Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

[Muffinman]

Footbag is the best medicine for me when people I love pass away. I hope it works for you too <3
Also, I agree with what everyone else said about the mid-string double spin. Good stuff.
I've also never seen gyro motion. Seems like it would be a trick that feels really good! I'd love to try it when I'm able to play again. Make sure you get video if you hit it!

[boyle]

I found it really good playing before the ceremony, as it was in the afternoon and was something completely different to focus on. Then I was having such a good session I wanted to keep going while the visitors were arriving!

I will have to take a few more tries on that gyro motion. I think I need to spin more though - well, and to hit it at all as well.
Speaking of double spinning, I've been working a little on the flipside. Haven't done it yet though. That's the main thing I'd like to do this year, get a bit more balance on each side. I have been doing flip motions quite well, flip p blender not so much.

Erik - you just recently passed your 10,000 posts. What an achievement!

I went for a long ride today. I had to go for a consult with a dentist for them to rip my wisdom teeth out of my face. Fun times. Then they charge you over $1,000 for the privilege. After that I rode up Mt Taylor, which is somewhat nearby. Nice view from there, though actually I pushed my bike along a bush track for a lot of it. I did a couple of runs at the top but I was really struggling along.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be1aPannejn



Feeling a bit sore from that already. Once I get home that should be about 50km for the day. I would like to do a 100km ride sometime this year. I did one in the high 80s last year. I made a vlog, it's not particularly exciting this one, but it does show me using a drone, albeit not very well. Still have a lot to learn on that. I'm going to take it away with us when we go next week so hopefully I can get some cool shots.

Since I dropped my gopro in the surf sometime ago, I've been thinking of getting a similar type of camera, but maybe cheaper. I saw one online a while back that took my interest.

I talked to Khoa the other day and he is coming out, he got the visa, but he hasn't confirmed his flights yet. I know it's early next month, so that's super exciting. Speaking of flights, I just got a voucher from Jetstar for $100. I also have a small amount of frequent flyers from Qantas. So I could probably go somewhere for free in Australia, but I'd like to go to New Zealand later in the year I think.

Have a couple of crazy days of work but then I'll have another week off, so that's something to look forward to. I'm also making it so that I only actually have to take a day of leave to have the whole week off so that's OK.

[Muffinman]

I think it's awesome that you vlog. Footvlogs are sooo entertaining. For purely constructive criticism, I think it would be more entertaining though if you tried to make an effort to smile more. I think something about that would just add a lot to the vibe. I know that's probably weird, 'cause talking to a camera in public is already super weird, but I think the YouTubers that I enjoy watching the most tend to be really upbeat or energetic or something.

But also, props on doing both vlogs AND Instagram videos so consistently!

Also, wow, 10k posts!

[Tjuggles]

I think it's awesome that you vlog. Footvlogs are sooo entertaining. For purely constructive criticism, I think it would be more entertaining though if you tried to make an effort to smile more. I think something about that would just add a lot to the vibe.

It's funny you mention this because one thing that I like about the vlogs is how incredibly slow-paced and to-the-point his talking is. He doesn't seemed rushed AT ALL, like he has all of the time in the world, and isn't trying to keep viewer attention by smiling from ear to ear. :p

[boyle]

You just know the next vlog (actually it will be a few because I have a bit of a backlog), but there will have to be a cheesy ear to ear grin! I have really enjoyed doing the vlogs. They're not necessarily about footbag in general, but I always have some footbag in.

I've enjoyed doing the Instagrams, trying to go for one each day, though I missed a day when we were travelling, but we just won't mention that!

I don't worry to much about the viewers as there are not so many of them! Maybe if I had the big grin I would have more views as well!

Just a very small amount of footbag today, I went to the uni for the O-Week day, working. I wasn't really planning on passing by again, but it was a pretty fun day there. We had a really cool competition (win a trip to Queensland to go to Great Barrier Reef, skydiving etc) so people were keen to sign up to that.

And not so long after that I'm working again, doing the overnight shift. So I'm planning on catching up on a few vlogs while I'm at it. Oh yeah, footbag today, that was really a struggle. Legs were sore from the big ride yesterday. They are actually feeling a little better now so that's an improvement.

[Ryan_Morris]

I enjoy your Instagrams, too! I joined IG specifically for footbag videos and you're probably the most reliable contributor of footbag content I know of.

Did you see Nick Landes is on IG now? @mantisfootbag

[boyle]

Yes, I was going to mention it on that last post but I forgot. Great to see him posting regularly, he's put a few awesome tricks on there already. I don't really know why more footbag people don't post there regularly for it, it's a great format.

