Fanzine
Cool, so I finally earned myself a slight breather. These last two weeks of stress and work culminated in a 36 hour period where I took a final, handed in a problem set, and handed in a 17 page paper. So now I have a very very slight lull before the next round of craziness, which should be over on December 14th. 2 more finals and one more big paper, and then hopefully a weekend in NYC with footbag and relaxation.
Yesterday I took a slight breather after turning in my paper. I did a big load of laundry and then met up with Luis, and I sifted through the footage from our last session. Luis' Sick 3 looked good, so he's submitting that, but I wasn't that happy with my footage. None of my tricks were the, but they weren't as super-clean as I hoped either. I was especially bummed that my furies had "the" pdx mirages.
On the positive side though, my sealing runs were really good, with stuff like blurriest bsos being immaculate. I was kinda surprised how deep my flip blurriests were.
We organized a last-minute shred, and I was stoked that a bunch of people showed. Luis, Pascal, Nick, Brett, Bill, and myself. Not bad at all for finals period, and for last minute phone-calling. We went to the usual spot to play only to find... a paper airplane contest?
Some engineering class' last big thing. It was pretty cool actually, with the objective of the contest being to see whose plane could stay in the air longest. People would huck them real high up, and then they'd circle down slowly. Some people could get over 10 seconds of hang time, which I thought was cool. Actually, I thought the coolest thing was the free soda and pizza that we helped ourselves to. It was funny cause before entering the gym a bunch of us were commenting how hungry we were, so it was real perfect.
The pizza slowed us down a bit initially. Since there were 6 of us, we did 2 circles of 3 which I was happy about. I tried to play like Chris Dean, which was a lot of fun. I can't make the "O face" without laughing though. For some reason my nuke sets felt pretty good, and I managed matador bsos, as well as a bunch of runs with pretty good sumos in them.
I was really excited to play foursquare, because while playing footbag is a nice stress reliever, it doesn't vent pent up aggression as satisfyingly as booting a footbag into a friend's eye to get a point. Somehow we determined that we were going to play 5 games, and the first person to 2 victories would win the "tournament." Normally when I play foursquare, I don't win games, cause I try too many stupid attack strategies, because that's the most fun for me. Somehow though, I managed to win the first game, which came as a surprise. Pascal won the next game, but then in the third game, I surprisingly found myself in the position to win again! I pulled it off, and when I announced that I had won 2 games, everybody else claimed that I hadn't! Huh? For a minute I thought they were just messing with me, but then I wasn't so sure... it got to the point where I just gave in and decided I'd try my hardest to win another game. The next game began with me out of the squares, but once I got into the squares, I advanced to the king square in 3 turns, and then I ran off 8 straight points. It took me longer than I thought to win, but I did eventually take it all. This was pretty satisfying to me, because I kinda showed myself that I am a better 4 square player than I thought when I really focus on winning.
Later that night, Pascal fessed up that he knew all along that I had won the first game.
So I actually did win 3 out of 4 games. With friends like these...
Oh yeah, I also set a new personal record for osis (alternating). Hopefully I'll borrow the club record sheet from Luis soon and just post all my Cornell records in one post.
Yesterday I took a slight breather after turning in my paper. I did a big load of laundry and then met up with Luis, and I sifted through the footage from our last session. Luis' Sick 3 looked good, so he's submitting that, but I wasn't that happy with my footage. None of my tricks were the, but they weren't as super-clean as I hoped either. I was especially bummed that my furies had "the" pdx mirages.
On the positive side though, my sealing runs were really good, with stuff like blurriest bsos being immaculate. I was kinda surprised how deep my flip blurriests were. We organized a last-minute shred, and I was stoked that a bunch of people showed. Luis, Pascal, Nick, Brett, Bill, and myself. Not bad at all for finals period, and for last minute phone-calling. We went to the usual spot to play only to find... a paper airplane contest?
Some engineering class' last big thing. It was pretty cool actually, with the objective of the contest being to see whose plane could stay in the air longest. People would huck them real high up, and then they'd circle down slowly. Some people could get over 10 seconds of hang time, which I thought was cool. Actually, I thought the coolest thing was the free soda and pizza that we helped ourselves to. It was funny cause before entering the gym a bunch of us were commenting how hungry we were, so it was real perfect.The pizza slowed us down a bit initially. Since there were 6 of us, we did 2 circles of 3 which I was happy about. I tried to play like Chris Dean, which was a lot of fun. I can't make the "O face" without laughing though. For some reason my nuke sets felt pretty good, and I managed matador bsos, as well as a bunch of runs with pretty good sumos in them.
I was really excited to play foursquare, because while playing footbag is a nice stress reliever, it doesn't vent pent up aggression as satisfyingly as booting a footbag into a friend's eye to get a point. Somehow we determined that we were going to play 5 games, and the first person to 2 victories would win the "tournament." Normally when I play foursquare, I don't win games, cause I try too many stupid attack strategies, because that's the most fun for me. Somehow though, I managed to win the first game, which came as a surprise. Pascal won the next game, but then in the third game, I surprisingly found myself in the position to win again! I pulled it off, and when I announced that I had won 2 games, everybody else claimed that I hadn't!
Huh? For a minute I thought they were just messing with me, but then I wasn't so sure... it got to the point where I just gave in and decided I'd try my hardest to win another game. The next game began with me out of the squares, but once I got into the squares, I advanced to the king square in 3 turns, and then I ran off 8 straight points. It took me longer than I thought to win, but I did eventually take it all. This was pretty satisfying to me, because I kinda showed myself that I am a better 4 square player than I thought when I really focus on winning.Later that night, Pascal fessed up that he knew all along that I had won the first game.
