Just got back from New Years Jam, 2008.
I'm so glad that I went. Crappy shit went down on Christmas Day and crying for about 12 hours straight had me seriously considering canceling my flight. It started out kinda slow and I felt too out of my element for comfort, but the last couple of days were just fantastic. I just got back from the airport about half an hour ago. I felt this amazing high on the plane like everything in life was perfect, and I just smiled to myself looking out the window with an empty seat beside me. Sitting down here at my computer the crappiness is creeping back in and I'm losing that high real quick, so let me recap while I'm still feeling it.

I flew out from Winnipeg at 9 AM on Friday, Boxing Day, to Montreal (connecting flight after a last-minute change from the following day (to achieve maximum NYJ goodness)). Everything was fine and on time. They sprayed the plane down with alcohol with a firetruck hose to prevent freezing, which I never remember before witnessing. I didn't have to wait long in Montreal. Not long enough to really go get a meal, which was fine, since not waiting is ideal. (Tangent: Blogger's autosave feature is really spectacular!) But then my connecting flight to Chicago was delayed about 4 hours or so. I was sitting beside and elderly woman who seemed nice at first, but then she started getting exasperated and critical about everything and was completely pessimistic, and I tried to ignore her.

I got into Chicago fine. I waited for my bag, glancing around to see if I recognized anybody. Finally saw Tom Kotsatkos (right spelling?) standing looking for me. I got my bag and he pointed to a few metres away where there was waiting Honza, Evan, Ben, and Alex from Stanford. We walked to Tom's car and he drove us to the hotel. It was crazy foggy and you couldn't see anything beyond, like, 100 metres in any direction. Wacky, and fun. We heard that Mathieu's flight was canceled and that he was stranded in some random city in the U.S.A.. We stopped at a grocery store and got some food. I ended up with granola bars, crackers, and bananas and apples, and apple juice. It was a perfect haul that kept me going until the last day (and beyond!) We went to the hotel and... I kinda got messed up on the elevators, but then ended up getting to the right floor and walking into a shred session. I saw Zac Miley. Saw some other people, and saw Dave, whom I was really surprised to see, since he wasn't listed as a confirmed attendee. Exciting! Also Scott Bevier, Henry... I completely forget what happened next... I think I just watched shred that night and felt really alienated, finally connected with my roommates, probably watched Eric's DVD and then... went to bed? Surely there was more. I don't remember, though. Oh yeah, right, then Dave was shredding later... alone I think? Maybe started with Zac and Matt Kemmer? Anyway, one combo that I remember Dave hitting was symp bubbabeater > dolomite > superfly [repeat] (to a big run with, like, blaze > reactor > food processor? somewhere in there). Oh, a couple other highlights from then: nemesis > blurriest swirl, pixie paradon swirl (non-symp) -- someone requested this on Matt's live webcam broadcast from a couple days later.


We (Eric Chang and Waylon? Yeah, just three of us at this point) woke up at 9-ish and went down to the event site (Holiday Sports Festival). Nobody but Scott Davidson was there. He didn't remember me. I kinda sat around for a while and people veerrry slowly filtered in. A circle began with, like, Danny Petrick, Grant Mooney, Frank Sinatra, and Waylon? Something like that. A wave of people came in at once: Emily, Mike Hansen, and Reid Strellner whom I was really excited to meet (and some others). I met Reid, and apparently it was awkward, though that's me in a nutshell, so I'm not surprised. I soon played in a circle of him, Scott Davidson and alternating Ken and Matt Cross, or something like that. I love Reid's game, and he seemed so super humble and nice, he was definitely perhaps my favourite to meet for the first time. Later on (maybe the next day) he revealed that he feels weird around me, I forget the exact words, but in the context I think he meant in the same kind of way that I would feel around, like, Jim. That was pretty cool, since I respect his game so much. I started out pretty slow, not expecting much from my preceding 2 months of crap shred, but then I started busting some harder combos and runs and got props from Scott Davidson almost every run. That was wicked. I also really dig Scott's game and really like watching him shred. One run I hit in that circle was something like spinning rev whirl > stepping rev whirl > blurry rev whirl > step rev whirl > blurry rev whirl > rev tomahawk x 2 > blurry rev whirl x2 > rev tomahawk > rev toma... I dunno. I started the first two tricks, had the rev whirl war 2 in there, rev tomahawk x2, and then dropped on the fourth rev tomahawk... so, basically, yeah. Something that me and the other Canadians noticed at the end of the day when we were kicked out of the festival (every day at 4... had no idea why we were being yelled at to leave...) was the high black population. Like, for reals, at least 90% of people I saw in Chicago were black. 99% as we were leaving the festival. I only noticed and mention it because where I'm from it's rare to see one black person, as multicultural as Winnipeg may be.


