So my first ever yoyo was a fireball back in like 2004. My grandma taught me the basic forward pass, walk the dog, eifel tower, etc “the classics”. Fast forward 2008, “Ned the yoyo man” visits my school and does an assembly. Has his own “Ned” branded yoyos so naturally my yoyo collector instinct kicked in and I had to have all 3 colors. 2 weeks after assembly school bans yoyos at recess because some kids got in a fight, so for a while I stopped throwing! 2010, Saw the “Ripley’s believe it or not”, episode with a young Evan Nagao and was blown away by string tricks and thought, “if this kid can do it surely I can too!”. Had my dad take me to local toys r us and got a pocket pros zombie which for some reason was unresponsive. As you would imagine this confused my developing brain which made me look to the holy texts, YouTube. I then found out about the bind which after learning cemented my addiction! Took a year off in highschool. Girls, first job, and general freedom had me pursuing some other “hobbies” at the time. Got back into throwing the summer I graduated HS, have not looked back! Out of all my interests yoyo has been with me the longest and I couldn’t be happier about it! This year I decided to rejoin the yye forum(had account before way back when but don’t remember the login bc I was a baby) and have been having an even better time seeing what all of you are throwing and thinking about the scene!
I love how people are just now realizing what demographic the majority of the forum is made up of.
I’ve been ranting incoherently about it for years 
I haven’t been ranting about it. But I also haven’t hidden what I thought about it.
Anyways I picked up a yoyo after Terraria added them.
As an incoherent ranting visionary, maybe a potential President candidate for the aforementioned Boomer Club?
VERY first contact was 3rd or 4th grade. 1999? Duncan dude came and did a freestyle at the school. I remember a catalog with the different throws we could get and i remember the bumblebee being the cool one to have. It wasn’t until 2006 when i actually got into yoyos and got a speed maker.
I lived in the Middle East in middle school and missed out on the yoyo boom in the 90s. I think in 2004 my friend had a Duncan butterfly and did a trapeze. I had never seen anything like it. I found a yomega xp brain in a store and learned all the tricks in the book that came with it. Yomega hand these online contests to get gift cards to their online store. I won the beginner contest a got a yomega hyper warp wing. I got a lot better and eventually found yoyoexpert and learned from Andre’s videos.
My introduction was in the 90’s boom. Some time in 1997 or 1998, I got my first yo-yo. An orange Duncan Imperial. By ‘99 I was starting to get some higher end throws, at least for the time. The three I remember (because I still have them) are a Henrys Viper, Custom Chain Reactor, and a Turbo Bumblebee GT. The fad died off in my area not long after and I moved on to other things. I just picked the hobby back up about a month ago after a break of over 20 years.
I know I had a few when I was little but I didn’t know they were capable of doing anything other than just going up and down.
But in 86 I really got into it. While visiting my great grandmother in a hospital, my mom gave me $8 and told me there was a toy store in the next door strip mall. I found a red professional Duncan and was instantly hooked. I played heavy until 92 and got back into it in 2020 during quarantine.
in elementary, a yomega salesman gave us all a presentation in the cafeteria and gave us a “world tour” and did picture tricks like jamaican flag and eiffel tower while also doing classics like walk the dog and shoot the moon. i was instantly hooked and begged my mom for money and she gave me some since my grades were good, i bought a red Spectrum and played with it nonstop for months when i got a pro z, fireball, and brain for christmas :). i eventually dropped it and rediscovered my old box a year or two ago (also filled with my poor maintainance attempts, i poured thin lube down my fireball so it can be more responsive lol) and ordered a fizz to restart my journey 
For Christmas if 2017, my uncle gave me a Butterfly XT. This would be my 2nd experience with a yoyo. My dad had found his OG Butterfly from when he was a kid, and let me play with it. The string was super knotted to the point it would just bounce on the string if I let it go, but that’s what I thought all a yoyo could do. Expecting the same from my XT, I put the premade loop on my pointer finger, and dropped it. Spoiler alert: it just spun at the end of the string. I thought it was broken, so shoved in a drawer and eventually forgot about it.
Fast forward to 2020, right after lockdown started. Online class had just ended, and as always, I was extremely bored. I could’ve played Mariokart on my Switch, or go outside and through my football at something. But instead I decide to dig through my drawer to see if there was anything interesting. And there it was: the orange Butterfly XT.
I just shrugged my shoulders and decided it would entertain me for 5 minutes. Again, I put the premade loop on my pointer finger, and let go. Again it didn’t come up. I tried climbing up on my loft bed, assuming that would do something to make it come up. It still didn’t. I was stumped.