So I actually did win 3 out of 4 games. With friends like these...Oh yeah, I also set a new personal record for osis (alternating). Hopefully I'll borrow the club record sheet from Luis soon and just post all my Cornell records in one post.
I think Brett also was serious about not remembering the first game I won. I actually started to become unsure about it, until I remembered how I won. Remember, Brett moved out of his square into Pascal's square to try and move around me, and I pushed him. He wasn't outside of the playing field, but he was outside of his own square. Right, so moving along...
Got in a two man session with Pascal yesterday. We played some ping pong which was fun, and even tried out some footbag/ping pong moves. Maybe we'll put some of that on a video. Footbagwise we took it pretty easy. Pascal had a bad cold, and for some reason my right ankle has been acting up again. I really don't know what it is... changes in air pressure perhaps? I plan on taking it pretty easy for a while, so hopefully that will help me out.
The only real highlights from the session were:
*pdx whirl-sumo. Oddly enough I hit this on the side where both tricks were flip, and then I couldn't hit it on the side where both tricks are strong.
*PDLO triple bsos.
*88 alternating knee kicks!
Snatched the club record away from Pascal.
Got in a two man session with Pascal yesterday. We played some ping pong which was fun, and even tried out some footbag/ping pong moves. Maybe we'll put some of that on a video. Footbagwise we took it pretty easy. Pascal had a bad cold, and for some reason my right ankle has been acting up again. I really don't know what it is... changes in air pressure perhaps? I plan on taking it pretty easy for a while, so hopefully that will help me out.
The only real highlights from the session were:
*pdx whirl-sumo. Oddly enough I hit this on the side where both tricks were flip, and then I couldn't hit it on the side where both tricks are strong.
*PDLO triple bsos.
*88 alternating knee kicks!
Snatched the club record away from Pascal.Monday night footbag was fun. I'm real glad the crew is hardcore enough to play even during finals week. Personally, I'd go insane and kill people if I didn't have footbag breaks.
Luis was an hour late for the session, so the first hour was just Nick, Brett and me. Both those guys have made so much progress in just one semester, it really makes me proud. Even the questions they ask now reflect a much deeper understanding of the game than when they were beginning. On my side, my ankle was still a bit funny, so I didn't have the confidence to play normally. Symp whirls on both sides were feeling oddly good, so I had fun playing with them for a bit. Symp whirl to pdx drifter is a great combo, cause one foot stays in the air the whole time.
Once Luis showed, we moved to the hallway to play 4square. Some real fun games. It's always interesting having the play dynamic changed; in this case, the absence of Pascal changed the flow of the points.
After 4square, I noticed there were 2 basketballs on the basketball court nearby, so I went there to mess around. My ankle wasn't feeling that good, so I didn't think I should shred too much more anyway, and 4square had cooled me off too. Luis finds me first, and suggests we play some 1-on-1. Lots of fun. I was happy to get in a couple blocked shots, and some fancy crossover stuff. Brett finds us, and I play him 1-on-1 next. Off-the-backboard self-passing is the best. Finally Nick plays me, and I pulled off a new streetball trick on him, first time ever, first try. I forget what its called, but its the one where you bounce the ball off your defender's head while you're dribbling. I kinda felt bad about that.
We pretty much decided to stop playing footbag at that point, so we played a few games of knockout which Brett won (we played with the rule that you could knock away your opponent's ball), and then some free throw shooting contests. Nick laid a small bet with me, which I won. I was just happy I didn't lose, cause basketball is my thing, and that would have been embarassing.
After the session me and Luis went out to eat. I had heard something earlier that day about Taco Bell being in the news, but I ignored it and we got Chalupas for dinner. Later on I read that there had been outbreaks of E. Coli at NY area Taco Bells.
D'oh!
In other news, I didn't get much sleep last night cause the heating at my house crapped out. If you have any idea how cold Ithaca is this time of year, you can begin to understand why this was bad. I took a nap during the daytime today though, so hopefully that will get me in good shape for my final, which starts in... 28 minutes. Wish me luck friends.
Luis was an hour late for the session, so the first hour was just Nick, Brett and me. Both those guys have made so much progress in just one semester, it really makes me proud. Even the questions they ask now reflect a much deeper understanding of the game than when they were beginning. On my side, my ankle was still a bit funny, so I didn't have the confidence to play normally. Symp whirls on both sides were feeling oddly good, so I had fun playing with them for a bit. Symp whirl to pdx drifter is a great combo, cause one foot stays in the air the whole time.
Once Luis showed, we moved to the hallway to play 4square. Some real fun games. It's always interesting having the play dynamic changed; in this case, the absence of Pascal changed the flow of the points.
After 4square, I noticed there were 2 basketballs on the basketball court nearby, so I went there to mess around. My ankle wasn't feeling that good, so I didn't think I should shred too much more anyway, and 4square had cooled me off too. Luis finds me first, and suggests we play some 1-on-1. Lots of fun. I was happy to get in a couple blocked shots, and some fancy crossover stuff. Brett finds us, and I play him 1-on-1 next. Off-the-backboard self-passing is the best. Finally Nick plays me, and I pulled off a new streetball trick on him, first time ever, first try. I forget what its called, but its the one where you bounce the ball off your defender's head while you're dribbling. I kinda felt bad about that.
