
F! Archive: The True Art of Freestyle
This article written by Mark Emmoth in 2002 is one of the more “academic” articles ever published on F!, and we’re glad to be able to drag it out of the archives.
Back in the early days of the internet, Lillis Åkesson took the INFFS newsletter online and turned it into F! Magazine. For a long time, that was the only real source of freestyle-related news and articles in the world.
Gradually, we’re working through the archives of the F! Magazine and reuploading them here. Unfortunately, most of the original photos were lost; if you were present at any of the events mentioned in these historic articles – or if you provided the articles themselves! – and have photos that would be perfect for inclusion, please get in touch and let us know. We’d love to publish them for a new generation to see.
This article written by Mark Emmoth in 2002 is one of the more “academic” articles ever published on F!, and we’re glad to be able to drag it out of the archives.
While this article was originally posted 18th February 2011, this now marks fourteen years to the day since Bob Staton left us; without what Bob did alongside Lillis in the 90s and early 2000s, freestyle probably wouldn’t be here today.
Even in the mid-2000s, Tony Gale had strong thoughts on these things. He hasn’t changed much.
A lot of the F! Archive consists of “Thinkpieces” from Lillis, who, as the webmaster and founder of F!, often used it as a personal blog of sorts – making them unique little snippets of freestyle in the early 2000s .
It only seems right to start off the F! Archive with the earliest post we could find, covering the very first freestyle contest of this century. This is where the “freestyle revival” began – none of us would be here without this event.
For a long time, the original F! Magazine was the only real source of freestyle-related news and articles in the world – and we’re dragging some of those historical articles out to republish them here for posterity.