Nick "Houdini" Polini

[C-Fan]

What is spitfire again? Drifter dragon?

Speaking of dragons, I have asked Monistere to make a few adjustments to the shred stage in his backyard, in anticipation of NOLA jam.



Hopefully he can get it done in time.

[krustykrakk]

spitfire is dragon > swirling dragon

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Ken: Joke funny!

Ben: Rhymes with Ken! Also, correct.

I've been drilling this whole week. Fine tuning some stupid little inconsistencies in my game.

-Double Spins
-Inspins
-Pdx Whirls
-Stepping Ducking
-Nuke
-Whirling Cloud Kicks
-Far Blinks

Showed some improvements with all of them, especially Pdx Whirls. They were all 'the' or thin last week and this week, after obsessively thinking about them/watching lots of Penske & Suderman and observing where they dex, I figured them out. Finally my Pdx Whirls are somewhat decent. Still want to get some tips from those guys at PSU this weekend. SHIT. PSU this weekend. It's gonna be incredibly awesome. Penske is arriving in SC tomorrow at my old apartment. So pissed I graduated and don't live there anymore lol Whatever, I'll be there on Friday. Finally another Jam! I'm feeling pretty at one with my game recently. My level up just feels like normal shred now, which is good, but also the thrill of it is waning, which is a bummer. I'm sure the thrill will be back this weekend and I'll hit some good stuff.

Anyway, I've gone on a tangent.. So I had a few highlights tonight. I did mostly mess with Pdx Whirls though…

Highlights:

Gyro Diving Butterfly> Spinning Ducking Butterfly bs
Gyro Diving Clipper b2b
Gyro Diving Butterfly b2b, involuntarily… It just happened. I was happy about that. Never hit it b2b before. I've hit 14 Gyro Butterflies, so I guess it's kind of logical that I was capable of it.
New Fearless: Gyro Diving Butterfly> Spinning Ducking Butterfly> Spinning Ducking Osis> Spinning Ducking Mirage. I wasn't even really meaning to go for Fearless, which was a great feeling. I've been kind of bailing to 5's lately, which is a really nice feeling. I know I can add onto this combo.
As it was getting dark, I managed Toe Far Blink x3.5, 2 separate times. I know I can get at least 5 Blinks soon.
As I was walking in after it was too dark to play, I realized I hadn't hit any flip Clipper Far Blinks that session, so I dropped the bag on my foot and hit it first try in pretty dim conditions. That was good enough to end on.

I'm exhausted and excited, which is a bad combo. Maybe that means I'll evolve soon… into like Ryachu or something. See, that was dumb. I had to clarify I was talking about Pokemon, or else you wouldn't have understood… And, to top it off, Ryachu doesn't even look Italian, so I don't know how I would evolve into him.. Well, he kind of does, actually. It would be cool to evolve into a cracker though. Special attack would be called "Saltine your eyes"… but it only does 10 damage, because.. well.. you're just a stupid cracker and you're fucked if you go up against a water Pokemon. *drops a quarter into the gears of the random "ADD" part of brain*

Bed time.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Hi blog.

So this weekend was PSU Jampionships IV. It was so much fun. I played really badly though. Like awful. I was more stoked on hanging out with friends/meeting new players than my actual game.

I'm gonna update a list of my very few footbag highlights, then general highlights:

Spinning Clipper> Inspinning Clipper *rpt (Adam Greenwood was the only one to see it)
Adam's request: Mobius> Void (only Adam saw this too, but it had a bad seal, so I hit it again out of anyone's view)
Nuke Illusion (new trick) Anton happened to be walking by and saw it lol I wanted to hit this because I wanted one new trick during the weekend
Some good runs with Dante that I got props on. Spins were slightly outta control though, due to the floors.
Pdx Whirl/Fairy/Pixie critique/tips from Jim Penske
Fairy/Nuke tips from Johnny
Took 4th place Open freestyle! Which means I FINALLY made it into finals of an open circle! Never done that before. I played poorly and the floors were slippery, so I feel like I kinda didn't deserve it.

