Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

[boyle]

I played a little yesterday by the lake, here is a little video from Instagram, it looks a bit like I'm actually in the water, which is not the case. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLzYZQDBUKj/

I also played for a very short time today, with some bigger hiking shoes which are not much good for footbag, but I still got a couple of 15 contact runs, and finished with a tomahawk too, so that was something. It's about a month now until we go to Chile, so the days are ticking down.

My sister had a baby in the early hours of this morning, so my parents have been around and her daughter stayed with us as well the last couple of nights. A bit of a crowded house. I'd like to get a new pair of Lavers, I've got a couple with very large cracks in the soles, which I think are beyond repair, but I'm a bit worried about what will come in the box once they arrive.

Edit for a top post painting. Here's one from Albert Namatjira, a very famous Indigenous Australian artist. I went to the gallery with my Grandma a few weeks ago and she was very impressed with that part of the collection.

[C-Fan]

Great top post painting!

Also congrats on the new nephew/niece.

[boyle]

It's a little girl, I went to visit yesterday for the first time. All going well over there. I have had a couple of days off work so that has been good. Did a 50km ride yesterday, around Lake Burley Griffin, which is the main lake in the city centre. We also went out to Namadgi National Park earlier in the week. We were planning to go to this Aboriginal rock art site, but there was some water over the road so were weren't able to get through, we went for a picnic at a different place and did another walk.

They actually asked me to come in to work for an overtime shift today, but I'm glad I declined. We already had some plans and it's been really good to have some days off. I have another day off on Friday too, so that's really good. I did a shred 30 of around 188 the other day, I had a nice kick in this tennis court near where I take Nico to day care.

Looks like Phil Morrison will be coming over to Aus some time over summer, but that will probably be while we are in Chile.

[boyle]

I played a short session today in my dinner break. I went out and saw Superheist last night. They were a favourite band of mine in my youth but they split up long ago, and their first show back was here in Canberra. I got quite drunk so have been feeling rough all day. I still managed to achieve my "exit pass" for the session, which was a 20 contact guiltless string. That has been quite a good motivator lately, just to set a certain challenge that will allow me to finish up the session.

I have one more uni assignment for the semester, it's due tomorrow. We then have a house inspection the following day and some family in down visiting, so it's been a bit hectic. Less than a month until holiday time now, really looking forward to that.

[boyle]

I handed in that final assessment for the semester. That's good news. Ended up being a bit of a stress. It was a video submission and I was doing the editing of it and all of a sudden things were going badly, the computer was telling me I had a corrupt file in the video or something and I was ready to smash it, but then I just restarted the program and things were all good.

While I was processing the video I played a little bit. I'm quite sore still so didn't get too much, but did get a couple of 20+ runs. Played a bit more in the dinner break as well, didn't get this combo but I'm going to work at it. Clipper set double pickup>toe drifter>rev swirl>torque. That's just an idea at the moment, I didn't hit it yet, so don't say, hey cool combo man. (I bet you the next post is from Ken saying, hey Danny, cool combo man.)

My shoulder has been quite sore the last couple of days. I think I injured it at the concert. I'm not really sure how, but I know midway through the left shoulder was giving me some pain. Today though the right shoulder was also giving me grief. My Dad has gone for a week long surf trip with one of his mates. I am considering to go and join in when I have a day off on Wednesday.

[boyle]

I have been making a habit to play in the tennis courts nearby the daycare once I drop Nico off. We do this a few times a week, and it seems to be paying off.

Here's a combo from today

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMXWw2ch4OM/

Hey, you can add Instagram within the posts now, that's awesome Allan.

pixie motion>mindbender (that's my first 6>6 combo). I'd like to add something in there to make a beast combo. Maybe alpine bs blur in the front, or a food processor in the middle. That may be some time away.

Went for a bushwalk a couple of days back with my Dad and Nico, it was out in the middle of nowhere, to this place called The Big Hole. The naming is quite accurate as you can see in this photo.



I have finished my uni semester and that's really pleasing, so there's not the constant thought in the back of my mind thinking, what assignment still needs to be done etc. We are off to Chile 3 weeks from today, so that's coming up quickly.

