Ivan- It's been about a month since you posted me doing pdx drifter and I'm just responding now... sorry! But thanks
That was still the only time I hit pdx drifter though
I would like to say how AWESOME Jamps was!!! I had a blast and it was great meeting everyone - the footbag community is so friendly and open. I love it. I had gotten a pretty shitty night of sleep Friday night so when I woke up Saturday I was not expecting any miracles. I arrived at the Rec gym at noon and I could not believe how many people there were! All playing footbag! Wow. So I started warming up and kicked with some PSU people and some new people in every circle. At that point, I wasn't very nervous to compete, surprisingly. Soon enough, Ivan announced that intermediates circles were starting and as I watched the first competition circle I started freaking out. I told Ryan how nervous I was and he told me to imagine all of my pets and horses, so that gave me a laugh and calmed me down a bit (thanks Ryan!)
I was in the second circle with Khoa and Nathan. As soon as Khoa started his first string, which looked really good, I just told myself to accept that this was my first competition and I was doing it purely for the experience - so that put some pressure off. When Khoa passed me the bag, I just started kicking and doing what I was comfortable with - mirages, butterflies/infinities, clippers, pdx mirages, and so on. Honestly though, I don't remember exactly what I did. My memory is foggy because of the nerves I guess. My string lasted for MUCH longer than I expected, so after I dropped I felt pretty good. Everyone cheered which gave me a nice confidence boost and at that moment I was already happy with how I did for my first competition. I don't think my next three turns were as good as my first string (memory problems lol) but overall I was beyond happy with my performance. Afterwards, it was like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders and I could just relax. Then Ivan announced the people moving onto the next round - me and Nathan - and I was overjoyed and surprised. I felt horrible for Khoa because he is obviously much better than me though, I kick with him all the time and he is much more consistent than I am. He got really unlucky and I got lucky. He deserved it a lot more than I did, that's for sure.
Geez this is turning into a longer post than I planned... I will have to sum things up faster.
So, the second round is honestly a complete blur to me, I literally have no memory of what I did or did not do in that round. I think I may have tried drifter with no avail, but I got a passback. It was a circle of Aidan, Chrissy, Ben, and myself. I was honestly just so happy to be there, most of my nerves were gone at that point from low expectations. Then I somehow make it into the FINAL CIRCLE!! I had NO idea how it happened but I was in disbelief. Everyone was doing so well and I just didn't feel like I deserved it totally. Then it was time for the final four: me, Ben, Marc, and Nathan. Ben was owning it and I was super excited for him. Marc got a bit unlucky with a few of his turns, and Nathan just keeps surprising me with how amazing he is after such a short time of playing. I feel like I performed pretty much congruently with my other rounds in the final circle, pretty consistent with the same kinds of tricks.
It was then time to announce the winners: Ben was in 1st (YAYAY Benjamin!!) and I got second!!!!! I could not believe my ears!! I got an awesome plaque that Ivan made and a super cool bag that April made (thanks guys!) I will have to post a picture of them later.
The rest of the day consisted of more footbag (watching the open circles was CRAZYYY) and eating yummy food. Later that night was the party at Ben's which was super fun. Overall it was just an awesome day and I am so thankful to be part of such an awesome community.
Sunday, I kicked for a little with everyone in front of Old Main but couldn't stay for long because I had a math exam review. Also, I had just eaten a quite large breakfast and my stomach wasn't feeling it, so I passed the bag more than I kicked. We had a girls circle going for a little which was really cool, but regretfully I didn't get to spend as much time with Cassy and Chrissy as I would have liked. Actually, there was a lot of people I didn't get to talk to much - and for that I apologize. I talked to Jim Penske quite a bit and he is such a cool guy, besides from his obviously incredible footbag skills. There was a bunch of other people I enjoyed talking to, but I would love to get to know all of you more, especially those I didn't talk to much.
Sorry this is such a long post. All in all, it was an amazing weekend and I wouldn't trade it for anything. So thanks everyone for being awesome! Also, a HUGE thanks to Ivan who made it all possible - this Jamps weekend would have been nothing if it wasn't for him!!!!
