I have been yoyoing off and on now for 25 years. I just found this site a couple of weeks ago and thought it might be interesting to let people know the story.
In high school - 25 years ago - yes I am that old! - I was on the track team. Since I ran the two distance events, 3200 & 1600 meter, my races were on opposite ends of the day, sometimes as much as 8-10 hours apart. We were not allowed to leave the stadium, so the guys looked for something to do that wouldn’t use up too much energy while we waited. We started yoyoing. At that time, the Smother’s Brothers had a new show (it didn’t last long) but there was always a few tricks shown here and there and we’d show up the next week trying to master them. I used a Duncan Butterfly and then sprung for a Tom Kuhn wooden 3 in 1. I was so hooked that I would sneak to the locker room during lunch to practice the latest trick so that I could impress at the next meet. The funny thing is that the ultimate tricks were Trapeze and Double or Nothin.
I went to college and completely quit, but out of school I got a job in a really small community and picked it up again one day. I worked with kids, so I would show them tricks at school. I wanted a better yoyo, so I upgraded to a Tiger Shark. There was a kiosk at the mall and I got offered a job to yo there on Saturday’s because every time I did the dude sold a lot more yoyos. I started getting into looping and two handed stuff. I took my yoyo’s everywhere and the kids at the school started carrying them everywhere.
Then I moved and my “following” was gone, so I lost interest again. About 5 years went by and I saw a kid doing tricks somewhere that I had never seen before. By this time, the internet was around and I found my way to Sector_Y. I printed off the trick illustrations and began to learn them one by one. My Tiger Shark couldn’t handle strings in the gap too well, so I upgraded to a YYJ Super Spin Faktor. Again, I started carrying it around everywhere and got some friends to do the same even though we were married and starting to have kids. My interest initially faded when the trick illustrations were so complicated that I couldn’t figure out what to do, so I moved on.
Now fast forward about 10 years to today. I haven’t even picked up a yoyo in probably 5-6 years. My sons, who are now 10 and 7 came home from school one day talking about the yoyo guy that came and did a show for an assembly. They both wanted money to go back and buy a yoyo from him the next day. I asked about the tricks he did and almost laughed because they were extremely simple things, but my kids were excited, so I didn’t say anything. I told them they didn’t need to buy a yoyo because I had a few and would let them have one. I went into my office, got out my big red Yomega shoulder case, opened it up and gave one a Turbo Bumble Bee and the other a Stunt Pilot 3in1. Their eyes got huge when they saw how many yoyo’s I had because they had no idea. I then pulled out my SSF and started doing some of my old tricks. I was surprised how fast they came back to me. I knew yoyo’s must have progressed in the 10 years since I looked, so I googled and found this site.
Of course, the first thing I had to do was buy a new yoyo because the new tricks required an “unresponsive” yo, which was completely new to me. Based on the recommendation of this site I bought a DM and waited anxiously for it to arrive. I’ve now had it about 3 weeks and I carry it everywhere I go. Some people think it’s funny to see a 40 year old man yoyoing with his kids, but we are having a blast. Both of my boys are saving their money to buy better yoyo’s than the ones I gave them. I’m doing my best to progress through the trick videos here on the site. I could never do a whip before and Spirit Bomb was the trick way back when that I gave up on from the printed illustrations off Sector_Y. Now I can do them all with ease. It’s fun to get back into the hobby after all these years. I watch some of the trick videos that people post here and on YouTube and I can’t believe what people can do. It just looks impossible. Of course that’s what I used to think about Spirit Bomb.
So, whoever the yoyoguy is that came to my sons school - thank you. And thank you to yoyoexpert.com.
Keep throwing!
