Beaver River Regatta; and Poi Success!!

Yesterday we went down to Bridgewater Landing, where my brother docks his boat, for the Beaver River Regatta. We had a really good time. We got to take the boat out, and this time nothing went wrong. We had a nice ride up and down the river, dropped anchor for awhile and played a little music, then came back in the evening for the regatta parade.

Playing modern-day captain.


Navigator Ashley.

Going into Montgomery Lock.



Inside the lock.

The dam that made the lock necessary.


Music pirate.
Yeah - no explanation necessary.


The boat decorated for the regatta.


Bridgewater Landings decorated up for the regatta.

In poi news ... I LEARNED THE 3 BEAT WEAVE!!! Yeah, that's a big deal. You see, the 3 beat weave is supposed to be a beginner's move, yet it's very impressive looking in it's own right, seems to be a staple move in most poi-routine videos I've seen, and it's an important step in learning more advanced moves.

But for the first few days I was trying to learn it, I just could not get it. Not even a little bit. I was beginning to despair of ever progressing in my poi spinning if I couldn't learn this allegedly simple move. In some forums I was reading, people were saying they'd learned this move in a day or even a few hours. I was going on a week and couldn't get it.

Yesterday I wasn't even really planning to work on it, but I'd started doing a simple forward spin in split time (left and right poi spinning in opposing circles, one poi up when the other's down, sorta thing), and then started crossing them over. Simple as that is, I'd only ever done the crossovers in same time. As soon as I started doing that, I realized that was the "2 beat weave" that was the precursor to the 3 beat. So I stood and did that for awhile, while picturing the tutorial videos in my mind. Watching those tutorial videos over and over and over, even when you haven't been able to begin learning the move yet, seems to be a really good thing to do ... it's like training your mind to 'know' what to do so it can then tell your muscles what to do, before you've even physically done it yet. While standing there doing the 2 beat weave and picturing in my mind what my arms should be doing, I was just suddenly able to start doing it!

It took about 20 minutes of practice to begin to get it set in my mind to where I can purposely replicate it, and not just have it happen almost 'by accident.' It's still pretty sloppy, and I can only seem to maintain it for 10 seconds or so before I lose it - but I can do it, which means I'm sure I'll get better at it and progress from there.

So yeah - it was a very big deal to me.

I'd learned a couple other tricks this week too - despite feeling as if I'm not really making much progress, I guess in a way I am - I've managed to learn something new almost each day this week. Maybe in a few weeks I'll know enough moves well enough to put together a little routine, tape it, and post it somewhere. Yay me.