[boyle]

I had a kick today with Dianne. I haven't seen her for ages so it was good to catch up before going to Chile. She's not really doing any footbag any more but is always improving with the ball. I was doing a bit with the ball but nothing special, I got a combo of cloud kick then spin into an inside stall and play on from there.

As for footbag I hit a ripstein to finish up the session and that was probably the highlight for the day. I couldn't get much consistency in my runs. In reality I was just to be happy to be playing in the sun, that was enough for me today. While I'm away they are having a freestyle football world tour event in Melbourne. It would have been cool to be a part of that and to try and sneak footbag into the program, but I imagine if it works well it will be on again next year so hopefully that will be something to work towards.

Jay sent me a message a little while back saying that we should do something to get people to look back on the videos from the Sport/Life tour in Europe. I haven't decided exactly what to do with that but there should be something coming.

I would also like to knock together a video for the calendar. I'd like to get something fresh for that. I was thinking of working on some things that I've just had on the to do list but I haven't got much on that list anymore. I've got a few trips down the coast coming so it could be beach related.

[boyle]

I had two short sessions today. It was quite hot and humid. Hopefully it doesn't rain before I ride my bike home but we can only wait and see. Back to work early tomorrow morning and then a trip down the coast. Hope it's not too rainy for that.

I have mentioned that I have been playing at that tennis court recently. Penske regularly plays on tennis courts and he hits some pretty cool tricks, so make I can get some more big combos like the one I was pleased to hit the other day, which was my first 6>6.

I was very impressed with Ken's organisation to show all the beasts he has done. That's a lot. Mine is very easy to organise, nothing to report, but maybe I could start doing it for multiple fearless combos if I can get some longer ones of them. Not too much to mention for today's session. Inspinning butterfly (first time on flip) would be the news from the first session, then the final combo of the second session was pixie motion>pdx blender. So that's something.

I have a little idea for a calendar video. It's kind of silly, but it may work. I will have to check on the rain situation for the next couple of days to see if I can make it happen.

[boyle]

I just had a day and a bit down the coast. I stopped and had a kick at the skatepark in Cooma on the way down. The following day I was looking for my footbag that I had taken and I couldn't find it. I went back to the same place and found a red and blue thing down on the ground, and it was the bag, I must have dropped it as I was getting into the car. Within about a minute of me picking it up, a car was parked in that place, so it was good timing. Very lucky that I found it, I really like that bag, it's one I got from Ivan earlier this year.

I did kick a bit. Got some good runs, I think the best was 44 contacts. Was trying to get something on camera. I don't work until evening today so maybe I can get enough footage to put a calendar video together.

I went to the beach yesterday with Dad while I was waiting for the car to get serviced, that was a good time, got a few waves and it was just us out, there were a huge amount of whales just splashing around everywhere, jumping out of the water. That was pretty impressive.

[Tjuggles]

The following day I was looking for my footbag that I had taken and I couldn't find it. I went back to the same place and found a red and blue thing down on the ground, and it was the bag, I must have dropped it as I was getting into the car.

Nothing like thinking you lost a bag and then finding it again. Glad to hear you found it!

I think the best was 44 contacts.

That is pretty long. How much of your long runs like this are genuine do you think? Are you mostly bopping? Either way is great, just curious.

there were a huge amount of whales just splashing around everywhere, jumping out of the water. That was pretty impressive.

A couple of shred clips of you with some whales in the background? Sure, I'd love to see some!

[boyle]

I think the whales would be a bit far out to sea to spot from a shred clip. They were jumping quite high though. I got a float thing for my gopro and I'm headed to the beach next week so let's see if I can capture any on film.

I was really mad at myself for losing that bag, I bought two off Ivan a while back and they were both awesome, and one I lost when the car broke down in the bush. I couldn't believe I could lose two of those great bags within a reasonably short amount of time. I was very pleased to pick up the bag from the road. I'm not sure if a car ran over it, but it's still in pretty good shape so probably not.

