I tried uploading my video twice, and both times f.org doesn't seem to want to accept it. What a fucken waste of my time
. Sorry folks.
So instead of the video, here are some breif highlights from my drilling sesh this afternoon:
- Pdx Whirl > Whirl > Spinning Whirl > Whirl > Pdx Whirl > Whirl > Spinning Whirl off the foot
- Osis > Scorpion's Tail > Osis > Scorpion's Tail > Osis > Spinning Whirl > Osis > Spinning Whirl off the foot
- Stepping ss Mirage > DoD > Stepping ss Mirage > DoD > Blur > Paradon > Blur > Paradon > Sidewalk > Barfly > Sidewalk
And then, as promised, my Seattle write up.
I just want to warn that this story is very incoherent and sketchy, and will probably not make very much sense. Here we go...
Thursday, Nov. 10
Our adventure started when Rory and I walked from Kevin's place to the ole Tim Hortons to pick up supper. As I was waiting in line to purchase a pack of REd Bull for the road, this old gentlement comes bursting out from the back and grabs this 14 - 16 year old girl, whom at first glanced looked as though she was going to faint. I thought he was going to save her from falling over. That was not the case. He reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of gummies, then saying in a harsh tone "Were you going to pay for this?". The girl just looked at him dumbfounded. As they walked along to the back, a pop bottle fell out of her jacket. I couldn't help but laught at her misfortune. Silly girl. Their was a lot of tension in the air. We left, only to realize that we forgot our Tim Bits! Fuck! It was sketchy going back in there and asking for our Tim Bits back, after someone just tried to shoplift, but fortunately the cashiers saw the lonely pack and gave it to us with no hassles. Rory and I rejoiced.
Back at Kevin's pad, we ate then took off shortly. The drive down was pretty sketchy, especially going through the rockies. Deer everywhere! That and we were making it an all-night drive just added to the hazard factor.
Friday, Nov. 11 (We will remember)
I got about an hour of good sleep during that time, and we made it to Spokane at around 7 in the morning, approximately 13 hours later. James Randall, being the coolest person that he is, let us chill at his place. I got approx 2 hours of sleep then we went out for breakfast. Shortly afterwards, we left for Mario's house then took off to Seattle a few hours later. Rory and I had a little session as we waited for James and Mario to make the necessary preperations.
5 hours and 240 miles later we were in Seattle, and fuck is it huge. I've never driven in a city that large and it was a nightmare. Coming into the city, we were experiencing snowy and rainy weather, not to forget the hold up and frightful experience of a fluctuating gas guage ("Oh God, we're almost empty! No, no wait! We still have a quarter tank left! Fuck, down it goes again! We're so screwed!").
So driving in Seattle is a bitch, and I think Rory and I both aged 2 years from the experience. The only thing that saved us was Kevin and his palmpilot. We somehow managed our way to the hotel that we stayed in, which wasn't too shabby. We got our shit together, got food into our stomachs, then took off again for the venue.
After navigating through the maze that is Seattle, we arrived precisely where we wanted to be. I was so excited, not even the two hours of sleep the night before could hold me back. Walking into the gym, all I could see were footbaggers and jugglers. The registration seemed to take forever since I was dieing to shred, but eventually Rory and I started our own warm-up circle. It wasn't long before we hopped in and begin our first evening of shred at Seattle
This first circle consisted of Jane, Karen (I think?), and Sam. Ricky Moran popped in too, and it was wicked to kick with him. Unfortunately, it would be the only time that I would but oh well. If I wasn't warmed up when I entered the circle, I was definitely warmed up when I left! The rest of the night was a blur, but I remember seeing Peter, Lon, Jim and Daryl and just thinking how fucking awesome footbag is. Here I am, a newb, and I'm seeing the people who *made* footbag what it is today. It was exhilerating and intimidating at the same time. That evening, I had Spinning Matador off my foot on the very first attempt and was going all out with the shuffle. I kicked with Justin Dale and he hit Alpine Fog into a string, which blew me away. The doors closed at 10, and after some figuring out in the parkinglot decided to make a convoy of ShrEdmonton and the Genzes to the Renegade show. On the way, we stopped to pick up pizza. While we waited, Rory, Kevin, Daryl and I had a quick game of four square. Needless to say, Daryl slaughtered us
The show ended up being really good, and the pizza was even better. There were jugglers of all sorts, but what really impressed me the most was seeing the Spoonman. All I have to say is wow. He was incredible, and in some way I felt moved by his performance. He was followed by the PP, which was hilarious. By now it was past midnight and we decided to head back to the hotel. When we got back, I had a quick shower. Then Rory did. I must have fell asleep as soon as I hit the mattress, because I don't remember seeing or hearing Rory get out.
Saturday, Nov. 12
I awoke 4 minutes before the alarm was set to go off, thinking that we slept in too late. Fack, that could have been 4 minutes more quality sleep. Anyways, I let it go off and eventually everybody stumbled out of bed. We got our things packed, got breakfast at Jack-in-the-Box, then made our way back to the venue.