Tonight's Highlights (worked on Nuclear sets using Johnny's tips):

Spinning Clipper> Sumo BSOS
Infinity> Barfry BSOS

Jamps highlights:

I will post Jam highlights later, I'm tired now.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So I have been delaying it but I will post a little write up from NOLA Jam:

Thursday:

-Our crew (Mike, Doug, Nadine, me) left in the morning from our area in PA and trucked it around 12 hours with many pee breaks and jacky breaks along the way in Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama

-Tennessee: Too much country music. Even McDonald's was blaring country in the bathroom. Oh but we stopped over at a random Subway and got sandwiches and I struck conversation with the kid behind the register. He asked why we were going to New Orleans and I asked him if he was familiar with "Hacky Sack". He replies: "I could show you a thing or 2 about Hacky Sack".. WOW. So we took him outside and Mike, Doug, Nadiah, and I did a little demo. He said he wanted in, so I gave him some main footbag websites, like .in, the Facebook group, and Anz Tricks, and my contact info. Then we continued toward our destination, Alabama.

-Somewhere along the way, we got breakfast at a Waffle King, much like a Burger King but with no burgers. We bought some hard ass animal tattoos and put them on our necks. Doug had a tiger, Mike had a mean dog (which he later gave to Johnny), I had a shark, and Nadiah got a pretty butterfly

-Finally made it to the Alabama camping spot.. but.. it was closed with a gate and a sign that read "Closed on Wednesdays"… Fuck. So we drove over to some rednecks at a camp fire nearby and asked if there was a different camping spot or if that was the one we were looking for. Redneck replies (deep southern redneck accent) "Take a left at the gate and you can drive in that way. You'll see it, you'll drive through some pine trees 'n shit then you'll be inside." The "pine trees 'n shit" really stuck with me. Anyway, so we do go back down and try that road.. We certainly did find it… and there certainly were some "pine trees n' shit" ..but it certainly wasn't a road. The redneck told us to straight up drive through a part of the forest and essentially break into the camp ground. Hell, it worked and we set up tents and camped out that night.

Friday:

-Woke up early to some awesome new southern bird calls/songs that I'm not used to. Spotted my first Pileated Woodpecker that morning. So stoked. Kenny Shults would understand…

-Pack up and get on the road.. through Mississippi, where we got sunflower seeds. I forgot how awesome those are. They're my new thing, I think.

-Finally arrive at Mark's house and met his kids and did a little shredding on his new shred slab in the back yard.

-Mark has an amazing family. Kids, wife, and pets.. well maybe just Snuggles, but still. And the depressive dog that won the "Most likely to shoot up his school" award wasn't bad

-Mark, Doug, and I threw down some good links.

-The crew showed up soon afterward and I met some new faces and saw some old ones, as well. Great meeting new players and seeing some old ones again.

-House Party! Gumbo, Jumbalya (that's spelled wrong), Gumbo, and crawfish pies. Jesus, Mark and his family make some amazing foods. Feeding bunnies carrots out of my mouth…

-Nadiah was queen of the tether ball pole. She messed up several different opponents. People hands were hurting, and Mike's balls were hurting.

-Great game of 4 square with some people.

-Drew stepped in dog shit. Barefoot. Nice one, guy.

-Mark asks me to come along to pick Ken and fiancé up from air port. We had a fun chat in the car on the way there. Nice to see Ken again, for sure.

-Good night!


Saturday:

-Good morning! Bright and early! Off to watch Mark play a jazz gig at a beignet & coffee shop

-Dropped off entire crew, but Nadiah and I decided to go park the van with Mark and help him carry anything. No parking anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Mark said it would be a miracle if he got to his gig in 30 minutes (when he was scheduled to perform).. just then, he pulled the most bad ass thing I think I ever witnessed. He pulls up to a parking lot with a big police gate blocking any cars from entering. The gate reads "Parking Lot Full: No Entry" (or something like that). Mark gets out of the car, moves the gate in front of hundreds of people, and drives in and finds 1 of 2 last parking spots. Bad ass.

-We made it there on time. Mark started playing. Outstanding. I filmed the entire first half of the set. Then kicked with some others just doing single tricks for the audience. I hit Popping Far Osis, Double Blender, Gyro Revup, Whirling ss Cloud Kick> ss Whirl, and some other cool stuff. Fun to just jam while Mark was jamming. Mark ket saying that he was just waiting til he was finished because he was really excited to shred.

