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.

A True Game Changer

by Crazy Ivan


In November of 2011, Myachi made took an enormous leap forward with the introduction of the new Battle Paddles.  The first rudimentary prototypes were first fashioned in Cocoa Beach back in 2003 and for all the intervening years, we eagerly awaited the right time to introduce them to the Myachi playing universe.

They look like that, but bigger and three dimensional.

The concept is pretty simple.  They're like a baseball mitt for Myachi.  They strap on to the back of your hand and expand the total catching surface making it easier to catch big air throws, long distance chucks and crazy difficult aerial tricks.  They open up freestyle moves to a much younger audience and they open up athletic moves to even the most seasoned Myachi veteran.  They expand the game beyond freestyle, MYACH and Fu players and create whole new worlds of Myachi-sport.

They are game-changers in both the literal and figurative sense.  They've changed the game of Myachi, but they've also been a game changer for the company.  We've been selling them as fast as we can make them and we've already smashed even our most optimistic sales goals with them.  Stores all over the country are selling out of them and we've seen reorders galore even over the first few months of the year.

Some people have complained about the level to which the paddles have changed the game and I suppose that in a sense I see where they're coming from.  Some dedicated freestylers complain that paddles make the tricks "too" easy and that they shift the focus of the game from the tricks to the passes.  But can only sympathize with this argument to a small degree.  Sure, they change the focus for some people and sure, they make the tricks more accessible.  But is that a bad thing?

Obviously, adding the paddle doesn't take any of the skill out of paddle-free tricks.  I'm far more impressed by a Kelly Slater dropped to a bare hand than one with a Paddle on it.  That being said, I really wish I'd had a paddle at my disposal when I was learning that trick.  It would have saved me a lot of frustration and I probably would have mastered even the bare-handed version of it far quicker.  So while the paddles change the game, they only change it for people wearing the paddle.

And accessibility has always been the hallmark of Myachi.  The whole point that inspired Myachi Man in the first place was making a skill toy that everyone could play.  Now, the Myachi did fall a bit short of that goal.  While it is certainly the easiest skill toy to learn and the easiest to build an impressive repertoire of tricks with, it still wasn't accessible to everyone.  Kids under 6 couldn't really play at all and some people who were behind the curve in coordination could only do a very limited number of tricks.  Catching back and forth throws actually required some serious practice, especially if those throws included any real speed or height.

But now those boundaries have been widened.  There are still limits, of course, but they are smaller and smaller margins.  I've seen 5 year olds throwing down with paddles and I've seen grandmas master the catch in an instant.  I've seen people who weren't all that interested in learning tricks get fired up about long distance catch.  I've seen skilled people throwing down tricks on their first day that were once limited to people with weeks of practice.

So yeah, they change the game, but only in the best of ways.  There are still plenty of hold-outs in the Myachi community when it comes to the paddles, but I've already had the pleasure of changing a few minds.  When it comes down to it, all that it took to inspire such an epiphany was strapping a paddle on the back of a doubting hand.

The Heart of the House of Skills

by Crazy Ivan


Kid and I stayed up late last night chatting about the brief history of the House of Skills.  For many Myachi Masters, that represents the beginning of their involvement with Myachi, but for Kid and I, it only represents the most recent chapter.  Monk had been with us for over a year when we moved to Forest Hills and Mav had already been on board for quite some time as well.  Animal had been a part of things on and off for a while, but he started full-time Myachi employment only a few months before we signed the lease on the House of Skills.

So Kid and I were contrasting it, as we often do, with life in the Myachi Mobile before it.  Obviously life it a bit more comfortable now.  The House of Skills is about 12 times the size of the Myachi Mobile and it had fully functioning plumbing so there's that.  There's also the fact that the House of Skills is big enough to hold all our stuff and still have room to play.  There's also the foosball table, the ping pong table, the slack line out back and the presence of a real kitchen.

The Myachi Mobiles (there were two of them, after all), saw a few variations in residency as time went on.  The very first tour in the very first Myachi Mobile consisted of Myachi Man and his buddy Goldie and that was it.  Eventually Goldie left and Kid Myach and I joined in (along with some temporary stints by Big Dog, Butter and Animal).  Throughout those years we never stayed in one place for more than a couple of months at a time.  The Myachi Mobile was our home, but motel rooms, friend's couches and cabins occasionally augmented it.

At that time, to be a Myachi Master was to be in motion.  It was a nomadic lifestyle that demanded the ability to live with very few possessions and with few constant friends.  Of course, it's easy to make friends when you have Myachi to lubricate all your social encounters, so the lifestyle was as rewarding as it was demanding.

