Bones Overtakes Maverick!

by Crazy Ivan


It's no mistake that the title of this post is so sensational, but I'll spare you the suspense and let you know right away that we're not talking skills here.  Bones is one of the most promising young freestylers in the world right now and there is a chance that he will someday overtake Maverick in overall Myachi skills, but Maverick is still raising the bar and there's a lot of catch-up to do.

But Bones has overtaken Mav in a different and very important metric.  He's jumped ahead of him on You-Tube.

If you search Myachi on YouTube and sort by relevance (the default setting), the top rated video is the Myachi commercial.  But right below that, you'll see the video below... a video that Bones shot with Bamboo in Monk's room and posted back in February of 2010.



For years we've watched this video creep up the ranks and while the skills he and Bamboo exhibit here are utterly dwarfed by what they can do now, the video has remained popular and has actually gained momentum over the last year.  A few months ago, it overtook one of the most popular Myachi shred videos ever recorded, a classic jam from Maverick in Washington Square:



This video had enjoyed top YouTube billing for quite a while and still ranks at #3, right below Bones and Bamboo.  It's an epic shred to be sure, but is equally eclipsed by Mav's current level of skill.  I have a feeling that in both cases, the stars of the videos find the tricks that seemed hard back then quaint in comparison to what they can do now.

I should note that Bones' video hasn't actually overtaken Mav's in total view count.  Mav still has an advantage of some 8000 views as of this writing.  But that's increasingly irrelevant.  If you search Myachi videos by view count, the top 9 videos have nothing to do with Myachi.  Three of them are highlights of Japanese football phenom Ryo Miyaichi and the others are all but inexplicable.  In fact, the only actual Myachi video that cracks the top 10 in view count is a 4 year old video of Caffeine demonstrating a 360, a 720 and some very questionable attempts at higher rotations.

I'm not sure what factors are figured in to You-Tube's calculation of the most "relevant" video, but i can tell you that this top honor is a source of pride within the House of Skills.  We all ceck in from time to time to see where we're ranking.  As of this moment, the top 10 breaks down as follows:

1. The Official Myachi Commercial
2. Bones' Tough Myachi Tricks (Bones, Bamboo)
3. Mav's Washington Square Shred (Mav)
4. Myachi in NYC (Myachi Man, Kid, Big Dog)
5. Myachi Sales 101 (Kid)
6. Meeting Night (Everybody)
7. Old Myachi Video (Myachi Man and Big Dog)
8. Monk and I in tandem (Monk and I)
9. Battle Paddle Promo video
10. My 1st Collection Video

There are always a few shuffles and changes here and there, but we're all always looking to crack that top 3.  Which leads me to the call to action.  Do you have a favorite Myachi Master?  Do you think Mav's video should be above Bones?  Do you think Bones and Bamboo have earned the top spot?  Do you think Monk's Myachi and Cup shred should make the top 10?  How about Sack Center?

You can, of course, help to decide.  I'm not sure all the metrics that enter in to it, but I'm willing to bet that you can influence the top 10 just by watching, liking and sharing the video that you think most deserves the top honor.  If you have a blog, you can embed it.  If you have a Facebook page or a Twitter account, you can share it.  If you have a Google Plus account... let me know how that's working out for you.

Anyway, I'll be updating this top 10 standing from time to time and hopefully some new entries will find their way into the honored spots.  If nothing else, I'd love to see both Bones and Mav make follow up videos to these classics.

The 4 Essential Tricks for Myachi Fu

by Crazy Ivan


One of the many ways we track the evolution of Myachi is through the popular games that we play with it.  As the game gets bigger, the preeminent Myachi game has shifted 3 times and we seem to be in the middle of a fourth epic shift.  Over the years Chaos gave way to Golf and Golf gave way to MYACH and now it seems clear that Fu is sweeping in and overtaking MYACH as the most popular game in Myachi.

I don't think the shift is complete quite yet.  I would guess that there are still more MYACH players than Myachi Fu players, if for no other reason than the game is spread out and you can't play Fu over your webcam, but there are many indicators that the Fu will soon supplant MYACH.

