Fanzine

[C-Fan]

3) Congrats uncle Ken! Uncle Kenny? Uncle Ken-Ken?

I'm half Spanish, and my sister married a Guatemalan, so I'm "Tio Ken." But you can call me "Uncle Kenny" if you like.

I'm finally back in my office in Denver, after being out for the last 10 days. This means I'm digging my way out of a mountain of work, which makes the days go by very quickly, but also means I don't have any time for blogging. But then, I'm paid to work, not blog, so that's probably a good thing. At this stage I'm already half-resigned to the fact I won't be able to blog Worlds 2012, which is sad. That said, USO was only a one day event for me, so I'm going to take a stab at blogging it. Apologies in advance if this is kind of half-assed.

Pre-tourney

As readers of this blog may have gathered, I had high hopes for this summer competition wise. Last year I attended a ton of tournies, and in routines I finished in 1st or 2nd place at all of them (including 2nd at Euros, and barely missing gold at USO). Therefore, I really was hoping this year I'd be able to either make finals at Worlds or win the USO. Unfortunately, I was unable to do either. But let's not get too far ahead of the narrative. When I got back from Poland I was really hoping I'd do better at USO. Unfortunately, work threw me a curveball by sending me on a business trip right before USO. By "right before" I mean that less than 24 hours before comp began, I was in Arizona on business. I'll explain in a minute, but the relevance of this trip to my preparation is that it basically prevented me from practicing footbag the week before USO. I spent most of that week walking around a powerplant and dam in steel toed boots and a hard hat, and the only times I could play footbag were in the mornings for 45 minutes right when the sun was rising. I didn't do a single routine run-through, and the days were exhausting. I'm not saying this is why my routine went badly...but I doubt this helped me at all physically or mentally. To sum up: I had high hopes for my routine at USO, but didn't feel prepared going into it. This wasn't the first time work has messed with my footbag aspirations, and I doubt it will be the last. That said, I'm glad I have a job, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to go to Worlds or USO in the first place.

Friday

I wake up with the sun rising over Lake Powell. I look at my suitcase on the floor which I packed the night before, and it strikes me how weird it is that I actually packed my USO suitcase a week before that. See, I had bought my USO tickets (Denver-Portland) several months ago, so when I found out I'd have to go to Arizona for a week, I came up with a (logistically ambitious) plan. Since I was going to Portland with my girlfriend, I packed two suitcases: one for my work trip, and one for USO. On Friday I arrived in Denver around 4, met my gf at passenger pickup, parked in the long-term lot, swapped my Arizona bag for my Portland bag, and was on a plane by 6:30 to Portland. If my original flight had been delayed or canceled I would have been screwed, but thankfully it worked out. We arrived in Portland without issue, and took the conveniently located tram to get to our hotel. I later learned that there was a free airport shuttle to the hotel, which would have been more convenient, but at this stage I was just thrilled I made it. Because of all my work travel, I'm a platinum member at Marriott hotels, which resulted in a nice surprise: our room got upgraded to the executive suite, and we got 2 complimentary drink vouchers for use in the bar. Nice. We dump our stuff and go get food at a nice Japanese place, then call it a night.

Saturday

Slept pretty well the night before, but adrenaline wakes me early and I know I'm not going to get back to sleep. We check out a cool brunch joint, where I make a point to have some coffee and not overeat. We walk back to the hotel, where I get a text informing me that there will now be two rounds for routines instead of one. The news strangely doesn't phase me, since I see a few positives in this development. First off, I figured I was one of the few competitors who'd have 2 different routines prepared, which seemed like an advantage. I also knew that by having two rounds of routines, judging would be sharper since they wouldn't have to keep track of as many routines at once. In the abstract I realized that adding another round of routines would make the day longer, but I wasn't too worried about it for some reason. I watch some TV at the hotel before heading out.

I take the bus to get to the site, and get a little nervous I'm cutting things too close, as I get a couple texts from people telling me I'm in the first pool which is starting shortly. I have a mini-flashback to Helsinki 2005, when I got on the wrong tram and had to run onstage for Sick3 finals, completely cold. Thankfully my gf's smartphone directs us OK, and I get there just before routines begin. I see a bunch of people I want to greet properly, but I also want to get into my shred gear to warm up for routines. I say a few abbreviated hellos, and start warming up. The way things would turn out schedulewise, this would be one of the few times I got to play with people like Reilley, but I didn't realize it at the time. The only shred highlight I remember was hitting 9 tomahawks in a row midstring.

