23 months ago I started footbag. 11 months ago I kicked with my very first shredder. Two days ago, I attended my first freestyle jam.
It's hard for me to describe the events precisely as they happened - the whole trip is more of a blended flashback of excitement and awe. The trip there started Friday at 11:15 when Kevin's father picked us up and dropped us off at the bus station. By noon, we were off and 3.5 hours later arrived in Calgary. The movies they played weren't the greatest.
We arrived at the bus depot and caught a cab to what we dubbed "our corner". There, we kicked for roughly and hour and waited another two more for the people from Saskatoon to show up. I vaguely recall anything that wasn't captured in the 2 minutes that I filmed, but I do know I hit Blender > Spinning Osis bsos. Kevin hit Smog > Phoenix and came very close to Predator > Phoenix. It was cold and there was one hell of a wind so we had to take shelter behind the buildings to keep the bag under control.
We departed Calgary at roughly 8pm and arrived at precisely 4:20 the next morning. It was my first time meeting Brett Campbell and Dave (not sure of his last name) and their two friends, Simon and Greg. All of them are hilarious and fun to hang around and definitely made the trip south a pleasant one. We each took roughly 2 hour shifts driving, my turn coming at one in the morning and going until 3:30, where after releiving myself at a roadside turnout suddenly became overcome with tiredness. Simon took over and drove us to where we wanted to be.
Upon arrival, Evan took us to one of his friend's place where we would be crashing, which wasn't that far away. We didn't hit the pillow until 5 in the morning, but I can recall having a bit of trouble falling asleep from excitement for the next day.
10am rolls by and we slowly start to get up. A few of us showered and I popped my supplements, then we ventured back to Evan's place. Daryl was doing some tidying (tidiing?) up, Jim was in the shower and James and Evan were in the living quarters. It was such a great pleasure meeting all of them (though I didn't introduce myself to Jim until at the jam since we left before he got out), especially James. We've been talking a lot via MSN and meeting him was one of the reasons why I wanted to go so badly in the first place. A few minutes later, the both of us were outside in the parking lot kicking the ole footbag - we didn't feel like standing around while everybody got their things together so we did what we all came here to do. Though it didn't last long, it was still so much fun to see someone whom you have not met kick for the first time. The first thing that came to mind when James had the bag was how controlled his BOPs were. We exchanged some good attempts at tricks. I can't remember but I think I may have hit Gyro Rev. Torque for him and a few Mobii. The session was ended when everyone came out and we left to go eat breakfast.
We (Brett, Dave, Kevin, Simon, Greg and I) went to a pub Evan suggested. It was quite delicious. I had 2 eggs with six pieces of bacon, 2 toast and some hashbrowns. It was the only food I would eat until around 9pm!
By noon, we were off and heading towards the oval where the jam would be. The grass was so green (unlike up here), warm and sunny (also unlike how it was up here). People were playing frisbee in barefeet and there was a nice feeling about the campus - a very peaceful and merry aura surrounded it. As we walked, a circle slowly became visible. At first I thought it was only a hack circle until I recognized James. Kevin must have thought the same as I because we was soon in a run towards them. I followed close behind. It turns out that the circle consisted of Daryl, James, Sam and two other people who I didn't get a chance to meet. I was very excited to join and got into my shorts and lavers quite quickly. I couldn't contain myself and started doing tiltless strings right away. My first props, at my very first jam, was from Daryl after I did a very long tiltless string (moment number one which I will never forget).
We broke into two circles afterwards. The one I was in consisted of myself, Daryl and Kevin Regamey. Jim followed shortly afterwards (fuck, two people in BAP in one of my first circles! SO COOL!!). Needless to say - WOW.
CIRCLES
Daryl, Kevin R., James and I
This was one of the first circles after Jim left that stayed for quite some time. It was real mellow and a real good "warm up to shred" circle. I've never seen a lot of Daryl footage, so his smoothness was very inspiring and enjoyable. James brought such a good atmosphere, which he carried with him to every circle he was in.
Jim, Kevin R., Brian, myself and one other person (fuck I didn't get to introduce myself
)
This was one of my favorite circles,which was much later in the day. I've never seen or talked to him before but Brian was crazy. He was hitting 5's midrun, Tripwalk like cake and nearly had Janiwalker to finish a run. Jim was awesome to watch and is such a funny character. It seemed like he could hit anything he wanted, even clippers (haha, kind of an inside joke
). As for myself, I think I played fairly well. I had a few good long strings and came so close to hitting Montage first attempt as well as Peglegbeater. James recorded a lot of things from this circle which I totally hope to see soon! This circle will also forever be with me because Jim commented on how good I was (moment number 2 which I will not forget).
Brett, Kevin R., Kevin C., James and I
Haha, nicknamed "The 2 Contact Circle". All of us were doing 2 - 5 contacts then dropping, almost everytime we got the bag. It was fun nonetheless because everyone was joking around.
Jim, Kevin R., James and I
Another good circle - Jim was fucking close to FS Whirlwalk (holy fuck!), not to mention like 7 consec Pdx Whirls into a long run, PS Whirl > PS Whirl bsos like twice in the same run and other crazy things up the wahoo.
Jeremiah, Ben, Dave, Sam and I
A mellow circle imo. Jeremiah had his best string EVER in this circle (it was totally awesome!) and we all gave him super props for it. Dave hit Jackknife at my request, which was so tight! I mostly got to know everyone in this circle, did a few runs and attempted a few tricks then moved on to go stretch me legs out. I was in a circle with Sam earlier and could totally tell that he picked up a thing or two when we got to this circle. Now he was doing Mirage > Legovers a lot more consistantly and was even doing flying kicks! Seeing his progression really made me happy!
