Forums > Social Chat > The story of your first BURN

Posted: 24th Apr 2009
I find if I spin to my own tunes, I zone out more than normal because the music AND the spinning comes from my own brain, so I know exactly what's happening / going to happen in the music and spin accordingly. It's one of the best feelings I know....

My first burn... hmm.. was (randomly) on a fish farm in about 2005. I was just starting poi then, so it mostly consisted of 3bt weave and butterfly. Now I can flow a bit more, I'm planning on a vid based on one of my tunes, not sure which one yet tho.

My Mind is a Ship
Emotions become the Waves
Soul is the Ocean

If a quizz is quizzical, what is a test?

Posted: 24th Apr 2009
I would love to see yours and anyone else spinning to their own music. I have a myspace up with my songs but I won't slop them all over HOP (yet). I myself am trying to get a video of myself spinning to my own tunes, either glow or fire, very soon. If anyone else has this, or another first burn story/experience then post it up!

peace

haha

Posted: 24th Apr 2009
Its not something I can share, but I spin to my own tunes!

Not musically talented enough to play an instrument to the degree that I could convey them, but I commonly whistle or sing nonsense syllables while I spin, means that my movement is still based on music, but I dont have to wait for cues, the music goes along with my spinning.

My first burn was pretty boring. Picked a lovely location lateish one night, shortly after I got them. I didnt have a credit card so I'd used a friends debit card to buy the poi (from HoP) and then payed him the money, so of course he was the first I would show off my skills to.

It was all really basic stuff, 3 beat, angel wings, windmill. Stopping, grinning. I couldnt see any of the pretty location because of the fire, I couldnt really see much beyond the light that the fire cast.

I remember I couldnt get the things to light because it was slightly too windy and I had to dash off to a nearby toilet to light them and come out with them lit.

I hadn't been doing it too long, but I had enough movements that I was confident I wouldnt hit myself.

I should probably show that friend my skills NOW because he thought it was cool then.

Good luck on your first burn!

Posted: 24th Apr 2009
My first burn.... It was still 3 weeks from the day I was introduced with poi by my friends. I really sucked that my aunt from the states has to take a video of myself doing fire poi and uploaded it in youtube. Hahahaha! It was my first burn of my first home made fire poi without the kevlar. Just used an old t-shirt as wick with thin wires as the housing. I mean I got battle scars that time from that burn. That was 7 months ago...

Tam tam tam cheketitamtam, ketumpantam, ketumpan kete kete kete, tam tam tam ketumpanketey!

Posted: 25th Apr 2009
thats funny that you whistle and sing other nonsense stuff cause I have done that too without realizing it. my old lady pointed out that I was giving sound effects sometimes to my moves. very funny.

haha

Posted: 25th Apr 2009
ouch those poi seem freakin deadly. and three weeks into it is pretty bold. glad you made it out alive, ha.

haha

Posted: 25th Apr 2009
Yah lucky me, and I forgot that it was my 11 year old cousin's first fire burn too. We started to learn poi at the same time as well.

My first burn

My cousins first burn

Tam tam tam cheketitamtam, ketumpantam, ketumpan kete kete kete, tam tam tam ketumpanketey!

Posted: 25th Apr 2009
I was staying in a rather lovely hostel in NZ, living in a tipi and picking apples for a living.
The manager did fire staff, and his girlfriend did poi, so they got me started. I think I'd been spinning about a month (and was truly, truly awful..) I could do a few moves reliably without hitting myself though, so I had a go when the other guys were having a burn.

I had a truly lethal set of (Non-HoP of course!) fire poi- they appeared to be held together by something closely resembling a paperclip which actually snapped about three weeks later, not lit, fortunately! I set my hat on fire, on my first try, but lived..

THE MEEK WILL INHERIT THE EARTH!


If that's okay with you?

Posted: 25th Apr 2009
johndhaive - nice video. hope to see some more stuff as your skill increases in the future. keep it up!

hamamelis - I must say I'm jealous of your NZ experience. A few of my friends are out there now and are having a killer time. I hope it wasn't your lucky hat (or maybe it was because your head is still attached eh? haha)

haha

Posted: 26th Apr 2009
oh, i thought you meant the first time you burnt yourself.

they are much funnier stories

"but have you considered there is more to life than your eyelids?"

jointly owned by Fire_Spinning_Angel and Blu_Valley

Posted: 26th Apr 2009
mr sambo I do like your tunes

My first staff burn was before I had even learnt any moves. I was at a beach party with my friends and a guy I hadnt seen for a while brought out his staff, and gave me a shot, it was excellent fun and highly addictive, and prompted me to buy my very own staff.

First poi burn was a bit of a disaster as I had been given bad quality poi from another friend after my staff got left behind in another country, it was made of that ropey waxy not-kevlar maerial, but I didnt realise it would be quite so rubbish as it was, it practically disintegrated and lots of burning white bits came off. I think I was doing weave, butterfly, thread the needle and corkscrew..

on spam robots - "Burn the robot! Melt him down, and then we can make lots and lots of money from his shiiiny juices!"

