Share your yoyo journey from beginning to end, I'd love to hear it

[kretzschmar]

With the upcoming year, it made me reflect on where my yoyo journey began and where it is now. Below is my story, feel free to share yours.

I started on a Duncan butterfly in 1997, I was 12. Learned the basics on it, Split the Atom, Rollercoaster, Shoot the Moon, etc…

From there, I got my first ball bearing yoyo. It was a Terminator Tornado 2 because the Tigersharks were out of stock. The slimness definetly helped my accuracy.

I got a Superyo Sonic Spin 2 and a Yomega Fireball. That Sonic Spin screamed like a banshee and had a weird blue plastic bearing if I’m remembering correctly.

Then I finally found the Yomega Saber Raider and because of what I had used in the past to learn, it was easy mode doing tricks on it. I was pretty happy with it for a good while.

I was at the mall one day and there was a center booth in the mall with a bunch of kids yoyoing. I thought I had walked into the gates of heaven. I had to get my hands on whatever they were selling because these kids were good, really good. It was a ProYo booth and I walked out with a Turbo Bumblebee GT.

The Bumblebee quickly became my first real love. I used it at my first yoyo contest. I took first place and also got best trick (I just did a bunch of tricks with regens to make it look like it was all one trick.). I felt like I was hot stuff and got myself a Yoyojam Super Spinfaktor to celebrate. Between that and the Bumblebee GT I was set.

I remember in 9th grade me and my best friend that also went on this journey with me, Chris (throwing that SSF in the sky right now, love you man) would sit in study hall and just stare at all the awesome yoyos in the yoyoguy catalogue. Steve Brown was our hero, you still are @unklesteve . I remember seeing a glow in the dark slimline fixed axle Duncan yoyo with an alien on it and bought it asap. It was the last yoyo I bought for a while because …

Girls happened and I was out of the game for a while. I picked it back up in college. Everyone was hacky sacking and I was like, that’s cool, but can you yoyo?
Couldn’t find my old yoyos, and ordered a Yoyojam Patriot on a whim. I am glad I did. I used that one and only yoyo for 4 years (2003 through 2007), so yeah, those on the one throw for a year journey, it can be done and you’ll learn it’s not about the yoyo but instead the fun of throwing. 4A had come out so I learned how to do it. I got my dazed and confused buddy Billy (whose favorite thing was nunchucks) into 4A with me. He new nothing about yoyos. I told him keeping it connected to a string was a thing of the past, and since he didn’t know anything about yoyoing he went with it. I took him out to the park and gave him a yoyo string. I tossed that Patriot as high as I could in the air and stood under it and caught it. He thought it was the coolest thing he had ever seen. So through trial and error, I got him to a point to where he could catch it. He was a quick learner because he had hit himself with nunchucks so much he was no stranger to pain and stood there waiting for the Patriot to land on the string (the trick is to hold the string up to your face, you’ll start catching it real quick (or so I told Billy, lol) We had so much fun tossing that Patriot back and forth to each other, seeing how high we could get it in the air with still being able to catch it.

Then I got a job, found yoyonation and yoyoexpert (many thank yous forever @AndreBoulay ) and started buying and trading yoyos so I could try as many as possible without spending a fortune. I didn’t own these at the same time, but with the beauty that was the BST I’ve tried: Clowntown Peak, European 5 Star, Wooly Marmot 2, OG Project, 54, Affogato M1, Y factor, Skyline, Celtic 888, USA Hatrick, Purple Rain Genesis, St Eel, Noctu, Ronin, Fade 2 Jade Project 2, Sasquatch, Avalanche, Campfire, Eetsit, Bape, Spyy Addiction V2, Torrent 2, Markmont Classic, Werrd TFL, XXXL, Baseline, Skyline, BBYY Wedgie, and that’s just from memory.

