Eastern Can. Freestyle Footbag Champ.Montreal : june22-23-24

[MathieuGM]

Eastern Canadian Freestyle Footbag Championship of Montreal 2012:

when: june 22-23-24

where: Montreal, Canada

locations: Place-des-Arts, La Caserne 1830, Jeanne-Mance Park (TAMTAM)

events: Open Circle, Inter Circle if enough people, Open Request and lot of fun.
Possible sideline events : golf, 2/4-square and mini-net.

Open Circle will be 2 phases :
phase 1 = variety
phase 2 = density

Schedule:

Friday
afternoon : sightseeing (climb Mont-Royal). Let me know if you want to be part of that. If no one show interest i will not make it happens .
6pm - 9pm : shred, bbq and pool at my place.

Saturday
12am: arrive at ''La Caserne 1830'' and get ready for competitions.
12:30 pm : Inter Circle qualification + finals
1:30pm : Open Circle Qualifications
2:30 pm : OpenCircle finals
3:30pm - 3:15pm : Request final
4:45 : cleaning the event site
5pm : leaving the event site
6pm : Barbecue + swimming + shower at Mathieu GM's place.
8pm - night : sightseeing or Party at Les Foufs depending of what people feel like.

Sunday
1pm - 6pm : TAMTAM, shred, square and relax. Jeanne-Mance Park.
6pm : Poutine at La Banquise
At night, those who want can come with me at 'Parc Maisonneuve'' for the party of the Quebec National Day.

entry cost (saturday):
competitors: 15$
Shredders : 10$
Spectators : 5 $

party: Les Foufs, saturday night

lodging: This year, most of the crash space will be at Mathieu GM place. My parents house has tons of floor space, but not many mastress. So i highly recommand you guys/girls bring what you need to sleep. I'll have enough space for everybody. I have a pool and a barbecue, wich i suggest we use. No problem for partys in the backyard/living room!

For people who wants a room at the hotel contact me, i'll let you know what the best options are.

directions and maps:
'' La Caserne 18-30''

3622, rue Hochelaga Est
Montréal, Québec
H1W 1J1
Téléphone : (514) 872-4498
Télécopieur : (514) 252-8096
This is like a block away from the Joliette subway station on Hochelaga street.

Place-des-Arts
175 St-Catherine west (ouest)
St-Caterine street, between Jeanne-Mance and St-Urbain.
metro Place-des-Arts (green line)
up the stairs, around the fountain, or if it's raining or at night: under the roof of the building next to the fountain.

For food around Place-des-Arts:
grocery (if it still exist), corner St-Urbain and René-Lévesque.
restaurant: go on St-Denis street. from St-Catherine street, walk 3-4 block in car traffic direction. turn left on St-Denis. (5-10 min walk)


TamTam
Parc Janne-Mance
From Place-des-Arts: go to corner of Jeanne-Mance and Maisonneuve street. Take bus # 80 Nord. get out at Parc Jeanne-Mance (in front of the statue). about 10-12 min ride. find soccer field on your right or the statue on your left.
or
from metro Mont-Royal:
exit metro, turn left on Mont-Royal street, walk 15 minutes, turn left on Avenue du Parc, walk 5 minutes, find soccer field on your left or the statue on your right.

Les Foufs
87 St-Catherine east (est), 514-844-5539
from Place-des-Arts: walk 1-2 block on St-Catherine street in car traffic direction. You'll see it on your left.

Mathieu GM's place
Ask me information by private message or in e-mail (giard-montpetit.mathieu@hotmail.com)
I'll be happy to provide all those information

Map :
https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=217 ... 8,0.132093

Information i would like you to send via PM plz.
Who's coming?

Who wants crash space?

Who wants to donate a price?

Who wants to judge? (Circle)

contact:
MathieuGM:
giard-montpetit.mathieu@hotmail.com
Cell phone number and address available on request. Send me a PM or a e-mail if you want it.


