I literally started yo-yoing about a year ago, and I am so happy to have found this community. I remember first buying a Duncan Pro Z and learned the basics and trapeze and his brother slack. I was just looking for something to do that could help me through a tough time in life. and I just fell In love with yo-yoing, I hope one day to compete. not to win, but to just have fun. I now throw a YYF Ti Dream mostly and a CLYW Big Dipper. Yoyoing helps me a lot. In many ways and I can’t thank how awesome the community is. Everyone on here is just awesome.
Mine is kind of long-ish. Started in the mid-late 90s when my cousin got a cheap party favor yoyo from his dentist “for being a good boy” (more like suffering a painful cavity treatment due to the dentist’s rough handling). We dribbled it as that’s all you could do. Being kids who played with simple things, we had contests on who could keep it going the longest. That evening my mom bought us a full sized Imperial-style yoyo (in which the string was sandwiched between the yoyo half and the axle to keep it together…no sleepers). We played with them for a couple days before we got bored with them as the fad wore off.
A couple weeks later I was at my sister’s friend’s birthday party when I saw her friend playing with a Yomega brain. I saw the yoyo be thrown down in what seemed to be an unusual way and saw the yoyo “just hang there at the end” for several seconds and suddenly zip back up to his hand. I thought that was the coolest thing and asked him where he got it.
Next day we go out to the mall where that store was that was mentioned but sadly I didn’t have enough to buy it. I also had a birthday coming up in a couple weeks so I had to wait it out. Having $5 to spend, I went into the neighboring Kay Bee Toys and bought a Duncan Imperial (My dad always told me about Duncans) and that’s when I discovered that yoyos can sleep. I grew up learning the bare bones basics (Sleeper, Cradle, Eiffel Tower, lot of picture tricks) and stopped at Trapeze as that was just hard at the time for me. By then, Pokemon and Magic the Gathering took over yoyoing, and I was in High School where I’m sure I would have been ridiculed for yoyoing…I even kept the fact that I played the Pokemon games to myself lol.
Fast foward to 2010 or so, my niece got a yoyo from her school’s NED performance when my sister (her mom) remembered my yoyoing way back when and had me show her how to use it. I searched around and found my old Fireball from way back and that kind of made me want to get back into it. Between 2010/12 I accumulated several “modern era” throws and learned up to the intermediate and advanced tricks on here (originally found Andre’s tutorials on Youtube) and then took yet again another brake as I felt like I couldn’t advance and just didn’t have that drive to learn the expert stuff). I still attended BAC, picked up some new throws then but that was about it.
2015, a week before my trip to Disneyland my dad had a heart problem and was hospitalized that week leading up to the trip. Having a lot on my mind, I needed something to do to take my mind off of things while I was waiting the long hours at the hospital and brought one of my yoyos along. I also wanted to check out the Duncan Kiosk at Disney come that weekend so I kind of wanted to pick back up where I left off and push myself to learn some of the harder tricks - as I felt ready to do such. That weekend when I went down to Disney I had a “zero day” where there was no park going, just hanging out…so I went to the kiosk and picked up a Duncan Strix and watched some of the Duncan guys demo some tricks, further pushing my desire to learn more.
Month later I attended BAC but leading up to it, I wanted to at least learn a few tricks so I could feel like I knew some cool stuff when I went…and that’s when I met some people in which I still talk to today. Today, I’m pretty much doing my own thing and venturing into the real fun of yoyoing - getting creative and making up tricks.
…yea, told you it was long 
My story into throwing is like this:
When I first came into contact with the yoyo is when the NED Show visited my school for the first time. I thought ‘‘WOW, that’s cool!’’. I bought the NED yoyo with the ball bearing in it. I didn’t really know much & never bothered to learn, so I got bored & lost interest in it (and my first NED throw broke). Then the NED Show visited my school for the second time in 2012. Long story short, I ended up begging my Mom to buy me another yoyo. This time, I got the auto return model. Then, I actually bothered to go on the web & learn how to throw. I also encountered a video of Marcus Koh’s 2011 WYYC performance. Let’s just say it blew my mind.
After learning for a while & getting down the Sleeper, Rock the Baby, Walk the Dog, Eiffel Tower, I ended up snapping my string. But eventually, I got it replaced. I then got a Yomega Dash as my Christmas present. I thought I would get the newly released model that came with a size c bearing, so I ordered a speed bearing to go along with it. But I ended up getting the old model instead. After that, I learned the Trapeze, Double or Nothing, Green Triangle, Buddha’s Revenge, Split the Atom. You know, the basic-intermediate 1A tricks. After that, I decided to get an OOCH Yo for my B day. It was the first Unresponsive yoyo I got. Then I progressed onto a Glide, my first decent yoyo. I learnt even more tricks, like The Hook, Brent Stole, Follow, Spirit bomb etc… But eventually, by the end of 2013, I lost interest.
