This weekend the Sweets family and I ventured up into the hills of San Bernardino county for the 2016 National Kendama Retreat. The weather was perfect, the nature was breathtaking and memories were made.
Just like last year, there was a camp-wide video edit competition that everyone was invited to film for and was judged by Yuji Shimadaa from Gloken! Each cabin was responsible for filming, editing, and premiering a complete kendama edit that included everyone in the cabin.
My cabin the “Coop Troop” included myself, Luke Ford of the Homegrown team, Chris and David Haase, Parker Smith, and Jacob Nguyen. I had an amazing time hanging out and getting to know my campers! There was so much talent in my cabin it was amazing.
We had the smallest cabin out of everyone at NKR, so it allowed me to get creative with the filming and editing. I was able to really spotlight every singe one of my campers and give them their chance to shine! I did my best to spice it up with some editing style but these kids were so swaggy they barely needed my help!
Everyone premiered their edits late on Saturday night and they were all amazing. Its always great to see everyone shredding on the big screen. The awards ceremony came around on Sunday and The Coop Troop won the video edit competition!!! I’m so proud of my campers. Paired with the 7-to-spike win from Max Norcross, the National Kendama Retreat 2016 turned out to be a very successful weekend for Sweets Kendamas!
Counting down the days until NKR 2017! See you guys next time.
-Cooper Eddy
Leave a comment