The first place that we've seen this shift historically is within the Myachi movement.  When I joined the company, Golf was still the most popular Myachi game but Animal, Butter and I favored MYACH.  It might be hard to believe now, but back then, we represented the younger generation of Myachi Masters (even though I'm 10 years older than Animal).

Today we're seeing a similar shift as our newest generation of masters slowly gravitate more to Fu than MYACH.  Again, we're not talking about a transition that has happened, but rather about one that is happening currently.  I'm actually having a lot of fun watching the signposts that are marking this shift and I saw one the other day at FAO.  For the first time, I met a dude who played Myachi.  When I asked him what his favorite trick was, he said, "I don't really do tricks, but I'm good at Fu."

And he was.  I played him 3 rounds on the spot (it was slow) and he was quick with super-fast hand switches and really competent leg work.  But he couldn't do a 360 and when I showed him an under the leg, he was trying it for the first time.

In the past that would be unthinkable... somebody who plays Myachi but doesn't know tricks?  Even when the game was primarily Chaos and it was all about the toss and catch, everyone still knew the Under the Leg and the 360.  But this dude had clearly spent some serious time with a Myachi on his hand and it had never really occurred to him to do an Under the Leg.

I was really fired up about this.  He'd seen people doing tricks and that hadn't interested him, but when he saw a few friends playing Fu, he wanted in.  He's a martial artist and he saw the benefits (and point) of the game right away.  And (I can't emphasize this enough) he was good.  Not just "I'm-a-grown-up-and-he's-14-so-I'm-being-nice" good, but actually, genuinely good.  He scored a solid point on me when I wasn't even close to "going easy" mode.

So now that I know that there's at least one person who just plays Fu and doesn't focus on the tricks, I think it's a safe assumption that there are more.  And if not, there will be.  So it's about time to start representing them here on the Myachi Blog.

Obviously, if you want to be good at Fu, there are a few tricks you will have to know.  Even if freestyle isn't your thing, you can no more master Fu without these tricks than you could master basketball without learning to dribble.  These aren't usually the 4 basics we teach because they're not the most important moves to learn first if you're going to do a bunch of freestyle shredding, but if your only goal is to be a great Fu player, here's where you should start:

 #1) The Half Pipe 

This move is essentially the "dribble" of Fu.  You can never afford to let your hand rest in a game of Fu.  It should almost always be in motion and you need control during that motion.  The Half Pipe is a super-easy move to do, sure, but it isn't as easy to master.  You need to be able to Half Pipe really quickly and, just as important, you need how to stop the Half Pipe motion on a dime to react to your opponents attack.



Just as important is being ambidextrous.  In Fu, everybody has to be a South Paw from time to time and you've got to have equal control with both hands.  After all, if you're protecting your Myachi with your dominant hand, you'll never have it free for attacks.

And, of course, that same motion will be employed in the next move, which is actually more important, but not as easy to learn right away.

 #2) The Vert 

If you can't Vert, you can't win against someone who can.  Being able to raise your Myachi up and out of trouble without losing control of it is essential if you're going against an experienced opponent.  In fact, mastering a lefty and righty Vert can be enough to completely wipe out a height advantage in a game against a player without a Vert.



The reason is obvious.  If you can't Vert, you're in serious trouble every time you have to raise the Myachi above your chest.  That just gives you less space in which to work your defense.  A quick Vert will also allow you to correct a bad catch without leaving yourself open to attack.

If I had to list a single, quintessential move for mastering Fu, this would be it.  Practice this one a lot and go for speed.  Use both hands (obviously) and try to do as many full Verts as you can in 60 seconds.  Then try to do more.  Then try to do more.  If you can Vert fast enough, you'll find yourself making attacks with the hand you have your Myachi on.  That makes for a nearly unbeatable offense... unless your opponent has a Vert as fast as yours.

 #3) The Fu 

Pretty obvious that in a game called "Myachi Fu", you're going to have to know how to do the move called "The Fu", but despite that, a lot of players underestimate its importance.  To illustrate it, let me start with something really obvious.  If your opponent is attacking your right hand, the best defense is to have the Myachi in your left hand.