Here are a list of people the showed interest in the event and said the could make it.

From Canada
Mathieu GM (confirmed)
Ianek (confirmed)
Mathieu G (confirmed)
Sebastien Duchesne (confirmed)
JP Labbe (confirmed)
Julien Coté (confirmed)
Mathieu Soucy(confirmed)
Greg Raymond (confirmed)
Jay boychuk (confirmed)
Michelle (confirmed)
Jorden Moir (confirmed)
Dante (confirmed)
Eskimo Joe (confirmed)
Zach Forth (confirmed)
Katryna (confirmed)
Samuel Blais (confirmed)
Cassy Taylor (Confirmed)
And few more from montreal.

From Finland
Aleksi Airinen (confirmed)

From USA
Will Digges (90%)
Drew Martin (confirmed)
Jonathan Schneider (confirmed)
Mikie Etlinger


Mat

P.S. : In the next post you'll find more detail about the idea of the Eastern Canadian Freestyle Footbag Championship).

[MathieuGM]

Here are the details about the idea of having that championship.

Basically, Canada is way too big to have any kind of ''USO'' for Canada... A plane ticket from Montreal to VAncouver is crazy expensive... This is why we decided that having an Eastern Canadian Freestyle Footbag Championship (ECFFC) would make much more sens. We are aiming for ppl from Ontario and Quebec mostly. Obviously, Americans and people from western Canada are more then welcome to compete and have fun! If ever an american wopn the event, the he would be champ of the event, but the Eastern Canada Champion would still be the Canadian that performed the best at the event. If there are some people showing up from western canada, i think it would be fair enough to name them Eastern Canadaian Champ if they win. This is something we can debate together in a enar future.

Also, the idea of the Tournment would be to move it from one city to an other year after year, so everybody has the same chance to attend. E.g. : Montreal 2012, Kingston 2013, toronto 2014, Hamiltion 2015. Obviously these are only exemple, and the possibilites to host the event also depend of the fact that someone want to host it ... These are definitly not final destination or whatever!

The competition that will be held are not definitive yet. I'm 90% sure their will be circle and request. I don't know about routine. We will discuss that with the people within eastern canada.

If there are any other question about the event itself, let me know. I know it's not super detailled yet, but we want to have the event happen, and to do so i need to reserve venue. But as every jam in montreal that ever happened, you can be sure that everything will be well done .

Mat

[C-Fan]

Basically, Canada is way too big to have any kind of ''USO'' for Canada... A plane ticket from Montreal to VAncouver is crazy expensive...

That doesn't really make sense to me. Doesn't 90% of the Canadian population live within a 2 hour drive of the US border? If so, the part of Canada I'd be concerned about is just a strip along the border, that (granted) spans from the atlantic to the pacific. Compare that to the US, where people live from the Mexican border to the canadian border, and also has about the same width.

In the US, the footbag US Open is considered the national championship. A plane ticket from NYC to Portland is about the same price/distance as Montreal to vancouver, and a ticket from Florida to Portland would be even farther and more expensive. And yet, if you want to be the US champion, you fly that distance and compete.

If I were running your tournament, I'd just call it the Canadian Championship. It'd be the same amount of planning, you might get more people coming (for the chance to be national champ), and it'd be easier to get media attention and sponsorships.

USO for the last few years could have called itself "Western Regionals," but chose to be USO. I think that was the savvier decision, and I would definitely emulate it if I were in the situation you guys are in.

However you choose to play it, I applaud you for making a tournament, and I wish you the best of luck with it.

[yyz]

Also will you be having Footbag net?? If not it should be the Canadian Freestyle Footbag Championships

[MathieuGM]

thx for expressing you point Ken!

Yah well. The thing is that when we run a spring jam or whatever. We either have 1 player from the west coast, or 0.

And it's the same for tournement running on the western part of Canada.