-Finished up the set and Mark led us to the Holocaust Memorial, where we shredded for a while. HORSE was held there (I'm uploading the final round of HORSE right now. It will be on BSOS.it sometime tomorrow). My match with Rory was really close and a lot of fun. We have pretty similar games. After everyone played and was eliminated, it was down to Ken and me. Ken took me down, but I got him 2 letters. I could have played much smarter. Oh well, it was fun and I took 2nd place!

-Poboys and then more poboys (pork at the shred spot then catfish later at the restaurant)

-Night on the town. Went to Bourbon st with everyone and walked around, got drunk, listened to live bands, got kissed by a drunk hobo who pissed his pants- WHAT???

-Anyway, we went home, I showered HARD to get the hobo herpes off of me, and we went to bed.


Sunday:

-Circle competition day.. Woke up early'ish for a morning pee but the toilet seemed overly full, so I tried plunging it, but it just made the water rise higher and then it started spilling out of the john. Michelle fixed it eventually, once both of our sock were soaking wet with toilet water. Full-blown flood avoided.

-Don't have a ton of highlights from here, since we mostly held circle.

-Had a really awesome teachy circle with Johnny Breakdown Sarah. Such a nice dude. I taught him Atomics and Zooming. He hit hit first Taps BS & BSOS and he also hit Osis> Spinning Clipper bs. He's going to get good.

-Circle!!! I think I put up a fight for Ken, and all of my other competitors. I played almost as well as I could have. One string killed me. I went for Scorpion's Tail> Mobius, but it was off balance, so I saved it with a few Far Oses… then dropped after 3 Osis saves. I should have just dropped on the Mobius and got a pass back. Oh well, it was sick and I had a blast.

-Took 2nd place in Open Circle!!! Only my second time making it to final circle.. Last week was my first, but I got 4th place and played really badly. This time was my 2nd time getting to Open Circle finals and I got 2nd place! I was so excited, could hardly believe it.

-Had a few more circles with some other people. One that was really fun was a circle with Mark, Mikie, Johnny, and Anton. We made it a "New tricks circle", where our goal was to hit new tricks. I got a few and so did everyone else, or they got close. I remember Anton hit his first Assassin, and Mark footed Alpine Mobius.

-Restaurant. Lots of fun, great food. Mark let us try his crawfish and showed us how a real Nawlin'er peels and eats them. Doug was being a prick and used the rest of the ketchup, then I asked for more from the waitress and Doug takes it before I can grab it and puts an excessive amount on his plate. Bastard. I put some ketchup on his arm later, so that was revenge.

-Rory performed surgery on his burger and cut the middle out of it, but he ended up just getting the top bun and a pickle. Rory's reaction was hilarious, so hilarity ensued. Really fun/funny dinner.

-Back to Mark's place.

-Everyone went out that night, but Nadiah and I just wanted to relax and not have crazy noises everywhere that night, so we hung back at Mark's place, which was nice of him to let us do. We passed out before everyone came home.

Monday:

-We packed up our shit, said our goodbyes, and headed out on the road. Drove straight through the night and into Tuesday morning. What a drive. Next time, we all agreed, we're flying there.

But… I wouldn't have changed any of it, even if I could.

My nights back home haven't been the same since NOLA Jam… partially because left my pillow and a blanket at Mark's house.


Trick Highlights:

Void b2b (2nd time, but much cleaner this time)
HORSE with Rory: I hit 2 tricks I never hit before: Toe Inspinning Legover & Toe Inspinning Butterfly
HORSE with Ken: PS Egg!!! & Pdx Grifter
Atomic Drifter (new! dedicated to the Michigan crew, because they're all good at Atomics and/or Drifters)
Ducking Muted Reverse Swirl! (new!)
Reverse Swirl War (3rd time I hit this drill)
Tons of awesome runs.
Mark fixed my Ripwalks and Ken fixed my Pdx Whirls


Session highlights since I've been home:

Mostly drills…
Blender> Far Blink bs
Tapping Legover b2b

This jam really pushed me.. hard.

