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Search Results for: Seth Peterson

Interview- Seth Peterson

November 20, 2013 By Matt McDade

Seth Peterson

Photo by Sonny Patrick

Seth Peterson is one half of the yoyo lifestyle brand, Save Deth. Founded by Seth Peterson and Dave Poyzer, Save Deth is a streetwear brand both influenced by and featuring art from the yoyo community as well as putting out great DVD’s and clip videos full of original footage of your favorite players. Seth is a former member of the Duncan Crew, as well as an extremely smooth and talented player with an awesome mentality towards the art of yoyo. Seth agreed to do an interview and we talked tricks, yoyos, music, and more! Check it out!

Seth, thanks for doing an interview! For those that don’t know, you along with Dave Poyzer started Save Deth, a streetwear brand influenced by the yoyo community and featuring designs by yoyoers/artists like Paul Escolar and Danny Severance. How did you originally start throwing?

I started yoyoing back in 1996. A friend of mine got a yoyo and showed me some tricks. So, I got my own and was hooked. I grew up in a small town in Iowa, so we didn’t have anyone to learn from. I can’t tell you how many hours we spent trying to learn tricks from trick books and videos.

Wow, that’s a while back. Have you stuck around the scene since?

I wouldn’t say I was even part of the scene till 2000 when I went to my first real yoyo contest. But yeah, I’d say I was pretty into it since I started.

That had to be such a different time in yoyoing, I think it would have been cool to see big changes in yoyoing like unresponsive play, more accessibility via the internet, etc. What were some of your favorite tricks back then? What would you say the biggest difference between yoyoing now and yoyoing then is?

I would say the biggest difference for me is the equipment. When I started really getting into learning harder tricks and competing, there was so much tuning and modding you had to do to get something to play well. Not to mention availability. Now, you can get really good bearings yo-yos at Toys R Us. And you have YoYoExpert with a huge selection of modern yo-yos. It’s really a great time to be a yoyoer. As far as tricks, back then, Spirit Bomb was my Holy Grail trick. Also, Steve Brown’s H20 mount tricks like Water Bomb had a huge impact on my way of thinking about tricks.

Those H20 mount tricks are awesome, although I never learned them. I remember seeing Chinese Water Torture and Water Bomb in some Spindox clips. I’ve seen another old trick called Spring Water by a guy named Spiky Haired Raver from back then which uses that mount too.

You have such a smooth style when it comes to your own tricks, when did you start making your own up? 

I think making up tricks was just a natural progression. Back in the early 2000’s, everyone was making up new things. Sector Y and the Spindox videos really brought that to the forefront for me. The trick section was full of new, never before seen tricks and concepts. I think we’re still unpacking what they did over a decade ago.

Do you have any approach to making up tricks?

As far as approach, I try not to try. I don’t compete so I don’t have that pressure of showing new stuff all the time. I’m really glad for that, I love doing my old tricks, and redoing old stuff really helps me with new tricks.

That’s kind of what Paul Escolar said about old concepts when I interviewed him, and it’s true. I’ve been throwing for about 2 1/2 years now but I’ve never competed (except in a trick ladder when I first started). Competitive yoyoing is still cool and I give so much credit to those that do put out fresh material and win contests, but yoyoing for a long time just for the fun of it makes for one good stress reliever.

Seth Peterson EGO by Bio Industries
Seth Peterson EGO by Bio Industries
Seth Peterson EGO by Bio Industries

Seth Peterson EGO by Bio Industries

Back around 06/07, you released a yoyo with the now-defunct B.I.O. Industries called the Ego. I actually got one off of YoYoExpert’s BST a few months ago, but it needs K-Pads. How did that release end up happening? I really liked the way it played before the response wore out.

You’re really pulling skeletons out of the closet! I don’t know how it started actually. But it was an insanely quick process. Basically, I wanted to make an aluminum X-Con, with a D bearing. within a week of describing what I wanted to Alex, it was done and for sale at Nationals. It was a good learning experience, for all the wrong reasons.

I know B.I.O. Industries was notoriously a really, really sketchy company, but that’s another story for another day. Save Deth came along not long after, right? I’m a huge fan of both streetwear and yoyo videos so Save Deth couldn’t really be more of a perfect company. With the yoyo community being a kind of fashionable one, Save Deth is a pretty welcome fit. How did you and Dave get the idea to start the company? Did you wonder whether or not it would not it would catch on at first?

When the Ego happened Alex had just started BIO, it wasn’t till after it happened that I started hearing about all the yo-yos and money he owes people and stuff like that. It’s a bummer.