When we got there, I could see one shred circle going and about twenty jugglers going at it. This was at approximately 10:30? 11? Somehwere between there, anyways. Saturday was probably the best day of the weekend for me, since I ended up playing with Red, Pete, Daryl, Jorden and later on, Jim and Lon. I remember when I was kicking with Red that he was really impressed by my shuffle game. I hit some good links in this circle, like Atomic Osis > Vortex and some other stuffs, and all in all played really well. Red is such a nice guy, he brings a positive flow to the circle. When he's not shredding, he's cheerfully talking and encouraging people. For the rest of the day, I played with Sam Potter. I love that guy's style! He says it's to crispy, but I think it's totally precise and controlled. I also met Nasty Nate, who has the most consistant, longest strings ever! And they are so unique! Plus that he's such a cool guy it was awesome. Whenever I looked at him he was always smiling
. I also played with Mr. Erickson a lot that day, which was also a treat! Those guy's from Eugene are consistant and talented, a dangerous combination. Plus they are both great to kick with!
Anywho, so by around 3 the competition was starting. By that time I was also starting to warm down for no apparent reason. I guess the Ultimate Sausage Burger I had for breakfast wasn't so ultimate as I thought. I ended up going second, and dropping a hell of a lot. I didn't land my sick 3 either, which was dissappointing but what can you do? I was up against Jim for the Rippen run and that went a lot better. He beat me of course, but I felt as though I put up a fight of around 20 - 25 contacts? After I dropped I look over and he's doing fearless. I was pwned
.
After I was done competing, I hopped into a circle with Peter, Daryl and Nate. Daryl left soon to execute his Sick 3, but Pete, Nate and I ended up playing a good 30 - 45 minutes before that circle got dispersed. You probably already know this, but Mr. Irish is awesome at footbag. That's all I need to say about that.
So 6 o'clock rolls around and everybody heads out. Justin asks me to perform in the Rippen Run contest at the big show happening that night, and I agree to do it. I wish I couldn't remember how that eventually turned out but I guess all experiences, good or bad, are good, right? I can say that I didn't get to warm up well, or blame it on the footbag that I wasn't used to, but I really blew it. Four contacts or so in I dropped infront of around 50 - 100 people, then just stood there and watched Jorden smack my ass. I was completely bummed out by that, I mean, if I could have done atleast 10 contacts I would have been happy. But no, I didn't even do that. I put it out of my mind as I enjoyed the rest of the show.
Next on the agenda was the players party. After a few turn arounds, we found the place. Shred quickly followed. I think I kicked for another 3 hours that evening, burning any fumes I had left in me. I did, however, do a pixie set with a Goldfish into Kevin Richie's mouth after James and I found a huge box full of those chedder fishes. I think I eventually curled up on two chairs and fell asleep. Kevin, Rory, Jorden and James kept kicking. We didn't get out of there until around 7 in the morning.
Sunday, Nov. 13
Late night and four hours later, we crawled out of bed again. Followed the routine from the day before, except this time we checked out and got all our baggage ready adn packed in the cars. It took me a long time to warm up this day, since I was so tired and soar from the 9ish hours of footbag the day before. Eventually, though, I did. By around 3 it was time for the Sick trick competition for both the jugglers and footbaggers. I hit Atomic Torque on my second attempt, and on my final I cleared a Spinning Nuke set, but failed to muster a Butterfly out of it. Soon, it was time for the worst part about footbag events - leaving. I said my good-byes to everybody that I met, and thanked Justin for making the Seattle Juggling and Footbag Festival such a blast. It was hard to leave, knowing that I didn't get to kick with everybody as much as I would have liked (mainly the Montana crew), but it had to be done. The trip back to Spokane was dark, and I was tired, but it was good. Kevin and I talked a lot about filming and editing techniques that we hope to blow the footbag community away with, and we also stopped for some milkshakes. We got to James' house at around 10, where we watched Family Guy and Meet the Fockers. I wasn't able to finish the movie, and fell asleep on the couch as Gaylord's foreskin fell into the fondoo (sp?).
That's Seattle in a nut shell. From there, we got up at 6:30 and were on our way home by 7am. I didn't get home until around 8:45, where I just vegged the evening away. I met so many great people at this event, it was remarkable. James and Nate, not only two exceptional shredders but also two incrediblie wonderful people as well. Sam Potter and Nick Landes, both going to be crazy-good shredders in the near future. I felt like I "bonded" with these two the most, since I played a lot with them and used Nick's choiciest McChoice bag the entire weekend. I can't wait until we meet up again! The Montana crew - fuck, I didn't get to kick with you guy's as much as I had hoped but atleast we did during Saturday evening. They all improved so much since the Montana Freestyle Jam, and I look forward for MFJ 3. Shredding with the legends, all I have to say is wow. Just seeing them has inspired me to push my game up to new heights. To everybody else whom I kicked with, it was a pleasure and I hope to meet you again at the next Seattle festival
Cheers!
