It was back in 1968 that Rick first laid his hands on a yellow fastback while playing tag with friends. Although he was an avid basketball player, it was a knee injury that led him to his love of Frisbee.
Over the past weekend (Nov 3-4 2018) the Bay Area freestyle crew hosted the Golden Gate Shred 2018, freestyle Frisbee hat tournament. 16 competitors and even more friends, family, and jammers descended on Ocean Beach, San Fransisco for a fun a time and to test their beach jamming skills.
The competition took place on Saturday. Players where ranked into “A” and “B” groups. “A” players names were put into a hat and B players drew the names to form teams. After a 20 minute to warm up the teams then showed their best moves to random music for 3 minutes. They were judged using the standard FPA categories.
The large volume of hard packed sand made up for the light wind, giving teams plenty of room to run. Making the finals were the teams of Art Viger & Jan Schreck, Jake Gauthier & Johnny O’Malley, Arthur Coddington & Jim Dodelson, and Pavel Baranak & Scott Weaver.
What a treat to see Art Viger, former World Juniors freestyle champion back on the field. He and Jan both hit some tasty moves, with Jan doing the outer rim delay like no on else can and Art hitting moves as if he never quit playing. Jake and Johnny had a nice connection, hitting several passes and big catches. Arthur and Jim stepped up the technical skills hitting multiple spinning combos and some nice, close up center delay exchanges. None of them could out do Pavel and Scott. They definitively won in all three categories, making great catches, multiple spins, technical skids and turnovers, and quirky combos to seal the victory. I must say, Pavel is having an amazing year; FPAW, Beach Stylers, EFO, and now Golden Gate Shred.
The rest of the weekend was filled with sun, kind wind, great friends, and the kind of fun that can only be had at freestyle Frisbee gathering. Thanks to Pavel, Jan, and Arthur for hosting! We hope to see you back on the beach in 2019. Full results are below:
Konn talks about his early inspirations and some of the prominent Europeans players of the day.
Frisbee or school – which one did he choose?
Demo life was not for Konn but he did have some memorable experiences.
Konn makes the trek to the mecca of Santa Barbara and has some eye opening moments regarding freestyle play that impacted his game.
Jam Britania – Novemeber 10 & 11 – will be live-streamed! Konn Cummins, Jason Salkey & Adrian Wainwright will be pairing up again after 30 years – don’t miss the reunion!!!
Thanks to Chris Bellaj, Jam Britania 4 will be live streamed.
Jam Britania 4 is the fourth annual Freestyle Frisbee event based in London, England. Hosted by Jason Salkey and crew, this event is always huge success. They have a great indoor gym with ample space to jam and compete and their vibe is of the utmost pleasance. Given that this is one of the last events for the year, there is always a great turnout as players want to get in their last jams before the brief winter hiatus.
The event takes place on November 10 – 11 and will include Open pairs and Co-op and a possible Westerfield Challenge. Several world champions, top ranked players, up and comers, as well as a blast from London jam scene’s past, Konn Kummins are all slated to attend. If you can’t be there in person, then you certainly won’t want to miss the action on the stream.
Thanks, Chris, for bringing us the action and thanks, Jason, for hosting such a great event.
We’re excited to have a many time world champion, Rose Bowl champion, and perhaps even the greatest woman player of all time, Kate Dow join us today.
Kate started playing in 9th grade, when plans to just toss the frisbee around with a friend turned into seeing people playing freestyle on the Venice Green.
She was so mesmerized that she jumped right in and was driven to learn. Several years later, Kate moved her game (& her education) up to Santa Barbara.
Competition and winning were bitter sweet for Kate, hear what she says about her experience.
She also talks about the perception of men vs. women when they play. Have things changed?
The Venice Green and Palm Park are a couple Frisbee mecca’s; Jake & Randy talk about some others.
On November 2nd-4th, Jake will be traveling to Ocean Beach, in N. California for the Golden Gate Shred Tournament.