But, as far as Save Deth goes, it all started with making yoyo videos. The first video of Volume 1, “Downtown” started it all. Dave and I were really inspired by Miguel Correa’s “Manifest Destiny”. It was the first video I’d seen that told a story, and there was as much energy put into the production as the tricks. SO, we set out to try to make a visually interesting video. That was the spring of 2005. Once Dave was done editing that video, we realized we had something that might work as a DVD. So, we spent the next 2 years filming people who would come into town, and eventually we had Volume 1, which was released at Worlds 07. The catalyst for the clothing side of it was sparked in 2006 when I went to BAC and saw Kiya’s store, Turf. Seeing all these cool t shirts and shoes, it made me want to make cool stuff too. Our first shirts were just spray painted stencils. Later, as a “thank you” for making an Anti-Yo Eetsit video, Kiya and Sonny gave us a screen printing kit and a Polaroid camera. I don’t think they could have realized what they were about to start!

After that, it just started to grow. Volume 1 was really well received, and people were really into the stuff we were making.

Did you wonder whether or not it would not it would catch on at first?

It was never a question of if it was going to be successful, we just wanted to make rad stuff with our friends.

Seth Peterson

Photo by Gabriel Lozano

That’s awesome. Manifest Destiny is a good video, another one I like from that era that is kind of along those lines is Fidget by Spencer Berry and Jason Lee. I actually saw Save Deth Volume 2 first and it’s a great video. Not only did it introduce me to a few new players but some great music as well (the song “The Creeps” by Boy Noises from Vol. 2 is really good). What’s the process like in dealing with players, musicians, and all to put together a DVD? It makes for a really unique and enjoyable watch.

Fidget is amazing.

The process was such a learning curve, especially the music. Music Licensing is no joke, and we wanted to make sure we did it right. We would start with a list of bands we wanted to use and just go through and research them, contact labels or agents and try to get them to listen to our pitch. We are also really fortunate to have talented friends like The Envy Corps and Parlours.

Once we get the conversation going with a band or label, the next hurdle is the negotiate a rate. Each song we use, we have to pay for, every time we use it. So a portion of every DVD sold goes back to the artist. Our ultimate goal would be to pay the player as well.

The editing of the videos is basically Dave just working his magic. I’ll start by going through all the footage and cutting out all the misses. Then Dave goes it and sets the shots to the music track, puts in b roll and color corrects the footage.

Wow, I guess when yoyoers post little clip videos on YouTube licensing isn’t a huge deal. But, translate it to a DVD and having rights to use a song is pretty important. If you had to pick, what would your favorite clip from any volume of Save Deth be? I personally couldn’t pick but Danny’s part from Volume 2 comes to mind for having some really great stuff in it.

Yeah, when you start selling something, and it uses someones work, it opens up a whole can of worms.

As far as all time favorite, I’d have to say Abe’s part. I had so much fun filming that.

Not sure if I’m being off topic either but do you know the band Real Estate? They’re a really chill sounding band that I was into a while ago, and I can see some of their stuff being in a Save Deth clip.

I really like Real Estate too. Miggy introduced them to me. I think we listened to the Album “Days” at least once a week when we were roommates.

I listened to “Days” too all the time last year, a lot of good stuff on there. What about Wild Nothing? They’re a little different than Real Estate musically but they’re another band I like. Don’t know about their music in a clip though.

Yeah, Wild Nothing is dope too. I was going to use “Chinatown” for a video a while back. I think it was an Elliot Jackson video?

Save Deth 5 Panel Corduroy Hat

5-Panel Corduroy Hat by Save Deth

Anyway, what can we expect to see from Save Deth and you in the future? I know you recently released some pretty nice 5 panel hats that I’ve seen make some appearances in some clip videos recently.

The future, thats a good question. The new hats are the start. I’d like to do more with Save Deth, both on the clothing and media fronts. We haven’t put out a shirt in a while, but I’ve got new ideas and I hope we can put some of them out. As far as new media, things have changed a lot since we released Volume 2. YouTube was still growing, and HD video was a luxury not a norm. Now, everything is streaming in HD. In a way it’s awesome because now we don’t have to get DVDs made and have to deal with shipping. But, the infrastructure of online video is tricky.

It’s amazing how much of a leap there’s been in video within the last 5 years or so, I discovered YouTube around ’06 and remember when there were “Director Videos” on the side of page as well as putting that special code at the end of video url’s to make them stream in HD.

Dave and I have always wanted to make a photo book of Polaroids we’ve shot over the years. So, maybe we’ll be able to do something like that.

A photobook would be awesome, I’ve been getting into photo zines lately and although a photobook isn’t necessarily the same anything kind of analog-driven in great. Shirts too, I don’t think the popularity of a well-designed, comfy tee will go away any time soon

For me, my wife McKenzie and I just moved to Portland yesterday. There’s so much going on in this city, I love it. And I hope I can be part of it all. I’m setting up a little screen printing shop, and I hope to start a few different projects that I’ve wanted to start, but didn’t have the time to. Ask me the same question in 6 months and I’m sure I’ll have a much better answer.

