come out too. That would be really good.
It seems there should be some good freestyle football events in Australia this year, and I am hoping to get footbag incorporated into them in some way.

I've been giving that a lot of thought lately. I'd love to find some freestyle footballers around to meet up with. Such great crossover potential, I had a blast hanging and kicking with them in Chicago when we were there to see Khoa perform at KICS youth international freestyle soccer tournament

[boyle]

I haven't mentioned more on that. Had a cool session with Dianne and Caroline. I gave Dianne a footbag and she's already doing legover on both sides.

The only issue with some freestyle football playets is that they are super young. For example a kid started following me lately and he is 10...

Another young bloke is coming down to Canberra in the next days so we will hopefully line something up.


I had spinning ducking osis with the ball come of my foot. I imagine that nobody in Australia and probably not that many people in the world have done that.

Been working a bit on flip double spin. Still not quite there but I would be really happy to get that good.

[boyle]

I haven't played much lately. I've come down with a pretty strong cold, which would make sense if it was snowing here, but it's the middle of summer, so that's not good. The weather has not been very summery though. Lot of rain and clouds. I rode about 30km yesterday, then played footbag pretty well straight after doing that, just for a short time. I hit mullet within that time, which was enough to finish up my 10 minute session.

I did some numbers on the Joulukalenteri videos, you can see them in the thread for it. Interesting that my video was in the top 5 for Reach on FB, but was by far the least watched video. That was not planned to be in the calendar, but I was pretty pleased with it.

It's Nicolas' birthday on the weekend, he's going to be 2. Time flies. He is going well, saying a lot of words, totally obsessed with all kind of vehicles. He will say "oooo, ute, oooo trailer" etc etc and he's getting more and more words in Spanish as well.

I have been trying a lot that ducking spinning osis that Allan did in his recent video. That's a cool idea, I've been coming close but I haven't done it yet. Had a lot of photos come up on my Facebook memories of Narooma Jams of the past in recent days, so much fun. Bit unsure of the plan for this year, we might do it at the end of the year when the good weather comes back around.

Nick mentioned that idea of Costa Rica for some future jam. That would be really cool. As I mentioned in reply, maybe something around Worlds next year. It would be great to do a cool trip around the Worlds next year. A good start would be to go at all, but Jetstar have cheap flights to Hawaii sometimes, so I will probably do that as the option to go there.

[boyle]

I reckon I can do five fearless. I was hoping to tick that off my least this month and I came pretty close tonight.

My most probably link to it will be

phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>pdx blender. Was working on that this evening but didn't get there. I had my work break with a big headache. Didn't really help the headache, but did some nice runs as well and just put a bit of power into things.

Funny how I didn't have a headache when I had the last couple of days off. Haven't played that much properly in recent days. Just little bits here and there where I can. Ducking osis>diving osis rpt was harder than it should be, but I got it eventually. Did zipper set torque. That's new I guess. Kind of fun trick.

This girl I mentioned a few posts back, we haven't met up again but she posted a video on Instagram yesterday and she is going just fine on footbag. Doing stuff like ducking toe, pickup, etc. Considering she started two weeks ago, I am pretty impressed. Hopefully we will meet up during the week. The weather has just been disastrous lately. Storms, lightning, lots and lot of rain. Hopefully the sun will come out eventually, it is summer after all.

Another rain on the parade is that Mr Pipenberg is not going to come to Australia, as it is super expensive. He will go to Asia instead. I hope we get an international visitor this year. Someone was asking me if we would have any comps this year, and hopefully we have a guest to make it worth putting something together. It was great that Juho was around for Narooma (and here at all, that was awesome).

Anyway, I'm going to be an international guest. We will go to Vietnam in April, and then we look to have found some reasonably priced tickets to Chile for around Christmas time. When talking reasonable compared to the rest of the world it's a bit high, especially when we have to pay for Nicolas now that he just turned two. So we had a lot of family here and a very busy weekend. It was also our anniversary on Friday (5 years). That's the wooden anniversary so I picked up this mini bowling set at the post office the other day which is a bit of fun.

I've been tracking all my expenses for the year and also the sleep I have been getting among other things, which has been an interesting exercise. I feel like I don't get enough sleep but my average is actually 7.79 hours, which is thanks to some good napping practices. Normally I am working late and up early with Nicolas so I have to catch those hours.

Been a bit sick lately so hopefully I can get rid of that and just march through a few fearless. I think I'd like to play when I get home tonight, let's see how I'm feeling and let's hope it doesn't rain on my ride home.

