1st Burn on my birthday tomorrow!

Well guys after 6 months of practice and preparation, I have decided to commemorate my 28th birthday tomorrow with my 1st burn. Fortunately the blizzard remnants have cleared out here in Delaware, the ground is dry and weather should be great for an afternoon burn. My fiance will be spotting me, the tripod will be filming, and all of my gear is ready (including safe cold weather attire).

Wish me luck and anyone who would like to share their experiences of having a first burn in the cold or any last minute advice please do share!

I'll upload and update with the finished results as soon as I can. Thanks so much everyone for their input that has aided my preparation for the big day!

So excited for you! Hope it goes well! Good luck ^^b

As I am sure that you know, I had my first burn a little while ago in the cold, my advice is warm up first so you can wear normal clothes and not get cold It's what I do in the cold. Also remember this, I did not know this my first burn, if you're using kerosene and you hit yourself, nothing will happen. Knowing this will make it more enjoyable
Edit: What are you burning with? Contact staff, poi, double staff, ect? And also please post your video on this thread.

Thanks so much, it's greatly appreciated!

SoD: Good word of advice because I am using K-1. I'm starting with my Mura poi http://www.homeofpoi.com/shop/productDetails/Pair-of-25inch-Mura-stitched-roll-fire-heads and if wind conditions permit I'll be trying out some basic single staff (minimal contact and "safe" throws) with my small wicked staff as well http://www.homeofpoi.com/shop/productDetails/Full-length-staff-with-25inch-wicks.

I plan on warming up a good deal just to be at the top of my game out there and to remove bulkiness. Nice to hear about kerosene from your firsthand experience but I'm spraying down my hair and binding it tightly to play it safe regardless. I plan on wearing heavy denim pants, shoes with good support and a leather exterior, along with and Under Armour base layer with a 100% cotton sweatshirt over top (thick, tightly woven). Because I plan on using my staff as well I'll have a headband on with a well secured high bun for no hangups.

I think I'm going to carry my iPod dock outside because I don't flow very well without music and I'm a much calmer person with a constant noise (yeah silence and breaks in silence startle me easily). I'll post links to my upload on here for certain

Yeah, we brought our iPod dock out for mine. Oh, and when I sayy nothing happens, that excludes hair XD. K-1 burns hot enough to singe hair a little. When I first got hit, it didn't singe my hair all the way down, but it got shortened (on my arm) I'm not saying don't wet or cover your hair I put on a skicap to cover my hair as well as look amazing as always

I was using my poi last night on a camping trip (nothing too exciting) and i managed to wrap my right poi around my left arm trying to do reverse 3beat weave.
I was using Firesol (fire twirling fuel) and it the most that it did was singe a few hairs, put some black soot marks on my arm, and left what looks to be the smallest burn i have EVER seen on anyone, being that it is only 2cm long and a couple of mm wide (if that).

So dont worry and try not to think about it, just imagine you're using your normal poi. But with the fire, it will take some time getting use to, because there is the added effect of the fire spinning past your head and stuff


But good luck with your burn. Hoping to see a video or pictures soon ^_^

Edit: Oh, and happy bday for...today i guess

Woodsy, I've been practicing with the wicks I intend to use actually. Do you have any idea how much the weight is going to change once they're saturated? My biggest concern is the added weight from kerosene and the drag of the flames. How much of a change from their unused feel should I expect?

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes I just hit 28 years old officially about 12 minutes ago on the dot! j/k

Happy Birthday, the weight doesn't change too much after you soak them. I'd say soak them for a few minutes for a nice long burn, so you can get used to it. I always soak mine for about 5 minutes and my burns are always 5-6 minutes The sound of the flame doesn't scare much I don't think, for me it was the constant fear of being hit by the fire. I'll tell you right now, no matter how you prepare, there is still that primal fear of fire that for me is almost gone now. Most of it went away after my 2nd burn.

SoD got to me first! Haven't even thought about the primal fear response since I've tended to fires starting as a small child, I think I should be cool

Thanks much for the birthday wishes! It's freezing out today here in DE, but that warms the spirit right up (along with my latte!LOL)

Gonna be a great day today!

