Drifter Radio

Wali-G begins his Spring 2023 U.S. Foosball Tour on the South Dakota prairie against topshot foosball players from the Midwest and beyond. The foosball competitors gathered to compete at a 25-Tornado table weekend tournament at the Royal River Hotel’s Royal Room on the Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation.

• Tournament #1: South Dakota State Championship
• Date: February 24-26, 2023
• Place: Flandreau Santee Sioux Reservation
• Host venue: Royal River Hotel and Casino 
• Tournament software: HouseOfTournaments.com
• Team mate: Rob Garrett for Amateur/Expert/Pro/Open Doubles (Sioux Falls)
• The weekend long tournament event on Friday afternoon and ran till Sunday night. A marathon of foosball action and adventure! 

If you have never been to a weekend-long foosball tournament to participate or watch, I liken the experience as a “Tough Mudder” of table sports event do to the need to focus and compete on your feet over a 65-hour weekend. Sure, you won’t get get beat up and dirty like filthy animal that you are at Tough Mudder, but you will definitely feel a unique version of fatigue that is hard to explain or replicate. 

Foos-battles this weekend at the Royal Room were waged in multiple events. Events included Junior, Women’s, Beginner, Rookie, Amateur, Expert, Pro, and Open Single/Doubles from Friday afternoon to Sunday night.

A dozen or so individuals made the tournament room run smooth from set-up, competition, to tear down. Some of the names I’m familiar with for well run tournaments included Carma Burfield and Justin Shaw. Local crew help was mostly provided by local South Dakotans.

Terry Ward and Tim Everett were directors of events. Nice work guys!

It was an excellent regional tournament to attend to get geared up for the spring foos tour.

Tournament #1 Foosball Notes

*Acquire sponsorships and marketing material at least 2-weeks before the event. The more “heads up” time the better. This film production project didn’t really come to fruition until 1-week before the event. Sponsors, especially ones that you have not worked with before, would prefer a 1-3 month lead up.

*Need to dial in my coffee/food intake and sleep do to having a splitting headache I encountered Sunday afternoon before Amateur Doubles (I did not drink alcohol the whole weekend until the last match in order to try to combat the headache).

*$1,100 per tour event is extremely low for a 3-day weekend videography production that includes editing, marketing, and marketing materials.

 
*Participating in foos events cost me for than the $140 Amateur-package for 6-events. $50 table fees, $5 ball fee, and $30 for another event boosted the total, as well as having to buy 4-foos wraps and two more balls, to a total around $250 as an Amateur. This is not too much different than what you might expect to pay to attend a 3-day conference event.

*I created and posted (while at the tournament) 12-videos that I uploaded to Rock County Foosball and other Facebook foosball clubs (approximately 1 every 4-6 hours during the weekend). Kind of a “weekend foos Facebook” update.”

*DrifterRadio sponsored and teamed up with, Rob Garrett, from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Met him a couple of times 3 to 10-years ago, but didn’t really know him. He was introduced to me by Eddie S. from Sioux Falls as potential foosball partner. When I realized he was of Drifter of the Month caliber, I let him stay in my room since I had an extra bed. He was more than appreciative and was fun to hang out with. He was very open to be filmed and commentate on video which helped the overall video production of the weekend. Thanks Rob!

*I need to learn how to wrap the foos handles. When someone had to use the bathroom right before a match, I told them I would probably still be wrapping the handles when they got back…which I was. I told Al Foos, “my main goal this foosball weekend is to learn how to wrap a foosball handle.” Probably should have learned to do that before showing up to a major event.

*My 5-bar passing was looking good albeit slow. I used every guy on the 5-bar to  pass which seemed to keep the defense guessing and off balance since most players stick to passing with two guys on one side of the table. I brought a different style to the table and it worked effectively.

*My blocking on from defense position was good in the back and decent in the front position. My 5-bar defense needs more work; some people I shut down, but most passed effectiviely against my 5-bar. My upfront defense was good and I tended to be a ball magnet.

*I was so much of a “ball magnet” that I got hit by two different balls flying off two different tables while playing. Rob commented he had never seen such a thing.