Considering that, you need to have a super fast way to switch from one hand to another.  The Fu is the swap move that offers you the most control.  A Fusion move relies on gravity so you have to wait for the Myachi to come to you, but a Fu uses centrifugal force so you can move as fast as your hands will allow without sacrificing control of the Myachi.



Now, usually when people think about the Fu, they think of it as a continuous swap back and forth.  That's useful in a game because you can stand back from your opponent quickly swapping so they don't know what hand you're going to attack with.  Once they commit, you can come out of your furiously fast Fu and attack with whichever hand suits you.  But even more important than having a fast back and forth is having a single, quick, controlled exchange.

I know it sounds weird, but don't just practice going back and forth.  You also need to practice just doing one Fu and then going into some lefty centrifugals (and, of course, going back and going straight into some righty centrifugals).  You have to be able to instantaneously switch hands and have control of that Myachi right away.  Good Half-Pipe and Vert work will help you defensively, but a fast enough Fu will set you up for some great offense as well.

 #4) The Slash 

This is definitely the most underestimated move in Fu and that's odd because it's probably also the most common.  It is so common and so rarely talked about that a lot of Fu players probably do that move without even realizing that it is a move.

The reason is clear.  The Slash is virtually never used in freestyle.  It's a utilitarian move; you use it because you need to, not because you want to.  You would never call a Slash in a MYACH combo.  You would never add it to your freestyle program.  But if you want to master the game of Fu, you'll need it to be as natural as walking.



I don't want to over-emphasize the importance of a good slash, but I've played several games of Fu where a Slash has made the difference between winning and losing.  If you move in close to your opponent, it can be easy to isolate their "attack" hand.  Basically you just move one of your shoulders in between their shoulders.  This allows you to focus in on their defensive hand and it doesn't allow them to pull off a hand switch (unless they go crazy and do a Dare Devil).

Of course, if you have a solid Slash, it's easy to get out of this.  You can move the Myachi to the opposing side of your body quickly without switching hands at all and this completely negates such an attack.  In fact, in a sense it reverses it, since now both of your hands are on the side opposite your opponent's attacking hand.

If you doubt the utility of this move, just watch two friends playing Fu and count up the times you see it.  Odds are that even if they've never heard of such a move, they'll use it several times.  But of course, if they haven't practiced it, it might be to their detriment.  It's easy to overdo this move and not stop the forward momentum of the Myachi.  This results in the Myachi flying off your hand at the end and scoring a point against you.  Thus the importance of practicing.

 Honorable Mention) Behind the Back 

I hesitate to mention this one because you could play a dozen rounds of Fu without ever using a Behind the Back, but the effect is so devastating when you do that it's worth inclusion on this list.  Some people accuse you of "show boating" if you do a Behind the Back in the middle of a Fu battle.  It just looks so good and seems so flashy that it almost has to be show boating right?

Well, to be honest, a lot of the time it is.  I would say that only about 1 out of 3 Behind the Backs I see in Fu are legitimately strategic moves.  After all, you're taking your eye off the ball no matter how you look at it.  It's a dangerous move for a lot of reasons, but foremost of these is that it is a move that relies on gravity.  You have to wait for the Myachi to come to you and that means you're at a serious momentary disadvantage.



So why would you ever do it?  Well, if you're good enough at it and you do it at the right time, it will all but guarantee you a point.  Here's how: you get your opponent to a point where they're defending with the hand that mirrors you.  Let's say they're defending lefty and you're defending righty.  You're in a pretty standard position, doing Verts out behind you with your left hand in front and your opponent is circling around toward your right hand.

Now here's the kill shot: You let him or her in.  They see an opportunity that they think was a mistake and as they pursue it they step past your offensive hand.  If you can snap a quick behind the back here, they're chasing an empty hand and, if you can bring your Myachi under control fast enough to spin out of it, they're standing with their back to you and their Myachi out behind them.

