2024 World Footbag Championships - Open singles finals Highlights

I think that the titel talks by itself - Walt Houston vs Kenny Shults

 All the information about the 2024 World Footbag Championships including full results and an extensive video coverage of the finals is ready at: https://footbagarchives.com/2024-world-footbag-championships-net/ 

To acquire the famous Pro Kicker footbags, as well as other alternative sports items, visit the Pro Kicker shop. 

The 2024 World Footbag Championships concluded yesterday

They pulled it off

When I showed up yesterday morning 15 minutes before the first scheduled match of the finals day, I was kind of baffled to find the Place Valois empty. The carpet wasn't there nor were the tents and umpire chair. Just as I was discussing this fact with singles net finalist Kenny Shults, a car showed up with two big rolls of carpet on top of it. From there on, the setup started and as doubtful as I was, it was completed in an hour and a half. The final setup was really nice and the first match of the day could finally start. I was worried about the timings, as the last games for the day were scheduled for 6:30 pm but, as we'll see later on in this article, everything went well. Well, I guess it was another example of footbag time 😁

Marilyn Demuy starting her splendid day in the women singles finals

Marilyn's day

I was chatting about the possibility of a Triple Crown for Maude Landreville or Marilyn Demuy in my previous blog post, consisting of wins in Women singles and doubles + mixed doubles. Well, the first match of the day would tell us everything about who would still get the chance to baffle the World with this rare accomplishment. As Marilyn took the singles title, Maude had to drop her expectations for the triple and focus on helping her partner (in Women's doubles) to achieve the dreamy conclusion. I'll come back to that in an instant as I want to keep the chronological order of the contest.

Walt Houston adds to his legend

The following match, the Open singles net final, opposed the title holder to the almost ghostly presence of footbag legend Ken Shults. Walt overpowered Kenny with hard serves and big spikes but Shults nonetheless offered a fierce opposition, taking a game of the champion, which is no small feat for a 57 year old man. Much honor to these two greats, that was entertaining. For Walt it meant a 7th World Championships title, en route to the Hall of Fame for sure.

Shults entered the match with a large hematoma to his support leg, footbag net is hard on the body.

Marilyn continues her journey towards the triple crown

There was a break for the net players for a while when some of the freestyle finals went on, I'll discuss that part in another article later.
The sun was still shining hard when Women's doubles started. Geneviève Bousquet and Lena Mlakar Jereb had the difficult task to try to stop the reigning champions, Maude and Marilyn, from grabbing yet another title.

They had their moments, especially at the beginning of the second game, but, overall, the champs were just too strong and consistent in their controlled game. A clear win in two games for the 2024 Women doubles champions. 

Maude, Marilyn, Lena and Geneviève

Yves, Marilyn, Maude and Luka in the Mixed doubles finals

One last step en route to footbag net glory

Marilyn had one more obstacle on her way to footbag net nirvana. Of course, she would have to face Maude once again, this time supported by German phenom Yves Kreil. Maude, on her side, was teamed up with fellow organizer Luka Weyler Lavallée. After a strong start from Maude and Luka, the match began to lean in favor of Marilyn and Yves all the way to the conclusion. Marilyn achieved the dream goal of any Footbag player with this title. I will definitely support her candidacy to the Hall of Fame of Footbag next year where she could rejoin the two other members of the Montreal women big three, Geneviève and Maude.

Finals day at the 2024 World Footbag Championships

Maude and Marilyn shoot for the triple crown

After 4 days of grueling efforts in the muggy weather that Montreal offered them, it's time for the last sprint to the finish line for the players still in the run. This morning, I want to attract your attention to a possible rare phenomenon that two of the best women in the sport of footbag could achieve: The footbag net triple crown. 

The triple crown consists in winning the singles, doubles and mixed titles, and it is very rarely achieved by any player, women or men.

This year, we have two contenders for this sweetest of the achievements that are possible for a net player. Indeed, Maude Landreville and Marilyn Demuy are still in the race for the ultimate achievement. Of course, for this to happen they have to be fighting each other in the women singles finals first, after which only one of them will remain with this possibility. This is scheduled for 11:00 as the first event of the day.

One of them will have to regroup for their next event, the Women doubles in which they will play together facing Lena Mlakar Jereb and Geneviève Bousquet. This should be a hell of a match, scheduled for 15:20. There will be no rest for our fierce warriors, 'cause although wrapped in love, they will face each other again in the mixed doubles contest. Marilyn will play with german phenom Yves Kreil and Maude will team up with Luka Weyler Lavallée, another Aki Quebec representative. These two teams were scheduled to meet at last year's Worlds in Colombia but, unfortunately, the spectators were deprived of an excellent confrontation due to Yves injury. This should be exciting, especially if our two contestants are still alive for the Triple dose of glory.

