Mine initially started when I was in the 5th grade back in 1995 when my cousin got a cheap party favor yoyo at the dentist for ‘being a good boy’ as they say. All we could do was dribble it. That day, my cousin, my mom and I were all seeing who can keep it dribbling the longest and bought us a full-sized Imperial-like yo at the grocery store (Ja-ru ring a bell?) That one’s string was also fixed into the axle so no sleeping could be done. Down the road I saw someone playing with the Yomega Brain when I did see a yoyo sleep for the very first time. After seeing that, I wanted the yomega so bad. The next day at the mall I begged my parents to buy me one, using the following week’s allowance for the difference. Got the big “N” from them. Bummed I went into KB Toys wanting something so I bought a Duncan Imperial. After dribbling it I noticed it was spinning at the end which was a surprise to me. I tried the overhand throw and sure enough I got it to sleep. I was pretty juiced and hooked after that.
I actually wrote an article on Retro Junk a few years ago about my yoyo history as there was a lot of nostalgic value to me. You can see it/I’d encourage you to read the ‘full story’ here: http://www.retrojunk.com/content/article/8955/index/
Stumbled on a video on youtube one day of zach gormley and I was amazed. I had thrown a yoyo like,most of us that somehow got there hands on a duncan butterfly when they were younger. It was so crazy to see what he could do with it and I picked up a duncan metal zero at a toys r us when christmas shopping for my daughter. 7 months later and still going. Except for the quality of throws I have had changed dramatically.
5th grade mom brought home a Duncan ProYo. Learned all the classic tricks and such. Played that thing till it became a pile of %&#. Then she brought home an Auldey Grey Fox from her trip to China. Played that until it got beaten up. Looked up youtube videos, saw the pros, got hooked, later bought a Speedmaker and a Legacy I…the rest is history
Picked it up for a bit back in 7th grade because my cousin was doing it and I thought it was cool. Learned basic stuff like rock the baby, eiffel tower, around the world, the basics. Begging of senior year in high school some friends brought home yoyos from walmart as kind of a joke and they were just messing around with them. Showed them some sweet tricks I remembered from back in the day. I was curious about how much it had progressed and I searched “World’s best yoyoer” on youtube. Stumbled across Suzuki’s AP 2010 freestyle and decided I wanted to learn how to do it. About a year and a half later here I am bustin’ out some sweet combos of my own.
As a kid, maybe ten years old, I got a couple of the cheap Duncan’s from Toys R Us… I learned how to rock the baby and make a star, and I got bored. Never touched em again until recently, about 6 weeks ago when I found my old Speed Beetle and decided to look up some new tricks. I saw a video of Hiroyuki on you-tube and instantaneously knew I had to get THAT good. I bought a Metal Drifter from Toys R Us the same day, and I found this site after a little Google searching. My Metal Drifter broke (it was a really bad yoyo anyway) and I proceeded to order a “real” yoyo, the DM2. Since then I’ve just been working on the tricks on this site, progressing steadily and loving every minute of it… I’m in for life.
15 Years old, just 3 months ago during spring break I went to an arcade. Stuck in $4.00 Played Deal or No Deal and whattayaknow. 10 Tickets or 800 Tickets, 600 offer. NO DEAL. I got 10 tickets. Just kidding, but those 800 tickets went towards a Duncan Imperial. I was hooked. On phonics. Got home, got an Echo, rest is history. Broke my Echo, getting an Addiction
About 5 months ago, my family and I went to the store. My dad said I could get something (I feel like a child when I say that :P) but I couldn’t find anything. He asked if I wanted a yoyo, and here I am today.
About two years ago, 2 guys came to our school, and at lunch they started showing us yoyo tricks on their “fancy” yoyos. All of us kids were hooked. It was an afterschool class and just about everyone took it. As the year passed, only the few of us who really like to yoyo kept doing it. My first yoyo was the YYJ Kickside I think, they class gave them out to us as part of it. After that, I just taught my friend and now he is 100x better than me, and is sponsored by a yoyo website. I dont yoyo as much naanymore though, due to lack of motivation. But I still do the classic tricks for fun.
My brother used to yoyo like 10 years ago, he couldn’t do any advance tricks but he had fun with it. So then I got my first trick yoyo 10 years later and wanted to learn the tricks he could.
I started when Jamie Kennedy walked into my friends apartment for the first time and pulled out a yoyo after about 10 minutes of the odd conversation and get to know you stuff. Ended up spending near a year hanging out and yoyoing with him.
someone at a party found a video of someone at WYYC. went home and looked a few copies of mickey at japan nats. eventually found the expert village tuts by andre bouley. my friend (who was also at the party) and I picked up some cheap yo-yos, and got started. lost interest of like a year or 2 cause of school and stuff, then this year we got back into it, more seriously this time. as it turns out, when we left our old school it became a trend, and now literally EVERY boy at our old elementary yo-yos, and I’m not talking about like cheap duncan butterflies from a toy store, but like high end clews and stuff. and hardly any of them are any good. So a bunch of young kids have avalanches and can hardly yoyo. so yeah. weird.