Now shoot forward into late 2015. I’m in high school & I ended up getting grounded from the internet because I was having too much of it. So during that period, I decided to get back into throwing. A lot has gone on in the yoyo world during that time. A few yoyo companies have gone out of business, YYR was no longer as prominent as they used to be etc. I rediscovered my Glide & got back into learning tricks again. I relearned some tricks I forgot. So I was initially planning on getting a Protostar, but then after seeing that there’s some sweet budget metals produced by YYF, I decided on getting one of these instead. After some time of decision making, I settled on the Czech Point. I received it &learned a whole bunch of new tricks & here I am, back into throwing.
Somebody at my school named Josiah (who I think is on the forums) ised to yoyo all the time when we waited for our parents to pick us up. I thought I could never do that so I didn’t think much of it. Fat forward one year, I somehow foubd myself watching yoyo videos. I thought “Well might as well start now” and my dad ordered me a Yomega Spectrum. I actually faked sick so I could stay home from school and play with it (sorry mom). I got down all of the basics thanks to Yotricks and decided it was time for some string tricks. My dad ordered me a Yomega Xodus II and I got to work on a beginner yoyoers nightmare, the trapeze. I eventually nailed it and began advancing thorugh the trick list. In the middle of the summer, I switched over to unresponsive. I advanced even further and even started making my own tricks. I entered into the SEC Sports 1a, but of course, like most first time competitors, I lost so very miserably. But I didn’t give up. I practice so much every day that I can’t even record it. I even practice at church! I have been yoyoing for about two years now and I love it so much.
I got into yoyoing when I was in third grade (3 years ago) from my teacher. I was able to pick a prize and I got a Duncan Butterfly. From there I got really interested and learned all the basics like sleeper, walk the dog, rock the baby, Etc. Then I picked up my first ball bearing yoyo on Ebay. (I don’t know the name). I started watching yotricks.com and learned some cool tricks. I have been yoyoing for 3 years now and i have been making up my own tricks for about a year now.
Me and my brothers all had yoyos as kids. The Yomega Brain was the big thing back then. Like most things we used them until they were destroyed and found something else to destroy, I found the guitar and one of my brothers found the drums. I focused on music and I don’t regret it., while it is not making me much in terms of money, it is something I will always do. I am in a few bands and continue to make albums and tour, while working at my day job. I work at a pharmacy as a tech and someone bought a Butterfly Duncan that I didn’t even know we sold, probably from years ago and they returned it saying it didn’t work. My co-worker gave them a refund and I saw it and got a bunch of memories from yoyoing as a kid.
I went to my parents house later that week and search my old room to find my old green Duncan Imperial. And I have since Googled about yoyoing to see what has been going on with it since I was a kid and as you all know it’s a lot!
So ever since that in October of 2015 I am really immersed in modern yoyoing. I have bought a lot of yoyos in that short time, my favorite that I have in my collection that I have gotten is my ART Shout. I am also watching some cool stuff from Fixed Axle February that I gotta try to myself. I have also amassed a good amount of kendamas and want to get some good spin tops:)
I got started about five weeks ago. I’m a sixth grade math teacher and a student brought a yoyo to school and started playing with it in class. I confiscated it and told him to pick it up at the end of the day. I started playing with it in between classes. It was one of those Ned yoyos. I decided to run to the toy store to pick up a yoyo and got a Duncan speed beetle. I was having so much fun throwing the yoyo that I stopped smoking. I have some major motivation to keep yoyoing. Learned some tricks on the speed beetle but decided I wanted something better so I jumped online and found YYE. I picked up a dv888 starter pack and a Duncan hornet. I liked both but wasn’t ready for the dv888 so I did so research and picked up a YYJ legacy 3 and a YYF replay pro. I have enjoyed all of them and was proud to be smoke free. I kept increasing my basic skills and learned a few more tricks. The other day I decided to mark my five week accomplishment with a OD gradient. I now have a habit that I’m dedicated to, a supplier that is dedicated to its customers and a favorite manufacturer that is dedicated to producing quality merchandise. I wouldn’t go back for anything. Just wish my trick list would increase at a faster pace but it’s not the end of the world.
Five weeks is still pretty new to yo-yoing. Before you know it, you will be racking up that trick list and then making up your own. Keep at it, and welcome to the community.
it was the best of times. it was the worst of times.
although I have played around with a yoyo as early as 3rd or 4th grade as well as casual throw if i got a free yoyo from some promotional thing through the years, i started really having fun with it in 2011. bought a YYF velocity and a DV88. couldn’t get the hang of the DV88 (it wouldn’t come back - haha). but did learn most of the basic and a few intermediate tricks with the velocity; spent hours and hours getting trapeze.
off an on for a couple years then got the bug bad around 2014. got the DV88 out and learned how to bind and started doing some of the more advanced tricks. then went crazy buying some really nice yoyo - mostly YYF but also a few one drop, Caribou lodge, C3, etc… although i spend most of my play time with the unresponsives, i do also enjoy doing some looping with a couple of looper yoyos.
gw