I’ve never been to Portland, let alone Oregon, but I wish you luck! Any advice for anyone trying to get into yoyoing/photography/filming/graphic design?

I think there are still great places for physical, analog things. I really enjoy good books and zines, records, toys. Stuff that’s fun to interact with. Videos, I don’t think I’ll miss DVDs.

Portland is awesome. Every time I visit, I dig it more. I’m stoked to live here now.

As far as advice, I’m still figuring it out myself. Just ask questions and enjoy learning. If you have an idea, work to figure out how to do it.

I totally agree and feel the same. I should grab “Days” on vinyl or something, although my ipod is convenient nothing beats the warm sound of vinyl. On behalf of myself and YoYoNews, thanks Seth! I really appreciate it, and like I said good luck!

Thanks for inviting me to be a part of it!

Filed Under: Interview Tagged With: featured, Interview, save deth, seth peterson

Cabin Tutorial – Seth Repeaterson

August 18, 2013 By Steve Brown

Chuck grabs a CLYW Yeti and lays it on with this repeater from Seth Peterson.

From Seth:

“The singular move was actually part of a combo Miguel Correa came up with. He showed me in the summer of 2009 when we were working on a documentary. When I saw that part of the combo I asked, “Wait, I think you can repeat that”. And thus, the repeater was born.”

 

 

 

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: cabin tutorial, charles haycock, chuck, clyw, seth peterson, video

Throwback Thursday: Team Chubby Lovin’ Vol. 1 (NSFW)

July 6, 2017 By Steve Brown

If Abe, John-Bot, Drew Tetz, and Seth Peterson aren’t some of your favorite yoyo players ever, you might be doing it wrong. Take a look back at 2010 with this classic video from the most illustrious and mysterious team (yes, more mysterious than Team Mysterious Raccoon, even) in the history of Midwestern yoyoing.

Yoyos used are all out of production, sorry. Life moves fast.

Music is NSFW.

Filed Under: Players, Throwback Thursday, Video Tagged With: abe da gravedigga, drew tetz, john-bot, seth peterson, team chubby lovin, throwback thursday, yoyo tricks, yoyo video

Scales Podcast Ep. 5 – Save Deth

March 21, 2017 By Steve Brown

Scales Podcast

The Scales Collective is at it again with another podcast that brings an influential force in the yoyo industry to the front. Seth Peterson talks with Keiran Cooper and Patrick Canny about Save Deth, the first lifestyle brand in the yoyo industry and a huge creative force in the “mid school” period just after the Hyper YoYo boom died out.

Seth Peterson is one of the most influential yo-yo players of all time, but unlike most, it’s for more than just his tricks.

Seth led a very inspiring yo-yo movement called Save Deth, in which he had travelled with Dave Poyzer all over the United States and filmed amazing yo-yo content, whether it be at contests or just in a casual scene. On top of this, Seth’s attention to design and detail in all aspects such as clothing and content is something that lots of people worldwide learned and stemmed off of. To call him an innovator is an understatement; he is a pioneer.

Interview by Keiran Cooper and Patrick Canny
Introduction by Mark Mangarin

Scales Collective

 

Filed Under: Featured, Interview, Players Tagged With: Interview, keiran cooper, Patrick Canny, podcast, save deth, scales collective, seth peterson, yoyo

Recess Announces Danny Severance Edition YWET

March 31, 2016 By Steve Brown

Danny Severance YWET

Recess Intl. just announced a beautiful limited edition release, commemorating the life and general badassery of Danny Severance. These will be available in limited quantities at RecessIntl.com, tomorrow, April 1st, at 8 pm EST. I’ll let his brother Tyler do the talking on this one.

My brother, Danny Severance, was and is one of my biggest inspirations not only in YoYoing but also in life. Anyone who met him would probably say something of a similar effect.

2 years ago he decided to take his own life. As much as it pains me and all of his family/friends and the people he touched, we all know he’s in a better place and wouldn’t want us wallowing in sorrow.

So instead, I’ve made some YoYos in his honor. If you ever got to meet Danny or see some video of him throwing earlier on, you would know how partial he was to a Purple Freehand Zero with plain white caps. A clean look inspired by Seth Peterson and so many of his idols who threw Freehands before him.

This is an original Anti-Yo YWET powder coated in his favorite color way. As you may know these YoYos weren’t sold to the public due to a bearing seat machining error. This is fixed with a simple shim to adjust the gap of you YoYo, and all pieces are hand tested to perfection before shipping. Shims will be glued into place.

They’ll be funding a team who will be walking the “Out of the Darkness” overnight fundraiser, with all proceeds being used in the fight for suicide prevention.