We pretty much decided to stop playing footbag at that point, so we played a few games of knockout which Brett won (we played with the rule that you could knock away your opponent's ball), and then some free throw shooting contests. Nick laid a small bet with me, which I won. I was just happy I didn't lose, cause basketball is my thing, and that would have been embarassing.
After the session me and Luis went out to eat. I had heard something earlier that day about Taco Bell being in the news, but I ignored it and we got Chalupas for dinner. Later on I read that there had been outbreaks of E. Coli at NY area Taco Bells.
D'oh!In other news, I didn't get much sleep last night cause the heating at my house crapped out. If you have any idea how cold Ithaca is this time of year, you can begin to understand why this was bad. I took a nap during the daytime today though, so hopefully that will get me in good shape for my final, which starts in... 28 minutes. Wish me luck friends.
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slapdash21
- Futureless
- Posts: 4681
- Joined: 29 Sep 2004 14:50
- Location: Beantown, kidd
Just throwing this out there:
I'll likely be in NYC area from the 16th-18th of December.
I'll definitely be in Tucson AZ from December 19th til the New Year.
I maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay be in Chicago for NYJ, but it's appearing decreasingly likely.
However, there is a very very nice chance that I will be in California during the first 10 days of January. I will be road tripping from San Diego to Bay Area, so pm me and maybe we can set up a session.
I'll likely be in NYC area from the 16th-18th of December.
I'll definitely be in Tucson AZ from December 19th til the New Year.
I maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay be in Chicago for NYJ, but it's appearing decreasingly likely.
However, there is a very very nice chance that I will be in California during the first 10 days of January. I will be road tripping from San Diego to Bay Area, so pm me and maybe we can set up a session.
Five hours from now I take my last final of the semester. Real excited about it, even though I should be nervous too. I feel like this was really a good first semester. I worked hard in school, but I still managed to find the time to play a lot of footbag. I helped get a club started here, we got two guys to buy lavers, we hosted a badass tournament, and I made some solid friendships.
Saturday I shred in NYC, next weekend I think I shred in Arizona, and then the first week of January I'll be on the coast of Cali. Very very excited.
Saturday I shred in NYC, next weekend I think I shred in Arizona, and then the first week of January I'll be on the coast of Cali. Very very excited.
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james_dean
- space cowboy
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: 26 Oct 2004 23:11
- Location: Bendigo, Vic, Australia
So things have FINALLY quieted down. First semester of grad school is over, which in itself feels good, but it feels even better because I really tried hard. Thanks for the support everybody.
The day after my last final I had plans to visit my sister in Jersey, but not before furiously editing footbag video with Luis. The video lab closed while we were in the middle of the project, but they let us stay there to finish up. Big ups, random computer professor. I edited a good bit, but Luis really is the guy who put it all together with titles and music and whatnot. It was fun re-watching the Circle Comp from the Cornell tourney. You really have to admire Jorden and Dave's consistency, they really are good at footbag. Personally I was also very happy with how I played, which is nice cause it would have been humbling/annoying having to watch myself play bad at my own tourney.
I said goodbye to Luis and caught a bus to the city. Hung with my sister until Saturday night, when I went to Benny's farewell shred. I was the 2nd person there, but eventually people trickled in and there ended up being 12 or 13 shredders total, which meant 3 full circles. That's pretty good turnout. Stan was injured, Bruce had the flu, and Strassman...well I'll explain his deal later, but he didn't show either. But I still had lots of fun playing with Jon Schneider, Drew Martin, Chris Balch, and a few others. I feel like i hadn't played seriously in a looong time, but I didn't have much rust at all. I just had so much fun playing, that combos and tricks just came out without much effort. Not much stand out in retrospect... some good furies, gig bsos, frantic dod a few times, beta frenzy. I was more about strings than combos, which proved fun. I think one reason I played well was that Drew brought a cable that let us listen to my iPod. Its nice playing to music that gets you pumped. And I guess it's sort of nice listening to the Final Countdown...sort of. But yeah, Pure Funk also was inspiring. Props to Jon for bringing back the old school (NYFA).
At the end of the shred a bunch of people went out to dinner, but I was tired and with limited funds, so I said goodbye and good luck to Benny and headed to Stan's to dump my stuff off. Benny was saying he wanted new shred shoes, so I let him try on my G-Units. They fit him, so I gave them to him as a farewell gift. I hope they bring him luck in Israel.
I'm getting hungry for dinner now, so I'm gonna check out. Next entry: Strassman shows up!
The day after my last final I had plans to visit my sister in Jersey, but not before furiously editing footbag video with Luis. The video lab closed while we were in the middle of the project, but they let us stay there to finish up. Big ups, random computer professor. I edited a good bit, but Luis really is the guy who put it all together with titles and music and whatnot. It was fun re-watching the Circle Comp from the Cornell tourney. You really have to admire Jorden and Dave's consistency, they really are good at footbag. Personally I was also very happy with how I played, which is nice cause it would have been humbling/annoying having to watch myself play bad at my own tourney.
I said goodbye to Luis and caught a bus to the city. Hung with my sister until Saturday night, when I went to Benny's farewell shred. I was the 2nd person there, but eventually people trickled in and there ended up being 12 or 13 shredders total, which meant 3 full circles. That's pretty good turnout. Stan was injured, Bruce had the flu, and Strassman...well I'll explain his deal later, but he didn't show either. But I still had lots of fun playing with Jon Schneider, Drew Martin, Chris Balch, and a few others. I feel like i hadn't played seriously in a looong time, but I didn't have much rust at all. I just had so much fun playing, that combos and tricks just came out without much effort. Not much stand out in retrospect... some good furies, gig bsos, frantic dod a few times, beta frenzy. I was more about strings than combos, which proved fun. I think one reason I played well was that Drew brought a cable that let us listen to my iPod. Its nice playing to music that gets you pumped. And I guess it's sort of nice listening to the Final Countdown...sort of. But yeah, Pure Funk also was inspiring. Props to Jon for bringing back the old school (NYFA).