It is a devastating blow that almost always earns a point, but that's not the only time you'll find a need for a Behind the Back.  Any time you're in serious trouble it's an option worth considering.  It negates any advantage someone might have gained on you immediately, but only if you're really fast and really accurate.  You have to really snap that behind the back over your shoulder and your left hand has to be able to go straight into some defensive work, but if you master it, it will drive your opponents crazy.

-----

There are, of course, plenty of other moves that we could add to this list.  A solid Heartbeat, a really solid Daredevil, Cross-Overs, Ninjas, etc.  But ultimately anything you learn freestyling will benefit you when you're playing Fu.  Because when all the chips are down and your Myachi is flying through the air undefended, the only thing that matters is if you can catch it when things go wrong.  And that's something freestylers have to learn early.

Myachi: The Table of Contents

by Crazy Ivan


A conversation with Monk and Kid ran late the other night.  We talked, as Myachi Masters often do, about Myachi.  We were discussing its past, its present and its future, and at some point or another, we started talking about what a great book it would make.

The story has it all.  There's a protagonist that goes up against a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, there are plenty of interesting characters that join in along the quest, there are more than enough moments of triumph and crushing moments of defeat, there's plenty of humor, tragedy, promise, catharsis and determination.  It is the story of human will that would not be denied.  It is a story of an insatiable dreamer.

Now, none of us know exactly how the story ends.  We kind of hope it ends with something that rhymes with "Shmearly Shmretirement", but nothing is carved into stone just yet.  That being said, it got me to thinking and when I get to thinking, I often get to writing.  It would be premature to try to start writing the story of Myachi at this point, but it's never too early to start planning ahead.  So here's my first draft of the table of contents for the Myachi Story:

The Myachi Story:

Part One: The Myachi Mobile(s)

Chapter One - The Dream Defined

Chapter Two - Mulva's Maiden Voyage

Chapter Three - Big Kids and Big Dogs

Chapter Four - Big Momma's Brick House

Chapter Five - The Jester and His Wife

Chapter Six - Cracks in the Brick Wall

Chapter Seven - Start Spreading the News

Part Two: The House of Skills

Chapter Eight: ...And They Built An Army...

Chapter Nine: The House of Skills in Forest Hills

Chapter Ten: A Fortress of Steel and Skill

Chapter Eleven: At the Feet of the Giraffe

Chapter Twelve: International STWAKOJ

Chapter Thirteen: A Stray Animal

Chapter Fourteen: Standing at an Open Sea

Part Three: The Yacht Years

Chapter Fifteen: The Global Phenomenon Hits

Chapter Sixteen: The Myachi Jet-Fleet

Chapter Seventeen: Sir Myachi Man, the first American Knight

Chapter Eighteen: Myachi Island

Chapter Nineteen: Myachi as an Olympic Sport

Chapter Twenty: Myachi Saves the Universe

I'll be the first to admit that maybe part three there is a tad ambitious, but even if we have to settle for a less spectacular ending, it'll still make for a heck of a story.

What Happened to 5.2X?

by Crazy Ivan


If you're new to Myachi, you probably saw series 5.1 and 5.1X come out together and thought you understood what was going on.  And then 5.2 came out alongside 5.3X and you were perplexed.  You decided that you probably had it wrong to begin with and are now confused.

And if you're not as new to Myachi, you probably just laughed inwardly when you saw 5.3X and said, "There goes Myachi Man again..."

You see, there's never really been a "method behind the madness" when it comes to series numbers in Myachi.  There have been trends to be sure, but things are never as neat and tidy as one might expect.  There aren't any hard and fast rules that we follow except that, by and large, the series numbers have been consecutive.

So first, a little history lesson.  In the earliest days of Myachi, the series weren't exactly numbered and they weren't as distinct as they are now.  Myachis didn't come in individual cardboard packs back then, but rather they came with instruction books clipped to the tags in large boxes.  The boxes would contain 36 sacks divided into a number of different colors.  Usually there would be 3 each of 12 designs, but occasionally it would be 4 each of 9 designs or even a mishmash of 3 of some and 4 of others.

What retailers were getting at that point was what we had.  And that might be a few of the slower sellers from one series mixed in with all the newer sacks.  At that point, a series didn't change over as much as it evolved.  There weren't clear lines that separated the series the way there are now.

