Today marks a year since I picked up my first yoyo. But what lead me there?
As a performer/flow artist that’s been at it since 2003, I have a wide range of props. And like all subjects to study - a little homework helps. I like to get inspiration from Cirque du Soleil shows. Seen plenty of them live and even more on video. Last year they did a special one time showing of a touring show, Kurious. The act featuring the yoyos did it for me. When he started looping those copper throws, they look like fire ! I was hooked. Picked up my first yoyo the next day(still was a while till I got to unresponsive).
my friend Jake got me into yoyos the very first time i saw him do tricks i wanted to learn maybe a year later (give or take) he bought me an N12 Shark’s Honor and from the very first throw i just couldn’t put it down i only knew how to bind but binding was actually a ton of fun for me then later i learned Ripcord (fronstyle version) and then it became more fun
we video called a lot and the entire call i’d just be doing Ripcord then maybe around a month later (again give or take) i learned some other stuff too like the Brain Twister stuff then i learned the Trapeze and went on from there now Jake and i video call at least twice a week and yoyo for HOURS we’ve talked and yoyoed and stuff for 3 hours once if it weren’t for Jake i wouldn’t have ever discovered yoyos and i am so grateful Jake is my friend i don’t know what i’d do without him he’s influenced me so darn much in the past and i hope he does in the future thanks Jake
here the link to his Youtube channel and Instagram:
Do you have a youtube account or anything? I’d love to see some of your fire performances!!
It’s so nice to see how much respect and admiration you have for @JWaugh!
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I don’t have a cool story to go along with why I picked yoing back up lol. I saw a red/white Duncan Pro Z at walmart one day…it flooded me with nostalgia, and here I am 6 months later.
So inspirational!
In December 2017 I found a Duncan Imperial and a NED yoyo laying on the floor mixed in among some of my daughters’ toys. These yoyos caught my attention since my daughters were only 1 and 3 years old at the time. I played with an Imperial as a kid in the 70s, but I never progressed beyond learning gravity pull (with my finger just stuck straight into the loop of the string). So when I saw those yoyos on the floor, I decided I would learn a couple of tricks that I could show my daughters. I googled “yoyo tricks” and quickly relearned gravity pull and then learned to make a yoyo sleep for the first time. That same day I saw video of unresponsive yoyoing for the first time. My mind was blown! I was mesmerized by the tricks I saw people doing and I decided right away that I had to learn how to play with an unresponsive yoyo. I’ve thrown every day since and I feel just as inspired today as I did on that first day.
my Sunday shcool teacher showed me and my friend rock the baby then I kinda got into then I stoped and then I one day sew Gentrys 2014 worlds performance and that got me hooked
in terms of trick potential @docpop and his glass lab experiment #4 was the one for me (along with ken’s world on a string and all of sector_y on a more how-to level).
and i would not be the player i am by half if @unklesteve hadn’t made it seem rad and a little edgy - like something an aging skater could throw himself into and save his knees (if not his wrists).
same time it was really tom kuhn whom i credit with helping me realize that yo-yoing is as much a spiritual deal as about the performance/execution of tricks. that’s been essential to me.
! I was hooked. Picked up my first yoyo the next day(still was a while till I got to unresponsive).
For being as young as he is, his skills amaze me! He’s freaking awesome!!
