GF05
Gfo was so raw and beautiful, i'm still soaring high so i can only try
to find fitting words to get close to the tournaments' energy .
When i arrived in Berlin friday morning, i was feeling like thrash but
light and in a constant state of positive tension .
I didnt catch much sleep- bad, uncomfy seats + pre foobag event
excitement - and i was about to meet Anna again, one of my closest
and dearest friends
Berlin itself was overwhelming, in many ways. Its so different from
Munich, more energetic, hectic, colorful, brutal and crazy !!!
I guess, if you have a real task to to there, something that just has to
be done with all your heart, then its one of the most rocking places
in Europe, but i couldnt imagine getting through a winter or raising
a family there.
After a long talk, some sleep, beer, coffee and ice cream we took
a wild bike tour from Moabit to Kreuzberg, passing by a lot of
historical sites, racing thru half of the cities famous quarters, with
Anna spicing things up with a bunch of anekdotes and stories.
I was really happy about our extended tour, since i normally only
get to see bags and feet at these tournies and Berlin is a vast
labyrynth of kool shit worth checking out
We roamed thru Kreuzberg, me picking several beers up on the way
and spend a good lazy time trying to find the gym where the players
were.
I saw more people than i expected, i wandered around meeting n
greeting some peeps, but there wasnt anybody there i knew well.
After registration we went to some gettho style soccer court and i
tried to explain to Anna how the tournament works and how
wicked Honzas pixie spinning is
.
I was glad when i met Bjoern and Jason out of the blue, cause being
so blown away by all the Berlin impressions and the prospect
of intense sweet footbag madnesss, i wasnt able to talk much
to folks that i dont know that well.
But this was Anna's and my night anyway, so we left soon to have great
thai food and more talks, facing an awesome urban view.
Since the day was so long and intense, we were glad to take the train
back home around midnight.
After a nice deep sleep and a weird dream starring Al ( my old hack potna),
Hania and me having beef with fbi agents, who pretended
to be american tourists, i killed some beers to set off to enter
footbag heaven.
SATURDAY
It was so great to meet Dortmund Crew again, Viktor and Stonki
are
such kool guys ; i was also pretty excited to see Nils shred, whom
i saw last 9 moths ago on my second day of freestyle...
And i was very happy when i met some of the polish crew -
Wiktor,Gosia, Szymon and Hania -and we spent a lot of time chatting,
partying and shreddin together on that wonderful weekend.
I felt so sad for Hania sometimes though ; summertime is shred
and tournie season and she wasnt able to play/compete since three
weeks already due to some mysterious ankle injury.
Hopefully you will be alright for Euros, i love when you shred !
Thanx for the Hip Hop cd and the nice bag
Later on i also met Ilja, a very kind guy and a wicked shredder
and i gave him his money for the killer bag that he had sent me .
I thought it was very generous of him to sent a bag to a guy he
doesnt know, saying " you give me the money when we meet each
other at some tournament" !
Btw, if i ever get round to make a movie of Tolkiens Silmarilion,
i'd do good, if i cast Uve and Ilja, they so look like Elves
The place where all this happened, Bjoern already described ;
the setting was truly awesome - the double swimming pool,
the various styles of food and music, and all the shredders
doing their thing made this place some sort of foobag woodstock
(footstock ?).
When you chilled at the pool there was this awesome industrial
view, such a contrast to the wild livelyness of Yaam Market .
The shred was just massive - i played with a lot of people, but
there was always some of my crew, so Max, Bjoern and me usually
played in the same circles.
Ilja, Szymon and the two Viktors are such good shredders, and it was
kool to witness all the sweet combos and the variety of styles ;
Szymon plays in a very calm and controlled fashion, his style
is smoove and precise and he had some loooong runs .
And just when Szymon or his friend Wiktor seem to fall asleep
from all the butterflies, he busts stuff like phoenix>blurry whirl>ps whirl
or montage, or janiwalker, torque bsos or whilwind
...i could go on 4 a bit in that fashion....
His buddy Wiktor has a very powerful style, with a lot of hard
symposium tricks like pdx flail or merlin.
Ilja can switch between fast shuffle and smove dexless and he
has a big repertoire, but whatever he does lookes so relaxed,
and yet energetic and fast.
Ilja hit countless sweet moves and combos, so i was mad stoked when
he told me that he was "out of shape" .
Viktor from Dortmund is also very good : he busts stupid hard
moves like blazing drifter, and he was as susual very original and inventive .
My runs where only so so, but i also had some bright moments like
datw midrun, dlo bsos, tap bsos with
symp mir and smear
in the same run, and one nice 16 contact string with
flip atomsmasher,
gyro mirage, ducking clipper, flip plo, symp mirage .
