Club Obi Wan

During the IndyGear Texas Summit, Sebastian of http://www.whipenthusiasts.org met us at a park in Dallas for some whip lessons. Everyone had the opportunity to crack a variety of different whips. Those who had never cracked a whip before were able to do so by the end of the day. Sebastian even showed us some over cracks to take home with us

The clip is 3:38 minutes in length. The file has been zipped for easy download and is in RealMedia format.

Click below to download the clip.
Sebastian and Minnesota Jones Cracking Whips (5.98 Mb)

Wow, and I thought I was getting pretty decent with the bullwhip. I've got some practicing to do!!

Mike

Nice job with the whips guys. Thanks for posting the video. It's nice to see what all of you are working on.

Good looking outfit too.

If you guys haven't done so yet, pick up the Mike Murphy videos. You will learn all the crack you saw here and many more. Great videos.

All he best and keep on crackin'

Canasta

Sebastian is a good egg. He literally started the Whip Enthusiasts organization by his own efforts alone. He started whip cracking in that same park I believe by himself and gradually over time he formed a local group. And that group then grew national, by having local chapters petitioning to become an affiliate to the WE group. This past December WE filed for special non-profit status, Section 501(c) with bylaws, articles of incorporation, officers, etc. Our own Jim Markell(Ecwhips) runs the WE group in NJ and is officially the NJ rep on the board.

I have seen clips of Seb before cracking, but they were extremely short, like 15 to 20 seconds. And Canasta is right, if you get some of Murphy's tapes, it looks like Seb has been watching old Mike. In fact, Mike Murphy stopped by the park once while on one of his many visits to the States.

You guys looked great!!! Ain't a GREAT HOBBY? And as Seb always says, "Keep'em Crackin!!!"

-Sergei

Whip Cracking with everyone was a blast. Even Mrs. Minnesota was able to crack a whip. Another saying of Sebastian's I love was "Hooked on Crack!" or "Addicted to Crack!" LOL! I guess he has that on a shirt!

MJ,
Was that a Joe Strain 10 footer you were cracking? I thought I heard Seb say something about a Strain during the film clip.

-S

Yes it was, or is, a Joe Strain 10 foot. I love that whip. It's the brown instead of natural. Being the only whip I've cracked until this weekend, I couldn't believe how much lighter the other whips I tried there were. I'm so used to it, it doesn't feel heavy at all to me, until I picked up a 6 foot Stock Whip. Wow. I guess it is a tad on the larger size. I may have to get an 8 or 6 footer in the future, so my wife will have a easier time trying to get it to crack, although she did get some cracks off my 10 foot JS. I guess I am "Addicted to Crack."

Yep, I have the same thing. A Joe Strain, 10 footer in the dark brown color. That whip is my loudest attention getter.

-S

Hello everyone,

I've just joined this forum and I'm glad I got a chance to meet some of you and crack whips in the park down here in Dallas.
I haven't seen the video clip yet and as my broadband connection is down until the 5th, I have about 20 more minutes to wait on the down load. Hopefully I didn't make too much of a fool of myself. I tried not to show off that much and kept the cracking down to the basics. Some of you more expierenced whip handlers might notice all of the variations were really of one or two of the basic cracks.
Sergei, your 100% correct about Mike Murphy's tapes. If anyone is looking for videos on whip cracking, I strongly reccomend Mike Murphy's volumes. however, Mikes tapes are a recent creation (about a year or two old) and I've been handling whips since I was about 8 years old. So Mike can't get all the credit but he is due a large part of it.
But to clear up one comment, the park we were at was not the original park I started cracking whips at. It's one we moved to after our local group got too big for the first park. We've also moved again and our group's regular whip practice is now in Grand Prairie.

The actual t-shirts for 'Crack is Addictive' with a (pardon my opinion) crudely drawn signal whip goes to a whip maker up north named Axel. I don't know who first coined the 'addictive' phrase but it is often attributed to me, although I have no memory of being the first person to say it under the whip connotations. I will however take credit for my sign off lines...

There is always something I'm forgetting.

MJ, the stock whip pair I had with me that day are light, even for stock whips. That particular pair is a competition set made for me by Mike Murphy and are far lighter than some of my other sets. I think my long handled bullwhip set is closer to the weight of your whip by Joe Strain. Next time your down this way, I hope you can join us for one of our regular practices and you'll get a chance to throw more whips and longer ones. Had I known you had an interest in long whips I would have brought a few others for you to try. I'll admit, there is something special about throwing a 24 ft whip and cutting apples with it. If anyone is interested. I do have a number of longer video clips. I don't usualy post them on the WE web site as they are large files and take a while to download. Email me privately if your interested and I'll send them to you.