If you’d like to donate regardless of YoYo Purchase you can do that at this link:

http://theovernight.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=17894

YoYos will be released on Friday April 1st (8 PM EST), and be shipped in mid April after powder coating is completed. Price will be $70.

Filed Under: Featured, YoYo Drop Tagged With: Danny Severance, goddammit, miss you danny, out of the darkness, purple, recess, suicide prevention, tyler severance

Interview – Adam Brewster

July 14, 2014 By Matt McDade

Adam Brewster - CLYW

Adam Brewster is undoubtedly one of the most creative  and influential yoyo players of the modern age. Alongside a laundry list of great tricks that he’s created, Adam Brewster can also boast a vast amount of videos that he has appeared in or created  as a collaborative effort with his wife. In addition to winning several contests, Adam continues to be a very unique and stylish yoyoer that belongs on everyone’s list of favorites. I’ve had Adam in mind for an interview for quite a while, and was excited to talk to and learn more about him!

Adam, you’ve been a relevant name in yoyoing ever since I started throwing and actually much longer than that. How did you first get into yoyoing?

I was actually just thinking about this the other day, and there are two answers.

The first, is that I have been playing with yoyos, just doing gravity pulls and basic sleepers since I was about 8 years old (20 years ago, holy moly!)

But then, I really got into it around May of 2002 when my family moved from Australia back to the US. I found Yomega’s website, which at the time had was what’s probably best described as an early precursor to YoYoExpert’s trick list. It had Brett Outchcunis and Mark Montgomery doing tricks ranging from basics, to advanced, and then bronze, silver, and gold for the highest levels.

I got my first ball bearing yoyo around then and spammed the web boards looking for tips to learn all the tricks I could get my hands on

How would you describe yoyoing then?

It was a kind of strange time. The gigantic explosion in trick creativity from ’00 & ’01 was done. (Although people like Yuuki Spencer and Johnnie DelValle were still pushing the envelope quite a bit) Fh1s weren’t for sale anywhere so people went from having really good 1A yoyos easily available, to having to settle for something not-quite-as-good (or modding what they had), and I think unless you were in a city that had a decent pocket of yoyo players around you, the best you could do was tinker with the tricks on Sector-Y that were already a year or two old and try and come up with some kind of variation. Since I was in Oklahoma City with the closest players being 3 hours away in Dallas, I just spent hours and hours soaking up/learning all I could.

Wow, so that would be the period between when the Fh1 mold broke and it was discontinued and when the FHZ was released in 2004?

Yeah! That was exactly that period! Haha.

What were some of your favorite tricks early on?

Early on, tricks and trick creators were indelibly linked and any time I liked one person’s tricks, I liked them all.

Jason Lee, Spencer Berry, SAGE, and Paul Escolar WERE my trick influences back then.

Red Clover was probably the biggest non-Spencer trick to influence me… But I remember specifically bugging Spencer Berry more via AOL instant messenger about tricks than anyone else back then. Breath, Rancid Milk/Curdled Mayo, Cataclysm and Enigma were all watershed tricks for me.

I also had an annoying enough personality that since I always felt like I missed out on the trick hey-day of 2000-2001, I bugged people ALL the time to figure out if that ‘crazy new thing’ I tried was actually new or if Steve Brown and Chris Neff did it back in ’99… Haha.

All of the tricks that you mentioned are some of my favorites that I’ve discovered from the era, a lot of them are actually kind of crazy even by today’s standards.

Yeah! It still amazes me how some of those tricks came out so polished and clean from what were essentially very unrefined concepts.

So, back then you were heavily influenced by those tricks when creating your own tricks?

I think back then, as now, I really just played around with things. Taking the time to go, “now I know I’m supposed to ‘x’ but let’s see what happens if I do ‘y’.” Plus a lot of accidental discoveries.

Oh, and I always hated Green Triangles. Everyone kept ending tricks in GTs (’04-’07 was notably bad) so I never let myself finish a trick that landed in a GT, until I figured out a way to make it NOT land in a GT. I do a few nowadays, as I don’t see the need to feel animosity for any trick… but vestigially, you’ll see them few and far between with me.

Oh! And additionally, I always liked the idea of playing around with concepts in reverse. I’m still chasing after a ‘Magic Rise’ so I can go from Trapeze to Magic Rise to Magic Drop, over and over seamlessly.

So, at what period would you say you started to develop your own style? One of my favorite clip videos from you is your “Bend and Fold” video in which you threw a responsive FHZ and features a lot of your folds/gates style.

It was actually a Fh2, not that it matters! Haha.