 
*Figure out what I should charge to promote sponsors and others looking for video marketing material and the editing/posting/eyeballs that go along with the video

*My parents drove up from Luverne (50-miles away) Saturday afternoon to check out the tournament, eat at the casino, and delivered the DrifterRadio.com demo books for Podcast and Marketing projects that unexpectedly showed up on Saturday. I gave the parents $30 to go get dinner for their efforts/support. It was nice to have tangible marketing on hand for the project because 1. it can be used in the production/videos. 2. it was something tangible and some what more detailed on what I am trying to achieve with DrifterRadio.com and the Foos Tour marketing production. Small low-content books are business cards on steroids. The “DrifterRadio.com: Film and Marketing Production” book sat at the event and administrative table during the weekend and was available for anyone to look at.

* I appreciate Jordan’s feedback after talking about a foos tour and looking at the book. “It will be interesting to see how the book develops over the course of the tour” is essentially my take-away from his feedback. The book is in Not-or-Sale beta mode and deserves multiple revisions before being up for sale. It would be nice to have version to sell at the later tournaments.

*I need to dial in what food/snack I bring. Bringing a case of bottle water was a good idea. Should have brought sandwiches and popcorn. The bison jerky medallions were good, but they may have been moldy by Sunday (which may have contributred to my headache).

*”Justin Shaw Sightings,” beard wax promotion, and “Foosball Book Club” were fun/goofy video productions with Justin Shaw, Rob Garrett, Tanja Marie, and Al’s Foos.

*Tried to keep my videos 15-seconds to 2.5-minutes long in order to share them on as many platforms as possible withouot video degration. 

*I sponsored my second foos drifter Saturday…Or I should say 4am Sunday morning…when I let him also him stay (get a nap in) Sunday morning. I don’t think the queen sized beds are big enough for two people that aren’t married, but that didn’t seem to bother  Garrett and drifter 2 since they have known each other for a long time and they are smaller dudes.

*Sleep was not disturbed by two strangers staying with me. I’ve been in the military before.

They may have had different hours and party-schedules, but I slept well for all of the coffee I consumed and bed-time hours I chose to rack out.

*With all my talk about things that needed to be improved on for the application beta-version of HouseOfTournaments.com software for the phone, it was handy and the future of tournament play. I’ve never used it before, so signing up and trying to navigate the platform was cumbersome to me. However, the text message notifications for when my match was up (and what table) was super useful especially when I was in my room or out in the car video editing. I could also track brackets and other players.

*Probably the biggest thing to recommend to the HouseOfTournaments is to have an instructional video on how to sign up and use the website/app before a tournament would be helpful for users. Perhaps drifterRadio needs to talk to them about a video project too?

Today begins the 2023 Spring Foosball Tour. DrifterRadio.com will be drifting to Flandreau, South Dakota to cover and compete in the South Dakota State Foosball Championship. Royal River Casino and Hotel will be hosting this shoot out in prairie country.

This U.S. spring foosball tour will then cover Wisconsin State, Las Vegas Hall of Fame Classic, Florida Open Masters, and Illinois State making it a 5-state, multi-month, sports tour.

The goal of this tour production is to encourage new and old foosball players to compete on tour and to highlight/promote foosball players on the tour.

This production will include videography with interviews, pictures of some of the best regional foosball players, and also a book to serve as a template for foosball players trying to finance their own touring with sponsorship.

11-sponsors are currently need to support this spring adventure and marketing project. $5,500 will needed to cover the basic costs of this 5-state promotional tour.

Sponsorship can start as little as $200 for boots-on-ground advertising and for generating online business interest. Contact Wali-G to discuss how videography marketing can help your business.

III.    Hitchhiking from Miami to Jazz Fest (2002)

Phoenix to New Orleans to Miami

Arriving back to Phoenix, I discover Dr. Love and his hosts are in conflict.  Dr. Love has not been able to find a trucking job yet either.  He suggests we just pop-smoke and head to Miami.  He still has friends living there that could help get us established.  

With the pickup transmission replaced, we head East to try our luck in the South East rather than the South West.  Kind of a drastic change of destination, but the adventure continues.     