Below is what I missed the most. My OG Eetsit. Had to say goodbye years ago for bills. Much love to @DocPop and RSO for bringing back the End 2 in Eetsit colorway. I got one and it was everything I wanted it to be. Soon after, I got a onedrop deep state and forgot how fun my responsive roots were. Just traded her away for a Daytripper, Weekender, and Deeper State to go along with my Deep state for a responsive 2022 journey of my own. No regrets And I’m sure docpop would tip his hat to the decision.

I needed to get this off my chest, feels good.

Pics of the one that got away, Antiyo Eetsit.

Pics of my mom, my sister (Dad passed and I can’t find a pic of all of us) and my kids (wife not about pictures, lol) all of whom supported me and showed me love along the way and going forward.

Edit:. My favorite memory on yoyoexpert was from a few years ago when we had a yoyoexpert fantasy football league. 10 forum members all tossed in some yoyos and the person that got first got the majority of them, second got a few, and theirs got fewer. @YoYoExpertGarrett fixed up a yoyo for last place out of a busted old eH I had tossed in the prize pool (if you’re seeing this and still have a pic, I’d love to see that thing again). One of the yoyos ed tossed in was a 20ehteen oak prototype, two of them were made and they were testing painted calligraphy for the production runs and passed on it as they would fade with time. I won that year, and the below pic was my prize from ed (along with a bunch of other cool throws.). I think we did the league one more year but it disbanded after that with the state of football with the pandemic. I really hope it started back up. It was the most fun I’ve had on the forum.

[Mattwilkes84 (Matthew Wilkes)]

So, I started roughly the same year, with some garbage yo-yo and eventually got the Yomega Firestorm and Brain. I only did the super cheesy tricks that come with your yo-yo I never found a website with legit yo-yos, so I stuck with my transaxle garbage… so I don’t remember when I quit, but I randomly just started back 25 years later. I have now spent a bit over $1,000 on building a collection of yo-yos! In like 2 weeks BTW. I am probably an idiot but it happens. So my journey is short but now it is sweet!

[kretzschmar]

Nothing wrong with dropping money within your means on something you love. If you have time, what kind of stuff are you buying?

And I completely forgot about the Firestorm. I definitely had one of those. I remember having that little Yomega brain lube pen to grease up the transaxle (which was probably redundant but made me feel very very cool, lol)

Glad you got a fun and healthy hobby to pick back up!

[SammyCaboose (Samuel)]

@kretzschmar

Superyo Sonic Spin 2

Thank you so much for this post!!! I started throwing in the early 90s and my first
Unresponsive was this very yo-yo with the weird plastic bearing (mine was red) but for the life of me I could not recall the name. Mine was blue.

[Mattwilkes84 (Matthew Wilkes)]

I got a new and old iceberg, Titanic, DV888, edge beyond, shooting star, Kraken, JDS shutter, shutter wide angle, arrow, replay pro, echo 2, RBC, YYF Bimetal, Iyoyo 2, snack, GenXs, Ti confusion, velocity, and an assortment of Duncan and Yomega cheaper yo-yos.

[Mattwilkes84 (Matthew Wilkes)]

Are these good choices?

[SammyCaboose (Samuel)]

By todays standards? No haha. They are noisy, don’t spin long, and at my string a lot.

[Mattwilkes84 (Matthew Wilkes)]

You being sarcastic? Hopefully I didn’t waste my money…

[kretzschmar]

He thought you were talking about the Superyo Sonic Spin. You definitely got some dope yoyos, excellent by today’s standards. The nice thing is, everything coming out nowadays is killing it.

The worst yoyo that comes out this year would have been God tier in 1997.

[ChrisFrancz]

That’s a nice variety of yoyos and you will definetly enjoy all the different feels. I hope you have fun with them!

[Mattwilkes84 (Matthew Wilkes)]

I will probably never deserve any of them. I picked them by design, shape, colors, reviews, materials, and nostalgia. Popularity also kinda drove me in these choices, money limited me, and skill escapes me

[ChrisFrancz]

@Mattwilkes84

skill escapes me

We ALL know that feeling. Fun first. Skill builds during fun!