I started to do a couple of things specifically:

#1. I wanted to go back to the most basic of tricks and see if there were elements there that had been missed out on. I figured, if grinds are basically a glorified, “Walk the Dog” what other fundamentals could be applied with a new viewpoint? (i.e. Rock the Baby/Elevator)

#2. I played a lot with posturing. I still think this is the key to just about any trick that looks good. There’s this old video from ’07 called Back and Forth- Fun in 3D where I played with moving the mount itself instead of moving the yoyo around (for the most part), and after that, I started to realize that a lot of how a trick looks is all in how your hands are held, and it wasn’t just “hitting the mount.”  I think the best take on this I’ve seen since then, is Jason Lee’s “Wiggly Thing” where the yoyo is locked into the mount, and the whole difficulty of the trick is in how everything else is moved around to make the trick look good.

So, how did all of this transpire into you becoming sponsored by Caribou Lodge?

I guess there are a few ways to answer that…on one hand, 2008 was a pretty good year for me!

I won my first contest (SER 2008), I came up with a lot of my favorite tricks (most everything from Eleven still contains concepts is like to re-explore – too bad it’s hard to see anything haha), got 2nd in prelims at BAC, and even got to go out for Nationals. I also got to be in a lot of videos like Brandon’s Throw 2008 DVD, and I think the biggest factor though was that I had started to become good friends with Chris, and Boyd had been trying to convince him to give me  a chance for quite a while.

I think all those things came together, and while on a trip to visit my family with my then fiancée, (now wife) and on Christmas Eve, I got a call from Chris asking if I wanted to join! It was the best gift I got that year!

You appeared in Save Deth Volume II with a pretty great part that kicks off the video, what was the process in filming for that like?

It was a lot of fun! I was living with Seth Peterson at the time, so I kind of had an ‘in’. Haha. Anyway, one day he and Dave scheduled it, we went downtown to Des Moines and shot it! Good times!

What would you say the biggest difference, if any, being a leftie makes in yoyoing? I’m left handed too and I always refer to my hands in tricks as my throw and non-throw hands as opposed to my right and left hands to avoid confusion.

Hey! A fellow southpaw! Alright! For me, being a lefty was weird at first, but when I clued in that I could treat just about every video like a mirror, it opened up a world of trick learning! Now I love it!

Yep, the “mirror” thing with tricks is what I’ve always done too, I don’t even realize I’m doing it anymore half the time. Despite being married and in the scene for so long, you still put out clip videos and new tricks on a pretty consistent basis. If you had to pick, what’s your favorite clip video that you’ve ever made?

All in all… it’s a tough call. Honestly, a lot of my videos aren’t that “good” as far as production quality, since I’ve always been more interested in just documenting the tricks (thank God for Instagram).

As far as videos for the sake of videos go, I’d have to say that I’m honestly partial to Pacific Bonfire, and Greetings from Lake Superior at the moment, just because the locations were so beautiful.

There’s also a Gnarwhal 2 promo vid I shot a couple of months ago that we’re keeping a tight lid on for now, but when the time’s right, we’ll release it and I had a ton of fun with that one.

I also feel like I need to mention this fun video that my buddy Bo-Jack made for me. Never really got the exposure I was hoping it would’ve, but there are a ton of tricks  that I really enjoy in it.

So how’s that for a clear & concise answer? Haha.

To touch on something else that I’ve always been curious about, what’s the story behind the name of Spencer Berry’s combo, “Adam Brewster Won”? That’s a good combo that takes some getting used to due to the lack of hand movement.

Yeah, so ECC 2008 was my first time meeting Spencer Berry face-to-face, and even though we’d been long-time internet friends, we really hit it off in person. Well, I also practiced my ass off for that contest and got 3rd place, and was kinda bummed out, but Spencer said that I won in his heart, so he named that combo to cheer me up.

Ah, that’s awesome! Speaking of which, one of my favorite tricks of yours is Eureka, which is your answer to Spencer’s Enigma. I know this is probably impossible to answer, but if you had to pick what would your favorite trick that you’ve invented be?

Haha oh man… can I default to the always-lame answer of “whatever I’m working on at the moment?” Haha.

If I think about it, I’ve always like Shadowgraphs and Deep Dungeon, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t toot my horn also for, Gunshots, Tether, Tie Me Up! Untie Me!, and Elevators too.

Tether would have to be on my list of favorite tricks ever, that’s a cool one!

What would your advice be for any aspiring trick creator?

As far as advice, I’d say the 2nd best thing to do is learn a lot. The more of a library you have to reference and draw from, the more likely you’ll see or understand something in a new way.

The best thing I can say is to just try to be open to being creative. Creativity is in how you talk to people, in making sure you take the time to read good books that challenge you, or listening to music that inspires you, or even the food you eat and how you work your day job (or schoolwork). I say it over and over again, but I believe it wholeheartedly.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

Hmm… well, I was just at Triple Crown this past weekend and then there’s the Iowa State contest which will be sometime in September, but after that, things will wind down for me for a little bit ’til contest season starts up again next year. So maybe another video or two? (I hope so!) Thanks so much for the opportunity Matt, I really appreciate it! 🙂

Filed Under: Interview Tagged With: Adam Brewster, clyw, featured, Interview, video

5A May – Tyler Severance – NEW 5A Tutorials & YoYoExpert SuperNova Deal!

