Day 14 - The Hat and The Hoops

Breakfast failed to disappoint again this morning, repeating yesterday's meal with an added healthy twist (Raisin Bran instead of Lucky Charms...though we'll keep an eye out for the hourglass shaped Charms tomorrow). We also pulled off a trademark J&J manoeuvre by stocking up for lunch from the breakfast selection -with two cream cheese bagels that came in handy later on. The obligatory morning primping session then followed swiftly, before we made our way down to the main Aloha festival area for the start of the day's proceedings.

Kicking off the events was a few freestyle demonstrations for the crowds -J&J started off (putting the dogs to shame) with a neat, well executed routine, and then Chipper and Dave gave another great show (putting us to shame). We also spotted a few interesting festival-going characters during our post-demo cool down. The first was an earnest, heavily-moustached individual who had decided to wear the morning newspaper on his head. Dave Schiller gave us a good historical perspective on the matter - his interpretation being that the man was symbolising the nation's current oppression from the press by invoking the imagery of the helmets worn by the once-opressive spanish conquistadors that colonised Mexico. Absolute genuis. The second notable character stood out because of his talent - he managed to successfully spin not one but three hula hoops around his knees at once...a humbling experience for the many enthusiastic children around him.

After hanging out around the main festival area, we walked down to the beach for our morning jam session. We met up with the rest of the freestylers, and were also excited to see Dave Lewis join us for today. Dave, for those who don't know, is the man who introduced us to freestyle through the Nike commercial, and then taught us to play through his instructional DVD. He also happens to be one of the greatest players in history, and we've always admired his game. Needless to say, we took the oppurtunity to jam with him, and doing so for the first time was quite a special moment, one that we'll long remember for the sentimental value. The winds on the beach, though, were strong and unforgiving this morning, and it was another challenge as far as conditions were concerned. This being said, we gave it our best shot, and managed to sneak in a few good moves. As the beach jam drew to a close, the Schillers, Dan and Doug got ready to depart from the festival, so we said our goodbyes to them, took a quick group photo, and then made tracks for the festival grass area with Dave and Mark.

It was here that the breakfast bagels came into play. They made the perfect lunch snack, and set us up with enough energy for the next stage of the afternoon - performing another demo for the crowds, this time with Dave (Lewis) and Chipper. The winds weren't great on the grass either; it was extremely choppy and inconsistent, making the disc near-impossible to set up steadily. Nevertheless, we gave a heroic effort, playing it safe at times, and gave a great performance. It had clearly gone down a hit, anyway, with many people coming over to us exclaiming how impressed they were...a couple even wanting photos and autographs.

After we'd pulled ourselves away from the screaming hoardes of fans, we made the decision to go and relax, and went for a coffee/milkshake with Dave (guess who had which...), whilst having a few interesting discussions about freestyle, and picking up some top-secret coaching tips that we couldn't possibly share.

Dave then dropped us back at our hotel, and we had an extremely strenuous evening. We first took a casual stroll along the Ventura coast at sunset, observing the final remnants of the festival. Next, we wound down back at the hotel with a quick dip in the exclusive hot-tub and pool. To top it off, we returned to our new favourite Ventura sports bar for a further delve into their menu which had looked so thoroughly good last night. A highlight whilst there was managing to watch (by request) the closing ceremony of the Olympics -and particularly enjoyed the London themed festivities towards the end. Is that how all buses are going to be by 2012?! Leona will be busy.

We're now back at base camp, and hope to get a reasonably good night's sleep before we take our travelling circus down to Santa Monica early tomorrow.

Signing off...

The J Bros.