Here's the story:
About a month ago, I was in Helsinki with some Exchange friends. I was walking with my German friend, David, and he paused to talk on his cell phone. Given the moment I had to wait, I thought I'd give my footbag a kick. I pulled out my yellow and blue Mr. Sandbag and hit clipper to same side osis then caught the bag and returned it to my pocket.
A felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to face a man, probably about 30 years old, who spoke to me in English and asked me where I was from. I told him I was from Canada and then he asked to see my footbag. At first I was cautious but he said he noticed my style as well as my footbag shoes (Adidas Rod Lavers). We started talking footbag and it turns out he's the chairman of the Footbag Association of Finland! He invited me to a training session in the kisahalli (sports hall) in Helsinki the following Wednesday. Of course I agreed! I gave him my contact information and everything worked out!
Now I am going to Helsinki every Wednesday to meet other footbag players for a good shred session. I'm playing with the best players in Finland, including previous European Champions and world-class competitors. It's awesome! Now I am practicing as often as I can, although exchange keeps me pretty busy.
Here's a video of the guys I play with. This video was taken in the kisahalli, so you can see where we practice every week. Unfortunately, I missed this session because I was switching host families. We don't take a video every week, but this shred was special since Anssi "Anz" Sundberg was visiting Helsinki from his home-city of Turku. He uploaded this video on the world footbag forums at www.modified.in.
Video credit goes to "Lauri" *The background music contains a few profane lyrics
And here's an old video of me at the kisahalli attempting to hit "ripwalk". I can do this a lot better now :)
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5 comments:
So- this is super crazy. Seriously. I didn't know that people could do that and I still don't understand how. I can't even see the footbag half the time! Talk about a coincidence- wow you are lucky to have met that guy and gotten to practice with/be amazed&inspired by those world class 'footbaggers', or whatever you call them. I bet that you look forward to Wednesdays more than ever now :) Well have a fun time with that- we'll have to see some new tricks when you get back! Haha- so you have lots of time to become pro at them ALL! Good luck and have a great weekend...
-Hilary
PS: Video chat sometime?
Dante!
That is so amazing, those guys are crazy! You are going to be super good when you come back to Canada! What an awesome experience though, keep working on those tricks and then post videos!
Jane
Hi Dante! WOW Those videos of the famous people doing foot bag are pretty cool! You are pretty good at it too. Maybe someday you will be a famous foot bagger too!!? I want to learn how to do it! But I think it's really hard and it must take ALOT of patience. From Alison
Yo, that stuff is crazy. As if you get invited to that while you're there... I'll have to keep checking in to se what else you get into lol.
Peace,
Matt
Hey Dante,
Nice footbag skills. 10 seconds? U gota b kidin me. The 1st video was super kool. hearing from the krows? hows finland treatin ya? Foot bag sport is so kool. I might try to do a few skills myself. Merry X-mas!
-Elisha Bauer-Maison
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