At the end of the shred a bunch of people went out to dinner, but I was tired and with limited funds, so I said goodbye and good luck to Benny and headed to Stan's to dump my stuff off. Benny was saying he wanted new shred shoes, so I let him try on my G-Units. They fit him, so I gave them to him as a farewell gift. I hope they bring him luck in Israel.
I'm getting hungry for dinner now, so I'm gonna check out. Next entry: Strassman shows up!
The video Luis and I edited was released on the Xmas calendar yesterday: http://www.mwhansen.org/footbag/20.12.06.wmv
Sadly, it didn't even receive a single comment. I think that's the first time that's happened to a video on the calendar, but I may be wrong cause I haven't been paying too much attention. I've been going back and trying to watch the videos I missed (finals kept me from wasting much time), and I think my favorite was the Monhollon Bros special. Such awesome styles. I'd trade a lot of my hard tricks just to be able to flow that well.
Last night I modded my latest pair of G6s. I also went to the mall and bought new insoles and shred socks. I'm excited to have new shred shoes, cause even though the Gs I gave away to Benny were structurally sound, the soles were definitely wearing down some. I need to break in this new pair; with all the new insoles, it's difficult to even get my foot in there.
In disappointing shred news, it looks like I won't have my welcome-back shred this weekend. I was somehow left off the original email invite, so I didn't learn about a date conflict until yesterday, and the proposed shred is tomorrow.
Hopefully I can shred with the local crew next week or something...
I also forgot my biggest shred highlight from the Benny farewell session: I hit my longest and best dexless string ever. I think it may have been as many as 20 contacts, but definitely over 15. Had spinning osis bsos in there, and only one or two bails to regular osis. So most of it was spinning, gyro, diving, and ducking clippers. It felt really good.
I buy my plane tix to California this weekend. It looks like I'll be near Santa Cruz somewhere between the 8th-11th. I'll post more when I learn more.
Chicago NYJ looks out of the question.
Sadly, it didn't even receive a single comment.
I think that's the first time that's happened to a video on the calendar, but I may be wrong cause I haven't been paying too much attention. I've been going back and trying to watch the videos I missed (finals kept me from wasting much time), and I think my favorite was the Monhollon Bros special. Such awesome styles. I'd trade a lot of my hard tricks just to be able to flow that well. Last night I modded my latest pair of G6s. I also went to the mall and bought new insoles and shred socks. I'm excited to have new shred shoes, cause even though the Gs I gave away to Benny were structurally sound, the soles were definitely wearing down some. I need to break in this new pair; with all the new insoles, it's difficult to even get my foot in there.
In disappointing shred news, it looks like I won't have my welcome-back shred this weekend. I was somehow left off the original email invite, so I didn't learn about a date conflict until yesterday, and the proposed shred is tomorrow.
Hopefully I can shred with the local crew next week or something...I also forgot my biggest shred highlight from the Benny farewell session: I hit my longest and best dexless string ever. I think it may have been as many as 20 contacts, but definitely over 15. Had spinning osis bsos in there, and only one or two bails to regular osis. So most of it was spinning, gyro, diving, and ducking clippers. It felt really good.
I buy my plane tix to California this weekend. It looks like I'll be near Santa Cruz somewhere between the 8th-11th. I'll post more when I learn more.
Chicago NYJ looks out of the question.
Haven't played footbag since Monday (today is Friday) which feels like a really long time. I gave blood today, so I doubt I'll play til at least Sunday. I think today was my 10th time giving blood, which I'm pretty happy about. It really doesn't hurt, you get free cookies and juice, sometimes you get a t-shirt, and you save 3 lives.
I bought my tickets to California. I arrive in San Diego on the 5th, then I drive up to the bay area, spend some time there, then fly out of San Diego on the 12th. So it won't be a long trip, but hopefully I can get in a shred with the Santa Cruz crew while I'm in the area. My schedule is pretty flexible.
Let's get to the blogging:
Strassman Session in NYC, December 18th 2006
The farewell shred the nihgt before had been a lot of fun. The only downside to it was that injuries and illness prevented Stan and Bruce from playing, and Strassman mysteriously failed to show up. At the end of the session, I gave my G-Units to Benny and wished him good luck.
The next day Stan and I get breakfast and head out to Bruce's place in Brooklyn to play videogames. Right before we get on the train, Stan gets a call from Strassman.
"Hey, I'm just calling to make sure you show up to tonight's shred."
Stan: "You're kidding, right?"
Alex: "What?"
Stan: "Dude, the shred was last night. Where were you?"
The next few minutes were pretty funny, as Alex thought we were trying to mess with him. I think eventually he realized we weren't kidding, maybe when I told him to check the thread on modified. My last post there had been: "see you all tomorrow night at 6." Apparently he missed that, as well as the rest of the thread, and mistakenly thought the jam was going down on Sunday night. D'oh! Alex still wants to salvage the weekend with a shred though, so he tries to convince us to play. Bruce is still convalescing, Stan's ankle won't allow him to play, and I don't even have footbag shoes! On top of that, it's mid-December in NYC and we don't have a shred space. After much plotting, we settle on a plan: Alex and I will get in a 2 man, outdoor session on Monday morning.
