What yoyo did you learn on or first own, and why did you start in the first place?
I learned very painstakingly on a Duncan Imperial. It took me like a week to finally get the gravity pull, I’m kind of a slow learner…
The reason I started was because when I was I third grade there was a yoyo boom and EVERYBODY had one, so I begged and pleaded and finally got the Imperial.
… Now it’s your turn!
I started several years ago with a Russel yo-yo, but at the time it was not my thing. I started (for real) on December 2012 with a GM and a 201. Since then I’ve learned a lot, but I play merely for fun. And sometimes to impress someone. http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/013/7/c/Nem_HEHE_by_nunyx.gif
First steps as a kid on a Canada Games Olympic Yo-Yo. Basically a wooden Imperial-ish shape. Good yoyo! Bought another one recently. Why that one? It’s all that was available.
As an adult, grabbed a Brain… Wing… something… XP? transaxle and did some good learning until I decided I needed a ball bearing. And then it was a Raider for a month. Why these? Because they’re all that were available locally and I didn’t know from anything else.
Then a few videos later and “Holy moly… 1A unresponsive yoyoing!”, the discovery of this site, and ordered a Velocity. Not too long after that, a DM2. Mostly because it came recommended among the yoyos that could be both responsive and not.
Did a bunch of learning on the Velocity, then a bunch more on the DM2, but by the time I was doing things with the DM2 I was kinda hooked and it wasn’t long before I owned others. So I didn’t have just one yoyo that I did “most” of my learning on for Unresponsive 1A tricks.
Now I’m learning fixed-axle on a LoveJoy and Baldwin. Because they’re boss. A bit of Duncan Butterfly in there, too. Because it’s boss. 
Well I started on a Butterfly from Pauls. My dad bought me this because for some reason I decided to loose all my electronics at once(weird right?) (or was it fate?) but anyways I brought it to school the next day as a joke but some Asian kid I didn’t know took it from me and and told me how much it sucked and how he had a DM2 but didn’t yoyo anymore so a week later I bought a Yomega Hyperwarp Heavywing from him he had modded it to make it unresponsive but at the time I had no idea what this ment and within an hour I figured out a bind without help from anybody and now 4 months later I’m way better than the kid that introduce me but I also got him to start throwing again so ya
I started on a Coca Cola yoyo way back in like '95 or something. Never really did do much besides gravity pulls and walk the dog. First yoyo I picked up in the unresponsive era was a DV888 because I wanted a metal and it was the cheapest one I could find.
Yuki
Well I started with the duncan butterfly, because I got it for Easter. I really liked having the yo-yo and thought it be cool to be a “yo-yo guy”. So I started throwing it. Me and my dad would look up yo-yo stuff on youtube. Once I found yoyoexpert I got a DUNCAN bumblebee because… ya’ know… I was a n00b and didn’t know diddly-doo-da about “the way of the yo”. Then I learned… slowly. After a while, I was yo-yoing with my bumblebee at a wedding reception (not professionally or anything just… throwing) and a friend offered to give me his Legacy 1. So he did. It was a bit used, but totally epic. So I continued to learn. The End
Peter Fish Luminator because my friend got it at Walgreens and he left it at my house
C3 capless, wasnt the easiest thing to learn on, but its a great throw
But if you want to go back to third grade i learned on a duncan butterfly and yomega RBII
Back in the boom of the 90’s I had a couple raiders, and a saber raider. My first was an opaque royal blue imperial though. I don’t remember much other than barely being able to rock the baby and loving to do rocket in my pocket.
When I got back into the swing of things it was the old reliable “Hawaii” THP glow in the dark raider I found in my sock drawer. I moved to a dark magic II (still in my opinion the best for intermediate stuff) then I bought a pistolerro. I now have a cars worth of throws from pretty much every company out there. I have huge mitts and prefer almost oversized throws now.
My go-to is my SPYY Solaris and my avalanche. When I want to learn new tricks I generally start with my MVP then use my 1st gen punch line for those tight sticky spots just because its the smallest one I’m comfortable with.
Initially a red imperial. Learned the basic responsive stuff. Parents could afford a small fellow breaking or losing it. (Loved that thing but would never recommend it as a first yoyo today)
Then came the wooden hummingbirds! I loved and still love those things. I’ve worn out so many and learned so many tricks.
First bearing yo was Aerobie Aerospin. That really was my start of 1a.
I’ve had so many more since then but …I’m still learning on everything I pick up.
Years go by, things happen, but the yoyo still provides me with hours of peace, happiness and learning.
Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? ;D
(Not saying I’m old. It’s not like I’m a J-b-426 or veg-b-mb. )
technically a duncan butterfly but I learned on a spintastics terminater got to intermediate got a whip then master on protostar
The one that introduced me to string tricks was a first gen. SpeedDial. Then I got a first gen PGM for learning unresponsive tricks.
