IMPORTANT!INFO 30th annual ECFC!!! Post all details here!!

[cd]

Thanks Jon and Ted for all the hard work.

There's something with the schedule that I'd like to suggest: Having it go Intermediate->open->Intermediate->open isn't the best setup for the players since they have to stay warm through the other level's event. But then I noticed that the times are very crunched together (which is good imo). I'm all for powering through events like this, but I think it's better to do all intermediate, then all open events. It lets the players enjoy themselves for a longer portion of the day without thinking of competing next, and it's more efficient because you already have all the players from one event gathered and ready to go when the next event starts.

For instance, on Saturday it could go something like:
3:00-4:15 Intermediate Routines and Circle
4:15-5:30 Open Routines and Circle

I'm no expert, and I'm not complaining or trying to tell you guys how to run it, but I figure this was a good time to speak up. And maybe there are other constraints specific to this festival. I'll be happy with however it goes down.

[cd]

Oh, and is all the prize money going to Ken or will there be some for second and third?

[Outsider]

Oh, and is all the prize money going to Ken or will there be some for second and third?

First of all, I'M going to be this year's East Coast Championship. Ken who?
Second, I'm going to share the prize money with my runners-up. As usual, we're paying $$ to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in all OPEN events (Routines & Circle, Singles & Doubles Net)
Third, the Kikbo contest will probably be a "winner-take-all" in the neighborhood of $50 bucks.

Last, I will strongly consider your suggestions regarding the arrangement of Intermediate and Pro events. I will discuss with some other assistant-freestyle-directors as well as likely open and intermediate competitors (in some cases they're the same people) in New York City tomorrow. I'll get back to this soon.

[yyz]

John and Chris I was thinking that sat I may have to move the int routines to 1pm do to some net scheduling problems, It actually would be better , WELL for me!! Plus it will get the people at dumbo's attention and then we can do more footbag there(we shall have to have the int and staff folks reduce there fri parting though) then while we are waiting for the pro's we have more time to work the crowed!!

[Hania]

So, I have a question. Will i sell any footbags, if I come to this tournament?
I'd love to come, but I'm not sure if i can afford it.

[C-Fan]

I'd buy a footbag from you, Hania. Especially if you could make a heavier one for me.

I encourage people to buy Hania bags so she can come. Because:

1. Hania is cool.
2. She makes excellent bags.
3. People who didn't go to Worlds this year can see for their own eyes that Ted is not Hania.

[Outsider]

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I for one can use a new Hania bag...

I am also revising the Freestyle SCHEDULE (in more ways than one). --- Please have a look at the new schedule on Page 1 of this thread, or on Footbag.org

[BeginnerAgain]

Hania, I'll also buy at least one footbag from you.

[CIC flurry]

3. People who didn't go to Worlds this year can see for their own eyes that Ted is not Hania.

[etphonehome]

Hype!

[yyz]

yes I am much better looking, but she is pretty as well!!!

[DTank126]

That video was awesome! It has inspired me to kick for the first time since leaving Boston.

Also, this is suuuuuuuper last notice but if anyone between Rochester NY and NYC needs a ride to the event I'd be happy to oblige.

Can't wait to see everyone in a couple days!

[isirc10]

Quick question regarding prize bags - would the kind gentlemen who are organizing this even accept a 92 panel prize bag from me? If so, I will bring mine and donate it. I will also be bringing two others with very REASONABLE prices if anyone is interested. Looking forward to a great weekend!

[boats]

SATURDAY night there is a dance party going on at Big Snow Buffalo Lodge (89 varet st. brooklyn). All Ages! No Byob. Anyone down? LASAGNAAAA!!!

[cd]

By what time to I need to arrive on Saturday in order to compete?

Also I can't find my flash drive, so can I email my song to someone? I know you said you weren't taking music ahead of time, so maybe I could send my song to another player that will already be bringing routine music.

Edit: It's been sorted out.

[Outsider]

The 30th Annual East Coast Footbag Championships is now a matter of history.

There is much that can be said about it all. I'm too tired to get into that now. I just felt like the first thing I wanted to say was THANK YOU to alot of people.

Thank you to everyone who came and played and participated and helped-out. Footbag is great because we make it great by showing up and doing it. Footbag just wouldn't be nearly as cool without all the people who show-up because they love to play, and who love each-other because we all love footbag. Thanks for coming -- you make this game great.

Thanks especially to all those members of NYFA (the best fucking club) for all the extra stuff they did for me and the tournament this weekend. Thanks to Bruce Dole and Tony Glick and Doug Tank for spending so much time judging the competitions. Its a sucky and thankless job, but somebody's got to do it. Double-thanks to Bruce for designing and procuring our t-shirts and helping with so much other pre-event co-ordination stuff... I can't even remember it all.