A Beachstylers Update – It was originally announced that Jake and Dave Schiller won, however, after a deeper dive on the results, Dave discovered that a rounding error and found that Pavel Baranyk and Harry Skomroch won Open Pairs. Congrats guys!
Congratulations to Pavel Baranak and Harry Skomroch who are the official open pairs winners of Beach Styler’s 2018!
It was originally announced the Jake Gauthier and Dave Schiller took first place, with Pavel and Harry coming in second place by a .1 difference. However, after the event concluded, Dave (being the diligent tournament co-director that he is) went back and re-calculated the numbers. This time he did not round the number to tenths (.1), but rather to hundredths (.01). With this new and more precise calculation, the corrected scores are:
Pavel and Harry: 26.48 (1st)
Dave and Jake: 26.42 (2nd)
It’s amazing just how close the scores were! And, Kudos to Dave for going back to double-check the math to ensure the correct results. Pavel and Harry really deserve this win! Congratulations to both of them, and If you’re curious to see how great both these teams (and everyone else) played, check out the video replays here.
Jake gives Beachstylers in San Diego a big thumbs up!
We continue our conversation with John Kirkland, who is known for being an originator of new moves.
John talks about how even though certain people have the reputation of throwing surprises, it really is an inclusive process.
Jake asks John to share some of his experiences playing with prior partners. It is not surprising that the experiences range from frustrating to magical.
John shares some of his favorite Rose Bowl memories, but upon reflections, he realizes that it was all about the journey, not the few minutes of competition.
Being present and in the moment with friends is a great message for all of us to takeaway.
Remember, you can download the podcasts on your favorite app, and listen anytime. You can also provide a review, which is an easy and helpful way to spread the jam.
Open Pairs – featuring schillz’s custom binary system
[only the top 10, 1-10, difficulty phrase scores are averaged, and execution (.02 point deduction for a drop, .01 point deduction for a bobble or “the”) is deducted from a “perfect” 1 point (instead of 10) and used as a multiplier against an averaged, 5 category, (teamwork, form, flow, vibe and variety), 1-10 point, artistic subtotal, to get an artistic impression score. Add the difficulty to the execution deducted, AI score for a team’s total score]
Semi pool A
7th – Kim & Charles Logan 25 points
6th – Dave Zeff & Jesse S. 28.1 points
5th – Jay Hinkle & Gerry Geare 30.1 points
4th – Billy Caplin & Joel Rogers 31 points
3rd – Brett & Brian McElwain 34.1 points
2nd – Harry & Pavel 39.3 points
1st – Dave Lewis & Jim Dodelson 41 points
Semi pool B
6th – Tim Troy & Gus 19.4 points
5th – Julianna Korver & Rick LeBeau 22.9 points
4th – Marie Geare & Danny Miles 25.2 points
3rd – Amy Schiller and Lori Daniels 32.7 points
2nd – Mike Galloupe & Johnny Trevino 36 points
1st – Jake Gauthier & schillz 43.4 points
Final
8th – Marie & Danny 14.4 points
7th – Billy and Joel 14.7 points …….and, no, they didn’t play to Billy Joel…. ;~}
The conversation continues with the delicious Chipper Bro Bell. He talks about how his game developed while touring and competing with the Bud Light Team.
Hear how the chemistry between he and Joey allowed their spontaneous routines to lead them to victory.
Chip, Jake, & Randy really get into talking about consecutivity, what it feels like to each of them, and how they make it work.
The flow is the focus, not the catch. How do you convey this to a new player?
Chipper comments on the European players, and how their passion reminds him of the 1970’s in the U.S.
It’s all about sharing and inviting others to in.
Thanks to all those that have helped make the live streams a reality; it’s hard to believe there have already been 13 this year! Just so you know, the Podcast is now every other week so Jake & Randy have time to focus on other exciting projects. Be sure to watch the Beachstylers live stream on October 6th & 7th.
