Archives for October 22, 2013

Yeah, in HTBAP Vol. 2, I was but a youngling. Steve had tricks of his own and he had learned how to regenerate (create more spin kinda like you do with a diabolo). There were only a handful of active players in the US back then who could regenerate; maybe just Steve Brown, Herman Lau, Jon Gates and Dave Bazan? I had two weeks notice to brush up on my spin top skills before we shot HTBAP.

How did you get started with tops? From what I understand, you were pretty much a novice in How To Be A Player (never thought that when I saw it though.)

Jon Gates got me interested in spin tops. I saw a red Duncan Imperial spin top in his bag at YoYo University (1998 Team High Performance rally conference in Honolulu for the ensuing Bandai X-Brain campaign… ah, nevermind) and asked him what he could do with it. It was easy to learn the basics from him, but what really hooked me was when he showed me how make them spin smoother by using a little blob of putty as a balancing weight. It’s like turning a useless lump of coal into a diamond. I takes some time to find the right spot through trial and error, but since I learned I have never put up with a rough spinning top. Learning spin tops is a lot like learning offstring yoyo; there’s a lot of chaos and frustration when you first start out, but once you get the hang of a trick, the sense of accomplishment is noticeably stronger than your average 1A trick because it was so much harder to get there.

Wow, I’ve never thrown a top but I can imagine how hard it could be to really get a trick down. That sense of accomplishment has to feel great. Merry Go Round is a way to regenerate spin, right? I always thought you and Steve were pretty smooth with tops, the roughest spins in that video would probably be from the smoking/exploding tops in the video.

Merry-go-round doesn’t generate spin.  If I remember right, the only time you see regeneration moves like roller coaster in HTBAP is when Steve is using that giant pink top.  Here is a quick run-down video of  basic regeneration moves:  

Like a lot of players from the early 2000’s, you disappeared from the scene for a while before resurfacing around 2010, actually becoming the World Spin Top Champion in 2011.

In 2001 the yoyo boom that started in ’97 was dead and gone, and it wasn’t so easy to find a yoyoing job anymore, so I fell back on my architecture degree and got a job in my home town, got married, house, kid… I never stopped yoyoing really but nobody else around me was in to it, and I was too busy to keep track of what was developing in the yoyo subculture.  I think it was 2008 when I got an e-mail from John Higby with a link to one of Black’s contest videos, saying “Black says YOU are his favorite player!!!”  That blew me away and so did his tricks.  I didn’t even know that binds existed so it was kind of surreal.  It looked like cheating to me, but I finally gave in when Takeshi (who I hadn’t even met yet) sent me one of his modded Freehands.  I started judging at MOYO each year and slowly got acclimated to the new yoyo scene.  This got me motivated enough to design a family vacation around Worlds 2009.  I was speechless at the level of tricks around me, and I was too embarrassed to even put a yoyo on my finger.  I needed something else to do.

What made you decide to come back, and gravitate more towards tops this time?

I met a fellah who calls himself Ta0.

Ta0 was eager to meet me and said I was famous in the spin top community because of HTBAP vol 2.  I thought he was crazy.  He showed me some very impressive tricks I had never seen before, but they weren’t so radically different like the new yoyo tricks I was seeing.  It looked manageable and I was eager to tackle a new skill.  Ta0 invited me to his spin top forum iTopSpin.com and I have been there ever since.  It’s a lot quieter than your typical yoyo forum because there’s just not as much going on as there is in the yoyo world.

There haven’t been many new products since 2001 when Duncan, Spintastics and YYJ all put out bearing tops for the first time.  YYF did some amazing tops in 2009 but don’t plan to make any more. YYJ quit making tops years ago and they won’t again until they figure out some design issues at the tip.  Crucial has talked about making tops, Werrd made some prototypes, Duncan has had a prototype one way bearing aluminum top ready since 2009.  Strummol8 emerged in 2010 to make the best spin tops ever fabricated IMO, but they are expensive.  What I’m getting at is that there has been very little development for the entry level spin top in the past 12 years, and it is no wonder there are so few new players.  It seems companies are waiting for demand, but that cracks me up because these are the same companies that CREATED yoyo demand.  OK sorry, I will get off my soapbox now 🙂

I’m about 95% sure I saw a video of Black doing a presentation/speech about yoyos to a group of people on YouTube once, and he threw Meltdown for them after saying “After practicing, this is what I could do with a yoyo” (don’t quote me on that, although I’m pretty sure).

I saw that video of Black you are talking about, and when he opened with Meltdown I was just blown away!

In my very unprofessional opinion, I think the reason that yoyos are so popular and the community is so busy is that it’s so accessible. Nowadays, literally anything you could possibly want to know/watch/buy about yoyos is just a click or two away along with a massive community of so many people that do it too.

I like your insight on accessibility…

I originally saw HTBAP sometime in the early 2000’s, but it was 2011 when I really started throwing consistently, not that long before Worlds 2011. In 2011, you became the World Spin Top Champion. What was the process like getting ready for that contest?

I won at 2011 Worlds because Darren Kim smoked me at 2010 Worlds AND Nationals.

Did you expect to get 1st?

I could do more difficult tricks than Darren but on stage it was obvious he worked a lot harder on his routine.  So for 2011 I worked on groups of tricks instead of tricks themselves and it paid off.  I haven’t been able to go back to Chico so I still want that National title.  Planning for next year.  Funny how failure can motivate.  I recently was part of the Kansas City Juggling Festival Main Show, and I was not happy at all with my performance, I just didn’t make time for enough practice.  Now I’m sneaking it in where ever I can, like during my son’s gymastics class:

Practice definitely makes perfect, and saying that you’re the 2011 World Champ has to be a nice plus. I don’t doubt you could get a National title, that would be another awesome accomplishment. Any last words/knowledge/advice you’d like to say about yoyos or tops? Thanks so much Chris, and good luck!