My plan is to work on Far Reverse Swirl/Blink stuff, toe game (Atomic, Pixie, Fairy), Swirling sets, Double Downs and a few other things. Excited to hop into it.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Filmed some Easter Shred with the SEPA Crew the other day. Might have a new member to SEPA, btw. More on that later.

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

Critiques/etc.. all welcomed.

Today, had a mini session in my attic at night.

Highlights:

Pdx Flux bs (new on flipside) I can see myself getting good at this once Pdx Torques are better.
Mark Monistere and I are doing Pdx Torque b2b 2x on each side, every session. I got mine in tonight.
Also doing Pdx Illusion> Paradon *rpt 3x bs every session. Got those in too.
Pdx Whirl> Pdx Illusion 3x bs


Little drills tonight, with a little messing around with Pdx Flux.

I'm stoked for Matt Kemmer. He got his 10 Fearless again tonight. It's been since like 2011 since he last hit 10. So go over to his blog and give him props. The dude's a master.

Speaking of other Eastcoasters in different states, I'm driving to Boston this weekend to chill and kick with Hoagie Beatz. So stoked. We're going to be filming something for yous all. Then seeing The Uncluded on Sunday night. It's gonna be a hell of a weekend. Cannot wait.

[akprice]

good shit as always dude!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks for the comment, Aaron Much appreciated. Glad you enjoyed it!

Ok, so I had a really mini-session tonight, then a regular session.

Mini session: Jackson came over and insisted that we play. So he farted in my room and I had to change into my lavers in the hallway because it smelled like someone was rotting in my room… anyway, went outside and did a ton of Ilusions. From all surfaces. Jackson had a really sick run with amazing control. He used his old light weight Lavers this time. He has been using his new shitty heavy lavers recently but I really think they might serve as a training shoe. Temped to have a few tiltless sessions in mine. And I found Jackson a pair of old version lavers (Thanks Anton and Ian!) and I bought them for Jackson. He's been a great friend to me through the years and he seems like he's turning his life around and wants to make footbag a bigger part of it.

Anyway, fuck that tangent… We kicked until it started storming.. I mean STORMING. We wanted to each end the session on something worthy. Jackson hit Osis> Pdx Mirage bs! He's never hit that before. It looked easy for him. Then it was my turn and I hit mine just as soon as the storm really came pounding down.

Highlight:

Spinning Osis> Blizzard bs (new link for me)


Then I had a solo session in my attic. Drilled more Illusions and experimented a bit.

Highlights:

Near Grifter! one side :/ but new trick! footed flipside
Near Double Switchover! one side again :/ but a new trick! also footed flipside
Basically dialed in Bubbabeaters. The timing felt so controlled, but we'll see if it sticks with me next session. Sortakinda dialing in Pdx Egg bs
Pdx Torque b2b, once on each side
Ended with Pdx Whirl> Pdx Illusion bs a few times

I know it's lame to hit Grifter and Near DSO on just strongside, but I'm saving these flip tricks as goals to let me know when my Illusions have finally gotten good on flipside.

Zach wasn't able to come down today, but tomorrow it's happening. Just planning on drilling with him.

Gnome whore.

[krustykrakk]

I like the potential the new lavers have for training; I can see them serving the same purpose as ankle weights. Khoa has recently switched to just using his new lavers and is rebuilding his fundamentals with them. I think he plans on using them for a long time then switching back to a new pair of lightweight lavers he just bought.

Props for illuisiony stuffs. Illusions are dumb and unnatural. You are brave.

[Muffinman]

By near grifter you mean Royale?
I'm curious actually about the new Lavers. Back when I started playing we had a heavier, more durable soled Laver that was the standard (I played in a single pair of Lavers for 7 years and the sole never wore out, even after the canvas was deteriorating). They were made in Slovenia, while the ones that the current generation is used to were made in China. I wonder if the newest wave of Lavers is just a throwback to the Slovenian Lavers. I never read Scott Davidson's review of the new shoe, but maybe he mentioned something in there about this?

[Ryan_Morris]

Props on the illusion drills. I know you love illusion dexterities.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

At work right now on break, but wanted to reply and post something. Shit. Here comes the annoying kid that calls me Mr. Nick. He said nothing and kicked the cardboard stack I'm sitting on... Anyway, Erik, word up, I dog the name Royale. And I agree, maybe the new Lavers will be good training shoes.

