Origin of footbag nomenclature

[King Monkey]

What would be really amazingly cool and invaluable for the sport would be if those tapes that Matt speaks of, that Emily now has, could somehow be transferred to the internet or maybe even better, to DVD, and distributed, or at the very least stored with backups for historical purposes.

This history lesson is great! If Geesha is Nuke double down, where did the name 'Cold Fusion' come from?

[Iron Clad Ben]

Matt, thanks so much for all these awesome stories. I was talking about that stuff at our session last night here in Austin. Apparently those freestyle disc guys (and it's a lot of the same guys, a lot of em are shrivs now) still play in the same spot at "the Mecca" between the flag poles on the University of Texas, Austin campus where Kenny invented a lot of moves like dada curve and drifter back in the mid 80s. I didn't realize Kenny went to UT for undergrad, I thought he went to U of Oregon for undergrad and Texas for grad school. Cool stuff.

Jon, thanks for the early footage links, can't wait to watch this stuff when I get home.

[mattkain]

When footbag dot org first started putting videos on-line, the first one I can remember was a cool little run by Rippin' from about 1993 or 94.

Up until recently, this clip could still be found using the wayback machine. I posted a link to it back in November, but it appears to be dead now. See this topic:

http://modified.in/footbag/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

If we're lucky, I saved it to my computer at home and can try to post the video later.

by the way, thanks, Matt, for the digging you've done,

No work at all really. I have most of the discussion forum emails sorted and organized on my computer dating back to when I joined in '97 or '98. By the way, if you have any great stories about move inventions or name origins (which I'm sure you do), please post them. Heck, I'd even be happy with mediocre stories.

What would be really amazingly cool and invaluable for the sport would be if those tapes that Matt speaks of, that Emily now has, could somehow be transferred to the internet or maybe even better, to DVD, and distributed, or at the very least stored with backups for historical purposes.

That's really the reason that I passed these on to Emily. Since I've drifted further and further away from the footbag scene, I wanted to pass these videos on to someone that was still active in and enthusiastic about the sport. By the way, I dug up some more videos when I was back home including some of Eli's videos from World's '99, a second generation copy of Sultan's of Shred, and some other stuff (I'll have to look later). I'm pretty sure one of the World's '99 videos has the unforgettable shred off between Ryan Mulroney and Matt Churney complete with lap stalls, push-up stalls, and Matt Churney's famous spinning top toe delay moves. You honestly had to be there. If anyone has any interest in archiving or digitizing any of this, drop me an email: matthewkain at yahoo dot com.

This history lesson is great! If Geesha is Nuke double down, where did the name 'Cold Fusion' come from?

This name began foating around a few years later. Someone obviously wanted to give the move a less sucky name. Geesha is pretty rough. Still, gotta love the Defender.

[ville]

By the way, I dug up some more videos when I was back home including some of Eli's videos from World's '99, a second generation copy of Sultan's of Shred, and some other stuff (I'll have to look later). I'm pretty sure one of the World's '99 videos has the unforgettable shred off between Ryan Mulroney and Matt Churney complete with lap stalls, push-up stalls, and Matt Churney's famous spinning top toe delay moves. You honestly had to be there. If anyone has any interest in archiving or digitizing any of this, drop me an email: matthewkain at yahoo dot com.

I have a copy of sultan's of shred and reese's pieces (from worlds 99) but it's very very bad quality vhs. I have been dreaming of a digitized copy, but my copy is too bad. I would love to see these digitized, it's the first footbag video me and my friends got and we watched it (or a part of it) allmost daily. Enough so that I could remember who plays to what song and which tricks are hit when (the video was 4 hours long). It would be a great idea to digitize all the vhs videos that were published before dvd, with permit from the makers of course.

Sorry about being a little offtopic, but this whole thread is bringing me back memories from the early days of my footbag life. Keep the nomenclature and other history coming!

[mattkain]

It reminded me that Steve was actually a pretty damn good freestyler, long long ago.