[boyle]

I did play last night in the end. I said to myself I should start out with something good. Blurry drifter first try was a good start. I got ripped warrior>double spinning osis on an Instagram clip, despite some poor framing. 67 tiltless and a few other good runs as well. Played for over an hour was kind of waiting for the rain to stop so I could go back inside from the garage, but the rain never stopped so I drank a few beers during the session and finished with a pretty big hangover this morning.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBNIMbTmIBn ... ylefootbag

Walked up Mt Majura today. It's the closest hill to us and also the highest in the urban area of Canberra. We did it with the family on Jan 1, so I might try and make it on the first of each month. IT was a lot faster going solo. Half the time as a matter of fact. Went up 28 hills for January. My original hope was to beat my score of last year (21) within the year, so I have blitzed that. I was hoping to get to 31 for one a day, but we had a lot of family around and the weather wasn't good for the last few days.

[boyle]

Hi pals

Summer finally turned up after weeks of rain. Today was just perfect as it was not too hot. I went to Belconnen Skate Park and you can see a couple of clips on my Instagram. I liked the combo spinning illusion>smear. I did some good tricks on the skatepark too, getting back into things after many years of downtime. Got a new pair of skates (well, second hand) for the first time in ten years and that's bringing back the enthusiasm.

After getting hot and sweaty I drove to the other side of town for a swim in the river. The water was kind of murky but I drove all that way so I went in anyway. There was a rope swing there and I had a go on that. Then went for a bushwalk and knocked off a couple of hills nearby. That's 30 for the year, plus a couple of repeat efforts. Been really enjoying getting out into nature a lot so far this year.

As I mentioned I've been tracking my expenses etc. Feb has started well, the total is at zero after two days. Obviously that won't last, but it's a good way to start. Looking at going to the beach this weekend, I think that would be nice. Then Sydney the following week. Going to see Funeral for a Friend one night and then Soilwork the following night so that trip should be a lot of fun. Hope to meet with the blokes up there for a kick too which I think should happen.

[boyle]

Today I did ducking spinning osis for the first time. I just mentioned something in Asmus' blog about looking back on tricks that you brought up that you would like to hit, and I definitely discussed spinning ducking and ducking spinning, as I was not quite aware of the differences, in a session with Mr Jamieson Hickingbotham in Bendigo in 2006, I am fairly sure it was NYE 2006 (going into 07), just shortly before Nationals were on in Tasmania. So that was some time back.

Anyway, I've been trying that trick a lot lately, and I was testing it out on the front balcony and nearly went through the window. So of course I tried it again, and had a similar result. So I have been trying it in more open spaces and finally got the result I was after.

Just had a wonderful weekend at the coast. Didn't play that much, but did do 13 reverse swirls in a park playing with Nicolas. I also did 14 tripless somewhere along the line, can't even remember where I did that, maybe at the Durras skatepark. Visited a couple of coastal skateparks, which is pretty much my childhood. It's great visiting these country town skateparks because the kids say - wow, you're really good - even though that comment is far, far from the truth. I have really been enjoying getting back on the skates lately, and I feel that I haven't actually lost much in terms of level (which is because I was never particularly good). Anyway, we had some beachside accommodation and that was wonderful, so coming back to work was a bit of a bummer. But as mentioned in the previous post, a Sydney trip this weekend and hopefully some footbag meeting up there.

[boyle]

Played a bit today. I was up very early with Nicolas, and then went and had a snooze for a couple of hours. After that I played footbag. It was pretty hot, but I got 17 unique tripless which I feel is my PB. Close to my goal of 20.

... fairy op butterfly>blizzard>dimwalk>blur>dimwalk>blur>parkwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>ducking osis>torque>drop on a really bad attempt at barfly. So I was pretty pleased with that.

I put a video on Instagram today and on Facebook too. Ken gave me a good challenge to see how many unique toe tricks I could do on video. I would like to aim for 20, I think my best is around 12 or 13. It's something really important to work on in my game, as I haven't got good links from toe to toe to toe. I've only done a couple of all toe 3 dex>3 dex links.

So that's what I'm going to be working on in upcoming days.

[boyle]

Had a short kick today by the lakeside, then another short kick in my dinner break. I was working on the challenge from Ken, though with no video. I'm looking to get 20 unique guiltless toe contacts.

fairy ss legover>fear>fairy ss mirage>magellan>smear>plo>magellan>smear>plo>ss dlo>symp mirage>dlo> drop on flail.

That was my best attempt, but obviously there's a lot of room for more variety. I also hit zipper set ducking rake, which is new for me.

