I started because it was a HUGE fad in 4th grade, and I loved it ;D
I started by throwing the yoyo DOWN, then pulling it back up.
But, more serious, I needed something else to do that didn’t involve pro audio, was light, portable and theoretically cheap.
The cheap thing didn’t work out. The rest did.
I began playing with a yoyo in middle school after I got a Firestorm in a happy meal or something. Then much later after I got out of the Marines I was going through my old stuff that my parents boxed up and found that very yoyo. I didn’t have a job, and thus I needed something to occupy my mind as sitting at home left me feeling stir-crazy. I got on the internet, found this site, and here I am.
~pN
My dad showed me how to walk the dog and rock the baby when I was about 11. In my area, yoyos might as well have not existed. I didn’t even know those tricks were possible and I’d never seen anyone use a yoyo in real life. Anyway, I picked those up in a few days and bought a Fireball, took it to school and people were amazed. After that yoyos really took off for a month or two.
I kept playing responsive occasionally, mostly looping stuff, but it took about 15 more years for me to get serious about it like I am now.
My first experience was in '89, when Coke ran a huge promotion in the UK - full on travelling experts, contests in every town. Check out this video of what things were like back then - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbviSr-vLqw I was 16 and just finished school and spent the entire summer following these guys around, anywhere they had a demo within biking distance I was there. I actually still have those original Coke yo-yos (made by Russell I believe), including the gold one that you had to win.
Fast forward to 1998, I’ve moved to the USA and working phone support for an internet company. Phone support is incredibly boring as long as you’re tech savvy and you pretty much go onto autopilot. A co-worker had a yo-yo one day, and was friends with Jennifer Baybrook (he built her first website). I started throwing again and picked up a Team Losi Da Bomb that had just been released! I spent hours on the phone, learning new stuff (while sitting down). I started hanging around on yo-yo sites (yoyoing.com and Dave’s site before it became Skilltoys) and became friends with Dave and Tom Van Dan Elzen. Through those friendships I came to build a website for Proyo/Playmaxx and then Dave approached me about building a store for him. Over the next 10 years we built and improved Skilltoys.com and the Skilltoys.net forum and I’m very proud of everything we accomplished.
Towards the end of Skilltoys.com Dave asked me if I could build him a new site - a site where he could catalog his collection and make it available for the public to see. That site became http://www.yoyomuseum.com and it lives on today (albeit very out of date).
After Skilltoys.com closed I pretty much stopped yo-yoing, occasionally picking one up. Then last week I was moving some stuff around in my office and found a nice white wooden box - the Freehand Mg that Dave gave me when we closed Skilltoys. I searched around a bit more and found my aluminum yo-yo case. I sold off most of my high-end collectibles a while ago, but in this case I found some real treasures - YYJ Spinfaktor (original), a Dif-e-yo Sportster, a first run YYF 888, original Dark Magic, original Hitman, the Buzz-On Element X that I always used in competitions (Sport Ladder and proud of it!), and those Coke Russells that started it all many years ago.
And now I’m back. We’ll see for how long 
Thats a great video. Its cheesy but I just love those old coke yoyos.
I’ve yoyoed on and off most of my life but have never gotten to a very high skill level.
I started in 3rd or 4th grade with a yomega, I forget what it was called but it was basically a fireball without the caps, then moved on to a fireball. It was a fad then and died out pretty quick but I still love the fireballs, raiders and brains because of that. They were the big brand where I was at that time so I have major nostalgia for them.
I threw in high school for a bit and now I’m getting back into it some more.
I feel like its one of those things everybody does at some point. Its one of those generic toys thats fun and has been around forever (at least compared to my life time) like the skateboard.
I saw the Smothers Brothers when I was 8 and was pretty hooked. Slowly got better, then started losing interest around 2008 and quit for a while in 2009. Now I’m back and better than ever.
was bored and ended up stumbling upon my dads original Duncan butterfly, simply progressed from there as I slowly found out about modern yoyoing
It all started one cool Wednesday night. It was after church and all of us kids where running around. My friend had brought his yoyo with him(I have no idea what kind, he had spray painted it orange so i couldn’t see what it was). He showed me tricks such as elevator, walk the dog, and rock the baby, your basic stuff. A few days later i decided to try yoyoing. I knew i had an old blue yoyo i got for christmas a long time ago and was hoping I had’t thrown it out. Lucky for me, I hadn’t.
I got it out and threw it a few times. The string had at least three nots in it so I was gonna look up how to get rid of them. Eventually my eyes wandered to the brand on the yoyo. Now remember, I knew nothing about yoyos. The yoyo said Duncan and then it said imperial. "Hmm." I thought to myself, "I wonder if I should look up duncan or imperial." I ended up looking up duncan and found their website. After browsing and watching the tutorials, I saw a yoyo that looked "cool". Turns out it was the Flying Squirrel. So I ordered one, got it in the mail and was super impressed with it.