Seb,
It is an extreme honor in joining our group. I personally welcome you and invite everybody here to give a nice WARM welcome to Sebastian. This is quite a catch!!! )

Unfortunately this forum software and hardware moved so we unfortunately lost a lot of our historical posts from the past. So you missed out on a lot of interesting postings on whip conquests, whip pictures (some famous ones that were in the movie), etc. We have several whipmakers on board. Murphy just joined our forum just before it closed down, so I am trying to get to resign up on our brand spanking new forum. Then we have Paul Stenhouse from Seattle and Kyle Shold as well that just started. Jim Markell as you know is the WE New Jersey representative. Bernie from Tasmania is also registered here. So we are growing.

-Sergei

Sebastian! Wow! Thanks for joining the group. It was a real pleasure meeting you. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to spend with us GearHeads. I must say, you got me hooked on cracking whips. I don't care if I am the only nut in the park. I am doing something I enjoy.

Hope to see you soon,
Pyroxene (Bill)

Thank you for such a gracious welcome Sergei,

I'm glad to know I'm in such good company and my friends are here as well.

Ok, I've seen the video clip. Thanks for editing out the bloopers. If any one is curious The whip I use most of the time in that clip is a long handled bullwhip, also made by Mike Murphy. In the very beginning of the clip I'm warming up with some underhanded flicks in a pattern I call the Victoria flash. That may or may not be the correct name for it. I also did a few 'break aways' and one half of the helicopter (two hands is the true form) there is also a touch of the Coachman's Cackle (or crackle) when I am using two stock whips (again Mike's work). Hopefully I didn't show off too much and you'll be able to pick up a few new techniques. As always, I'm happy to share what I know with anyone that will listen. Feel free to drop me an email anytime. If your passing this way, I'd love to meet up and crack whips.

Seb,
Are the stockwhips Murphy's in the film clip? And is that a matched pair of Murphy's in your profile pic? 5.5 feet?

Just curious.
-Sergei

In the later half of the video clip the stock whip pair I'm using were made by Mike Murphy. They are a sport competition set. Which means they are about 5.5 ft of thong and lighter than usual. However, Mike's skill is obvious. Not just in the nearly perfect plaiting but also in the well balanced weight carried evenly down the thong. That particular set is crafted in purple and natural pale. The stock whip pair in my profile pic were made by Peter Jack (New Zealand) and are just under 7ft of thong and plaited in black and natural. I recently sold that set to a fellow cracker in Oklahoma. (rare that I sell whips from my collection)
The long handled bull whip set I used in the beginning of the clip and demostrate the spin crack with were also made by Mike. Those stats are 18 inch handles with 6ft+ of thong and plaited in black and purple. A number of my whips can be seen in the photo gallery of the WE group on Yahoo.

Keep 'em cracking,

Seb~

Yeah, I thought the Murph's looked familiar. I have a matched pair of 5 1/2 foot stockwhip myself, in natural and brandy. The craftmanship of the whip is unbelievable.

I was debating whether to order a set of bullwhips from Murphy, but this time I went with a matched pair of 6 foot Lone Stars from Joe Strain. The lone stars are made in the 10 inch handle, 2 tone knots. They should come in about a couple of hours and I will post when they come in. And BTW Joe Strain is seme-retiring for a few months. My order was literally the last one for awhile.

-Sergei

If anyone in this forum is serious about getting in the sport of whip cracking, I strongly reccomend a stock whip set. IMHO there are really only three or four whip makers producing top ranked competition sets. Not surprsingly, those whip makers are also top ranked competitors or past Aussie National grand champions. Obiously for me, Mike Murphy is at the top of that short list. I also like Janine Fraser's work and I'm told Fiona Wilks is now making whips. I apologize if I've spelled those name wrong.
With that said, let me dig out this hole a bit. There are quite a number of very talented whip makers that produce top quality products and you would be pleased with a whip from any of them. The sport sets I'm talking about are a very small niche and is like comparing a wooden Wilson tennis racquet with one of today's modern alloy and graphite combinations. Or perhaps a Yugo automobile with say, a Porsche. Both will get you from point A to point B. A good whip will make learning far easier. A competition set is something you might eventually get to, but would rarely begin with. I generally reccomend that beginners start with a whip between 6-8 ft and around 12 plaits. You'll still get a high degree of fluidity with 12 pait thongs, and still retain a measure of durability to handle the use a beginner will put on a whip. Save the fancy work and high strand counts for the handle.
However, this forum isn't really about the sport side of whip cracking. So I do apologize for this slight divergence.

Smiles,

Seb~

Right on Seb. This crowd here at Indygear typically cut their teeth on a 10 foot Indy style bullwhip or longer. It's part testosterone and part building the gear from the movie.

From what I seen and it happend to me personally, then the serious whip cracker will go down to 8 foot and 6 foot bullwhips. And then the progression goes off to the stocks. I have also seen the phenomenon over at the WWAC. Three years ago you hardly saw anybody but the Aussies using stocks. This past year at the WWAC convention, I would say everybody with an exception of a few were using stock whips.

Again, I couldn't agree with you more. The serious whip crackers eventually get down to the stock whips quite fast. My only regret is that it took me so long. And the only reason I held back, was that the technical style of cracking with stocks didn't fit the representation of cracking as seen in the movies. Part of the regret is that there are so much fun.

-Sergei