WARNING… I JUST WROTE THIS BOOK. this is the Coverless Edition. Heads up to anybody that either has attention deficit syndrome… Or maybe just hates long stories… Or maybe just doesn’t care for me no matter what I say… And all of that is fine and I’m good with that. If you want to read along with my yo-yo adventure loosely related to this image, you might find it interesting. On the other hand if you don’t find me interesting than anything. I say you probably are not gonna find interesting and you should stop right here, and that is taking in the consideration that you even read this far into this post, lol. During the course of this yo-yo related adventure, there were absolutely no attempts to say anything that didn’t happen as a way of embellishing this saga. Everything I say, and said in this thread post, is this close to reality as I can remember. If somebody find something fun and interesting and learn a thing or two good . if you decide to take the plunge and read the entire post I apologize that if you get nothing out of it in the form of any type of enjoyment, that I will not be able to replace the life that you wasted reading it. Anyway, that’s about it. I use talk to text so if once in a while a sentence doesn’t look like it could be properly diagram or award or two has been substituted by the spellcheck that had nothing to do with what I was actually saying, take that into consideration. Other than that, that’s about it. Good luck with your decision. Whether you choose to read my story or not, you have made the correct decision. Trust me.
This was obviously many years ago. Just happen to be beautiful Southern California weather that day. Just happen to be a contest in the area. And just happen to be a handful of misfits, lol, that were hungry and thirsty and just wanted to sit down and discuss the meaning of life. Every person in this image was or still is an important part of yo-yo history in one way or another. And no, I am not complementing myself to be at the level of everybody else at the table because they were already at it for a while with strings around her fingers and doing yo-yo related things before I start cutting up yo-yos and basically came out of nowhere. So instead of being a member of the people at the table for this explanation I will just consider myself to be a guy sitting in the corner, being amazed at this crew sitting down for a powwow.
Starting from the front left, we have Gabe Lozano, who is a string trick machine in a videographer and just about anything he did. He did well. And a hell of a nice guy. Then a genius that was sent from another dimension no doubt Tyler severance. An amazing guy with a seemingly natural ability to just figure out the proper positions of moving strings around in the most intricate ways without getting your neck caught in the middle. I met him at worlds in Florida in 2006. He was too hand looping in the main hallway in front of the banquet room where they had the world yo-yo contest at the Rosen Plaza convention center in Orlando. He was just a kid then with real long hair and from a distance, I almost thought it was a girl, lol as I got closer, well appreciating his two handed wizardry, I pretty much noticed the guy was a dude lol. But the thing that really caught my attention was his strings were looped on his index fingers. Which obviously went totally against what other people had told me what I was trying to loop a yo-yo here or there. Anyway, I instantly got along with a guy. I think just about everybody or anybody does. He’s very intelligent and very skilled and has an engaging personality. The next guy who I feel blessed to call a good friend is a legend that is no longer with us. I mean he is and always will be with us. He’s just a little farther away at the moment. Paul Escolar. I remember the day I met him. I felt like we had known each other for years. Obviously very different skill sets, lol but something to do with our way of seeing things in our low-grade sense of humor just made for instant friends, and I’ll always treasure that. I never met anybody that had a bad thing to say about Paul. He had a one million dollar smile and a one million dollar style. He was a comedian and a satirist and he had amazing artistic abilities. He was a trick generating machine to this very day. A good number of his tricks are still something to watch and just shake your head? Especially when you consider he was doing tricks many many years ago with yo-yo’s that didn’t have any magical tri metal rim weight and didn’t spend forever, but he would squeeze tricks and combos out of the yo-yos in some supernatural way? I thought about it a lot over the years. And I still can’t really grasp how he got so much juice on a throw to do the tricks that he did? Remember some of the guys shim the yo-yo here in there but even considering that, the gaps on a yo-yo’s were mostly around 3 mm. Not four or five like they are today. And no concave bearings and few of any shielded running dry type of bearings. No special type of response systems. I mean Paul came up with amazing tricks just using free hand yo-yo. A plastic yo-yo with no special weighting to it, yet still tear stuff up. I still don’t get it and I probably never will. When he suddenly passed away years ago, I think all of us were pretty much in disbelief until it eventually sunk in. I mean, we all have to go eventually, but Paul passed away suddenly and there was just nothing to explain it? How could such a sweetheart and talented guy have to check out early when it seems like a lot of evil people seemingly live almost forever? It reminds me of that old scene that goes nothing is fair in life. When I look at this image now and then I see a guy that should’ve lived forever just to keep the world smiling.
