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.