After 6 months, I FINALLY did it

Hi you spinners !!

My name’s Olivier, I’m French and I’ve just been 28. I live in Paris, 19th district, close to the parc of the Buttes-Chaumont, North-east Paris, where I usually train and firespin.

I’m juggling with poi, double staff, club swing & juggling (3), and 4 balls

During the day-time I’m working in mechatronics engineering as a project engineer (I wouldn’t mind, still beeing a student in order to spend my spare time spinning, but well .. that’s it .. I’m on the job market !)
I love London and Italy, where I usually hangs, for week-ends or holydays

I’ve been reading forums (PiP/Sph) for a couple of months (since the fall of 2k3)
Should have been posting before, but at that time, I didn’t feel that my level was good enough to post interesting technical remarks ..
Well heuum .. that wasn’t a good reason .. OK, the right one is that, I’m also very lazy :oops:

How did I discovered juggling … ?
I used to hang with some jugglers when I was a student… I liked watching it: But well , ok guys , play with your balls/diabolos/clubs .. I’ll manage the skinning .. that’s not for me.
In 1999 they took me to the EJC in Grenoble, where I first saw firespinning/dancing .. I loved it
Then just before beeing graduated, I had a though: maybe I should learn juggling with 3 balls, that would be nice on my CV.
4 months later I went to EJC2k1 in Schiedam, where I passed 4 balls, bought 3 clubs, a staff and some poi.
They stayed in my flat as a nice decoration (after a couple of hits in my balls 8O ), till I went to the Italian juggling conventions 2k2, in Porano where I learned some of the basics (at that time BF, waistwarp, ..).
Then had another break .. till I went to London for a nasty psychaedelik hardclubbin’ weekend .. where I saw spinners with glowpoi/staff.
Then I can say everything got started: I wanted to improve, and really got into it in january 2002 !!
Went again to Porano Italian convention in 2k3, then to Svendborg, where I attended Rob/Drew’s spinning workshops and bought double staff. And for the past year it’s been my main spare time activity.

It’s been a long way, as nobody was practicing in Paris at that time, so I’ve been building skills on my own, which helps a lot. But now it’s getting better in paris: since beginning of this year, there’s a real rush for spinning (mostly coming from the harcore/hardtek undergroung parties) & weekly fire meetings, and a French forum with section dedicated to it ( jongle.net )

Improved skills w/ different props :
I’m really understanding trajectory and body move better since I’m practicing with double staff ..
When spinning double-staff, one has to dance .. otherwise you can’t make it.
So I would advise to every poi spinners to start double staff: takes a couple of month for your wirst to cope with twirling, but then it’s really helpful.

Only started hyperloops, & releasing the poi four months ago, which I really should have done before ! !
I’m currently working hard on crossers, flowers & isolation (this is so painfull).
Took me so much time to slow down spinning speed, and start working on timing (i.e. angular offset between poi)
Really should have done it before [ this is a good sentence, that one can use in every poi-nerd conversation, or place in every other sentences ]

best vids / spinning style that has inspired me:
by order of discovery Dantana, PK, Rob, Matt Perry, Nick woolsey

If I had to describe my music evolution, it would be something like this:
Rock, goth, industrial, electro/ebm, intelligent, power noise, .. to reagge, ragga/dancehall, breaks, big beat, DnB, hardtek, Dub, trip-hop, chills .. and of course Trance (Full-on to Psychedelik, to progressive)
I’m still listening to a bit of it all .. but I must admit I’ve been listening to too many psytrance for the past 2 years.
I’ll be at the Boom Festival this year, where a couple of good firespinners from all over the world should attend (from what I heard from friends who’ve been in Goa beginning of this year).
So I hope some of you spherculished will make it .. especially you Matt: no longer any Samothrakis, so I hope you’ll find some funding.

OK, let’s talk about the left & right brain approach :
Shall I think about different possibilities, try to solve logically the technical problems with my right brain,
Or shall I simply skin-up & freestyle, in order to find new things/tricks/moves/combos ?
I’ve tried both .. as everyone has or should ..
But at the curent standpoint, I’m starting to know a lot of moves that lead to too many combinations ..
So I’m trying to organize that bloody mess, using my right brain .. but honestly I must admit that of all my fav tricks I’ve found after smoking a couple of joints & listening to music .. he he
I’ve spent hours reading forum posts, instead of practicing .. staying stuck at the same level because I was only doing my standard routines when practicing …
Which leads me to my last words,

The very last question that keeps on hammering my brain, since one of my mate asked it to me, a couple of months ago :
Do you really try everything that you imagine / see / think about?
Unfortunately my answer is still : NOPE, there’s a couple of move / idea that are written in my « handbook » ( I’m trying to write down moves I’ve found or idea I have in the tube .. in order to capitalize knowledge), or that I’ve seen on video, convention .. that I STILL haven’t tried.
I hope I’ll be able to say yes .. one of these days (… then I’ll have a break)
So please give at least a few minutes to your imagination (.. whilst downloading videos): 2mn of testing is at least trying it 3 times .. that’s not much !!
Gotta go practice ..

- Olivier

If you ever pass by Paris do not hesistate to drop me an e-mail, so that we can catch-up for a firespin run & tricks sharing

See ya at the EJC2k4 in Carvin, hope some of our dear overseas spinners will have the money to make it!!

If you’ve come to that line, without falling of your seat .. thanks for reading