Wow that’s good. Nice techy combo 
1 Like
Today/tonight’s throw is the YoYofficer Aura. Since it’s Friday and my suggestion was chosen for the TAW thread (thank you guys!) I decided to do that trick, Diego’s meta slack GT.
To be completely honest the Aura is not my bread and butter. It’s pretty light on the string and wants you play fast and that’s not me. I’m also not a fan of straight up V-shapes, they always feel a little awkward in my hand and I can’t get that comfy “this feels right” grip when throwing the yoyo. That being said there is nothing wrong with it, it’s actually pretty smooth and has a cool but quiet noise when spinning. I would 100% change out the response though too. Whatever these black pads are that came with it are eh to say the least. Just not what I look for in a yoyo personally! I’ll probably trade or sell it at some point soon.
9 Likes
Dang, V shapes with soft rims are maybe my second favorite general shape. Only behind step-round stuff that blurs the line between H and O.
Continuing on with my Harrison Hurricane CLYW collection I’m using a CLYW Scout which is a straight V shape but with the outermost rim section rounded over. It has the playability and benefits of a low string break angle that comes with V shapes, while being more comfortable in the hand than the majority of O shapes imo, since the wide open trapeze width gives your fingers a lot of room and doesn’t cramp them up.
I like the Scout a lot, not as much as the Bonfire. The Scout is just like a rounder, midweighted bonfire. It’s a bit faster, a bit more stable, a bit lighter, and the gap width is just a smidge tighter. It’s great, but I prefer the slightly heavier feel and longer spin of the bonfire. I think everything about the Scout makes more sense for a 5A player like Petr, but when I think of the Bonfire I just think of Chuck and Jensen throwing down some insane 1A on it.
7 Likes
You and I have pretty different tastes in throws I’ve come to learn within the last week or so hahaha, which is great! That’s what makes the hobby fun and unique. But also I feel like I’m pretty ignorant and nooby when it comes to shapes. Is this even a “V?” I actually really like the looks of it a lot, it just feels awkward in the hand and to throw to me.
Edit: I’m actually not gonna give up on this throw just yet. First thing today is I’m gonna swap the response with some other pads I have lying around or maybe just silicone it. These black pads are wayyyy too grippy for me. I’m weird I almost prefer slip. If you were practicing binds though these pads would be killer probably. Also I’m gonna ignore how it feels in the hand because like I mentioned the throw itself is smooth and not bad at all in those regards.
4 Likes
In my opinion I think defining yoyo shapes within the WHOV realm is a largely outdated concept. There’s so many yoyo models now with so many different design traits that skirt the line between all of the shapes that trying to pick only one label for a yoyo is a pointless struggle. Is the Markmont Classic an O or an H? It has big organic rims with a soft curve, but it has a large inverse round response step that makes the yoyo very identifiably fit the silhouette of an H shape. The Duncan GTR is using the same general shape which (which I refer to as “step-round”) but nobody calls the GTR an O, despite it having a very similar profile design in concept as the Markmont Classic (soft curved rims to give the feel of an O in the hand, but an inverse round curve at the inner part of the profile to lower the string break angle).
At what point does a V shape turn into an O when the rims are rounded over? The C3 Krown is something I feel would universally be called a V shape, yet the silhouette is closer to a MFD Gelada than it is to a YYR Sleipnir which nobody would ever call an O. At what point does a flared out flat rim turn a V into a W shape? Is the Sleipnir actually a V or is it more of a W? The CLYW Boy and JT Adel fit more into the W camp than these other four yoyos that feel like more of a V (Krown, Bonfire, Scout, Gelada).
This is sort of rambly but the tl;dr is that any time you’re referring to a yoyo by WHOV you’re using an extremely vague and outdated concept. It’s still somewhat useful though because it gets the general idea of the profile across without needing to see it. But classification of WHOV is entirely pointless as a concrete/definitive label for any yoyo. Shapes just evolved too much to be pigeonholed into only four categories.