May 11, 2014 By André Boulay

To celebrate 5A May YoYoNews, YoYoExpert, and Tyler Severance have teamed up to bring you some exclusive tutorials with motivation to learn!

Throughout the rest of the month Tyler will be releasing 5A tutorials and if you learn any of the tricks you can score an exclusive discount on a SuperNova (Tyler’s signature yo-yo!)

Details on how to score the discount is here:
http://yoyoexpert.com/blog/5a-may-supernova-discount/

5A May ‘Trick Challenge’ for SuperNova Discount


Punching Bag


Infinite Redirection


Atsuhi Yamada Tangler Variation


Underwhip Repeater


Seth Peterson Body Trap

Filed Under: Players, Video Tagged With: 5a may, featured, Learn, supernova, Tutorials, tyler severance, yoyoexpert

Fixed Friday: Buckets

September 6, 2013 By Ed Haponik

Hi ho, everybody!

I hope it’s been an awesome week, and that you’re ready to kick off those hard shoes, slip on your best organic type-8, and rock out with a refreshing late-summer fixed axle spin session. I read someone on the internets this week describing fixed axle yo-yoing as a “current fad”. As somebody who’s been pushing it (sometimes obnoxiously) for about 7 years, part of me took that as a compliment. However, I don’t see it the same way, exactly.

To me throwing fixed axle is a two-fold path. It’s obviously a great way to connect with our heritage; with the roots of yo-yoing. Our art began on the high-friction noble disks of yesteryear, and every day I try to take time to  appreciate the scope and breadth of what yo-yoing has become over almost a century of innovation. Fixed axle is also a really natural way to push forward though. Playing modern 1a is its own challenge to be sure, but sometimes it can be difficult to see the creative potential. There are so many great players throwing down so many amazing tricks these days, it’s easy (albeit unfair and untrue) to slouch into the belief that you can’t come up with anything new and significant. With fixed axles though, it feels like there is room for a game-changing trick concept almost every week. For years, wood was relegated to the creative prison of the antiquated and/or novice, which has set the stage for the revolution we now enjoy. I literally wake up in the middle of the night thinking “Oh my crap, I can just Dumptruck into that Wrist-mount!”, after which my wife slaps me. Similarly, the empty space in our fledgling fixed axle style is perpetually beating us about the head and neck, and it’s comparatively easy to feel innovative.

Has it gained popularity? Absolutely. At Worlds, pretty much everybody wanted to be Drew. I saw more butterflies and kickflip attempts than I have in summer meadows and suburban skateparks. But I like to think what we’re trying to build is not so much a fad, but a valuable and lasting counterpoint to the mainstream. If it makes you happy to feel like a hipster, go for it. But I think it’s safe to say that what we’re not trying to define ourselves against the current so much as check out newer, smaller connected streams.

In any case, this week I wanted to go back to where we started and look at a standard trick element and it’s applications to fixed axle. Going back to our original model, the video starts with basic concepts and technique, and then gets into some more interesting applications at the end. This week is all about Buckets (and their kissing cousins, Triangles).

In the initial trick, I show a pretty standard entry into a move I imagine most of you have tried by now: a Drop-in-the-Bucket Stall. Discovered by Thad Winsenz, Buckets are an essential aspect of modern string geometry, but are so ubiquitous that they often they pass almost unnoticed in freestyles. In fixed axle, they demand a bit more attention, and will readily reward the unfocused with a snag, a whack, and a knot. That said, they work great for stalls. Since a lot of the string is accounted for, you may want to practice with a slightly longer string than you typically play with in order to make sure you can regen out of the holds.

One of the key discoveries from a few years back that made Buckets way more useful was the Instamount concept. There are several ways to get into a bucket directly from breakaway (or a laceration). In the 2nd trick, I show one of my favorites. As the yo-yo comes around to your non throw-hand side on breakaway, use that non-throwhand index to pull a string segment out over your throwhand thumb and an adjacent segment with your throwhand middle finger. This will open up a nice little 3-string formation, and as you might guess, the one in the middle there makes a perfectly serviceable bucket. While the traditional mount can waste precious time, I can get directly into this version, even with an Imperial.

If you elect to hit the string closest to your body instead, you land in a really cool and immediate triangle. A Green Triangle is essentially a bucket mount minus one extra bend in the string. They have different feelings, but very similar DNA. The tough thing about triangles on fixed axle is that the doubled string at the bottom can easily cause a snag. This is usually easily avoided by reversing the yo-yo’s spin. It’s tough to see, but on that Instatriangle, I threw with a reverse breakaway for that reason.

