Currently available sweet, floaty yoyos?

Yo-Yo Reviews Looking for Help/Recommendation
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Hey all. I’m pretty new here - I’ve been yo-yoing for a few months, gotten into the YYE “advanced” trick list finally. And you all have gotten me and I have acquired far too many yoyos already, and loving it. I think I’m starting to get a sense for my taste, and I think what I want is to find a sweet, floaty organic yoyo. (But I’m not totally sure, because I’m still not sure I know what all these words mean.)

I’m coming to yo-yoing from a background in fly-fishing, and I’m quickly discovering that there’s way more crossover in skill than I thought, and I think I have quickly developed a very similar taste in yoyos as I do in fly rods. I don’t like the fly rods that dampen what you do and blast out power; I like the super nimble and almost overreactive ones that exaggerate what you do - hard to control at first, but which give you tons of precise control once you get the hang of them. And I like it when they have lots of feel.

So I sold my least favorite couple of fly rods and have been converting those funds into yoyos on BST, and enjoying the hell out of exploring. (A fly rod = a lot of yoyos, it turns out.) So far, my absolute favorite yoyos are the Grasshopper GSX original (feels precise, nimble, very responsive, like a scalpel), the Free Solo (feels sweet and controllable and a bit more stable) and the Panorama, which is just pure delight. My least favorite yoyo, in terms of feel, is the Pheasant Monometal. It’s super powerful, super-stable, and obviously highly competent, and often what I’m using to learn tricks, but as soon as I learn a trick on it I immediately move to one of the others, which I enjoy way more. And once I can get a trick on the other stuff, I immediately switch to trying it on the Pano, because yo-yoing on that thing feels maximally lovely. I love how reactive it is, how sweet it feels, how much focus it asks for.

I think what I want is a sweet, floaty organic yoyo. I don’t know if I really understand what “floaty” means, but I there’s a kind of relaxed hanging, sweet-cornering, deeply non-chunky feeling in the Pano, that I also find in my plastic 000. I’m guessing from reading this forum that what I want is something in the space of the Grail/Creep/Bathysphere, but those are hard to find. So: any recommendations from what’s more readily available? My possibles list includes:

OD Wizard
Mowl Obsession
RSO Show Pony
Something Atmos?
Or maybe something non-organic? Like is the Kamuraiju like this? An Otter or Boy?

So far I have picked up the Kappa, which I really like, but doesn’t feel floaty to me. It feels a little more performer-powerful-thunky? I really like it - it’s maybe the most natural to use - but I crave something more like the Pano, but bigger. And I picked up a Koi and… I just can’t seem to get along with it. It’s chill and vey stable and easy to use, but it feels just… slow and non-reactive to me.

Suggestions? Thanks!

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if you have enough, the bowl 303 is floaty af, and while not organic, the od wyvern is very floaty

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I saw the Bowl 303 and decided that… I shouldn’t spend that much money on one yoyo until much, much later in the game.

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Get a wizard

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In hindsight, I wish I was less afraid of buying an expensive yoyo and more afraid of buying too many less expensive ones.

Another piece of advice most people wish they could follow courtesy of Justin Dauer: Focus on your yoyoing, not your yoyo.

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IMO, the Kamuraiju, Otter and Boy are probably not going to be the best fits.

Personally, I think the Show Pony would be a better choice than the Wizard.

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I think the Reboot also qualifies. Wizard is a larger yoyo and heard its pretty floaty but it wont be like the bathysphere if thats what you’re going for.

Im pretty sure there might be some bathysphere as well as the creep on the bst if you look around.

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Absolutely the most true thing I’ve ever read on YYE. When I look back on years of purchases and hundreds of throws later… I wish I would’ve regulated funds to a few higher quality, more expensive throws, rather than several “inexpensive” ones. Like… I would stupidly shy away from buying $200 throws, but buy 4 $50 throws in like a week without blinking. And then I’d buy the $200 throw later on and wonder why I even bought the 4 $50 throws.

Quality over quantity OP.

PS… the Bowl 303 is one of my favorite organics I’ve ever played. And I have pretty much all the classic organics - it’s a banger, I say just go for it.

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understandable

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I would say that if the only thing keeping you from buying a yo-yo that otherwise checks every box is price (and if you have the money), you should just buy it.

That said, I haven’t found a strong correlation between price and the enjoyability of a yo-yo.

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But are we chucking streamers, double nymphing, hopper dropper, blending in with a sweet sweet PMD hatch?

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Markmont Classic.

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I went thru a “ima buy a bunch of od yoyos to see what i like and whats floaty like in da markmont videos” last year and ended up buying a few mmc mcmos lol… dont even throw em outside cuz it would be a shame to ding em so i edc a reboot with brass ULs. Reboots are pretty cheap and od been rereleasing brass se recently.

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The Fat Tire 20/20 is nice and floaty.

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I can see how this advice makes sense, but also, y’all are at a very different stage of the game. Like, you folks know what you like. I’m just in the opening stage of exploring and having a grand time trying out totally different yoyos and enjoying the hell out of how different they are and discovering what I like.

I figured out pretty quickly that the $50-$70 range of yoyo was massively better than then $30 range. But right now, the Bowl 303 would take out the rest of my sold-off gear slush fund. And I’d rather get like 5 midrange yoyos and explore and find out how different they are than have one. I can always sell 'em off later once I figure out what I like.

Also - @SR1 - thanks for all your posts. You’re a goldmine. I think my tastes are pretty aligned with yours. Both the things I got because of your past posts - the Free Solo and the Pano - both immediately became insta-faves that give me pleasure every time I throw 'em.

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Awesome to hear and glad to help! And good point about being at different stages, you’re not wrong.

That said, check out @suspense’s recommendation, the Markmont Classic (or MCMO). It is probably like… the most widely considered “best” organic monometal. Nice and floaty (with UL SE’s) and more stable than the Grail (also considered one of the best organics, but just isn’t as stable as the MC). Creep is a favorite but lacks spin power compared to the MC/MCMO.

If you’re willing to look at some bimetals, the General Yo Hatrick 2 is hands down the best midsize bimetal organic yoyo I’ve ever tried.

Someone also said Reboot, if you didn’t like how slow the Koi felt, this thing will absolutely ZIP through anything - it’s super light and feels great.

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I’ll do it all when the situation calls for it but I live for the tricky dry fly action.

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Same my friend! I just started winter fly fishing for the first time…it’s been interesting. But fun. But cold. First pic was a hog (for me) on a red wire worm, bottom pic was an exercise in futility. Heh.

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MCMO is a solid recommendation

You will also want to check out atmos project and their line of fantastical organics!! My current everyday carry is Pomodoro. A bit more on the floaty side would be Noah or Abel.

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Atmos Noah
Markmont MCMO
RSO Bowl 303
Static Co Wave
One drop diorama and panorama

All good feels.

Kappa is a performance organic. It likes to move.

Should look to pickup a MK1 Contact or possibly this new Tangent if you like delrin. For organic and good. Havent tried the tangent or bathysphere yet.

RSO Tiramisu 2 or derti for expensive float feels.

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