Kenny Shults' fairy tale is not over in the 2024 World Footbag Championships

21 years ago, Kenny Shults participated in his last singles net finals. That was at the 2004 Worlds, held in Montreal. What an inspiring story to see this master coming back to the game and getting to the finals again. Shults beat François Depatie-Pelletier in 5 sets to advance, I'm tempted to say, against all odds. 

Will his unique style and mastery be enough to dethrone Walt Houston, who's been the dominant singles player in recent years as well as the reigning World Champion. Walt cleaned up the competition last year in Medellin, Colombia. If you wish to see these results, click on this link.
On his side of the bracket, Walt took care of the 4th semi-finalist, Guillaume Degat currently residing at l'Ile de la Réunion, pretty much at the other end of the World.
Kenny Shults will be in action today in the Open Doubles event with his last minute partner Bob Lavigne.

Kenny Shults and François Depatie-Pelletier before the start of the match

The Women singles finals, all Montreal, all the way

In the Women singles, Marilyn Demuy and Maude Landreville asserted their domination with utter strength. This will be a repeat from their contest at the most recent Akisphere, where Marilyn

2024 World Footbag Championships update

 Hello fellow footbag enthusiasts!

The 2024 World Footbag Championships saw their 3rd day action cancelled today due to adverse weather, namely lots of rain. 

I've been watching some of the Footbag net (Kick Volley) competition on Monday and Tuesday and, already, saw some very good matches. I'll be attending the 3 remaining days non stop and filming lots. 

Links

Just a few links to start you up if you don't know where to go for the best info:
The official website, in french and english is at: https://akiquebec.org
The Facebook page of the event can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555965686460
The net competitions results are displayed on the tournament software at:
https://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=BD8C8961-10FF-4442-8BD7-B8688E1203F1

First Impressions and pictures

It is the fifth time that the World Footbag Championships land in Montreal after the 1996, 1998, 2004 and 2013 editions. The current one is produced with minimal means but the spirit is intact. It's so much fun to see the enthusiasm of the players on and off the courts, makes me a little bit emotional to see all my old and newer friends flock to our beloved city for the annual footbag pilgrimage.

Our local club, Aki Québec, is doing very well with established top players as well as new sensations. 

Portland, Oregon is back at it

So far, one of the best stories I've heard originates from the cradle of the sport. Indeed, the great Kenny Shults, my first mentor and nemesis, started practicing again at the demand of his son Jasper, who wanted to do well in the tournament.

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 9 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 7

There was some magic in the air at the Portland convention center yesterday. Everything finally fell into place and the feeling was fantastic. It will be a very important thing to reflect about having freestyle and net in the same room as disruptions from one another were constant.

To the competition now; The first match of the day was for the Open doubles bronze medals. Luc Legault and Wiktor Debski took the first game of Team Finland by a score of 15-9 as they did in the semi finals against Ben Alston and Walt Houston. But as they did the day before their intention collapsed rapidly as the Finns were playing better and better. Matti Pohjola and Tuomas Karki took the second and third games 15-5, 15-6 to add yet another podium to their brilliant footbag lifetime achievements.

This match was followed by the Women's doubles finals opposing team Europe Lena Mlakar and Kertsin Anhuth to team North America  Geneviève Bousquet and Julie Symons. As in the previous match the momentum changed quite a few times in that bout. Team Europe took the first game 15-6 but the north-Americans came back in games 2 and 3 and won them 15-8 15-11 For Geneviève, who later that night got inducted in the Footbag Hall of Fame, it was a 6th doubles title and for Julie a whopping 12th in career. Julie jumped in at the last minute to replace Maude Landreville who had to have ear surgery just before Worlds and for this she couldn't fly. Symons didn't practice much in the last year and she was just planning to play masters double but she got her game back just in time and set Geneviève beautifully. Well done team North America!

In the mixed doubles finals my teammates Luc Legault and Geneviève Bousquet were making it to the finals for the 3rd time. As per what happened previously they failed to bring the title home and pretty much took a beating from Lena Mlakar and Wiktor Debski. This was the first net medal in the history of team Poland (Debski) and the first Mixed title for Slovenia (Mlakar)

The next match is the most prestigious title in the Footbag Net World Open doubles. The favorites Benjamin Alston and Walt Houston were facing the second seeded team of François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard. As expected Ben and Walt dominated, thanks to their big serves that François and Manu had the most difficult time to set properly and even completely missed at times. So a first doubles title at the World Footbag Championships for the Memphis team. Congrats, well played.

