As some of you are noting because you’re stalking me via this forum and reading my brain droppings in the form of postings here, you may know I’ve been throwing at my kid’s school. There’s been a recent interest in yoyos due to a NED show and due to sales of yoyos at schools. One kid even asked if I was selling stuff and I had to say “No, I’m not, these are my yoyos and I play with them and enjoy them”, and he was cool with that answer.
One kid has been stopping by and asking questions, and asking MORE questions and MORE. This is good. He has broken a cheap yoyo(some transaxle clutch type) and now he brought to me his busted Duncan Metal Drifter, which I was unable to unscrew. I think he lost a spacer and the yoyo was tightened to much and he stripped it. It wasn’t going to come apart. I know what they SHOULD be doing because I have one myself. Just got it, dinged all to crap. So sad it didn’t get to live very long.
While I was trying to get this one apart, another kid threw down his clutch yoyo and well, it’s fallen and it ain’t gonna get back up. The hazards of throwing on cement duly noted(which is why I am on the grassy area when I throw).
I feel the need to have a “meeting” or stage an “intervention” to prevent the untimely death of many more yoyos! It’s one thing to show a yoyo, it’s another thing to talk about how to “care and feed your yoyo”.
I just shorten my string a bit. Kinda helps me perform tricks a lot better than usual.
And yea, I never let kids that don’t know what they’re doing play with my yo-yos. Whenever someone asks if they can “play” with it all I can think about is a dead yo-yo (literally, not just a yo-yo not spinning). If I had some plastics I would let them use that, but I’m afraid that they’d mess that up as well. I guess throwing isn’t for everyone
A lot of kids, including myself when I was younger tend to like to not cut their strings, leading to a throw straight into the pavement…and you know what happens there. As far as stripping, my theory (as this happened with me) is that their yoyo flew apart in mid throw. From there, they fear that it’s going to fly apart so they crank the you know what out of it.
I was guilty of this with my Yomegas back then. They always had a tendancy to unscrew when sleeping so I’d crank it down to make sure it wasn’t going anywhere. After a month of doing such, the hub began to crack and finally the yoyo would no longer screw or unscrew.
I was also pretty rough with my Duncans. As much as I’d try to use a paperclip to undo a knot, when it got too tight or I had no access to one, I’d find a way to pull it apart by twisting, prying with a flat object, more twisting. After a few times of this, the axle hole no longer had the tread to hold the axle in place. My fix to this back then was to either take some pliers and pinch the hub so it would have a tighter squeeze, or wedge paper between the axle and hub. Surprisingly, it held for a few weeks until I felt it was time to retire it and get a new one.
ALl I have to say about yoyoing on cement is, RIP beloved Genesis.
Yoyoed on way home at a friends on the way too the car and when doing follow the slipknot was getting loose, kept throwing( don’t know why but it always slowly falls of my finger when I do a lot of follow.) It slipped. Rolled about 30 feet down the cement driveway, and considering I got it that afternoon, I was bummed. It had giant dings that cut my hand open(about 40 of them, completely covered). Had to satin and polish the whole thing, vibed sooooo much, but on the brightside, I enjoy vibe. Once again, RIP. :’(
I think after my gig doing sound for CalStates, I’m gonna be hitting up YYE for a little “bulk order” so I’ll have a quantity of plastic loopers and ball bearing wing yoyos for noobs to play with. I figure 5-10 of each in a variety of colors(as applicable)
Ouch. This is gonna hurt the bank account. But, it’s gonna be worth it for kids to have some fun and get them started. The good news is I can afford it. I’ll ask for a quantity of trick cards to be included in the order so I can hand them out and direct them to the web site so they can buy yoyos.
Yeah, i recently realized it’s not imperative for me to keep my string length so long. For some reason i thought it made string tricks easier. Not true. For the last couple months i’ve been cutting my string alot shorter than i had been and it makes things soo much easier. AND i never ding my yoyos anymore. I think that using shorter string will help alot of new people to keep their yoyos in good shape.That and keeping them informed on proper maintenance.
Up until May of last year, I always kept my string at the stock length as I felt I was ‘big enough’ for it. Wrong. This explains why my Popstar has a couple kiss the hard McDonalds floor tile marks on it, as well as a couple scratches. Trying to do tricks like Boingy Boing felt awkward and many string tricks were hard to control. Now that I know my ‘sweet spot’ in terms of string length, I don’t ding my yoyos much anymore, if at all. I still do however prefer to be over carpet, grass, or anything softer than concrete or hard ceramic tile.
I shared this story a few time in various threads and I figure I’ll share it here. My brother (at the age of 5 at the time) was into yoyos as he wanted to be like me. We were at the flea market and bought some cheap clutch yoyos (Yomega Brain knock-offs for like $2, couldn’t beat that!). Mine had broke after a few hours just being in my pocket when sitting down to eat. Later that night, my brother’s yoyo met its demise when he came running in to get all of us to watch him do a trick he just got down, Around the World. We go outside, he does it and as the yoyo comes back around to to the 7:00 position, it catches the side of the steps going up to the front door. Shards of plastic flies everywhere. He just stood there wide-eyed, mouth dropped open, string attached to finger on 1 end, transaxle on other. I couldn’t tell if he wanted to laugh or if he got upset but all of us were like “Woah!” as it literally exploded.