Meeting up with Dianne, the girl I mentioned a while back, for a kick tomorrow. From the couple of videos on the 'gram I've seen, she's got a lot of potential with the bag. Here's a quick video for today. Had another good sunny day but then there was a massive storm late in the day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBpN5o2GINm

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

fairy ss legover>fear>fairy ss mirage>magellan>smear>plo>magellan>smear>plo>ss dlo>symp mirage>dlo> drop on flail

That's an awesome run. I'd be really happy with that if I hit it.

I have a challenge for you.

Find a snake and do a footbag trick in front of it. You don't have to be super close to it, but kind of close. Do the trick with either the snake in the shot, or do the trick, then grab the camera and pan over to the snake. Be careful. But if you succeed, this will be cool as hell.

[boyle]

Haha, that is a challenge. My parents came across a brown snake the other day when they were out fishing, I think my Dad nearly stepped on it. I haven't seen too many snakes around, but let's see what can be done.

[boyle]

Hi there. Currently in the bus to Sydney. Having a session tomorrow with Dyalan, so looking forward to that. Seeing Funeral for a Friend tonight, Soilwork tomorrow. By last week I had seen no live music in the year, but hopefully by Thursday I will be up to five for the year.

Have felt a couple of pains lately, right hip and left knee. Hopefully it's not going to disrupt me too much. I have been doing a lot of kms on the bike, so hopefully it is just soreness and nothing more.

I am going to have a pub meal once I get in, I am quite hungry so that will be great. I have been working lately on improving my toe game, which will be all round beneficial over time. The aim is for 20 unique guiltless toes. That would be great.

[boyle]

Now I am on the bus on the way back from Sydney. Footbag wise, got in a session with Dyalan last night. Good to kick with him, haven't seen him since we did the comp at Railway Square.

He had some good swirl stuff and a few symp illusions, which I am really bad at. Atomics and a couple of quantum tricks too.

I had a few 20-30 contact runs and hit zipper set locomotion along the way. Finished off the day with food processor.

Back to Canberra in a few hours and hopefully have a cool session lined up for Sunday. Been starting some talk about doing Nationals in Narooma later in the year, the people I have asked seem keen.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I want my god damn snake footage jk.. well, I still really want to see it lol I'll even take a lizard substitution (preferable a skink?)

Zipper Locomotion?! That's gnarly. I don't think I could hit that. Food is a nice way to end a session. Props on getting past players to come out and kick again.

I've been really enjoying the Instagrams you've posted lately. Nice scenery.

[boyle]

Haven't seen any snakes out and about. I saw a weird frilled neck lizard thing a while ago, I'll post a picture of that soon.

I have been right into these zipper tricks of late. I don't know if this trick is called "zipwalk" but it should be, a ripwalk with zippers on either side. That was new for today, b2b. Also did the same thing with sidewalk on one side. Zipper set pdx torque, also new. That's probably the best zipper trick I've hit yet. Do you get pdx for xbd toe tricks? I think yes, you are still coming from cross body.

People have been posting in their blogs recently about what they want to be known as, sort of how they want to see their game represented. My focus, kinda, has been taking some footage (never particularly crazy tricks) with cool scenery. If I can remembered for making some videos with cool scenery, that would be good.

Speaking of footage, for a while I haven't taken anything with my gopro because I couldn't find the cable to charge it back up. The battery hadn't even completely died out yet. Anyway, today I found that cable, in of all places, where I put my gopro accessories. So that was a good find, though I must have missed it when I looked there previously.

Here is a cool 'gram clip I put up from the weekend.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BByZTsumIDc/

After I filmed the clip, I continued around the rocks. At first that was all going fine, but then I noticed that my rockhopping adventure might have to stop as the sea was getting a bit stronger and there wasn't really a clear path through. I had pretty well decided to turn back when I saw some avid rock climbers had put in some pegs that made a kind of ladder higher up. I thought I'd probably be able to climb up there and hopefully just go through a park or something and get on the road. When I got to the top I realised it just went straight to someone's house. The bloke was actually there as well. I thought he may get angry at me, so I ducked back behind a rock and considered my options. I decided to push on and at times this was quite scary and quite reckless and dangerous situation I got myself into. But I also got myself out of it and kept walking along. I did another little kick which I thought would come out cool, but the angle wasn't so good there.

So it was good to come out of that unscathed. Could have not gone so favourably and the footbag session that evening might have had to be postponed due to me falling from a great height, so glad that didn't happen.

The nationals for freestyle football have just been announced, Sydney April 2. I personally think that's not a very good lead in time, but it's good enough. (*As opposed to a previous nationals lead in time of footbag of one day...). But anyway, hopefully that will be a cool event. I will compete in that and hopefully I do better than in my trip to Melbourne last year when I was on the wrong side of too many 12 year olds.