Duncan showed up to our elementary school for a demonstration back in the early/mid 90s. I think I was in 3rd grade? We were all so enamored and had to have a yoyo!
Of course, I road my bike home that day and said “I need yoyo money!” My frugal father had other plans, though. He gifted me his old purple Duncan Imperial from his childhood, and that was the beginning.
Next day at school, everyone had a yoyo! We spent every recess learning new tricks out of booklets from string packets and anywhere else we could find 'em. It was recently recanted to me by a longtime friend that I was apparently the trick tutor to most of my peers (I surely don’t recall this myself).
Didn’t take long before I was saving my lawn mowning moneys for trips to the local science shop in Downtown Melbourne to acquire more yoyos. Most memorably was my first ball bearing yoyo, the Spintastics Terminator Tornado. I definitely felt like one of the coolest kids in school with that throw.
Unfortunately, Dad’s old imperial was lost to time. Don’t remember if it was lost, broken, or given away. However, I do still have that Tornado and even my old X-Brain!
That Tornado got played daily until sometime in Jr. High. Not sure what happened, but one day it landed in a drawer and there it sat for many years. After high school, it got boxed up and moved with me mutliple times.
Fast forward to 2016, I was ready to revisit this beloved past time from my youth. The bearing in that Tornado had morphed into a block of rust, so I picked up a Fireball from Amazon. Deterred by the “high price” of modern yoyos like the Shutter, haha, can you imagine? I used that Fireball daily to replace my smoking habit. After 16 years of cigarette addiction, and several previously failed attempts at quitting, yoyo broke the cycle.
A few more years later and it was 2020, yoyo boom 2 electric plague-a-loo was in full swing! I finally gave in to the allure of the modern unresponsive and picked up a Recess Snack from the A2Z Science Center.
Next thing I knew I was learning new tricks, picking up all sorts of different shapes of yoyos made in different materials, and getting involved in the community. It was all such a rush! The community quickly became incredibly important for me, as I was finally abandoning my barfly lifestyle. The pandemic shutdown made it easy to quit going out 5+ nights a week, but I hadn’t been prepared to lose the majority of my “friend” circle when I quit drinking nightly. Fortunately, yoyo was there for me again!
About a year or so after picking up the Snack, I was invited to help QC a Mk1 Yoyos production run: the Contact. Mark invited my wife and I into his home and taught us the ways of the boutique yoyo business! We had such a blast inspecting and packaging those yoyos. The whole drive home, all we could talk about was how much we enjoyed the experience. I immediately dug into his design tutroials and started researching as many resources as I could gather.
Then in 2022, we launched Turner Return Tops! And now, another year later, we are preparing our 3rd production release. Funneling our profits into the community to sponsor events and organize our local yoyo club, alongside building our team of sponsored players have both been so fulfilling. Everytime I get a message from someone telling me how much they enjoy our yoyos I feel validation, accomplishment, and so much joy!
We couldn’t have done it without YOU, the wonderful yoyo community. And I absolutely would not be the human I am today without yoyo. Thank you everyone. Thank you for your friendship, support, kindness, and shared love of this grand hobby!!!