I make a point not to watch the routines preceding me in my pool, and when it's my turn to go up I feel strong. My music starts, and the first 10 seconds go well. Then, I somehow drop an inside stall while I was trying to readjust. Ugh. It doesn't throw me too badly though, and I finish up the routine with 2 drops.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiyOC831e5g[/youtube]

Since its the first round, all I care about is making it to Finals with a top 4 seed, since I figure that's the performance that will matter. I figure my performance was good enough for that, so I try and stay warm as the second pool competes. Once the second pool ends, the seeding for Finals is announced. I'm frankly baffled by the results, as I find out that Justin Dale went dropless but entered Finals with a low seed, and Nick also went dropless but is somehow seeded behind me. I have top seed, which surprises me, but I'm also stoked about. I figure being top seed gives me the luxury of adjusting my routine based on how well everybody else performs in finals. I try not to think too much about the results from the prelim pools, and instead get a coffee to help me energy-wise in finals.

I'm loosely aware of the other routines that precede mine in Finals. I watched some of them until the first drop, and then tuned out to work on staying warm. I watch all of Bevier's, and instinctively think I need to beat his...which I think I could do if I go dropless. When it's my turn to go up I gather my thoughts, and walk to the spot. My music starts, and I feel fine. My second cue is a little shaky, but once I pass that I feel my confidence rise. I'm feeling very good until the juggle section, where I'm amazed to pick up a drop. In all my practice sessions, I hardly ever drop on a juggle, so it throws me a bit....but its the next drop that really frazzles me. Its during a shuffle section, and once it happens I can't refocus on closing strong. In my mind I know that the two drops have doomed me. I drop on the final trick, for a total of three, which feels like the final nail in the coffin.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6mnMrpdjpo[/youtube]


When it's mercifully over I somehow have the presence of mind to bow to the audience and judges. I then walk out of the comp area...and keep walking. At that moment I don't want to talk to anybody, to hear any words of comfort, or to have to face people and navigate small talk. I keep walking til I'm out of the park, and then I walk some more. I stop at a building a block away, and rest my head against the wall. Such a crushing, shitty feeling. Once I clear my head, I resolve to move past it, and at least make a good effort in Circles. When I get back to the site some people tell me they think I should end up in 2nd or 3rd, but at that stage I didn't really care. I didn't go dropless, and I knew I didn't win. Where I finished was a moot point, though I was a little surprised I ended as low as I did (5th). I wouldn't rewatch either routine until I did this write up...but I'm kind of glad I rewatched them. At the time, they both felt like awful routines, but watching them now I see they weren't as bad as I thought. Certainly not my best, but not as crushing as I remembered them either. So I guess its good I'm doing a write up after all.

I go clear my head by tossing frisbee with some strangers. This makes me feel a bit more recentered mentally, but I know Circles will be very hard to get through. At this point my body has cooled down, and I feel emotionally exhausted from the letdown of routine Finals. To make things worse, I'm in the 4th and final pool of Circles. To recap: I was top seed in routine prelims, top seed in routine finals, and final pool in Circle prelims. Basically I couldn't have had my comps spaced out further if I had tried. At this stage in my career, I feel kind of like a pizza. When I'm fresh, I can compete with mac and cheese or spaghetti. But unlike those foods, I don't reheat well...especially multiple times. I decide my best gameplan is to rely on two things: caffeine, and tapping into the raw, still open emotional wound that was my shit performance in routines.

Next: Ken gets caffeinated and pissed.

[mc]

as a smoker, I am also like pizza:

It's arguable that I'm best when I'm cold.

[C-Fan]

Saturday, continued

I decide my best gameplan is to rely on two things: caffeine, and tapping into the raw, still open emotional wound that was my shit performance in routines. .

At this stage of the day, I'm exhausted emotionally, and pretty tired physically, since I've warmed up and cooled down twice. I'm in the last pool of Circle, with Nate Linscott and Dustin Rhodes. I see people warming up for the opening circle rounds, and I have to force myself to be patient and not do the same. I pick up on conversations around me saying that Landes left the site since he was disappointed with his finals routine, which means Circle pools would be shuffled. The way this change affects me is that Dustin Rhodes gets swapped out of my circle for Mark Monistere. I'm actually excited to hear this, because at this stage in the day it's become apparent to me that the only way I'm going to get to play with people, is if I'm competing against them. I played with Dustin at Worlds a month before (and competed in circle with him there too), so I was excited that I'd get to play with somebody new. I pound some coffee and watch Mark and Nate warm up together. While part of me is paranoid that their warming up means they'll be sharper than me, I trust my own knowledge of my body enough to bet that warming up early would make me compete worse.