Which reminds me, Steve claims to be the inventor of frigidosis. Here's a great post from '03 about the history of the Stanford footbag club with a brief mention about how Jeremy Nevin named smear and smudge. Definitely a good read:

For the strong of heart, or the just-plain curious, here's a little
history (from my perspective) of the Stanford Footbag Club and how
it's touched many lives in the sport...

We started kicking at Stanford every week back in 1987, and haven't
stopped since. Sure there've been a few missed weeks each year, but
rain or shine, summer or winter (if you can call it that), we've had
a regular circle for 16 years and counting (!!).

Seems like yesterday that Andreas Roemer and I kicked the bag in
White Plaza that fateful day (a few weeks before the first-ever
Berkeley Festival on April Fool's Day, 1987), and my best trick back
then was a sole kick (no, I couldn't even do a delay). Andreas taught
me that. He could do a delay -- that was always my dream. Andreas was
kicking the bag in White Plaza when I just happened upon him. He was
selling footbags in the plaza. Like anyone at Stanford played
footbag. Sheesh. What a fool. [Lest you be mistaken, don't assume I
started kicking at Stanford. I started in 1982. I met Jim Caveney in
1983. That's another long story. ]

The trip to Berkeley was just a stroke of luck. Andreas and I (the
entire "club" at that point) just decided on a whim to drive to
Berkeley. We figured if we couldn't find action at Stanford, we could
*surely* find it at Berkeley. We didn't know anyone in the footbag
scene. Nobody at all. So, we just got in the car, and drove.

We were looking for people kicking hacky sacks. Any circle would have
done. So we just drove around campus, and off campus, looking both
for people playing hacky sack and a legal place to park. Imagine our
surprise when after only a few minutes of driving around, Andreas
screamed at the top of his lungs, "Steven, STOP the car!" I pulled
over. He pointed over my left shoulder, up on a raised field. At
first I just couldn't believe my eyes. It simply wasn't possible. It
was like we'd arrived in Footbag Heaven. There was the first-ever
footbag festival at Berkeley, complete with quite a few nets and
seriously insane freestylers (like ET Constable) who Andreas and I
just couldn't believe were real. It was organized by the Berkeley
Footbag Club, and that's where I met Brent Welch. (He and Jody didn't
have the last name back then. ) But that's another story for
another day. Back to Stanford.

Next, David Ho and Mark the Mathematician joined the Stanford club.
They were the first real students I would play with. We met every
single week, first in the quad, then back in White Plaza where the
club had started. (Andreas had to leave the country for a while;
another long story. Suffice it to say I was the best man and witness
at his impromptu wedding at the Palo Alto City Hall.)

Then Nina joined the club (she had a thing for Mark; he was a gymnast
and a math Ph.D. student, where Nina's brother was an assistant
professor.) She had a penchant for slow reggae. Not the most
conducive to our games. We often fought over the music. Jody, who
joined in the next paragraph during this time, still to this day
sometimes imitates Nina ("Steve, can we put on some reggae?!").

Then before you know it, Brent and Jody showed up (pretty regularly,
I might add, for quite a few years). They had formed (along with many
others) the Berkeley footbag club, which hosted Western Regionals
before we moved it to Stanford. Jody was probably the person who
coached me, mentored me, and helped me with my freestyle , until
much later when I got more serious and engaged the services of one
Dennis Jones. But that's another story. And once or twice I actually
convince Julie Symons to show up.

Zander Nosler was in school at Stanford at the time, and he was a
regular (I had met him in early 1987, and we later became bestest
friends). Then there was Eric Anderson (I introduced Eric to Zander,
through footbag, and they are now life-long best friends, both living
in Seattle).

In fact, years later I was the one who introduced the little
red-headed girl to Zander, and the rest is history (Megan and Zander
got married not that long ago in the scheme of things). It was so
cute. Zander was like, "hey, do you know that little red-headed
girl?" And Megan was like, "Hey, Steve, what's your friend's name?"
And the Rest Is History.

In 1992, the fall before we started running Western Regionals, Eric
Anderson got the gumption to make SUFC an official university club,
and the Rest, again, Is History. By the way, Eric hooked up with
Nina. There, the cat's out of the bag.

