Fanzine

[C-Fan]

6/21/06

Pretty crappy footbag day. I feel like I haven't ranted or bitched in the blog in quite some time (I could be very wrong), so I'm gonna go for it. Feel free to skip this entry if you like, cause half of it will be fairly petty, and most of it will likely be a downer/negative.

I woke up today to find my heel still hurts a lot. That meant no footbag, so I went to the gym to swim and maybe shoot a few hoops. I get to the gym to find the pool closed "for unforeseen circumstances" (read: some kid probably crapped in the pool). I went to the courts to find...a huge bball tournament taking up all the hoops. So no exercise today.

What pisses me off more than anything, is that I didn't DO anything in particular to cause this injury. It's not like I was doing trials, or superfly practice, or any other stupid "hurt me!" kinda shred. I just woke up one morning and couldn't walk on it. I feel like I'm serving time, and didn't even have the fun of committing a crime.

Santa Cruz videos came out today, which initially provided a bright spot in my day. Watching the comp brought back lots of good memories, and it was also fun to see things that I missed in person (like, the Shred30s that preceded me). But then I counted the Shreds (cause I wanted to put accurate scores on Max's list), and found that they had all been miscounted. The worst for me was finding out that I scored a 204.81 instead of a 213.87. I guess I'm happy it's still over 200, and it still is a personal record, but I had spent the last week thinking my record was a full 9 points higher, and had gotten used to that. So it was pretty disappointing to find it was a lot lower. To my credit though, I asked for a 5 second countdown, and adjusted well on the fly to it. Unfortunately, the countdown was a second off, so my last trick (pdx blender!) didn't count.

I spent a good chunk of time re-scoring the other SCI shreds, as well as an old Jorden shred and a Dylan Fry one too. I pointed out that Lon's shred should have been timed differently, and I feel people jumped all over me for that. I don't make the rules, I just waste my time making sure scores are accurate, and getting yelled at for pointing out the value of being consistent and fair in scoring. I also felt like my re-scoring Jorden's shred wasn't very appreciated, but what else was I supposed to do? Post inflated scores on Max's list when I know they are wrong?

For the last couple days I've been helping Max assemble his list of the best Shred30 scores ever hit in comp. I doubled the list in a day, which required more work than you'd think. Today I watched 5 Shred30s, re-counted all of them, and found that all of them had been mis-scored initially. That really shakes my confidence in these events. From personal experience, I've been screwed in the past in Shreds (in Rochester I scored 202, and Flash got second with 189 Unfortunately, they gave him the cash prize, and I never even got an apology. If I hadn't recounted the video, I wouldn't have even known that I had won ). But all 5 scores being wrong? That's pretty terrible.

Things only got better when I went into footbagchat. I talked to a shredder from Colombia named Alejandro, who mentioned in passing that Coca Cola had done a footbag promo last month, flying in Eric Wulff, Carol W, and Scott Bevier. This really depressed me/pissed me off, because in January Coca-Cola contacted me, asking if I'd be interested in helping them with a footbag promotion in South America. I got an email from them asking for an application, and the very next day (the next day!) I sent them my footbag resume. I was told they were looking for shredders in their mid-20s who were good, but also responsible.

In my footbag resume I mentioned:

-that I am a native speaker of Spanish. You'd think that'd be useful to them.
-that I was 25 years old.
-that I had experience doing footbag demos for Pepsi Japan and Nestle Australia.
-that I took 4th place in Shred30 at Worlds that year.
-my work promoting footbag in Japan.

It seemed like a real strong application, but Coke never responded to me. The fact that I saw Carol W in person last week and she didn't even mention it... that felt kinda weird. I thought it was real unprofessional on the part of Coke that they never responded to me, and that I learned about my rejection second-hand, 6 months later. I kinda wonder why I wasn't contacted. I was the right age, my shred credentials are good, my promotional background is unrivaled, and I speak fluent Spanish. One possibility I considered, is the fact that it was a South American campaign, and I'm not white. I really hope that wasn't the case, but I think it's a strong possibility. Whatever the case, it sucks pretty hard, and I didn't need it after the day I had.

[Kyle Hewitt]

Do you need a hug Ken? or do you need a random footbag sent to you? Pm me in you want either!

