Wow! What a worlds it was this year! It is so awesome to see the level of play going steadily up every year. I didn’t compete this year – it was nice to be able to sit on the sidelines and simply watch the routines without the pressure of being a competitor or a judge. While there were other events, the freestyle routines are my favorite and considered by many to be the standard by which “the” world champion is judged.
There were notable moments from each of the three rounds. Lon Smith had an incredible routine first round and it was the highlight of the day for me (Thanks to John Goode for the slightly shaky video) :
Unfortunately, Lon’s semifinal routine was not quite as solid, and the competition for making it to finals was extremely difficult!
Nick Landes (stitcher of the Fourkast 14 footbag, which, coincidentally is the footbag that Lon Smith used in his dropless first round routine) had an epic semi-finals routine:
Thanks to Evan Lovely for capturing and posting this video (and rooming with us at Worlds).
The singles finals routines were absolutely incredible. My good friend Peter Irish was the emcee for the event. Woman’s Champion Tina Aeberli dominated the field and clinched her 5th straight world title with this awesome routine:
A honorable mention goes out to Sunny Freeman Genz (co-owner of Freedom Footbags) for making it to the finals and placing 6th in the world.
The open finals pool was incredibly densely packed with talented shredders. Two players, David Clavens and Milan Benda had two of the best routines ever… All I can say is I’m very glad that I didn’t have to be the judge.
Second Place, David Clavens:
And the 2010 World Champion, Milan Benda (using a Bear Bag footbag):
I believe this is the first time in history a player with the last place seed managed to clinch the world title. Very well done!
Most of these videos are available at Evan’s YouTube channel where you can watch these videos in high definition (720p):
It’s that time of year again, time to head to Portland and shred with Sole Purpose and other footbaggers from around the country, and the world! In 2007 Jim Penske was crowned national champ, only to have David Clavens take it from him the following year. In 2009 Jim wanted the chance to reclaim the title, but instead attended his brother’s wedding in Northern Idaho. Scott Bevier, a new transplant to Portland, currently holds the title. I can still remember his awesome routine at the Nautilus event site in Vancouver, Washington (just across the river from Portland). The choreography was excellent!
There is going to be a lot of talent at this weekend’s event. With the World Championships beginning the following week, many Europeans have made their way to the US and will be competing at both events. I can’t wait to see all the amazing shred! I especially love the Water Temple Shred on Monday, after the official tournament has come to a close.
If you are in the area, come check it all out! And if you don’t make it, you can find the results online at www.footbag.org That’s also where you’ll find all the info to get you there. Peace
Oh, and here is a video of Scott’s winning routine from 2009.
Freedom Footbags will be attending the Boise Rec Fest at Ann Morrison Park this weekend! We’ll have a booth set up and will be offering the majority of the items from our shop. Additionally, on Saturday at 3:00pm we’ll be holding a workshop (they call it a Hacky Sack workshop, but we’ll only have footbags on foot, er hand). We’ll have instruction for players of all levels. For those of you old schoolers that still have VHS players, we’ll have a bunch of free VHS shred video tapes available (while supplies last).
Originally, we were quite disappointed with this article, for the simple reason that we provided them the Fire Footbag to use to make this video…
And then they went and linked to another company’s product! That has since been remedied (they fixed their link), and their karma is cleared.;). That being said, they did have an interesting take on the whole article/video, but apparently they didn’t read the very important SAFETY INFORMATION first!!! Oh my word I hope they had a fire extinguisher handy when they made that video!
The other thing I found entertaining (from an informed perspective about the sport) was that they claimed to have landed a “sick pogo butterfly move” with this object. First of, I say, “yeah, right.” And secondly, pogo butterfly (which is a no-plant stepping-set butterfly) is only worth 5 adds, and the link is to www.footbag.org’s 6-add move list. Even though it’s not to the right place, I was happy to see them linking to the best resource out there! Footbag dot org is without question the best place for players to find players anywhere in the world. If you want to really see what footbag is about, you need to go to a tournament, and footbag.org is the place to find the one nearest you.
On a side note, I remember being called early one morning a couple of months ago by a rather distraught lady from Wired Magazine, hoping to get another Fire Footbag sent to them via Next Day Air. She said the fire footbag had gotten wet and they couldn’t figure out how to restart it. In my head I remember thinking they must have used water to put the thing out… However, After watching the video, I see that they were more dedicated than I originally gave them credit for. I told her the key was to just douse the thing in fuel – even a wet bag will restart with enough fuel on it. I guess at least it was sanitized once they got it restarted.
And, though we don’t have a 6-add move, this video shows Jim Penske hitting a 5-adder with a fire bag:
The short, simple answer: The best footbag is not Hacky Sack! The best footbag for you is ultimately dependent on just what you want to do with it. Whether it is ridiculously difficult tricks or just basic kicks, we’d strongly recommend against any Hacky Sack brand named footbags. Even though they were the “original footbag”, they just aren’t what they used to be. Invented in 1972 by John Stalberger and Mike Marshall in Eugene Oregon, the first original footbags were quality products. However, once Hacky Sack was taken over by Wham-O, the production was moved to China and the product greatly suffered; stressing quantity over quality.
Here at freedom footbags, we have a very different philosophy, stressing quality over quantity. Our top recommendations, based on what you are looking for in the best footbag are as follows:
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