Truth be told, I had really low expectations for the shred. Our solution to my lack of shoes, was for Alex to bring his old Clima Cools for me to play in. I'd never played in Climas before, and I had the impression that I wouldn't like them much. On top of this, I hadn't eaten any breakfast because I was running low on cash. And finally, I have bad circulation, so I was worried I wouldn't even be able to warm up.
Alex and I meet up in Union Square without any problems. I try on the Climas and resolve to give them a fair shot. We play with a very sweet Clavens bag, and throughout the warmup I think: "hey, it's not that cold out." When I see Alex do his basics for his warmup, it suddenly occurs to me that we hadn't played together since Worlds 05. That's a solid year and a half ago, and back then I was still playing in Lavers. So Alex has never seen me play in Gs. Weird.
Playing in new shoes was a fun challenge, and I have to admit that the Climas pleasantly surprised me. My 2 biggest fears before using them, were that I thought they had bad ankle support, and that the toes would roll a lot. Happily, neither of these problems manifested. My only real problems with Climas, was that the laces seemed to come undone even when I double knotted them, and that the insteps were weird for inside kicks. That was strange; I could clipper with them no problem, but doing inside kicks would see the bag fly off in unexpected trajectories.
Strassman played well I thought. Definitely better than in Helsinki, but that's to be expected. I like how balanced his game is. He uses both toes and both clippers very evenly, which is the way footbag should be played in my opinion. I was particularly impressed with how both sided his pixies were; stuff like magellan-plo repeat were a joke to him. I think he got like 27 plos. He also had some good looks at double spins, and lots of dex+double down tricks.
I was surprised with how well I played. I was having flashbacks to my first session in Gs, almost exactly a year before when I was in Australia. It was that fun feeling of being surprised that you can hit your regular stuff even in new equipment.
Highlights:
*blurry whirl-flurry-smog-smoke
*sailing butter-fog-darkwalk-bl. whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque
*43 smears! New personal record.
*blurry whirling swirl, vertigo, fury, dod swirl, paradon swirl (other swirl), parkwalk swirl, dimwalk swirl (diff swirls), toe gdlo, vortex and diving pdlo. Happy I could hit random hard tricks like these in Climas.
After the shred we hit Popeyes where we enjoyed listening to Channukah music with fried chicken. We had a good conversation about the problems caused by footbag being an entirely white, teenage boy sport. Footbag definitely could use a more varied demographic make up.
At the end of the day Strassman saw me off at the subway, and I made my way back to Ithaca.
I bought my tickets to California. I arrive in San Diego on the 5th, then I drive up to the bay area, spend some time there, then fly out of San Diego on the 12th. So it won't be a long trip, but hopefully I can get in a shred with the Santa Cruz crew while I'm in the area. My schedule is pretty flexible.
Let's get to the blogging:
Strassman Session in NYC, December 18th 2006
The farewell shred the nihgt before had been a lot of fun. The only downside to it was that injuries and illness prevented Stan and Bruce from playing, and Strassman mysteriously failed to show up. At the end of the session, I gave my G-Units to Benny and wished him good luck.
The next day Stan and I get breakfast and head out to Bruce's place in Brooklyn to play videogames. Right before we get on the train, Stan gets a call from Strassman.
"Hey, I'm just calling to make sure you show up to tonight's shred."
Stan: "You're kidding, right?"
Alex: "What?"
Stan: "Dude, the shred was last night. Where were you?"
The next few minutes were pretty funny, as Alex thought we were trying to mess with him. I think eventually he realized we weren't kidding, maybe when I told him to check the thread on modified. My last post there had been: "see you all tomorrow night at 6." Apparently he missed that, as well as the rest of the thread, and mistakenly thought the jam was going down on Sunday night. D'oh! Alex still wants to salvage the weekend with a shred though, so he tries to convince us to play. Bruce is still convalescing, Stan's ankle won't allow him to play, and I don't even have footbag shoes! On top of that, it's mid-December in NYC and we don't have a shred space. After much plotting, we settle on a plan: Alex and I will get in a 2 man, outdoor session on Monday morning.
Truth be told, I had really low expectations for the shred. Our solution to my lack of shoes, was for Alex to bring his old Clima Cools for me to play in. I'd never played in Climas before, and I had the impression that I wouldn't like them much. On top of this, I hadn't eaten any breakfast because I was running low on cash. And finally, I have bad circulation, so I was worried I wouldn't even be able to warm up.
Alex and I meet up in Union Square without any problems. I try on the Climas and resolve to give them a fair shot. We play with a very sweet Clavens bag, and throughout the warmup I think: "hey, it's not that cold out." When I see Alex do his basics for his warmup, it suddenly occurs to me that we hadn't played together since Worlds 05. That's a solid year and a half ago, and back then I was still playing in Lavers. So Alex has never seen me play in Gs. Weird.
Playing in new shoes was a fun challenge, and I have to admit that the Climas pleasantly surprised me. My 2 biggest fears before using them, were that I thought they had bad ankle support, and that the toes would roll a lot. Happily, neither of these problems manifested. My only real problems with Climas, was that the laces seemed to come undone even when I double knotted them, and that the insteps were weird for inside kicks. That was strange; I could clipper with them no problem, but doing inside kicks would see the bag fly off in unexpected trajectories.