And then things started to change and NYC became an inferno of a hot-spot for us.  Before long we had all but retired the Myachi Mobile and all gotten apartments in and around the five boroughs.  Now, I think it's safe to say that even if you've never been to New York City, you probably know that it's one of the most expensive places to live in the world.  It had the highest living cost of any city in the US by a pretty wide margin (San Fransisco is a distant second).  So the House of Skills was born of necessity when it became too expensive for all of us to find places to live.

But the House was also a dream we'd talked about for years.  Even when things were small, we foresaw a day when we could expand and hire a bunch of Myachi Masters.  There was talk about eventually renting a "House of Skills" even before I joined the company.  The concept of giving a bunch of Myachi Masters so much time in close proximity promised to revolutionize the game by creating an engine of unending challenges.

To that extent, the House of Skills has more than lived up to it's intended purpose.  Whenever one of us comes up with a new trick, variations on it show up in a matter of minutes.  New prop-adds and games show up on a regular basis and every record in the game is under constant challenge as the Myachi team relentlessly pushes the envelope of possibility.  Two, three and four man tricks and games can be tested out as soon as they're conceived and there's never a lack of test-subjects when we examine new products and new series.

But the true heart of the House of Skills is in the variety of people who occupy it.  A few people have come and gone, but even the past residence of the House left an echo of their skills.  The unique blend of talents that each resident brings forever alters the overall make-up of the house.

Kid Myach was an athlete all through high-school and college and that has really defined him as a person.  It also colors the way that he looks at the world and, more importantly, the world of Myachi.  Competition is key and accuracy is his strong point (he's a basketball player and a golfer, after all).  He brings a competitive nature to the House of Skills and often sees things in terms of team possibilities that the rest of us miss.

I bring something else to the table entirely.  I never really played team sports and was always more focused on individual accomplishments.  As a juggler, I spent countless hours perfecting odd nuances of skill with a myriad of props.  My focus always was (and still remains) finding new variations in existing tricks.  In the past that meant applying diabolo tricks to cigar boxes or contact juggling moves to poi, but now that I focus that lens on Myachi, it helps to keep the repertoire of known Myachi tricks ever-expanding.

Monk was a renaissance athlete in school as well.  He had a sport for every season growing up and played volleyball at the collegiate level.  He's also the most competitive person I've ever met in my life.  But unlike Kid Myach, he also focused for a long time on an individual skill; flair bar-tending.  Like juggling, this requires hours and hours of solitary refinement so Monk adds a strange synthesis of minute skill and athletic dedication.  Where my focus is forever on expanding my tricks, his is ever on perfecting.

Maverick comes to us from a background in footbag.  Like Kid and Monk, he was an athlete and focused on lacrosse, though he dabbled in a number of athletic endeavors.  The one that eventually caught his eye was, of course, footbag.  He proceeded to take this talent to a level that very few ever do.  Combined with an astounding level of confidence, his skills quite-literally know no bounds.  The tricks that scare off the rest of us are ready challenges to Mav and he almost always gets the best of them in the end.

Lucky comes from a background of performance.  Theater, song and dance and are his primary loves and this adds a new flair to the game.  While he's still catching up when it comes to Myachi-specific skills, two unschooled observers would never know that.  What he lacks in technical know-how, he makes up for in the theatricality he adds to his every move.

While still only a part-time resident, Bones adds a strange blend of skills to the mix as well.  Unlike the rest of us, Myachi is truly his first skill-based obsession.  His introduction to juggling, advanced footbag, balance props and skill-toys in general is all seen through the lens of a Myachi Maniac foremost.  This provides a strange "bottom-up" approach to new skills that none of the rest of us can match.

Even though they've moved on, Animal and Kore still left an indelible mark on the heart of the house as well.  Animal's focus on yo-yo and string based skills (as well as his encyclopedic knowledge of pop-culture) can be seen in Myachi tricks and Myachi trick names, but his greatest influence was to the art of STWAKOJ, which he all but revolutionized with his larger-than-life persona.  Kore's extreme-sport history and devil-may-care attitude helped to establish the very spirit of the House of Skills and it lives on every time a new longboard finds its way to our foyer.

The heart of the House of Skills is the people within it and as new people add their skills, personalities and aspirations to the game that heart grows ever larger.  I suppose it makes for a pretty good microcosm of the Myachi Movement itself.