[max]

Hey Ken, thanks for your work on the 30s list. I was thinking about creating a twin-topic to that one called "score this 30s shred" where I'd put up links to shreds and people would score them (if they have the time). Even the fact that shred 30 is formula-based I'm sure you'd get rarely get the exact samed score from 3 diff. judges. Anyway thanks again for your work on this.

Oh and for the Coke promotion: maybe saying you'd done a promotion for one of their competitors was not a great idea? Still sucks that

1) you didn't get the gig
2) you don't even know why
3) people close to you did and told you nothing about it.

[C-Fan]

Oh and for the Coke promotion: maybe saying you'd done a promotion for one of their competitors was not a great idea?

Yeah, I considered that, but we live in an age where Johnny Damon wins the World Series with the Red Sox, and the next year the Yankees buy him. I have a skillset that would have really helped Coke, and they didn't even respond to me. It's boycott time baby.

So yeah, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday was pretty crappy, I went to bed, and woke up to have an awesome day.

Where to start... the first sign today would be good, was that my left heel felt good enough to support a little weight. This is real important, because I was limping to keep weight off it, and I was beginning to worry my muscles would get out of alignment, as some overcompensated for others. But today I was able to walk on it with some semblance of normalcy, which hopefully is the first sign of recovery.

The next good omen of the day, was I bought another cool basketball jersey off eBay. Its a jersey of one of my two favorite players, but I'll keep it a secret. I'll unveil it at the next tourney I go to, sort of how I unveiled my Van Exel jersey at SCI.

Unlike yesterday, the pool was open, and I swam 45 laps. Later in the day, I felt good enough physically that I decided to get in a light shred. It was pretty agonizing these last few days, not being able to shred, much less move around freely. God it felt good just moving around again.

As is often the case when I'm forced to take time off footbag, I spent my time thinking about moves and sets, trying to visualize new/more efficient ways to approach moves. Last time I took time off, I thought about flip pdx whirling swirls, and my first session back I hit my first flip pdx and blurry whirling swirls. This time around, furious sets were on my mind.

I've been doing furious for at least 4 years now, but I never mastered the set. I used the old-skool method of doing a stepping set, then trying to knee myself in the chest. This method was good enough to hit basic furious tricks, but I never got much height out of the set. Fury was a chore, and while I could Jani with some consistency, it was never strong enough to step out of (I hit jani-ripwalk once, and it took a whole session JUST skooling that one link). Nemesis was an impossibility, because the set itself required so much energy, and the height after the set was so low. I had read that some people thought of furious as symp whirling quantum set, so a while ago I tried out that style, but with no success. But since then, I've changed the way I do my symp whirling sets, and they are way more efficient and higher now. So during my time off, I thought a lot about giving the symp whirl method of furious another try.

I took my time warming up, and while it felt good to play again, I was definitely rusty and a bit low on stamina. Because long strings were kinda out, I decided to try out that new furious method. Right from the start, I knew I had hit on something special. My first few attempts were inconsistent, and when I did get a set, I was so astounded at the ease and height of the sets, that I just dropped. Eventually, I calmed myself down, and hit a bunch of good stuff. While I toyed with various furious tricks, the focus of the session was janiwalker. I hit more janiwalkers in today's session, than I probably did in the last 4 years combined. The best part was being able to get them so much more consistently, and for so much less energy than the old method. I didn't get tired out by repeatedly doing furious, it was great.

OK, highlights (everything sealed with short strings):

*fury
*highstepping butterfly-pdlo
*jani-barfly
*jani-torque
*jani-pdx drifter
*ducking clipper-janiwalker
*janiwalker-ripwalk-blur! Got it within a few attempts, and it felt great. The new height I get on the set makes the butterfly part of jani real legit, which in turn makes it easier to step out of.
*jani-pdx egg, then in the seal I hit the other pdx egg, a blurriest (same double dex as jani), and a pixie paradon using the other down double.

One weird thing about my new furious technique (I sound like a shaolin monk ) is that I still need to do it from a clipper, whereas my old style I felt most comfortable doing it out of butterfly. I'd like to get it so I can throw it midstring, but I'm willing to take it slow at first. Still, I'm really excited at the possibility that MAAAAYBE I will hit nemesis sometime in the future. Nemesis has always been a dream move of mine, but until today, it never seemed like a real possibility. We'll see how I progress.

And while the biggest highlight of my day isn't footbag related, I still thought I'd mention it: I got into my top choice for grad school! So I'll spend the next two years of my life in...




