Confused, I hopped on my family computer and searched “how to make a yoyo come up” while my mom cut the string to make it shorter for me. The first video was actually Yoyoexpert’s sleeper tutorial. After watching it through, I asked my mom for the yoyo, but she made one fatal error. She cut the string at the bottom and tied a knot around the bearing, which meant it couldn’t sleep. I was furious, because I thought adults always know everything, but then she came in and saved the day.
My mom had actually bought a cheap learn to yoyo set for my dad as a gag gift. Needless to say, my dad never used it, so it was collecting dust until I picked it up. Now I could start yoyoing, and here I am now.
TLDR: lockdown got me into yoyoing.
Man, what and awesome and wild time jump in your journey. From fixie axles to grooves bearings. Awesome
It was a real eye opener to see modern competition playing. I had no idea so many tricks were possible and how good they are made now. It’s been a lot of fun getting to play an collect the past few years. And the community is awesome.
Yup it’s amazing. so is this community. But what’s funny is, there is still SO many people, 99% of people i meet, have no idea yoyos have progressed passed the butterfly and rock the baby. Easy to blow people’s minds with a trick or just the technology in the yoyo itself.
When I was a kid… about 60 years ago, my older brother had a yo-yo. An old wooden Duncan. I picked it up a few times and my Mother kinda shouted at me, ‘Put down your brothers yo-yo before you break something’!
Life moved on.
About 35 years later(1998 thereabouts) I was riding one of my custom Harleys down the street and I noticed a kid on the sidewalk, throwing around a yo-yo. And down the street I rolled.
When I got home later, I start thinking about the yo-yos I never had. I made a few phone calls and found out there was a Store in Hollywood called GoldenApple Comics on Melrose. Comics, action figures, Skill toys, etc. and the thought passed…
A few weeks later, I was up in the area taking care of some Business and realized I was not far from GoldenApple. I decided to drop in and see what’s up?
As I stepped into the Store(straight ahead) I saw the rear view of a girl that was messing with a display case. She stepped back and almost stepped on my foot. Hello, what are you doing? She said they had just received these Came-Yo Mondial yo-yos and she put a few in the New arrival case.
How much? About $100 I think…
I’ll take one! She asked if I was a yo-yo player? I said no, I just never really had a yo-yo. And now that I am all grown up, I can afford to pay for anything I might break while tossing one around, lol.
She said there were many ore economical choices for newbies. I told her I wasn’t looking for a deal, just that yo-yo she put in the case. She walks away from me and goes behind the counter. Paging Big Bill to the front counter. Next thing you know, here comes this big guy in a big Hawaiian shirt and board shorts. She mumbles to him about the yo-yo and then he turns towards me and tells me that particular yo-yo is so new he hasn’t even tried it yet. Anodized aluminum alloy, click adjustable gap, ball bearing, made in Black Forest Germany and expensive.
He told me the yo-yo was sorta complicated and asked me if I was a mechanical kinda guy? I told him I was a mechanic, exotic car painter, Harley Customs builder and had a machine shop built right into my garage, lol. Uh, yes I’m sort of a tinkering kinda guy.
He wanted to show me less expensive options. I suggested I wasn’t on a budget and just wanted to buy the yo-yo before I got an expired meter parking violation.
And hour later I’m home and trying to throw a sleeper. My girl comes around the corner and says, ‘Big boy got a New toy’? Yes, dear. How much? $100 or so. She said, ‘You got a $100 yo-yo and that is all you can do… make it sleep’? Can you do any other tricks? I said yes, I think I can do another trick. I will take it to the Lab and see if I can make it spin any better.
Since I didn’t know beans about yo-yos, I honestly didn’t have the heart to start jacking up(potentially) a yo-yo, so I checked around and found some stores that had less expensive yo-yos to destroy in the process and getting more performance out of them.
After making up several ‘tweaked’ yo-yos, I started understanding what to and what not to do to make them ‘better’.
A few months later, my girl suggested I go up to GoldenApple and try to learn a trick or two? She said take those yo-yos you have been cutting up and see if any actual yo-yo players think they better than they were before you start doing things to them?
So… I put them in a paper bag and as I was leaving, she brought out a black leather looking purse. She said forget the bag. Put the yo-yos in here.
So, an hour later, I’m at the GoldenApple Store. They told me Bill was having small impromptu contest and teaching some tricks off to the side. So, I walked down the block and across the street. I stood on the edge of the festivities, looking for a few kids that seemed to know some tricks. I approached a small group and asked them a question. I said, ‘ I have a favor to ask. I have these yo-yos and I can’t plays for beans, lol. Can you guys throw around a few of these and tell me if they are any good?
They started messing with the yo-yos and were smiling and busting some tricks. Big Bill noticed the activity within his activities and swooped on over to see what was going on?