This concludes my blog post for today, I'll post a recap soon, stay tuned!
The recap is here: https://footbagarchives.com/2017-world-footbag-championships-net/#recap

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 8 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 6

Howdy folks, how are you doing this morning? The 2017 Worlds is coming to an end very soon. Day 6 had a lot of important events but before I get in the details of the competition there's a few things that I need to say. First of all I think that the net part of the tournament lacks direction. I had to insist yesterday morning that we had a microphone on the main court. Without a push the players would have had to say their scores themselves again. Luckily this problem was solved halfway through the women singles finals and at least the net judge said the scores for the competitors. 

Later during the day, while open doubles semis were in full swing the music started on the freestyle side again, even if their finals were scheduled for 6:30 pm only. As well the free flow people were blasting their music in the main room with no consideration whatsoever for the competitors battling for the World title. One of the players, after repeatedly asking the freestyle producer to turn the music down. had to unplug the speakers and bring the volume to almost zero on the free flow circles blaster. The players on the court flew from Memphis, TN, Montreal, Qc and Poland. Please a little respect.

Women singles net finals

Back to the actual battles that took place on the main court, 2 net titles were in the balance at the beginning of the day. First was the women's singles title. Lena Mlakar (Slovenia) fought Kerstin Anhuth (Germany). Lena was superior, defensively and offensively and she took the title without took much trouble. She took the match in four sets 15-613-1515-1115-9

Open singles net finals

On the men's side the 2016 title holder Walt Houston (USA) was trying to retain his title against Matti Pohjola (Finland). After Matti defeated his teammate Tuomas Karki in the semis I was afraid that he would have problems receiving Walt's service. Tuomas has to deal with quite a bit of Walt's serve in recent years and was doing pretty darn well in receiving in properly. Matti was not ready to deal with the best service on the footbag net tour. This resulted in an easy win for Walt (15-6 15-11 15-10) who racks up a third world title in four years.

The 2017 Footbag Net world singles champions: Lena Mlakar (Slovenia) and Walt Houston (USA)

Open doubles semi finals

The double semis are big crowd favorites as there is a lot of action, big spikes, digs and big running saves. These two matches brought the goods to the spectators in a big way.

In the first match François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard (Aki Québec) faced Matti Pohjola and Tuomas Karki (Team Finland). These four are seasoned veterans with lots of experience in the key moments of a tournament. Depatie-Pelletier and Bouchard were in control during the whole match, the Finns players seemed to be lacking energy a little bit and were making more unforced errors than usual and they were pretty much crushed 15-7 15-6

On the other side of the bracket it was a completely different story. Benjamin Alston and Walt Houston (USA) had their hands full with the team of Luc Legault (Aki Québec) and Wiktor Debski (Team Poland). Luc and Wiktor quickly demonstrated that they would not fold against the number one team. They rolled away with a 15-10 victory in the first set and a battle was set to unfold. Ben and Walt won the second set easily 15-4 as it seemed that Legault and Debski lost their concentration and agressiveness for a while. The third set was a battle and I'm sure that the Americans felt the pressure. In the end the combination of them having the best serves and the Polish-Quebec team's relatively weak offerings made the difference. Walt and Ben won the third game 15-10 to make it to the finals at the World Footbag Championships for the first time. The match was nonetheless breathtaking, bravo to all the players.

Luc Legault and Wiktor Debski will battle for third place in open doubles 

Walt Houston and Ben Alston will play in their first ever open doubles finals at the 2017 World Footbag Championships

Freestyle final night

There was a lot of action on the Footbag Freestyle scene as well on day 6. The program invited us to watch the women's and open singles routines + the open circle finals.

The women's field was small this year with only four competitors. Paloma Mayo, the winner of the 2015 title in Copenhagen was clearly the favorite and she dominated the group with her uniquely entertaining style and beautifully crafted routine. Cass Taylor and Caroline Birch pretty much dropped all over the place so they were no match for the champion. Congrats Paloma.