[yomach5]

Thanks for the story! Sounds very familiar to mine!

The Super Yo Sonic Spin 2 was my first bearing yo-yo (3rd yo-yo after my Duncan imperial and Yomega Fireball). I do remember the blue and white plastic bearing, but I also remember how heavy it was and how bruised my knuckles from it snagging and hitting me! I still have that yo-yo somewhere…going to need to pull it out again.

[Deadboots (Mr. K)]

I had a Yomega Fireball in 1999, and learned to sleep/return it and do around the world, but that was about it.

In 2007 or so, a buddy of mine started up and got me back into it. We practiced for hours together, lamented knots, whined about how hard it was learning to bind, and eventually got most of the competitive trick ladder down at around the same time (black hops was some bs, man). Visited PNWR together and both dared each other to get on stage for the ladder. Traded a ton on YYN and were on the lookout for deals and each others’ wants pretty much daily. Eventually we made a pilgrimage to One Drop, toured their small facility (and were educated about the diameter limitations of the CNC machine they used back then), and were each gifted a Project 2 for making the trip by the awesome duo running the operation. I gave the guy my Hulk Smash Peak when I left for college.

I got back into yoyoing this year. Been quite a trip seeing OD’s modern stuff and all the innovation and inspired designs that have happened over the past 12 or so years. Loving what I’m seeing from you guys as far as welcoming newbies and maintaining a positive atmosphere.

[kretzschmar]

It might be the alcohol speaking (Happy New Years!), but I really loved reading your story. The fact that you had a friend throughout a part of it touches home to me. My fried Chris and I got into yoyoing together as kids and practiced together religiously trying to get tricks down. I really wish he was still around because I miss having an in person friend to experience the joys of throwing with, but it’s all good, my 11 year old daughter took an interest and I’m gonna give it my all in 2022 to teach her more. She has the bind down, she has brain twister down and rock the baby. She won’t let me teach her anything else until she perfects boingy boingy. I explained to her that I couldn’t get fluid with it until I was in my early thirties. She said she doesn’t care, she’s going to figure it out, lol.

[AngryGumball]

Mine is a long story, which began with a cheap party favor yoyo my cousin got at his dentist as a prize. Growing up, I never really had any expensive toys, was always amused with simple things. My cousin and I were seeing how long we can make the said yoyo go down and up, very basic dribble. That evening, my mom bought us some full sized yoyos at the grocery store, was just a simple wannabe Imperial. This burst of fun lasted the weekend and eventually waned as the wasn’t much else to it. The string was tied to the axle so I never knew about “sleeping”.

A few weeks later we were at a party when I saw somebody with a Yomega Brain. I saw it go down, hang there (it was sleeping but I had no idea) and return on command. I thought it was like a yoyo ball that could just spring back when you wanted it to. That next day I begged my parents to get one when at the mall… No dice. So I used my $5 I had to spend at the mall on a Duncan Imperial as a substitute. This is when I learned about sleeping for the first time. I tried to dribble the yoyo but it never returned. Walking through the mall with my new throw, I learned how to actually throw it properly and make it sleep. I was now limited to sleepers and walking the dog. I eventually got the Brain for my birthday a few weeks later. I then took a small break once again.

One day at school a year later (1997), a friend had some cheap plastic yoyo with him doing the basic dribble. I told him about the Yomega Brain I had. Next day I smuggled it to school and showed him some tricks I knew. Little did I know they this would start a sizeable boom at my school. Days later everyone was bringing yoyos and wanting to learn. I felt like I was under the spotlight center stage after always being that one kid that would always be picked last for sports. Eventually school staff caught onto the boom and told us we could not bring them to school. We then all got together, wrote a petition and got the ban lifted. My teacher one day brought in a “how to yoyo” video for all of us to watch. We followed along with dead yoyos with the picture tricks. After, we were taken out to the playground to practice with our new yoyos she bought all of us. That summer, my friend and I would ride our bikes to the local toy store to see what yoyos they had as they would carry some of the more specialty ones. I nabbed a Fireball, Sabre Wing Fireball, and a Spintastics Terminator over the span of the summer… And several replacement Yomega Brains as the hubs always cracked.