That was basically that day.
The next day, Sunday, Ianek asked me to judge circle finals. I sat and watched. It was cool. Zac Miley is super consistent. So is Jay Boychuk. For one run he dropped on three rotations of rubberman... Oh, just before competition started, Jay offered to give me a lesson on swirls (I'd asked him the other day if he could help me, I think? Which means that he, and Johnny, and Rishell showed up that day? Yeah, I think so. I was shredding on the far side of the area and saw them arrive and went to get my hugs.) It totally helped and I hit some nice far swirls really controlled. I also later hit rev whirling swirl a couple times first try, which felt super. Also, my knees didn't hurt, just like he said they shouldn't! That was really cool. It was kind of my first real time spent with anyone. Something I noticed was how I somehow repelled company. Like I would go sit by people and minutes later they would get up to go somewhere else, and invariably I felt like I was really alone, which I kind of embraced, since it's nothing different from my every day life (enter self pity here). So the time spent with some people I really like really, really made the weekend for me, starting with this little interaction with Jay, who is such a sweet guy.

Oh, I'm kind of mixing up days here, but the previous night was supposed to be Chicago-style deep-dish pizza night with CIC. I wasn't hungry and feeling the sort of travel sick that I get, so Tom let me and Waylon kind of "split" pizza. We each had a slice, I think. It was yummy and wished I'd paid the whole price so I could eat more. I was feeling especially isolated in the suite where this was happening, on account of my lack of socializing skills, and felt really, really crappy resultantly, so I got up and just left. I went down to the conference room which Steve rented for us for late night shred (I guess someone had shown me earlier where it was) to see if anything was happening, since I find it easier to socialize in a footbag atmosphere (as opposed to a party atmosphere which is the complete opposite of "my element"). I don't think much was happening? Oh yeah, there was a little circle. Then Johnny and Rishell showed up. Johnny played for, like, 10 minutes and I sat and talked with Rishell which was nice. Rob Creel was playing, and his friend was sitting with us too. She seemed nice. Then Tom Mosher came and started charming the pants off of us all. What a charismatic guy, that. It's so hard to not smile when he's about. Johnny hit nuclear diving gyro mirage. So anyway, after shred, Johnny and Rishell had missed the pizza, and were thinking of going to get their own. Chris Dean was gonna go with to get beer, and I said I wouldn't mind more pizza, since I wanted some anyway, so we 4 went off in search of these things. It took forever, but it was a nice little adventure, and I really liked spending time with Johnny and Rishell, as always. Johnny was charged, like, a bajillion dollars to leave the hotel parkade with Jay's car though... stupid. What a stupid expensive hotel.

So back to the Sunday. After the events and our being kicked out again, Jay and I decided to go get food. On our way out, Ianek met us and recommended Chinatown, from whence he and some other Montrealers had just returned. We walked the straight line to Chinatown and talked all about random stuff. I feel really comfortable with Jay. He's... I wouldn't say "laid back" (if you've ever watched him shred solo you know exactly what I mean), but I guess we are on similar wavelengths. We found a Chinese restaurant and ordered some food. We just grabbed it and walked back to the site to eat while watching shred. It was great, though I was full so fast. After eating half of my portion (we split two dishes), I ran upstairs to get my shred gear, 'cause I was stoked to play. Johnny was playing, and people were starting to realize this (needless to say is that excitement ensued). I came back and started playing with Mathieu and a couple others. I started a run with a couple clippers and maybe some other 2s, but went straight into infinities and then other shred in my first contact -- I usually take a while to warm up, and I probably should have, but I was soooo excited to be playing! Soon the other two players petered out and it was just Mathieu and I. He was playing very sub-par and I realized this and could see the frustration in his features, and felt really bad. I always feel a little awkward around Mathieu though, kind of like I'm not sure if he likes me or not, like maybe he doesn't? Like he'd rather talk to anybody else other than me. Maybe it's just my lack of confidence among other issues. I played really well this night. I can't remember what I hit, but lots of my bigger stuff in nice runs and stuff. A few moments later, it was just Johnny and Ianek in the circle next, and Johnny asked if we wanted to just make one. It was fun, but then Mathieu filtered out and Dave came in. It was super fun, and I was busting hard, and got lots of props, but then as EVERYONE stopped to watch this circle that I was in, I started to feel crazy self-conscious and unwelcome and I was running out of tricks and felt judged on account of only ever doing reverse whirl tricks, especially since players like Honza, and Evan, and Ben, and Flash were watching... Talk about pressure. I stuck with it though, 'cause like Ken told me later, "It's basically the best seat in the house." They all busted huge, though I didn't feel RIDICULOUSLY behind Ianek, so that was a bit reassuring. Then Johnny and Ianek both left and it was just Dave and me... fun, but... man. At that point I could FEEL how invisible I was. Then Evan and Ben stepped in and I was just, like, "No more embarrassment!" I don't remember any highlights from this circle, though there were a bunch from earlier on. At one point, like, every run I had was great, and that felt REALLY good in that circle with everyone watching! I left and played with Matt Kemmer, who is also super nice and super awesome at shred. The other day I saw him hit void > blurry torque with perfect form. He later told me that in this circle of just him and me for about 45 minutes, was his best shred all weekend. That was cool and I felt kinda honoured. He hit void > void and lots of tough, cool stuff, with great form. I hit some good stuff too, but I was COMPLETELY wiped by this point, and just pushing tougher tricks and combos, not caring about runs really. I hit alpine blurry rev whirl BSOS, spinning DLO > ducking symp mirage > pixie rev whirl BSOS, blurry torque > far rev swirl (just off my foot first try, was super cool, and so not what I usually do). I was sick of my rev whirls at this point and was trying more drifter stuff and stuff I never do, kinda inspired by Matt's drifter-heavy game. I did some barflies and paradons, since at one point he was, like, "I never see you do those." I did lots of stuff that I forget now.

