Am I "FAMOUS"?!?!?!?!

Alex Dworetzky · Post by **Alex Dworetzky** » 14 Feb 2010 04:47

who is "famous" (well-known) in footbag?

BTW my name is Alex Dworetzky

am i?

vasek
ales
honza
milan
..... and?

BTW all of the previously mentioned ive met and are still famous in my eyes!!

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 14 Feb 2010 04:56

I'm surprised you didn't mention any NA player! Kenny Shultz isn't famous?

calemccoy · Post by **calemccoy** » 14 Feb 2010 11:55

off the top of my head:

penske, clavens, flash, lon, chad, vasek, ales, honza, erik chan, mulroney, peter irish, norek, anssi, jay, stanford crew, cic, goldberg, milan, olaf, nick landes, red, wedemeyer, kenny, matt cross, to name a few.

mc · Post by mc » 14 Feb 2010 14:34

Felix is footbag-famous AND famous-famous!

Jorden's on his way. He's super footbag-famous, too.

Irish has done some TV commercials and he's known in the juggling world.

Vasek's done his share of public work as well.

Matt Bailey was on national TV in the UK.

g00d33 · Post by **g00d33** » 14 Feb 2010 15:55

Matt Cross wrote:Felix is footbag-famous AND famous-famous!

Jorden's on his way. He's super footbag-famous, too.

Irish has done some TV commercials and he's known in the juggling world.

Vasek's done his share of public work as well.

Matt Bailey was on national TV in the UK.

Lon did the modest mouse music video

Laroche · Post by **Laroche** » 15 Feb 2010 05:47

I don't think that any footbag player is famous, if by famous we mean "someone who is well known"... though to be fair it's extremely difficult to be famous in todays world of youtube and such, lots of competition out there!

Dave Soderberg · Post by **Dave Soderberg** » 15 Feb 2010 17:22

I agree, if %99.99 of the world does not know about footbag, would the best players be considered famous? I suppose we could consider them famous in the world we created. They are all god's of the sport in my book.

Asmus · Post by **Asmus** » 17 Feb 2010 02:36

Alex you are famous almost notorious in the danish footbag scene.

Nis · Post by **Nis** » 17 Feb 2010 14:17

Mos def

FlexThis · Post by **FlexThis** » 18 Feb 2010 15:45

You are famous to me Alex

This is an interesting topic. I would say it is getting increasingly more difficult to gain that "famous" status among the footbag community.

When I played "well" (about 10 years ago) the famous ones were generally BAP members, loud mouths, or well known promoters of footbag. I would consider these people famous. Names like Irish, Shultz, Mulroney, Sunil, Noah... these were some of the famous names. There were others even in Net like Emanual, and cross-disciplined players like Eric Wulff. Then the loud mouths like Josh Penny, the "funky" chicken, and well ...me. (although I am hardly famous lol)

Today the word "famous" does not really apply the same way it did then. The sport has grown so much that the interpersonal feel of footbag is starting to dwindle. Players are so wide spread now that it is next to impossible to do any kind of ranking in your head. It use to be an easy task to think about all the good players and then rank them. You almost have to bust bigger than life or do something outrageous to get noticed today.

There are so many good players now that the videos out are starting to look alike. Different players, but the same level of ridiculousness.

To your original question, I would say in the footbag community there are many famous names. While I think you are famous because I have kicked with you on 2 occasions and your style is sweet, the reality is your name is probably not a buzz in Europe like the name Clavens or Moir are.

...but you could be...

good topic

~peace

F[uns]tylin' Eclectic · Post by **F[uns]tylin' Eclectic** » 22 Feb 2010 12:30

I don't think anyone mentioned The Enlightener, The Outsider, Sunny and Daryl Genz. They're all def. pretty footbag famous in my eyes.

Reid · Post by **Reid** » 22 Feb 2010 18:14

I mean, I'm pretty famous. I did get fourth at the U.S. open after all.

Outside of the younger current "famous" players, the players that inspired me when I was starting were Sunil, McKenzie, Smith, Shultz, Big Add, Schnieder, Greg Nelson, Mirken, Mulroney, Wulff, Irish and Davidson. I'm sure I'm probably missing a few.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 22 Feb 2010 19:47

Most influencial/favourite players of mine are something like:
-Defender of the Universe
-Sticky Ricky
-Air
-Intergalactic
-Superman + ...Lycanthrope.... too
-Also Hurricane..
-And prolly others.
-Oh, Shred On, obviously.

I think players that I tend to like aren't quite as "famous" as most people's favourites though.

I guess to me the most famous are the generation I grew up idolizing -- like, second and third-ish generations of shred? Rippin, Enforcer, Tsunami, Stickman, Genzu, Wicked, Torch. I think Executioner is someone that I was always most intimidated by. I don't think I ever said a word to him. And one of my footbag life highlights was Big Add coming up and hugging me and saying, "Great to see you again!" When I didn't think he knew who I was

Byrin can attest to my giddyness.

When it comes down to it, for me, it's not about big tricks -- it's about moments like these. Having Jorden and Dave say they grew up idolizing me. Fuck the tricks.

sidekick · Post by **sidekick** » 22 Feb 2010 21:58

Anyone who was in Tricks of the Trade 2 was "famous" to me. There were others that are, in my eyes, famous as well, but it all seems so irrelevant now that I understand that they are all just people who are good at something. That realization helped me with social awkwardness and cut down the feeling of intimidation when I meet people who are also good at things outside of footbag.

