Let’s give a big welcome to Jason Wong (jasonwongzero) as a new YoYoExpert forum moderator! Excited to have the anodizing king here to help!!!
- André
I first picked up a yoyo back in 1986 when I was eight years old. I recall my first yoyo fondly… an old yellow Duncan professional, gifted by my Dad. I quickly mastered a few basic old school tricks… looping, rock the baby, and walk the dog. Encouraged, I soon graduated to a Tom Kuhn No Jive and an SB2. 27 years later, I am proud to still have the old Duncan and SB2 in my collection!
Regrettably, prep school, Stanford University and employment at a small startup called TiVo left little time for yoyoing. It wasn’t until the beginning of 2011 that I rediscovered the hobby after seeing Paul Han and Alex Kato perform at an employee social event. How things had changed! Unresponsive yoyos, slack tricks, technical string combinations… even yoyoing to music? It was a completely different world and I became obsessed with learning about it.
Around this same time, I also began to learn about the manufacturing processes involved with making modern yoyos and took a special interest in anodizing. CLYW had recently introduced the splash on acid wash colorway “28 stories” and Vendetta had shown that small scale, creative anodizing could be done at home. I’ve always been a tinkerer and anodizing quickly became an artistic outlet and a complimentary hobby to throwing for me. Over the last couple years, I graduated from basic anodizing to pioneering new anodizing techniques, including fadesplashing and swirl ano. Some 400 anodized yoyos later, I’m still enjoying anodizing as much as throwing and hope to bring more art to our beloved aluminum toys.
Today, I balance my hobbies with a fulfilling job as an International Product Director at TiVo. I’m looking forward to giving back to the yoyo community and helping out on YYE as a moderator. YYE has been an incredible resource for me and I want to ensure others find it as fun and rewarding as I have.