First time I experienced it was when I made my flaming gloves. Doesn't hurt or anything, but it freaks you the hell out to see your hands on fire, a really big fire I might add O_o

Yay! It'll be great, I'm sure!

Now I feel lame for not having recorded my first burn (I just didn't want to buy a tripod, you have to understand). I'll have to record my fifth or something

Personally, my first burn was a lot of fun. I'd known a number of fire spinners, seen a lot of shows, so I knew that in general I knew what to expect with various levels of screwing up. Add to this that I've always been a bit of a pyro and far more comfortable with fire than I actually should be, and it was more an opportunity to really cut loose before a small audience than it was a time to worry about suddenly being on fire.

So just remember, it may seem scary, but actually it's not, so just rock it hard (though I still wouldn't do anything you're completely new to).

Yeah, I had someone else film mine and someone else filmed it on their phone. I was surprised I was scared because I had done Fire Breathing before hand and made flaming gloves.

I had planned to have someone else film me, but I didn't want the whole shaking handheld thing going on. That sort of thing may work for FX cop shows, but it doesn't work for my fire spinning

I can imagine poi having a different feel than fire gloves and Fire Breathing. There's a certain feel of uncontrollability to poi when you know you can't just stop them on a dime. I mean, you sort of can, but you need to be able to take a second to work out where and when you're going to stop them, and you have the relatively unique worries of wrapping and tangling.

I'd say the most scary thing I've done is flaming gloves because YOU are on fire and a primal fear just takes over and you get scared as hell. The first time I did it, I went into a "fight or flight" mode and flipped out and dunked my hands in water. Fyi, it didn't hurt or feel warm, it just scared me after about 10 seconds.

OK yesterday got seriously screwed up so some advice from anyone in a cold climate would be beneficial! So here goes!

I had to wait until the wind advisory subsided at 6pm because I know poi/staff+40mph wind gusts=potential nightmare! We went out and got set up but of course the temperature drops and it was impossible to get the K-1 to lights. I'm waiting for the peak temperature to hit between 2-4 pm today which will be between 34-40 degrees fahrenheit. The frostbite was setting in and we postponed until today (it got down in the 20s at the time we tried and I wasn't spinning in the wind advisory, SAFETY FIRST!)

Is this normal, did I blot my poi too well, or do I have to tweak the instructions for winter spinning? I know I did the right thing postponing although it did bum me out a bit (it was a birthday thing and I had worked so hard on getting it together), but I want to get it right today and consider it my bachelorette spin since I'm getting married tomorrow...

*positive spin! lol and pun too it seems! haha*

So I'll be checking in for any more advice on the cold for the next 2 hours before I head out to the zone

I'm not sure what you're supposed to do in the cold, since I live in Israel and we never have snow, but wind and such makes it much harder to light, try to block the wind when lighting it

I can give you advice on that As well as a "Congratulations!" on your marriage What will help a lot in lighting is either mix about 1/4 lighter fluid (Coleman's) into the fuel, or you can just pour a little on after your done blotting, spinning off, squeezing, or whatever else you do. Also, Zippo lighters are truly magical as they are windproof and I love mine Last time I had to light, it took about 15-20 seconds under the flame before it started to light. And what I do instead of blotting is I let it drip into the can until it stops pouring and then I give it 1 or 2 spins and it's fine, with K-1 it doesn't matter as much because it won't be on fire when it comes off In the winter, I'm noticing that some lighter fluid is a must and I should start carrying a little shot of it with me, maybe an empty 5 Hour Energy bottle with lighter fluid in it

Haha I did it! It's nothing fancy due to the loss of feeling in my hands (you can see my breath in the video) and having to light it myself because my helper cannot use a lighter and rattled my nerves a little bit, but I'm sure the next go around will be more impressive. The wind kicked up a lot after I got started and my clothes were restrictive so I kept it very simple and swung, turned, walked around, and did one weave.

When my fingers started going numb (which took about a minute) I decided to end it, but here is my 1st burn!!! NO INJURIES!!! (or issues using the park minus people with dogs not on leashes making me nervous and not safe to reattempt.


http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=101828677

Looks like you need to get more used to the fire ^^ No worries, it's cold as balls outside. I even got me some fingerless gloves

Congrats on first burn!

..and birthday!

..and getting married!