Lauri J's diar...footblog

[sniikeri]

Dude just so you know - anybody who doesn't go to worlds when it's in their own country is committing a footbag crime and needs to be spanked. Just be thankful you don't live in Australia or New Zealand where a trip to worlds costs over 1000 euros just for the plane ticket...

I won't commit a crime!
Though I'm not competiting or competing (which one is it? ). We agreed with dad that I'll come there to watch the finals and shred for fun. I'll join the IFPA there and then attempt at Finnish Footbag Open (when they ever are).

OK, thanks Matti. I think I'll get one ASAP I know I can afford it.

And Bjoern: YES!!! One stamp was enough!

---

I'll go to practice whirls.

[sniikeri]

6/17/2005

Nah, too long time since I had been shredding before with shoes.
Which one's easier: Whirl or Toe Whirl? I have to get my timing better. In fact, I have to get all my non-existent Whirl components better.
I also practiced some Torques; it may be the next move I'll hit. I know what's the problem: faster changing of legs, better spin, more ankle cranking and earlier, falling to osis. Sounds like I have to improve heck of a lot things, but since Torque is such all-in-one move, it shouldn't be that tricky.

Anyways, it was nice to kick again. I went to shred after 0900pm cause I didn't want to burn myself. Unfortunately in the evenings there's usually no wind at all and the air didn't move at all.
--> I didn't know that there was so much sweat in the world!
(I washed my shred shorts yesterday for the first time, I hope all the "magic" isn't gone).

I could whine more about how clumsy NBct300s are at least when you don't use the insoles but I think I'll pass.
---
And then the bad news: my Lavers were sent back to WFA from some I-don't-know-whatever-post-office-something-it-was. They'll send them again.
Only thing that worries me is the trip to Germany. 13 days 'til I leave and I hope that the Lavers arrive before it. I ordered them through a Finnish guy who deals them for people who don't own a credit card (I've told this one before) so it'll take more time to arrive than if I could've ordered them straight from WFA.
---
I hope I can have a shred today too. We have about 20 guests this eve. They are parents' friends so I hope they don't miss me all the time.

[sniikeri]

6/19/2005

Yesh. A good shred today - actually, all the sessions I've had lately have been good! I practiced mostly whirls, always ten tries in a row with one side->same with other side->drink some water->rpt. I came closer than ever before and the whirls were faster than ever before aswell. I want to hit Whirl and Torque BS so hard right now. After that I'll concentrate to get 'em and Ripwalks better, and hit Drifter BS and after that...

I also came close to Smear>Butterfly>Pdx Mirage>rpt for a couple of times but dropped the last B-fly. I'll get it soon, it's one of my challenges.
Also Smear>PLO>rpt is a must-to-hit-soon, because it shouldn't be that hard. Though my PLOs suck for some reason, I consider my Dimwalks better than them.

Hopefully the Lavers arrive in time before I leave to Germany, it's making me a bit nervous.

[sniikeri]

6/21/2005

Yay, I got two postcards yesterday! From Jeremy Oh Wheely and Erik. One thing needs correction (if you guys ever happen to read this post): I'm not "that-13-year-old-wonder-child-Lauri-Airinen-busting-big-at-the-age-of-13", I'm Lauri Jaakkola, 15 years old and busting not-as-big-as-he-is.
OK, it was nice to get all the props for hitting Maelstrom at the age of 13, Erik, but at the moment I'm trying to get my Whirls hit. Not anything like Spinning Ducking Paradox Whirl.
I'm not sure if Jeremy knows who I am either, because he wrote something like: "wow, it's cool to write to a future world champion - hope you'll remember me when you're at the top!"
I wonder if he also thought that I'm Lauri Airinen, cause that would describe him better. But who knows - maybe I'll have my chances too if I keep shredding hard.

One more time. Lauri Airinen is 13; trying to get his first 5>5>5; he's got dark hear and brown eyes. Lauri Jaakkola (me) is 15; I've came close to Phoenix but I can't hit some basic tricks like Drifter or Whirl or Torque, and Ripwalk only sometimes; I've got light hear and blue eyes.
I hope that you can compare the two of us at Worlds.

I think I'll go to shred.

[sniikeri]

6/23

TA-DAA! Smear>butter>pdx mirage>rpt. Wow, a guiltless drill. Exciting.
I also skooled butterflys and osis', now I usually get around 10 butterflys and...well, my osis record is so far so embarrassingly small that I don't post it yet.

I got an e-mail from the Rod Laver "dealer" (sounds dangerous:D). The shoes are in Finland! ...though I have to pay some customs. Lately many of the Finnish players who have ordered Lavers (even straight from the WFA) have got extra customs to pay. Are we just unlucky or do the authorities check all the packages that come from the USA? Or are they just so against footbag? Or are they a group of underground people who want to demonstrate against the fact that x-dex won't be used at the Worlds?