[boyle]

I haven't got in too many solid sessions lately. I've been playing in little scraps, like such - https://www.instagram.com/p/BfC-FFGHJIC - this was quite a cool location but I didn't get as good tricks as I was hoping for, or a good background of the river. Oh well. We're going away in a couple of days time, so hopefully I will come across some cool backgrounds. They will be mainly beach based so that should be fun.

I'm just processing a new vlog from the first part of the trip with the family from Chile. There's not that much footbag, and what is in there I mainly already put up on Instagram. There are plenty of kangaroos in the video though.

I hit stepping ss motion yesterday. I think I've done that before but I'm not absolutely certain. By now I have got most sets into motion so that's good. Haven't done any quantum sets and have linked very few together. (Maybe just one time, pixie ss motion>locomotion). Hopefully in the coming year I can get them more consistent and also build on the flipside motion which is getting a bit stronger.

[Muffinman]

Cool combos. Would love to see.
Also look forward to the kangeroos!

[boyle]

I've had a bit of time away, about a week, we were mainly in Sydney. Most importantly I got in a couple of sessions with other people, which is pretty rare in Australia.

On Sunday I met with Tom Kentta, he's a freestyle football guy, he's probably the main guy in Sydney these days. We met up in the city in Sydney and had a cool session. He did some tricks with the bag too, like almost hitting whirr...he did double pickup from clipper. He does a lot of tricks with the ball from the trick slap and some clipper stuff too. He also showed me a video of his twin brother doing a good footbag run, with ducking tricks and a cool run, maybe close to 10 contacts, though he said he doesn't play much anymore. I gave him a couple of bags and maybe that will bring him back into it. That was a fun session with ball and bag, so hopefully we can all meet with Khoa in a couple of weeks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfU6a7oHvDu

The next day I met with Dyalan. Didn't take any footage of that, but it's always good to catchup with him. He was doing some pixie shuffle runs, some whirls and a few other things. I hit spender, or maybe that was the day before, not too much of great note in either session, just great to play with other people.

I had planned on writing a bit more but it's getting late so I will leave that for another day.

[Tjuggles]

Cool stuff. It's great to be able to play with someone after not being able to for so long.

Oh, I had a thought/realization the other day that I have unlimited texts and a lot of minutes that I can use on my mobile plan in NZ and Aussie. We could thus text each other before sessions and ask for requests, or something along those lines. That would be kinda cool, kind of like we were in close proximity to each other, just on opposite sides of the Tasman sea...

Sometimes I text the Osaka crew and ask for requests, for example.

[boyle]

I'm not sure my plan works for international texts and calls, I will have to look into it. I just reduced my deal actually to be cheaper so it probably doesn't - but we could do it through whatsapp? That's a cool idea because there's not much of a time difference, so you might say, hey, hit 20 ripwalks or something, and I can send back a video soon after with a crack at the request. That's quite a good idea.

[boyle]

Speaking of whatsapp and groups and whatnot, I just joined up to the South American group, though I have already turned off the notifications because those sort of things drive me mad.

There was a bit of chat about the freestyle football comp Dazn World Masters on the Facebook group recently. There was a suggestion that it would be good to have all the top players paid to compete in the event. That would be nice, but I don't think it's really sustainable. Especially not with 16, from all around the world.

What I think is sustainable is to have, say a European segment, with 4 "stars". You have let's say 4 competitions in reasonably close places. Then at each place you have two "local heroes", then have a qualifying contest to get 2 remaining spots. Do the same in the USA, then have some sort of final in a cool location. That's been one of my dreams for a long time, and maybe when I have some spare coins I might put some effort into getting something like that off the ground. We are looking at buying a house this year and also have the baby on the way soon, so that's not happening any time soon.

Onto the freestyle competition, Michryc, the guy that won, from Poland, he lost complete control in almost every round. I think he even booted off the stage a couple of times, but that seemed to be common, so maybe the stage was too small.

I had a cool session last night. Short and sharp. Maybe like 20 mins in the garage, but I had some good runs. I was mixing and matching with the shoes, one Laver one Quantum. The quantum shoes are so light. I still have one pair that I will probably start using this year and I might try and do a patch up job on some of the others.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfijgVRn2v4

Here's a run from yesterday.

I got a new vlog together. It's the one I mentioned a while back, but I had to change the song because it wouldn't let me post the previous one at all.



I've uploaded the part 2 to this, but I will probably wait until next week to put that up. I put some juggling in this one. I'm not very good at juggling but I was doing some on the beach and that was a bit of fun.