In the open routines eight competitors were battling for the title. Surprisingly Pawel Nowak from Poland took the title over the legend, Vasek Klouda. He's probably still floating on a cloud this morning. It is a well deserved win as he executed his pretty difficult routine flawlessly and without a drop. Vasek had to face a technical glitch at the beginning of his routine as the organizers started the wrong tune for his performance. I can't wait for the day that this won't happen once in the freestyle finals, it seems to be an annoyingly resurging problem. How can it be so difficult to start the right music for the players???? This might have took some of Vasek's legendary concentration away as he dropped the bag once during his routine, probably costing him the title as the scores were extremely tight. Taishi Ishida stepped on the third stair of the podium with another dropless routine, very nice work Taishi. I also like TJ Boutorwick's routine, another dropless routine,  if I'm not mistaken, to start the contest. Jim Penske's was also worth noting. The level is so hight these days that any of the 8 finalists has to push the limits very far.

Speaking about pushing the limits what about the circle competition? This is a great display of virtuosity. The four players in the circle's finals are all virtuosos in my opinion although Nick Landes seemed a bit weaker than the 3 others. Vasek Klouda won it but I was extemely impressed by Lon Smith's crazy abilities + he seemed to be having the most fun. Lon second, Jim Penske 3rd and Nick Landes 4th. Fun to watch and probably discouraging to freestyle beginners? These guys are red hot and in full mastery of their craft. 

So now freestyle is over and there's one day left in the net competitions including the three doubles titles: women's, open and mixed. Lena Mlakar is in the women's doubles and the mixed finals and as she already caught the women singles title she could be looking at a tripe crown, a rare event in the footbag net world.

Three of my Montreal teammates are still in the contention for titles:

Geneviève Bousquet in the women's doubles and mixed

François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard in the open doubles.

Let's hope that they bring back some gold to our beloved hometown!

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 7 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 5

Today was a very frustrating day for me. Some semi finals at this World Championships were played without even having a microphone for the head judge to say the scores. The players had to say the scores themselves and as as spectator I couldn't hear them half of the time. There was music coming from the (very) neighboorhood of the freestyle competitions, practices and even old man rants about their glorious nostalgic days. All this while some players who came as far as Finland, Poland, Slovenia and Germany were on the court. (Matti Pohjola, Wiktor Debski, Lena Mlakar and Kerstin Anhuth. What's this???? Very unprofessional. I hope that tomorrow the freestyle warm ups won't blast away the genuine finals being played on the courts, but, at this point, I'm not very optimistic.

So back to the events played on this 5th day of competition at the 2017 World Footbag Championships. 
The day started with 4 battles in the open singles division. Scheduled at 10 am. Walt Houston, Kenny Shults on one side of the bracket as well as Matti Pohjola and Tuomas Karki on the other made it to the semi finals.

The 2 semis followed each other. In the first duel Matti Pohjola played very well to defeat Tuomas. He anticipated and dug some incredibly well placed spikes. Well done Matti.
On the other side Walt Houston wanted to avenge his cousin and doubles partner. Ben Alston fell to Kenny Shults but Walt was not ready to shake. The holder of the title held it for at least one more round. The question now is: Can Matti control and return Walt's serve?

We'll see this Friday who's the new king.

The mixed doubles semi finals followed. My teammates Geneviève Bousquet and Luc Legault faced Evanne Lamarche and Kenny Shults in that all North American contest. The Aki Quebec representatives prevailed and are going to the grand finals on Saturday. Excellent! Go Montreal. 

Luc Legault et Geneviève Bousquet en finale au Championnat Mondial de Footbag 2017

The second semi finals featured an all European foursome. Lena Mlakar and Wiktor Debski won the long match that they played against Kerstin Anhuth helped by Matti Pohjola. 

Kerstin and Matti are multiple mixed title holders but Lena and Wiktor seemed even hungrier. This should be a good match. 

Wiktor Debski (Poland) and his partner Lena Mlakar (Slovenia)

More news tomorrow, the first finals start at noon.

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 6 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 4

Today we are approaching the most interesting parts of the tournament. In Open doubles the quarter finals didn't produce any upsets. Teams 1,2, 3 (easily) 4 (shakily) advanced to the semi finals. We will be in for a treat in the 2 vs 3 match as it  is full of questions. Team number two is François Depatie-Pelletier and Manu Bouchard packing a little more offence playing the Finns Tuomas Karki and Matti Pohjola showing a little more regularity . I see that match as being more of a tight bout than the other. 

