I’m a little biased as I’m a big Jake Bullock fan, however this is a great profile and I’m really excited to share it with you all - hope you enjoy!!
What got you into throwing, how did you find the hobby?
I yoyoed during the late 90s boom like every other kid at the time, with a Duncan Butterfly and Yomega Fireball, but it didn’t stick. In 2003 my friend Randy Shreeves introduced me to a toy called Astrojax which we both got really into. Astrojax had a messageboard on their website which allowed users to upload photos of themselves playing with Astrojax. I found a user named DJReaxion (Brian Cosky) who had a bunch of photos of himself yoyoing on his profile. He was using YoYoJam yoyos with metal rims and they looked so cool to me, so I messaged him and he pointed me to Dave’s Skilltoys. I got myself my first ball bearing yoyo, a Duncan Throwmonkey. The first thing I remember doing is throwing the yoyo down and walking into the bathroom to pee. The yoyo kept sleeping the entire duration of my urination, and I was so stoked on that. 
Brian Cosky and I ended up being on Team Anti-Yo together a couple years later, and he remains a great friend to this day. I owe him a lot.
How did you come about creating your own yo-yo company?
I was sponsored by Anti-Yo during my “prime”, and after placing 2nd at Worlds and winning a few smaller contests, we began to discuss a signature yoyo. I wanted a delrin version of the Bapezilla, and I wanted to call it the Jakezilla. Long story short, I was young and impatient, ended up leaving Anti-Yo, and the Jakezilla never happened. Pretty soon after I started dealing with a serious opiate addiction and yoyoing took a backseat to everything else going on in my life. I never stopped yoyoing everyday, but I stopped competing and interacting with the community. That lasted basically 2010-2016. When Worlds came around to Cleveland in 2016 I decided to drive out and catch up with everyone. It reignited my passion for the yoyo community, and I started talking to old yoyo friends more regularly. By 2019 Worlds I was fully back in, and after that contest I decided to start a yoyo instagram (@jakebullockyoyo) to share my old and new tricks with a new generation of yoyoers who weren’t necessarily familiar with me. The reaction blew me away, and one day I texted Tyler Severance and asked if he could help me finally make myself a signature yoyo. He hooked me up with CJ and a factory and the rest is history. Basically, it was a dream of mine from the time I started yoyoing, it just took 16 years for it to finally happen.
If you could only have one yo-yo for the rest of your life what would it be?
Very difficult question. Probably the Slappa/SlappaSS. It’s very comfortable for me to use, and very capable for both 1A and 5A.
What trick are you working on currently and what is your all time favorite trick?
My favorite trick is double or nothing. I guess nowadays that is just a mount and not a trick. I think there are endless possibilities for amazing tricks from double or nothing and I never get bored of finding new things to do from it.
As far as real tricks, I appreciate all of the classics that Spencer Berry and Paul Escolar created. I could never pick a favorite. I like “old school” yoyo tricks that have a clear beginning, middle, and end. They feel most pure and interesting to me.
Currently I’m working on 1A slacks that wrapped around different fingers multiple times, so that you can unwrap them in different ways. It’s visually appealing and fun to do. Andrew Bergen told me “yoyoers love when it happens twice”. So if I can make a slack wrap or spin around an extra time, it always makes the trick cooler to watch.
What’s the most meaningful yoyo you have?
Probably the YoYoJam Master Hot Stamper gifted to me by Tyler Severance. It belonged to his brother Danny who was a good friend who is no longer with us. It’s a very rare yoyo with an interesting backstory, and the fact that it was Danny’s makes it even more special.
My friend and old Anti-Yo teammate Kevin (Field Medic on Spotify, check out his music) also gifted me his Hspin Good & Evil which really meant a lot to me. It was my first aluminum yoyo back in 2004, I lost or sold it somewhere over the years, so Kevin gave me his.
What’s kind of things are you into outside of yo-yos?
I’m a chronic hobbyist and at any given time I am obsessed with something new. Sometimes the hobby comes and goes, other times it sticks around forever (like yoyoing).
