Footbag In Helsinki

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 :)