Team number four appeared shaky at best in their appearance vs Chris Siebert and Dan Greer. In fact it's kind of a miracle that they are still alive. Wiktor Debski (Poland) and Luc Legault (Montreal, Quebec) are not used to play together and they will meet the team with the biggest serves in the semi finals. Walt Houston and Benjamin Alston appear as clear favorites in this confrontation. They just won the Akisphere (Montreal annual tournament) and they have one more year of experience under their belt after finishing 3rd last year. As Walt also appears to be the grand favorite in open singles they will be exsuding confidence. Luc and Wiktor's serves are also below average it should be a walk in the park for the #1 seeded team. As for my predictions for the finals I'll reserve my judgement after the semis.

In the women's singles category Lena Mlakar (Slovenia) scored a big upset over Geneviève Bousquet (Montreal, seed #1) There was also a bit of a controversy as to how this bracket was ran. Without being too technical something abnormal happened and will need further study for future tournaments. So no more Montreal representatives in the singles category. Geneviève still has to play in the Women doubles finals and the mixed doubles semis and hopefully finals.

Otherwise the players are pushing the envelope more and more.
Here are some images of this net day by Cory Current:



In the freestyle world routines semi finals were on the menu today and the few echoes that I gathered are the following: Scott Bevier and Taishi Ishida went dropless during their presentation and Vasek Klouda was not satisfied with his performance. Which could be a good thing as he could even do better in the next round.

Good luck to all the competitors for the next steps. This time I'll leave you with a picture of two legends of the sport who, each in their way redefined the game of Footbag Net and Footbag Freestyle.

Left: Eric Bartholomay, AKA Bart great singles specialist brought his very dynamic, powerful and totally offfence minded game to the sport in the 1990's.
Right: ''Rippin'' Rick Reese redefined a lot of the boundaries of footbag freestyle in the 80's and 90's with a combination of great difficulty in the moves and creativity in singles and doubles routines. One of the first real ''shredders', of the game. 
They met, I suppose at the Denver airport en route to Portland to see old friends and spectate with great interest. 

Lots more action to come, stay tuned.

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 5 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 3

Hello everybody,

Hope you all had fun today! First I wanna talk about the Open doubles round of 16 results.
My partner Santeri and I had an encounter with Luka Weyler-Lavallée and Russell Arseneault and we had a hell of a match. Final result: 11-910-1211-9 for them. At first I felt so dissapointed, of course, going to the quarter finals would have been a huge accomplishment for us. We came short a couple of points. They scored a total of 32 points in the match compared to our 30!!!!!!! The positive points are: We made the show and gave our all.

Our match was so long that most of the other duels were done before we finished,  so they gathered around and supported us. We ended up finishing 10th. OK.

Yves Archambault and Santeri Karvinen 2017 World Footbag Championships

There was an upset also as team # 10, Jeremy Mirken and Dan Baron defeated #7 Grischa Tellenbach and David Bernard. The rest of the matches in that category were uneventful.

Here's a look at the bracket

In the women's doubles the finalists will be Geneviève Bousquet and Julie Symons versus Kerstin Anhuth and Lena Mlakar. North America vs Europe, I expect an enormous match.

The 3rd place went to Evanne Lamarche teamed up with Becca English-Ross who outplayed Leanne Mackrow and Audrey Tumelin. Much honor to all the players and their family.

And finally I want to leave you with this beautiful picture of 4 women Hall of Fame members met at the scene today in Portland, Oregon's Convention center:

Sitting on the chairs, from left to right: Tricia Sullivan-George, Julie Symons, Lisa McDaniel and Becca English-Ross. They are talking with 2015's Women singles routines champion Paloma Mayo. Power to the women.

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 4 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day 2

Another hot day in Portland. The Championships are in their second day and its time for Open and Women's doubles

The men's doubles started at 1:15 and most of the matches ended up the way the organizers predicted, there was only one upset in Pool B where the team that was pre classified #3 beat team #2. No big surpises. 

My team was in pool E and we just kept our rank for tomorrow. We lost to the top dogs of our pool and won against the lowest ranked team. Here's a picture of my partner Santeri hitting a spike. (Picture courtesy of David Leberknight)

Tomorrow we will enter the main draw, there are 16 teams left, all battling for the title, some with more realistic chances than others ;-)

In the women's doubles the pool had four teams and the team number two, Geneviève Bousquet (Aki Québec) and Julie Symons took the number one team. The Germano-Slovenian team of Kerstin Anhuth and Lena Mlakar seemed more affected by the conditions. High heat and, let's be honest, terrible courts.

In the the next round (semi finals) the European team will have a tougher road than Bousquet and Symons. They will have to face Evanne Lamarche and Becca English, two seasoned veterans with lots of skills.

So that's it for now, stay tuned, much more action to come.

