The Fast and the Furious: Operation El Kemino, Tokyo Edition

[Matt K]

Saturday: The Beginning of the End

I got up pretty early on Saturday because I had barely gotten any of my stuff together to leave, and I knew we had to be out by 11 or 12. I showered and threw all of my things together before most other people had woken up. The doorbell rang, and I answered to find that it was our landlord. He asked me how things were and I the place was amazing and we all had a really great time here. Our conversation then went: “No, I mean, how is the apartment?” “Oh, yeah, it’s fine, nothing broken, fairly clean.” “Alright, here you go.” - handed back our deposit without even stepping inside.

After we had packed up all four of our cars (me + Doug, Nick + Nate, Drew + Erik + Jen, Mike + Ivan), I waved goodbye as we drove away from 4206 Van Horne Ave. for the last time. Just as we hit the edge of town, Nick and Nate sped up alongside of Doug and I to shout over that they were leaving soon (and I’m still surprised at the clarity of the conversation we had at 35mph). We tried to convince them to stay, but they had made their minds up and we just met them downtown.

Our group wanted to have one final meal together before we all parted ways, and took 30 minutes to finally settle on Tim Horton’s. Along the way, we ran into a lone Jindra on the street who was just wandering around because there was nothing going on the site, and brought him along with us. When we all ordered and settled in to eat we got in to our usual antics that had perpetuated the whole week. In a moment of genius/madness, Nick dunked his sandwich (not a breakfast sandwich, like roast beef with mustard) into Doug’s coffee and took a bite. Doug didn’t really know what to do with that, and Nick was on a crazy high, and wanted to do it again. He handed his sandwich to Jindra and asked him to dunk it in his coffee for him too, but Jindra just looked down, took it, and started eating it to completion, which left Nick pretty destroyed.

After our strange final breakfast together, we walked up to the dorms as a group for one final time. The plan for the day was to go to the Plaza del Arts (or something like that) in the afternoon to shred, and then if people were interested, go back to the event site in the evening for Net finals. We hung out upstairs for a little bit, and Nick and Nate stuck around for about a half hour. They said their goodbyes to people upstairs and I walked them down to the street to say my own goodbye. I was sad to see my housemates go, but I loved the time we had in that place, and I knew that I’d be seeing them sooner than most others.

I went back upstairs with Johnny and Camille, who had brought a butt-load of fruit, so Johnny and I sat on the couch and ate cherries. We all had a good laugh at Waylon, who ate one and said “Wow, these are really good; I’m usually allergic to cherries.” In addition to this, Johnny and I started throwing a few cherries upstairs to the people sitting there, while Doug attempted to throw raisins in my mouth.

Pretty soon after these shenanigans, we walked over to the plaza to find Ianek sitting and waiting for the crew to arrive. We got set up on top of these stairs that I’m sure people have played footbag on constantly and people started to warm up almost immediately. I watched Evan play for as long as I could, and though I was pretty sad that I wouldn’t get to play with him at all this Worlds, I was pretty happy to be able to see his shred in person. I think Ivan was filming, so I’m sure his camera will remember what he hit better than I did.

More people started to show up, and I had nice conversations with both Roy Klein and Aleksi while continuing to watch people play. Hania again was my sideline buddy and helped to keep me entertained while I couldn’t play footbag, which I was very appreciative of. Along with shred, I watched Doug and Ianek do this really cool tandem juggling/footbag concoction. One of them would juggle a few bags while the other kicked; after a few reps, the one kicking would pass to the juggler, and the juggler would throw a bag to the kicker. They got pretty good at it, and you could see some neat stuff that could be done with it.

After a while of watching, Hania and I started talking about going to the doubles final that was happening in the late afternoon, and sort of tried to get a caravan going to watch. We got most of the people together and walked back the couple blocks to the event site. On the way, I caught up with Ianek and told him about this phenomenon that I’d been experiencing: after talking with him for a while this week, I began to hear my own thoughts in his voice, and it was really starting to freak me out. He got a kick out of it and I think took it as a compliment.

Back at the site, the second to last match was just wrapping up, so we had about a half hour before the last match got started. I went to the freestyle room and watched the little bit of shred that was going on, specifically the circle of Ken and Mathieu GM. I don’t remember anything specific, but just before I left to go back to the net side, I walked up to the circle, did a Symp. Whirl and said to Ken “Hey, it was really nice playing with you at this tournament.”