Ithaca, New York! OK, so it's not a shred hotspot, but it looks close enough to Montreal, and Rochester, so I should be able to make it to some jams. My safety schools were in Chicago and NYC, so I'm a little sad I won't end up with those shred scenes, but careerwise Cornell is my best option. And on top of that, I got a $10,000 fellowship, which pretty much sealed the deal. Special thank you to Eric Windsor, whose advice and tips on getting scholarships was invaluable during the application process.

So hopefully I'll be appearing on the East Coast scene again these next couple years. I began playing footbag on the East Coast, and after a 4 year hiatus, I'm stoked to be going back to my roots again. Watch out East Coast, I'm coming back!

[wolfpac444]

Props on getting into Cornell. Just make sure you find a decent shred spot for those long winters.

Another reason not to drink Coke: http://www.killercoke.org

[Jdigges]

Thats awesome news ken! i actually have a friend that goes to school in Ithaca. Its only like a 2 hour drive form where im living. We'll have to get together and have a jam sometime

[Wasabi]

Isn't Pascal Tomecek (Tomahawk!) living in Ithaca, NY? That's at least one shredder I know in that general area.

Great to see you back at the East Coast Ken! Hopefully you can come visit NYC sometime, and we'll try to keep the floors clean so that any white bags you have don't get dirty in the process.

[hacksterbator]

ken, congrats on getting into grad school and on the scholarship, that's huge! you're getting closer and closer to canada. i'll have to come out and visit. again, really happy things seem to be going your way again, because the last post seemed so not ken.

Just make sure you find a decent shred spot for those long winters.

lol, you yanks are so spolied!!!

[C-Fan]

Body feels pretty exhausted today. I took those days off due to injury, and then came back pretty hard, really pushing my body these last couple days. I had another shred yesterday, which was about 2 hours, and I've also been helping my dad with some brick-laying work. I think today I'll skip footbag, or just play real easy if I do.

6/23/06
I knew it would be a good footbag day, because before I went to session, I received my repaired Lesh bag from Moxie! Loyal blog readers may remember my "Oxana bag" (I didn't know it was an Lesh bag back then) which was my best bag for quite some time. When it busted a stitch, I figured it was retired, but I decided to bring it to Santa Cruz to see if anybody could help me out. Emily volunteered, worked her magic, and sent me the empty, repaired bag. I re-filled it, and used it during my warm up. I still need to patch up some holes, but it felt sooo nice to play with her again. Felt like I was hanging out with an old friend again.

Most of my session was dedicated to practicing Janiwalkers, using the technique from the day before. The goal is to make it a trick that I can comfortably play in and out of, and I think I made some good progress towards that end. My legs feel a bit funny today, but I think that came from the few times I "forced" a jani. Like, playing into it with a hard link.

Overall, I was incredibly happy with the session. I hit a bunch of decent highlights, but the biggest highlight of all, was being able to get jani so consistently. Almost all of the following highlights I managed to hit within 3 tries, most of them within 2.
Highlights:

*janiwalker-spin clip
*spin clip-janiwalker
*jani-drift-drift
*legbeater-jani
*ducking clipper-janiwalker.
*jani-pdlo, then fog and flurry using the other dlo.
*jani-pdx blender
*jani-tomahawk, with flip food in the seal.
*rip-jani-barfly, then blurriest bsos.
*jani-blur!
*jani-rip-fog-dimwalk.
*pdx egg-dso, both sides. First time it was midstring and unexpected. Pretty stylish link.
*jani-pdx whirl-pdlo-dim-blur-trip-duck butterfly-pdx drifter
*bliz-dim-rip-jani-torque-pdx whirl-pdx whirl.

I think next session I'll focus more on just playing normally, with a couple janis thrown in, and then the session AFTER that work on janis again. I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to hit a stepping set 5 add out of Jani pretty soon. That'd be so cool.

[C-Fan]

I planned on swimming in the morning and shredding in the afternoon today, but that probably won't happen. In the morning when I went to swim, I noticed that the basketball hoops were all lowered to kid size, and there was nobody on the court. I only had sandals on, but I couldn't let this rare opportunity slip by. I ended up practicing dunks barefoot for 45 minutes, which was incredibly fun, but hard on the body. Dunking uses muscles I never use, and the constant barefoot jumping also left me with some blisters on the feet. Hopefully I'll recover by tomorrow.