Funny, that reminds me of other thing. There are two "major" strikes here in Finland at the moment. The paper workers and the frontier guards.
So we don't supposedly have any toilet paper here - which we have - people just think it's true.
The other thing is that the borders are "open" and there'll be a big sports happening this summer - The Footbag World Championships. Everybody here is concerned if the tourists and players are going to be safe from the increasing number of pickpockets.
Nah, actually people are concerned how the World Athletics Championships are going to make it. I think it's pretty lame compared to the Footbag World Championships.

Roger.

[bigdirtyfoot]

That's awesome that you got Lavers in Finland! Sucks about the customs though. Usually when a country is sending to another country THEY will notify the other country's customs service. So it's probably USA's fault.

Shred on!

[sniikeri]

6/27

I was just painting a house but it started to rain. Nice to play with that crane we rent for this week...
...though it sucked that it didn't have a motor for moving it and it weighs like...well, a lot. It was pretty tricky to try to move it with my dad, especially when it got stuck in a pit. Luckily we have tractors.

I really hope that it won't rain anymore today and that it'd dry. Everytime I'm trying to get a good series of shreds, it starts to rain and I have to keep a day off.
I'm hitting some guiltless combos at the moment, but I need to get more tricks to my repertuare. It kinda effects that I can't do Whirl, Torque, Drifter or anything spinning. I can do a few easy stepping and ducking tricks but not with a very good percentage. I'll keep practicing.

Wow, only a couple of days 'til Germany. That's quite exciting too.

[sniikeri]

7/25

Been back from Germany for a week now. Damn I love that country.
There are 56,000 inhabitants in Goslar but no-one played footbag. Though people were mostly quite amazed. "Cool!" "Zeig es nochmal!" etc., and only once a neighbour asked if I play football (soccer). So there were no players. Until now...one girl was interested, I'll send her a mr. sandman after the Worlds.

Which reminds me - the Worlds have already begun! I'm freaking excited about it! And I'm going there on Friday. Yeah!
*I just wanna laugh all the time. And I wanna play footbag.*

Hopefully Ilja remembers that I ordered a bag from him... ...hopefully

Nice to be back on boards though. Yesterday I hit my first Sidewalks, the Ripwalks I had already hit. And I came pretty close to that Smear>Dimwalk>Pdx mirage>rpt challenge, but haven't hit it yet.
Also Torque and Whirl are waiting, hope that I'll get a couple of tips at Worlds.

-Lauri Jaakkola

[sniikeri]

8/4

Wow. The Worlds blew my mind. So sweet to play with people from all over the world.
I played with Szymon Kalwak (Ners), Matt Cross, some Germans (I don't know the names), Manu Schmidt, Tina Aeberli etc. plus a bunch of Finnish shredders. Many of them were new to me aswell.
I even tried 4-square there and I still have no idea why the "setter" does have to say a number before setting. But it's just me again, dumb as I am.

Shredding at Linnanmäki was great - a lot of crowd there. One thing I don't get; all the shredders (including me) tried to shred in a ridiculously small space on the right side of the stage (right side when watching from the stage). Anyways, on Saturday there were IMO quite a lot of other people than players watching the finals at the Helsinki Sporthouse = GOOD THING.

Bad news: I didn't see Ilja even once so no deal this time. Also I didn't remember to ask for Mr.Sandmans from Felix on Friday, and on Saturday I remembered it just before Felix's final routine. I didn't dare to ask.
So, the "gift" I promiced is now an orange/black -colored Starbag sold by Planet Footbag. (Funny, Planet Footbag is German (is it???) and the girl who'll get the bag is also German. The bag just made a quick round in Finland = more valuable. )
I also forgot to register to IFPA. Stupid, stupid me. Actually I forgot almost everything there; I took two pics there, both are Vasek doing his final routine (late).

---- Time after the Worlds ----

It's hard to recover I guess although I didn't use any intoxicants there (I don't use them anywhere else either...). I always get an inspiring boost when I get the chance to play with other people (or at least in front of other people). I mean, I can suddenly link some tricks I normally can't. Like, I hit there
-Ripwalk b2b
-Smear>PLO>rpt
-other stuff

...good thing is that I can hit them now at home.
I also got good tips for Whirls and Drifters there, I'm anxious to get to practice them (today it hasn't been raining non-stop since noon ). Tomorrow then!

---
Oh, I've been planning to have a footbag work shop or something like that when the school starts. I'm not that good myself to be a real teacher but I just hate shredding alone.

[sniikeri]

And about Ristiretki/Tampere One-Day Shred Jam:

I'm not sure if I can arrange it this summer - maybe next year. Of course if everyone else is 100% willing to come then I think we could have it. Let me know, you others decide.

I don't know if there are sport halls in the centre of Tampere open for this kind of "events", I should find out. I mean, I'm sure that no-one wants to shred when it rains and on the other hand I'm sure that no-one wants to travel a heck of a long trip to some hall where nobody else can watch it.

Railway station could be an indoors option, though I don't know if they allow shredding there...