Some that have stuck over the years: fly fishing, disc golf, playing guitar, aquarium keeping, cooking/baking, drawing and painting.
What’s your favorite restaurants and order?
I used to be a super foodie guy and spent a lot of time and money eating at nice restaurants but the past few years I’ve sorta grown out of that. I like crab rangoons, burgers, Indian food, and I believe the cheesesteaks I make at home are on par or better than any cheesesteak you can buy in the world. If I had to pick a favorite place to eat right now I’d probably say La Placita Mexico in Allentown, PA.
Favorite movie or band?
My go to answer for favorite movie is Freddy Got Fingered. But in reality it changes all the time. I really enjoy all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies, and I’m not sure I could pick just one. My favorite film in recent memory is Banshees of Inisherin.
My go to answer for band is the Melvins. I have a weird relationship with music, for me to really appreciate listening to an artist I need to learn as much as I can about them as people. It makes it harder for me to consume new music because I have to put in the time to learn about the artist before really digging in. But I truly like all kinds of music. Lately i’ve been listening to country from the 50s/60s, Jay Reatard, and pop punk from the early 2000s. I also have an obsession with the band Nirvana that goes back to childhood, i have read dozens of books about them and consumed basically all the content I could find surrounding the band.
What’s your best yo-yo memory?
There are so many and I have a bad memory. One that sticks out is eating Taco Bell with Jonrob at Nationals 2007, then walking back to the venue right as we were announced Trick Innovators of the Year. It was a prestigious award back then, it was a surprise, and we almost missed it because we were discussing how much we miss the green onions on the Nachos Bell Grande.
What’s your yoyo bad habit?
I have no go-to string length and I never have. It’s a crap shoot based on my mood every time I cut a new string to length. I have attempted to figure out lengths in the past but I’ve never been able to stick to anything. It really annoys me and I hate changing string. I also don’t mess with pads or bearings ever. I use whatever bearing until it breaks and then replace it with konkave bearings i buy in bulk from China, and i have never changed pads (unless they tear or out something crazy).
How do you feel throwing allows expression?
Just go back and watch early Spindox/Sector Y clip videos. Every player back then had a completely unique style. There used to be regional styles too. Brazilians, Russians, Poles, Japanese, Americans all yoyoed with completely different styles. Everything has become a lot more homogenized with social media and modern competition, for better or worse. But you can still find players with completely unique styles. That’s my favorite part about yoyoing. Everyone can do Rancid Milk but not a single person on the planet can do it like Spencer, except for Spencer. No one can yoyo like Yuuki Spencer or Jesse Garcia. People have gotten close, but their styles are still wholly unique and personal to them. It’s so interesting to me how you can take the most basic trick or mount, and have 10 people do it, and they each do it a little differently. It’s endlessly fascinating and beautiful to me.
If you couldn’t yo-yo what would you be doing?
I really have no idea. It sounds silly but I don’t think there’s a world where I don’t find yoyoing and become obsessed with it. It is the perfect hobby for me, I cannot imagine anything better, and it checks every box of what I look for in something to stimulate my brain and have fun with.
Being a part of the yoyo community has benefitted my life in every way possible, mentally, socially, financially. It allowed me to travel out of my small town at a young age and meet people I would have never had the chance to interact with. It’s provided the majority of my oldest friends. The Dunk project helped me get a place to live. And even if none of that existed, the personal satisfaction and joy yoyoing has brought me and continues to provide would be more than enough.
Advice/ words of wisdom to new players?
Watch some old yoyo videos, like 2000-2009 era. I know the video quality is trash but there are lots of amazing forgotten tricks to be learned. I’m a firm believer that researching the history and background of any hobby will help you appreciate it more.
What you want to tell the world?
The world needs to be nicer to each other but that will never happen. As far as the yoyo world, try to remember that it’s not all about clicks. You can get immense personal satisfaction, and even the respect of the community, without ever competing in a yoyo contest. I’m not knocking competition, but there is so much more to yoyoing. For me, competition has always just been the excuse for all of us to get together and share tricks and hang out. It’s fun to watch and exciting, but it’s not really pushing creativity very much anymore. The best stuff is happening off stage .