The third Circles pool starts, so I get up to warm up again. I round up Mark and Nate, and we use one of my heavy bags for a while. I feel sluggish, but Nate and Mark also look tired, which takes some pressure off me. We joke that we should be able to "bank" our best turns during warmup, and count them towards our turns in actual comp. After warming up for a bit, Nate and Mark ask to use a different bag. We switch to something lighter, and I'm glad I have time to adjust to it before comp. All my bags are heavy,and I play solo, so this would be another challenge for me, on top of my physical and mental exhaustion. Soon enough our circle is called up, and we make grim jokes to each other about not embarassing ourselves. Despite being tired, I mentally decide to approach Circle the way I usually do:

1. Go for a big 2 trick combo on my first try.
2. If I drop my first try, go conservative on my second try. No wasted turns.
3. In the variety round, make a point to do some fliers.
4. Other than fliers, approach both rounds exactly the same way. In essence, shoot for variety and density in both rounds.
5. Do one thing that stands out. This can be something silly, unique, or difficult....so long as it makes an impression.

My legs feel tired all 6 turns, but I reach deep down and push as hard as I can on each turn. I end up doing more BOP than normal, but at this point I think string length will matter more than variety. I also follow rule #5 and do a modified "running man" dance during one turn:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAb5QTDuafc[/youtube]
Once our pool is done, I shake hands with Nate and Mark, congratulating us all for having survived 6 grueling turns when we were so exhausted. At this point I'm reasonably confident I made it to Circle finals, which is a mixed blessing. On one hand I'd be happy to make Circle finals, since at least I'd be guaranteed a top 4 finish (better than routines) and it'd salvage a small measure of my pride. On the flipside, I felt like I had completely spent myself just making it through Circle semis, so I was worried I'd be too tired to play well and embarrass myself. But even at that moment, I knew I'd choose being in finals over missing the cut. No question.

The good news for me, was that the other competitors were similarly tired (except for Jim, who was pretty spry, due to the timing of when he competed). We spend some time haggling over bags, and again mine are voted down. I'm not going to lie; it would have been comforting to play with a familiar bag at this point. Having played with a foreign bag in the previous round, though, gave me confidence I could perform with one I wasn't used to. Once we agree on a bag, Evan Lovely asks what type of music we'd like to hear. Instinctively and immediately I blurt out: "Atmosphere!" since I know I'll need a good beat to get me through the next 15 minutes. Evan happily complies.

Going into Finals, my goals were two-fold: don't embarass myself, and make it through all 6 turns. My hope was that I'd finish in 2nd or 3rd if I could manage that. As expected, my legs don't have a lot of "pop" left at this point, but tapping into my Routines disappointment helps me grind out a few extra contacts each run, which ends up making a difference.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSgldaqoV_0[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCIgzqVVFnU[/youtube]
Once we're done, we all high five and congratulate each other on finishing. Justin gets somebody to take a picture of us, and while the others smile for the photo, I play up my exhaustion and hang off Justin like a zombie. It doesn't take much acting. I slink to the sideline and plop down to a well earned sit by Frank Sinatra. During comp I was pretty focused on just performing, so I didn't have a great sense how I'd finished relative to the others. Frankly, I didn't think any of us stood out too clearly as first, second or third. That said, I had a feeling that my string length would keep me out of last place. "Second or third?" I ask Sinatra, as I gulp down some water. "Third" he replies. I ask for more detail: "Pretty clearly third, or third with a chance at second?" "Pretty clearly third" he replies. At this point there's nothing I can do, but I temper my expectations for second based on Nathan's opinion. I thank my girlfriend for being so patient all day, then I stretch down some.

We wait a while as people break down the site, hoping there'll be an announcement on Circle. I get the impression though that they're planning on making that announcement at the party (which I wasn't going to), so I approach Joe Karasek and Chris and ask if they can show me the results. They go get the sheets, tabulate the scores, and come back with it to me. I see my name in the top slot, and think for a minute they're showing me the original seeding for finals. I then realize it's the final results, and I smile. While nothing would make me feel better about my squandered opportunity in routine finals, winning Circle at a major event made me feel good, which tempered my routine disappointment. If there's winning pretty and winning ugly, then my Circle win was one of the ugliest wins I've witnessed. But it was still a win, and probably my best result ever in Circle contest. Last year I finished second in both circles and routines at USO, which was a better overall finish, but in a way it was more satisfying to win one gold at USO even if it meant I fucked up in routines. It's still a goal of mine to win routines at a major (likely USO, since Euros is hard to get to), but winning Circle at a major was a nice unexpected surprise. I may never do it again, but now I don't have to.

