A few weeks back, on August 23rd, Ky Zizan and I had the unexpected honor of attending the 2014 Summer Freestyle Competition in Jarocin, Poland.

When we arrived in Berlin on Friday night, Pac informed us that there was a contest the following day, 4 hours away in Poland. We weren’t planning to go at first, taking a train to catch a bus to catch another bus would have been fairly inconvenient. But then Pac’s (non-yoyoing) friend Toby showed up with his RV. As fate would have it, Toby is going to have his driver’s license revoked by the German government very soon, so he was eager to drive as much as possible while he still can.

Around noon on Saturday, as Pac, Gesine, Toby, Ky, and myself loaded in the RV to leave Berlin, Pac called up Nowak (SFC oragnizer) to let him know we were actually coming. The contest was scheduled to begin at 2pm, but when Pac told him that we would arrive around 4pm, Nowak said “Ok, we’ll start when you get here.” We were pretty stunned. I guess I’ve never been an international guest at a yoyo contest like this before, but still, stalling the entire event for us to get there, was an awesome gesture. It was around this point, as the RV turned onto the Autobahn, it really began to sink in that this would be an event unlike anything I’ve ever been to before.

When we arrived in Jarocin, Pac found out that he would be judging (though he had considered doing a routine), and I found out that they needed someone to film the freestyles. Good thing we decided to go!

It was a quaint little contest, only about 20 competitors, and a non-standard judging system (string hits only), with some players doing multiple styles in their routines, all in a single division. It was very much a low-pressure opportunity for the local players to get stage experience. Despite the relaxed, non-competitive atmosphere, we witnessed some great rising talent, and these guys have a lot to look forward to at Polish Nationals later this month.

I never would have thought to find myself in an RV, going to a yoyo contest in a foreign country on a moment’s notice. Nor did I ever expect I would attend a yoyo contest on a Polish farm with goats and go-karts, ponies, pedal-boats (in a lake on the premises), and communal dinner cooked on an open fire. It was an awesome weekend, and we couldn’t have planned it if we had known about the contest beforehand. Many thanks to Toby for transportation, and of course thanks to our Polish friends for waiting for us!

2014 Summer Freestyle Competition Results

1st Place – Patryk Nawolski

2nd Place – Marcin Potarzycki

3rd Place – Borys Radziszewski

4th Place – Kacper Pałatyński
5th Place – Julek Rosa
6th Place – Ky Zizan
7th Place – Maciek Cwynar
8th Place – Patryk Kusyk
9th Place – Michał Grabowski
10th Place – Ernest Wróbel
11th Place – Hubert Mantey
12th Place – Adam Czapla
13th Place – Dawid Tomczak
14th Place – Kuba Tomaszkiewicz
15th Place – Gesine
16th Place – Szymon Szczepański
17th Place – Ben Gates
18th Place – Jakub Orpel
19th Place – Kacper Tomaszkiewicz
20th Place – Mariusz Szymkowiak
21th Place – Mateusz Bargenda

Head over to YouTube for all freestyles from the contest!