2017 World Footbag Championships, day 3 of my trip to Portland, Oregon. Competition day1.

One of the main reasons that I go to Worlds every year or so is the people. People you meet, people you play with. Always nice to reconnect and to make new friends. Let's start with a very cool picture that Tricia took tonight at the restaurant:

That's a whole bunch of classy people right there. From left to right:
Steve and Sarah Femmel, Yevez, Evanne Lamarche, Jim Derricott, Tricia George and Brett Milliken. 

Now let's see how the competition unfolded. 

Open singles started at 10 am or so (Footbag time) and  I witnessed some hard battles . Kenny Shults had to work hard in his pool, Jeremy Mirken was especially menacing to the legend. On another court Chris Cleaver brought the European Championships bronze medalist to his last resources in a hard fought three setter. Wiktor Debski finally won but Chris defenitely got his respect. Luka Weyler-Lavallée also took Wiktor for a special ride loosing 17-15 in the 3rd set. For the Montreal fans out there Luka is still in the contest. 

Later during the day Mixed doubles also brought some very interesting play. In the last match of the day Kenny Shults and Evanne Lamarche beat Wiktor and his partner Lena Mlakar after being dominated in the first set. Click here to see some of this match
Our Montreal teammates Genviève and Luc cleaned up their pool very easily. It's gonna be interesting to see if they can win it this time. They already played in the finals twice (2009, 2010)

There is still of footbag to be played this week but the first day was very promising.

In the women singles Geneviève Bousquet (Aki Quebec) cruised through her pool. In the second pool the order was also respected with Kerstin Anuth (Germany) taking Lena Mlakar (Slovenia)

So far so good then, lots of interesting footbag to watch in the coming days. The freestyle will also be on it's way soon.

I will start to play tomorrow with my open doubles partner Santeri Karvinen who I had the pleasure to play with for the first time today . It was only pickup games but it was fun. Wish us luck regular readers! And I will leave you with a couple more pictures of the beautiful people of footbag:

World Footbag Championships 2017 my travel blog to Portland, Oregon.

A new year, a new World Footbag Championships. It's time to blog. Let the world know about my passion for this sport once again!

Day 1

The travelling day. I left my apartment in Montreal on August 4th at 4am to get to the airport for my 6:45 flight. I had to work a lot to get all my preparation together in time for this departure. The taxi driver was a little bit too talkative at that point, the only thing I was thinking about was sleeping. And I did, on the plane ride to Calgary, I slept as much as I could. Then a little problem delayed my arrival in Portland for 3 hours. Our scheduled plane broke down and they had to bring one from Seattle. That's exactly why I always try to travel in a couple of days early to important tournaments. I got in touch with Tricia, who was picking me up at the airport and everything went fine from there on out. 

So my friend Tricia and her husband Doug picked me up at the airport. From there we went to some cool people from the footbag family's place. Lori and Robert made me feel at home on their awesome property. We had watermelon and Tequila drinks. They used a hand blender to crush the inside of the watermelon, ingenious! 

After that relaxing arrival, pool dip included, we went to Master Tricia's house. 

Second day

On the second day I found out where food was sold. I temporarily healed one of my insecurities by getting groceries for a few days. Now I can concentrate on playing and filming (at the end of the week) I also had a taste of the river. It's not even a five minutes walk from the house, so refreshing. After that I had a little nap and we headed to the practice courts. 

We played some pickup games on the grass that'll be used for the 2 first days of the tournament: Westmoreland park

It was a cool little leg shaking, mind shaping practice. Here's a couple of pictures of the first arrivals, either to play or to prepare the courts for the start of the tourney: 

So good luck to all the competitors and good patience to all the staff of the 2017 World Footbag Championships. I will play my first official games with my partner Santeri Karvinen (Finland) on Monday at 1:15 pm. in the open doubles net category. Wish us luck and follow this blog during the week.

My 30th World Footbag Championships travel diary - days 12 and 13

Ok! I know I said that my series was concluded! But you know what? I can't stop blogging about it!

So day 12 - The competition has ended. It's time for the last goodbyes. Done and...felt. Now a group of kickers has to get to Vienna to travel further. The organization gracefully provides a bus for us. Of course it was intended for more people...but due to the hard World Championships conclusion partyin' a few missed this opportunity.

So most of us survivors make it to the Vienna airport in about an hour and thirty minutes. A little invigorating nap for me to recup for the 1 1/2 hours of sleep I had before leaving... I told you it was a hard party. Thanks to the Mayor of Trnava for organizing it BTW.