[DoctorJay]

hehe one of the Germans was Jochen "DoctorJay" Bauer a nice guy looks very similar to the guy in my signature

[sniikeri]

Really? How did you recognize it was me? ...actually two things surprise me: that you know it was you though I have no pics here anywhere and secondly that you've read my blog.
The other German was he: http://www.apvivax.ee/worlds2005/images ... 272213.jpg
, I don't know his name (I guess ).

[sniikeri]

8/7

After Worlds I've been playing every day I guess...no wait, one day it just rained all the time so I just fooled around barefeet (indoors).
Nothing big happening so far in my sessions - just skooling and practicing.
The cost is that my legs (especially the calves) are a bit sore all the time and my back hurts sometimes. I believe that the calves are growing and the other parts of my legs are just sore for playing so much. Aleksi had these back pains too at the Worlds. He said it's probably because he's grown so much and played so much footbag. For me the back pains started after the Worlds but I've never played so much in my life than during these last 2-3 weeks. And I've also grown about 20cm/8 inches in a little over a year (I'm now 180cm).

The Finnish Footbag Open might be in Kuopio this year (November)! Great, I don't know the town actually at all though I've been there once. Nice.

-I'll be back-

[sniikeri]

8/8

A philosophy lesson by wannabe-professor-look-a-like Jaakkola:
"We have these 'name-days' in Finland; all the Lauris have their (=our) 'name-day' on the day after tomorrow, 10th of August. It's like 1/4 version of birthday, I'm not going to have a party etc., we'll just drink coffee and maybe eat some cake whatever.
Usually I don't get any presents from other people than my parents but this year I've already got a box of chocolate from an acquaintance (sp?) we hardly meet once in a year and I've got an "American football" from my other godfather (and godmother).
...which leads us to the subject of the day:
Why on Earth is this sport called FOOTBALL?!!!
First; the "main piece of playing equipment" isn't a ball at all and second; you actually never play the so called "ball" with your feet - only when you're attempting a kick goal!

What the hell? And these people have a nuclear weapon... (sorry, an old joke).

P.S. It's nice playing with it though.
P.P.S. I think I'll get new shred shorts from my parents - I can finally wash the old ones!

Oh yeah, Forrest Gump is one of my favorite films/books.
"Life's like a box of chocolate - you'll never know whatcha gonna get."

[sniikeri]

***Footbag***

Yesterday I think I footed a Whirl. At least I touched the bag with my foot. It still needs time though.

EDIT:
And on the day before yesterday I hit 37 Infinities after a 1½ hours of tough shred. I was so exhausted.

[sniikeri]

8/10

It's getting colder all the time here. Yesterday was quite warm but I quit playing after less than an hour because wind was so hard. Today just rain, blah.
Today is my "name-day", we went to buy me new shorts. These white-ones are a bit longer and baggier but I think they're just fine. At least I can finally wash my other shorts.
...I'm not sure but I believe that I've washed them once or twice after I got them in May I guess. Icky.

Oh yes, congratulations to Lauri Airinen, he has his name-day today too.

***News, not related to footbag***
1. The Athletics World Championships are in Helsinki at the moment. Too bad the weather sucks. Yesterday evening they had to postpone the event because of a bad weather and all the electricity on the stadium was shut down as a security-thingy cause it was thundering.
2. I just heard that a passenger helicopter that was flying from Estonia to Finland had dropped to the sea! With 14 people (8 Finns, 4 Estonians and 2 Americans).

[sniikeri]

8/12

Hopefully some shredding today, yesterday na-a-no. I wanna test the new shorts! At least it looks a bit dryer outdoors, let's see how's it later today.

My new kick record: about 35

...in socks. (and mostly inside kicks).

[sniikeri]

8/15

School started today.
*sigh*

I sprained my right ankle again yesterday, this time I _was_ playing footbag. I was practicing right side Whirl and landed with the dexing foot on the stalling foot, and sprained the right ankle (the dexing one). And, of course, fell down on my ass with white shorts on.
Hurrah. Someone's gonna pay for this.

This is my first real injury in footbag. My mom asked if I can go on with "such a dangerous sport" - same person wants me to continue snowboarding.
I think only running is a safer sport than footbag that I could be good at. But that's in my opinion not as interesting as footbag.

I'll never quit footbag.

[sniikeri]

8/17

I don't know if I missed something during my "modified break" back in the days but isn't ALES ZELINKA not playing anymore???

I wrote a poem about my sprained ankle...

Okay I sprained my ankle, so what?
Hopefully I'll some day be bustin' phat.

My mother would like me to quit,
I don't think so
- my life would taste like s**t.

Say what they say, tomorrow I'll play.

Yeah, it sucks indeed. I don't know there just aren't any proper rhymes.

Am I weird?:?

[sniikeri]

8/20

First week of school over, yay! I'm so damn tired already and I have to go to a wedding today...not mine though.

I've had two session this week (I had this ankle sprain), were not amazing ones but yesterday I hit Blur - both sides of course.

I think I'll start practicing Whirls too. The only few times I've footed it, I've been amazed that the dex is almost behind your back. Is it really so or am I doing it wrong?

And where's Ales Zelinka?