My gf and I catch a ride back to the hotel with Sinatra, and I'm happy to share the news with them. Given that my gf had never seen me compete before, that I messed up in routines so badly, and that she spent the whole day at the site being bored, I was glad to have won one event for her sake. Back at the hotel we hit the hot tub, and are stoked to see Seattle already there. Choosing a hotel with a hot tub was likely the best decision of the weekend. We soak and talk, and remarkably don't talk much footbag. I have fun talking NBA with Justin, and then talking TF2 with Reiley. Mostly though it's just nice to socialize, knowing all competition is done. Eventually Seattle leaves for dinner, and shortly thereafter Sinatra and his girlfriend join us. We talk and soak some more, and then we all meet up in the hotel bar after we've showered. My body feels completely wiped out at this point, and I'm getting random cramps in my legs. We go out for tapas, but I'm borderline falling asleep at this point, so they drop us off at the hotel afterwards. I felt a little bad bailing on the player party, but I also didn't want the entire weekend to be about footbag either. The next day I skip the water temple session, and spend it riding bikes around town (hotel had free bike rentals). Sunday night I get a call from Seattle, and we decide to check out a barcade in Chinatown before they hit the road. The bar is called Ground Kontrol, and was like a nicer version of a similar bar we have in Denver called 1Up. They had good beer at good prices, and a much better game selection than back home. Notably, they had Area 51 (one of my favorite shoot em ups from the 90s), and a few of my favorite Street Fighter games (Alpha 3 and MvC2). They also had a couple good sidescrollers, including TMNT and the X-Men one. I was slightly disappointed they didn't have Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, but that's a minor complaint. I get in a few games before Seattle, Mark and Dean show up, but once they do we have a good time playing multiplayer games and drinking. I especially enjoyed playing Area 51 with Reilley, since we normally play TF2 online together, and it was a different experience being able to talk in person and see the same things. At the end of the night I saw goodbye to Mark and Seattle, and tentatively set up a shred for Monday at the water temple.

Next: Monday

[C-Fan]

Note: I have footage from the water temple shred, but have been too busy to make a video of it. Once I do, I'll post it in this post and/or the most recent post in my blog. For now though, I just wanted to complete my USO writeup, even if it doesn't have video.

Monday

Spent most of Monday walking around various beautiful Portland gardens. Started the morning checking out the rose gardens, then we went to the Japanese gardens, and then later we checked out the Chinese garden in chinatown. They were all very cool in different ways, but it was also a lot of walking. The water temple shred is at 6, so I get back to the hotel at 5 to get my gear and get changed. As I'm leaving the hotel, I see they're having a "social hour" with free food and free beer for hotel guests. I expected the beer to be crappy, like Coors and Coors Light, but I'm surprised to find they have two good local beers. I have 1.5 glasses of the Mudshark porter, then venture out to the Water Temple.

I'd never been to the Water Temple before, so I kinda assumed it was in a forest outside the city or something. As it turns out, it's right in the heart of the city. In a way that makes it even cooler...this peaceful waterfall oasis in the middle of a city. I find it without too much trouble, and am stoked to see a few players made it. I was particularly happy Landes made it, since we barely played at all on Saturday. Actually, the same could be said about Flash and Chris Dean, who were also there, and Dave Byers too. I change into my shred gear, when Joe Karasek approaches me with the gold medal for Circle. It's actually a very cool medal, with a spinning center inside an outer ring. I put it on, and as a joke I spend my first few turns playing without taking it off. It flops around hitting me in the face, but it's worth it for the comedic value.

Right from the start, my body was telling me I wouldn't be able to do much. Even if I had taken off Sunday and Monday to recover, I still might have been in bad shape, because I really pushed too hard on Saturday. The fact that I spent Sunday biking around, and Monday walking around, meant I had no chance. At best I was able to do a big move or opening combo, but my runs were short and uninspired. I still had a good time being social with everybody and seeing shred up close, and had a very good time giving Landes ridiculous requests, which for the most part he hit. Towards the end I shared some yerba mate with Jake Wren for my first time, which was a cool experience. I said a bunch of goodbyes, then went to dinner with Chris Dean and Dave Byers. We got some drinks and food at a local place and had good conversation, but the highlight was getting Voodoo Donuts afterwards. There was a long line to get in, so we messed around with a footbag in the line. I was wearing skate shoes and was buzzed, but I was also wearing my medal. Chris actually was able to hit swirls and some cool combos, so one guy was surprised when he asked me what my medal was for, and I told him it was from the USO of hackysack. After seeing me suck the way I did, I doubt I raised his impression of our sport. The donuts were as good as advertised. After chowing down a bit, Chris drops us off at our hotel and we say our goodbyes. I hate saying goodbyes at tournaments, but this one is easier than most, since both Dave and Chris will be at East Coasts. I leave them with a "see you next month!" and thank Chris for all his work that weekend.

