At the same time, I actually do think that walk the dog is one of the hardest tricks for yoyoers of this era to do. I understand why people are reluctant to walk the dog with their expensive metal yoyo on concrete. But I also think it’s really interesting to think about that self-imposed restriction relative to what yoyoing is for me.
Walk the dog is hands down the trick I most often get asked to perform when I yoyo in public. And I yoyo in public quite a bit. Just yesterday I was yoyoing (with a Code2) while waiting with some friends outside of a restaurant for a table. It’s a restaurant in a location with a lot of foot traffic, and 3 different people asked me if I could walk the dog after watching me do some much more complicated 5a tricks. 3 times I obliged with a smile, and in one of those cases it seemed pretty clear to me that the fellow who had asked (a man in his 70s) was pretty stoked to see it. Afterward he and I chatted for 10 minutes or so about his remembering how big yoyoing used to be, the Smother’s Brothers, and some of the things that have been lost for kids in the shift to video games and such. It would have been a very different encounter had I said, “Uh, no. This yoyo is way too fancy and expensive. And didn’t you just see the insane tricks I was doing? Of course I could walk the dog, but I wont.” If I were him, despite the (lame sounding) explanation, the net effect would have looked pretty similar to, “No. I can’t do that trick.”
But beyond what strangers think, and how saying “no” might represent the broader community, I just don’t want to live my life worried about keeping things mint, or limit my actions and enjoyment of this wonderful hobby based on the monetary value of the yoyo. And actually, prioritizing monetary value seems to me to limit the broader value of yoyoing rather dramatically, which for me is about self-expression and unadulterated enjoyment. This isn’t a slight on collectors – I can totally dig a person having a collection of yoyos they display and don’t play outdoors, and I’m sure it adds value to their lives. But I want to play with my yoyos in the way I want to live my life, which has very little to do with protecting the monetary value of the things I own and a lot to do with being happy and, hopefully, cultivating a little bit of happiness in the world.
you are very right. i guess it doesnt scratch them that much and probably if you have a fancy metal yoyo you have at least two other ones. i hadn’t thought about it like that.
On top of that walking the dog and not having it veering off to one side or another is kinda’ hard. I think a lot less people can really do the trick, even though they think they can.