Driving Through Texas

Smoking a lot of weed had helped get me through the doldrums of boring such as college.  Not having any herb to drive through West Texas is like taking coffee away from people that need their caffeine kick to get out of a sleep-funk.  

West Texas looks like the desert mountains of Afghanistan on a large scale.  It takes around 10-hours of driving 75-mph just to get to Dallas, Texas from El Paso.  Not one of the more vegetated landscape road trips.  Weed is needed for such adventures.  

Somewhere around Midland, Texas we pull over for a rest stop at a gas station.  Dr. Love goes into the store while I dog sit with the window down in the pickup.  A lady in her forties pulls up next to the truck.  

“Hey do you need any meth?” she asks presumably because I look like a drifter.

“I’m good,” I respond to her brazen question.  

“Do you know where I can get some weed?” I ask with an equally brazen question.

She laughs.  

“Here you go,” she says and hands me a large bud wrapped in the cellophane of a cigarette package.  “Compliments of the Hell’s Angels.”

Maybe there are angels in the Hells Angels?

Visiting Mason

The next part of the trip rolls on quicker.  

Our decision to change locations was kind of a last minute decision, but I call and “warn” Mason en route that we are passing through New Orleans.  He is happy to hear from me since my last adventure through New Orleans and invites us to stay a night or two.

Friends that allow you to show up at the last minute, no matter how long it has been, are true friends.

Outcome of My First Major Tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada

My hopes were high enough for myself to hitch hike to Las Vegas for a major tournament, but my grit and fundamentals were not honed.  The trail was long.  The funds were short. The practice time was minimal. 

I did not expect to win in even the amateur division, but I wanted to experience high-level foosball in competition first hand.  That is one of the best parts of this particular sport.  You can play the best in the world for minimal sign up fee that even a drifter can afford.     

Probably the strangest coincidence of this journey is that I some how manage to team up with the stranger that made me aware of the professional foosball tour.  

Jim Waterman created the Foosball.com website I found 5-years ago on the internet.  I drew Waterman as a partner in a Draw Your Partner (DYP) foosball event.

“Are you THE Jim Waterman from foosball.com?!” I ask my DYP partner.

DYP’s are a foosball event where players toss their money in and randomly assigned a teammate.  I draw the guy that informed me through a website that there was a professional circuit of foosball.  My mind is blown.

He chuckles.  He’s a military man in his day job when not promoting foosball.  

We do OK in the tourney.  Waterman is a semi-pro.  I’m less than an amateur.  

We’re realistic.  However, we put our best foot forward to see if we can get on a roll.    

The serendipity of the situation was definitely a success in itself.

Psychedelic Foosball Project 2002

As the story goes, in 1626 A.D. the indigenous people of New York sold the entire island of Manhattan to the Dutch for $24 worth of beads and “trinkets.”  One can only speculate on what “trinkets” might mean for such important piece of real estate.  

Did the Dutch hand over Christ’s Holy Grail?  What were these beads made out of?  I wonder if the tribe still has these trinkets and beads?  The historical value alone would make them worth a lot.  

Before this foosball drift began, I created another “psychedelic” art project.  I made home-baked foosballs.  

The history of this project began when I went to New Orleans a couple of years ago. 

I made my own homemade beads to give to people that I would meet on the trail.  

Perhaps these drifter-beads might be worth something for these strangers if I ever wrote a book or made a name for myself?    

To make these beads, I would buy multi-color Sculpy clay from Michael’s crafts or Walmart.  This clay could be baked in a conventional oven.  Not sure how hygienic this process is for an oven you eat out off, but it creates a fairly durable bead. 

Foosballs are essentially just big beads. 

R&D testing of these foosballs proved that they could take a beating from even the hardest hitting players.   

I called my foosball creation project “psychedelic foosball” do to the nature of blending the different clay colors into something that the 1960’s or ’70’s foosers would have loved.  I cooked up my first rack of homemade foosballs for this tournament and brought them with me.  My intention is to sell my art on my foosball journey in order to help pay for food and beverage.  

Chilling in Carma’s hotel room with her professional foosball room mate, Wydman, I tell him about the foosballs I made.  He is curious about my project since he never heard of such a thing.  Make your own foosballs?