Tuesday I do some tourism before flying home, but that about wraps up the footbag part of my trip.

Overall it was a fun tournament. Obviously, I was disappointed in my routine performances, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to beat myself up over it. Routines are hard, and they don't always go well, much less when you weren't able to prepare well going into them. Saturday was exhausting and kind of stressful due to all the competition, but at least I won Circle, which I'm proud of even if it was an ugly win. I wish I had been able to play more for fun, but then that's part of the price you pay when you essentially combine two vacations into one (footbag trip, and tourism trip with gf). Ultimately, I got to see a lot of friends and spend time with them both in and outside of footbag, and it was a memorable weekend. Props again to Chris Dean, Joe Karasek, Evan Lovely, the judges, and everybody else who put in time and effort to make this happen.

Word on the street is that USO will be in Seattle next year. Assuming I'm still in Denver, I'm definitely going to go. Hopefully I'll still be in good enough playing shape that I'll have another chance at winning routines, since that remains one of my big goals. I'm also excited to see how RCS runs it. They've got a big crew with lots of enthusiasm, so I'm hoping they do it up big. More than anything though, I know it'll be a fun weekend with friends and footbag, and really, what more can you ask for?

[Sporatical_Distractions]

I thought it was funny when you said "It's probably my best finish in circle" when you got first. Probably? How can you top 1st place? lol.

[C-Fan]

I used to be so good about making regular blog posts…what happened? I’m guessing a combination of factors is to blame. I think the biggest reason though, is that it’s a lot harder for me to make videos now than it used to. I can’t directly work with my new camera’s video files in adobe, and I never figured out a way to do it without getting some visual hiccups. Given that I don’t like making video-less blog posts, that’s lowered my motivation to post here. Another factor accounting for my decreased blogging, is that work has been crazy busy. I have a vacation coming up starting this weekend, which I need for my sanity as much as anything else. I probably won’t blog much though since I’ll be out of town and spending time with family. But once I get back to Denver, I’m hoping to be better about blogging regularly.

One project I’d like to undertake during the winter, is to get rid of my entire video backlog. Ideally, this means making footbag mixtapes like the one I released this week:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shFKu-nZ-eg[/youtube]
It’s so easy to edit with my old Flip files, I have no excuse but to make more of these. As for my non-Flip backlog, I’d also like to get rid of it. For a large portion of these files, I think that’ll mean just rewatching them once and deleting them. For the very best clips, I’ll go through the process of converting them to Adobe readable files, and hopefully not have too many visual glitches in the process. Or more likely, I’ll just be lazy and not do anything with them. But if I can get rid of all my Flip backlog, and delete a bunch of other stuff, that’ll be a relief. Worthy goal for the winter.

This Friday I head out for East Coast champs, in NYC. I’m really excited for this, mostly because I’ll get to see NYFA. I’ve lived a lot of places, but NYFA is my home crew. This will also be my first ECC since 2009. That seems like forever ago. Competition wise I’m not entirely sure what to expect. Hogan will be there to defend his circle title from last year, and Chris Dean is flying out, which should also make circle comp more interesting. There will be 2 rounds of routines, which I’m stoked about because at least in the first round I can do a silly routine.

In terms of preparation, I’ve been pretty bad. My normal shred spot has been besieged by weddings, so even when I have been able to play there I can’t listen to my music. So both my routines are like rough outlines in my head, which is always dangerous. The other wildcard which has me worried, is my health. I had a stomach bug last week, which resulted in me puking my brains out. My throat felt shredded because of that, and I’ve developed a little cough…but I don’t feel sick. I just hope it doesn’t develop into anything before I compete. The other health worry for me, is that on Sunday I blew out my hips. Before my shred I was craving one of those frozen coffee milkshakes, so I went to the local place to get a decaf one. They told me they couldn’t make it decaf, but that it didn’t have that much caffeine. They LIED. I ordered a small and only drank about a third of it, but as I was warming up for shred I could feel the caffeine coursing through my veins. I was too jittery to do runs, and I felt like the drink gave me an extra quickness to my legs, so I spent the session chasing quads. I started by going for a trick that I had hit in the past, but had only ever handcaught. I hit it a couple times sealed to a run, and then spent the rest of the time trying to re-hit old quads. I managed to get 3 of these, bringing my total for the session to 4 unique quads, which is a personal record (I’ll try and post a video soon). While this was fun and gratifying, it also pushed my hip flexors harder than I wanted. I took off Monday because of this, and will take today off too. Overall I don’t think it’s a bad injury, but it kinda sucks that I’m not playing right before a tournament, especially since my routines are in poor shape. Hopefully my hips will feel better tomorrow, and I can get in light shreds Wed and Thurs to get back up to speed.