Next up, we stall that Instabucket out in a trick I call Infinite Instants. I’ve shown a version of it before. In this one, I stall out an Instabucket, regenerate to a Man-Bro stall on the other side, rinse, repeat.

At :30, we get into what may be the ultimate Butterfly Horse trick, Manly Bucket. I have no idea who came up with this gem, but it was first shown to me by Danny Severance on his trusty purple FH2 in 2008. It took me awhile to get it dialed on a No Jive, but man – nothing feels better. It’s pretty easy in concept – just a totally traditional Bucket entry… only you have to do the whole setup during the breakaway. Not a huge problem with an unresponsive yo-yo, but a knuckle-seeking No Jive (or Danny’s FH2) will be dying to punish your hubristic hands before the yo-yo gets to your shoulder. It’s an exercise in control, and as the next few tricks show, it can be stalled out directly or after a hop.

At :50 I come back to another triangle. Though this is not a bucket, the wrist-whip which begets it demonstrates how closely related the elements are. I like this mount way more than the ever-present Brent Stole, but like that Instatriangle I showed earlier, this one will usually require a reverse throw on Breakaway.

Around the 1-minute mount, I start getting more interesting. My bearing play is replete with pinch-mounts (maybe that’s why I love Lunars so much), and this Pinch-n-Roll move is one of my favorite ways into a Spirit Bomb Wrist-Bucket. To hit that on a No jive, I find I have about 5-6 tries max before I need a new string. TMBR’s are certainly more forgiving.

Seth Peterson and John Bot taught me the pull-mount Bucket that leads to my trick Hyacinth at Indy States one year. It’s one of the most aesthetically interesting mounts I’ve ever seen. At 1:20, I go ahead and turn the thing upside down while stalling it out. Was kind of surprised to discover that it works! Anyway, I did the whole Hyacinth trick on 365, and again for my video Big Deal last week – which you should go watch!!!

Ladder Mounts I learned from Jeff Coons of the Millbury Crew. I think Andre does his a bit differently, but they arrive at the same place. The beauty of the Ladder is that most of the segments are actually “safe zones” which you can drop without a knot. Not so with this middle one, which is a true Bucket. (The segment from your throwhand thumb, incidentally, yields a triangle – go figure.)

I come back to Instabuckets at 1:39. It’s me this week, so there’s gotta be a Snap-Start trick. You could just as easily hit this from Forward Pass, but this has more panache! Same mount as that original Instabucket, but you gotta be ready to grab that segment to land it off a snap.

Last two tricks, I think, are pretty cool. It’s possible to Dumptruck out of a bucket, but I had a hard time coming up with a consistent example. Dumping INTO an Instaucket, however, is pretty simple and feels great. I’m calling them Dumptruckets©™®. (I heard what you said, Drew Tetz! Next year, all the kids will want to be ME!)

And finally, speaking of mashup repeaters, we have a trick I’m calling Planet Bombs. Basically, an alternation between a Wrist-Bucket stall and an undermount stall, this one has a distinctly Planet Hoppish feel on account of the no-flip regens so common to stall tricks.

Aaaaaaaand that’s it! I hope you found something you could sink your teeth into, conceptually. If you have a chance to explore some alternate concepts in the fine art of bucketry (or if you have some applications you hold dear), I hope you’ll let us know about them in the comments!

 

 

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Video Tagged With: buckets, ed haponik, featured, fixed friday, trick theory

New Triple Crown Monster Vinyl Figures Available

August 3, 2013 By Steve Brown

Rotofugi launched a new colorway of the Triple Crown Monster vinyl figures at this years San Diego Comic Con, and they’ve finally released the leftovers online.

Triple Crown of YoYo Monster Vinyl Figure
Painted – $100/ea
Triple Crown of YoYo Monster Vinyl Figure
Unpainted – $70/ea

This latest edition of the Triple Crown of YoYo mascot is lavender, and available painted or unpainted. Unpainted version retails for $70 each, and painted versions are $100 each. The Triple Crown Monster is the official mascot of the Triple Crown of YoYo, a yoyo contest series that André Boulay, Seth Peterson, and myself started back in 2011. The monster was designed by Chris Ryniak, and sculpted by Shinbone Creative. The vinyl figures are produced by Squibbles Ink + Rotofugi.

Filed Under: Contests, General News Tagged With: chris ryniak, rotofugi, shinbone creative, squibbles ink, triple crown monster, triple crown of yoyo, vinyl figure, vinyl toy

Fixed Friday: Weirdsmobile

July 12, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Hello again, fixie faithful, and welcome back to another installment of Fixed Friday. This week we’re taking a look at a hodgepodge of maneuvers with no common thread beyond being bearingless… but isn’t that the joy of the fixed axle community?! We’ll get back to the group hug later, in the meantime let’s check out the tricks.