That said, I have some pee-wee b-ball highlights.

*baseline, 2-handed reverse jam. I haven't figured out how to reverse jam by jumping backwards, so this is the only reverse jam I can do. I jump and try and get my head through the rim, then I reverse jam it.

*baseline, 1-handed slam. This is the closest I've come to spinning during a dunk. It's kinda like a 180. I run down the baseline, jump so my head passes under the rim, then I turn and slam it.

*off the backboard 2-handed slam. My first off-the-backboard dunk. The timing is tricky, but very satisfying. I couldn't get the 1 handed version though, cause even with kid-sized balls, it's hard to catch it and grip it well enough to dunk while I'm in mid-jump.

*bounce off the ground, off the backboard 2 handed slam. This is real tricky timing, cause you need to bounce it off the ground at the right angle, otherwise the ball is too far from the rim to dunk it. This is the dunk I got the most times today (4 times?)

*bounce off the ground, off the backboard 1 handed slam. Got this once, and it was tricky. Felt real good to catch the ball midair with one hand and flush it home.

So today was almost as much fun as the first time I ever dunked. Getting all the off-the-board variants made it trickier and more fun, even though my conversion rate sucked. Hopefully my muscles will feel OK tomorrow, and I'll be able to get in at least a light shred.

[C-Fan]

6/26/06

Body felt surprisingly good this morning, but I decided I shouldn't overdo it footbagwise. I got in a session at the local gym, but I wore my baggy shorts and a larger-than-usual NBA jersey to keep myself from playing too hard. The strategy worked well, though at times it was frustrating. But I think it was the right move.

The smaller dexing windows meant I spent most of my time skooling dexless, which is something I haven't done in quite some time. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and I hadn't lost my touch much. Onto highlights.

*13 PLOs. My record is 14.
*zulu clipper-spinning clipper repeat, to something like 5-6 more dexless.
*14 dexless (which would be a record), but towards the end there was an osis-iffy ducking clipper, so I'd like to set a dexless record more legitly.
*11 dexless, all controlled, no osii.
*bunch of other good dexless runs, 8, 10, 9, etc.

On the personal front, I'm hoping to go to Japan this summer, but I need to get all my paperwork for grad school (housing, class enrollment, etc) in order before then, and I dunno when that will happen. It has me a bit nervous, but if I can get my shit together and then go, I should be able to really relax and enjoy my trip.

[Tjuggles]

I really hope that you can make it back out here. Good luck with everything.

Im sure you know, but word on the street is that this year's JFC probably will take place around October. I'm sure that won't matter though...

[C-Fan]

Went to the gym for a second time today (6/26) hoping to either swim or play basketball. Unfortunately, the pool was closed due to lightning, and there was some basketball camp taking up the courts, so I decided to play more footbag. I really didn't want to, cause I had already played earlier, and my body is still recovering. But what else could I do?

This session was a mix of skooling janis, dexless, and just doing strings. I had a couple strings where I just felt "on," which is a rare feeling but I love it. No new tricks today, but some good links.

*tomahawk-tomahawk-pdlo
*bl. whirl-blurriest-ps whirl, nearly both sides.
*pdx drifter-blur bsos.
*janiwalker-blur, more solid than last time.
*jani-ripwalk-fog-smog-pixie clipper-4 or 5 dexless.

aaaaaaaand....

Body I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to hit a stepping set 5 add out of Jani pretty soon. That'd be so cool.

*janiwalker-blurry whirl-pdx torque!

Very stoked about that. I still need to practice my janis; today I didn't have much success playing into Jani. Still, it feels good knowing my janis are legit, and it's a lot of fun being able to play out of them with "real" tricks. Tricks I'd like to hit out of jani at least once: fog, food, blurriest.

[C-Fan]

6/27/06

Preparations for grad school are proving to be more difficult and stressful than I had anticipated. I'm glad I didn't go somewhere for an internship, cause I dunno how I'd manage otherwise. At least I feel I'm making some headway with everything, and no matter what, it feels good to have my life back on some sort of track again.

I squeezed in a short session tonight, mostly to mentally defuse a little bit. I think I played for just over an hour, and approached the session with a real open mind. To my happy surprise, I ended up playing real well. That, or I just really enjoyed playing.

Highlights:

*torque-paradox torque-torque. No seal, cause my brain froze trying to decide between sealing safely with a pdx mirage, or going for the repeat. Still, I hit those 3 contacts real clean and solid.

