AmsterJAM freestyle frisbee (pre)history

How the annual tradition came to be

AmsterJam 2005 the EFC success story

In the beginning
There were locals throwing long distances with frisbees, flying over heads, bikes and dogs on a lush field in Vondelpark.

Then there was an Angel
To this day the locals call him The Angel and are still guessing he is from the U.S.
Angel seemed to have materialised out of thin air asking: Can I join the game?
What followed split the simple world of the local disc throwers into two worlds for many years to come; counter-and-clock.
Remember this early part of the AmsterJAM history is taking place in an age long before the interweb, let alone YouTubing; It may have been during the summer of 1984.
Who was he? And what on earth was the silent dark toned freestyle Angel doing to their disc shaped world? The local disc throwers could just not comprehend what they were seeing! Delays, trick-catches/-throws. You name it, he did it.
Just about 17 minutes later the Angel simply vanished in thin air leaving the locals behind. Shocked and in Awe. One of them, Kees asked to pinch his arm stating: What happened? Are we inside a dream?


Waiting for enlightenment
It took the disc throwers a very, very, no really, very long time to copy the nail delay they had witnessed that glorious day. I mean: By the time they had finally mastered the delay, they had almost forgotten every other trick that Angel had shown them back in 1984.
Note: More specific than the US, some of the locals are still guessing that our dark Angel must have been from New York for he did not mind the super scratchy brick without any slick - It took the disc throwers decades to learn that some freestylers call an Ultimate disc a brick, lubricate (a.k.a. slick) their frisbees and wear fake nails to reduce friction with the disc surface. Not the Angel. Brick delay was good enough for him to take it away and elevate the game of the locals.
Still. Throwing long distances with their brick was the thing for the locals for ages, but instead of catching the frisbee they would now delay it: Center delay all the way! A fifteen second nail-delay followed by a simple drop on the floor was cheered for as a victory by those who had forgotten.

Pathway
Early 2003.
Finally some locals were calling themselves freestylers a.k.a. Jammers.

Two local freestylers accidentally met. Let me explain: Spinning the frisbee clockwise or counterclockwise was still considered as living in two different worlds.
You may have guessed it: One of them was clock (me), the other counter (Gregory).
Let me emphasise:
From the start always throw and delay the frisbee both ways;
CLOCKWISE and COUNTER CLOCKWISE!

Because of their clock versus counter-clock game the initial Jams were hard to enjoy for the two jammers mentioned earlier, but... they did share the love for freestyle frisbee.
One told the other about a website called frisbee(dot)com on the interweb and an email newsgroup called jammers-on-the-net. That is where they must have learned that in the summer of 2003 renowned freestylers Tom Leitner (USA) and Sune Wentzel (Norway) were going to do a freestyle frisbee show ind Hilversum, NL.
The day before the event, the local freestylers, Gregory and Iwan, managed to meet up with Tom Leitner in Amsterdam.
They asked Tom about the show the following day. Being the start of a European tour for Nike complimenting a frisbee TV commercial, the show was for employees only.

Revelation
Multiple world champion Tom Leitner was seeing (and hearing) disappointment in both Greg and Iwan.
That must have triggered something truly great in him: On the spot he decided he would return to Amsterdam for a (frisbee) jam weekend.

The following weeks if not months Tom and Sune were doing frisbee shows all around Europe.
But one weekend, Tom would return to Amsterdam for...
AmsterJAM

The point of no return
AmsterJAM number one.
A major portal to the freestyle frisbee universe opened.
Many locals came to jam with-and-see not just Tom, but also freestylers Holger Hill(Germany), Boguslaw Bull(Germany) and Jan Soerensen (Denmark).
What a joy.
Simply amazing!

Ongoing story
It was decided that AmsterJAM would become an annual event.
By the time of writing, we are already looking back at more than two decades of AmsterJAM.

Some early highlights
The second edition in year 2004, AmsterJAM (Vondelpark) was honoured with the attendance of about 57 international players.
In both 2005 (Westerpark) as well as in 2012 (Korver hall, Zandvoort) the F.P.A. granted the official European Freestyle Championships to AmsterJAM.
In 2007 (Bloemendaal beach/Korver, Zandvoort) AmsterJAM was the proud host of the F.P.A. World Championships, with 115 competing athletes!

Going with the flow
Some years ago, it was decided to limit the entire AmsterJAM tournament schedule in order to spend more time JAMming together;
One round of pairs division and for the rest of the time JAM, JAM, JAM
A great move!!!

Hoping many more will follow,
AmsterJAAAAAAAAM
Iwan
O