Chipper Bro sharing the Stoke in Cologne
A couple of weeks ago, Florian Hess informed us that in line with the “California Weeks” launching the integration of Patagonia at the Globetrotter store in Cologne Chipper Bro
Chipper Bro
is coming over as a kind of ambassador and playing some Freestyle Frisbee shows in March… “if we would like to take part in these shows” – well, geil, of course. So, when we contacted him last week we got a reply starting with following words: “So stoked to see you and jam with you and get to know you better.” And I think to myself “aha, whatever that means, geil, we’re on. Jamming with a former member of the Bud Light Team sounds splendid.” And actually, it wasn’nt too bad – we’ve had a smoking time last week. And here is how it went…
Saturday
For the kick off show on Saturday Judith Haas and Florian Hess who arrived on Friday were invited as big support. Together we went to the store around 2 p.m. and were introduced to Chipper and his wife Kelly. Since the first show was scheduled at 5 p.m. and the weather was just lovely (well, not as nice as in California right now but still…), we did not spend much time chatting but rather warmed up in front of the store which is located in the center of Cologne.
Globetrotter Cologne
Naturally, the shopping center is very crowded on Saturdays and we had to claim some space with outstanding moves and coops. But the center is not only crowded by costumers but by street musicians as well. Among these Rasmus understood how to fire us up. Cheers for that and sorry for irritating the passengers!
Inside we played the shows on a covered pool which is in the middle of the store and can be seen from three different stories (have a look at pictures to get an impression).
Globetrotter Pool-Jamspot
We tried to demonstrate some kind of journey through the history of Freestyle starting with a “throw and catch” session by Chipper and Sascha Scherzinger which was to be continued by a short Coop (Ilka, Waldi & Harry) and a Mixed show by Flo and Judith. The show was finished by quick mob-up which was initiated by a Pairs Jam and successive entering jammers. The feedback of the audience was super and we got better from show to show. During the last show Freddie Finner from Karlsruhe who spontaneously decided to accompany Judith and Flo could be talked into joining the last jam and hit huge combos finished by big air catches on the spot. Afterwards, Polyana & Felbel played a beautiful set of singer songwriter songs inside the Globetrotter restaurant finished by a memorable singing the blues of Chipper. (but what do you expect of someone having touched the guitar of Stevie Ray Vaughn?) All together we refreshed at a brewery with food and beer ending up in a Jazz Bar. Content and totally exhausted we went home to rest.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
… of which we needed plenty (after all, we jammed on Sunday as well) and it was probably wise to skip Monday and Tuesday. We’ve been lucky that we had some fresh support from Berlin. Sascha Höhne happened to be in Cologne that day and also he did not want to miss the opportunity to jam with Chipper and us at such a nice spot. Although the crowd was not as big as on Saturday we certainly enjoyed ourselves (and seemingly those present as well) also on Wednesday and Thursday having exceptional jams and excellent beers at the Globetrotter Restaurant. Friday came as quick as it is usual when having a good time and it was the last day we got to jam the pool. It is hard to believe that one get so used to a nice spot and surrounding so fast. Nevertheless, in many respects it was at least a “rich” time with many new and pleasant acquaintances made among which we would like to mention Anina, Susanne and Kurt from Patagonia as well as Ole and all the other staff from Globetrotter who made this week possible and treated us very supportive and kindly. Besides, I think it often simply adds some extra motivation when jamming with other people than the “regulars”. In sum, there were pretty good reasons to mobilize for the last jams.
Chipper & Ole
Originally, Chipper had the idea of finishing the shows with a “sacrifice gitis” into the pool but he was not allowed to due to safety concerns and actually, now we are happy he did not do it; you should always safe something for next time and this way we can occupy ourselfs planing a guerrilla jam inside the Globetrotter INCLUDING a sacrifice gitis 
Although I still don’t know the exact translation of being stoked by now, I guess that I could get a glimpse of its meaning and that I can tell that it is not restricted to describe momentary states of mind. In this sense we would like to thank all those who we’ve met during the week and those making it possible to share the stoke.
Discollegen
For other reviews and pics (in German) also have a look at:
www.freestylefrisbee.de (Flo)
www.texthilfe.de (Jörg Benner)