Owned by Brenn

Posted: 27th Apr 2009
ha, yea I guess I didn't think about asking about your first burns or "first time I caught myself on fire" story. Those would make for a different kind of story. It seems like a lot of people had their first burn with make-shift and poorly rigged poi. interesting. if anyone else has some literal burn stories feel free, and keep those memorable first fire spinning stories coming!

haha

Posted: 3rd May 2009
well I finally broke my fire cherry! It was such an amazing experience. It was just me, my dog and my girl out on my property. It was just before dusk. I almost forgot how it sounds. I must say it was very intimidating. I of course stuck to the moves I was very comfortable with. It is a little tuff going from my stretchy sock poi to my wire fire poi. But it was still so great! It is kinda like tattoos, once you do one all you think about is the next time. good times.

peace

haha

Posted: 17th Jun 2009
Well my first time spinning fire poi didnt go too well, (understatement of the year) I managed to catch myself across the chest, which surprisingly didnt burn or hurt, it just left a blackenned mark. I was using paraffin, dont know if that makes a difference?

Well after that my adrenaline was pumping a mile a minute, suddenly the right hand poi head flew off into my next door neighbours garden, still alight, I managed to put out the firs with an extinguisher before it spread.

This was all caught on video too, which was nice. So i constantly have a reminder.

''Yma 'O Hyd'' - We're still here.

Posted: 15th Jul 2009
My first burn was tuesday!

I started off by meeting two amazing people, one had been spinning for 6 years and a girl he taught had been spinning for 3 years, anyways they wound up teaching me, and when i started i had a goal of being able to burn in about a month.

Anywyas a month turned into exactly a week from the day i started practicing religiously, now i'm talking staying up all night in my room practicing my butt off.

I learned some moves in some weird places....union station, the bus stop at cherry beach, a elevator 0_o.

Anywyas i went to a get together at kensington market and was praticing for hours and it was finally getting dark and my friend i came with who burns said, "ok i'll spin off for you and get the flame a little lower and then i'll pass it to you" and so there developed the plan.

Now to my AMAZING luck there was a camera crew there developing a documentary on this kind of performance and what not and when they herd i was doing my first burn they intervied me and got me to sign some permissons forms so they could video tape me and interview me about my experiance after *thank god i turned 16 a week b4 so i could sign for mself :D)

Anyways night came, my friend fueled up the staff, lit it, spun off and did her amazing dance while spinning, off in her own world, it was beautiful, the next thing i knew, i had a flaming staff in my hand and was spinning.

Now befor all this happened i was REALLY nervous like everything was shaking and everything but the second i had the staff in my hand my nerves were 100% calm, the shaking stopped and i was doing it just like i praticed, over the arm, spin behind the back, over the head, under the leg, behind the back, throw. lol it was amazing.

Eventully the fuel burned out after about 2 minutes.(its the white gas that dosent last very long) and then my friend ran up to me and gave me the bigges hug ever and said i did amazing.

Even to right now i have the bigges adrenaline rush EVER. and i really REALLY wanna burn ASAP its like a huge addiction.:P My friend tried waking me up this morning and the first thing i said was "leave me alone i wanna burn more" lol

Anywyas there is my story...sorry if its long but u wanted a story and i figured mine might be interesting .



Happy Spinning

Pie Cake Spork Avocado Guacamole Cheese Cake FIRE!

Posted: 16th Jul 2009
love it. the great thing about spinning fire is those feelings of excitement never fade. Glad to hear it all went safe and sounds like you really connected with this beautiful art form. much love from the mid west.

ps: wooosh woooosh wooooooosh!

haha

Posted: 16th Jul 2009
Thanks so much, my friend who was the one who passed the staff off to me/photographer is coming over tommorw to meet my mom and she is bringing all the pictures she took so hopefully i'll post them in the gallery

Pie Cake Spork Avocado Guacamole Cheese Cake FIRE!

Posted: 18th Jul 2009
My first burn was confest 08, I was doing a contact neck stall combo, the staff slipped during the combo, so I went to change techs in an attempt to conceal the error. I knew that the only way I was going to avoid getting burnt was switch to hands or bail all together but I'm stubborn. I salvaged the tech without anyone noticing the error at the cost of a 2nd degree burn going from one side of my neck to the other, that was the first night of the festival, I still continued doing contact and numerous other styles all through the festival. it wasn't until the third day of the festival that other people noticed I looked like a halloween nut or something cause the closest thing to first aid you'll ever see me do on something that minor is put a bandana over it. It was the metal that got me not the actual fire and yes it was entirely my fault for not bailing, it was a consequence that I had accepted long before then.

It is by will alone I set my mind in motion

Posted: 18th Jul 2009
At risk if being troll…. Do I have to say any more?

Posted: 22nd Jul 2009
It's funny how your first burn is usually like your first sexual experience. Really amped up for it, get everything set up as perfect as you can, something goes wrong, you save it somehow and you and your partner (hopefull) and you and your poi can't wait to do it again. just a thought.

haha