Over the weekend I bid a fond farewell to two of my favorite people in the world: Tash Kouri and Sean Stogner. They've been keeping the firespinning community going in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the past four years as they've been finishing up college in between starting a hoop performance troop called the Gyronauts and doing more gigs than I can count.

Sean is one of my favorite poi artists to spin with--he can do all the crazy stalls that drive me crazy and somehow manages to come up with 1.5 combos I can barely wrap my head around. Now the two of them are moving off to Japan for a year while Tash teaches English and Sean stalks Yuta :)

I'll miss all the crazy times I've had with them in Brooklyn and spinning in the city, from the party a Grandspace where Tash tried to teach me how to do a three-beat weave with hoops (I was a very poor study) to New Year's Eve when I briefly became an honorary Gyronaut and the following day when we went to go spin in a nearby park in single-digit degree weather.

Japan is richer for you guys, so here's to you--and get back in one piece, dammit!

In the meantime, here is a vid of the two of them spinning on New Year's Day this year. Godspeed, my friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxrDp1lEX3U