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Archives for March 15, 2013

Vashek Kroutil & Clint Armstrong vs. YoYoFactory Ricochet

March 15, 2013 By Steve Brown

YoYoFactory Ricochet Titanium

YoYoFactory has dropped two more videos featuring their upcoming titanium release, the Ricochet. Previously covered on YoYoNews, the Ricochet will be available from YoYoExpert on March 17th. In the meantime, here’s what it can do in the hands of two more of your favorite pros…

Next up to test the boundaries of the upcoming YoYoFactory Ricochet we have multi-time Czech National and European Champion, Vashek Kroutil. Clocking in at 55 seconds, Vashek’s run is stylish and impressive.

 

And last but not least, Clint Armstrong cranks an impressive 1:18 with a combo that just. never. ends. Not sure what’s more impressive here, the throw or the thrower. I think Clint can make anything look good, but the Ricochet sure seems to help.

Filed Under: Manufacturer, Video Tagged With: Clint Armstrong, ricochet, titanium, vashek kroutil, video, yoyodrop, yoyoexpert, yoyofactory

New Oxygene YoYo Prototype – Megatron

March 15, 2013 By Steve Brown

Oxygene Megatron YoYo Prototype
Oxygene Megatron YoYo Prototype

Oxygene Megatron YoYo Prototype
Oxygene Megatron YoYo Prototype

(Photos by Hironori Mii)
 

Oxygène YoYo has a new yoyo coming out called “Megatron”, a signature model for 6x Italian National YoYo Champion, Lorenzo Sabatini. Production halves are currently being anodized, but the retail price has not yet been determined. A few raw prototypes are available from Rewind for $130 each, and final production will likely be a bit higher due to engraving and anodization. According to Carlo Menon, owner of Oxygène YoYo;

All the specs were dictated by him [Lorenzo] and while the shape was developed here, he gave me ideas and approved the final project. It took 5 protos to reach the final drawing: the mass is located by maximizing inertia and even with the most precise machines it was hard to get the consistant quality I require for production. This will be Oxygène’s first attempt of having splash anodizing. The name “Megatron” was an idea of Lorenzo’s after he noticed the “bad robotic” look of the yoyo. It was a precise requirement of Ciccia’s that the yoyo could be used for finger grinds in horizontal play, this was also an inspiration to use titanium since the threaded part on the halves had to be reduced and risked to be fragile with aluminum.

Megatron YoYo Specs:

Weight: 66 gm
Diameter: 54 mm
Width: 45 mm
Bearing: C-Size; 10-ball

Check out Lorenzo in action below, at the 2013 European YoYo Championships. No word of final release date yet, but we’ll update as soon as that information is available.

 

Filed Under: Manufacturer Tagged With: carlo menon, lorenzo sabatini, megatron, Oxygene, yoyodrop

Fixed Friday: Static 1A Applications

March 15, 2013 By Ed Haponik

I feel like we have to keep inventing a new vocabulary to express the ideas we want to share. I can’t decide if that’s pretentious or awesome. Regardless, a quick viewing of the video should render any obscurity moot. This week, I wanted to discuss my trick Zipper Stalls, but zoomed out a bit to include some “Stall Versions” of some other fundamentals from the 1a lexicon. An alternate title might be “So you’re in a stall hold… What now?”

Kendama is all the rage now among yo-yoers. I had a dream the other day that it had completely supplanted yo-yoing, and that the world had devolved into a post-apocalyptic ruin where no one believed that Zach Gormley’s “Superman” kendama trick had once actually been done with a yo-yo. Or something like that. In any case, one of the things I love about stall tricks (and Drew’s in particular) is that, absent of the spin’s rotational inertia, landing the yo-yo in any kind of static hold is insanely difficult. When a yo-yo’s spinning, its angular momentum keeps it from swaying and bobbing about, but once you’re in a stall, all that energy turns off. Hitting some of those Kickflip Transitions last week (or Stalled Magic Drop this week) takes precision… and knees. So if you’ve been grinding that ACL trying to hit Lighthouse, take a break, grab a woody, and see if some of these stall applications come a bit more natural.

