Just like the title says, how’d you get started yoyoing and with what yoyo. My answer is through YouTube and maverick.
A guy (now a good friend) at the local movie theater was playing with the toy and really impressed me and I ended up getting my first (and second) yoyo through him, 1st was a GenYo majesty, he told me to talk to Ernie and then I located a majesty, 2nd he picked up a spare rally and sold me one.
Since then its been down hill and become an obsession.
I saw a vid of Suzuki winning worlds like 7 years ago. Drove 45 minutes the next day to buy a fhz.
I remember thinking how nuts I was to spend that much on a yoyo. Lol
I was searching for a song called “Stronger” then I saw this video pop up. “Stronger Yoyo” by Grant Johnson. For me I was like “huh, what could this be?” I clicked it and I was amazed. The next day I went to Big 5 and picked up a Duncan Throw Monkey. And Two years later, boom. Here I am.
Now and then I used to throw an old Russell Coke promotional yoyo (the really old ones with the fixed wooden axle) I could never do any tricks (not even sleeper) but it busied me when I was bored sometimes. Then the string broke on it, and I figured rather than doing any more damage to this old relic it might just be easier to get a whole new yoyo (both turned out to be quite difficult).
A few months later stumbled across a skill toy booth at Oz Comic-Con and picked up a Henry’s Lizard, and for the first time in my life I could sleep a yoyo. As soon as I got home I started looking up how to do tricks and I was hooked, only to discover now yoyos have ball bearings and such. Within weeks I’d outgrown the Lizard so I got the ball bearing upgrade, which I then outgrew in another few weeks, so then I ordered a DM2, and went on from there.
My Best Friend Got me started with a Yoyofactory velocity about 2 years ago and ive been throwig ever since ;D ;D ;D
Saw yoyo on TV, saw “bigger kids” playing with yoyos at Golden Gate Park(yes, where BAC has been held). This was back in 1977 and BEFORE. Got a Duncan Imperial in winter 1977, either as a Christmas or birthday present. Let’s just say it didn’t go well and 4 months later, the yoyo was taken away after I “broke the string”. I actually broke the string several times, so I re-tied it to the axle several times before I was caught mid-repair.
Fast forward to 2011, May. After a series of very bad injuries due to moving heavy gear around, I had to find something else to do and video games(which I have) wasn’t it. Portable, light weight, compact and not too expensive were key points(theoretically!). Anyhow, went to the local TRU, got a Reflex and Imperial to get started. 2 weeks later ordered a DM2.
As far as videos that got me started, the YYE videos were key to my choosing YYE for that first yoyo order. I like “one stop shopping”, especially when you can get started: one location for all your needs. For a beginner, it sucks having to go all over the place for support and help.
Same here! I bought a throw monkey after watching that too, and at Big 5. And that was 2 years ago. Creepy
I was bored at work and figured I would get one(Velocity) to pass the time. Had no idea what I was doing or getting myself into. Within a month I bought a OD 54. Then saw all these vids online and was dumbfounded (Stronger by Grant Johnson blew me away) then I found Jensens 2010 worlds vid and have been throwing like a mad man ever since. What a wonderful toy! 
Last Christmas my mom got me a Duncan Mosquito in my stocking. I started messing around with it and learned about the ball bearing inside. I started doing research on when that started, then I realized that I’d have to do some yoyo maintenance to keep it going. That took me to Yoyoexpert where I started learning tricks and posting on the forums. Pretty soon I bought my FHZ and DMII and really got started.
My dad showed me how to throw responsive, basically just a sleeper, walk the dog, and rock the baby or whatever other names it goes by. That was around 7th grade. I really took to it, and I figured out how to loop on my own. I took it in to school a few times and actually kind of started a little fad for a bit. Then I only threw for a few minutes here and there over the course of years.
…then about a year ago, I decided on a whim just to see what “expensive” yoyos looked like, or if there even were any, though I strongly suspected there were. Found YYE and YYN, and there was this whole new world of unresponsive stuff costing way in the hundreds and I was really intrigued by that. After a week or two of looking around, I went ahead and bought a Spyy Addiction.
…which is fitting, because that’s what it became.
Your first yoyo was a majesty!?!?!?
For me it was a trip to Barnes and Nobles, I would always pass by the hobby kit section and I would see a “How to Yo-Yo” kit. It always interested me, but I never really had the money to buy it, or I would just forget about it and buy something else. Until finally I had the money and bought it. The yo-yo’s it came with were underwhelming (basically dollar store looper yo-yo’s) but I was able to do a couple of tricks with them using the trick book it came with, until I came across a certain trick (not sure which one it was, it was a beginner trick of course) and I had to look online for help, where of course I found Andre’s tutorials. However the only somewhat decent yo-yo I had was a Yomega X-brain (which did a bit more than the dollar looper yo-yo’s, I believe I learned more than half the beginners sections with that one) that I bought years a go. So after a couple of days I had to upgrade since the next trick I was gonna learn needed a more modern yo-yo. That is when I went to a hobby store like 30 minutes away that had a collection of yo-yo’s slightly better than what you would find at Wal-mart or Toys R’ Us. And that was where I bought my first ball bearing yo-yo: a Duncan Freehand 2. From there, it is history.
Dave Schulte. Need I say more?
I admired this kid I went to school with who was really quite good (did talent shows throughout middle and high school, doing 1a, 2a, 4a, 5a). Finally bought my first yoyo a couple years ago (maverick) and played around for not very long. Came back a few months ago and really started getting into it. My first purchase was an alpha crash and I got hooked. Slowly working through the tricks here.
Bought my 6 year old a yoyo at a restuarant and when I tried to show her how to walk the dog/rock the baby it wouldn’t sleep. I had yoyoed just enough as a child to know a few basic tricks.
After a few hours of unimpressing my daughter since I couldn’t get the cheap plastic to sleep the string finally snapped from the rigid axle mount. That’s when I discovered the wide range of yoyos and videos throughout the web.
My house had multiple yoyos for both my children and me within days of the broken string.
Absolutely 
and my second was the Rally! Then I jumped in and bought 20 more yoyos since then.
Found my dad’s Russell Professional during spring cleaning, and got hooked. Got a Duncan Profly and many more yoyos after that.
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When I was 7 or 8, Dik Stohr came to my school, so I bought a Spintastics Spin Wizard. I could only do a few tricks (double or nothing and loops were as much as I could figure out on my own) but I got tired of it and put it down.
Summer of last year (I was 15, 16 now), at an engineering internship I had, a friend of mine had a YYF PGM, and did some pretty cool tricks, and he showed me some videos on YT (mostly Ann Connolly and Jensen, I think maybe Tyler as well) and I got hooked. I bought a YYF Whip as my first unresponsive, because I was already familiar with responsive play from when I was younger, I hadn’t forgotten anything. The Whip isn’t the best yoyo, but it was more than sufficient for pretty much any trick. Then I got better and bought more yoyos, and here I am today.
Around 9 or 10 years old me and my friends went to a yoyo people show. I was so intrigued i stuck with it.