Certainly a good time to pick up a new hobby 
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i got lucky that i found an interest in it again!
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Time to write my novel as Iām pretty nostalgic about my yoyo originsā¦But going to say it now: āIt all started with a visit to the dentist.ā
So my cousin who had lived with me at the time had gone to the dentist one day and after receiving a somewhat uncomfortable cavity treatment, he got a party favor yoyo for ābeing a good boy.ā When we got home, we were both dribbling it, seeing who can make it go up and down the longest. My mom saw us entertained with this little thing and somewhat squabbling over who gets to use it. That evening when we went to do our weekly grocery run, she bought us both full-sized āimperial-shapedā yoyos. They did not sleep as the string was pressed into the side of the yoyo/glued. The novelty wore off by the end of the weekend.
Fast forward a couple weeks later, we had gone to a friendās birthday party where I had seen a Yomega Brain being used. At the time, I had never seen a sleeping yoyo before so I thought it just unwound, hung there and then retracted like a yoyo ball. I thought it was cool and it sparked my interest once again. I had asked where he bought it.
That next day, we had gone to the mall where the yoyo was bought (not to go buy the yoyo but that was definitely an anticipated thought I had on our little family excursion to the mall). We went into the store that had the yoyo and the moment I had grabbed it to show my parents, I was informed that āI have a birthday coming up in a few weeks so why not wait and see.ā I didnāt have enough money saved up either so back to the shelf it went.
A little bit later I had gone into KB Toys and wanting to spend the money I did have, I ended up settling on a red Duncan Imperial as my dad had always informed me that Duncan was the best you could buy. Once purchased, I ripped open the package, got the knot tied and learned how to make the slipknot. I let the yoyo unwind finding that it didnāt instantly climb back up but did that thing I saw the Yomega doā¦aka what we know as āsleeping.ā Within the next 15 minutes of walking around the mall and going into the stores my parents wanted to go into, I learned how to properly throw it and make it sleep.
I eventually got the brain yoyo as a birthday gift which one day I smuggled to school after I saw a class mate dribbling a āpromotional/advert yoyoā and little did I know it would have started the school yard rage. I had already learned a few tricks after checking out a book from the schoolās library and the kids thought it was some hot stuff. We then popularized yoyos to the point that they banned them (simply they just said āno toys at schoolā). We fought and made a petition as we felt that if we canāt bring yoyos, then the girls canāt bring their jumpropes or skip-its to school. They caved and gave us a corner to throw at. The end of the school year consisted of my 6th grade teacher buying the entire class some Duncans.
During these early days of yoyoing, I was on the hunt for different styles and brands of yoyo, particularly ones āmade in the USAā and not the junky ones youād find at the dollar store or end cap at the grocery store. I had bought different Imperials and Butterflies in different colors and eventually was on the quest to find the Fireball.
So that trip to the dentist is what initally started the yoyo craze for me as a kid in the 90s.
What recently rekindled my interest for yoyoing (after falling out of it when I reached high schoolā¦I had to āgrow upā and yoyoing as a teen was something to keep on the downlow) was when my niece came home from school after a NED performance happened. I ended up digging out my Sabre Wing Fireball and showed her some stuff and then out of curiosity in this day and age of the internet and Youtube, I found out how much yoyoing had changed and how affordable metal throws were becoming, and how much more common and affordable bearing throws were.
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Let me get my reading glasses for this one
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My Grandpa bought my cousin and I each a Smothers Brothers yo-yo kit. Was a Hummingbird imperial with the Smothers logo on it. Then the rest of the night he showed us a video tape of the Smothers shows, which heād been recording for weeks leading up to us coming over and getting the yo-yos. He showed us some tricks, mainly picture tricks. I pretty much have played ever since, that was 1988. Then late 2013 I got wondering if people were playing yo-yo much, I had my yo-yos and had been out of touch with the community. I did a YouTube search first and found some Hiroyuki Suzuki videos and it was 
I did some more searches and found YYE. Lurked here until early 2014 when I created an account, bought a Puffin and Yeti, then an 888 and a Phenom and the rest is history. Wish I had that Puffin still 
Still have the Smothers Brothers yo-yo though!
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Kenās world on a string
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loving the stories! I believe I kept up with yoyoing because I got addicted to the pleasure of learning a new trick. It seems like every time you learn something you just get the urge to try the next trick. I guess that is what got me into yo-yoingā¦ the need to learn more.
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Iām new here but Iāll share my story, or at least what I remember of it.