If you made me put a general label the Aura I’d just say it’s a V shape with a comfy looking (to me) rounded rim, although from your photo it’s pretty clear that no matter what letter label you’d put on that yoyo, all of the nuance of that profile is completely lost. It’s a step-straight shape with a rounded rim. I think that would label the shape extremely well, but people would probably look at you funny if you labeled it with “step-straight shape with a rounded rim” instead of “V” lol.
3 Likes
See I like all those, those I feel like would all feel just fine in my hand personally. I love the feel and shape of my Legato 2 which is considered an “organic v-shape” so I’m thinking I’m just not a fan of v shapes with rounded, o-shape rims/edges. Which is funny cuz I love organic and rounder yo-yos like my Addiction 2
1 Like
@LeftyThrower24 I like the last trick you did. How did you do that? You’re in a keychain mount and then intercept the string and then move the yoyo over your non throwhand index finger and then what? Did you do a ripcord? I don’t understand how you could bind from there.
@mable I want to see some 
if that’s ok for you. You could do the yoyo that’s in the top right of your collection pic that already has the green counterweight
Here is my next trick with every yoyo. It’s with the B-Grade Canon. At just 25$ I don’t need to feel bad at all for scratching them up. But there’s something that just feel off about binds with the b-grade. They often feel too loose. The a-grade canon that I had before I broke it wasn’t like this.
10 Likes
My dude coming in hot with the 3a!!
Man you’ve inspired me with this vid, would a pair of replay pros work for learning some basic stuff?
Also that last part I did in my vid is a just a little 1.5 repeater I kinda came up with! I’ll do a vid on that for my video today, kinda break it down for ya. It’s very easy you’ll get it just by me going slow
1 Like
Insane skill man 
every time I attempt 3a the yo-yos become musical instruments……
And btw your definitely right about the canon’s slippy binds. I bought a b-grade a while back ago and for some reason the binds were REALLY slippy right out of the box. I thought I was the only person to get a semi-defective canon lol 
1 Like
This is the actual 3A experience LOL. I commend you for posting some 3A though, if I had more people to push 3A with I think I could stick with it further. My 3A skill level is pretty much what you posted but with a couple other tricks (that I’m sure you probably know as well (the yotricks and a few rewind tuts), but I kinda dipped out at this point because it was getting so high effort to learn harder tricks and stay on plane during the simultaneous movement. If I had some competition to push me, I think I could go further since it’s such a sick style, it was just more frustrating than fun when doing it by myself.
I was worried you’d ask me to do some 5A LOL. My 5A kind of stalled out for a bit of the same reason as 3A where learning tricks with more simultaneous movement became so high effort that I just wasn’t having as much fun playing by myself. 1A feels easier and more fun to grind out just since everybody plays it you don’t feel like you’re grinding the hard stuff in a corner by yourself. I’ll post some tomorrow though just because you asked…
@LeftyThrower24 until you start learning korokoro transitions and lift ups imo you don’t need to use a pair. If you’ve got two yoyos that you don’t care about damage on you can 3A them just fine for a long while. I’m about the skill level that Marco posted and I haven’t been playing with an identical pair. Not worth buying a pair of cheap yoyos to 3A with, learning the absolute basics and just going “nah this is just frustrating.” when you could figure that out right now with any two yoyos. Replay pro is a good yoyo tho if you do enjoy learning the basics of 3A and decide you want a dedicated pair.
3 Likes
Yes, you can use a pair of replay pros to learn the basics of 3A.I have a pair of replay pros myself for 3A. But if you are looking to buy a pair for 3A and if you can afford it I think you should get two budget metal yoyos instead (but replay pros are ok too don’t worry).
You should get into learning 3A! It’s very rewarding. First you learn how to do the basics of throwing with your non dominant hand. It feels weird because you’re like a beginner again because you have no muscle memory for your weak hand. But because you have the experience and all the answers to all the beginner questions already like how to correct tilt for example you will learn how to yoyo with your weak hand relatively quick.
