The danger of beamer poi...

tonight was a pretty crazy night...

My name's Ken, I live in Dublin (Ireland) and I had a firespinning gig set up with my mates at a club called Pravda.

We were spinning for an hour, one friend playing a djembe while my friend and I took turns spinning with poi and staff. Everything was sweet, everyone was impressed, the club was packed as we had attracted so many people on the street. Great night...

Until, I go inside. I had purchased a set of the jailhouse foxy sock poi (an absolute pleasure to spin with , takes a while to get used to the way they stretch though, but sexy all the same) and a set of beamers ( ).

I love Home of Poi, I placed an order on Thursday and received my poi the following Tuesday, from around the world, The tutorials rock, the forum, the whole ethos of the site(/community). It all rocks, so don't take me up the wrong way. I personaly think Beamers were spawned by Satan.

One of them cracked during an airwrap, I thought, hey, okay I was a bit rough with them, who cares, it still works although the light was really dim, no biggie.

So after the fireshow, I agreed to spin with the beamers inside on stage for a while.

I'm on a stage and everything was going great, I was pulling off every trick I was trying, I was 'in the flow'. All until this jackass that was blind drunk is falling towards the stage as I'm doing a corkscrew. I pull back so as to avoid smacking him in the head with the beamer...

And break by two front teeth.

Now it was very painful for about ten minutes but it was mainly the embarressment that got to me . I have the parts of my teeth and will pray to God that my medical card will cover getting them fixed.

I laughed it off after I had calmed down and still managed to have a great night, but seriously guys, watch out with the beamers. I had given myself a few little bruises with them, no real hassle, there is a big red warning on the product page, and it was an exception circumstance. But just for God's sake be careful :P

*I'll post a picture of the teeth for the craic when my mate takes it from his camera... I've got pirate chic {^_^} !*

This has nothing to do with HoP really, it's not that their product is bad, they do point out they're for experienced spinners, I just thought I'd share my experience.

Gotta watch out for those beamers. That's why they got that name...

Hope you have a good dentist.

This could happen to experienced spinners just alike...

Hope you (get) re/cover(ed)

as i can't sleep I was just messing around running my tounge along them, so I think "why not make sure the pieces all fit"

So i put the two large pieces back onto the teeth and they fit perfectly, and also my saliva is holding them in place. So it shouldn't be too big a deal for the dentist to just like... glue 'em on or something.

This is actualy quite funny {^_^}

Well, I'm no dentist, but I'm a doctor. I would say you should put them in cold milk and go to an emergency room...

Well...let's see...I've seen black eyes, a cracked shin, three broken noses, one nut shot that rendered the poor dude unable to walk for, well, a looooooooooooooong while.
Then there was the 7 stitches to the head, the chipped kneecap....

Yeah, this is another to add to the beamer list!

Thanks!

I've chipped both my front teeth before, yeah they just stick 'em back on... one of mine I didn't have the bit that chipped but they still rebuilt the tooth using enamel. They do tend to chip again though (the enamel one anyway) if I bite anything hard in a certain way. Popcorn seeds are best avoided. You'll be fine though!

in 12 years... i have never chipped the enamel cap on mine.. i think that they are quite strong... only thing, they discolour differently to natural teeth.

Really? Mine came off twice... but thinking about it they haven't come off again for a few years and last time I got them re-done by a different dentist, so maybe it was a case of substandard dentistry!

maybe so... damn dentists! some are only interested in £££ ching ching!.

Nope, PK, yours wasn't the noses I was thinking of.

Oi!

4.

Tennis balls hurt just as bad as beamers.

Remember the Kato getting hit in the knackers video?.

So yay for 4!!! broken noses.

You forgot the ah..ah...ah.. to sound like count on Sesame Street when he announces a #

I don't remember that. But I do remember LN bashing xestrel in the face with her tennis ball poi. She was on his shoulders at the time so if she was on the ground, it would have been a crotch shot. That was hysterical. Someone, somewhere caught it on video too! lol

No breaks there. I've *never* had a break from tennie poi, just bruises. Which still leaves beamers, in my eyes, as the kings of destruction.

Hell, after I borrowed Christians beamers I gave 'em back and never touched them again. I don't think it should say for experienced spinners, I think it should say for masochists.

my parents are talking about springing for a trip to somewhere in Eastern Europe, maybe Poland or Hungary to get my teeth fixed.

It'll cost 2,000 euro to get them crowned here, or 500 euro or less in Eastern Europe, then 150 for flights, it'll still cost less than a grand.

Broken teeth + considerate parents = Free holiday and face fixing!! yay

depends what your hitting NYC

I've had my beamers for a week or so. So far no injury while spinning at really high speed because I'm very good at softening the blow. Keep beamers out of clubs O.O use em when you've got a bunch of people chilling out and watching and no fellow spinners to bump into.

On a side note, every notice how if people have a choice of walking past either a raver or a stringer, it'll always be the stringer. I think people are subonciously masochist.

Oh you know I'm so waiting for it to ^,^;.

Every time someone borrows mine I feel like I should be making them sign a waiver or libaility agreement.

On a side note, does bubble wrap actually help?

Putting them in milk is a GOOD idea! I would have done that right away.

Milk?? What for O.O?

I used mine for a couple of months but they were my only set of poi so during practice I took some bad knocks - Shins, the occasional elbow during a wrap and once my temple (somehow).

Biggest problem I have is they break quite easily if they hit each other, I do a lot of butterfly moves so it does happen sometimes, and now only 1 LED works sporadically on each ball.

I've tried to take them apart to fix em but the screws in them have square heads (?) so I'll have to find a suitable screwdriver somewhere. In the meantime I made some practice poi & ordered some rainbow glow poi for spinning near people.

I did like the weight & the look of them though, when they worked, if only they weren't quite so rigid.

i have a silly question. what's a beamer? i looked at a couple of other threads that mentioned them, but there were links to various types of glowy/shiny things, so i'm still not sure.

THESE are beamer poi. They're scary, and they hurt.

But not as much as THESE I suspect...

as far as i know a beamer is a nickname for a BMW, so according to PK they must throw tennis balls pretty damn hard around where he lives