*{blizzard-hippy legbeater-blur-dimwalk} repeat, to sidewalk-diving butter-ducking butter-sidewalk-drop. My unique tripless record is around 21, but I think I could get closer to 25 if I tried. Something to think about.

*pdx dlo-toe whirl repeat, completely unplanned and natural, in the middle of a long string. I'm just proud that it flowed out of nowhere, cause the combo itself isn't that hard.

But the best highlight was:

I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to hit a stepping set 5 add out of Jani pretty soon. That'd be so cool.

Tricks I'd like to hit out of jani at least once: fog, food, blurriest.

*Janiwalker-blurriest-pdx torque! Hell yeah! Next session I'll try and get one of those other two tricks off the list.

[hacksterbator]

*Janiwalker-blurriest-pdx torque! Hell yeah! Next session I'll try and get one of those other two tricks off the list.

1 down 2 to go. nice progress ken, huge improvement and really quick!

[C-Fan]

6/28/06

Still in this stressful period of hunting for an apartment next year, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, I just want it to be over, even if I don't get a very nice place. The clock is really ticking, it's a sellers market, winter in Ithaca looks horrid, and I can't get out there to look at apartments in time, so I'll have to buy blindly. Not a great situation, but it's where I'm at, so I gotta make the best of it.

Had to entertain guests with the folks tonight, which combined with grad school preparations, meant that all I could fit in footbagwise was a quick 50 minute session. Still, better than nothing. Hit a few new links, and a couple new tricks (at least 1... I think).

Highlights:

*one real good look at jani-fog. The jani was good, the step out of it was perfect, but that fog is my weak one, so I barely missed it.
*matador-pdx torque-pdx blender!
*tapping reverse swirl. Not tapping symple reverse swirl; tapping-reverse-swirl. Tap leg hits the floor, stays there,then the other leg did a reverse swirl. Felt pretty cool.
*clipper set ducking eggbeater. This may also be a new trick for me.

My runs felt overall pretty strong too, but more than anything, I was just happy to play, even for a little bit. The new tricks were a nice surprise. Hopefully all my grad school stuff will fall into place, I'll be able to go to Japan for a few weeks, and one day soon I will be shredding with friends in Yoyogi park, looking back at this period and feeling relieved not just that it's over, but that I'll have a few fun weeks with my past before embarking on my future.

[funklovesfootbag]

matador-pdx torque-pdx blender!

*puke

[C-Fan]

Thanks Fletch, I've sucked so bad at nuke sets for so long, that it feels particularly satisfying to hit any combos with nukes in them.

I've been so busy with grad school preparations, that it's easy to sometimes lose sight of how good life is. One thing that helped put it all in perspective for me, was going to the doctor this morning for a physical (for grad school). At one point the doc asked me if I had any major medical problems, and when I said "no," it kinda hit me how lucky I am to be able to say that. After reading Andrew Grant and Moxie's blogs, I realized that freestyle isn't free. I've had a lot of minor injuries during the last year, but I recovered from most within a week or less, and right now I am able to play at probably the highest level I've ever managed. After leaving the doctor's office I felt really thankful that I'm physically still able to do this... thing that I love so much.

The doc's visit was also nice just for the peace of mind it gave me. My eyesight is still better than normal (20/15 both eyes), blood pressure, etc all fine. The only "negative" of the trip getting tetanus and pneumonia shots in my arms, which they warned me might make me tired and slow for a couple days. Note to self: lay off triple dexes

I hit the gym to shoot some basketball, cause they said that moving my arms around would help circulate the medecine. I snuck in a suuuuper short shred; 30 minutes lightly skooling basics, using the Mirken bag. Skooling basics is always a good use of time, and using a rolly bag helps too. It's strange though, cause the Mirken is so heavy, that it sort of counteracts the rolliness. It's going to be dank as hell when it breaks in some more.

"Highlights."

*23 osii
*13 whirls on one side
*17 whirls on the other. This may be a new personal record.
*16 drifters. I should just focus one day and break 20, cause as of now I have no idea what my record is.

[C-Fan]

Huh, I forgot to mention 18 DLOs.

