My first everything part 3 post #4

My first everything part 3

July 1998

Day 1

After enduring that mind fuck weekend in Kentucky. I was headed to Orlando, Florida for the US Open. This time I would be traveling with a couple of friends from home. It would be nice to be at a tournament with a couple of people I knew. I was going to be doing a couple of extra divisions there. Board breaking and team forms.

I had finally gotten the thought of Atlanta out of my mind. Thanks god for that. I just submerged myself into training. I guess that’s why I did the two extra divisions.

After the long flight, we finally arrived at the hotel. We walked into the lobby and set our stuff down for a moment. I turned around to head to the registration desk. Guess who was right in my line of sight? It was Atlanta. I swear someone was out to get me. I quickly turned back around hoping that she didn’t see me.

I prayed that she would just go away and leave me alone. Doesn’t it always go this way? When you finally get over someone that they return for a second just to fuck with your head.

I feel a hand on my back. Deep down this is what I wanted. I turned around and she gave me the sweetest and tightest hug. I’m total mush when I’m around her. She has me wrapped around her finger.

I introduce her to my friends. I Introduce T to her. He was someone that I admired. He was a total ladies man and buff. Two things I severely lacked in. Even though I was hooking up with a lot of girls when I traveled. I still felt insecure about girls and myself. My other friend was a little guy that I was doing team forms with. He was 13 at the time. He was a cool little kid.

I kept it as short as possible with Atlanta. The more time I spent with her the more of my common sense would go out the door.

After getting all my stuff into my room. I went down stairs to practice our team form for a bit. We met up with my good friends from Rhode Island. We decided to do a team demo together. The tournament would be on ESPN 2. So everyone was trying to find as many ways as they could to get on TV.

I had finally perfected doing pop 720s. I could do them with ease without exerting much energy. I was feeling pretty good. We started tricking for a bit. I decided I was going to try to do a 1080. I haven’t even attempted it before that day. But I was hyped. I stood there for a moment and collected myself. Here goes nothing.

The initial step felt sharp. My jump felt explosive. The spin felt like a normal 720. When I finished the second spin. I knew I was pretty high in the air still. So I kept my kicking leg from chambering and continued to spin. I was at two and a half spins. I chambered my right leg to throw the kick. I threw the hook it with full extension and I haven’t even landed yet. As the kicked past the target area I landed with ease. I had just landed the first 1080 ever. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. I swear I thought I could do 4 spins.

There were only a hand full of people there and no one had a camera because no one knew I was going to attempt a 1080. I did it one more time to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Landed it with ease again. I knew I had to put it in my form. Regardless of it being a brand new trick. I lived for these moments.

It was a great way to start the weekend. Little did I know that this weekend would forever change my life? In love and in martial arts.

Day 2

I didn’t see much of Atlanta all day. She would come by here and there and give me small amounts of attention. Since I had already been through this with her, I didn’t chase her anymore. She can do whatever she wants. Not to say that I didn’t think about all the time. I missed her.

As the day went by, I started seeing her hanging out with T. Figures right? I felt jealous and helpless. I couldn’t compete with that. I looked up to this guy. At that point I felt heartbreak for the first time and I wasn’t even her boyfriend. I decided to give up on her completely and just concentrate on competing.

This was a very important tournament for me. I was being considered to become a member of JPM (John Paul Mitchell). I really needed this sponsorship. The team that was sponsoring me at that time was running out of funding. If I didn’t make that team I would have to stop traveling and competing. I was addicted to it. I didn’t want it to end like that.

First division I was in was broad breaking. I didn’t win but I did some fun breaks. Hitting a board with a 720 was probably the highlight of it. I was using 1 inch boards while everyone else was using half inch.

Team form was next. This was a tragic form. The team form had a really dangerous combo in it. I was doing a flying sidekick over the boy’s butterfly twist. When we got to that part of the form. I clipped his head with my chambered kicking leg. He was rocked. He did the drunken haze wobble. Poor kid. I felt really bad.

Team demo went better. We finished making up demo last minute. We made the top two and would be performing on stage.

