Month: March 2007

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Video: 1998 FPAW Co-op Champions Demo

Many people have asked about this performance. It became a tradition when Seattle hosted the FPA Worlds to have the champions do a demo performance at the end of the competition. In 1998, Dave Murphy, Dave Lewis and I won the co-op title by a hair over Randy Silvey, Larry Imperiale and Bill Wright so we were invited to do the demo.

I was especially happy about it because I didn’t feel we put our best performance down in the finals. It was quiet, without the amplitude and fire from our practices. The demo was an opportunity to go for it, to show the kind of runthroughs we did when it was just Dave, Dave and Arthur practicing in Santa Monica.

1998 was the year Dave Murphy swept the open titles, also winning Pairs with Ted Oberhaus in a legendary performance that won Routine of the Decade. Maybe it was Murf coming down after a weekend of impeccable play. Maybe it was a fluke, but in between a lot of incredible moves, Murf missed several of his money moves, to the point where it became comical.

One of the reasons people have asked about this routine is a move I did. Yes, this is “the routine where Arthur does the quad crow.” But really, there are a lot of other moments in this five minutes, from Murf’s clean standing gitis pull to his indig take off my flamingo skid to Dave’s double spinning utl pull on a second disc to his double spinning gitis off Murf’s brush set and a rare aerial bad attitude. Sometimes, you have to look away from the main action to see the biggest moves.

I hope you enjoy this video.

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Sick Moves: Supernova


Fabio sent me a video, innocently asking what I thought. He’s a sneaky bastard! He should have put a warning on the video: WARNING: MIGHT CAUSE HEART ATTACK. This move is about as cutting as the edge gets.

Double spinning barrel catches are hard. I’ve done a few myself, even though the catch currently labeled barrel doesn’t use the hand position of a pure barrel. It’s still hard. Double spinning barrel gitis? Harder. Dave Lewis somehow got consistent at them. I might have done one in my life.

Double spinning barrel gitis pull? I can’t say I’ve seen one. No, I’m sure I haven’t because if I had, it would have stopped me in my tracks. Now take that one step further. Double (thanks Jeff for the correction, “just” a single spin. I’m getting senile) spinning against the spin barrel gitis pull. That’s what Fabio does in this video, then he bails to a simple double spinning barrel gitis to close the combo. Way to play it safe!

I’ve never seen this move. Fabio would love to know if an other freestyler has ever done it. He would like to name it Supernova – and the double spinning barrel gitis pull would be a Nova. A lot of freestyle happened while I wasn’t looking, so if you’ve seen this move, let us know. I can imagine less than five freestylers in history who would be in a position to even think about doing this move. It’s that sick!

Here’s a bonus photo of Fabio doing one of those easy double spinning barrel gitis catches during his 2005 visit to the SF Bay Area:

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DiscTwirls

Jan Soerensen is looking for feedback on a direction of freestyle he’s been exploring, kind of an updated version of one of the earliest freestyle tricks, the twirl:

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2007 Wintershred AKA Alaskashred

Usually, Wintershred is played in balmy, summer weather because San Francisco’s climate is…well, I probably should set a good example and not use that kind of language on my own site. We have played Wintershreds in February with temperatures in the high 70’s. It looked like that would be the case this year, as the temperatures Friday reached the high 70’s and hit 80 in areas.
San Francisco is anything but predictable. Anyone who forgot to bring layers of clothes today was sunk. I threw on sweatpants and a fleece just in case, and even that wasn’t enough. When I arrived, the temperature might have been 50, with a borderline stiff breeze. It was…Alaskashred.

Continue reading “2007 Wintershred AKA Alaskashred”

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Shrednow Is YouTube-enabled

You can now share YouTube videos in Shrednow stories. I have adjusted our security settings to allow the embedded YouTube (and probably Google Video too) player. When you create a story that uses a YouTube video, just make sure to select “HTML Formatted” instead of “Plain Old Text”.

Here’s some footage Fabio and Eleonora put together from EFC 2006:

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Paga 2007: To Compete Or Not To Compete?

I am going to Paganello for the first time ever after 10 years of watching it from afar and envying those who have been able to be there. I am really excited about Paga, but more so to see all my friends after almost a year away from Europe.

The first challenge was finding a way to travel to Paganello. After searching for months, I was able to find a good airfare. Once I figured that out, another question appeared: will I compete or just jam? Experiencing Paganello is one thing, but having the experience of competing in Paganello is legendary. Will I feel like I’m missing out by not competing?

The question is actually a bit trickier now because it is so late. There are only a few weeks until Paga, and most players have already teamed up. Usually I have been able to put together superteams of elite players, and that has spoiled me because superteams have a tendency to place well.

No superteam this year, but competing at Paganello with the rising European stars might be just as fun. I had a great time playing in Köln with Flo Hess.

And here is the quandary. In order to compete in Paga, I need to find a team soon, but part of my process for finding a team is finding a bond – jamming with someone, knowing them. For instance, Flo and I had jammed for a few weeks before Köln.

If I compete at Paga, I won’t have a chance to put together the magical Paga team, the team that can capture Paga’s spirit and shred (no matter what our level is). Maybe my team will have magic; maybe it won’t. It will be sort of a blind decision.

So, now I must decide what to do. Will I be happier just jamming, like I did in Berlin? It’s nice to not have to rehearse or warm-up or conserve energy. It’s nice to just watch the competition and take photos. Or will I be happier experiencing Paga through the lens of a competition team. It’s nice to share four minutes of performance.

So, Yendor, and the entire Shrednow community…what should I do? Should I jam or should I compete? Should I compete with you? Should I compete against you? Should I leave my nails at home and go sightseeing?