So, we didn't want to claim to have a ''canadian'' champion if we are 90% sure ppl from western canada can't make it. we think mit's much more fair that way...

that said, yah it's POSSIBLE to make it from vancouver to montrael for a jam. But we know that in fact, it's most likely not going to happen.

For me, it cost the same to fly to San Francisco then to Vancouver :S! About 700$.... That's retard hu. So this is why we prefer to travel outside Canada instead of inside Canada... both cities are on the west coast. one is in Canada, the other is much more deep in the south, and in USA. And it coast the same.

So yah, we could have called it the canadian championship. But i feel it wouldn't have been fair for ppl from western canada. I feel cleaner calling it eastern...

Maybe i should have use different term then ''Canada is way too big to have any kind of ''USO'' for Canada...''

Mat

[MathieuGM]

Also will you be having Footbag net?? If not it should be the Canadian Freestyle Footbag Championships

good point Ted. you are definitly right. there is no net

I updated the name.

[Outsider]

Well, I'm somewhat interested in attending.

On the one hand, I really like Montreal -- its a cool place, and I'd like another visit to the Tam Tam Jam.

On the other hand, its a pretty long drive. Then again, its a pretty easy drive, as long drives go, and it takes me past Lake George, NY, which is a holy site and place of pilgrimage in my faith.

I'll think about it.

The idea of an Eastern Canadian Championships... well, any excuse for a tournament. But it doesn't really jive with my own theories of footbag promotion. In my theory, a tournament is a good footbag-promoting tool. Footbag is damn hard to promote, and I figure that promoting locally is the best place to start. I like to imagine that having a couple of local events is a good way to keep some of your "fringe" local players interested, or to attract some new locals. That is, some kickers aren't dedicated enough that they're out there training on their own, or training with the other two or three locals who are dedicated, but perhaps they'll show-up for fun on occasion. And, that local tournament could be like the lure that brings them out of hiding because #1 its a little bit bigger and better than the usual weekly jam, and #2 because it brings in other non-locals -- people that might inspire them more but they otherwise wouldn't see because they're from far away. In my theory, these are things that might help the local Montreal footbag scene grow. In my theory, one of the best things that you can do to promote footbag is just to expand your own local scene a little (or a lot, if you're lucky, but lets be realistic).

So, based on my own theory, I'm not really in favor of the idea of a traveling event that is in a different location from one year to the next. I'm not at all against the idea of a tournament in Toronto, or a Tournament in Kingston. I'd like to visit Toronto again because I thought it was a very cool place (and it reminds me of Rush, one of my favorite bands, more than Montreal does...), and I've never seen Kingston at all. But, in my theory, having a cool tournament in Montreal this summer, and maybe buidling up some enthousiasm and some new membership in the Montreal club, and then telling those new players or the newly re-inspired players there "Hey, guess what, we're NOT going to have this tournament here next year!" Yay! right? I say, give 'em something to look forward to, like "This tournament was great, and we can't wait to do it here again real soon!". Keep the enthousiasm up in your own neighborhood and let Toronto and Kingston try to do the same.

Well, thats my theory.

Anyway, the dates are okay, I think. I gotta check -- I'm not sure... The Boston guys were talking about hosting a jam in June. But they haven't put out anything specific. I figure I'm gonna roll up North to something in June, but probably not both. Maybe there won't even be a "both" to choose from, in which case, see ya in Montreal.

[sen]

Money is tight so I think I'll need to pass on this, but I wanted to chime in as a western Canadian. I think calling it the Canadian Freestyle Championships would be fine. If someone is willing to step up and organize CFC I think it would be a good thing for the Canadian scene. No one from out West is putting in the effort to do it and there is a bigger player population/density in the East so I say go for it. Go big!

"If you build it they will come" and all that jazz. If the player density ever shifts so there are more players in the west... well the Championships could be shifted at that point.