I thought it was funny when you said "It's probably my best finish in circle" when you got first. Probably? How can you top 1st place? lol.

I meant careerwise for circle. Like, I’ve won circle contests before at smaller tournies (ECC 09, one of the NYFA jams, NYJ 09, etc.), but I’d never won at a major. Similarly, I finished tied for 5th at Worlds this year, which I was proud of given the level of competition present, even though I didn’t win. Or to use a different event as an example, I’m prouder of my 4th place finish at Worlds 05 in Shred30 than any of my 1st place finishes at smaller tournaments where there was less pressure and easier competition. Because of my circle win at USO, my only remaining goal in circles would be to make circle finals at Worlds. I’d have to be pretty lucky to do this, but stranger things have happened. Really though, I don’t have goals for circle, and I’d be much more excited to achieve either of my remaining routine goals (finals at Worlds, or win USO/Euros). At the end of the day though, if my career ended today, I would be happy enough. I’ve had 15 fun years, where I’ve achieved more than I ever thought I would, both inside and outside of competition. If I achieve any other goals in my remaining time, that’ll be like icing on the cake. It’s been a great ride, and I feel really lucky and fortunate for everything so far.

[C-Fan]

In 90 minutes I head to the airport, to go to East Coast Champs. I'm excited for the trip, but a little nervous given that I'm battling a bad head cold now. Stamina management is going to be very important if I'm going to come out of the weekend with my goals achieved. Basically, Saturday I'm going to do the absolute minimum to qualify for finals, and then Sunday I'm going to hope adrenaline and caffeine can pull me through competition. We'll see how it goes.

I spent the session chasing quads. I started by going for a trick that I had hit in the past, but had only ever handcaught. I hit it a couple times sealed to a run, and then spent the rest of the time trying to re-hit old quads. I managed to get 3 of these, bringing my total for the session to 4 unique quads, which is a personal record (I’ll try and post a video soon).

As promised. I added a couple other quads I had lying around, to make it video-length:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWfhVk0P4AY[/youtube]

See a bunch of you at East Coasts tomorrow!

[DubleDex]

I keep expecting some sort of update about East Coasts... but nothing is coming! You must be really slammed with work (a situation I certainly understand). Anyway, I didn't want you sitting around thinking that nobody regularly checked your blog waiting for interesting updates, insights and videos.

Also, I went to college with Tony Glick who spent some time being a judge at East Coasts this year. I'm kind of envious that he was there and I wasn't.

[C-Fan]

I keep expecting some sort of update about East Coasts... but nothing is coming! You must be really slammed with work (a situation I certainly understand). Anyway, I didn't want you sitting around thinking that nobody regularly checked your blog waiting for interesting updates, insights and videos.

I didn't expect any posts in my blog, since I haven't posted content in a few weeks. So your post made me laugh. Your assessment about my work situation is pretty spot on. I have a bunch of deadlines at the end of the month, which isn't helped by the fact that I'm spending all of next week at Hoover Dam. This whole week has seen me frantically trying to complete everything before I leave on my business trip, which means not much time for blogging. The silver lining of next week's trip, is that I'll get to play footbag after work (since the weather should be perfect down there), and I'll also get to see Evan Gatesman for a weekend. I'll pack my camera and try and get some footage while I'm there.

East Coasts is a bit of a blur for me. I started coming down with a bad headcold right before my trip, and I was only able to compete by being in complete denial about being sick. That was a pretty impressive feat really. The day before I flew out to NY, I was sick enough that I telecommuted. During both days of comp I periodically stepped out of circles to cough up a lung and spit phlegm into bushes. And yet, I never wanted to admit to myself that I was too sick to compete. It kinda reminded me of a NYJ I attended a couple years ago, where I clearly had the flu, but still insisted in competing in all major events. Anyway, right after the last event ended on Sunday, my body completely shut down. I spent the next two days in bed, and the week following that wasn't much better. I took off 9 days after East Coasts, and then I started playing a bit more regularly. I finally feel healed up, but now the weather is conspiring against me. I think from now until the spring, I'll only be able to play footbag outdoors on weekends at the peak heat hours. I'm undecided whether I'll join a gym or not.

