I know nowadays we can battle with videos online which is very cool.
Back in the nineties boom, I remember pulling out my Duncan Butterfly in the bathroom and my opponent pulled out his glow in the dark Fireball.
A few other kids were in the bathroom watching. One trick, best trick wins. I remember my opponent going first. He did brain twister. The audience loved it.
I pulled off split the atom, which I had been practicing for about 6 months. I was the yoyo king in middle school after that. I quickly upgraded to a Spintastics Tornado 2 from the infinite illusions catalogue I got in the mail.
Funny enough we did have a mini yoyo boom on our elementary school back in early 2000’s and thus it had a yoyo battle during recess. we only had bootleg yoyos worth under a buck and showing off some tricks like winding up a yoyo using our bare foot, releasing the dog (basically walk the dog but removing the knot) and other basic stuff.
the yoyo sales from our flea market has skyrocketed because at that time blazing teens was aired on local tv and theres a lot of hype going on, until one day our teachers confiscated our yoyo because it creates a distraction from our classes and the hype died few days later.
maybe once in high school in 98. i was the first kid roaming the halls in 96 with a yoyo. then i’d see another one, and another one, until by 98 kids with no skill were throwing everywhere and hurting bystanders getting yoyos banned, when they couldn’t bite my style with forward passes and around the world walking the halls. Weird thing was i didn’t really know any of them , i was too weird and unpopular. A couple friends that were into the fad put them away soon after walk the dog got boring. I was the only kid that wanted to go further with it, and I had more tricks than anyone at the time. pretty sure in my electronics class senior year ( spring 98) someone was bragging about rocking the baby. he botched his throw a bit and did the trick but didn’t complete it ( didn’t wind all the way back to his hand. ) I showed him something like split bottom front style barrel rolls to brain twister and into rock the baby on the trapeze in a combo, and then returned it to my hand. no one ever attempted to challenge me again. And it didn’t make me any new friends. been completely solo on the yoyo front since then actually.