Chuckling at how funny I am, I went to the net court and grabbed a seat in the bleachers next to Chrissy, Hania, Steve, and Waylon to watch the Open Double finals. It was between Quebec and Germany, and even though I’m not a super net fan, I enjoyed watching this game a lot. It was the most contested game I’ve ever seen, with tons of back and forth and really tough calls. In between points I talked with Chrissy about the game, and listened to Steve talk about next year’s Worlds and organization in general, which was very interesting.

In between games, I left the building briefly with Ken and Hania to grab dinner and eat during the final game. I joined Hania at a burrito place while Ken ran another direction to find his own food, and got a Canadian Quesadilla, which looks a lot like an American Burrito; man, French people are weird. Hania and I talked some more, but didn’t find Ken again until we were back at the site and in our seats. I ate my ‘quesadilla’ while watching the end of the match, where Germany ultimately beat Quebec.

Almost immediately after the match, Aleksi, Honza, and Evan got on the mic and announced the 2013 BAP inductees. I again got to cheer and be proud for my friends that got inducted (Johnny, Rene, and Jindra), as well as chuckle at their silly nick names. The closing ceremony was set to start pretty soon after the BAP announcement, but it didn’t look like any freestylers were sticking around for it so I went back to the dorms with a group.

I don’t think we did anything in particular, but I remember sharing a beer out of the bottle with Ken because we couldn’t find any clean cups. A lot of people went out to a club, but we had heard that there would be fireworks later in the night so we stayed to hang out and wait for that. When the time came we got a group together of myself, Ken, Ianek, Erik, Jen, Chrissy, and Camille, and walked down to the viewing area.

The fireworks were really spectacular, and Ianek explained that it was part of a national competition and that if we had a radio we could tune in to the station and hear the music that they had choreographed this to. The show went on for at least 20 minutes and was exciting all the way through, especially the incredible finale.

As we walked back, we decided that we wanted to get some ice cream and ducked into a convenience store to dig through their freezer. I couldn’t decide between the two cookie things that they had (one chocolate chip, the other Oreo), and seeing my dilemma, Erik offered to get one and split the two between us. We got back to the dorms and I accidentally knocked Ken’s ice cream out of his hand when I went to wave to Mike and Doug. I felt pretty bad, but he was a good sport about it and cut off the contaminated part to eat the rest.

Back upstairs, Ken was getting ready to leave, so I found him and said probably the hardest goodbye of the tournament. I couldn’t find the words to explain how much I always love his company, and how good of a friend I felt he was, so I just said “I didn’t realize how much I missed you these past few years until I saw you again,” to which he said he felt the same. He made the rest of his rounds and then went to bed early to catch his morning bus to the airport.

After Ken left, most people headed out to a club for one last night of partying, but I hung back with a few people and we got into a game of Carcassone (a tile based puzzle board game that seemed pretty neat) with Ivan, Hania, Dante, and Drew. I think only Dante had played earlier in the night, so he quickly taught us the rules and we played a quick two games.

Drew only stuck around for the first game, and by the time we finished the second game, Ivan and Dante were starving and went to go get some food. Waylon came over to join Hania and me as we sat and tried not to fall asleep. I unloaded all of my Canadian funny money onto Hania for her cab ride home, and then we walked back to the parking garage to grab my bag before I collapsed. On the way back we stopped in at the bar that most people were at to say hello, but I was really exhausted so I headed right back to the dorm.

I tried to coax Dante into sharing his bed with me, but he wasn’t having it, so I got settled in to a couch on the second floor for the most uncomfortable night of sleep I’ve ever had (the couch was sectioned by a bar, and the portion I slept on was only 3 feet wide or so), but I was thankful for the roof from my friends. I was too tired to think about it much, but I drifted to sleep thinking that I’d have to say goodbye for real the next day.

Next: Au revoir!

[Matt K]

Sunday: The Final Day

I woke up on the upstairs couch after not a ton of sleep, very sore and cramped from scrunching up to fit, but it was better than sleeping in my car at least. I was one of the first to wake up, so I tiptoed downstairs past Drew and Mike who were still sleeping to find Caroline in the kitchen. She was starting to make herself breakfast, and knowing I wouldn’t exert myself later, asked to borrow a towel to shower before we went to Tam Tam.