Ryan, hi! Um.... I forget what you said. Oh well, something about illusions. Sick. I love them now.

1 minute left on break!

Zach is coming down today and I'm going to drill Tiltless with him. Maybe Jeremy and Corey and Jackson too. I think we're gonna do Tiltless combo HORSE, but there won't be a winner. Simply for practice. Breaks over. back to collecting cat catheters and cow insemenators

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So Horse was a lot of fun. Zach hit a bunch of new stuff. It'll be more complete in his blog but what I recall: Gyro Clipper bs, then b2b (his first time hitting it either side), Gyro Butter bs (new on both), Spinning Osis b2b, footed Janiwalker, first flip Whirl. Zach's back and I'm so happy to have my old shred partner back.



^Proof it happened.

My only highlights were at the end:

Ducking Mirage> Ducking Legover *rpt first toe ducking toe drill I've ever done.
Toe Ducking ss Mirage b2b.. second toe ducking toe drill I've done.

Pretty cool stuff. I'd like to improve at that stuff, because I think junk like toe ducking pickup> ducking legover> diving pickup> shuffle looks nasty.

Real reason I'm here is to tell everyone that I'm retiring from the sport..

Just for today and tomorrow. Then tomorrow night after work, I'm driving to Boston! Staying with Hogan for the weekend, then on Sunday, seeing The Uncluded with him. So pumped. Footage will happen. Maybe we'll also see some familiar faces, like Pete Bowler and whoever else. Who knows?

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

So the Boston trip was just too good to be a short weekend trip. We all agreed that we wish we lived closer to each other. By "we", I mean Kevin Hogan, Matt Kemmer, and me. Yep, Matt and I planned to surprise Hogan on Saturday… Anyway, I'll do a little write up, because even thought this wasn't a tournament, it was easily my favorite jam so far.

Friday:

The work day was long. Got out at 5:30 and started my journey. This journey was long, but worth it. 5 and a half hours later, I arrive at Kevin's friend's house. Kevin told me to just come over to the bonfire when I arrived. I smell the campfire and I begin to feel nostalgic for my childhood camping days, remembering cooking marshmallows over an open fire with the stars glimmering in the sky above me. So I walk up to the gate and everyone's sitting around the fire getting shit-faced. I walk in, meet several new faces, including Kev's girlfriend, Sarah, then grab a beer and catch up with Hogan. We talked about shit and playing footbag and other shit. The kid's house that we were at had some fun rules... like “dogs piss on the porch, boys piss on the fence”. We were hanging out with Kev's friend's mom, who was insane. Pretty sure she was drunk, as well as a few other things. She was awesome though. Super funny lady. We decide to go get some food and head to one of their friend's houses.

We grabbed food, then show up on the street that the friend lives on. We see the group of friends we are looking for, almost immediately. They were skateboarding around in the road. There were 2 guys who looked like meatheads, one of them with the corniest ponytail I have ever seen. The friends gather around Sarah's cah (Boston word for “car”). The friends laugh about some things and whatnot, then all of the sudden, the scumdog with the ponytail comes up to the car and starts to attack Kevin's friend. He grabs his skateboard and tries to walk away, then apologizes and walks off. I guess he thought we were laughing at him. He was very drunk. I know he was drunk because, why else would he be rocking a ponytail in public? After he walks away, cops show up and we tell them what happened. They drive away looking for the dude. What a fucking welcoming this was.. First time I went to Boston, I was welcomed by stepping in a dead rat as soon as I got out of the car. Cant wait to see what happens next time I visit

Finally get to friend's house, chat a bit, watch some beer pong.. Kinda a lame party, so we peace and talk about how awkward the host of the party is. Then, I dunno, we passed out at Kevin's. But let me just tell you that Kevin has the coolest room in the world. Pizza lights... a hilarious essay, framed on his wall, that his cousin wrote about him... a Jesus action figure still in original case, pinned to the wall... children's books in his bookshelf that have still never been cleaned out... interesting things sticking to the blankets that stab you in the night. Good night.


