I was digging through my boxes last night and came across some old CD’s from a number of years ago. I popped them into to my mac and wow, was that ever a blast from the past! Amongst old (and often hilarious) footage of myself, I came across some footage that I used to host on the earliest incarnations of my web site (back when I was serving myslef off my home computer). The first clip almost brought tears to my eyes as I watched it and remembered being there … I couldn’t resist uploading Peter Irish’s first round performance at the 1997’s World Championship’s in Portland, Oregon..
World’s ‘97 was my first real introduction to the footbag community outside of my own small town and I consider myself highly privledged to have participated in that event and witnessed some of the true pioneers of our game in a totally different era of footbag. I still have vivid memories of talking with Jubal and Jeremy about Tuan Vu’s ripwalk’s and how impossible that move seemed to me back then 
The other radical clip I found comes from a little later on in footbag history, but Ryan Mulroney’s winning routine from World’s 2000 was equally inspiring and brought up as many or more fond memories of my initiations into the footbag community.
So, I’m posting these videos in the Freedom galleries to highlight a little something from our past and because I think that maybe it’s time we (especially the newer players) took some time for reflection and realize that we still have a lot to learn about artistic presentation and how a freestyle routine should be composed. Young-uns take notice: routines need art. Look to these pioneers as examples to learn from and build upon and show us more of it!!
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September 20th, 2005 at 11:14 am
Thanks for posting this routine Allan, I dont think I’ve seen that 1st round footage ever. The finals is of course included on Tricks of the Trade 2. That week in 97 was one of the most magical of my life in so many ways which I wont elaborate here, but especially performing with Toby Robinson live on Didj set up a vibe that I have never surpassed in any routines before or since. The finals energy was so strong I almost left my body. Much Love to Toby, Allan, Daryl, Sunny and the Freedom Posse.
September 20th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
Peter! I’m actually sorry that you haven’t seen this before. Normally, I ask permission from people before I post, but I could have sworn that I asked you back in 2000 if it was ok to use this clip, and I did have it published on my old, old web sites for about a year — so I’m surprised you haven’t seen it before, but stoked that it seems to be OK with you
I’ve been meaning to send along a private email to you since World’s –congratluating you on your incredibile routine from this year!! One of your best ever!! But I’m still going to write that email really soon, so that’s all I’ll say here.
Thanks Pete, for being great and all that good stuff
You’re my hero 