Chaos Represents at South American Championships 2009

For the third straight year North America’s finest footbag net ambassadors, the Chaos Footbag Club, represented at this year’s South American Footbag Championships 2009 in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s ambassadors were the Delegation of Destruction’s disciples #2 and #25 (a.k.a. Jack Harris and Jeremy Mirken). As expected, Chaos members made the finals of both the singles and doubles events, however, we were greeted with a rude awakening . . . . Read on to experience SURA 2009 through the eyes of Chaos #25! 

Upon arrival at the El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia I was met by my partner Jack Harris, and two of the finest footbag promoters in South America: Carlos Marquez, and this year’s event director, Edgar Camargo Leal. After piling into a taxi, we were whisked off to a Bogota storefront where we met up with many of our South American hermanos from SURA 2008. Unfortunately, due to the economic climate of South America, several talented players from Venezuela were unable to represent in Colombia this year. Regardless, those in attendance happily rejoiced at being in each other’s company and told stories of the past year. At dusk, our mini-bus arrived and we piled into it, quite uncomfortably, as we dangerously set tail pipe for Cajica (pronounced, ka-hee-CAH), a small city outside of Bogota. After 90 minutes through the sprawling urban environment of Bogota, we arrived at this year’s tournement event site: Club Campestre la Hacienda. Although Jack and Jer considered themselves to be in fine playing shape, there was one problem . . . we had never before dealt with the rigors of playing at 9,000 feet (or about 2800 meters) above sea level. And we would do this on less than 24 hours of acclimation time!

Before tournament day one’s events (at 8:00AM), Jack, myself, Carlos, Elias, and Edgar got the opportunity to present the sport of footbag net live on TV station Caracol in Bogota. I’ve never seen so many hot women. You could call the demo successful, although the set was cramped and the net was about 5’8” tall and 12’ wide. Upon completion of the appearance, Edgar received a second call and once again, we were off to a second local TV station to perform another demo. The second demo went well, and both Jack and I were honored to be interviewed (in Spanish, hah) about our Colombian experience thus far. We drove back to Cajica and got ready for the singles competition that day. 

Singles day went well, with both Jack and I rolling through our pools and round of 16. Although I had the #1 seed, I faced my first formidable opponent in the round of 16, Luis “El Chino” Sarmiento. I won in straight games. He presented a good challenge, especially with 20% less oxygen at my disposal. The quarterfinals would be played on day three, and my opponent was to be Andres Vivas, a young, upcoming Venezuelan player. Jack, after losing a game to his round of 16 opponent, defeated Diego Chavez in the third game to set up a quarterfinal match with the player who defeated him last year at SURA 2008, Victor Lezama.

On doubles day, SURA day two, we breezed through the doubles competition reaching the Semis. The other three teams to make the semis were Nelson Castro and Elias Golzalez (outside Caracas), Carlos Marquez (San Cristobal) and Oscar Loreto (Caracas), Reinaldo Perez (Caracas) and Andres Vivas (San Cristobal). The last team mentioned, upset the number 3 seed in the quarterfinals in order to reach the semis.

On day 3, singles quarterfinals were played. I beat Andres Vivas in two straight games, setting up a match in the semifinals against Carlos Marquez. Despite his best efforts, Jack lost to Victor Lezama, again, prompting South American celebration #1. The four singles semi-final competitors were: Jeremy to play Carlos Marquez (San Cristobal), and Victor Lezama (Caracas) to play Jairo Lagos (Caracas). Without exaggeration, Victor steamrolled over Jairo Lagos in two straight games, while I struggled to defeat Carlos (16-14, 15-13). I was very impressed with the improvment in Carlos’ singles game. His training (and that of the other SA players) is paying off.

Somewhere in those first 3 days, Jack and I held a clinic in order to demonstrate some of the finer points of the doubles game and the way that we train concepts specific to the singles and doubles games. It was translated into Spanish and video taped by several players.

Day 4 of the tournament was semifinals and finals day. In the doubles semis, Reinaldo Perez and Andres Vivas narrowly defeated Carlos Marquez and Oscar Loreto in 3 games, while Jack and I defeated Nelson and Elias, also in 3 games. The finals were set: Team Chaos vs. Reinaldo Perez (2nd consec. finals appearance) and Andres Vivas (first finals appearance ever). To make a short story even shorter, although Reinaldo and Andres played hard, they were no match for Team Chaos, which played virtually mistake free on the way to a straight set victory (15-6, 15-4). It was an emotional experience. In the singles final, played immediately after doubles, Victor and I played 3 exciting games. In the first game, I came from behind to win 16-14. In the second game, I was unable to close out the match, losing 9-15 to a resilient South American. In the third game, after losing the coin toss, I got out to an 8-7 lead on the “good side,” but was unable to overcome Victor’s brilliant court coverage, defense, and poor light conditions. He won the third game and the match 15-8, and was cheered, then swarmed, by his South American compatriots (which you can see in my facebook photos). Congratulations Victor!

At the awards ceremony, after receiving our medals, Jack and I were unexpectedly honored with a plaque from La Corporacion Footbag Colombia, given in recognition of CHAOS footbag’s efforts to promote the diffusion of footbag in the South American continent. It was a moving experience.

I am thankful for the time I spent in South America, playing with and against these talented athletes, and I hope to return each and every year until the sun sets on the final Yves of my footbag career.