Saturday:

Wake up early, grab some food. Sit next to the door. Matt “Spanish Harry Potter” Kemmer walks in. Kevin double.. triple takes and laughs so hard that the egg on his fork looks like it's convulsing. Matt sits down with us and orders some french toast. His meal reminded me of when I used to stay over my grandmother's house when I was young and help her make dinosaur french toast, then enjoy it with a cold glass of orange juice, then afterward she would take me up to the bathroom and wash my face with a warm wash cloth, pretending it was a kitty cleaning it's kittens.

Finished breakfast. Now it's shred time. It was raining, we cared not. Found a sick little nook that gave us shelter from the rain. A little chilly at first, but once we warmed up, it was shred city. Kevin had some pretty good runs, but said his legs were feeling off a bit. I still think he played well. Matt was ridiculous. Just killing it. I played surprisingly well. We all got some great footage. It was really fun riffing off of each other's strings/combos. The session was filled with fun, shit talk, amazement, laughs, and props. We're all around the same level, so it was super sick to just have everyone riffing off of everyone. One really great part was that Pete Bowler showed up and hung out with us for a little while. He broke his leg a while ago and he's still in recovery phase, but he was doing some flying toes and atws and heel stalls. It was really great to see him again. Kevin and Pete went to go say goodbye and when Kevin came back his finger was gushing blood. Apparently he broke his bowl and it cut his finger pretty badly. It dripped onto some of the bricks we were shredding on, and those bricks had dead people's names on them and we joked that Kevin was going to reanimate a fallen soldier.

After the session, I dunno, we did some shit. I think we got food, went back to Hogan's to chill, shower, and check out some of the footage. Then Sarah came over and we all went out to eat at this place called the Lone Wolf. We met up with his friend, Allan, at the place. However, there was a long wait at this place, so we romped about Salem for a bit, checking out some shit and stuff. I don't know how we did it but we got Matt to walk into his first head shop ever. I'm not particularly one to engage in smoking marijuana, but I appreciate the artwork in head shops. There were some really pretty pieces there. Matt and I hung out in the same part and marveled at how some of the bongs there were so expensive and also SO easy to break. Seemingly pointless to buy. Kevin bought a new piece and we went back to the Lone Wolf. We grabbed a beer, Kevin made fun of the waiter, we all got the “Lonely Burrito” ( or something like that), another beer, a margarita, then more beer. Then we went romping around some more. Then we went off to an arcade. It was closed.

So, we ended up going bowling. We arrive at the bowling alley and were greeted by a cacophony of terrible club music and a short gangsta with no eyebrows. I wasn't feeling the vibe of this place from the beginning, but didn't want be a party pooper, so I continued. We walk in.. music gets louder and worse.. lots of bitches and douchebags and mothafuckas with bleached chin straps. It was like a club/bowling alley. It even had pictures of famous people that had been there, one being Larry David. Sarah was registering us at the desk while we tried to find a seat. Sarah comes back and says something like, “It's a 3 hour wait, plus this place blows”. We all simultaneously decide to bail and we made fun of Kings the rest of the night.

So finally, we decide to just hit up a bar, called “The Farm”. A bit rednecky for my taste, awful music, but we had a pretty great time. Plus we got to chill on the back patio and escape the music. Sadly the highlight of this night was something with Matt, but I'm not allowed to mention it because Matt would kill me. But I assure you, you would have ruined your pants from both ends if you knew. I appreciate who Matt is and his uniqueness. I still stand by the fact that he is the weirdest normal person there ever was. Matt Kemmer, you're awesome and I'm so glad we became friends. But yeah, back to the story.. then we played volleyball with a flat volleyball. It hurt, so Matt and I went back inside and talked about footbag until everyone else came back. Then we headed out and passed out back at Kevin's house.

Sunday:

Matt's final day. Shredded as much as we could until Matt had to go. We all hugged goodbye and then Matt left. It felt surreal. We both couldn't believe he had to go already. But we really enjoyed the time we spent with him. Kevin and I stayed at the shred spot for a while longer until we finally headed out. We went back to his place and got showers, then got ready for the initial reason for this trip. The Uncluded concert! Sarah, Kevin and I piled into Sarah's car and headed for Boston. By the way, Sarah is fucking awesome. She's super nice and just fun to be around. I would definitely consider her one of my friends now and it's sick how quickly we became friends. Kevin and Sarah make a great couple. Seriously some of the cutest shit I've ever seen between the two of them. However, they really made me miss my own girlfriend. Badly. But I still appreciated their cuteness.