Anyway, then there was request contest. Ken asked if I was competing, and maybe someone else asked too, and I said no, but then Ianek asked, and I was, like, "No", and he was, like, "Come on.", and so I was, like, "Yeah, okay." So I actually competed for once. I'm glad I did. It was really fun and laid-back. I was out as soon as the combo was challenging (I wish I'd tried the other combo, which I'm prolly better at), but I didn't care -- it was fun. I dropped trying blurry drifter > rev tomahawk (Ianek said I could replace whirls with rev), the easier combo was smog > torque... silly me. Oh yeah, one run I had in the epic circle was: blurry rev whirl x2 > reverse whirl war 2 > blurry rev whirl > rev whirlygig (flew off my foot). I kinda own those tricks, but... it's really the only "tough" stuff I can do consistently. Oh, I think the day earlier with Scott Davidson, I had a run where I did, like, blurry rev whirl > ps rev whirl > blurry rev whirl x2 > ps rev whirl > blurry rev whirl > other "tough" stuff?.


The next day, Monday (the last day), I was planning to save myself for night shred and not shred at all during the day. I was super sore, but had been stretching adequately, and felt good (if that makes sense...). The night before Ken had said a few times that he wanted me to go sightseeing with him and Adrienne. I thought that was super sweet. Like the first time he mentioned it, I was, like, "Oh, that's really nice, but it seems like just kinda something someone would say." And then he invited me a couple more times, and I just felt like, "Hey. This is an awesome weekend and there are people here that I really like a lot. And I wish every day was like this." But then I went upstairs for the night (Eric wanted to sleep and I had the key, and shred was dying down) and forgot to coordinate the next day (where to meet, etc) with him. So I called from Eric's phone and left a message. I didn't hear from him that night. Umm, before I went upstairs, Mike Hansen called me over saying that Manna wanted to say hi to me. I didn't really understand what was going on, but apparently Matt Cross had set up a live webcam broadcasting shred, probably of that epic circle. Maybe I was on the webcam? That would be kinda neat if any of my good shred was there. So I was, like, "No way! Cool! Manna!" And I went over and waved on the webcam and then saw that Windsen Pan also said hi to me. So neat. So yeah, then upstairs Eric and I decided to split the cost of the $10 internet. I just really needed to check an email that would determine the state of my fragile heartache, which I mentioned to Eric for some reason. I think we watched Eric' DVD again tonight before bed.


Then in the morning, I slept later, I was just ridiculously beat. I played my hardest for hours straight. Just so hard. Man. I ate a bunch of bananas to help my aching. Apparently that helps hacky cramps. So I woke up and everyone but Rob Creel had left for the site. We went down and Eric told me that Ken had calledand said to call him back. I did on Eric's phone, and we figured stuff out and that I was gonna meet him and Adrienne at the art institute. Eric was driving Honza to the airport and said he would drop me off on the way. Jay came along to keep Eric company, which was sweet of him. They dropped me off at the institute, and Eric, generous as he is, offered to lend me his phone to get in contact with Ken inside. I got inside and connected with them. We walked around and looked at some art. And then after a bit went and sat down for some lunch in the cafeteria, which was really nice. I liked to just hang with them. There's something about hanging with a couple that is so much nicer than just hanging with one person because it's kind of like saying you're absolutely not a third wheel, because we want to spend time with you. Like it's not just obligatory hang-out. We figured out some stuff and ended up walking to Millenium Park to check out the bean and stuff. We had a really nice walk and just chat about nothing in particular, though I didn't feel overly awkward, which is a feat in itself for me. I really enjoyed my time with them.