I recently updated my challenge thread to reflect some goals I have over the winter. In a nutshell, I haven't abandoned my competition goals, but during the tournament offseason I'd like to tackle some remaining dream moves and concepts. In recent sessions I've started spending some time on stuff like nuke/furious/double spinning, with the goal of crossing some of these items off my list. I've come super close to spinning vortex, which is probably the trick on that list I'm most likely to get. In order of how optimistic I am I'll hit them, I'd rank the remaining goals as 12 fearless, new 7s, new beasts, 69, nemesis, triple spinning, and surging being a distant, dead last. That said, I'm never going to hit any of them if I don't put some time and effort in, and in past years I've surprised myself at how quickly I was able to get some goals after putting in effort (e.g. spinning mobius).

The other footbag thing that put me in a good mood recently, was Ianek's new video, and a note he sent me about it. But I'll write more about that in my next post, hopefully with a video to to go with it.

[DubleDex]

Work, weather and sickness all conspiring against you kinda sucks. My little crew managed to get a session in last night - which is good since I'm pretty sure the weather here (Ohio) is going to go downhill quickly from here on out. And we don't really have a great indoor location. And I'm definitely not joining a gym!

That Ianek video is pretty sick. I seriously didn't understand half the stuff he was doing, even when it was in slow motion. Very impressive. Can't wait to hear a little bit more about that.

[C-Fan]

A couple weeks ago, I unexpectedly got a note from Ianek on Facebook. In a nutshell, his note said that he had pretty much not played footbag for 2 years, but two recent events had inspired him to start playing again this fall. The first event was Aleksi visiting Montreal over the summer, and the other event was a string of videos I posted on YouTube. I was really touched by his note, both because it is awesome that he's playing again, but also that he took the time to send me a note in the first place. About a week later, Ianek released his video, which in turn inspired me. Beyond the overall high level of shred, seeing Ianek reminded me that there isn't anything holding back our creativity in freestyle. Almost exactly a year ago, I was hitting some creative stuff. But over the winter I started working fearless, which resulted in my game became a lot more traditional. Ianek's video inspired me to go back to trying more creative links. In some cases, his combos looked challenging and fun enough that I had to try them myself. Anyway, here's footage from a session inspired by Ianek. Welcome back man. I hope you continue to inspire the rest of us.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOdyXZqwe0I[/youtube]

As always, comments are much appreciated

[boyle]

Looks like you had a really fun session in doing this video, got a few ideas for myself from it. I guess that's the thing, is that when we're going for bigger, better things (fearless, longer runs, etc, etc), we forget there are some things that are completely different we can try out.

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

sick vid Ken. It was great to shred with ya again at east coasts and chill a bit. hitting nemesis for you was on my footbag bucket list so that felt nice to cross off I'm glad we got to play alot.

i hope you didn't get the wrong idea about the comment i made about your style. I think it fucking rules and most of the somolinos style haters probably haven't gotten to shred with you in person. the blender on your atomic drif>mind bender was super tight and sticks out in my mind as one of the cooler things i've seen you do in person.

hopefully cya soon homie.

[C-Fan]

Ihan paskat pelit

[Anz]

Joittenkin pelien täytyy olla paskoja, että hyvät erottuvat edukseen.

[C-Fan]

That's true. It's just frustrating this time of year, because the weather is only good enough for footbag on the weekend, so having an awful session when the weather is great feels like such a waste.

One example of why my last session sucked so hard, is that I only hit one highlight worthy thing, and it came out like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xt-YgfgWcM[/youtube]

Naturally, I spent the rest of the session trying to rehit it on film, and I couldn't. I felt like booting my camera across the park after that.

Anyway, gonna go out and shred again now. I may try for some of the stuff I did yesterday, but I think I'm going to aim lower and just try and have fun with the game. I definitely don't want two crap sessions in a row.

[Muffinman]

I feel your pain. I spent an entire day trying to film a nice scenic video over the summer, but I was using the GoPro that doesn't have a screen so I had to guess how to frame everything. It turned out that I overcompensated and cut out my feet for almost every shot. For the one big trick I was happy to hit, it cut me off at my torso... Killer.

Props on achieving so many of your newer goals already.

[C-Fan]

I spent an entire day trying to film a nice scenic video over the summer, but I was using the GoPro that doesn't have a screen so I had to guess how to frame everything.
.