Upstairs, I got my stuff ready, and walked by the second bathroom and noted that somebody had left half of a watermelon, which plenty of fruit flies had made their new home. Pushing aside the questions of, “Huh? What?” I took a really nice, long and hot shower. When I got out, I found out that Drew had slipped out with Waylon pretty quickly to head back to the city (see you guys later!). I shared a couple of eggs with Caroline and tried to get my stuff all ready to leave.

Knowing that Doug and I would be leaving in the late afternoon, I tried to get people going a little early, because I didn’t want to get there too late and have to leave after only an hour. People split up to try to get a real breakfast on the way to the park, and it ended up being me Doug and Cassy (I think she’s the only one who could’ve squeezed in with all of our stuff in the back) who went in my car.

We tried desperately to find a place to eat, even stopping on a street and sitting down at one place, but ultimately had to give up in favor of finding our way to the park. Unfortunately, after an hour of not finding food, we also had to endure an hour of getting lost and backtracking on the way to the park. We ended up driving around and through most of the park, and at least caught a glimpse from the top of the whole city, and finally made it to Tam Tam by 2.

I parked the car right out front, and those guys ran off to find food. I survived on the snacks that we had in the car, not wanting to leave after taking so long to get here. I planted myself on the edge and sat back to watch as much footbag as I could before Doug and I had to leave. I don’t remember a ton of what I saw, but I know I especially focused on Rene, only having seen him play for competition before this day.

After an hour or so, my roommate from college and his girlfriend (who were in Canada for the music festival) stopped by to say hello and hang out. We chatted about what they were doing and how the tournament was, and I showed his girlfriend a little basics. She was surprisingly flexible in the weird way that you need to be to play footbag, and she started kicking fine, and was getting toe stalls back to back within 20 minutes. At one point I even brought Hania over and was like “hey, look at this, she’s not supposed to be able to do this right away.”

My two friends left to check out the rest of the park, and I continued watching shred. I hung out with a few different people on the side, and had a really nice conversation with Aleksi (another person that I’m sad I’ll only get to see once a year). At one point it started to rain, and while other people retreated under the trees, I grabbed my jacket and stood right with Evan and his circle, all of whom refused to stop playing.

Doug finally got back to the site, and I found out that Chris needed a ride back so we decided that we could fit him in. By the time we were ready to leave it started pouring, and I had to do my last goodbyes under the cover of the trees. I know I got most people, so if I missed you, see you soon! We said goodbye to the group under the trees, ran across the street to find Aleksi, and then ran back to my car under the downpour.

We shoved our stuff over to make room for Chris in the back seat, and just as I was about to turn the car on, I saw a parking ticket on my windshield. You’ve got to be kidding me, in the very last spot I park in? Turns out I had misread the sign: I thought it was no parking Monday through Friday, but it was no stopping M-F, no parking ever. Oh well, it was worth it to park right in front and just jump out to watch. We had to run back to the dorms so Chris could see if he left all of his footbags there (which he did, phew), and we started our journey south.

It was a pretty quiet ride home. Doug and Chris were pretty exhausted so they napped through the Canadian portion of the drive, only waking up because we had to cross the border. The guard was pretty cool, and we got to tell him that the 8th best footbag player in the world was in the back seat! After that, we mainly just listened to music and drove the remaining two hours back to my house in Saratoga.

We didn’t waste any time once we got there, and transferred all of Doug and Chris’ stuff right to Doug’s car; it was pretty late, and they had another four hours to drive until they got to Rochester. My parents came out to help a bit and grab waters for those guys. I said my final two goodbyes of this incredible journey and watched them drive away, standing in the exact same place that it all started one week before.

Next: Final Thoughts

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Matt,

You are good typing. Fun to understand the words! Make em reallll solid words dude. I respect your brain.

[Matt K]

Aftermath:

So, remember when Worlds 2013 happened? It’s over, and it feels like a long way away already. Like the last Worlds I went to, it was seriously one of the best weeks of my life, and I came off of it more excited about footbag than I’ve been in years. Also like the last Worlds I was at, I wrecked my ankle and have to bottle all of my excitement for the sport for at least a month. Maybe that’s a good thing? I’d love to be playing right now, and I’m really anxious too, but I know when I am able to do so, I’ll be totally re-energized on it.