Come middle school, apparently yoyos were really the rage. I even remember seeing a magazine that was strictly yoyos, sitting right there with the skate magazines.

Come high school, yoyos faded into obscurity as the boom waned. Was all about Pokémon, Star Wars, Counter-Strike, etc.

Yoyo made a return back in 2009 when I got an imperial as a gag birthday gift. I decided in this day and age where Youtube is now a thing to go check out some videos… Yoyo design really changed. Metal, bearings, counterweight… I ended up buying a Duncan Mosquito on a whim at Walmart to get back into it and then eventually bought a Freehand 2 a year later. 2010, I discovered this place, it’s tutorials, and reliable online store. I learned a lot in the past 11 or so years now even though I just throw for the hobby aspect of it. I don’t even know how much I’ve spent on yoyos over the years but it’s been a lot

That’s pretty much my story.

[zslane (ClockMonsterLA)]

I first picked up a yoyo back in the mid-to-late 1970s. It was a translucent yellow Duncan Imperial with silver speckles that I found in the dirt one day. I hated the color of it and got my mom to buy me a glow-in-the-dark Imperial instead. Not long after that I got a red Butterfly, and then a dark blue ProYo. I didn’t learn very many tricks; the usual beginner stuff plus I could do an inside and outside loop. That was about it. I didn’t know you were expected to replace the strings after a while, and whenever I broke a string I would tie it to the axle as best I could, after which the yoyo would never sleep. I got frustrated and lost interest after a few months.

Fast forward about 40 years to the summer of 2018 when I saw Massdrop selling some Yomega Glides and I found myself intrigued by these aluminum yoyos with fancy splash patterns. I decided to google what modern yoyoing looked like and happened upon Evan Nagao’s 2018 Nats-winning freestyle. Needless to say I was blown away and I was inspired to try and learn a little bit of 1A.

Three years and many yoyos later and here we are.

[Esmagic (Jordan Linker)]

Been at this a long time, I really don’t remember not having some sort of Yoyo. But around 1970 or so in 3rd grade, I saw an old school Duncan demonstrator and learned a few things. That boomlet died out, but another began in 6th grade (spring 74) met Demonstrator Tom Parks. Won a local contest, competed in the regional (got 3rd) got to appear on TV ( a UHF channel). Mostly had Duncan’s: Imperial, Gold award, Butterfly. I have an original chrome professional from that era, too. And some festivals from a relative’s store.

After grade school nothing serious happened till the late 80s. I found the klutz book of yo with a wooden fixie, learned about Tom Kuhn, the Yoyo Times & then The Smothers Brothers and Yoyo Man, Hummingbird, etc. And Tom Parks video (VHS) learned brain twister ferris wheels etc. Still all fixies, the Duncan wheel, and the Silver bullet. And another boom ended.
I got the original brain at a gift shop during the mid nineties- but never cared for it. Then came the big boom of the 90s. Ball bearings, I made enough that I could afford most stuff, Team Losi, Yomega, Playmaxx, custom. Met the NYU yoyo club crew, went to a few northeast contests. Massachusetts, Vermont, NYC. Met Steve brown, Doc Pop and others at ToyFair. I remember yoyojam starting out, the Spinfactor, and the Cappy Factor. The better players on the NYU team graduated and moved on. 9/11 happened and even trying to attend became a hassle, I stopped throwing again.
Summer of 2019, a cousin asked if I still threw, so I looked into it again. And a friend got sick and we talked about yoyos and magic, nice distractions for him. And then Covid, I bought many yoyos and practiced a lot, unresponsive after a lifetime of responsive and fixie.

Its still fun and amazing to see how this little toy has changed.