When you check the sackthology, you'll find that many older sacks are series "0.1" or "0.3" or whatever, but those are artificial distinctions that were made long after the fact.  They're paired together with other sacks that were manufactured around the same time, but there was never a time when all the Myachi retailers were selling just the 0.4 series.

The real series numbers begin in 2003 with series 1.0.  This marked the first time that Myachis were offered in the now familiar "Blister Pack", where each sack has a cardboard backing and a little plastic blister that contains the sack.  From that point forward there would be no mixed bag, in-between series.  The package denoted the series so there would be no confusion of what was a 1.0 and what was a 2.0.

Except that there still was.  Once a sack was removed from the pack, there was no way to definitively say what series it was from.  I mean, sure, if you knew your Myachis, you would know that a Leopard Lime was a 1.0 so when you saw one, you wouldn't need to see the packaging to know which series it came from.  But back then we did a lot more repeat sacks so only a minority of Myachis would be offered in only a single series.  Eventually we would add the series number to the tag on the sack itself so even repeats could be distinguished from one another.

Ultimately we would solve one problem by creating another one.  The series numbers helped everyone to keep track of which sacks came out when and which were older and thus more valuable.  But in so doing we would create a whole new source of confusion.  Namely, the series numbers themselves.

The first series was 1.0 and even before we moved on to 1.1, there were already some head scratchers.  1.0 had two distinct releases.  It was made twice and the second time around 3 of the sacks had changed.  This forced us to internally refer to series 1.05 when talking about this brief reissue of series 1.0.  Then we moved on to series 1.1, but that one was pretty confusing too.  At that point we were still offering the mixed box variety (POP or point of purchase) of display to some retailers so this time we decided to make one series to be offered in the blister packs and a different series in the POP boxes.  Unfortunately, there were no tag numbers at that time so we had two series both being called 1.1.  This forced us to refer to one of them as 1.1 (the Blister series) and the other as 1.15 (the POP series).  And then we came out with 1.2 and that one was far less confusing.

But then we moved on to series 2.0.  We never did a series 1.3, but instead released a 2.0 then a 2.1 and 2.2.  There was a POP series hidden in there somewhere as well that never got a number (but is often referred to as series 1.9, 2.05 or simply "the Lost Series").  Then we skipped ahead to series 3.0.  This was followed by series 3.1, 3.2 and 3.2X (which was only a slight departure from series 3.2).  And then we moved on to series 4.0.

By then, people thought they saw a pattern emerging.  We would do three series in each number... a #.0, a #.1 and a #.2 and then move on to the next number.  So when series 4.0 was followed by series 4.1 and then series 4.2, this fit with everyone's expectations.  Then series 4.3 came along.

Everyone was a bit confused, but they embraced it.  4.4 came out next and then 4.5 and everyone once again thought they saw a pattern emerging.  Once again, everyone felt like they had it all figured out.  And then 5.0 came out and everyone was left perplexed once again.  Where was series 4.6?

Keep in mind that to keep things from getting too hairy, I've left out series XM7, 5B, 5BPOP, FMX and TRF.  I don't want to intimidate anyone, after all.  But the point is there nonetheless: Myachi series numbers have never really fit into a consistent pattern.  They've always been a little odd.

The logical question is why, but I'm not going to try to answer that one.  All I can do is embrace it and thank Myachi Man's slightly crazy numerical tendencies for giving me endless things to blog about.

So where is series 5.2X?  Who knows.  Perhaps the next series will be 5.3 and 5.2X.  Maybe it will be series 5.4 and 5.4X, but maybe it'll be series 5.3X1a and 5.3X1b.  Who knows?  I wouldn't be all that surprised if the next series was numbered using some fraction of pi.  All I know is that just when I think I know what's coming, I get a surprise.  And I like surprises.

5.3X Series Review

by Crazy Ivan


I remember a time when Myachi Maniacs had to settle for only one new series per year.  Back then even the one series was nothing compared with the series of today.  9,  7 or even a scant 6 new Myachis would pop up once or twice a year and but for a few promotional and special event sacks, there was very little new meat for the collector.