Vienna

At that point I'm travelling with François Depel, Mary Dee et Barthélémy Meridjen. Our mission is to find a connection with our Air B'n'B hostess for the next night.

We chill on a patch of synthetic grass with Eurik, Shirin, Camillo et Jean-Marie, between the airport and the train station.

Finally a connection is established with our short term landlord. Her name is Maria and we get all the info the retrieve the key, in the center of Vienna, in a bar, in the afternoon....

François and Barthélémy got the key, we get to the apartment. Posters of Bob Marley, poster of Legalize.eu.  Very nice apartment with 3 bedrooms. 

At night, while all the youngsters are passed out, I continue the video acquisition and classification project of my 30th World Footbag Championships. I did all I could that night before falling asleep. But before that I met one of the roomates and showed him some good footbag footage. He liked it. Jakub, tall and hansome fellow with dreads and so cool. We talked about Salzburg...

Vienna Airport bis

So at this point you think, god these idiots didn't see any of Vienna? Well, actually we did, a little bit. We walked after settling down and had the most delicious vegan meal at a restaurant called the Harvest.  We then proceeded to go towards the center. Enough to get a view of the Danube, the mountains in the back on a gloriously sunny day. We walked a bit alongside the water and decided to go back early and rest.

Marilyn and I went on a second walking exploration on that first night to find out exactly where the train station was and as we were there ask about all the info needed for our departure and, of course, we bought our tickets.

On the way back we stopped at a grocery store. The place was packed at 21:30 full night on. We didn't know about having to weight the bananas and got some flack in german for that, from the lady cashier. She wasn't happy!!! Then a younger lady reassured us with a nice comment and a smile. I see a lot of anger in Vienna but also a lot of F......g cool people!

Finally Marilyn and I left the apartment at 7:15. Took the train at 7:45 Airport, well in time, our check-in already done the previous day. First step - Check.

In the air and land and air and land (you choose the melody)

My first flight is to London, a couple of hours, everything goes smoothly with Austrian Airlines. Then 3 hours to kill in Heathrow. No problem.

I finally embark on my flight to Montreal. 7 more hours of flight.

You probably think that this nonsense is over? No way, still take the bus from the Airport, then the Subway with a change of direction. The last step: 7 minutes of walking with all the luggage to carry. This is definitely the hardest part, luckily I decided to be patient as a Sherpa through the whole experience. Finally home! Always good to be home isn't it?

Yes, we saw theVienna Cathedral

In my next article I'll make a recap of this 2016 World Footbag Championships. Stay tuned.

My 30th World Footbag Championships travel diary - day 11

What a day did we have to conclude this World Championships in Trnava. I want to take a moment to thank all the people that were involved in making this event happen. Special thanks to Dexter Struz who made my life easier in anyway he could without ever loosing his smile. Having power cords to fire up my cameras instead of operating them with batteries is a life changer when you film 2 days of action non stop. Many thanks to Mr Mayor Peter Brocka to welcome us in his city with a lot of perks.
Also a big thanks to all the support staff for the food, setting up the sites and handling our requests so beautifully. Also thanks for the event directors, on the net side it was Tuomas Karki, for freestyle I'm not sure but thanks anyway. And once again thanks to the generous donators that made my trip possible.

Women doubles

Now back to the action on the courts and in the freestyle arena. In the first match of the day two of our girls from Montreal offered us our sole title for this year in the Women's doubles. Some solid play by Geneviève Bousquet and Maude Landreville lead them to a convincing victory over Lena Mlakar, the little Slovenian dynamo and her partner Piia Tantarimaki, the Finnish powerhouse. Congrats to all of you it's beautiful to see you play.

Maude Landreville and Geneviève Bousquet, happiness after the win in women's doubles

Open doubles 3rd place

Next was the bronze match in Open doubles and it turned into a grueling duel between Americans Walt Houston and Ben Alston versus the French team of Sébastien Maillet and Grischa Tellenbach. Ben and Walt finally won it in the third set after the French mounted a serious comeback fro 5-13 to 14-14. The Americans closed the debate with pain and sweat but overall it was a well deserved win.

Mixed doubles

Following the 3rd place men's match it was time for one of my favorite events, the mixed doubles finals. I love to see a woman and a man work side by side on the court (and everywhere else for that matter). Florian Gotze and Kerstin Anhuth beat Arthur Ledain and Lena Mlakar in a quality match where Arthur seemed a little off. Florian on the other side was...Florian, the greatest net player of the last decade. Well done my friend. 

