In the past year and a half or so, I’ve written twenty blog posts for the youth wellbeing website TuneInNotOut.com. Each of these blogs has received either a $20 gift voucher (in the early days), or more recently an item of my choice of equivalent value. Anyone aged between 16-25 is eligible to write or submit content for them, so if you’ve got some ideas you want to share, now is a great way to get sweet gear in exchange for them. After a jittery hour of filming, and many, many frustrating hours of struggling with video editing software, I put together a video to thank Lynsey (and anyone else involved with the publishing of my blogs). In it, I am ecstatic to announce that I tried out my new unbreakable umbrella, which is every bit as unbreakable as they say. Rob and I practiced some free-form with the umbrella and a jo (four foot staff), and the umbrella was completely unharmed from the blocking, striking deflecting, thrusting, hooking and throwing. I did, however, lean it against a wall and it fell over, scratching the crook slightly. Although slightly heavier than anticipated, the wide crook is perfect for hanging over my shoulder or neck if I need the use of my hands, as well as being convenient for hooking over other people. Overall, an amazing product with a lifetime guarantee, and I have already started experimenting with creating a new form of the thunderstick through applying the principles of other kata (i.e. tiger crane). If it’s good enough, I dunno, maybe I’ll take another crack at filming it! I’m all hyped up on the success of making a video (not that it’s especially good).
Anyway, here it is! Skip to 2:15 for the sweet umbrella action.
Xin's Weald 