I remember reading about that in your blog. I groaned out loud.

Props on achieving so many of your newer goals already.

Thanks! Winter goals are kind of fun, because the absence of tournaments means I can explore big tricks and other goals I normally wouldn't waste time on (blurry flurry, beasts, 10 fearless). Of all my winter goals, only one has any chance of helping me with my summer (competition) goals, and that's the one of a 60 contact run that's not too baily. I did a run yesterday which I feel accomplished this, but I plan on continuing the pursuit of long, relatively low bail runs just for the fun of it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKndMNnYo0w[/youtube]

Regarding my other goals, I should start working on nukes and furious some. Lately I've mostly been trying for 12 fearless (frustrating) and beasts. I made my goal of 2 new beasts, and I will make a short vid this week just so I have them all in one place. I wonder how many beasts I've now hit? I'm probably at about 40, not counting any of the xdex ones.

I'll try and get my winter beast vid up soon.

[C-Fan]

Spent this week in Redding California for work. Last weekend was snowy in denver, so no footbag then either. That means it's been close to 2 weeks since I've played. Temps this weekend are in the high 50s, so I'm going to try and play every day. Taking some time off from footbag has probably been good for me, but I really miss it. There's only so much Team Fortress 2 I can play.

I set a few goals for myself for the winter, and I've hit 3 so far (2 new 7s, 2 new beasts, 60 ish contact run that's not too baily). This weekend I'd like to work on fearless. My current record is 11, but I'd like to get 12 or 13. I'd also like to hit some new double spin tricks. I've never gotten a DSW on video that I was happy with, but I've hit it a few times. I know I can also get spinning vortex. So I'll work on those as well.

This year is the first time since...2007? that I won't be going to NYJ. In a way that's nice, since it allows me to take more time off during winter. I'd totally go to the bay for it, but I have a wedding to attend.

Here's a video of the beasts I've hit this winter. I was close to a few others, so if I feel good/bored this weekend I might try for a couple more. But I should really work on my other winter goals.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qmMtQDy2-8[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

Hacky Thanksgiving!

As I mentioned in my last post, I took off 12 days from playing, due to weather and work. I made up for it though by getting in 3 shreds over the weekend. Friday shred was notable for two things. First, I found out that my flip alpine blw magically became usable and semi-reliable again. Second, I managed to hit one of my coolest 7 adds ever:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieAQNmHLNrQ[/youtube]

I was particularly happy about this, because I didn't sacrifice multiple sessions or too much emotional energy to get there. I pretty much tried alpine little apple on a whim, and when I saw how easy that was, I gave a few more tries and hit this. Nice to be able to get a good footbag result without going insane, for a change.

Saturday's session was awesome. There was a touch of summer in the air, plus I got to shred with Flash Bevier! Whoo! The other big plus, was that Flash played with Pete Irish the day before in Estes Park. Why is this notable? Because Pete made a post about it on Facebook, and I responded in an attempt to get Pete to come to the session in Denver. He didn't, but one of his facebook friends saw the post and asked to join! So there was a shredita in Denver this whole time that I had no idea existed. Her name is Mina, and she joined us for our shred. She's still kicking off some rust, but I can see her getting real good again if I continue shredding with her, and she gets back into it. Best thing she hit was ripwalk-pdx whirl. I'm hoping to make her a regular shred partner. Highlight for me was hitting a flipside beast:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXAL3IGRSOM[/youtube]

Got some good food together afterwards too. Sunday my body was really sore, so I didn't hit much. It was cool though, cause my girlfriend joined me and worked on inside kicks and toe stalls. I thought I had a couple highlights, but upon video review they didn't meet my standards. This one was particularly tough:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrpptdmYU4o[/youtube]

Today I got out of work early, thanks to Thanksgiving. Weather was perfect, but I had a frustrating session. Only real highlight was this x-dex beast, and even that was rough. I basically hit it 3 times perfectly, but each time I missed the osis out of it. Thankfully I was able to get one on film at the end. I still think I could get one or 2 more legit beasts out of the flip alp blw. Probably shouldn't fixate on it though, the way I did today.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdrnpeJzxM[/youtube]

It's going to be a lot cooler tomorrow than today, but I still want to try and play. Maybe get Mina to come out too. I'm hoping the weekend will be decent weather, and I can get in a couple more shreds then. I'll be on the road for work for the next 2 weeks after that, so likely very little footbag or modified for me during that time. Surprise me with comments in the blog, so I'll be happy to see them when I come back.