Strassman played well I thought. Definitely better than in Helsinki, but that's to be expected. I like how balanced his game is. He uses both toes and both clippers very evenly, which is the way footbag should be played in my opinion. I was particularly impressed with how both sided his pixies were; stuff like magellan-plo repeat were a joke to him. I think he got like 27 plos. He also had some good looks at double spins, and lots of dex+double down tricks.
I was surprised with how well I played. I was having flashbacks to my first session in Gs, almost exactly a year before when I was in Australia. It was that fun feeling of being surprised that you can hit your regular stuff even in new equipment.
Highlights:
*blurry whirl-flurry-smog-smoke
*sailing butter-fog-darkwalk-bl. whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque
*43 smears!
New personal record.*blurry whirling swirl, vertigo, fury, dod swirl, paradon swirl (other swirl), parkwalk swirl, dimwalk swirl (diff swirls), toe gdlo, vortex and diving pdlo. Happy I could hit random hard tricks like these in Climas.
After the shred we hit Popeyes where we enjoyed listening to Channukah music with fried chicken. We had a good conversation about the problems caused by footbag being an entirely white, teenage boy sport. Footbag definitely could use a more varied demographic make up.
At the end of the day Strassman saw me off at the subway, and I made my way back to Ithaca.
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james_dean
- space cowboy
- Posts: 2268
- Joined: 26 Oct 2004 23:11
- Location: Bendigo, Vic, Australia
Really thrilled today to see the second CSS7 video posted. That tournament was so fun, and everybody played so well, it was good to finally see it all again and relive it. I was also stoked to see some of my tricks on video for the first time (frantic dod, pixie zulu torque, pixie spinning eclipse) and see they were clean.
Hit the gym today and played footbag. It was my first session in the new G-Units (new insoles too) and I was still kinda tired from yesterday's donation, so I planned on playing pretty lightly. Surprisingly, I actually did.
The shoes felt a bit stiff, but it made me play more precisely too. This must have bene my first solo session since leaving Arizona; I don't think I ever played solo at Cornell. That's pretty cool.
Highlights:
*matador bsos easily
*ps whirl x4, first (and only) try
*phoenix-tomahawk-bl. whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque
*alpine leg-bed-dark-fog-phoenix
Cut my session short and played some pick-up basketball. I really think people in Arizona are better shooters than in New York. The best part of the session was using the whirlpool when I was done. Felt nice to massage the legs.
I think I'm gonna take it pretty easy footbag-wise this break, but I still want to hit 10 unique fearless. Seems like a very do-able goal.
Hit the gym today and played footbag. It was my first session in the new G-Units (new insoles too) and I was still kinda tired from yesterday's donation, so I planned on playing pretty lightly. Surprisingly, I actually did.
The shoes felt a bit stiff, but it made me play more precisely too. This must have bene my first solo session since leaving Arizona; I don't think I ever played solo at Cornell. That's pretty cool.
Highlights:
*matador bsos easily
*ps whirl x4, first (and only) try
*phoenix-tomahawk-bl. whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque
*alpine leg-bed-dark-fog-phoenix
Cut my session short and played some pick-up basketball. I really think people in Arizona are better shooters than in New York. The best part of the session was using the whirlpool when I was done. Felt nice to massage the legs.
I think I'm gonna take it pretty easy footbag-wise this break, but I still want to hit 10 unique fearless. Seems like a very do-able goal.
Had a really great solo session today. The first 5-10 minutes were pretty rough, since my body was real sore from yesterday's basketball/shred. But the weather was so nice outside (70 degrees) I didn't want to waste it. I played while listening to my iPod, which is a skill I'd kinda lost. I'm kinda happy about that, cause it means I haven't had to play solo for ages. The music helped me stay relaxed and just have fun, but once I warmed up, playing well was all I needed to play well.
Kicked off the session on a good note: hitting a pair of tricks for my first time ever. Last time I played with Strassman, he showed me downtime butterfly reverse swirl, so I decided to toy with it. Hit it without too much trouble, so I decided to step it up a notch and try for whirling reverse swirl. This trick kinda scared me, cause of the potential for tangling my legs together. Sure enough, I kicked myself a couple times, but I also managed to nail this trick. Good start.
Recently I'd read in Josh Munstermann's blog about drifter-nuclear stuff, and since my nuke sets have recently improved, I figured I'd give it a shot. Sure enough, drifter-matador both sides came pretty easily and was fun. I footed it bsos, but since it came so easily I decided to move on to a harder combo: pdx drifter to sumo. This combo felt really really good, and again I managed it both sides pretty quick, but I decided to work on it til I got bsos. Happily, I managed to get it without much trouble. I got pretty excited when I hit sumo-legbeater-nuke drop. I don't think I'd ever played out of sumo with anything other than BOP before, and sumo to atomic is cool.
I put in some time working on TATW. I'd come close to it a few times trying it in-out, but today I figured I'd experiment with out-in. Had some very promising looks, but I haven't even footed it yet. This is definitely a move I'd like to get before retiring. It seems real possible too; the trick is all strong side, and speed shouldn't be a problem for me.
One nice surprise in this session was finding out that one of my zoom sets magically became real good. Zooming clipper on one side was real consistent. I think I hit 4 zooming clippers in one string. I was also able to zoom gyro mirage very well. It may be a fluke which will disappear next session, but I'm gonna try and work it. Having at least one consistent zoom set could really spice up my game. My experience with zooming today made me finally understand what Landes was talking about when he said that zoom sets can sometimes be easier/more consistent than regular spinning tricks.