Freestyle events

There was women the women circle contest. It seemed a little disorganized at times with 6 players, which in my opinion is a bit too much. Win by Tina Aeberli.

In the open team freestyle finals the 2014 and 2015 winners repeated, Martin Sladek and Tomas Tucek are in a class of their own. Nice effort by team Madrid though as Paloma Mayo was obviously hurt and still courageously played with her partner Sergio Garcia. We could see the potential of the routine and the creative flow of these two.

The women singles routines offered some good moments but overall too many drops. Another win by the great Tina Aeberli from Switzerland.

Finally in the Open routines Evan Gatesman from the USA clinched the only titles that he never had before at Worlds. The legend Vasek Klouda came in second. No dropless routine this year in the finals.

Open doubles

The tournament returned to the net court and concluded with the doubles finals, the most awaited net event. After playing against Arthur Ledain in the Mixed doubles finals, Florian Gotze partnered with him to face the Finnish team of Matti Pohjola and Janne Uusitalo.

If Arthur was off in the Mixed, it was a totally different story in the doubles finals. Flo and him dominated all the aspects of the game, offense, defense and limiting the unforced errors.

Arthur also hit a series of incredible spikes derived from Sepak Takraw a cousin sport from east Asia. Roll spikes, sun backs were numerous and crazily athletic. Florian Gotze although having a more conservative spiking style hit his part of winners and their team demolished the Finns 15-2 in the second game after winning the first set. Big win, big shots and big fun. This is it the 37th World Footbag Championships is over. Of course we had a chance to say goodby with a good party at the end. See you next year in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Arthur Ledain and Florian Gotze celebrating their World doubles title - Photo by Pro Kicker

My 30th World Footbag Championships travel diary - day 10

First day of the grand Finals

Finally we're getting in the main showtime of this World Championships. The first finals of the showcase featured the women singles opponents. In a no show match Piia Tantarimaki defeated Geneviève Bousquet easily. The scores in the 2 first games were tight but Piia dominated the whole time and led the score at every moment. Geneviève had better days, she looked paralyzed by nervousness and fear of loosing. I'm sure she can do better in the future, sometimes taking a beating can be the motivation one needs to continue to improve. Congratulations to Piia for a second title in a row after Copenhagen.

Piia Tantarimaki just after winning Women singles at the 2016 WFC - Photo by Pro Kicker

Open doubles Semi Finals

The much awaited doubles semi finals started with a transcontinental confrontation. Florian Gotze and Arthur Ledain took care of Walt Houston and Ben Alston in the first match not without providing Pro Kicker Production with very nice footage. Ben felt the pressure more than the others, at least in the beginning of the match, and he seemed to be bothered by the gym lights. Florian was imperial, as he is most of the time, and Artur hit some very spectacular shots. Walt and Ben had a few of the own but in the end the better team prevailed.

In the second match the French team of Grischa Tellenbach and Sébastien Maillet offered a very valuable resistance to Finland's #1 team. Matti Pohjola and Janne Uusitalo played a flawless match, cutting the unforced errors to a minimum as per their usual standards. The Finns are returning to the finals for the third time (2011,2015, 2016) let's see if this will be the good one for them. The odds are not in their favor but it's played on the court.

Florian Gotze, to the right wearing the winners smile as gracefully as always - Photo by Pro Kicker

Shred 30 and Circle contest - Freestyle

The day progressed to two freestyle events, shred 30 and circle. I'm no specialist but it seemed that the level of circle was lower than last year's in Copenhagen. The absence of great players such as Vasek Klouda, Milan Benda and Jim Penske was not fully compensated by newer faces but the contests was still interesting. Congratulations to the winners, especially to Evan Gatesman who repeated his presence in the Circle finals, this time with the win.

Open singles Finals

Wow! This was high level footbag net! Walt Houston (Memphis Footworks) the 2014 World Champion met with Tuomas Karki (Team Finland) the 2010 and 2011 World Champ and 2013 and 2015 finalist. These guys talk business and they offered a great show. Big sets, big spikes, big saves and a great science of the court, that's what we were lucky enough to witness live.

Walt Houston took the crown as he finally overpowered his worthy opponent in the fourth set. Pro Kicker Production will be offering this match as well as all the other finals in a virtual DVD around the end of August - beginning of September.

Walt Houston 2016  Open singles World Champion - Photo by Pro Kicker

So there is one more day to go, tomorrow we will have the Women's doubles, Mixed doubles and the much awaited Open doubles finals - Stay tuned