The next mastermind is Stu-pendous. A multi skill toy expert and quite the showman. A great personality. A team player. I think most of all of the Spindoctors were destined to be Spin Doctors because they were all skilled and crazy in the best kind of ways. Everybody likes Stu. And if you didn’t like him in the realm of probability, there was something wrong with you, lol.
In the background closest to the street by the railing was a guy that was even better than he thought he was. Yoshi Mikamoto, was an Iron Man. What’s an Iron Man question mark glad you asked. That’s a guy that can enter any division of a yo-yo contest and look pretty darn good. I think he mainly preferred 2A though. He almost always during his two a routines did some kind of backflip. Sometimes you do like a rolling back somersault right off the top of his head. I don’t know how it felt to him, but just watching him gave me a headache, lol. To some people he seemed like a real quiet guy. But the dude was always thinking of stuff. As helpful as anybody you’d ever meet he was always there ready to step in to give a hand to whoever needed it. He still had it today. He’s older now, but he’s just as nice and skilled as the day I met him. He’s one heck of a guy.
Next up, lo and behold, it’s Mo the oldest guy in the neighborhood and at that table, lol. Obviously the odd man out at the table of legends. I spent a few decades building custom Harley motorcycles from the ground up, including painting them and anything else that needed to be done to make them crazy good. I never had a yo-yo when I was a kid. At any time I’d pick up my brother’s yo-yo. My mom will tell me put the yo-yo down before you break something. So in the late 90s I’m riding a Harley down the street and I see this kid on the corner throwing a yo-yo around and doing a pretty good job of it. On the ride back home I told myself I’m a big boy now. If I can afford to build custom Harleys, I can certainly buy myself a Yo-yo, lol. so I went to a place called Golden apple comics, because somebody told me they had skill toys there. I wanted to buy an expensive yo-yo and the girl questioned me about spending a lot of money if I didn’t know how to yo-yo? I told her, how do you know I’m even buying it for me? How do you know I’m not buying it for someone else for their birthday or something? How do you know I’m not buying it just to put it on the bookshelf I never even put the string on my finger?
It was the first time in my life that somebody questioned me about my motivations for wanting to buy something. I mean, if you went to Best Buy and said I wanna buy that stereo system for $5000, they sell it to you. Wouldn’t it be funny if you went in and said I want to buy that stereo system that Denon with the subwoofer and the mid range and the tweeters and it works. I don’t think the sales guy would say are you sure you need to spend that much? He most likely would say bring your van around the back and will throw all this stuff in the back of it. where’s the money, lol?
So she gets on the pager and says bill to the front service counter. And here comes this big guy big bill the owner of Golden apple colonies. She says hey Bill, this guy would like to buy that yo-yo but he said he doesn’t really know how to play it. So I look at the guy and I said are you the guy that matches people to toy do you think they need? I told him look man. I don’t know if they give tickets out front but I would just like to buy this yo-yo and leave. I’ll figure out what to do with it once I get home.
He smiled and said, let me show you a few tricks which he probably did. I had never really seen anybody doing yo-yo tricks before at that level. I used to see the guys at the circus that would Throw two handed loops while trying to get people to spend some money at their attraction.
This guy, big Bill he was pretty good at the time… To me because like I said at that moment, I didn’t really know it was good? But he definitely knew a few tricks. I told him thanks for the demo. Here’s the money I gotta go.
A few weeks later, my wife said to me they give lessons up there. You know that golden apple. Why don’t you go out there and learn a trick? I said yeah whatever and life marches on. Then about a week or two later, my wife told me you’ve been cutting those yo-yos up on your legs in the machine shop just to see what kind of Frankenstein stuff you could come up with and you don’t even know how to play with them. Why don’t you take several of those custom yo-yos with you up to golden apple let the kids try them out to see if you’re making a better or just killing them with your operations, lol?
So I was putting several of the yo-yos that I had modified into a brown bag to carry them. My wife walked over to me with a black purse that didn’t really look female. It kind of looked like a small version of a country doctor bag. She told me don’t take those yo-yo‘s up in a brown paper bag. Use this leather purse. After all you’re going up to the Hollywood area nobody’s gonna think anything of a guy carrying a purse lol.
So I go to the store and I go inside and the girl at the counter says nice to see you again. Did you come to learn a trick? I said well maybe and maybe not. She said well today’s a good day walk down to the corner make a left turn and then walk across the street that parking lot next to the restaurant, they’re having a small contest yo-yo demonstrations, and yo-yo lessons. Bill will be happy to see you.