Example:

The other day I was kicking sack in downtown Portland, Pioneer square to be exact, and I saw a camera crew and some microphone guys following a super tall black guy. Immediately a girl sitting in the square yelled "Omygawd it's ODEN!" and ran over to the towering man to ask for a photograph. This person, if you don't know is Greg Oden from the Portland Trail Blazers (basketball team). I kept kicking, unfazed by the "celebrity" walking around. A camera person came over and started filming me as I was playing, which was cool, but then Oden came over and said something like "Oh, hacky sack. I used to play that." So I passed the bag over to him, and he kicked it, tried to stall, and the bag fell off his foot. I just said "all you have to do is bend your knee down with the bag to stall it" and passed the bag back to him. He immediately stalled it two times, and passed it back. I gave him a high five and a fist bump, then continued to play. He was able to recognize that I put a lot of effort into learning, and commented that I had "fancy footwork".

I think that, since I treated him like any regular guy who walked up and commented about footbag, that he had an easier time relating to me.

Bottom line (literally): "Famous" is in the eye of the beholder, and I be holdin' a footbag

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 22 Feb 2010 22:01

Nick Landes is famous to me, because he played footbag with Greg Oden. Seriously.

ccushing · Post by **ccushing** » 22 Feb 2010 23:24

Haha if Oden's knee is healthy enough to footbag, then it should be good enough for him to start playing again. Kidding... sort of. Anyway, I agree, kicking it with Oden is definitely legit.

crazylegs32 · Post by **crazylegs32** » 22 Feb 2010 23:52

Theres a void in north america waiting for people to fill it.

PoisonTaffy · Post by **PoisonTaffy** » 23 Feb 2010 02:24

sidekick wrote:Anyone who was in Tricks of the Trade 2

Same way for me! At worlds 08 I was more excited about meeting Tuan Vu than anyone else. I mentioned this to Jon Schneider, who, if I recall correctly, said it was a matter of luck that he appeared in this video and became a footbag celeb.

Most ways of what made people famous to me are:
Visible long term persistence or involvement in footbag,
presence in a prominent video,
prominent presence or often mentions at modified,
and a named trick or named something (Brocka mod, mosher's tail, abshire footbags etc).

For everything but videos, level of play is not a dominant parameter.

Outsider · Post by **Outsider** » 23 Feb 2010 21:35

Same way for me! At worlds 08 I was more excited about meeting Tuan Vu than anyone else. I mentioned this to Jon Schneider, who, if I recall correctly, said it was a matter of luck that he appeared in this video and became a footbag celeb.

Roy Klein's english is very very good, but, its not his primary language and he's (forgivably) just a little bit sloppy in some areas... Just to be real clear, when Roy said "[Jon Schneider] said it was a matter of luck that he appeared in this video," the he in question was refering to Jon Schneider, NOT to Tuan Vu. That is, Jon was not suggesting that it was only by luck that Tuan Vu was in that video. Tricks of the Trade 2 NEEDED to have Tuan Vu in it. Jon was saying that it was mostly by luck that Jon Schneider got to appear in the video.

Roy, your quote above could be interpreted as saying that "[Jon Schneider] said that it was a matter of luck that he [Tuan Vu] appeared in this video", and, I wouldn't want anybody to think that was what you or I were saying...

Tuan Vu is a footbag legend who has had a very significant impact on how freestyle footbag is played. He was invited to appear in Tricks of the Trade 2 by Kenny Shults for a number of very good reasons. Jon Schneider was allowed to appear in Tricks of the Trade 2 due to a number of lucky breaks that Jon benefitted from. For instance, that video was produced by the World Footbag Association, which is based in Colorado. It was simply a matter of luck for Jon Schneider that he was hosting a fairly highly anticipated footbag tournament in Colorado, the Colorado Shred Symposium 2. That tournament was highly anticipated because of the excellent job that Eli Piltz had done the year before when he did most of the heavy lifting in getting the first Colorado Shred Symposium to happen. In running the Colorado Shred Symposium 2, Jon basically just had to copy (somewhat poorly) what Eli had done the previous year. Having a freestyle footbag tournament nearby made it a little easier for the World Footbag Association to gather their cast of footbag stars all into one place not too far from the World Footbag Association headquarters, allowing them to get all the new footage shot all in one day, and Jon was simply lucky that he was in the right place at the right time. His invitation to appear in the video was likely, in part, just the World Footbag Association and Kenny Shults' way of repaying the coincidental favor that Jon was doing for them by hosting a tournament in Colorado and thereby making the filming of the video a little easier to arrange.

Jon Schneider is a little embarrassed for having repeatedly referred to himself in the third person. Its such a geeky thing to do. Thus, he couldn't help himself...

Jon also feels fortunate that, as part of being tangentially involved in the production of the video, he was given the opportunity that weekend to drive the World Footbag Association's footbag van. They're rockin' Jimmy Cliff on their tape-deck, in case you were interested.

mc · Post by mc » 23 Feb 2010 23:49

whatever dude. You're a legend. I'm glad your special flavor of footbag was on that video. It's a favor done to the footbag community to have you on the video, not the other way around. Your style and, more than anything, your mentality about the game has probably had more effect on how I've played footbag than anyone else's.

So no more of this reverential shit, reverend

You're famous in MattCrossland.