As for the genuine level, fair bit of butterfly and osis in there, not much pdx mirage, I don't find it a particularly safe trick. I do a lot of diving/ducking in any combo, as well as a fair bit of stepping (mainly ripwalk, sidewalk) so it's probably at least 50/50, though it's not like I'm powering the massive combos through. I would like to get a big more consistency though, get from regular 15-20 runs to more like 30 as a regular number. That would be good.

I got some stuff on film today as I hoped to. There's this new mural of Jackie Chan in the next suburb from me. I wanted to film in front of that but there were a whole bunch of cars there, I might do another video of that in the future, it looks pretty cool.

[boyle]

I have been planning for a long while to write up a document to give some advice on doing workshops and performances etc. I've finally got some things written down, but I'll add plenty more to that, I've only got a couple of pages so far, but it's good to get started.

Not much kicking in the recent days. Yesterday was very windy and today was raining a bit, also not wearing shred shoes. Got a 15 contact run on both days in a short kick around in the dinner break. Went to a couple of concerts in recent times, saw my mates in I Exist on Friday night, drank a few too many beers and was paying for it all day yesterday. A couple of weeks ago I saw Superheist, who were a classic Australian band from my youth. Had the same problem the following day of that concert, but I really had a lot of fun seeing that.

[Tjuggles]

So Canberra and Welly are now sister cities!

[boyle]

Yes, there is some kind of Canberra week there at the moment, right? I heard something on the radio about it. There are direct flight from Canberra/Wellington now. Could be cool to go over sometime next year.

[Tjuggles]

Yeah I think for this week there are events on. And what a way to start with a M7.8 earthquake!

[boyle]

How was it in Wellington? I guess you would be reasonably used to earthquakes in Japan? They are a very strange sensation, I experienced quite a few around the 6-7 level in Chile, but nothing that high.

[Tjuggles]

How was it in Wellington? I guess you would be reasonably used to earthquakes in Japan? They are a very strange sensation, I experienced quite a few around the 6-7 level in Chile, but nothing that high.

Incidentally, I have experienced more earthquakes in Welly in the 3 years I have been here than in the 8 years I was in Japan. Luckily, in Welly I live up a hill a bit, so it wasn't that bad. My toothpaste tube fell over, that was about the extent of the damage. I was lucky. Downtown was a bit rougher apparently. Yeah they are a very weird sensation. They make you realize, among other things, how helpless we are when it comes to nature.

[boyle]

Despite not playing particularly well overall today, here is a pretty good highlight...

darkwalk>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>pdx blender>motion

I'm not sure if I could have played into something else from the motion but it popped up nicely for a handcatch, so that's what I did. I believe that's the first time I've done 5 fearless, which was a major goal for the year. And I've just been looking through my notes and it looks like I already achieved that in early Feb with this combo - phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>tomahawk - reasonably similar combos, considering that two of the tricks are exactly the same.

I also worked on darkwalk>spinning ducking pdx mirage>phoenix which could provide a new opportunity for longer fearless links. I wrote a while ago that I had link blurry whirl out from spinning ducking osis and it might have an impact on the same thing, but that hasn't happened.

I also came close to spinning ducking motion today. I don't know if that has another name, apart from alpine motion sickness. That could be altitude sickness...

[C-Fan]

Props on 5 fearless!

darkwalk>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>pdx blender>motion

... in early Feb with this combo - phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>tomahawk - reasonably similar combos,

Naturally, this occurred to me after reading the two combos: phoenix>blurry whirl>spinning ducking butterfly>spinning ducking osis>pdx blender>motion

That'd net you 6, and looks very doable.

I also came close to spinning ducking motion today. I don't know if that has another name, apart from alpine motion sickness. That could be altitude sickness...

Love it.

[boyle]

That should be doable, I've definitely hit all the links in that combo.

I'm going to edit this post to make it more than just the one line. I was playing a short time in my dinner break, was thinking on that 6 fearless combo, didn't really get close. Did come close with the spinning ducking motion, actually had it coming back up off my foot, not high enough to catch or to do another move, but that's progress.

53 contacts to finish off. This was a lot more BOP heavy than usual, I was feeling a bit tired even before starting, but very pleased to break the 50 mark, haven't done that in a while.