Hello World! I’m Marcos, a Filipino-American living in the Philippines. I was born in Boston, grew up mostly in Seattle, some in Chicago. I’ve been disabled since 2003, totally blind since December 2017, aborting 90% of my lifestyle. Then, after New Years 2020 had passed, I renewed my yoyo hobby despite my vision-loss.
My yoyo hobby originally began in Seattle sometime in 1977, when I was only 7 years old. My now-late Filipino father (USN 20 years + USPS 25 years), bought me a Duncan yoyo from the North Seattle K-Mart (now defunct); I believe it was a Duncan Wheels model with a fixed axel, but not really sure. As a 7 year-old Navy Brat, I was frustrated because my yoyo would not return to my hand, so my dad modified it to auto-return, but kept reminding me I will never learn the yoyo that way. (Apparently, my dad mastered the yoyo when he was a young boy in the Philippines, trained by his dad.) When my yoyo string broke, my dad went to the hardware stores to buy string he thinks were compatible. I remember him trying all kinds of string and telling me, if he was back in Philippines, he would have the right string. I remember crying because the K-Mart store was sold out of the Wheels model and I was not happy with an ugly yellow one; I was 8 years old then! When I was 9 years old, I remember having 3 yoyos in my toy box, without strings (because I cut them off for a school project). Prior to reaching 10 years old, I completely lost interest in yoyos, and that was in Chicago in 1980.
On January 12, 2020, while my family & I were visiting Singapore from Philippines, the “yoyo hobby” mysteriously entered my mind after not finding a drinking mug at Universal Studios theme park a day earlier. At 11AM that morning, my wife’s Filipina cousin (works in Singapore) visited our hotel rooms (we had connecting rooms.). Since I’m blind, my sister-in-law & her son went with my wife’s cousin (with husband) to Chinatown; I asked them to buy me a yoyo if they found one. While waiting for the group to return, my wife read in Facebook that Mount Taal in the Philippines is erupting, and our return flight was 24 hours away! Unfortunately, no yoyo was found in Singapore’s Chinatown! The very next day, my family & I were stranded at Singapore’s Changi Airport for 12 hours and I was bored because I did not have a yoyo to play with. My wife did not see any passengers, possibly over a thousand of them, having a yoyo! Heck, I was bored and would have asked a child to “borrow” their yoyo.
Upon returning to my home in Philippines and there was no volcanic ash fall near my neighborhood, I initiated a “mission” to locate a yoyo. My wife’s nephew told me the yoyo is no longer popular in the Philippines, however, I refused to believe it. Using my visual memories of toy stores in Philippines, I asked my wife to check the toy stores in the nearby shopping mall. Surprisingly, my wife & her nephew found a yoyo and quickly bought it; they had to have the store clerk to install the string. Mission Accomplished on January 15, 2020, reactivating & renewing my dormant yoyo hobby despite I’m now blind. My wife was then surprised that I can do the basic throw with a sleeper, but failed to catch the yoyo in my hand. It’s a cheap, plastic yoyo, presumed made in China by Magicyoyo, costing about US$1.55 after conversion.
Four days later, I had my wife search for “yoyo” in Lazada Philippines (online store) and to locate the Duncan brandname while I search the Duncan Toys website on my iPhone with the Voiceover screen reader. Many Duncan yoyos were out of stock, however, when my wife said Duncan Wheels is available, I told her to order it, immediately. – Two days later, my new Duncan Wheels arrived!
As I write this post, I now have 5 yoyos! I am using my Duncan Wheels yoyo for warm-ups & rehearsing the catch from successful basic throws & sleepers. Technically, I’m using Duncan Wheels to master the cheap, China-made yoyos. Two of my yoyos are aluminum, professional “kids” yoyos with string I cannot feel, but made for auto-return feature.
As a blind yoyo player, I’m using a modified & controlled basic throw in a small space in my room. In order to compensate my vision-loss, I use my supersensitive binaural hearing in tracking the location of my spinning yoyo and when to “tug up” a sleeper. For me to catch my yoyo, I keep my yoyo hand facing down to catch the yoyo like a baseball mitt, as I use my other hand to attempt reenforcement. I then convert my manual-rewind method into a fitness exercise, by rolling the yoyo on my stomach while doing quarter-twists with my upper torso.I calibrate my throws on each throw, by making sure the handle is at the base of my yoyo finger, and “center”; my wife tells me my yoyo throws remain upright vertical every time.Before I throw my yoyo, it has to be in my hand a specific, precise way, for a “perfect” throw. (Yes, I’m skilled, but I don’t talk about that!)
Due to vision-loss, I am restricting my yoyo tricks to the basic throw & sleeper. For other yoyo tricks, I probably require a football helmet & groin shield, as I will also need a perimeter longer than the length of my yoyo string. I have my wife stay about 5 feet from me when I’m working any of my yoyos, for her own safety. – So far, my yoyo-related injuries are only minor & tolerable.
This coming May 2020, I will become 50 years old and totally blind for 30 months. My decision to reactivate my yoyo hobby is part of my plan on “going off the grid” by the end of this year. Though I mastered technology, including assistive or adaptive technology, I’m simply tired of that stuff; learning everything about yoyos & playing yoyos will fill that void. Besides, I’m working the yoyo as my self-imposed fitness program.
This is my first & possibly my last post here, as this forum is not accessible by a11y standards. I’m posting this article using my iPhone 6S+, Safari web browser, Voiceover screen reader & touch-typing on my Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard. As a former HTML webmaster among other sophisticated skills, I was tempted to write in HTML, but decided not to, mostly because I did not want to crash a webserver.
For those in Twitter, my Twitter ID is “BlindYoyoer”. For those in Facebook, my Facebook ID is “FilAmScientist”.
Feel free to share my yoyo story or parts of it. I just wanted to share my yoyo story before I begin forgetting it all.I hope to meet other yoyo geeks in the USA, as I’m still a US citizen.
Thanks for reading my yoyo story. Due to blindness, I may not be able to read any replies as I have difficulty in navigating this forum. Have a Great Day, Everybody!
Marcos
To automatically read out the replies to posts maybe?