I went to Worlds both with injuries and a long break right behind me, so I wasn’t expecting much from myself either in competition or sideline shred. That being said, I’m pretty impressed with a lot of the playing I did on the two days when I got to. Sure, I had no endurance, and had no energy in most strings over 10 contacts I did, but plenty of times when I was shuffling, I completely forgot that I was not in shape or in practice and was in the mindset I had back in 2011 when I stopped.

Even though I didn’t care how I did in competition, at the time, I was still disappointed with how I actually played. Looking back though, I’m sure if you pulled a random set of six strings I did on either day, they’d about equal what I did in Circle. I had a lot of good stuff on the sidelines, but not in the concentration that you need to be competitive. I also still get so nervous every time I compete, and I really need to get over that.

I think the main thing that I want to focus on when I start playing again is just to do it a lot and get back in the physical shape that I was in at my peak. I’m about 20 pounds heavier than when I was in college, and though I don’t care about the number, I can feel it so badly when I play. I’ve only got the energy for a handful of good contacts right now, and plenty of times I’d be gasping for air after the bag made a full pass around the circle back to me. I’ve got other things I want to work on, but hopefully everything else will fall into place with this.

Really though, what I want to close out my recap with, and what I want to remember most about this trip is what I said to Ken as we said goodbye: I didn’t realize how much I missed you until I saw you gain. That phrase could really be my theme for Worlds 2013. I’ve been playing footbag for 7.5 years, since I was a 15 year-old high school sophomore. Since I started, I’ve graduated from two schools, been in two serious long-term relationships, and been working a career-job for over a year. As Ken said a few times that week, footbag has been my only constant throughout this period of my life.

The past year of my life has been especially hard and has had more changes than I’ve ever had to deal with before, and I completely threw my constant of footbag to the side through all of it. I might ‘hate’ this sport sometimes and get burnt out on it occasionally, but to stop playing completely for over a year? Am I crazy? I feel better now that I’ve started playing again, both physically and mentally; I feel like myself again, like I know I’m supposed to. I had no idea how much I really missed this sport until I started playing again and I could feel the magic coming back. I didn’t realize how much I missed everyone until I saw all of you again, and I’d like to hold on to this feeling for as long as I can.

You all made this tournament, so if you were in Montreal, thank you so much, especially my East coast brothers, and everybody who helped with my ankle (physically and mentally, you know who you are). You all rock, seriously, and I really hope to be seeing all of you very soon.


PS: My Worlds Journey took up 27 pages, single spaced, of a Word document. I mainly wrote this for myself so I remember as much of this trip as I can, but if anybody would like the full text in one place, just send me a PM and I'll e-mail you the file.

[Cass]

I had no idea how much I really missed this sport until I started playing again and I could feel the magic coming back. I didn’t realize how much I missed everyone until I saw all of you again, and I’d like to hold on to this feeling for as long as I can.

Me too.

[Matt K]

I have a sprained ankle, so I can't play right now. I hate this.

This is the reason I started this blog, nearly five years ago when I had been in my first year of college for less than a month.

I tried a few times to sum up how I feel now in comparison to back then, but Butters can say it much better:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN6ZgBJOTO4[/youtube]

It's a nice feeling that after 7.5 years, after breaks and injuries and life changes, that it does still hurt so much.

[rjadamson]

Hey Matt, thanks for the great read. I hope you keep playing -- I still remember you and Zac shredding at the 2011 U.S. Open with blazing and quantum stuff (respectively).

[DTank126]

Ahh your parents were sooooo nice. Tell them thanks again for the hospitality!

Also, here's some fun memories from that one place we almost ate at Sunday morning...





Also, here's that dumb picture we took at the beginning of our journey....



Creepy...

[Matt K]

Thanks Doug, that's a dumb picture on the bottom.

Not quite playing yet, but getting close. My ankle feels fine to crank fully, but I can tell it will hurt on whippy motions (like blenders), and though this is around the time I started playing again the last time I sprained it, I'd like to hold off for a week longer at least.

I've been thinking a lot about footbag though, writing down combos I think up so I can hit them when I start playing again. I've been reading modified and watching videos a lot more recently too, it all feels good, except the not playing part.

I'd like to go to East Coasts, but I'll only have 3 weeks at the most to get in any kind of shape, so I'm not expecting much. Should be a good not-too-soon reunion with Worlds friends though, and hopefully that Kevin kid shows up so I can PS Egg him into oblivion.