Got in my first long shred in about a week today (6/30/06)

I was a bit surprised cause I didn't hit much during the whole session, but it was still good. I skooled Jani for a bit... I feel like I'm still refining my technique. Toying with diff ways of thinking about it. This process reminds me a bit of when I learned frantic sets, and it took me a while before I understood the correct way of doing it. Hopefully Janis will eventually become as good and consistent as ewalks did.

I skooled janis for a while, but then 2 teenage girls came to watch, so I didn't feel like dropping so much, and just went for strings. Felt good to play, even though I didn't have lots of highlights. Speaking of which:

*jani-ripwalk-sidewalk-blah blah
*jani-ripwalk-blur-dimwalk-blur-xbd rake, string.
*diving symp whirl! Possibly my first time? Felt real cool.
*Started a string with jani, then had fog bsos and tomahawk bsos in the seal.
*Started a string with jani, then had fog bsos and food bsos in the sealing combo, which was over 20 contacts.

Grad school prep seems to be progressing well, so hopefully I'll be able to go to Japan for a little longer than I thought. I'll know by Monday night.

[C-Fan]

so hopefully I'll be able to go to Japan for a little longer than I thought. I'll know by Monday night.

Or will I? *sigh* Getting into grad school is such a royal pain in the ass. I sometimes wonder if they purposely make everything difficult, as a way of weeding out the unorganized applicants. Whatever, I shouldn't get overly angered by things beyond my control.

I got in a longish shred today, but for some reason I wasn't that into it. I really don't know why, but I never really got "into the zone" while I was playing. Janiwalker is still inconsistent, but I have to stay patient. I think I was a bit spoiled by having so much quick success initially, that now I expect too much from my janis. Like, today I hit a bunch of good janis where the set was good and the butterfly was legit, but I only sealed them with controlled infinities. A week ago, I would have been real happy about it, but I find myself getting annoyed that I'm not doing stepping sets out of them, etc. Gotta stay patient, and let my body just get used to the motions.

Today I also shredded in my new NBA jersey, and was a bit disappointed with it. The way the logo on the front is screened on, I can kinda feel it... "in the way" a bit at my left hip joint. Hard to describe. Most of my other jerseys feel so light and don't get in the way at all, but this one doesn't feel the same way. I'm thinking I may wear it on the first day of tournies, as a way to slow myself down a bit (I did the same kinda thing at SCI, where I wore my red shorts the first day). A bit disappointing for sure. It also seems that there are less NBA jerseys on eBay now that the season is over.

Session highlights:

*10 barflies in a row (last session, I just forgot to post it)
*3 PS whirls in a row. Personal record? I don't do much symposium anymore, so this was a nice surprise.
*parkwalk-dyno-pdx mirage repeat, first try, to start a string.
*drifter-spinning clipper repeat randomly in the middle of a string.
*janiwalker-blur.
*flip beds and flip tomahawks felt real good, like they require less energy and concentration now.
* a run that began with a deep jani, then had something like 10 dexless.

Andrew Grant recently wrote in his blog that he can't stand all the "kids" on modified. As a moderator, I'm definitely getting frustrated with modified more often than usual. It seems that recently lots of posters have started posting more sexist comments with no regard at all as to how it makes the female readers feel, or how it comes off to the younger posters on modified. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that I was a 17 year old beginner, and footbag wasn't just a new fun hobby, it was also an entrance into a new world, separate from the one where my schoolfriends and parents operated. I remember initially being a bit paranoid and distrustful about shredding with people in NYC, and I also remember that as my trust developed, I looked up to some of the people in the community, and in some ways tried to emulate them.

Because these memories are still fresh in my mind, I try to make a point to be careful how I portray myself to newbies, because I know I'm not just representing myself, I'm representing the community too. Have I done sketchy things in my life? Yes. I've even done them at footbag tournaments. But I don't think it's responsible, or good for the sport for me to act like a jerk on these forums, cause I wonder if there's some 15 yr old newbie out there who is just like I was, and will get the wrong impression of the sport, or be scared off by it.

I dunno, it just seems to me that footbag is too young a sport, with too small an internet presence for us to go shitting on this forum the way some people do. If I really wanted to be nasty and start flame wars, I know of a hundred other forums where I could do that. If I wanted to post pictures of naked breasts, or see them, that's pretty easy to do too. I don't see why people risk doing that here, when all it can do is alienate young players or shreditas.

Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully I'll get in another shred. I just need to keep my perspectives positive, and I'm sure I'll rock it all harder.