Yep, showed up to the concert, and met up with Bob Green! He got Kevin into the band, then Kevin got me into them. Meeting Bob was really awesome because he and Bob Reifer used to be friends (Bob Reifer is my original footbag teacher, if you don't know this), and now Kevin is teaching Bob Green footbag and he's really been improving. Didn't get to shred with him at all, but we talked a lot. He's a really cool dude. Hope to see him again in the future. But yeah, the show was gnarly and Kevin bought me one beer, then Sarah bought me one. Those guys are too nice. The opening band was Sir Jarlesberg, which was just drop dead hilarious. A comedy rap group that writes songs about medieval times, with a sexy horse man in hot pants as a guitarist. Just youtube them and you will see pretty much what we saw.

Then some weird dude who Sarah thought was “Awkwardly delicious”. Then.. Aesop Rock and Kimya Dawson (and Tom?) as The Uncluded! They hit hard. Kicked ass, took names, great show. I brought balloons to the show, gave one to Kev, one to Sarah, and one to Bob. We all inflated them and let them loose amongst the crowd during “The Aquarium” which has the lyrics “Please don't tap on the glass”, where people were tapping the balloons, so it seemed to fit well. Kimya got a hold of a red balloon and put it under her shirt then held it in her hand for one song, so that was cool. Sarah grabbed that ballon after the show and took it home because it was under Kimya's shirt. She fanboy'ed pretty hard over it. The show was incredible. Just incredible. You need to check out The Uncluded if you've gotten this far into my write-up. After the show, everyone got a shirt, said bye to Bob, then headed out.

Kevin and Sarah wanted to show me this cool private beach nearby, so the three of us went down to that. That was a really fun highlight. We sat up on this big ledge over the sand and talked for a while. We all had some heart to hearts and laid on our backs looking at the night sky. After a little bit, we walked back and Sarah was walking backwards and talking to us on the ledge and before we could say something about minding where the ledge ended, she disappeared. She fell off the ledge. It was really scary to see because it was kind of a far drop and we really weren't sure if there were large rocks at the spot where she fell. She got up almost immediately and said that she was “100% ok”. We were both relieved. So many bad things could have happened to her. Thankfully, she walked away with a bruised hip. We went back to Kev's house to crash.

Monday:

Woke up early. Drove to a new spot, since it was finally nice out (sucks Matt couldn't be there for the only nice-weather session). It had a big ship in the background, which was really sick for the video. Great shredding with Kevin. We did film all 3 sessions, by the way. Video will be coming soon, once Kevin and I compile all the footage. It's easily some of the best stuff you have ever seen from all 3 of us. Halfway into our session, we were approached by a photographer, who took some pictures of us, then asked our information. The next day we were front page on the Salem newspaper! Kev and I were both happy with our session. We both hit some outstanding goals/dream runs & links.

So, finally winding down, finished up the session, and drove back to Kevin's house. I packed my stuff into my car and Kevin and Sarah made me a nice lunch for my long ride home, which was seriously nice of them. We did a group hug, I said my thank you's and I headed home. Oh yeah, Kevin's mom asked if I was a drug addict lol.


Video will be posted sometime within the next week. Thanks for reading.

Big thanks to Kevin and Sarah for being amazing hosts, buying me non-stop beers, driving my ass around all weekend, etc...

Thanks to Kemmer and Kevin for all the great shred and fun activities and conversations we had. Really wish we lived closer. This weekend will go down in history.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

It's nice to see that so many people really loved my Boston write up..

So if you don't care to read long stories about amazing weekends with awesome friends, then maybe you just want to hear my short, stupid footbag highlights

Mobius> PS Whirl
Ducking Symp Swirl bs (new on both)
Clipper Far Symposium Blink (new)

tl;dr: tricks.

Figured I'd post some pics from Boston here too…



Kevin's wall in his room. Thought it was funny that I was already in the room before arriving in Beverly



This was in Kevin's bathroom… He didn't even realize that this would be hilarious to someone non-local until I mentioned it to him.