After that, we went back and everyone was going to Chinatown for dinner. I had just eaten with Ken and Adrienne, and wasn't hungry, so when I went up to the hotel room, there was Zac, Matt, and Jay shredding by the elevators (a shred scene you will see many times in videos soon to come!) I just hung with them and Eric filming. Zac and Matt soon stopped altogether and it was just Jay "The Machine" Boychuk solo shredding with us watching for, like, an hour, literally not stopping to take a breath. He is hilarious to watch shred solo. He just cursed non-stop, like... more swears than tricks hit. No doubt. Hahaha. Matt and I had many a laugh. He hit a couple requests of mine: far swirl > rev swirl [repeat], far rev swirl > swirl [repeat], ...and something else? At one point, too, Matt thought it would be funny to hold Jay's hand while Jay hit a janiwalker. I thought it was really funny. Then Zac held Jay's other hand, and they made a triangle while Jay hit janiwalker. Crazy kid. He shredded a bit more and then, more sweaty than me (possible???), dashed into an elevator and smeared his body all over the mirrored walls. It was hilariously disgusting. Zac and Matt were gonna go for food. I wasn't hungry, but Jay was gonna go for a swim, and I wasn't doing anything, and then thought it would be nice to spend some time with these guys too. So we ended up going to White Castle since I'd never been there before (not existing in Canada). I tried a teeny burger and fries, just to try it, and it was great. Really yummy! Zac gave me one of his. Apparently you buy these in, like, boxes of 10 and stuff... We sat outside and ate. It was kinda cold, but it was nice. Then we walked back and... oh yeah, a whole bunch of people ended up watching Eric's DVD again in our room. It was really neat. It was lots of people watching. I told Eric he should have filmed the reactions. Then after everyone went to sauna. After THAT, I was hoping for that last day shred that I had saved up for. It never happened, but Dave was gonna do 2-bag shred to show-up Anssi (in fun, of course). So no shred on the last night. Disappointing, but fun to watch Dave anyway. Here's some 2-bag stuff he hit:
blurry whirl x2
blurry whirling swirl (my request)
ripped warrior
montage
blurriest [both sides]
PS whirl > PS whirl (I think?)

Then Johnny showed up to watch. Dave was trying atom smasher x2, which he felt was way harder than any of the others, on account of catching 2 bags on a teeny toe surface. After trying for, like, 15 minutes or so, he asks Johnny if he wants to shred and try this combo. Johnny takes his pants off and without any warmup whatsoever, and after saying, "I'm not gonna hit this, I suck.", continues to hit it first try. This preludes a "sick drill session" with the two. I can't really remember the exact combos, but there will be another Dave Clavens DVD for sale in the near future with all of this stuff on it and much more. Some rough ideas of what drills were hit could be:
skull smasher > smoke > nuclear same mirage [repeat] (no... but a harder variation...)
nuclear same whirl > whirr > whirlwalk [repeat] (again, not exact combo, but something like this)
tombstone > gravedigger [repeat] (both sides for Dave)

It wasn't as fun to watch as the two of them just shredding, but they seemed to have fun and push each other. Power and style. So then I kinda wound-down with my roomies and watched some shred. Then went to bed. In the morning Dave and I got together and trained to the airport together. We figured out our stuff and then just chilled, waiting for my plane to board. He showed me a ton of card tricks for the first time. It was really cool, and he let me take a video of one. Awesome stuff. And now I am home. Recapping kinda jolted the awesome factor, but overall there is some really life-changing crap happening that is really, really hard to deal with and I'm having a real rough time. I'm feeling super bummed and not sure how to deal with New Years. My grandma is having us over, which could be nice, but I'm, like, super lonely, and kind of really need to be with someone and have some fun. I don't really have friends in Winnipeg, but I'm gonna call one that I see a couple times a year and see what's up.

Anyway. I may be going to shred with the crew last minute right now, so I'm out! Thanks for New Years Jam everyone!



EDIT: Shred was really bad for me and Andrew. May film a Manna special instead of shredding on Saturday. I had one notable run with vortex > spinning rev whirl, spinning rev whirl x2, and spinning rev whirl > mobius on the other side.