[Matt K]

I played today for the first time since spraining my ankle. It was really good and really bad at the same time. Good to play, but I was only really able to play tiltless. I tried to just do long tiltless runs to get my endurance up a little bit, and taught myself Rev. Swirl after not getting it for nearly 8 years, yay!

Probably going to play tomorrow, my body feels mostly fine, and I'm looking forward to the training season a lot.

[mtoolan]

[Matt K]

Thanks.

I moved into an apartment with a friend from college over the weekend and we don't have our internet set up yet, so I'm updating this from work.

I've had two more sessions since that last one, all about the same style. I'm mostly trying to get my endurance up, and the past two sessions my main goal has been a certain number of strings of a certain number of contacts. The first one I did 10 strings of 20 guiltless contacts each, and the second I did 8 strings of 25 contacts, making sure they were all controlled with good sets. I'm starting to feel better when I play, but I still get winded so easily. Hopefully this will start to fix that.

Still working on Reverse Swirls, and actually making a lot of progress with them, which I never thought that I would do. Starting most of those strings with some easy link with it, like Spinning Clipper>Rev. Swirl or Rev. Swirl>Pdx. Illusion. I ended yesterday's session with Pdx. Whirl>Rev. Swirl>Pdx Torque, which felt good to be able to do. I want to start trying to get Twirls and Revups soon, two moves I really like but have never been able to touch. We'll see.

Probably playing tomorrow.

[C-Fan]

Glad to hear the ankle sounds healed up. With twirl/revup/blink, the biggest thing for me is making a point not to set too high. With rev swirling tricks there always seems to be more time than you thought, so you dont need that extra height.

[Matt K]

Thanks, Ken.

Forgot to mention that during my second session I tried the Gyro Symp. Mirage that sprained my ankle because I didn't want to be afraid of it (and while I couldn't play, I really really was). After doing it 10 times or so, I understand why I sprained it, and looking at it now, I was really asking for it. My footing on that side is all messed up and I land super super outside on that foot, so hopefully some day in the future when I have a strong ankle and am mindful of falling, I'll fix that.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Dude, I totally agree with you Ken. Once you realize how much time you actually have on them, they get much easier and don't feel as strange. I can definitely help you with them at ECFC if you want any pointers. I feel like Gyro/Spins/Rev Swirls are the only things I'm even slightly allowed to give tips on And I'm glad to hear that you got back on the horse and rode away, having dealt with your Misomalusdomesticaphobia (fear of small apples). Also a good thing that you figured out why it happened. Cant wait for EC! Stoked to kick with you again man! It's been too long! Stay healthy!

[Matt K]

Played yesterday and felt pretty good. Kept up with the theme of 10 x 20 but did harder tricks. It went well but I really have to force myself to keep going and not take so many breaks. I started to shuffle for the first time since starting, and it went way better than it normally does, which I was very surprised about.

Nothing too notable, just kept going with Rev. Swirls which are feeling pretty good. Ended with the same Pdx. Whirl>Rev. Swirl>Pdx. Torque which took a lot less time.

[Matt K]

Played again today for two hours. Still a little tight and having to stretch a lot but making it through sessions with little pain.

Started drilling for real this session, and worked on Pdx Whirl, Drifter>Swirl and Spinning/Ducking. I sucked but I at least accomplished everything I wanted to. I ended by combining those components with Pdx. Whirl>Spinning Clipper>Ducking Clipper>Drifter>Swirl>SS Butterfly rpt

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Keep on kicking it dude. You'll be back to where you left off soon. I'm excited. Thanks for letting me vent the other day on the phone. Really needed that. Can't wait to chill with you and kick a bag with you at East Coasts!

[Matt K]

Another OK session. Drilled a little bit, consisting of:

Drifter>Swirl 10 times on each side
Pdx Whirl x4 five times on each side
Diving Clipper>Gyro Clipper>Diving Clipper 10 times on each side

After that I finished up with five 20 contact guiltless strings. I think I'm getting more consistent, certainly better form than a few weeks ago, but I'm still so out of shape. Oh well, the winter is long in upstate New York.

Also just wanted to say that I do read most of these top blogs even if I don't have a chance to comment, so keep it up everyone.

[Matt K]

Today's my 23rd birthday. I was 15 when I started playing footbag. Damn.