But long gone are those days.  Already this year we've seen 24 new series sacks and based on the speed they're selling through, it won't be long before we start seeing some new ones.  It's gotten to the point that I hardly have time to jam with  all the new sacks and break them in enough to review before the new series is popping up and ready to go.

So quick, before it's been antiquated, let me get in my reviews of the 12 sacks that make up the 5.3X series.

 #1) Aztec Orange and Special Ops 

This set is the go-to double pack for collectors.  It includes the most recent in the ever-popular Aztec line along with one of the most jammable camouflage Myachis ever produced.  As a double pack, it's a great introduction for beginning freestylers, as it contains both a horizontal and vertical corduroy.

The Aztec Orange isn't the most striking Aztec sack we've made so far and compared to the vibrant color of the Aztec Red, one could even say that it is muted.  It's a great understated jammer and while I haven't seen any of them wideboarding yet, they break in quickly and throgoughly.

The Special Ops, on the other hand, might be the best sack in the 5.3X series once it is fully broken in. It takes a bit more time than it's partner, but once you get it as jam-worthy as it gets, you'll find it well worth the effort.  Like most camouflage Myachis, it's a big seller.  As an individual sack, it might well lead the series in sales, but given the double pack nature of 5.3X, it's been relegated to a slower selling position.  This generally means it will have added value to collectors in the future because fewer Myachi Maniacs will already have one in their collection.

 #2) Bag Pipe Red and Lumber Jack Blue 

Drawing on the popularity of the 5.1X Lumber Jack Black, Lumber Jack Red combo pack, this duo was destined to be the best seller in the series.  We just can't seem to make enough plaid sacks to keep the collectors happy but we keep trying.

The Bag Pipe Red is a dark plaid with a great contrast and breaks in quickly.  The horizontal corduroy gives it about a 50/50 chance of slight wide-boarding as it breaks in and though the color tends to be a little too dark in shady jamming spots, it is a fantastic day-jammer and acts as a spectacular contrast sack in many 2 Myachi shreds.

The Lumber Jack Blue is certainly the more vibrant of the two.  It stands out enough to make it easy to jam, but it isn't an overstated eye-catcher like the Gang Green or the Agent Orange.  It'll be easy enough for you to see during a jam, but it won't be so overpowering that your audience will lose track of the other sacks in a multi-Myachi shred.  This is also a great gift sack for a new Myachi player as it is neutral in color and a sick jammer.  Anyone looking to buy a two pack but only intending to keep one of them should take a long look at this combo.

 #3) The Watermelon and Hot Lava Pink 

If there was a measurement for how cool a Myachi looks during a jam versus how cool it looks sitting still, these two sacks would combine for the highest such rating of any two Myachis ever paired together before.  Both sacks are cool enough on their own, but take on a whole new life once they start spinning and flipping.

The Watermelon has been called the "most appropriately named" Myachi of all time.  We debated with the name "Lady Bug" for it, but ultimately decided that as cool as lady bugs are, watermelons are delicious and therefore better things to name a Myachi after.  The pattern of spots gives the Myachi a unique look depending on what axis you spin it on so a Watermelon in a shove-it spin actually looks significantly different than a Watermelon in a kick-flip.  The visibility and break in speed make this an ideal Myachi for younger players and newbies.

The Hot Lava Pink lacks the pop of it's sister sack, the Hot Lava Yellow.  The pink is plenty bright, but doesn't exactly jump off the Myachi the way the popular 5.2 sack does.  But that being said, as long as you're not comparing it with the most visible sack we've produced in 5 series, the Hot Lava Pink scores pretty high marks.  I would rate their break in time as pretty middle-of-the-road.  Not fast and not slow.  They continue to break in for a pretty long while even once they're yummy so it's a sack that rewards persistence.

 #4) The White Stripes and Red Medallion 

If we wanted, we could speculate endlessly about which of these sacks would be the best seller if they were all offered individually.  But there's no need for speculation in the question of which pair sells the best.  This combination of sacks offers pretty much everything you can ask for.  Two very cool understated corduroys that look great whether they're in a jam or sitting in a collection.