And thanks! I appreciate that you’re teaching the bind for me 
Thanks man. And I’m not alone with my slippy canon?? In my opinion the loose binds are more than just a minor defect. B-grade? More like Z-grade lmao
2 Likes
Yeah they are 90% of my 3a trick knowledge haha
I know what you mean. I did a bit of every playstyle now and in my experience 3A has the lowest reward/effort ratio. But I enjoy how “slow” this playstyle is. Carefully getting into a complicated mount and then doing a trick and then getting out of the mount with no knots just feels really good for me.
And no pressure about the 5A please!
Oh I totally forgot about this. She’s right. When I started I started with a wedge and a b-grade canon (the older organic shaped canon). @LeftyThrower24 you don’t necessarily have to buy yoyos just for 3A.
3 Likes
Yooooooooooo I just landed transition into koro i’ll try to get in on camera
3 Likes
I enjoy having additional motivation to play other styles haha. I don’t know how much 5A I’ll be doing for the rest of this so I just recorded two different dumb tricks, since I’ve been trying to keep my posts mostly “tricks” instead of combos… even though I guess there’s probably not much of a difference.
I’ve got a pretty big library of tricks that I haven’t really posted anywhere, so I’ve been having fun picking a random trick to show off every day. Third video is a very sloppy “combo”. I really want to practice 5A more, but my brain just always tells me that I’m still bad at 1A and I just need to keep grinding away at 1A instead.
https://imgur.com/a/MdIcjYR
https://imgur.com/a/5JWYpZm
https://imgur.com/a/NMlhV6b
Using a Duncan Origami with a Duncan dice. It’s Bryan Jardin’s signature, so you’ve gotta 5A with it. This yoyo has served me very well as both a 3A and 5A beater. I don’t really have any strong opinions on it other than that it’s just another run of the mill very good but nothing special yoyo… so basically it’s a modern yoyo lol. Always good to have stuff like this around for practicing styles that inevitably lead to damage on your yoyos.
7 Likes
I can see some similarities between your 1A and 5A. You look really done with 5A
2 Likes
Welcome to the real 3A experience
After many tries I finally made it
7 Likes
It’s me, the person who obsesses over dumb technical stuff instead of tricks that actually look good LOL. My 5A is very heavily inspired by very oldschool players: Daigo Komiya, Jake Bullock, Jonrob, etc. I’d like to break out of it and learn to play faster and more modern zoning/rebound centric 5A play with lots of simultaneous yoyo/cw movement, but it’s just time and effort I’d rather put into 1A at the moment.
A goal for 2023 is go enter a competition for x-div, and if I choose to focus on 5A I’m going to have to learn and practice the more modern style of play. Modern stuff looks so good, I just haven’t put in the time yet.
1 Like
I think you should just do whatever is the most fun for you
2 Likes
How I feel about the Wind Runner, I always argue it’s the best 30 bucks I ever spent on a yoyo. Double rim makes it hella stable and it spins for a really long time. It’s the throw I use for practicing 5a and when I go out and don’t want to take and risk damaging a more expensive throw
7 Likes
Japan Technology Kagerou. I built up such high expectations for this yoyo in my head, I thought it was going to feel like a bimetal Mirage, turns out it was more like a bimetal Arrows. The extremely wide and thin steel rims spread the weight out enough to make it spin for super long but without much of a heavy feeling. Beautiful yoyo with fantastic engravings, love the matte rims and wish more bimetals would blast their rims. I feel like steel rim yoyos are really prone to just instantly dying from being sticky/grabby if they touch your hands/arms while playing. The problem with this is mostly just that I’m not a huge fan of the Arrows, I don’t like how it feels in the hand. Yes I’m picky about hand feel and just not liking how this yoyo feels on the catch is enough to make me not want to play it that often. I think a comparable yoyo would probably be the Duncan Orbital GTX, everybody says they love how that yoyo plays, but the thin edge of the steel rims just makes it uncomfortable to catch to an extreme degree.
Here’s a speed combo instead of another tech trick because I promise my trick library has variety in it, I just really like tech stuff lol. I haven’t practiced this in a hot minute so apologies for the slow/sporadic pacing, especially near the end.
8 Likes