A pic of us at the Lonely Taco. Such a fun night. This one really makes me miss it.



Kev & Sarah outside of the show. Listening to The Uncluded right now and the mix of the music and this picture really brings the memories back full force. Miss miss miss. Bats!







These few pics are from the show. You can even see my balloon in Kimya's hand in the last 2. That balloon is now on Sarah's wall probably



Finally, this is from the Salem newspaper the day after Kevin and I shredded our final session. Front page, baby!

Hope these were enjoyable.

[Cass]

Awesome write up! I had been meaning to read it but totally forgot haha..

Makes me really wanna visit Boston.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Thanks Cassy

So I played with Jackson tonight, He was learning better tiltless toe strings. I practiced some stuff I'd like to be good at, like Atomic, Fairy and a bit of Far Rev Swirls and Revups. I was studying Yves Kreil's Atomic sets last night and they really started to make sense to me.

Highlights:

Gyro Cloud Kick> Muted Reverse Swirl. This was cool and feels like it could be easy once my Rev Swirl game is dope'er.
Finally actually figured out how to do Atomics and Fairies. These will be my concern for the next.. long time. Until they're great.
Ended with a great little link: Revup> Fairy ss Reverse Swirl bs.. Probably stole it from Evan (?) Thanks Evan!

Shower time and probably a rest day tomorrow.

[boyle]

That last link is awesome, sounds like something Evan would do!

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Short session tonight. Worked on the same stuff I worked on last night. Also hit some new tricks, which was a nice sign that my concepts were getting better.

Highlights:

Flipside Gyro Double Pickup (First time on flip.. undeniably clean)
Fairy ss Twirl (First time on flip.. Happened so easily. I was definitely super excited how simple this one finally was. Each one kind of feels like a rubber band being stretched, then let go, and the trick just happens. Maybe that is an odd explanation. Whatever, fun trick, feels good, madd smooth, tits up.
Fairy Legover x8! I actually injured my knee on Fairy Legover x3 a while back, but no knee pain anymore, knock on wood.
Fairy Pickup b2b
Some great runs with good stepping/fairy shuffle. Pretty sure I hit Fairy Bronze badge (+1 or 2 contacts) tonight. Not on film, but still pretty cool.
Worked on Atomics again. Getting there. I felt my first good flip Atomic set tonight, which was nice. Still need work.
Not sure if I've hit it before or not, but Fairy op Reverse Swirl. Felt awesome. Flipside is almost there too.
Gyro Mirage> Fear> Fairy Butter BSOS
Blender x5
Blender> Schmoe bs

Big session with Bonslaver, Jeremy, Jackson, Corey, some of the PSU kids home from their long year, and Drew Martin this Saturday. Need to rest my legs a bit now. So stoked for Kevin to start editing our Part II video. It was definitely better than Part I. Kevin's sauced Fury was pretty incredible though.

If you haven't seen the new video yet, here it is:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUH6-Rh5HKA[/youtube]

Pardon my convulsions/silent freak outs.

Speaking of freak outs, I'm creating a video of the best footbag freak outs (Johnny Suderman's idea) so if anyone has one that they think should be in it, send it to me on Facebook messages.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

Had a session tonight. Made some break throughs and hit a milestone, which was also a goal for 2014. Crossed that bitch off. Here is the footage from tonight. The stuff with the black shirt was from tonight. Everything else was filmed like a month ago, but I figured I'd include it. The ones from last month were also goals knocked off of my list.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIr0Ymm1cVo[/youtube]

I haven't played this week, but at work, I've literally been having around 8 hour sessions in my head. Playing this week in my head let me hit these Drifters so well tonight. I'm convinced. Try it. Picture yourself playing footbag and practicing a trick, then try the trick after mentally drilling it for a week. You'll be surprised. Also, with my new method for Drifters, Vortex bs and Blurry Drifter bs both felt easier than ever. I was pretty amazed.

Session on Saturday with the extended gang.

Also, Kevin will be editing our footage for Part II of the Boston video this weekend. Be sure to catch it. It's going to be pretty epic, I think.

Off to bed now. Good night.