As hinted on in my previous post, I've been keeping busy and learning new tricks and skills on land whilst the sea is cool and paddleboard trips are less frequent. Luckily for me, I have a friend close by who is a demon with the Staff, an awesome teacher of things, and kind enough to lend me one of theirs towards the end of last year.
And since the beginning of November there have only been a couple of days where I didn't touch a Staff at all!
Starting Out
In the past couple of months my guru (soon to appear on Hive perhaps?!) has passed on 20 years of 'spinny knowledge' to me in bite-sized chunks. These chunks have been in the form of short videos (that I have slowed down to the max to see what's going on with the hands) and 1-2-1 tuition, which also involved slowing everything right down so my snail-paced brain could see what was the hands were doing.
With this encouragement and a nice place to practice in front of me, where I dropped the Staff it would not be harmed, I'm fairly impressed with my progress thus far.
Anyone seen my other Flip-flop?
To start though, the staff spent much of the time on the sand and I even took to wearing gym gloves to protect my hands. Happily, for those who like a bit of no pain no gain like me, the staff has also felt like a workout at times, particularly for the arms, shoulders, and neck. Some days I've spent at least an hour practicing over a couple of sittings, and that would be definitely be noticeable on the body parts mentioned above.
Proof of Progress
Those body parts no longer ache the next day, and the solid amount of video footage recorded over the past couple of months has shown to me that I've improved so much - which of course encourages me more. You will be seeing more Staff/spinny related posts as I hopefully improve!
Nice edit job here / I could do this all day!
In the GIF above, the Staff goes around each hand/write whilst I sorta draw a semicircle with each arm, which then makes a circle when the Staff is passed across. The nice thing about having recordings is that (I can show ya!) they provide awesome feedback and show me what I need to improve upon - I want my arms much straighter (above) to make the overall circle bigger.
Where did the bird go!?
All GIFs today show a single plane. I think that is the right word and spelling to describe where the staff is spinning in relation to your body? The above is single direction and one plane, whilst the staff flows around me. Yeah, I think I'm going to give up trying to describe what's going on and leave that to the experts!
Being Brave!
The Staff I borrowed initially and owe a great deal to my progress is wooden. Since then I've bought an LED Staff from Australia via https://www.homeofpoi.com/ which has a silicon cover for grip and a little cushioning, and this has helped reduce injury somewhat. Unfortunately, one of the LED bits arrived almost broken (didn't work at first and then died after 1st use), but HomeOfPoi confirmed just this morning (after my proof of brokenness video) that they will be sending me an LED replacement for free.
I've taken a couple of smacks around the head and even cut the corner of my eye a little, but that's little to what could potentially happen if I fuck up spinning this bad boy!
See, smell, and hear the fire!
It's just the same as the other Staffs Asher, ya big fanny!
I disagree! For starters, you can feel the heat from the lit Kevlar and the flames are bright making everything else darker. The most unnerving part for me though is the sound of the flames roaring (more like growling at my current speed) as they move through the air.
This Staff I've had about 2 minutes on in total, and I'm happy with my lot thus far. I remember it being exhilarating and I'm looking forward to another go soon, but I'll be certain to keep practicing with my less visually pleasing, but safer Staff, for now....
Addicted
I am. The experts make Staff and flow look effortless, and it would be really cool to improve to the point where I could pass on what I have learned and perform a little with others. Perhaps Flow Staff on a Balanceboard will become a thing in time :)
Did you learn anything fun last year, or have some plans for a new hobby this time around the sun?
Cheers
Asher