The White Stripes is possibly the best jammer in the series.  It breaks in almost instantly and the soft corduroy gives it a nearly microsuede feel, but it still breaks in like a traditional corduroy.  The contrast of the stripes makes it a superb show-jammer.  While it isn't the best for solitary practice where one might prefer a brighter overall color, the stripes make it extraordinarily eye-catching to an audience.

The Red Medallion isn't quite as good a jammer as its partner but it is still a very solid jammer.  It doesn't break in as thoroughly as some of the other sacks in the 5.3X and from what I've seen so far it isn't quite as good a jammer as its sister sack, the Black Medallion, but what it lacks in jammability it makes up for in visibility.  I'd recommend it more to veterans than beginners, but all that being said, it still breaks in quicker than 90% of the Myachis we made before 2007.

 #5) The Gate Keeper and Gr8ful Shred Blue 

When we first saw these sacks paired together, many of the Myachi Masters were a bit worried.  They both seemed like really sick designs, but they were dark and understated and they got lost next to sacks like the Gr8ful Shred Purple, the Red Medallion and the Hot Lava Pink.  We were a bit concerned that these sacks would get overlooked and under-perform.

Luckily, Myachi buyers are a bit more savvy than we sometimes give them credit for and this has quickly become one of the top selling offerings in the 5.3X.

The Gate Keeper is a bit darker than we expected such that the design almost gets lost on it.  That makes it a pretty hip sack to have in virtually any well-lit environment, but as soon as the sun goes down, this one gets really tough to jam with.  It's a shame, really, because it is a spectacular jammer and it breaks in far better than most horizontal corduroys.

The Gr8ful Shred Blue seems to be grabbing a lot more of the attention in this combo pack.  It is a striking fractal design that appeals to a pretty wide-range of Myachi buyers and depending on the cut of the fabric it can be awesome or it can be ridiculously awesome.  Luckily, this is not one of those times that you have to trade off cool for jammable.  The Gr8ful Shred Blue breaks in quick and jams great right away.  It is a bit dark for low-light jamming but when you pair it with its sister sack from 5.2, it makes for some of the coolest 2 Myachi jams ever seen.

 #6) The Blackout and Gr8ful Shred Purple 

This combination pack offers not only the best contrast of this series, but possibly the best contrast of any series including any two randomly selected sacks from non-double pack series.  These two in a doubles shred is a thing of beauty.  We find it to be a popular brother/sister combo pack in retail, but most collectors, regardless of gender, are going out of their way to get both of these Myachis.

The Blackout is obviously the sister sack to the Power Grid from series 5.1, but in a lot of ways it is more reminiscent of the family of black&whites that include the Finish Line, the Static Cling and the Hounds Tooth.  It is a phenomenal jammer but it does take a bit of effort to really break it in.  So if you think you've got your Blackout broken in all the way, keep working.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

The Gr8ful Shred Purple is unlike any sack ever produced.  To be perfectly honest, there has been a dearth of cool purple sacks for quite some time.  The Power Grid was awesome, but to get a truly sick purple sack before that, you really had to go back to series 1.0 and the Purple Haze.  Luckily, we seem to be in the process of changing that.  This sack jams well, looks good and breaks in quickly, so it pretty much has everything.  While this probably means nothing in the real world, this one is my personal favorite of the series by a pretty wide margin.

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And of course, we're interested in your opinions on these suckers as well.  If you'd like to add something to the review, please leave a comment or head over to our forum and join the discussion there.

Losing a Myachi the Right Way

by Crazy Ivan


Those of you that have been following this blog for a while will know that in the back yard of the House of Skills, we have a slack line wrapped around a tree and a fence post.  It's basically a tightrope, but it's about as wide as a seat belt.  It's got some bounce to it so it has some elements of a trampoline and some elements of a balance beam.

Anyway, it's one of the many ways that we challenge our skills from day to day and over the year and a month that we've had it, we've actually gotten pretty confident with it.  Mav, Monk and I have even practiced freestyling with a Myachi as we traverse it.  But interestingly enough, it wasn't until yesterday that we thought of another Myachi-related use for it.  Turns out that the thing functions pretty well as a Myachi catapult as well.

