All I’m proud to present up next our very own @Albertino! An amazingly talented player who was just recently sponsored by YoYoFriends!
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What got you into throwing, how did you find the hobby?
Many years ago (don’t remember exactly how many), I broke both bones in my right leg jumping from a roof with my rollerblades. I had 6 months ahead of me wearing a cast and nothing else to do. One of my dearest friend randomly showed me a video of Hiroyuki Suzuki at Worlds saying “omg this is so cool” and I actually thought it seemed very fun, he never started yoyoing but I did. Another friend of mine had some very old Fast201 and he borrowed me one. I started to try some tricks just following my instict like trapeze but the yoyo was very responsive (I didnt even knew the difference between responsive and unresponsive at time) so I went online for info and found the Italian yoyo forum community. Bought my first Velocity (that I still have) and from then I never stopped!
If you could only have one yo-yo for the rest of your life what would it be?
Very hard question, I have so many yoyos that I really love and every now and then the choice change depending how evolve my playing. For now I can say the Overclock by Yoyofriends is the most complete and versatile yoyo that I own.
What trick are you working on currently and what is your all time favorite trick?
At the moment I am working on several tricks as I love to create combos all the time and trying to evolve a bit my style also for competition, I can say lot of zoning is going on on my practicing time nowadays. More than my favourite trick I can tell you my favourite type of tricks which are slacks, man I do love to see that string flying everywhere and also seeing the slacks coming out of nowhere is such a satisfaction, with slacks you can really make some creative crazy stuff.
What’s the most meaningful yoyo you have in your collection?
Good question, also because I am one of the worst collectors ever, I think I have not even 30 yoyos at the moment but I think I have 2 that will never leave my case:
One is the Unprld - SU1, wanted one from aaaaaages and my girlfriend gifted it to me for Xmas, I was super excited when I get it, she is always a big supporter of my hobbies and I am very thankful for that.
The other one is my first yoyo the YYF - Velocity, man so many good memories with that yoyo, screaming from happiness when I closed my first “follow” or scream with rage when I had issues learning “white Buddha”, get excited when one of my friends randomly bind and in general I have so much sweat on that yoyo and basically every person I know throwed it at least once (usually dingint it lmao).
I used it for basically a year as my only yoyo and is completely full of dings and scuff but it still work and has a special place on my heart.
I wanted also to add the x-convict which I used for 2 years in a row without have anything else, back then that yoyo with the shimmers was a must
What’s kind of things are you into outside of yo-yos?
I do love to practice Wing Chun Kung fu and in general Kung fu always fascinated me. I am well into comics (mostly noir), movies and I have been a classical guitarist for ages, sadly I had to stop with guitar when I got a disease that has no cure (but still allow me to yoyo luckily). When I got sick I passed 2 years without use my right hand and when I healed and discovered my career in guitar was destroyed I decided to put my creativity into yoyo, open instagram, subscribe to the forum and be an active member of the community (I basically always been a player that play for and by “himself”).
Other than that, I always been into exteme sports with my brother, I did aggressive inline for most of my life but always been a fan also of skateboarding and any sort of those sports.
What’s your favorite restaurants and order?
Maaaaan, now I gonna be a total stereotype but I am Italian and for me a pizza Margherita is unbeatable.
If I have to choose I would say that: pizza, lasagna and pasta with tomato sauce are my favourite things ever but I also really do love a fried chicken. Non Italian I do love Chinese food and some English traditional stuff, I do have a soft spot for UK, I am 10 years in this country now and is a second home.
Favorite movie or TV show?
Not in a particular order I can say: Whiplash, Amici miei, Stand by me, The Virgin Suicides, Hero (with Jet Li), Control, Dogtooth are some of my favourite movies ever, just to say a couple but I think I can have a veeeery long list.
Tv series, I enjoyed Breaking bad a lot, Batman Adventure and couple of English show like Peep show which I rewatch every winter, is just brilliant and also People just do nothing.
If there was one song that you say fits your mood and personality perfectly, what it be?
Hard to say, humans have a very wide range of emotions and moods so is very hard to choose only one but I think Inverno Porteno by Piazzolla transcribed for classical guitar is one of the pieces that touched me the most and made me feel home in a weird way. Other than that I think pretty much all the Italian punk hardcore represent some sides of me quite well and many skramz band like Suis la lune or La Quiete.
Link To Song
What’s your best yo-yo memory?
When I discovered on the italian forum there was a guy in my same city that played yoyo, he was so much better than me as I just started and when we met he blew up my mind showing me all the tricks and he had quite a yoyo collection, thanks to him I advanced quite quickly as he taught me a lot and I had the chance to try lot of different yoyos. I remember that day I went back home mind blowed and excited as never been in my life.
I know you will not read this but Gianluca I miss you man, come back to play!
What’s your yoyo bad habit?
I have so many of those bad habits, man I already feel the shame on writing this.
I am absolutely awful on taking care of the yoyos, I use the same string until it explode even for months (I play around 3/4 hours a day sometimes more during weekends so you can imagine the state of that string), I keep using strings with knots and dont unknot them, bearing crunchy like a old wheel, pads worn until the very end and them pop out the seat, I ding my yoyos like a madman, couple of times I arrive at the point to throw a yoyo in the bin cause it became unplayable.
I really need to build some skills on maintenance.
If you could wake up tomorrow and have any skill set form another player what would it be?
Eheheh Daniel Kim or Junsang Park, those guys are damn geniuses, flow for days, amazing looking tricks and highly creative, I just love every single element they do.
I can’t steal their skills but I can get inspired by them which is great!
If you never found yo-yo what would you be doing instead?
Hard to say, probably just kung fu, my disease with guitar was inevitable so that will happen anyway so I think at this point I will be over obsessed with kung fu in general but luckily I have the yoyo in my life, it does really fill my days with greatness from so many years.
Advice/ words of wisdom to new players?
Simply have fun, practice a lot and don’t get too stuck in a toxic relationship with the yoyo as it will bring you only to burnouts and leave the hobby, if you want results them will come for sure with time but having fun along the way will make them become reality even more soon.
Find yourself and what you want to do with this toy and then evolve, exchange your expectations, grow up, make lot of dear friends along the way and enjoy it.
There is not a right way to enjoy this hobby there is only your own way, this community is one of the nicest ever so if you have the chance go to meetings and contest and speak with as many people as you can, is always refreshing to meet other players.
If one day you feel tired and don’ t feel like playing don’t force yourself, rest and pick the yoyo when you are ready it will be there waiting for you!
What you want to tell the world?
“A little kindness goes a long way”, I don’ t remember where I read or heard this but it got stuck in my head and is a sort of mantra that I like to bring around, for how much is possible I like to treat people as I would like to be treated. This is a big, busy and noisy world and if we have been a bit more patient and kind each other I am sure we were able to avoid so many bad stuff.
Another thing is to be open to everything, variety is what makes life interesting so get interested to people, food, cultures, hobbies, tools and everything that you see around cause it can make you very rich and able to empathise with everyone and many different situations
I hope you enjoy everyone @Albertino thank you, and as always I enjoy our conversations!