My run lenght and variety werent really on this weekend, i almost
completly ignored stepping, diving and spinning, and my pixie moves
where always the same, but i just kept on, enjoying myself.
Hit a new move too :
gyro pick up
Watching the routines was very fun, and for some reason i enjoyed
watching them more than at footjam .
Soren, Max, Szymon, Lasse, Stefan, Karim, Verena, Lise, Honza and
Stone Cold where kicking massive ass out there !
That mad man called Felix was the man of the our, his dominance
and frenzy where almost scary, he busted sheer rawness all over
the place, finishing off his final routine with some awesome fearlessness.
Shit, and that wasnt all - when Ian, Polish and Munich Crew came
back from the gas station with buttloads of alcohol, Honza and Felix
had a face off and shit got plain epic.
There was no talking and no filming ( only bits at best), just laughter,
applause and a joyful, yet tense vibe, and four of the best blades on
the planet were cutting the thick air with sheer and sudden beautiful
brutality !
Later on we sat in a nice circle, celebrating Max Birthday with style
,
by that time i was pretty much fired up and i had a great time talking
and laughing with all these nice people, who all live too far away .
It was dawning when we staggered back to the gym, where i had the
best tournament sleep ever.
Sunday
The breakfast was a lot of fun, lots of smiles and chatts, and
it was good to talk to Szymon and to get to know him a little better.
Max, Bjoern, Viktor, Honza and me where laughing and footbag talking
lots and Jan made an interesting statement, how playing alone too much
at athe beginning can affect ones game in a negative way ; he said,
when one is used to hit his best stuff mostly while playing alone,
one will get nervous when shredding with other people -
so true, at least to me, so when i shredded on sunday, i wasnt drilling
much at all, but circled like a madman.
But not very well- variety and precison reached their minimum
and the good runs in the cirlce with Bjoern, Max, Szymon and Viktor
were few...
i took various breaks like swimming, eating the best kebaps in the world
or watching Felix killing shred 30 and sick 3, but i was easliy playing
4 hrs that day.
Before the last two freestyle comps, ther was a wicked circle going on
starring Lasse, Felix, Honza and Yves, who wasnt playing much,
since he was deeply involved in makin gfo happen and stuff.
This was the best shred i ever saw 4 meters in front of my eyes,
and Yves is so amazingly good, i simply love his style - he looks like the
offspring of a praying mantice and a torrero when he shreds.
He shuffeled as mad as usual, but i also spotted pdx eggbeater, blender
and swirling- stuff i havent seen often in his shred.
The other three were also out of this world and look 4ward to see some
footage soon...
After the last competition, Ian and me went for a walk to get some
Kebaps and i took this australian guy that studies in Wales to a Berlin bar
for some of Munichs finest beer " Augustiner Helles"
Ian, it was so nice to hang out with you and so look forward to see
ya again at Euros.
When we returned, we played some, and slowly my form returned
and i had some decent runs.
Ian hit flipside alpha toe blur and symposium quantum legover
I learned a new trick aswell :
flip atomic legover
Just about when i came really fuckin close to legbeater, Max and me
had to leave, and it was hard to go, i have had such a greát time
The goodbyes and the way to our train were rather dramatic and hectic .
We missed the sbahn and had to take a taxi to make it in time,
but neither of us had enuff cash, and there wasnt a bank on the
way either.
Luckily Hakan, the driver was a very kind man and his ride was
some kind if a space shuttle, where you could talk with the
"tower" and pay by bank card.
Max, a nervous wreck by that time, foned the train people and found out
that our only chance would be wannsee station, which was quite far
away, and it was kinda risky ( also the only way...)
Hakan took his special route though and we got there on time -
a big up to goodwill, luck and modern technology
The ride home was dark and i was sad to´go but happy
to be home.
Like it should be .
Thanks to Berlin Crew for all your efforts, they were definitly worth it,
you made a lot people very, very happy
Cant wait to see y'all soon !
Monday
I couldnt resist playing and i ´hit some new combos :
diving mirage>ducking mirage> ducking clip>pdx mirage
and xbd rake>butterfly>pdx mirage>plo
and my my first 6 guiltless :
plo>xbd rake>ducking clipper>pdx mirage>smear>ducking mirage
, i just had to go out to do some moves.
Anyway the woman I reached after insulting the computer badly gave me the information quickly. And Hakan (he's the man!) was so cool and helpful. He broke every speedlimit for us. He Daryl I'm think about calling his company and saying thank you 