“Let’s see what you got,” he says as he exhales a cloud and passes the herb.

I break out my lot of foosballs on the hotel room bed.  I explain how I made them.

He is impressed.  “I’ll buy all of them.”  

Wydman loves the concept of my project.  He invests in my creative nature and my foosball adventure by buying these foosballs.  Wydman is helping  sustain a foosball drifter.  He pays me a $100 for my first rack of foosballs.  

Much respect.  

Carma Burfield

The first person from Wisconsin that I run into in Las Vegas is Carma Burfield from La Crosse.  

“Gypsy, my brother!”  Carma says and gives me a hug.  

Carma has given me the knickname, “Gypsy” because of my recent traveling adventures.  We got to know each other through La Crosse foosball league and tournaments that she helped put together.  She is like the “Mother of La Crosse Foosball” for the last decade with the work that she has done for La Crosse foosball and Stansfield Vending. 

I like to think that if Karma was human and played foosball, Carma would probably be the embodiment of this entity.  She is very Midwest Zen-like and stoic with a great sense of humor and outlook on live.  Even kilter.  

However, you don’t mess with Karma.

“How and when did you get here?” she asks.  

I give her the run-down of the last few days and what it took to get to Las Vegas.

“Do you have a place to stay?” 

I tell her I do not because I only have enough money to enter the tournament.  

I admit that I do have an aunt in town, but I do not want to impose my presence on my family while drifting around.  

She invites me to stay with her and a couple of the foosball pro’s she is sharing a room with at the casino hotel.  They got floor space.  I graciously accept.

March 12, 2022 Satursday

Congratulations to Toney Spredeman and Carma Burfield in their induction into the Wisconsin State Foosball Hall of Fame!

This afternoon at the Wisconsin State Foosball Tournament (part of a larger foosball tour) in Appleton, the WI Hall of Fame will induct these two players from Wisconsin. It has been awhile since the WI Hall of Fame has inducted anyone.

I have had the fortune to get to know both of these players over 20-years ago when they were both just starting out on foosball tour. Both would go on to tear up the foosball scene.

*The book writing continues. Here’s anther excerpt of the latest book:

March 27, 2002

After our thumbs successfully land us into Las Vegas on Thursday, we head straight to the foosball tournament at the Riviera casino.  Adrian isn’t into foosball, but he does like sports in general.  Adrian is intrigued as much as I am on what a major professional foosball event looks like.  What is this experience going to be like?  

$65,000 is the total prize money for the tournament.  This is actually not much money considering the millions of dollars the top athletes of the professional sports world make such as Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.  

The player that wins a major foosball event, such as the Hall of Fame (HOF) Classic in Vegas, is only going to take home a few thousand dollars.  Every top foosball pro has earned less than the yearly poverty line since the 1980’s.

In the 1970’s, professional foosball players were making bank and cruising the country.  High schoolers were winning cars.  Multi-millions of dollars worth of prize money from table companies sponsoring tournaments grabbed a lot of attention from the youth of the day.  Foosball was at it’s pinnacle in terms of fan interest and player-money at the end of the 1970’s.  

In 2002, pro-foosball players show up for their passion of the game.  You better have a second income source as a pro-foosball player.  

I’m trying to explore the foosball scene from a drifter stand point.  I am well aware of how much money is not int foosball.  I just hitch hiked a desert to go spend my last dollars to enter a  tournament that I haven’t practiced for.  My odds of making any positive financial gain on this trip are not very good.

Adrian and I wander around the large convention hall that the tournament is hosted in at the Riviera.  We watch multiple matches while I try to scan the crowd for people that I might have met in the foosball scene in the Midwest.  

Adrian needs to get going to meet his people after a bit.  We shake hands, congratulate each other on our successful hitch hiking adventure, and wish each other luck in Las Vegas.  He will be flying back to Wisconsin in a couple of days.  I still need to figure out how to get back to Phoenix to team up with Dr. Love in our trucking adventure.   

Steve-O hosted computer-godfather, Wozniak. I enjoyed Wozniak’s 76-year old ranting about tech.

Both are pranksters and top of names of their industries: