I LIKE BIG BALLS

I don’t consider myself a flow artist.  If anything, I describe myself as an aggressively average poi spinner.   Hardpressed, I might go so far as to classify myself as an intermediate level spinner.  But artist? Never.

I recently sold off most of my other props.  I liked the staff and the leviwand well enough, but not enough to devote any time to practicing either of them.  The fiberoptic light whip was fun, but I feel like the part of me that enjoyed it no longer exists.  I bought fans with the idea of using them to supplement poi practice, believing they were close enough for me to have a good base of overlapping skills.  In my case, they absolutely did not, like, at all. 

I took all the failed flow hobbies and traded them in for a new set of poi.

I branched out with this new set.  Until now, I’ve bought exclusively from Flowtoys¹.  This set is Maine Flow on Fire‘s Ice Poi.  I’ve been calling them beast balls, because that’s how they feel to me.  It’s an apt word, since they are the Frankenstein’s monster of my poi collection, composed of

• Flowtoys capsules in Flow on Fire heads
• Flow on Fire Ice poi and tethers
• Ultrapoi Ultraknob Pro LED knobs

The Poi Heads

Anyone who’s listened to me talk poi know I’m a diehard Flowtoys fangirl.  While I enjoy spinning my Vision poi, their Pod Poi are my golden child.  They were my first “big girl” LED poi, and they’re the set I reach for first.  I can’t sing the praises of both the company and the product enough.  Their props sync up instantly and perfectly. Right out of the bag you’ve got about 50-ish modes to play with.  Customization is wildly easy and opens up an endless amount of options, and modes can be saved to a favorites list. With some time and know-how, you’ve got the option to save a sequence of favorites to another list, letting spinners set up shows with custom light modes.

Flow on Fire has taken the heart of my beloved pods and seamlessly encapsulated it in a pair of the softest white orbs.  Compared to the pods, they’re huge, but simpler in design.  Lit from within, they look like magic.  They’re gorgeously minimalistic in every aspect, whether lit or unlit.  I can’t stop playing with them.  Robert Jordan would have waxed poetic about these beautiful globes, that’s how utterly perfect they are. I actually had to take them off of bed, otherwise I may have slept with them, cuddled against my chest. 

The Knobs

On the other end of the poi, we have the Ultrapoi Pro LED knobs.  Like Flowtoys, they operate with a single button, and varying the length of your button press navigates the menus. A couple of button presses can get you solid colors, flickering “fire”, or a melting rainbow. Another button press will cycle through different blink intervals.

The color options on the Ultrapoi knobs aren’t as advanced as what Flowtoys offers, and they don’t sync to each other.  However, we’re also talking about knobs that are, for all intents and purposes, not the focal point of the average viewer. In my opinion, the average spinner won’t need the fancy colorways.

What I do love about the Ultrapoi Ultraknobs is how they feel in my hand. Over the four years I’ve been spinning poi, I’ve used a few different styles of holds, both loops and knobs. These knobs are the most comfortable, hands down. They’re less than half the weight of my Flowtoys LED handles², closer in weight to Flowtoys’s standard knobs. The Ultraknob texture is grippy without being sticky.

The Rope In Between

Between the mystical magical wizard balls on one end and mini-orbs on the other, I had my choice of several different rope types. Additionally, most of the ropes came in different colors. Flow on Fire’s Etsy listings supply brief descriptions of each rope type and its benefits and behaviors with regards to poi spinning. If you’re brand new to the hobby, these could have been a bit overwhelming to some, because it’s a lot³. However, if you’re at the point in your flow journey where you’re investing in a set of custom poi, you probably have an idea of how you flow and how different kinds of rope will affect the poi’s movement.

In my case, I opted to have mine with black VPL. Its diameter is nearly double what my Flowtoys sets use. Additionally, VPL is a much more static rope compared to anything else I have. It doesn’t twist or bend as easily. The effects that both these factors have had in my flow were immediately visible.

Combined, these parts build up a set of poi that spin like a fucking dream. Almost everything feels cleaner. Tosses are smoother. Stalls look like stalls are supposed to look. Because the tethers don’t twist as much, I’m forced to change the direction of spin more frequently to “unwind” whatever twist creeps in from spinning, so I’m not doing the same things over and over again.

@poptartapocalypse

it was a lovely sky #flowmies #CVSPaperlessChallenge #ledpoi #poi #flowartsmovement #fortheflowmies

♬ Cornfield Chase – Hans Zimmer

I feel like a god damned wizard with them.

¹ we can also make the argument that I’m not really branching out if it’s still Flowtoys in the middle. At what point does it cease being Flowtoys and become Flow on Fire? This makes my head hurt.
² comparing the weights of the two LED grips isn’t entirely fair, as they are very different styles. The Flowtoys is decidedly more handle-like versus the Ultraknobs.
³ Continuing from that point, I would not consider these beginner poi. I spin almost daily and I still regularly hit myself with all of my poi. I’ve ended up with all manner of bruises from them. The bodies of these poi are about as firm as a football⁴. My second night with them, I was about a half inch away from a broken nose and still saw stars.
⁴ not one of Tom Brady’s