[boyle]

I made a part 2 to follow up that previous vlog.



It was a good little trip we did. Not so many kangaroos in this one, but there is at least one. Also some footbag on the rocks, which you can actually see in the preview frame. That's at depot beach, a place we really like. The forest comes right down to the beach and there are often kangaroos down on the beach.

The video also has some stuff from when we went out to Wee Jasper to the caves and the river. It's a while out from Canberra, but I went there earlier in the year with Nico and that was in a different vlog.

I had a short session during my dinner time. Did a few good tricks and had some other ideas. I did tomahawk from toe, which is probably new. I found it much harder than regular clipper style. For that extra effort, you get one less add...

Some ideas - stepping diving whirl. I might be able to hit this on either side, that would be cool. Other ideas - mobius caught to dragon. Probably too hard for me, I'm not Nick Landes, but I landed a bit of balance and it was starting to head in that direction. Maybe more achievable is dragon set torque.

[boyle]

I had a great session today with Khoa. For many years we have been talking online and saying, oh it would be great to meet. Now we did meet and that was great. Dianne was also able to pop in for a little kick as well.

As per usual, Nico was in for the session. It seems he's involved every time I have a session with someone else.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf0bComnmRB

Here's a little run I did. We did some stuff with bag and ball. I did some good stuff with the ball, and came close to a couple of other things. I had both smear and ripwalk very close but couldn't play on from them.

With the bag I came the closest I have to alpine food processor. As in I actually hit it, and it came back up, but then it went flying away and I couldn't get the catch. Unlucky. I also dropped gangsta party but was close on that. I got a bit of stuff on the phone so I might make a little vlog of that session, it was super fun. I was so sweaty by the end of it, even though we hadn't actually played that long. Maybe about 1.5 hours.

Here's a photo of us at the end of the session.



I hope we can catch up again before he leaves Canberra in a couple of days.

[Tjuggles]

Can't wait to shred with more people!

EDIT: Great to see you trying double spinning again. How is your flip? Seeing you try reminded me that I forgot I wanted to try last session.

[boyle]

Flip double spin is no good at all, though I've come closer a few times lately. I just feel really off balance spinning that way. Double spin is reasonably consistent on the strong side, especially DS clipper and DS osis.

I am probably having a couple of sessions with other freestyle football guys in the next couple of weeks as well, as I'm doing a couple of trips away to see some bands. Actually, to see the same band a few times. I will see this band called The Butterfly Effect 4 times in the next 3 weeks. (Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, Wollongong). That's exactly the sort of things I used to do when I was a lot younger. Although maybe it would be that kind of run in the space of a weekend.

[Muffinman]

Great, stuff!
Lol, Khoa has such a positive energy! Love that guy!
Gotta go back and watch your vlogs. It's great that you're able to play so much.
Has Nico tried playing at all??

[boyle]

Yes, Khoa is so positive, it was awesome to finally meet him. 'You got it, you got it". I've got a new vlog ready to go from the session we had. Didn't actually film that much, but got a few good runs along the way there.

I was hoping to catch up with a freestyle footballer from Chile, Camilo, while I was in Sydney. He was held up at work so we didn't have a session but we caught up for a beer. Good to see him, he's been in Australia for about a year and I haven't seen him in all that time. I had a session by myself. Pixie ducking pickup b2b was a cool combo. I also hit reaper bsos in a run and a few other cool things.

I went and saw this band The Butterfly Effect up there last night. I used to go see them a lot many years ago. I had a really great time. Then I came back on the bus today and went straight to work. Maybe not such a good time doing that with a big hangover.

Nico plays around with the footbags and things a lot. He's also getting to the point now where he sometimes does little kicks. Up until recently he would just put the bag down and the ground and jump around it and say "I'm doing footbag!". Which in itself is awesome too.

[boyle]

Here's the vlog that I did from the visit from Khoa. It's too bad we only got to catch up once, he was here for a really short time, but we had an awesome session. Maybe we will just have to go back to Vietnam some day...

I had a late night session last night. I came really close to alpine legbeater a bunch of times. I've hit it before, but not often, and I don't think on video. Had a few good runs in the end. I worked until 11 last night and back at 7am this morning, so it was good to get a session in between that time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgJMmeBFMK2

There's a hot air balloon festival on this week. I got a pretty cool view coming into work today.



The Raiders start their season today. Don't think it's going to be a particularly good one this year, but you really never know. They are going to play away so I will watch the game with a friend at a bar.