Kevin R., Kevin C., James, myself
This circle seemed bigger - I think I missed two people. Anyways, I got to meet Kevin from Missoula in this circle and he is totally awesome. The thing that stood out for me the most in this circle was hitting Maelstrom midstring (first every midstring 6) and hearing gasps come from everyone. That was such a great feeling!
Daryl, Kevin R., James and I
This circle was in the last hours of the day and was alright. I was getting tired and my legs were getting cramped which really started putting me on the annoyed side but whatever. After Daryl left, I hit Ducking Pdx Torque with no plant and had Scorpion's Tail bsos. Kevin hit frontside Omelette bsos for James - we both didn't know it until a few strings later, hehe.
THE WIND-DOWN CIRCLE
Kevin C., Riley, Kevin R., Evan, Jeremiah, James and I
This circle, along with the first one with Jim, was my favorite. By this time, nearly everybody had left and we were all just attempting tricks and combos. Riley hit Blender out of a Flapper delay (it was fucking sick), Kevin Regamey was doing flailing everything, and coming close to flailing everything! I tell ya, if his hip wasn't so buggered... :/. Kevin C. was attempting Furious sets and coming so close. They are SO high (like, above the waist when he does the dexes) that I have NO doubt that he could hit a fuckload of tricks when he grabs hold of it. When I first seen him perform them, my first immediate thought was that he could double down out of it. Evan. Evan Lovely. Wow. He was attempting so many sick tricks out of his pendelous set. Pendelous Blurry Drifter was so close!! I've never seen someone who has mastered that set, and I have no doubt that I infact saw the master in this circle. I was doing pretty good, attempting hard tricks and received a lot of encouraging props.
As this circle progressed and steadily got a bit smaller, Evan pulled me out and asked if I could have a shred with him and Jeremiah. I really liked that, because it gave us time to talk and get to know each other. He gave me tips on my weakside Whirl, and first attempt I hit Blurry Whirl > Blurry Whirl for the second time ever! I was stoked about that. I hit Ducking Scorpion's Tail, and when he asked if I could do it on my other side I told him that I couldn't even hit Spanishfly with my left leg. He requested that I attempt it and holy fuck, I hit Ducking Scorpion's Tail first attempt with my left double-downing leg. We were all so super stoked!! After, Evan gave me some advice on how to increase my endurance and urged me to go for a 30 contact guiltless string. I got as high as 17. This was around 8pm and I only stopped kicking once to take a 2 minute stretch. By around 8:30 we had to leave and I snuck in a quick stretch for my legs before we went over to Ben and Hugh's place.
Sunburnt, plaqued with stiff and sore muscles and starving for food, we went to the grocery store and bought supper and alcohol. Kevin and I both got a huge sandwhich, which was very delicious and filling, and I picked up 2 cases of Smirnoff Ice. There was a party going down in town and we didn't get there until around 11. I think we were the last people to get there because in the kitchen James, Kevin C. and Sam were kicking and juggling. James was hitting DoD Swirl like nobody's business and started busting out all these different ways to juggle, it was impressive!! There is nothing like having a drink with fucking awesome people while doing random footbag-related things at a party! There is nothing like it at all. At one point in the party, I was talking with Jim Penske. Earlier that day, I was telling James how I'd like to kick with him in the hopes that some of his skill would rub off on me and if they didn't rub off, I would pinch his nipples in the hope that it would conduct skill. Well, I totally told him all that in our conversation and we both just started laughing. He is very good natured and even said he'd try to come up for ShrEdmonton! Moment number 3 which I will never forget took place when I was talking with Sam. It turned out that this was the first jam for the both of us and we both were able to share how awesome it was. He told me that when I hit weakside Superduperfly, it really sparked inspiration and motivation for him to play harder and that really hit home base for me. I was sincerely touched by his words. I gave him my phone number and I send the best of wishes his way. I look forward to seeing him at ShrEdmonton and look even more forward to helping him improve when he gets here.
The party didn't last long afterwards - people started heading out and I made sure to drink lots of water. Hugh and I got in at around 3 in the morning. By around 3:45 I finally fell asleep.
The alarm for our early morning farewell kick was set for 8 o'clock, which came way too fast for my liking. Unfortunately, James and Jim didn't come out but Evan, Kevin C. and Riley did. Evan totally hit Void this session, which was fucking uber because he was attempting it the night before. Up until now, my knees were doing so good and then I did consecutive DLOs and a searing pain occured in my right knee. I walked it off, stretched it out a bit but continued playing. The pain faded away but for the rest of that day was giving me some troubles. This was a pretty chill session and I'm very glad that the guy's were able to come out for one last kick. They are all so kind and awesome to hang around with. Great friendships blossomed at Missoula this weekend, I can't wait until we see each other again.
All in all, we put in roughly 31 hours of travel for approximately 9 hours of footbag. Was it worth it? Hell yes it was. Would I change anything if given the chance? Except for applying sunscreen, not one thing. Do I look forward to working my ass off to represent at ShrEdmonton? You bet your third horse I do. I plan on taking this next week pretty mellow to allow my knees to get stronger while using my weights and our machine to help build up stretngth and endurance. Then the real adventure begins...
Kevin you missed this spot
:)!
New weakside trick!
Never hit before
Props on all this five adds tricks! You rock. I don't have to count it, but this is, for sure, over 50 unique fives... greate work.
!! 
Big props for Rubberman!
.
Well, that's my guess, so don't act like I gave it away.
) driveway while Kevin filmed. I had some pretty sweet things go down which I will not discuss extensively here