(heads off to look at flight costs)

[Muffinman]

Money is tight so I think I'll need to pass on this, but I wanted to chime in as a western Canadian. I think calling it the Canadian Freestyle Championships would be fine. If someone is willing to step up and organize CFC I think it would be a good thing for the Canadian scene. No one from out West is putting in the effort to do it and there is a bigger player population/density in the East so I say go for it. Go big!

This is how I feel too. I think it's a bit silly to call it Eastern Champs. The Canadian scene is small enough as it is without dividing it further. As it is I probably won't make it, being a broke student, but I'll have to see closer to when the time comes.

[boyle]

this was something that happened in Australia, I can't actually remember which year...2003 maybe, but there was an East Coast Regionals, and then no National Championships.

I think for a scene like Canada, where there is not that much happening on the west coast these days, it's better of to call it a national championship. As Ken said, that has a lot more chance at getting sponsors etc.

[MathieuGM]

Thx for all the advice guys.

As i said i didn't want to take the lead to call it the Canadian championship and do not really allow ppl from western canada to compete du to fees.

We also debatted that idea in PM within the people that are concerned. it's not only my personnal idea, pretty much eveyrbody from eastern canada agree with it. Just so you guys know i didn't decide that by myself on my coach haha!

That said, if there are support from ppl from the western canada that accept we call it that way, even if in fact very few of tghemn could make it, it would be fine for me.

for the year it will be an eastern one. but this is an idea that can be better for sure! I'm down to try to make it better in the next few years .

Mat

[Muffinman]

Well, I think the problem is that there are, like, 3-5 active players in Western Canada, and the only one who would likely post here already has.

[SlashC]

Ooooooooh. I would really like to attend this, but I am already going to be in Montreal at the end of May. I'm not saying it's out of the cards, but things are looking slim considering air fares have jumped from ~$450 for my upcoming trip to nearly $700 for the June dates. Maybe I can pre-compete?

As for the event name I don't really mind what it is called. I don't think there are going to be any freestyle tournaments hosted in western Canada any time soon. We toyed around with hosting a national championship in Edmonton a few years ago when we used to have a club with formal roles (president, secretary, treasurer, ect), but the idea fizzled out.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I'd love to go to this, but it depends on if my injury heals by then and when my summer course starts. Definitely interested though.

Props on organizing this one. I'd love to kick in Canada again.

[g00d33]

As of right now, I don't think I'll be able to

[MathieuGM]

hahaha Rorry!

would be so fun to pre record a performance of you haha

Like have 6 round of circle contest, a request on tape, and a routine haha!

We might fiure out something, only for fun .

Nick! I really hope you can make it! It's been a looooong time we haven't kick together. That would be sick + you could brag some PA ppl !

[Nathan]

Can't make it -- I'll be in Colorado this summer.

For what it's worth (as someone who isn't going and isn't Canadian) I would call it the Canadian Champs.

[Wasabi]

If I can catch a ride, I'll see about making an attendance. Summer traveling is honestly up in the air for me at the moment, and travel costs aren't helping to assert my thoughts on where I'd like to go.

That said, if I make it I'll be sure to have bags for sale at the Canadian Footbag Championships.

[abstract]

we kind of reached the "rotating city regional tourney" idea through conversations we were having about throwing jams this summer. instead of throwing a kickass & a montreal spring jam, to which people would most likely have to choose one or the other, we wanted to pool our efforts on throwing one good tourney.

ideally, we want to embrace jon's idea of developing the local communities & educating, but take that a step further & build a community spanning different cities. so even though this year the tourney would be in montreal & next year in toronto, the montreal, kingston & toronto crews would be working together to throw the best jam we can.

from that, the idea sprouted of canadian championships, but we didn't feel our small pool of input at the time allowed us to proclaim something so grandiose, hence the eastern championships.

so that's kind of how we got to where we are now.

"Where we go from here is a choice I leave to you." -Neo

[Camilleon]

I may be able to make it! Sounds fun, I'll definitely try!