Piece of Finnish footbaggin’ history

Did you know that the first ever IFAB (predecessor of IFPA) sanctioned event outside North America was the Finnish Footbag Open back in 1997? The tournament took place in Helsinki in November of ’97. We had some 50 people competing in singles and doubles net and singles freestyle. The tournament was definitely one of the key factors that lead to the Finnish and European footbag scenes as we all know them today!

Check out what Justin Sexton posted on the footbag mailing list after the tournament:

YIIIIIIIIHHAAAAAAAAA!!!

It was awesome.

At 5:00 PM, just like the schedule said (I still wonder how we made it) in front of huge crowd the freestyle finals started. It showed the crowd the six best freestylers in Finland. I couldn’t believe the routines I saw, these guys had really worked hard on their routines. In the end the winner was Mika Koistinen with his amazing 1-drop routine.

After the volunteers had changed the beautiful freestyle arena into an outstanding finals net court extremely quick, the crowd was about to see the doubles net match of the decade. It was Jukka Peltola & Tuomas Kärki vs. me and my partner Jesse Fryckman. We play a lot together and we have had some real good matches over the years, but that match was just something else. I don’t know what went into us, but we all just played way beyond our own level. And the crowd which of most people never even seen footbag net game before loved it. I am so glad that we had a a film group with three cameras making a document of the event. With Rage Against the Machine playing on the background, we put up a show with huge spikes, blocks and saves that lead the game to unbelivevable rallies. We left off the rule of no contact above to net, so the crowd could see some really crazy airfights, and it worked too. The match took three thight sets and almost a whole Rage Against the Machine CD until the standing and yelling crowd got to see the last serve. When the head judge called the match point to Jukka Peltola & Tuomas Kärki, which ended the set to 15 – 13 and the whole game, started the everlasting applause from the crowd. The official victory to went to Jukka and Tuomas, but after a match like that we all felt like winners.

Because of the tight schedule, Jukka & Tuomas had only about ten minutes to get ready for the Singles net final match. They both really gave everything in the doubles finals, and they were so exhausted that they decided to make the sets only to eleven. Anyway the match started in time and in the end Tuomas Karki was the best net player in Finland taking two net championships that day. The third place between Me and my partner Jesse Fryckman was tied because we were head officials and us both being in doubles net and in freestyle finals led as to a situation that we just had to tie for the third, because we just did not have time for that match. The awards ceremony was great with the fancy trophies and medals with freestyler/net player on them and all the stuff we got from the sponsors was great. In the last two months my respect for all of you tournament directors has raise quite a bit, hats off to you all, and keep up the good work.

Justin Sexton

Recognize the top four finnish doubles net teams of '97? From left to right Aleksi Öhman, Jani Markkanen, Jesse Ruotsalainen, Olli Savolainen, Jukka Peltola, Tuomas Kärki, Justin Sexton and Jesse Fryckman.

And now, 14 years later we’re kicking stronger than ever and bringing you the Worlds you don’t want to miss! See you soon! Don’t forget to register!