Canberra, Australia via SCL - Daniel Boyle

[mtoolan]

Enjoying your blog, Dan. Your life makes for a fun read. Hope the tv thing went well.

[boyle]

Thanks man. It's an adventure, though not particularly financially rewarding (so far...)

The TV appearance on Monday went really well, then yesterday at the Feria de Futbol I made two more appearances on the morning TV shows. I probably kicked the bag a couple of times on the screen, they just recorded as we were playing (we being me + the freestyle football guys).

I also got a new Adidas jacket, that was nice of them...

[boyle]

Third day at the Feria de Futbol today. I think next year we could have some more presence with footbag. I was on TV a few times this time around, so that is a good start. I didn't spend so long there yesterday. I went with my nephew and he got to meet Christopher Toselli, who is the captain and goalkeeper of Universidad Católica, which is his favourite team.

The captain of my team, Universidad de Chile was at the fair last night, though I had already gone home by then. I'm not so sure of the plan of attack today. I'm not sure if I should stay til late - or that when Chile vs Ghana in the under 20 World Cup is on will be the time to attack.

First, to get out of bed is the big challenge.

I have given some footbags to some of the freestyle football players, one guy Lucas already has a good style for footbag - the others keep more to their usual form with the bigger ball, but he is really getting it (eg: he can hit swirl from toe...). Because I went on TV and helped promote the feria, the organiser was very happy, and I told him I would like to do more with footbag at next year's event, so we'll see what can be on the cards for that. I would love the opportunity to invite a few players to Chile - particularly ones that are good at both footbag and fs football, we could then have some all round competitions.

You never know your luck in the big city...

[C-Fan]

That's awesome. Great work promoting Daniel!

[boyle]

Thanks Ken - it was a great opportunity. I will write up a bit more about my thoughts on the feria in the coming days.

[boyle]

The first day at the feria I was playing really well. Some guys got a couple of things on video, though I'm not so sure I will ever see that. But I hit things like pixie double switchover, mobius, double spinning clipper and a few other tricks that aren't all that easy for me, either while somebody was filming, or while a whole bunch of people were watching.

As the time went on, I got a bit sorer, my runs got a bit shorter, but I was still able to impress some people walking around. It was a bit of an interesting time in terms of promoting footbag. I had some bags to give away, but I wanted to hold back - because you could give a bag to every person (there were something like 30 or 40 thousand people going through the event over three days), but you may never see those footbags again.

So I probably gave out about 5 footbags, I was happy to give them to people who stayed interested, if they were learning a few tricks, had a bit of a chat. The reality was that most people had a quick go, then moved on. Good opportunity regardless. Also a good opportunity to meet some people that could lead to some more work, either within footbag, or in the sports industry.

We are a bit up in the air at the moment. I am waiting to hear back from a job interview I had in the south. I think if I don't hear anything back by the end of the week, I will consider that as a lost opportunity. I have also been applying for a few jobs in Australia, and I actually applied for one last night that could suit me quite well - they needed someone with experience in tourism or journalism (I have both).

I also made this video while I was in the south - http://youtu.be/yWjiNKFs_g4 - we have a group of the South American footbag players on Facebook called "Retos de Footbag", which is about challenges, and there are a whole heap of challenges, most of which I have not achieved. One is 15 unique tripless. I have got close a few times. In the video I hit phoenix>sidewalk>ripwalk>sidewalk>ripwalk>blurry whirl>spinning butterfly>spinning osis>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly>ducking butterfly>diving butterfly> (drop). I guess I could add something like torque>blender>pdx whirl>ducking osis or so. I would like to get up to 20 unique tripless.

I am also going to get my Shred Global interview series going again, just in time for Worlds. I was talking with Dale a bit about what to do with the Shred Global site to get it going forward. Some interesting ideas, have to see if they work. Now time to go and teach some English classes.

[boyle]

So Worlds is coming up and I'm not going again. That's a bit disappointing, as that was something I was hoping to do this year. I knew it would be difficult, so I did make it a particular goal - I made that "go to a footbag tournament in another country". I'm not sure about that either - but the South American Championships will be in Venezuela, so that could be on.

