Nothing Can Stop The Funtastik Summer Classic

Neither rain, nor wind, nor mud, nor… well, you get the idea.  Tropical storm Ernesto gave it’s all on opening day at “The Classic”, but he was no match for the legball die hards that have been making this tournament great for 21 years.  Ernesto was beat down so badly he did not dare rear his ugly head on Sunday, and by Championship Monday he was long gone - weather perfect!

Footbag Net’s Super Power
Montreal Quebec Canada, brought 9 players to the tournament and they wound up qualifying for all 4 spots in the singles semi-finals and 3 of the 4 spots in doubles semis.

Emmanuel Bouchard, of Montreal Quebec, once again dominated the Open Singles Net event - winning the final match in 2 sets over his opponent, JF Lemieux.  While JF continues to improve and climb the International rankings at an impressive pace, he has yet to figure out Emmanuel, and he is in good company.  Emmanuel dazzled the crowd in the final match - time and again demonstrating his amazing ability to cover the court and gain control of the footbag before ruthlessly placing it on his opponents side with pinpoint accuracy.

This is Emmanuel’s 1,354th singles title in 1,355 tries.

Want more on net, a freestyle swan song, a little “h.o.f.iness”?

John Leys did not enter the singles competition.

Emmanuel and Jean-Francios also teamed up to win the Open Doubles Funtastik Championship [7-15, 15-6, 15-9].  They met Chaos #4, John Leys, and Chaos #5, Eric Wulff, in what proved to be a very entertaining match.  With Emmanuel and JF getting off to a slow start, John and Eric jumped on the opportunity and took the first game in convincing fashion.  Unfortunately, in the 2nd game Eric and John returned the favor with a bit of a let down, so Emmanuel and JF promptly tied the match at 1 set all.

While each team showed flashes of brilliant play throughout the match, both of them were able to maintain a higher level of consistency in the final game, putting on an impressive display of offense and defense.  However, it was Emmanuel and JF who put together a run early in the game that John and Eric could not match.  It was then fitting that Emmanuel and JF ended the match with one of their many great defensive plays - digging a strong sole slap spike for the final point.

Tuan’s Finale:
Tuan Vu entered and exited the freestyle arena to standing ovations on Championship Monday, for this was the last time he would perform a competitive freestyle routine and you can be sure the crowd showed their love and appreciation for the Disco Ninja.  15 years ago this weekend, at this very tournament, Tuan began his freestyle journey, a path that would help change the course of freestyle itself.  He won 3 world championships in doubles freestyle, was a multiple time singles finalist at the World Championships - finishing 3rd in 1998, and holds several grand slam freestyle titles including a team and singles title from the Funtastik Summer Classic - I think that was 1995.  Techinically, he may have put his most definitive stamp on the sport with his incredibly dexterous style.  His overall contribution to the sport however is immeasurable.  So, after dedicating much of his life to cutting the edge of footbag freestyle, pushing himself and inspiring others, Tuan thanked Brenda and Joe Solonoski (directors of the Funtastik Summer Classic for 21 years straight), his beautiful wife Lisa and son Joey, then performed yet another patented crowd pleasing freestyle routine - Disco Ninja style.

Thanks Tuan!  You’ll be missed on the freestyle stage for sure, but not on the net court.  Chaos is happy to give you a cold hard welcome back, in the form of crushes, to the dark side full time .

Freestyle (other):
The freestyle show was more than worth the price of admition .  David Clavens went dropless - twice!  Gordon Scott ‘Flash’ Bevier went ‘1 drop styly’ in the finals forcing the judges to break a sweat.  While Scott’s styliness was the entertainment value of the freestyle weekend, it was Clavens technical prowess, not to say his routine wasn’t also engaging and well choreographed, that proved too much for the competition and he took home the Funtastic Summer Classic Freestyle Crown.  Flash finished a close second.

Skills
Wulff, hey - that’s me , is the Ironman once again - with authority.  The only man to make ‘The Ironman’ produce even a bead of sweat was the Disco Ninja himself who was just a couple seconds behind the Wulffman throughout their semi-final round.  That is, until the final ~ahem~ golf shot ~ahem~.

Immediately thereafter, Eric Wulff set quite a pace in the final round as he battled his way through the Superman course tying the world record with a time of 1:45; only to see Tuan Vu crush it just 1 minute later clocking his run in at 1:33*.  Tuan ‘Disco Ninja’ Vu is the new ‘Superman’ and now holds the world record in the event.

Service Poaching?  Nobody could touch Jamie Lepley.  He is the Service Poaching Champ.  He may also have put on this weekend’s greatest display of bravery… or stupidy?  There was much competition for this distinction as can be expected at most footbag events, but I’ll leave the final judgement on the bravery/stupidity tag to the reader.  Jamie consistently went inverted airborn big-time - landing on his back(at best) or directly on his head(often) to crush down high lobbing serves whilest dealing with somewhere between 2 to 20(depending on your source) slipped disks in his back and apparently also recovering from a dislocated hip.  What the @#$&! are you thinking Jamie!?  Anyway, he got $100 bucks for his efforts .

HOF
Scott Davidson was enducted into the Footbag Hall of Fame in a very nice celebration on Sunday night at the host hotel.  Scott has excelled as a player and promoter of the game for over 20 years.  Scott serves as the Education Director for the IFPA, he has co-directed the Midwest Regional Footbag tournament for nearly 20 years, and he won the Open Singles Freestyle World Championship in 1999.  HOF is honored to have him in ‘the club’.

btw, Scott peformed an outstanding routine in the final round of freestyle finishing in the bronze medal position.  He’s still performing at an extremely high level after all these years.

Notes
Peter Irish, the distinguished Master of Ceremonies for the weekend’s events, broke his own world record for using the term ‘Legend’ in describing all of us players who just don’t know when to quit this game .  Peter started his ‘Legendary’ run on Sunday afternoon while performing his duties as Master of Ceremonies for the first round of freestyle, continued it through the HOF enduction, and then on into Championship Monday.  The statistical breakdown is as follows…

- raw no. of times announcer projects the term ‘Legend’ using amplified sound: 273*

- no. of players referred to as ‘Legend’ or ‘Living Legend’: 56*
(This achievement is particularly impressive considering there were only 55 players officially entered in the event.)

- average no of ‘Legend’ references per announcement per player: 3*
(note: Most players were introduced several times since entering numerous events)

- no. of players NOT referred to as currently ‘Legendary’ or soon to be ‘Legendary’: 1*
(Sorry Gordon - surely it was an oversight on Pete’s part)
(also note: previous low count was 23)

Pete’s achievement is, well, legendary .

Of course, before signing off, on behalf of Team Chaos I have to thank - Brenda, Joe, and Julian Solonoski, and the entire Funtastik Summer Classic crew for producing and directing this event for the 21st year running.  From my perspective, the event was a complete success and everyone had an absolutely Funtastik time .

See you next year!

* world record