I had only been playing kendama for 4 months. I loved it, but I wasn’t very good. I knew that video contests were a thing. But I also knew there was no chance I could win one until I was MUCH better. Then, @Chad Covington announced the Lace Space contest for @Sol Kendamas . I was immediately excited! I could put in some real time and effort into a contest that didn’t rely on skill! I tried not to get ahead of myself though, and starting making plans. The video was to be about the space, so I immediately knew the spot I would use. I had been making (bad) videos for a couple months at this point. So I had a vague idea of how I could bring together the little bits I had learned. But it was the rainy season. There was plenty of time until the contest deadline, but I could ONLY take the time on the weekend. A weekend finally arrived where it wasn’t raining! But it was forecasted to rain for the next two weeks! I had only ONE shot at this. ONE day, and unlikely to have a second chance. Here’s what the weather looked like the day I went out to video: I only had my gopro and iphone, so I made due with a combination of POV and landscape shots. I tried to show the space and myself doing tricks in equal parts. OF COURSE there is never anyone at this spot. NEVER. Except for the one day I had to get it done. With kids and couples all around, I started to get paranoid and frustrated. I was unable to land tricks and feeling like they were following me. I didn’t know very many tricks, nothing very impressive. Whirlwind and juggle were my most advanced. Even then I was having trouble hitting them. After about 5 hours and running my iPhone almost completely dead, I decided to head home. I hoped I had enough shots to make the video. Then on my way back, walking along this huge pipe, my backpack unzipped and dumped a bunch of stuff down into the marsh! I was already exhausted and just wanted to get home. I even considered leaving the stuff behind! I didn’t know if I would be able to get down there, get them, and then get back up. I successfully retrieved my stuff, but it was hard and added another 30 minutes to my time out there. When I got home that night, I had a good laugh about my day, but realized I was missing some key footage. I needed something else that would round out the video. Fortunately the rain held off the next day as well! I actually went BACK down and got some juggle tricks and a long timelapse/panning shot to finish it out. Here’s the video I entered. Watching it you’d never know the lengths I went to get it done! In the end it was all worth it! I won first place and got FIVE kendamas from @Sol Kendamas . Shoutout to everyone else who entered some other sick videos. Check out the other winners and entries on Sol Kendamas page here: http://www.solkendamas.com/blogs/blog/sol-kendamas-lace-space-video-contest-results Especially @Jewbacca sick vid with drone shots! The End. @Dæmon
@Christian Schuster Do it! It's so satisfying to put something together and you end up learning a lot along the way!