Thanks to Waylon Lew and Matt Cross who did A TON of cool stuff for me for virtually nothing except my gratitude. These guys supported the event before it happened by sponsoring us with sweet prizes, and they worked HARD at the event itself. Matt kicks butt working the mic as THE MC -- I've had to hold that mic a few times myself, and that job is tougher than it looks. Matt just makes it look easy. Waylon especially did too many jobs to count -- carrying gear, cleaning-up our event-site after a badly-timed rain-shower, manning our sales booth -- all this stuff was totally unplanned, and Waylon just kept volunteering for more. Thanks a ton buddy.

David Beyers helped me in many ways as well --- the art-work he did spur-of-the-moment was great and helpful, and the Music and microphone equipment courtesy of David's friends was awesome and we cannot even measure the value that this added to our tournament. Thanks for hooking that up for us, thanks for getting up early and bringing your friends and their gear. Tell Gabriel and Frank I said thanks again.

Thanks to Kevin Hogan and John Goode for helping me move big trees --- as freestylers we didn't get anything out of it personally, but I heard that the Net Demos at that Pearl Street Triangle were a big success, and we helped make that possible by moving all that stuff out of their way --- none of them even knows what we did for 'em, but I'm sure it was worth it.

On the other hand, Jim Hankins who ran Net really did us a big favor that didn't benefit him at all and most of us wouldn't have realized what he did --- the DUMBO Arts Fest was supposed to hook us up with electricity for our music, but there was some kind of misunderstanding... Jim put in significant time and effort and money at the very last minute in the middle of what was already a very very stressful situation for him personally to come to our rescue and get us a generator to power our music. He did all these kinds of things in the run-up to the event, and kept doing it under mounting pressure throughout.

And, Ted Fritsch... Ted is a big pain in the... neck, but there simply would not have been a 30th Annual East Coast Championships without him, and we definitely would not have played for such a large and enthusiastic audience all weekend without him. And just so everybody knows -- despite any reservations you may have had about this event, Ted worked like an absolute dog all weekend (and well before) to put together most of the big details of this event on pretty short notice, and it was tough-going all the way. And I'm sure he barely got to play any footbag at all all weekend long... Thanks very much Ted. We all owe you thanks.

There are many others who helped -- I can't even think of 'em all right now -- I'm running on fumes right now and it was a busy weekend... Mikey Etlinger and even more-so his lovely girlfriend Alissa -- Alissa worked all-day on Saturday selling footbags and giving out our info to interested people -- she raised a substantial amount of money to help the event (actually, all that dough went directly into prize-money)

Thanks Nate Pipenberg for coming, and for the sponsorship of our prizes, and I'm really sorry that I made you miss your bus... I'll try to make it up to you soon.

I'm forgetting some, I know. I'm sorry about that. Thanks again. See ya next year.

[slapdash21]

free form write up from my perspective:

-Fung Wah Bus is GARBAGE. its bad enough they rollover every few trips out there, this time 2 buses in a row simply didnt show. so me and hogan waited in south station from about 545-730 for no particular reason friday night, getting drunker than i meant to be before leaving boston....as usual

-bumped into Ollie and Larson at south station while we waited....there was about 40+ppl ahead of us in line and 100+ ppl behind us in line. with much patience and ignoring glares and shoulders/elbows we managed to pretend we were supposed to meet them all along and got them into the line behind us.

-730 a bus finally shows up. finally entrusted hogan with his ticket to hold onto...for the last couple steps towards the bus. ppl, grumbling about "they better not get on before ME," shove their way past ollie and larson as the bus loads up...

-hogan and i were 2 of the last 4 people to get on, ollie and larson get left behind, but at the front of the line, so we still did a good deed, tho they didnt make it on with us. glad for that, they coulda been there for a couple more hours otherwise...

-since we were the last few people on, no seats together so we cant watch boondocks on his laptop on the way there. i grabbed the seat next to a skinny, timid, nerdy white kid on a tablet, leaving hogan with the gigantic black woman whos loudly talking on the phone while drinking a mysterious purple liquid. cant blame her...

-took a couple benadryl, drank, listened to my ipod, twisted spliffs to pass the time...hogan passed the time by getting too fucked up, passing out, and losing his wallet before we even got off the bus. cant really blame him either. buses suck.

-20 blocks away from the bus station he realized he lost it. says he should go back. i say that makes no sense cuz its the damn fung wah and that bus is prob halfway back to boston already loaded with people. he called the "lost and found" a bunch of times, but it turns out they only pick up the phone once a day, and they only speak muffled chinese.

-didnt compete because they were asking for $50. im short on $ right now so thats a convenient excuse, but i dont think its right to ask for that much of footbaggers, even when theres prize money up for grabs. its just too damn much, especially for only circle and routines (i wouldnt do a routine at this point unless you PAID ME 50 bucks), and isnt in the youthful, broke ass spirit of the sport as i see it)

-didnt play any pool against ken, unfortunatly. he was being nice and acting like im godly compared to him, which i gurantee isnt true, and anything can happen in any given game, so his chances of winning would have been much better than he gave himself credit for. woulda been wicked fun tho regardless

-also ken (and a couple other people, chris dean, pipebomb, etc) complimented my shred. that was really nice of them....getting respect from baggers of their caliber (and ken asking if i had hit some ridiculous huge move, eliciting a laugh and thank you from me) makes me feel good even if it isnt necessarily true. im not as good as i "should" be, i dont put in as much effort as any of them, but ive put in a good amount of time, effort, money, and knee cartilage into this sport so its nice to get feedback.