It was around that time (in 1992) that I made the first footbag
web-page on the Internet, on a server at Stanford that I had access
to, even though I'd long since graduated. The Stanford Footbag Club's
online presence was born. The second-ever university-sanctioned
footbag club, but the first-ever *online* footbag club. And by
this time, my best tricks were rakes and osises (thanks, Jody).

Around that time, Mike Niday started making appearances (and still
does to this day), as did several special visitors from all around
the bay area (from Ed La Macchia, where we agreed to team up for many
years as a pretty solid doubles freestyle team ) to Tonga (Dave
Wedertz) to Lisa Monti, to Lisa McDaniel, to Dennis Jones, to Carol
Wedemeyer, they graced our circle with their presence from time to
time. Once I think I got Megan, Lisa Monti, and Carol Wedemeyer to
actually do a demo at some dormitory event. That was fun, though it
led to absolutely no new members for the club. (Recruiting was, and
is, basically impossible. Yet, *somehow*, I always have at least 2
people to play with when I go each Tuesday.)

Then some random kid started showing up. Jeremy Nevin was his name.
He couldn't get enough. He found out about my circle somehow, and
started playing regularly. He just lived a few minutes from Stanford.
He not only came immediately after school on Tuesdays, but he forced
me to meet him at White Plaza on Saturdays, too. He needed to be
taught, and I was happy to oblige. On a SUFC trip to Berkeley to play
with the club there, Jeremy met Dimitri Kavouras. Through their
shared passion, they both developed into remarkable players. Jeremy,
in fact, named Smear and Smudge, as well as a few other tricks (but
who will remember, besides maybe Rippin and Dennis). Unfortunately,
Jeremy died just a few years ago in a car wreck; Rippin dedicated his
finals routine to Jeremy (I cried) at the 2000 Worlds in Vancouver.

Off and on during that time, we had some pretty insane
pseudo-regulars. Like the guy Jody liked to call "Spaz" -- to this
day I can't remember his real name (okay, I think it was something
like "Keith"). People would see him years later at random tournaments
and all they'd remember was Spaz. In reality, I think Kevin
Ritchie (for those of you who have been graced by his presence,
especially in Europe last year) is actually Keith's twin brother,
somehow born a few years later or something. Anyway, playing with
Spaz was Good Times.

Then it was the Next Generation, as Zander and Eric and the gang
graduated or otherwise found other things to occupy their time (like
the Welches, who heroically continued to show up after having at
least one or two kids, finally couldn't wrangle the kids *and* afford
the time to freestyle, and of course, play net as well on other
days). I'll never forget the Stanford dorm-mates who defined the next
couple of years of the club: Matt Stone and Ben Gallant, who was the
president of the club 'til he graduated in '98. (Ben showed up at the
finals of Worlds in San Francisco last summer. It was so awesome to
see him.) Price Lawhon also showed up, pretty regularly for a while,
then just completely disappeared. I guess no great loss there.

There was Rob Fuller, too. A guy who kind of disappeared, but who
left me with a nice bit of memorabilia.. a footbag with the name Brat
embroidered on it. He was a geeky engineer type, but got into making
footbags, and was generally fun to play with. Rob used to go to
Pizz'a Chicago with me every Tuesday after the kick, for quite a
while.

During that time, and into the next phase, we were graced with the
presence of another prodigy, Jeff (Jboy) Gran. Another local kid from
the same neighborhood as Jeremy Nevin, Jboy had a gift for the game.
He almost never seemed to have to work to learn new tricks, and was
*always* equally good on both his left and right sides. This kid had
no flipside. Along with Jboy was his friend Chris, who could hit
legbeater but couldn't do two clippers in a row. Chris made me a
sculpture of myself for Christmas -- wearing my geeky hat that I
sometimes wore, and doing a frigidosis (a move, by the way, I
invented). Those were great times. Not only was I learning hard
tricks like blur and ripwalk (on one side), but Kevin Fine started
showing up (a somewhat geeky mechanical engineering coterm student,
who we liked to call "the claw" for obvious reasons).