The financial situation is a never ending struggle. Just got a "no" response from the job in the south of Chile, so now we have a look at the options again. We have a spare room and we are going to rent that out for a few months, so that will be a good help financially. Overall though, I haven't had a real job in about two years so there's no surprises I have reached this current situation.

In reality, my current situation is the best since I've been in Chile. I'm earning money (and the people are actually paying it - that part of things has been a huge problem in my stay, being "had".) I'm also thinking a lot about footbag. Too much actually, that may be why I've had a running headache for four days.

I haven't really played since the feria de futbol, but I have time tomorrow, so I should get in to that. This video maker is going to be staying with us from England for the next two weeks, he is going to work on a documentary about the Homeless World Cup. I might try and get him to make some kind of footbag movie while he is here too. Maybe he could do something with Clavens when he returns to England.

Speaking of London: http://youtu.be/mOlhUvAw1Wo Here is a video of me playing in Trafalgar Square from 2010. I went to visit my friend Dan Smiley (he came to Worlds in Berlin and competed in footbag golf). I think I had arrived directly to the airport, it was meant to be summer but it was about zero degrees, actually maybe "Spring". Anyway, I only know Trafalgar Square from the Monopoly board, but I knew that would be a good place to play.

London would be a great place to hold a bit footbag competition, maybe Euros sometime. I wonder where the next Worlds will be. Hopefully somewhere I can afford to get to....

[C-Fan]

Sorry to hear you won't be at Worlds...it's cool that footbag is a young sport with young people, but it's also a fact that it can be tough for young people to travel for tournaments. Plus you know that once we all get settled financially and can travel more easily, we tend to be less athletic and able to compete at that point.

I was in Oakland last weekend for a friend's wedding, and as my fiancee and I were walking downtown we happened to stumble by the hotel/site of Worlds 2010. Without any prompting, my fiancee pointed to the pub across the street from the hotel and innocently commented: "I wonder if they have fish tacos?" I immediately busted out laughing, thinking about eating fish tacos in there with you and Caroline.

As for Worlds locations...I'm hoping Paris gets it sooner than later. I'd love to check out that city.

[WyrmFyre]

I dream of seeing a yearly footbag jam hosted here in the UK. If there was a big enough "core" of UK players I would have more than likely made it happen by now. Its encouraging to hear names like Clavens used in the same sentance as London though.

Perhaps next year, if things are no better, I need to grab a hold of Matt and get something organised, something that will appeal internationally. One man on a beach might occasionally grab the interest of a passer by or two, but a mass gathering, in the middle of London... surely that couldnt go un-noticed.

[boyle]

It looked good when you guys had the jam a couple of years back. London is easy for the Europeans and it is a cool city for anyone to visit. Just like you said though, things are difficult when it's just one person occasionally grabbing interest (I have the same situation here in Santiago de Chile).

[C-Fan]

London is another place I'd love to visit. As for Worlds though, isn't London a very expensive town? That'd be the main drawback I'd forsee there.

[boyle]

I don't remember it being too expensive when I was there, though I had my accommodation free and that's always the biggest expense. Definitely worth a visit, so many iconic buildings, nice places, parks, etc. Plus a lot of the museums and sightseeing things are free.

Could be good to do some kind of event alongside the Rugby World Cup in 2015. That's something where there'll be quite a lot of people spread throughout the country.

Has there been any word on bids for 2014 as yet?

[boyle]

I played today. It was the first time I had a session since the feria, and I didn't play all that well. I just felt generally lethargic and slow, and I felt quite sore afterwards too.

What I was working on though was a long repeat combo. I didn't hit it of course, though I did complete both sides of the string. I should be able to get it, it's not super hard but it has a bit of variety to it. In reality it is a BOP combo with some added extras.

tap>dimwalk>blur> op butterfly> whirl>osis>ducking osis> pdx mirage rpt

What I was quite happy with myself was that practically every time I was getting the first three contacts on either side. My atomics are not great and my flip blur has been a bit of a problem. Anyway, it was good to play. Afterwards we walked over to Francisca's mum's place and some of our nephews were over, so we played with them.

It really feels like a weekend. There were some large scale protests today, so my afternoon classes got cancelled, and I just have one class tomorrow, then it's a public holiday on Tuesday, so most people will take the day off on Monday, so those classes will be cancelled to and no money for me...