Now, months later, I am doing pretty well and have found one of the most fun hobbies ever in my opinion.
A friend brought some back from a user conference and we started throwing at work. I promptly broke mine and I wandered on to Duncan’s website. I watched some videos, learned about the 5 styles and then the seed was planted. That was 6 months ago and I’m still loving it.
Work is the best place to yo-yo! When I was doing website work for Playmaxx I had Tom VDE make me a bunch of Profires with my employer’s logo on and gave one to everyone around Xmas time. Those brass transaxles make a lot of noise when the lube runs out
wow that video ^ there Posted by: Chimera … is awesome … i started with a Russell Fanta myself… man brings back memories… i was doing loops for dayssssss
my modern yoyo story start in party city when i just happen to pick one up and automatically just for fun put yoyo in MAPS (iPhone) and found D.i.c.k Stohr … for some reason i can’t say his first name without the … anyways he is also known as theyoyoguy from springfield va … i called him and told asked if he sells any? he said to stop by and I did … and BAM : http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php/topic,16391.0.html
… and then i found yoyoexpert … and since then i have been here… i owe a lot of it (yo-yoing) to André also … i would call up here all the time to ask him questions… and he always had an answer for me, and still does!
I saw my best friend throwing so i decided to try it and have been throwing ever since.
Good to see you back, Chimera. Yes, Sport Ladder rules.
BTW - I still have the Dif-e-yo GTO you sold me so long ago.
I know I had an Imperial when I was a little kid, but all I remember doing is a sleeper or around the world. Then in the early 90’s ( I think? ) I was in my 20’s and my dad got a 30-40$ Custom Yo Yo with a bearing and I thought it was amazing… I bought one a Reactor and a black and yellow plastic plastic yo yo with a bearing ( I think it a had a Bee in the picture on it, cant remember the make? ) anyway I made the kid at the mall teach me split the atom. I played with it for a while, and I would bust it out every few years and do the few tricks I knew. Now 2 weeks ago I was playing with my reactor when I thought it would be cool to get a new aluminum yo. I ended up here, found out about un responsive play. I was nervous but bought a Whip to see if I could do it. I could and it was awesome but I wanted more so I ordered a Dark Magic II and a buch of strings. Now I want a Code 2. Is allmost 200$ too much to spend my first week back into yo’in?
I originally got into yoyo-ing in the '70’s when the Duncan yoyo craze was in full swing. I had an imperial and a butterfly and learned the few tricks that could be done with them.
The problem that we all ran into was that as you tried harder and harder tricks - they all required more sleep time. Yeah, we tried adding graphite and corn starch on the axles to make them spin longer. Inevitably, however, the yoyo would bind in the middle of a trick and smack your knuckles. Bottom line: the better you got; the more it hurt.
A year or so ago, I saw a kid playing with one of these new unresponsive yoyos at a soccer game. I was shocked by the sleep-time that he was getting. When I saw him do a bind - I was hooked again.
I admit that I am a hobbyist - If I get a half-hour in a day that is great. But that is why I love the yoyo. It is the only hobby that is equally as satisfying if you do it for 15 minutes - or two hours. It never gets old because there is ALWAYS a new trick to learn.
I was in 7th grade and we were at the agriculture shop at my school. Me and some friends found an old green Duncan mosquito. We drilled a hole in it and just threw it out. I went back to
Get it and I’m sure glad I did! Next thing I know I’m ordering yoyos off line and going to contest. I remember watching Andre’s tutorials. Now here I am today. I’ve been toying for almost 3 years and hopefully many more to come.
That would most likely be a Proyo Turbo Bumble Bee. Or the Turbo Bumble Bee GT.
TBB
TBBGT (butterfly shape)
-This one happens to be blue and black.
Gonna try to make this as short as possible:
It started with a cheap party favor yoyo my cousin got at the dentist for suffering (or being good as they say). Being small and cheap, my parents bought us a full-sized supermarket yoyo. That died off shortly until I saw someone playing with a Brain yoyo making it sleep (I honestly thought it was just a dead yoyo that would come back up automatically after ‘stalling’. Following day at the mall, I saw the brain yoyo but got denied by my parents, did the whole “Your birthday’s coming up, just wait and see.” Not wanting to wait, I went into KB Toys and bought an Imperial with the $5 I had saved. From there, I learned the magic of sleeping when I had a failed dribble. I then quickly learned how to properly throw and got pretty excited. There was definitely more meat to it than just the whole dribble up and down thing. The rest of the time at the mall I was walking the dog, and rocking the baby.
After smuggling a yoyo to school later that spring, I started up a fad at school and got yoyos not to be banned (awesome stuff!).
This all happened back in 1996.
This kid came to my youth group at church and started yo-yoing and I thought it was so cool and here I am now