Brian Kimball showed up, again I'm not sure how he found out about
the circle (I guess it was that "internet" thing). He stayed with the
club probably the longest of any person besides Kevin (and of course
me). His contributions to my freestyle (in terms of forcing me to
practice) and to footbag.org are without description. There's no way
possible to thank Brian for all he's done behind the scenes for
footbag. So few people know that, which is the sad part. Brian, like
so many other people in our club, ultimately just disappeared.

Anyway, one day around the time Jboy, Chris, Brian, and Kevin were
playing with me at Stanford, I got one of the strangest phone calls
I've gotten yet (and that's saying a lot for a guy who's hosted 12
tournaments). Some guy who just identified himself as "Red" called
from San Diego. He told me he'd just driven to San Diego from
Missouri and was wondering if I knew any kickers there. He was
specifically looking for Big-Add Posse members. I think his exact
words were, "Do you know the numbers of any Big-Add Posse members in
San Diego? I'm looking for the Big-Add Posse."

I told him, (and at the time it was true), "You won't find any BAP
members in San Diego, dude. They're all up here. Why didn't you call
me *before* you drove all the way down there?!"

So, he got in his car, and drove up to the Bay Area. He was, after
all, "looking for the Big-Add Posse". And the Rest, as they say, Is
History. Aside from frequent kicks with all the BAP members in SF and
Berkeley (including but not limited to everyone you can think of),
Red started playing with me and my Stanford posse. He was pretty
fresh-off-the-boat when I met him (I never did quite teach him to
master that damnable osis), but over time managed to get way better
than I ever will be, and helped motivate Jboy, Brian, and Kevin along
the way. It was, again, Good Times.

I'm sure I'm leaving things and people out, but that brings us pretty
much up to the last few years.

With the exception of a one-year (or so) absence in the middle, Kevin
has been with the club ever since (to this day). He comes almost
without fail every Tuesday. Sometimes in the winter, he brings
industrial lighting (or so it seems) to keep us from having to play
in the dark. Kevin's basically better than me now, which annoys me
to no end. It probably doesn't help that I retired from freestyle and
basically just play 4-square at every session. And I can do that
because of the kids (read below).

Ever since Ryan Mulroney graduated from Berkeley, when he's in the
country he shows up at Stanford, too. Almost without fail while he's
around, he graces us with his presence, and his music. I never have
to worry about music when Ryan's around -- nor could I since he is
kind of "controlling" that way. [I could write a thesis on how
footbaggers get when you mess with the music.]

We've had a few students come and go, but the last few years or so
we've had another phD student showing up, this time a computer
science geek (imagine that) named Ben Lynn. Ben's been finding new
heights to his game recently, finally understanding what I meant by
"on the way up". He's hitting all sorts of interesting tricks
now. Ben finally went to an event in his native land of Aussie. So
now he knows most of those players (lucky them ).

The most recent injection of fresh blood has been the Santa Clara
footbag posse -- Scrawny (Jonathan), Fryguy (Brian), Hector (Edgar),
Pepe (Pepe), Adam, and random others they drag along. They make
four-square challenging (but I still win 80% of the games) because of
course they play every week with the best (that'd be me, or Ryan when
he shows up). I just wish I could keep them out of the trees. Another
long story.

Well.. That pretty much brings us to now. Hope you enjoyed it.

And of course -- the plug: Anyone's welcome at the Stanford Footbag
Club's REGULAR weekly freestyle and four-square sessions. We play
almost without fail in White Plaza on the Stanford Campus, Tuesdays
from 3:30-6pm. Just if you come, be prepared to accept the music
you're dealt. And get ready to defend your square.

Steve

[mattkain]

It would be a great idea to digitize all the vhs videos that were published before dvd, with permit from the makers of course.

All it takes is a little initiative. Send an email to Eli, Tuan Vu, Sean Wingert, or even Rippin' (who probably has tons of footage), and see what they say. With the right equipment and a little time, all of this old footage could be made available digitally (and then shared with others who have never seen some of the footbag founding fathers play).