Towards the end I decided to work on my unique fearless. Rather than practice the whole 10 string, I (wisely I think) decided to work on the weakest links. The string I hope to hit soon is alpine leg-bed-dark-fog-phx-tomahawk-bl. whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque-pdx blender. Up until today, I'd say the weakest section was around the phoenix, as well as the final pdx blender. Phoenix is a trick I hardly ever do, so I decided just to toy with it a bit to see if I could tweak it so it's easier or more reliable. I think I made some progress with it. Now I make a point not to force the pixie set. I really just try and do a normal dimwalk set, and then duck it. This really helped out.
Here are the fearless combos I hit today in my quest for 10 unique:
*ps whirl-pdx torque-pdx blender a couple times.
*phx-tomahawk-blurry whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque
*alpine leg-bed-dark-fog-phx-tomahawk-blurry whirl
That last string felt real promising too; I wasn't tired or anything after the blurry whirl. I just jumped badly. But really, 10 fearless is there for the taking as long as I don't psyche myself out. I also think that I could hit a few diff 10 strings once I get the initial milestone out of the way.
Oh yeah, I also set a new personal record for PS Whirls. On my first (and only) try of the day, I managed to hit six ps whirls! Six! Definitely excited about that.
So overall excellent session. 2 new tricks, some progress on 10 fearless, 6 ps whirls, progress on nuke sets, and the hopeful promise of adding the style of zoom to my game. It'd be nice to go back to Cornell with a bunch of new stuff to show off (and maybe put in a video, before classes get too demanding).
Thanks for reading all this
Kicked off the session on a good note: hitting a pair of tricks for my first time ever. Last time I played with Strassman, he showed me downtime butterfly reverse swirl, so I decided to toy with it. Hit it without too much trouble, so I decided to step it up a notch and try for whirling reverse swirl. This trick kinda scared me, cause of the potential for tangling my legs together. Sure enough, I kicked myself a couple times, but I also managed to nail this trick. Good start.
Recently I'd read in Josh Munstermann's blog about drifter-nuclear stuff, and since my nuke sets have recently improved, I figured I'd give it a shot. Sure enough, drifter-matador both sides came pretty easily and was fun. I footed it bsos, but since it came so easily I decided to move on to a harder combo: pdx drifter to sumo. This combo felt really really good, and again I managed it both sides pretty quick, but I decided to work on it til I got bsos. Happily, I managed to get it without much trouble. I got pretty excited when I hit sumo-legbeater-nuke drop. I don't think I'd ever played out of sumo with anything other than BOP before, and sumo to atomic is cool.
I put in some time working on TATW. I'd come close to it a few times trying it in-out, but today I figured I'd experiment with out-in. Had some very promising looks, but I haven't even footed it yet. This is definitely a move I'd like to get before retiring. It seems real possible too; the trick is all strong side, and speed shouldn't be a problem for me.
One nice surprise in this session was finding out that one of my zoom sets magically became real good. Zooming clipper on one side was real consistent. I think I hit 4 zooming clippers in one string. I was also able to zoom gyro mirage very well. It may be a fluke which will disappear next session, but I'm gonna try and work it. Having at least one consistent zoom set could really spice up my game. My experience with zooming today made me finally understand what Landes was talking about when he said that zoom sets can sometimes be easier/more consistent than regular spinning tricks.
Towards the end I decided to work on my unique fearless. Rather than practice the whole 10 string, I (wisely I think) decided to work on the weakest links. The string I hope to hit soon is alpine leg-bed-dark-fog-phx-tomahawk-bl. whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque-pdx blender. Up until today, I'd say the weakest section was around the phoenix, as well as the final pdx blender. Phoenix is a trick I hardly ever do, so I decided just to toy with it a bit to see if I could tweak it so it's easier or more reliable. I think I made some progress with it. Now I make a point not to force the pixie set. I really just try and do a normal dimwalk set, and then duck it. This really helped out.
Here are the fearless combos I hit today in my quest for 10 unique:
*ps whirl-pdx torque-pdx blender a couple times.
*phx-tomahawk-blurry whirl-ps whirl-pdx torque
*alpine leg-bed-dark-fog-phx-tomahawk-blurry whirl
That last string felt real promising too; I wasn't tired or anything after the blurry whirl. I just jumped badly. But really, 10 fearless is there for the taking as long as I don't psyche myself out. I also think that I could hit a few diff 10 strings once I get the initial milestone out of the way.
Oh yeah, I also set a new personal record for PS Whirls. On my first (and only) try of the day, I managed to hit six ps whirls! Six! Definitely excited about that.
So overall excellent session. 2 new tricks, some progress on 10 fearless, 6 ps whirls, progress on nuke sets, and the hopeful promise of adding the style of zoom to my game. It'd be nice to go back to Cornell with a bunch of new stuff to show off (and maybe put in a video, before classes get too demanding).
Thanks for reading all this
Why do I bother writing phrases like this? Unsurprisingly, I played footbag again today; my third time in as many days.C-Fan wrote: I think I'm gonna take it pretty easy footbag-wise this break.
The weather was perfect out today, and I knew I'd spend the day eating and watching TV, so I figured I had to play footbag even if only for a little while. I think I played about an hour, and it went pretty well. I basically spent the entire session working on nuclear sets and zoom sets. With all my recent goals (10 unique fearless, zooming, nuclear) you'd think I'm trying to become Nick Landes or something.
I was real happy to find that my zoom sets weren't a one-day fluke, and that they still worked well. Some things that really helped me with them today, were:
1. making a point to really pause before spinning.
2. keep your back straight, and your support knee well bent.