So I get to the edge of the lot and I see big bill on his Mr. microphone talking up a storm like a three ring circus. Kids are doing some impromptu 60 second freestyles and then off to the side. There’s some kids teaching other kids tricks, etc. It looked kinda like a yo-yo carnival. So closer to me near the fringe of the lot, there were four or five guys standing in a little group Trading tricks. Every one of them looked pretty good so I thought let’s see if these guys are willing to throw a couple of my altered yo-yos around? So I walked over and said hello can you guys do me a favor? I’ve been modifying these yo-yos which I think is a good thing. But since I’m not really a player, I don’t know if I’m headed in the right direction or not? Maybe a few of you guys could try a few of my yo-yos and give me some feedback? So they start throwing the yo-yos around and seemed very happy to do it. All of a sudden I guess out of the corner of his eye, big Bill from the other side of the lot basically saw me standing with these young guys. They’re thrown his yo-yos all over the place. I guess if I would’ve had a trenchcoat and a bag of candy that would look like somebody from up there in Hollywood lol.
So he walks over and says how you guys do it? Any recognizes me when I took my sunglasses off and he goes hey man, did you come back to learn a trick? Before I could say anything one of the kids said hey Bill, you gotta try this yo-yo this guy he did something to it and it plays better than most of the stuff you have in the store. Bill looks at the kid and then he looks at me and then he looks at the kid he says yeah I bet. So the kid handsome the yo-yo and he starts throwing it around and throwing it around and yeah, not to be redundant but throwing it around blah blah blah. And then he stops and says to see your place really good. What did you do to it? I told him well. I just tried to give a little more rim weight and opened up the gap a little bit and ultra the response a little bit and the shield of the bearing and took out the lube in the attempt to make it spin a little better and a little longer and a little smoother.
Then I’m standing in there and he standing in there and the kids are standing there and nobody saying anything. Then big bill looks down at the black bag I’m carrying and immediately he decides without any prompting that it does indeed look like a country doctor bag, even though it’s a little on the small side. So he said to me, are you some kind of doctor? I told him not really I’m a mechanic. And then big bill said something that basically stuck forever from that moment in time. Bill said it looks to me like you’re a yo-yo doctor. Lol. And all these years later, that’s where the Yoyodoc thing comes from. I didn’t make that up myself. Like Dr. popular he came up with that handle himself. And he fits it to a T Brian Roberts is incredible person with an amazing skill set and he is Dr. popular he called it before he even saw it, but it’s a natural fit for him. Me on the other hand, I didn’t come up with my nickname or nicknames. I should say. Somebody else did. My son talked me into posting images of some of the stuff I was doing which I had never thought of back then. But I set up a computer for him… It was called a compact Presario whatever? I can’t remember, but I set it up for him. I didn’t intend to be using it. But when I start chopping stuff up, my son walked up to me and said if you go into a search engine and you type in the word yo-yo and hit enter, you pull up all kinds of stuff. Maybe you could join one of these forums and start posting images just to see if people get a kick out of them? I told him I’m not making stuff to sell. So my son said OK then there’s no pressure. You’re not making stuff to sell you just cutting up stuff and you’re showing people what you’re doing. So I start posting up a couple images here and there and all of a sudden people knew who I was even though I really wasn’t anybody ha ha ha ha ha.
I shared that part of my life with you guys just because that’s basically how I ended up in this photo with all these already hard-core yo-yo players. The word got around that I was modifying yo-yos and people found it interesting and it was a good subject for conversation and to get to know people and make friends in the process.
I became part of the yo-yo equation. There were other people already in motion, cutting stuff up and sharing their work one way or another. There was John Rollins up in Paso Robles, California. Then there was Alan Gray, the wooden yo-yo and top maker from Nebraska. And a very good friend of his Eric Wolff, a mastermind, yo-yo customizer, and from scratch top level spin, top maker and captain of the Chicago fire world class acrobatic kite team. And then it was a guy I think he’s from Ohio? His name was Stan Zygo. I never met the guy, but I heard his work was amazingly good.
I personally never considered any of my work to be amazingly good. But it turned out that my prolific modding captured the interest and imagination of others and compelled other people to start messing with their yo-yos more to try to squeeze some performance out of them.
