So first off, I’ll get to what most of you probably want to know – who won. Kamikaze took the competition, although everyone gave amazing performances. The crowd judged the show, and they were feeling Kazi from start to finish. I’ve got crazy respect for Kamikaze, every time I do a show with him he never fails to shock me. He always comes with new moves, combos and his one-of-a-kind style. You can say that if the whole competition was a poker tourney, Kamikaze has what it takes to trump the other participants’ poker hands.
……….Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’m going to rewind a bit and tell you what happened just before the competition. We all got some tight gear from Protégé a new up and coming shoe/clothing company. When we first got to the venue we did a little interview for a cameraman, I got to wear one of those little microphones that goes under your shirt, so that was a life defining moment for me (OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, haha). We also bumped into some familiar faces. We talked to Trikz and Tommy Baker for a bit, and I saw Circus and said what’s up to him. Before we went on stage Soulja boy performed and there were all kinds of girls going crazy, haha. After Soulja Boy took some pictures with some fans we were up.
……….Here’s a little breakdown of how the competition went. First, Kamikaze and I (Snake) battled. Kamikaze killed it with some smooth, fast one ball flow. He has incorporated some sick new break-dance elements into his flow, and some stylish spin tricks that really put his style over the edge. I did some two ball flow for my first time and one ball for the second. I was planning on doing some three balls dribbling, but sometimes the stages have dead spots, so I didn’t want to risk messing up and decided to wait and use it if I won in the first round. The crowd loved Kamikaze’s style and he moved on.
……….Next Shiro and Surprise went at it. Shiro demonstrated his incredible speed and super-clean flow, but for some reason it seemed like the crowd wasn’t really feeling him. Personally I thought he killed it though. Surprise was every bit as good as he is in his videos and the crowd was digging him. He did some incredible spin tricks and juggling combos. Surprise ended up advancing to the final to face Kamikaze.
……….In the finals each guy performed three times instead of two. Kamikaze ended up taking it. Both of them performed very well but Kamikaze made a few less mistakes than Surpsise, and he had a few fresh more moves left to use. I know that Surprise was thrown a bit off because he wasn’t able to use the K1X balls that he was practicing with before the competition. However, Kamikaze really killed it from start to finish.
……….Every single freestyler had breathtaking performances, though, which is why I thought that this was the best competition yet. Guys were going at each other, dissing them on stage, interacting with the crowd, and just flat out battling and entertaining.
……….I have to say though, for me the competition is only about ¼ of the reason I love doing these shows. What really gets me amped is meeting up with all these talented freestylers from around the globe. It’s cool just to be able to hang out, find out about their cultures, see what their opinions are on freestyle, and watch them freestyle in person. Just about every second before and after the competition we were either talking about freestyle, or out filming freestyles.
……….The night before the competition me, Shiro, and Kamikaze rocked out in front of the hotel and got some footage. I also filmed some interview footage of Kamikaze and Shiro. Then after the competition all the competitors went to a nearby mall. We freestyled outside of the mall for a bit and we filmed some sick footage there. We went back to the hotel and I interviewed Surprise, and later we went back to the mall, along with White Shadow, and filmed some more. Most of this footage I got over the weekend will be used on a freestyle documentary I’m starting to work on, but I’m going to put a little bit of it on YouTube for everyone to check out.
……….After seeing these guys freestyle in person and talking to them about their opinions on freestyle I have to say it’s really inspiring and motivating. Everyone there had something unique to show, and represented themselves to the fullest. I went home with all kinds of new ideas and techniques that I wanted to try out. On top of this, these were all some real cool dudes to hang out with.
……….Shiro is a really funny dude, even though he doesn’t speak much English, he had me cracking up all weekend. One thing I noticed when watching him freestyle in person was how amazing his footwork is, and I saw he picked up a few of my moves as well, haha.
……….Surprise is a really chill, laid-back kind of guy; he’s really down to earth and easy to talk to. His impossible trick variations are unbelievable, and I was really impressed with some of his soccer type moves in his flow freestyle as well.
……….Kamikaze, well he’s just my boy, haha. His body control and balance is beyond impressive. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the stuff he does on his YouTube videos is only about ¼ of what he can do. Getting to see him freestyle in person is a mind-boggling experience, that’s the only way I can describe it. Too be honest, right now I don’t think anyone can mess with him in terms of 1 ball flow freestyling.
……….Hopefully in the future there will be more and more of these types of shows; they’re really great for the exposure, not just the freestylers, but for the sport of freestyle as well. On top of that it seems that these competitions really help everyone to raise the bar in terms of ability and creativity.