We got the idea yesterday afternoon.  It was gorgeous and Monk, Mav and I were all off so, of course, we were outside playing Myachi.  An errant kick left the Myachi sitting over by the slack line so when I went to fetch it, I decided to do something cooler than simply toss it back.

I placed Monk's Suffolk Downs on the line and then grabbed it with both hands.  I pulled it back a little, uttered "this probably won't work..." and let go.  Much to my surprise (and bemusement), the sucker shot at Monk like it was coming out of a canon.  Anyone but a Myachi Master probably would have jumped out of the way, but Monk stuck it with an MVP catch.

And we all smiled.

See, one thing we all share at the House of Skills is the desire to always go bigger.  If somebody comes up with a new trick, we naturally fall into competitions over who can do the more complex version of the trick.  If somebody gets a new toy, we're all looking to master it quicker than anyone else.  And when you inadvertently discover that you can rocket a Myachi off the slack line, everybody starts seeing all the crazy applications of that at once.

After a bit of fun with that, we realize that if you set the Myachi on the line and then bounce just right as you cross it, you can launch the Myachi fifty feet in the air.  So we did that.

It was tough to get a proper launch, so we were taking four or five attempts between every successful launch, and each time we'd get one in the air, we'd stumble about trying to figure out where it was going to land as it pachinkoed its way through the tree branches above.  In one extraordinarily unlikely bounce we all missed the catch and it landed right back on the slack line (which is about three inches across).

Anyway, as we're having fun with this, we're also doing the math.  Every time the Myachi launches, it skyrockets upward and at an angle into the branches.  But we can all see that if it were to somehow navigate the maze of boughs and twigs without hitting any of them, its trajectory would take it out of our yard and way up on top of the neighbor's roof.  It's so striking that Mav even brought it up.  He mentioned it to Monk because we were using a particularly yummy Suffolk Downs that Monk had gone to great lengths to break in.

"You know, if we keep doing this, you're gonna lose this thing up in the tree or in those gutters eventually," Mav warned.

Monk stopped for a moment and contemplated.  There were plenty of Myachis in the house, but nobody else had one on them at the moment.  He'd have had to run inside and by the time he came back, the mood might have changed and we might decide to play another game.  "Forget it," Monk decided, "this is fun".

And I'm sure you can already guess exactly how this story ends.  Within ten minutes of the warning, the Myachi finds a launch window that would have left a NASA scientist scratching their head and somehow manages to fly all the way up to the top of the neighbor's roof... the top of her three floor house.  As in, there is no possible way we're getting this Myachi back.

And Monk's response?  He shrugged.  "I lose Myachis all the time," he admitted, "At least this one has a great story."

Blog Reruns

by Crazy Ivan


The other day I was looking back over a few older entries on this blog.  It's been around for over a year now and when I was in the office full time I was updating it as much as three times a day, so sometimes when I'm looking for inspiration for new entries, I read a few older ones.

And it occurs to me that most of what I was saying back then is still pretty pertinent now.  Many of the entries answer basic Myachi questions that everyone has from time to time.  Since this blog has picked up a lot of new readers in the last few months, it occurs to me that it might be a good idea to start bringing some of those old blogs back for another day in court.

Now, of course, anyone who wants to can simply dig around on the archives and read as much as they want.  I've written a few short novels worth of Myachi related stuff on here and while some of it is clearly dated, much of it is timeless in terms of Myachi-applicability.  But only the most dedicated of Myachi Maniac is actually going to start from the beginning and read all 450+ blog entries I've added so far.

So to save you the trouble, starting next week I'll be featuring a weekly "best of" blog.  This will essentially be a rerun of a blog entry that I put up a while back.  I might amend or expand a few of these and I might add some new pics or video links here and there, but by and large, I'll just be drawing your attention to information that was already there.

And for the long time readers, don't worry, I'll warn you at the beginning if I'm reprinting an old blog.  If you'd like to reread it just for old time's sake, great.  If not, I won't be offended if you just skip the reruns.