MK

[mattkain]

Plus, he's got the LEGENDARY Ocean County Clippers team freestyle routine (I've been hearing rumors about these guys for years, and up till today had only seen a few tiny bits and pieces of this performance; I will say no more...).

Greatest footbag moment ever?

[CIC flurry]

Thanks a lot, Matt. I think I've asked a question about historical stuff before - maybe even on the listserve, and I'm happy to finally see some.

I dunno what ur up to, but if you find urself around chicago again, drop by. We'll get James to come out, and pretend like it's a few years ago .

And I think digitizing all this stuff is a great idea. Scrap up everything Rippin or whoever has too, and convert that stuff.

[C-Fan]

Wow, this is a great thread. Thanks for all the digging Matt.

As for "cold fusion," that's a name I proposed as an alternative to the shitty name "geesha." In retrospect, I think the inventor has the right to name a trick whatever he wants, but a shitty name that doesn't catch on is kind of a waste. As it turned out, not enough people hit pdx fusion regularly enough for it to desperately need a name, but yeah, there's your history lesson.

[CIC flurry]

Geesha is a great name. James is a genius. He didn't misspell it. It's a super awesome word from the future where he comes from.

I always got yo back J.

[shredzilla]

Thanks Matt and Jon for digging up those vids. It's really cool to see what shred looked like back then. All those legendary players. Really sweet stuff.

[shredzilla]

What he said ^

[Wim]

Thanks for all these fabulous stories.

the LEGENDARY Ocean County Clippers

Haha, if I'm not mistaken these guys are in Tricks of the Trade 2 as well. That routine is priceless too.

BTW, does anyone know what is the story behind 'zulu'?

[mattkain]

BTW, does anyone know what is the story behind 'zulu'?

The Zulu concept comes from the move zulu le loup which is french for "zulu the wolf" (a diving opp butterfly). Any guesses as to who this is named after? Yup, Eric Wulff, master of all things ducking and diving (get it? Wolf = Wulff). When more diving opp moves began to be hit, the term zulu slowly evolved into the name for the entire concept.

Yet another move and concept named after the great Eric Wulff:

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/417

http://www.footbag.org/gallery/show/393

edit: added some video links

[Colin]

Matt, you're quite the footbag historian. Thanks very much to you and everyone else who has made this thread great.

[the Executioner]

A little extra history behind zulu:

The Ducking concept was invented by myself and Tim Kelly at the Michigan X Mass jam....92 or 93. This was the first time anyone had thought to duck the bag. Originally we called it the "earphone" which is a name that obviously didnt stick.
I came back from the X Mass jam and almost immediately taught the trick to Wulff. Within a few weeks he was creating variations and mastered the concept to the point of owning it. He was possibly the greatest ducker in freestyle history.

It's heartwarming that so many people care about freestyle history. Maybe some day I'll finish my book on this subject.

[Slowsis]

To know where you are, you must know where you've come from, and a lot of freestylers have no connection to the birth of the sport. Its all of our passion, and its history is just as (if not more) important as what is coming next. I love this thread.

[mattkain]

He was possibly the greatest ducker in freestyle history.

No doubt about it. I used to watch those two videos from World's '98 over and over and over. I was completely in awe of how unique and stylish Eric Wulff's game was.

Thanks for the story, Pete. Please feel free to add more. In fact, there are a bunch of "old timers' on this list who I'm sure have some pretty great stories to tell or trivia to share: Ken S., Jon S., Cameron K., Richie A., Lon Smith, Damon M., Daryl G., Red Husted, Eli, etc. Footbag has a ton of amazing, interesting history, and lots of people (myself included) would love to hear it.

MK

[mosher]

Oh wow, I just invested an hour reading every word of wisdom, incredible.

I NEED to know more!!

Rick Reese sounds like a smart and funny guy.

Peter, I hope you finish your book some day, there are many people that would gain so much from it.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.

[Iron Clad Ben]

I love this thread.

Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.