When joining new circles, or simply questioned by curious passers by, I often get asked a variety of questions or comments about the footbags I’m using. Almost inevitably, one or both of these two things come up:

1. That footbag looks small!
2. Is that legal for competition?

My answers are always the same. In short, “Yes, and, yes.” Now for the long answers:

1. In general, the footbags that are used by seasoned freestylers are significantly smaller than they were ten years ago. That’s because there has been more and more focus on moves with multiple dexterities (circling the footbag with the leg/foot). The upper echelon of players today can consistently land tricks with four dexes (e.g. nemesis, arch-nemesis, blurriest swirl, pixie paradon swirl…)! Getting around the bag four times with a big floppy sack is unnecessarily challenging, hence the shift toward smaller diameter bags.
2. The International Footbag Committee, specifically the Rules Committee, lists the specific characteristics of a legal footbag as follows:
   

   107.01. Footbag Specifications

   To be used in competition, footbags must:

   A. Be approximately spherical in shape;

   B. Have a soft, pliable covering; they cannot be rigid balls;

   C. Contain loose filling of any material; and

   D. Be subject to the following size and weight restrictions:

         1. Diameter of footbag: Minimum: 2.54cm (1.0 inches); Maximum: 6.35cm (2.5 inches)

         2. Weight of footbag: Minimum: 20g (0.71 ounces); Maximum: 70g (2.47 ounces)

All of the footbags sold on Freedom Footbags (with the exception of the Nighthack) would be considered legal for competition. See our footbag comparison table for size and weight data.

The following photos show a SandMaster (a good intermediate footbag, representative of how large footbags used to be – though maybe a bit larger) and a Fearless 55 (a top level professional bag – the typical size for a pro bag today – though maybe a tad smaller) with standard golf ball for comparison. My how things have changed!

• SandMaster:
  

• Fearless 55:
  

Last weekend was the 27th Annual International Footbag Players Association East Coast Footbag Championships!

I had an awesome time there and was psyched to see two old friends, Dr. Sunil Jani and Brian McKenzie. Even though they were both supposedly “retired” they managed to bust out some very nice runs for a couple of old guys (like me).

I shot a few pictures on Sunday and also got a couple of video clips. In the net arena, after about 50 tries, I finally got one decent shot of a spike in the Open Doubles Net Finals (picture to right, the bag is outlined in blue)

That’s Dan Greer getting some good air (over a 5 foot net). He’s partnering with Vince Bradley and spiking on Jim Hankens (bald guy) and Greg Nice. Later in the series, I got this video (right, 19MB) of a nice stuff by Jim (off Vince’s spike).

During the informal shred on Sunday afternoon, I shot a couple of clips of David Clavens and Ryan Thomas busting out. I got a good clip of the super smooth antics of Ryan (brown shirt, 40MB) landing several difficult four-adders and five five-add moves. I also got most of a very solid run by David Clavens (no shirt. 61MB)… I just missed his fist trick, which, for the record, was a genesis (furious whirl) – sorry Dave, it was a sweet link!

Note: If you’re having difficulty viewing the videos, you may want to right-click and “Save Link as” to watch them directly on your confuser. Alternatively, you can watch them directly in our video gallery or watch the YouTube versions at the bottom of this post.

I’d like to send out a special “Thank You!” to Vince Bradley, tournament director extraordinaire. He’s now run the East Coast Footbag Championships for the last 15 years in a row, and this time he finally won at his own event (in both singles’ and doubles’ net). The (partial) results were as follows:

Freestyle Events:
Open Routines

1. David Clavens (PA)
2. Daryl Genz (ID)
3. Ryan Thomas (MD)

Open Circle

1. David Clavens (PA)
2. ?
3. ?

Intermediate Circle

1. Barrett Neimeth (NY)
2. Mike Angeski (OH)
3. Mark Bull (NY)

Open Big3

1. David Clavens (PA)
2. Ryan Thomas (MD)
3. Aric McIntosh (NC)

Intermediate Big3

1. Mark Bull (NY)

Net Events:

Open Singles’ Net

1. Vincent Bradley (MD)
2. Dan Greer (PA)
3. Mark Hunsberger (PA)

Open Doubles’ Net

1. Vincent Bradley (MD)/ Dan Greer (PA)
2. Greg Nice (NJ)/Jim Hankins (NJ)

Novice Net

1. Nikolai (PA)
2. Patrick Neary (VA)
3. Nick P. (NJ?)
4. Noah Hunsberger (PA)
5. Jesska (MD) tied Andrew (MD)
6. Steven (MD) tied Nick (MD)

There were some very unique trophies for this tournament. Mine is shown to the right. Thanks to everyone for attending, and also to Adrianne Dukes for helping run the event.

Edit: I just uploaded the videos to YouTube as well:

I love the Quantum Footbag shoes and so does Mark Monistere! He sent me this video today…he had purchased 4 pairs of Quantums from the defective batch…since they are no longer being made he wanted to make sure he could play in them for years to come.

Here he is hitting a 555 combo!

Mark Monistere of Metairie, Louisiana

• What: IFPA East Coast Footbag Championships
• When: This Weekend, May 22nd and 23rd, 2010
• Where: College Park Community Center in College Park, Maryland, USA
• Who: D.C All Stars are hosting

This is an IFPA sanctioned event. It’s a footbag tournament and therefore I am predicting this event will be a BLAST (based solely on past experience… Even though this will be my first ever East Coast Championships, it is somewhere around my fiftieth tournament). Yes, since I’m temporarily situated on the East Coast, I’ll be making my way over for the weekend to see some old friends and make some new ones. Freedom Footbags will be sponsoring this event. I just got my tickets a few minutes ago and I’m already feeling excited… Now I just need to get in shape over the next week, yea sure.



I apologize for taking so long to post the results for our “Top Excuses for Dropping a Footbag Competition“. I was just going to give just one prize, but we had several good answers and it was a difficult choice. Therefore, without further ado:

• Place: Runner Up
• Prize: Honorable Mention only
• Author: Brian Bear (maker of the Bear Bag)
• Excuse: “I made this bag special so when I switch to my normal bag I’ll land more tricks and feel like I improved ”

———–

• Place: 3rd
• Prize: $5.00 Gift Certificate
• Author: Timothy
• Excuse: “Normally I’m dropless, but this gravity is so much different than the moon.”

———–

• Place: 2nd
• Prize: $10.00 Gift Certificate
• Author: Cory A
• Excuse: “On a clear day, a unexpected raindrop hit the bag, my exceptional footbaging senses noticed it. The approximate .0331415926 M/S velocity increase made me quiver. I was in a tight spot, i didn’t have much time to think. I made my choice. I overcompensated. It was as simple as that.”

———–

• Place: 1st
• Grand Prize: $25.00 Gift Certificate
• Author: Chris
• Excuse: “It’s the only way to end a purposefully all-the string.”

———–

Congratulations to all of our winners! (They will be notified via email in moments).

As a side note for those that don’t know, in footbag the term “the” (rhymes with “duh”) refers to a dexterity that isn’t clean. For example, a “the” around the world would be one where the foot made the motion of going around the bag, but didn’t actually circle the bag.

We’ll have another contest coming later this month, so stay tuned to the Freedom Footbags Blog (or subscribe to our feed in the box at the bottom of this page)!