I am working on a presentation for a footbag idea for a foundation that our friend works in. I have met with the foundation and they are interested in doing something with footbag for the kids (it is a foundation that builds social housing and particularly runs programs to get the community involved, as well as involved with the whole community.

Could be on to something there...

[boyle]

I played yesterday and filmed this short video from the session - http://youtu.be/aHpgh_cbyK0

It sums up my recent sessions quite well. Some pretty good tricks and just when I start getting into the flow of things, there's the bag, on the ground.

Didn't play today, went for a pretty long bike ride instead. Went about 40km, spent just under 3 hours. Went for a bit of a loop around, was really the first long ride I've had since getting the bike a couple of months back. Good to take it for a proper spin, planning on getting more and more use out of it as the time goes along.

[boyle]

The other day they had the "street soccer"/Homeless World Cup happening downtown in the Plaza de Armas. We have a friend staying with us now, who is renting our room and making a documentary about the competition. I thought it might be a good chance to give away a few footbags, but didn't really know what would happen.

So we just get down there and have a look around at what we can get on film, etc. Then a young kid came up to me and said "hola". I said the same. Then soon after his Dad came up to me with a little video on his phone. He asks me "Is this you?"

It was a video of me playing at the feria de futbol, which I attended recently and got to play plenty of footbag at. I mentioned it earlier in the blog. That was a good opportunity. So was this one, probably better than I thought it would be. I got to play a bit, some of the kids could do toe stalls, around the world, legover, etc.

Here is something I wrote on the Flying Clipper blog - http://www.flyingclipper.com/blog/index ... world-cup/ about my day out. Here is something else - http://sportslashlife.wordpress.com/201 ... less-goal/ The Homeless World Cup is in Poland this year...then Chile next year. I am hoping at least by next year we can have something with footbag in there on the main stage.

If Nick Polini was here in South America, his head would explode with the new potential. Speaking of, I interviewed Nick on Shred Global - it seemed to go down well - http://www.shredglobal.com/archive/foot ... ck-polini/, he is someone doing great things for the promotion of the game.

Back on the potential in South America. Basically everybody who tries for more than 3 minutes (particularly young boys) can do at least a toe stall. Not too long after, they can do a trick or two - they key though is going from there. I need to be more organised in my activities, but it's a bit difficult as one person with not a particular huge array of equipment (and no money).

I have been looking into the concept of sports crowdfunding. I just had a great chat with a guy in England about it today on Skype. I have applied for this program called Start-Up Chile, again...I'm not sure if it will go, but I think I am closer to what they are looking for this time around.

I have also been preparing a proposal for a foundation. I have been talking about that for a while, but it's getting towards finished now. Aside from this I have been teaching English quite regularly, so by the end of the month there should be some more pesos in my bank account. (maybe).

So unfortunately once again, Worlds are on their way and I am not going. I really hope to go next year, but there are many buts involved in that, first of all, where it is.

Here is something else I just wrote, nothing to do with footbag, but an interesting story - a club in the south of Chile just signed a young Japanese player. http://www.ilovechile.cl/2013/07/24/hua ... lder/88782 I guess it's not as interesting as the Russian player that was signed out of the Santiago jail....

If I can get those two in a footbag tournament, that could get some more exposure...

[boyle]

I hit a new 5>5>5 today. Phoenix>Paradox Blender>Tomahawk

I really need to improve my fearless record, at least to add one more trick to a combo like that. There should be no reason not to hit a spinning ducking trick at some stage in that combo and add to the count. I would like to get to five fearless by the end of the year.

So Worlds is about to begin. I mentioned in Ken's blog a possible finals list, but I don't know how it's going to be organised or how many people will go in each pool. Good luck to everyone there, wish I was also there...

[Asmus]

Props on 5>5>5. Maybe practice it with Spinning Ducking Somethign in the start instead of the Phoenix?

[boyle]

That could work. I have hit quite a few 5>5>5 combos, now just need to move the count up a bit more! Hope to see you at the next Worlds...

[Asmus]

I hope to see you and a bunch of 5s in a row at next Worlds

[boyle]

even better!