I remember having a Duncan Imperial all through school (many years ago now) just to goof around with. Making it sleep was a cool trick. One day at a hobby shop I saw a Fireball and had to get it. Wow, the basic tricks were so easy with it. That was pretty much it for awhile.
Years later I was searching for skateboard bearing brands and stumbled upon bearings for yoyos. Yoyos have bearings? I started trying to fit bearings into my cheap Imperials and Butterflys. Eventually got some decent yoyos with bearings. Iāve never been very good throwing, but Iāve also always enjoyed trying modsā¦almost more than actually throwing. I really like putting different parts and pieces together to see if it will work.
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Welcome to the forums!
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Similar story to a lot here:
yoyo demonstrators came to my elementary school selling SuperYo branded stuff in second and fourth grade.
Then towards the end of sixth grade (~2005) YoYoFactory ran F.A.S.T. 201 ads on TV; I consider this when I āstartedā yo-yoing, though I still hadnāt found the community. Was learning tricks off of āKenās World On A Stringā. We still had dial-up at this point so Iād end up loading the page then printing the directions out, I had a whole binder full of yo-yo tricks and video game walkthroughs that Iād printed out.
Found Infinite Illusions/YoYoGuy after a diabolo/juggling demonstration at the end of sixth grade.
And finally, I found TheYo (RIP, I hope thereās a backup of the site somewhere but not too optimisticā¦ 
) towards the middle of eighth grade (~Nov 2006) after thinking āhey Iām part of video game forums, i wonder if thereās a yoyo forumā and subsequently googling āyoyo forumā.
The rest is history.
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I donāt have a nice story about what got me into yo-yoing but do remember the first good yoyo I owned. There were several kids in my 5th grade class in the mid forties that had yoyos so bought a very cheap one at the local dime store. My parents saw how much fun I was having and bought the holy grail of yoyos (from my perspective anyway) for me for my birthday. It was a green Duncan with a splash of silver, absolutely beautiful!
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I have a vague recollection of seeing a yo-yo book in elementary school, very simple fixed axle things. From it I recall learning rock the baby and eiffel tower. Got back into it in the 90ās. I spent some time with the Cosmic yoyo DVDs, and was quite impressed with the tricks in the bonus DVD.
Wanted to learn Candy Rain, for some reason it resonated with me. Also the trick names, something sort of artsy and abstract about the whole thing. Still feel that way really.
Itās appealing to have a lifetime hobby you can basically carry in your pocket.
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I guess iāll use this as excuse to chime in and introduce myself. I got my first yo-yo after seeing adās in the late 90ās from Yomega. I begged my parents for one and, low and behold, they brought me an X-brain back from there most recent trip. I remember not actually have that much fun because I couldnāt get the clutch system to work but I still was quite interest in yo-yos. Soon after I was at a hobby shop in a popular mall and they had Yomega Fireballs. I begged and pleaded, and my Mom caved. I played with that yo-yo constantly in my 7th grade year. I kept breaking strings and eventually my interest wore off. Flash forward to 2020. Iām cruising reddit and come across a Tessa Piccillo video and was blown away. I didnāt even fathom that that level of yo-yoing was possible. Que nostalgia waves, an internet deep dive, several irresponsible purchases, and now iām here practicing everyday again. Iāve been lurking this forum for awhile now but figured yāall have a nice community and Iād love to participate. So hi I guess?
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Hi welcome! Glad you came back to yoyoing. Hope you keep playing and learning!
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Ofcourse man! Were always happy to welcome people to the board. It never hurts to chime in if you got something to contribute. Most people on here will welcome you with open arms
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Yes we are all here to help!
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whatās up dude
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My best friend got into it in like 5th grade so naturally i did too. He was very good but just lost interest.
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Iāve known about yo-yos for most my life, could do the basic stuff bla bla bla. So just about 3 months ago I was browsing YouTube and I saw the Gentry stein wired video. I clicked it, watched it, and it was amazing! I learned about yotricks somehow (idk how lol) and then was like āThat looks cool, I should try that!ā So I bought a velocity and wanted to go die. Not because it wasnāt fun because the bearing was defective after 3 hours and the spacer problem was a thing. So I was miserable, bought a magic yo-yo off of amazon, came 2 days later and i started learning. I did all the basics, and bought me a b-grade atlas and a flight off of yyt. And here we are.
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Nice! It seems like a lot of us had stared this hobby and took a break later and then got back into it years later. I guess yoyoing really has its up and downs 
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