3. look straight ahead
4. snap up straight.
Following these steps, I even managed to get some decent zoom sets flipside.
Highlights:
*zooming mirage (osis-gyro mirage) bsos
*zooming clipper (osis-spin clip) bsos.
*a run with zooming osis, zoom mirage, and zoom clipper in a run.
*zoom style merkon and zooming butterfly probably for my first time.
*sumo-legbeater-fog
*pdx whirl-pdx drifter-matador
And the biggest highlight of the day, which got me super duper stoked:
*zooming DLO!
Felt awesome, especially since that's my weaker GDLO. But since it's my strong zoom and strong DLO, maybe that will change.-
slapdash21
- Futureless
- Posts: 4681
- Joined: 29 Sep 2004 14:50
- Location: Beantown, kidd
i challenge you to hit zooming torque (osis-mobius) next
and when you get a solid feel for osis set zooming give it a shot from blender or torque.
im really glad to read the list of what helped you to keep in mind for zooming, because i have had the exact same experience with it, and each one made me nod as i read it.
good shred,
and when you get a solid feel for osis set zooming give it a shot from blender or torque.
im really glad to read the list of what helped you to keep in mind for zooming, because i have had the exact same experience with it, and each one made me nod as i read it.
good shred,
Pete Bowler
B$C
keeps it offah da ground.
617 FOR LIFE
B$C
keeps it offah da ground.
617 FOR LIFE
Post #1000 in the blog!
I'm really happy I have a blog. It's been a lot of fun writing in it, and it definitely has helped me chart my progress. It's great seeing a goal you wrote 3 months ago finally achieved, like Rubberman x2. Hopefully I'll knock off a few more goals in the next couple months, like 10 unique fearless and TATW.
So I managed to survive a semester at Cornell without getting sick at all, only to come to sunny Arizona and get a nasty headcold in my first week. D'oh! Not sure of the cause; maybe I played too much footbag too soon after donating blood. Could be the dry air. Whatever the case, I'm taking it pretty well. I keep telling myself I'm lucky I didn't get sick during finals week, or during a tourney.
The cold means I've been taking it really easy the last few days, and no footbag. Today my cold kinda relapsed though, so I said f* it already and had a light session at the local gym. It was cool; the hoops were lowered to kids height, so I warmed up by throwing down some dunks. Sooo much fun. I took my time warming up for footbag, but man, I felt super-weak the whole session. Hard to believe I'd lose so much strength so fast, but it was really notable. For example: bedwetter is a trick that I normally think of as a single motion. I used to think of it as 2: step set, then eggbeater. But on strongside it had gotten so natural that I could think of it as a single motion. Today though, even on strongside, bedwetter was like a 6 add trick with 4 or 5 motions I had to process. Clipper-step set-swing the illusion- bring back the last legover- toe stall. Exhausting. I didn't miss any beds or blurry whirls, but they were far from being automatic.
I worked on zooming (strong only) for a bit, and hit some nuke sets on both sides. Nothing real notable, except for hitting a sumo midstring pretty comfortably. 6 consec barflies was fun. Mostly though I was just happy to play, even if I had no stamina.
I'm hoping I heal up in the next week, get in a couple stamina-building sessions before I hit Cali, and then get in one or two non-embarassing shreds with the Santa Cruz crew, then one more shred with the AZ crew, and then go back to Cornell healthy and in good shred shape. I want to make some shred videos when I get back, before classes get too hard.
Bear Feet: I get back to Cornell on January 17th. Pre-classes shred?
I'm really happy I have a blog. It's been a lot of fun writing in it, and it definitely has helped me chart my progress. It's great seeing a goal you wrote 3 months ago finally achieved, like Rubberman x2. Hopefully I'll knock off a few more goals in the next couple months, like 10 unique fearless and TATW.
So I managed to survive a semester at Cornell without getting sick at all, only to come to sunny Arizona and get a nasty headcold in my first week. D'oh!
Not sure of the cause; maybe I played too much footbag too soon after donating blood. Could be the dry air. Whatever the case, I'm taking it pretty well. I keep telling myself I'm lucky I didn't get sick during finals week, or during a tourney. The cold means I've been taking it really easy the last few days, and no footbag. Today my cold kinda relapsed though, so I said f* it already and had a light session at the local gym. It was cool; the hoops were lowered to kids height, so I warmed up by throwing down some dunks. Sooo much fun. I took my time warming up for footbag, but man, I felt super-weak the whole session. Hard to believe I'd lose so much strength so fast, but it was really notable. For example: bedwetter is a trick that I normally think of as a single motion. I used to think of it as 2: step set, then eggbeater. But on strongside it had gotten so natural that I could think of it as a single motion. Today though, even on strongside, bedwetter was like a 6 add trick with 4 or 5 motions I had to process. Clipper-step set-swing the illusion- bring back the last legover- toe stall. Exhausting. I didn't miss any beds or blurry whirls, but they were far from being automatic.
I worked on zooming (strong only) for a bit, and hit some nuke sets on both sides. Nothing real notable, except for hitting a sumo midstring pretty comfortably. 6 consec barflies was fun. Mostly though I was just happy to play, even if I had no stamina.
I'm hoping I heal up in the next week, get in a couple stamina-building sessions before I hit Cali, and then get in one or two non-embarassing shreds with the Santa Cruz crew, then one more shred with the AZ crew, and then go back to Cornell healthy and in good shred shape. I want to make some shred videos when I get back, before classes get too hard.
Bear Feet: I get back to Cornell on January 17th. Pre-classes shred?