-stayed in harlem with ben little and elysia (sry if i misspelled it, i know thats close as least...)

-didnt hang out with bruce dole enough.

-saw the apollo theater

-played kikbo (shuttlecock) with the guy (damn cant remember his name....he was cool tho, and deserves the following plug:) whos taking that sport in a good direction, and makes a very good product (best ive ever used as far as control and fun), and is crazy sick with it, along with doug and a couple other guys for about an hour. SO much fun.

-smoked out on the front stoop (again, only cool cuz its harlem and ben little)

-slept on a futon thats prob more comfortable than my own at home

-saw some sights for once!

-paid tribute at "Ground Zero"...neither i nor hogan had EVER been, so it was important to me. were both really glad we did.
(quote of the night, me: "yeah...this is def a good tribute to my dead homies that i didnt know...amerukuh fuck yeah"

-drank in a playground in crooklyn at like 11 pm while hogan tried to get the timing down for whirring swirl, while waiting for boats to make it to big snow so we could hopefully get in for free instead of paying 7 bucks to sit in the corner of a basement

-did just that

-hahah hogan....well lets just say hogan was in rare form saturday night at the party and never QUITE made it back to ben littles

-GOT RECOGNIZED BY PIPENBERG. best feeling all weekend. good talking with him especially sat night at big snow. hes def got his footbag head screwed on his shoulders right, if nothing else, and is mad cool

-took the train home from brooklyn to harlem at like 3 AM with ben little. i zonked out, he graded papers ...got in at like 4 am.

-yo toolans the man. im really starting to dig his non-competitive footbag ways. i suck at competing at footbag. might as well have fun since i paid to get there and competition always messes up my timing as far as warming up and cooling down for the day.

-rain shred sunday for a bit, then it stopped. watched circle finals, said our peace outs, and headed out.

-smoked a spliff STANDING IN LINE with like 150 other people around us on a sidewalk in chinatown, with 2 NYPD cruisers parked directly across the street, waiting for the fung wah

-on the bus at about 6 pm, got a seat next to m'boy, had some EXCELLENT footbag (gurl) talk, got into boston around 10:15 amazingly.

-thanks to everyone that showed up. running an event can be tough, but honestly even just showing up can often be a big sacrifice as i learned this weekend (and this week, in which i'll have about 20 bucks for food and could get my cell phone turned off...) especially the newbs/yung bloodz. im a hypocrite cuz im more guilty of this than anyone, tho its partially because im not good at approaching people i dont know in a typical friendly way, but people STILL dont show newbs enough love, or mix circles evenly, etc. not pointing fingers, it isnt easy, but we were all there once.

-thanks to ppl running it, boats is my dude, love loose bruce the goose, good job matt cross, schneiders a legend (and is STILL making finals circle), etc to whoever i forgot, and most importantly the people supporting them in the "background" doing all the thankless tasks. mikey, the emcees, etc.

oh and i hit gyro legoverberger, merkonberger, my first midstring whirlwind ever (first out of osis too, tho it was easier than from clipper has ever been) and a few other random shits

and im spent.

[dolercoaster]

Good stuff...it was nice to hear about your misadventures in the city, Pete, but yeah, normally I'd be part of them, making them far, far worse. Hopefully next time we'll hang a bit more!


That was an exhausting process, I hope everyone had a good time! The site was supurb, the shred was stunning...the exposure was exciting, and the sales were salacious. Or something. Thanks to everyone, sponsors, organizers, players, and friends/family/pets of players, for all their various and wonderful contributions to ECFC30!!!

[yyz]

sorry pete but we could have haggled a bit about your entry fee, remember that next time. It is unfortunate, but ECFC was mostly funded money wise by the various players. Thanks for the props john, and pete I competed freestyle open but only paid intermediate entry fee( yes even I paid). We were able to give out $2190 in prize money. John thanks again for running freestyle, my last ever routine was exactly like my first ever. Jim h and john s REALLY made the prize money thing happen. I believe if you want the top players then you have to give out good money. They both are in line for a nice tax break( which means they each put up a lot of money). Thanks bruce, waylen, david mike E and girlfriend, greg, dan g, the DJ's any everyone who came out. I was totally exhausted, and it was TOTALLY worth it. DUMBO said we were great so will see if we go back next year??? Not %100 but I am sure bruce dropped some dough as well. OK SO WHO WANTS TO HOST WORLDS 2012??????????????

[slapdash21]

yeah, not bitching at all, just 1 mans opinion. i wouldve felt like a shithead if i competed for less than what everyone else gave. but yeah absolutely great overall, thanks again yous guys