I took everything with a grain of salt. People would say good things about me that didn’t need to be that good. And they give great compliments to some of my custom stuff which didn’t have to be that great. And they introduced me to other people like I was really somebody, when I primarily just considered myself a Harley builder and an exotic car painter, that fiddles around by chopping up yo-yos in my own machine shop built in the basement of my garage like a Batcave. I never made yo-yos to sell. I turned down offers to make small batches of yo-yos for others to sell. The closest thing I got to be involved in selling yo-yos was working with Dale Bell for many years since the inception of yo-yo jam. I went to the world yo-yo contest in 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The better part of three days in the convention center there helping promote interest in yo-yos for yo-yo company. When I would take breaks from the booth and walk around to all the display vendors I saw and met Valerie Bell and she introduced me to her dad. Her dad and I weren’t that different in age in both of us were basically old school hot rodders. We both built some ground pounders and just coincidentally his younger brother Dan happened to own one of the largest Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealerships in the entire United States. So basically we had a lot in common which we found out almost immediately. After meeting him at worlds, we talked on a regular basis from coast to coast… I’m in California… He was in Florida… On a weekly basis for years. So anybody that remembers the MiniMotrix, the MiniMotu, the MicroMo, etc…. That was the closest I got to ever selling anything, lol
I’ve been repairing areas for people for almost 3 decades now. I can’t repair everything for everybody, but I contact people that are having problems and ask if they can send me their stuff you know I’ll do something to it to see if I can improve it? I’ve always worked for free just for the adventure of it. And I always pay for return shipping out of appreciation for the people trusting me with their toys.
So not to be too redundant, which is too late for that I guess. But that’s how I appeared in that photo. Because everybody in that photo but me was somebody. And most of the people in that photo for whatever reason I thought I was somebody too because I was a yo-yo customizer and at least several of them on my work interesting and inspiring. But I’m not a mind reader so I can’t read too much into what I think they actually thought about me. But it doesn’t matter it’s just part of the past.
The next person in the image is Nathan Chrissey. Another multi talented skill, toy guy and another highly intelligent guy. I honestly have this moment. Don’t remember exactly what he does, but he’s an engineer of some sort and I have he’s really good at what he does. Another spin doctor that operates at a pretty high level of intellect. I don’t know if you still active but for years it was a common thing to see him on a judging panel at yo-yo contest all over the country. Highly respected in another guy you just don’t hear bad things about. He has definitely participated as an integral part of the yo-yo puzzle and I would say everybody that knows him and knows what he’s done will not their head up and down and say yeah that guy he does a hell of a job. He pretty much treats everybody as equals and doesn’t play favorites. He’s a technical person and whether you like it or not, he’s gonna be technical because that’s the only way to be fair. And he is that guy.
Last but not least, is the guy that is legendary in the yo-yo world. I know, I know, there are several people that would be considered legendary in the yo-yo world. And in that group, this guy is one of them. Mark McBride. The guy who pinned the Yonomicon. One of the guys along with John Gates, basically pioneered the style known as 3A. Many many years ago when they started doing what became known as velvet rolls peoples eyes just opened up and said we’re seeing the beginning of something that’s gonna get big. Mark has also gone to many contests and like Nathan. He’s been a judge at many contests. He’s given demonstrations all over the country. He’s been all over the yo-yo world. He makes friends wherever he goes. He has a very engaging and unforgettable personality. His communication skills are second to none and anybody that thinks that they cannot think or out smart. The guy is only a legend in their own mind. If Mark‘s mind was a razor blade, you could cut a block of kryptonite into slices so thin, you could hold it up to the light and see through it. The guy is a certified mastermind. Like a few other people in the yo-yo kingdom Mark thinks way outside the box. If you could put an AirTag on how far outside the box he thinks, there would be no signal getting back to you.
So that’s it that’s the group. Obviously there are many more people that could’ve been sitting down at adjacent tables or our table for that matter if it would’ve been bigger. There’s a lot of amazing and interesting people in yo-yo land. We know they come and go we were glad they were here and sad to see them go but at the same time, I think everybody that passes through the yo-yo phase and has had a string or two tied to their fingers, is better for their trouble.
Sometimes when I have more things to do in a day than I can hope to accomplish and I’m pretty close to running out of anything to smile about, I have a simple solution that seems to work every time. I just take a couple minutes of break time and I think about something yo-yo related. Something that happened at a yo-yo contest or at some kind of yo-yo demonstration or just a sit down lunch with some yo-yo people eating big bowls of salty Ramen and sharing amazing stories and laugh like crazy. Just a few minutes of memories and I’ve gathered a lot of them in the last 28 years related to yo-yos and I can smile for the next several hours. No doubt somebody will see me once in a while, working away and smiling, and thinking that maybe I’m a little too happy, Lol
Happy is good. Yo-yo’s are fun and yo-yo. People are yo-yo people for a reason. Because everybody likes to smile.