First trick is Zipper Stalls. Obviously, this is based on the classic Mark McBride trick, which was one of the first things I learned off of the Ken’s World On A String site. It’s not a hard trick to break down, but it’s kind of tricky to make it feel good and smooth. One of the keys is controlling the yo-yo as it rolls through those somersaults, making sure it regenerates relatively straight. Once you have it down, it doesn’t matter so much, and you’ll catch those stalls even when they’re basically sideways. If you like the idea, try it out sideways as in the 2nd example. Same idea, just from Breakaway, but the feel is substantially different.

Trick #3 is kind of like a Zipper Stalls 2.0 thing. after that under-mount stall, spread the string with your free hand thumb/index, and back into that reverse-chop hold. This will give you a mutation in the string, which you’ll just have to roll back and unwind before regenerating. I’ve been trying to do a symmetrical version in front to make it a “true 2.0” but I don’t have it dialed.

Another simple repeater that all the kids [used to] love is The Matrix, one of many Doc Pop alpha tricks that looks 10^10 times better when Doc does them. It’s a nice one to apply to stalls though, because once you tuck into that 2.0 and let go, the yo-yo is pretty secure and easy to keep straight as you flip it around. Unwind after the stall somersault, regen into another 2.0, and… sure, we’ll call that ‘alpha style’.

Moving back to frontstyle, Pop N’ Fresh is a surprisingly easy static trick. even though the yo-yo isn’t spinning, the tension on both sides keeps it pretty level. The only sketchy part is actually getting into that Mach 5. You CAN hit an ordinary split-bottom stall en route to the Mondial pop, but it’s way easier to do a standard undermount stall and bring the middle string around. I guess if you’re a “static 1a purist” who has to hit the tricks as they would appear on a fictional static 1a ladder, then that’d be a problem.

I’ll admit I probably jumped the shark on the Stall Cold Fusion. Don’t worry I come back… with…

Stall Magic Drop! This is a very kendamish trick, indeed. A regular Magic Drop is essentially a wonderfully simple and subtle string rejection. The spin direction of the yo-yo causes the string segment to pop out of the gap (so cool that we can finally reference a non-stall trick where spin direction matters!). So the tough part here is convincing that string to pop out with no spin whatsoever. It requires you to really spread out that ‘gun-hand’ (and of course, to be really accurate as the yo-yo comes around). Probably a good idea to practice this one with a slightly longer string, because you’ve got to have enough to get around your wrist. For those of you who are wondering, yes, I have hit a stall Shockwave… one rep. Maybe for a future episode.

Last but not least, Miggy’s Tunnels tricks are some of the 1a concepts that I most appreciate. There’s something really elegant about folding into a weird mount and reaching into the abyss like Kate Capshaw in that Indiana Jones bug-tunnel to resolve it. Here’s a simple stall version. From Trapeze, fold into a would-be knot (Adam B calls those shapes Nebulas, which I’ve always liked), then immediately plunge your throw hand through, rolling the yo-yo back onto the front string. The knot will be gone, and you should have enough wind left to pull back to the hand. If you don’t have the non-stall analog of that trick down, it would make good sense to do that first.

The key to all of these is to be flexible. Just like kendama, they require you to bob and weave a bit, controlling the angle of the yo-yo as it pops, seeking it out in the air, and getting yourself into the right place. Most of yo-yoing is all about the fine motor stuff, and for lack of a better word, this stuff is comparatively… gross. Theoretically though, you could apply pretty much any 1a trick to a stalled out, spinless yo-yo. Show me something crazy.

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Trick Theory, Video Tagged With: 1A, ed haponik, featured, fixed friday, spyy, trick theory, video

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