My musical forms division was a breeze. I won first and was headed to the finals. Maybe I could actually win Grands for once.

The night ended and I didn’t see much of Atlanta or my friend T. So I spent the rest of the night with my Rhode Island friends.

Day 3

It was same old stuff during the day. I was just killing time waiting for the nighttime finals and keeping my mind off of Atlanta. Doesn’t help that every time I see her, she is around T. Though I didn’t look for her all that often. When I did look for her, It was probably coincidence that they were together or I was looking for them together to prove to myself that she didn’t want me anymore.

The finals came and it was time to perform. Team demo was nothing special. We lost. But it was a good warm up.

Men’s forms grand was now up. It was finally time to attempt my new trick. I was really nervous about it. I have only tired it twice. I didn’t dare practicing it again because I didn’t want to jinx it. The form started off well. It was time to attempt the 1080.

Something felt off the moment I stepped into it. I knew I wasn’t going to make the full 3 spins. I have to improvise. I was too far to make it a 720 and not far enough for the three spins. So I just threw out whatever leg was in front. If you watch the video you can tell it was thrown sloppy to just make it look like a kick. The rest of form finished well. It wasn’t a total loss. I still had a chance of winning this.

After everyone went. There was a 3-way tie for first. We had to go again. I didn’t want to do the same form again. I hate doing anything twice. So I decided I was going freestyle the second form. I performed without music because I just wanted to focus on my form and not worry about keep up with the rhythm of the song.

So for everyone out there that has seen the form. You know that the highlight of that form was that I said sideswipe in the corner before running away from camera and doing the kick. Here is what was going through my mind.

This is where the name came from. It was evolved version of a 540. At first it was a stalled front flip style 540. Then one day I slipped during the take off and dipped my head down and it caused my body to rotate aggressively. It was an impressive at the time. One of my friends tried to claim the kick by naming it. He and I battled a lot because he was the only other guy that could hang with me then. After practice we would always go a couple of rounds. It was friendly competition.

He wanted to name it the Tasmanian twist. Our other friends told him, he couldn’t name because he didn’t invent it. So he called me out. Whoever did the kick better would have the right to name it. He went first and it was executed flawlessly. My friends were afraid that I couldn’t top it. They didn’t want him to win.

I’m going to set up the scene. There were four judges sitting all together waiting for me to go. I was in the corner of the room mentally preparing to do it. I did the trick and when I turned around and looked to my friends to see what they thought of it. They all stood there for a second then exploded form the ground and ran in different directions screaming and yelling bloody murder. One of my friends was dragging his body by pulling his entire body with his arms. If you have ever seen The Fresh Prince of Bel Air you would know what I’m talking about. Youtube The Fresh prince - out takes and look for Carlton screaming about will smith’s death.

The friend that had challenged me was pissed. They didn’t have to go that far to prove their point. But that’s what you get for trying to steal someone’s move and try to call him out to so you can claim the move. Karma is a bitch!

So my friends asked me what I was going to name it. I don’t name my tricks. I just do them. It felt tacky to name moves. But I was one the spot. So used the first thing that came to my mind. My favorite movie of all time is the 1984 Transformers movie. Even though he wasn’t in the movie. Sideswipe was my favorite Autobot. So I called it Sideswipe.

It was a fitting name to the move. There is a team out there called sideswipe. I think they named the team after my kick. Which is pretty cool.

I had completed my form. At that time, it felt solid. I thought I was going to win. I ended up losing. But not only did I not get first. I was third. That was total bullshit to me. I was upset. I felt that it was unfair and there was nothing I could do to show what they had done was complete bullshit. I lost my cool.

They never showed this on TV. I was so upset that I took off my belt and threw it into the audience. I’m sure it was more then just me losing that made me do something so irrational. Atlanta had chosen someone else over me. My form wasn’t good enough for the judges and I wasn’t good enough for her.

My chances of becoming a member of JPM disappeared after I threw my belt. I had thrown away my future because I couldn’t control myself. What kind of martial artist was I? I was already building a reputation as a rebel. Now I was had confirmed that I was not only a rebel but had now become infamous.

The night was far from over and would get a lot more interesting…

To be continued