Levistick

Hey guysss. New rusty footage! Me experimenting with spins, and how long I could go without getting dizzy and falling off that cliff!!!

Still waiting for fire footage. *sigh*

well if the spinning isnt enough im pretty sure that outfit is going to help boost the views through the roof lol

jk jk much respect

amazing video, beautiful back drop and Great work with the levistick!

Nice.

Nice to actually see some levistick.

Interesting cliff as well. (Absolutely serious....)

haha quite true--

Ive never actually seen one of these things before 0.o

Its just attached to the one hand right?

DUDE! Im glad im not the only one who completely missed "levistick" spinning.

I saw this video yesterday (link below) and it was the first time id seen or heard of it before...i felt like an idiot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn-KQSuqf9I

really cool though

If I could pry myself away from poi id probably be very interested in this so called "levistick".

lol

It is pretty sweet

Im still uncertain of its mechanics though...
I suppose its time for me to do some research

Something like this would be great at a festival
can you make these?

yeah actually i take them with me to all the festivals!

I just made a new one actually, they're not hard to construct.


and, glad you like the outfit?? lol.. the pants i'm wearing are sort
of like chaps... but they're fire resistant. they're great for summer
because you can wear your shorts and not have to worry about getting
burned. I make them and sell them to fire friends at festivals and
stuff like that. Very handy!!!

Fire resistant would be useful

Do you mind if I ask how you make them?

Do you use fishing wire or something?
Does it have to be a certain weight? 0.o

i make them with foax suede or leather, and i have a special
spray for fabric that is fire resistant. Downside being you cant
wash them very often, BUT I sell the spray with each pair of
pants. And the string I use is a very thing light twine, used
for beading, but fishing wire works all the same, and for the
firewand I use kevlar string. it doesn't have to be a certain
weight really, its all about balance, object manipulation, and
the placement of the string must me about a half inch off center.
the part of the wand with less length being the top.

Ah I see-
well thank you <3

<3 ^_^

Levi-stick basics are dead easy if you can actually poi already. It is a lot of fun to play with though.

It sounds it- I might just have to make myself one

here's sth experimental and a little caotic
let me know what you think!

Has anyone done any expiramenting with the fire versions of these to see if you can incorporate Fire Breathing elements.

I'd be worried doing that, that you would cause the string to catch as you would be spraying burning fuel over a kevlar string essentially making another wick - the string would be quite obvious when it's burning.

You could of course do a stall with the stick vertical in front of you and not moving and your hands to the sides and breathe across the top of the wick as my little diagram below shows -

both thumbs in loop pulled tight to either side. you can then isolate the levi stick and keep your hands moving in a circle around it (in the wall or front plane) or pull to the sides and breathe over the top.

This doesn't work if you use the double levi method of actually fixing the string to your finger with a tight loop, it only works if you have a big free/open loop that you can swap hands with.

O
O----I----O
hand - string - levi - string - hand

Picked up levistick last year or so, then got bored with it. It's remarkably easy when you actually get the gist of it. Fun to dance with though!

So this year I thought I'd try something slighty different.

Firstly: double levistick. It's a lot more technical, and you can't keep the illusion going as well. It's too obvious that they're on strings (though I did work out a way to switch the two levi's mid flow, that was pretty cool and confusing).

Secondly (and more interestingly): Long string. Rediculously long string. A loop about one and a half times as long as me, but placed over the neck. It opens up sooooo many more options. You can put a bodywrap on and normal levi, rope dart it, neck or arm wraps, and it all keeps (if not enhances) the illusion. You can even confuse people who know how levisticking works, since you can swap hands (or let go completely) so naturally it doesn't seem like you're doing anything that different.

So. Yeah, If you're a bit bored with regular levi, string it so you can stand with one hand in the air, the levi on the ground, and the string looped over your thumb, place the string around your neck (or shoulders, they work too) and get your weird on!


P.S: Try to use thin(ish) thread or fishing wire. if it gets tangled you want the string to snap before your neck does!

tazende I really like that video, and the music works brilliantly with it! Can you tell me is that a very long single loop that you're working with? I especially like when your arms are out wide and you spin round whats the secret there?! also at the start when the stick turns and you catch it, thats brilliant

thank you burningoftheclavey
and yes, it is indeed a long single loop I'm working with ...the length of the string is about the same length as the stretch of my arms. for short string stuff (like the spin at the beginning) I have it wrapped around my right hand and for the long string stuff, I either have the string placed around my neck or use my left hand too. I made a short tutorial on my string length etc. a couple of months ago..maybe that helps?!.. length of my levistick string
and yeah for the arms-spread-out-while-spinning-around move, I have the string placed between my neck and my left shoulder..so in this video for instance at 0:56 I use my left hand to put the string into position while I let go of the string wrapped around my right hand (to get the full length). and as soon as I am in this spinning motion, I can let go of the string held in my left hand and the wand will just stay were it is and I can do with my arms (almost) whatever I want....does that make sense??

I'm looking to buy a good quality fire levistick. There is no way I can make one myself, but I would love love love to have one!

I know my way around the regular stick/wand and now want a fire one! Can anyone direct me to a good place to get one? <3

I've not tried fire levisticks myself and have no plans too - what I know I've picked up from the facebook levistick group, you might get more info asking there;

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=110295508990752

As far as I know the only people selling fire levisticks are Trick Concepts and salsa.de

Some people have posted re having problems with Trick concepts but the levistick users seem happy with them. Trick concepts have a fire at each end which makes the balance easier (otherwise it changes as the fuel burns) Salsa's has a fire at the top only which IMO looks better.

(Sean of flowtoys makes them, but only for Prisna to use - he reckons that getting them properly balanced is too much work to be worthwhile for a commercial product).

Actually, you have that mixed up. The one wicked wand comes from Trick Concepts and the two wicked wand comes from Salza. I recently ordered the Salza aluminum wand and will report back after some practice if anyone is interested. I've heard of balance problems from at least one girl on YT, I'm hoping I can get used to it. =)

One of the biggest problems with fire flow wands are once you add the fuel, the weight distribution changes.
So you have to adjust your chain to compensate.
Friendly Fire. A Toronto fire spinning company, has come up with one that has an adjustable chain.
A video of it just went up on their site.

I thought of a possible variation, sort of blended with a fire orb: put the stick on a double ended string, or two loops, one on either side. Not sure how this will affect balance and such.

Anyone got tips for balancing these things? I appear to have gotten lucky with the first one I did, and am having trouble replicating that success with another one.

first vid since 2009 (I haven't practiced much since 2009 ;_; ), feedback welcome! definitely much faster than usual, but I was dancing to that specific song...cathartic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nTR832IEzo

next goal...doubles!

salzagear has the best fire wands in my opinion. i have used three of them so far, only reason for replacing them was on one incident, it was stolen (boo!) and another was run over by an RV. (double boo!).

took a while for them to come in the mail though, its a swedish company.

xoxo

So i'm in the beginner/ intermediate range of Poi and levisticking and have always wanted a flow wand but could never really justify the $$. Enter the Lightning Wand... I was walking around at a festival and saw a couple spinning these around and was amazed. I asked them about them and they told me they were less than $40 that the company (Monkey School) had a tent at this festival. I picked one up at there shop and I love it! When I got home I tried to do some reasearch and they are a new company, they have a youtube channel here http://youtu.be/aRpioZWpPrM I sent over an email to ask about different colors, they responded they only have blue for now but will be rolling out a red, green, and white very soon. Check them out, I'm so glad I did. Happy Wand-ering!!