As he approached, one of the kids said, ‘Hey, Bill, you gotta try one of these yo-yos. They play better than some of the yo-yos you sell in the store’. Bill looked at me(thinking) and said, ‘Hey, you’re the guy that bought that Mondial. Where did you get these yo-yos’? Here and there I responded. And I altered them to see if I could improve them at all? But since I am no kinda player, I need somebody that actually knows tricks to tell me if I am heading in the right direction?
Big tossed around 3 or 4 of the modded yo-yos and said, ‘Well, I remember you telling me you are pretty handy at things. How you improved these yo-yos without really knowing how to yo-yo is impressive.
…. Then, he noticed the bag I was holding. To me, it looked like a black purse. But right about the same moment, Bill and I both realized it actually looked like a Country Doctors bag, lol.
Bill said, ‘What are you, some kind of Yoyodoctor’?
Un, I said, I guess I am😂
That is how the yo-yo Doctor handle started. I didn’t think of it. He did and it just kinda stuck.
Bill suggested I join the GoldenApple Team. And asked if I would become the resident Yo-yo Dr.?
Learn a few tricks, travel to Contests, help people fiddle with their yo-yos, etc.
I knew the instant I started messing with yo-yos, that I would always be messing with them. Never giving up… never fading out… never losing that spark of energy.
Several years ago, before both my parents died, I was visiting and they were both in the living room. My Mom was in her 80’s and my Dad was in his 90’s. They didn’t have the TV on because my Dad said there was nothing on, lol.
I stood in the very center of the room and started busting out some tricks. About 2 minutes worth is all I’m good for, lol. But for people that never really saw anybody do yo-yo tricks, anything can be somewhat impressive. The bearing was running dry and I had a neon yellow string and I was jamming right along. No mistakes, no knots, just rolling along like I knew something.
My parents just stared and smiled and didn’t say a word until I stopped my demo.
My Dad said, ‘Son, the next time you take me to the Hospital, I want you to show those Nurses and Doctors some tricks.
I turned to my Mom and simply said, ‘I know it’s only been around 60 years or so ago. But I still remember way back when you told me I was gonna break something with Mitch’s yo-yo. They both laughed.
My Dad said, ‘I’ve always thought of yo-yos as a kids toy. Something you mess with and then move on to other things. But you are in your late 60’s now and when you were showing us those tricks I think we felt like kids again, too. You look so happy tossing around that yo-yo. Maybe yo-yos can keep your mind young, I don’t know? Stick with things that make you happy’.
Thanks Pop…… No prompting needed in that department. I’ll be throwing for awhile, yet…
Not quite the end…
This is what I started with around 1984. Loved this toy when I was a kid 
I am always back in a roughly 10 year loop
- End 90s Henry’s was pretty big here
- Mid end 2000s already plenty “early moderns”
- Mid 2010s all lot to choose from
- Now nearly infinity amount of yo-yos and brands
Thank you for sharing that amazing story. Tweaker is a nickname that has been applied to me in my past because of my inability to leave things as they are. I was dismantling my toys as early as 5 years old. As soon as I figured out that the screwdriver was for removing screws I just had to know what made things work. This lead to a career of troubleshooting/ fault locating. I get nearly as much joy from modifying yo-yos as I do from throwing them. Double satisfaction. It’s obvious that the whole community has benefited from your journey. Again thanks for sharing and thanks for your contribution to the history of yo-yo.
• FIRST first yoyo was late 80’s clear Yomega Brain which I swapped for a Duncan at school.
• Early 90’s I kept throwing Midnight Specials and buying them at Toys R Us or drug stores. For years I could only do Sleeper, Forward Pass, and one Loop the Loop and was 100% cool w it.
• Summer 1998 was a camp counselor during the boom and got a purple Fireball to keep up with the camp kids and learned a few tricks. Interest faded around 2000 as the boom faded.
• Spring 2005 one of my school kids brought in a yoyo and I showed him some tricks I thought I remembered. Looked online and found Doc Pop and the yoyoguy & Extreme Spin forums. Have played every day since.
First yoyo was a Green Duncan Hyper Imperial. This was maybe 97-98. After that I got my hands on a gold Yomega Firestorm, and that changed everything.
I eventually had a nice 90s yoyo collection which included a Renegade, Turbo Bumble Bee, Custom Mag, and even a Henry Viper.
I dont remember when I stopped playing the first time. It was probably halfway through high school, so '00-'01.
I picked up again during a deployment to Iraq in 2011. In order to kill some down time I got back into the hobby. Unreponsive was a new concept to me so I decided to learn. I ordered a YYF Northstar and a YoYoJam Eneme. Unresponsive, while super cool, didn’t sppeal to me so I stopped playing until summer '22. Im more of a collector now and i prefer to play responsive and fixies. 150+ throws and counting. I still dabble with 1a and 5a a bit.
YoYo Mall Carts were awrsome. So many great memories.