The first trick is actually maybe the hardest in the video, but also one of the most rewarding due to being a fusion of string trick techiness and responsive stall zippiness. The mount is based heavily on the 2or0 chopsticks stall that you may have learned in our Crisis installment, but keeps the throwhand more involved; basically, you’re going to throw a double or nothing, but spread your finger & thumb the first time the yo-yo comes around your non-throwhand so that the next time it comes around you can land between them. This can be tricky if you’re not experienced with chopsticks! I definitely recommend practicing it with a spinning yo-yo before trying to catch it as a stall. The fun part of the trick, though, is moving your throwhand (which is still holding a string) underneath the yo-yo and pulling down like a pulley trick to launch the yo-yo out of the mount—in this case, launching out initiates a regeneration, which I personally like to send into a Makin’ da Zines and transition right back into the trick. This trick is in the “little kid dropping their ice cream cone” family (along with Ice Cream on the Moon and Kid Cone), so in further tribute to Seth Peterson I like to call this trick “Lactose-Free French Fry Ice Cream.”

Next trick is a bit of a silly one: z-axis rolls to dumptrucks. One of the best parts of stalls is breaking out of the mindset that yo-yos stay stable and only move on one plane… while this trick is kind of silly, it’s also easy and fun, and using the momentum of the swing to continue into an upside-down dismount shows that it could have potential in the middle of “real” stall somersault combos. And who doesn’t like weird spinny things?

The next trick is a simple leg wrap behind the back stall combo. Now, I say “simple”, but as with any behind the back trick it has the potential to be totally obnoxious if you miss. I recommend learning the btb braintwister stall at :38 in “The Butterfly Video” as a primer for this if you’ve never done a btb stall before, but the turn and reset is one of my bread & butter moves to show nonyoyoers so I’ll stand by that, too. Under the moon to spin move out is optional.

Next up is more or less a string trick combo, but it’s good to remember that those can be done on responsive yo-yos, too. The most useful move to pick up out of this is probably the “monster tickler dismount” that happens at 32 seconds: from a trapeze, do that cross-armed dismount Kohta & Yuuki make look so good, but let the yo-yo start responding so you can catch it in a stall when you uncross. This gives you plenty of momentum to go right into a somersault a la zipper stalls.

The next trick is directly inspired by John Ando. While many new kids primarily think of him for his (mindblowing) 1A, never forget that he is also a 2A National Champion and that 2A concepts are ripe for the pickin’ in responsive 1A. This particular trick uses a trapeze dismount to send the yo-yo out behind the throwhand arm before recalling it, and then allows the yo-yo to bump the throwhand bicep on the return. The arm bump is one of the more subtle tough love regens, and (like everything I do) combos nicely into Zines.

At 50 seconds in, we got a “lazy laceration.” We briefly explored grabbing the yo-yo in our Whips column, and here’s another way to set up a string loop with a non-spinning yo-yo. Right after that, we got… I dunno… Horizontal revolutions to trapeze stall? It looks like cheating, but it’s somewhat relieving that horizontal stalls naturally swing right back down to trapeze (thanks, gravity!)

I close out the clip with another exit from the 2or0 chopsticks stall, this time using that z-axis somersault. Twenty points to the first person who can show me this trick in reverse – can you swing from a trapeze into a 2or0 chopsticks? Other possible applications include letting the momentum carry you into a dump truck dismount or a crisis flip into wrist mount. Let your heart be your guide!

What are you throwing this fixed friday? Learn a trick? Got a trick request for next time? Let us know in the comments!

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Trick Theory, Video Tagged With: butterfly, drew tetz, Duncan, fixed axle, fixed friday, wheel

Fixed Friday: Advanced Stall Tactics

June 21, 2013 By Ed Haponik

And so, another week has come and gone. The rattly sounds of clean bearings still reverberate within the empty caverns of our minds as we once again don wood and cotton for some high-friction fun.

I showed my friend and conspirator, Drew Tetz, the vid for this week and he remarked that its mostly full of “cool orphan concepts”. This is an apt description, seeing as the only connective elements which I can draw between the tricks are as follows:

a.) they involve stalls

b.) they are mostly pretty hard

Don’t let this discourage you. I’m confident that whether you are a firmly-entrenched denizen of fixed-axle gloryland or a total novice, there will be relevant elements discussed, as well as something to try or improve upon.

Case in point, there really isn’t anything difficult or significant about the first trick. “Houdini Extreme” as I like to call it is really just an exercise in string-grabbing frivolity. It’s a little like Chuck Short’s old “Taffy Puller” trick in that you can continue to grab and release segments as much as you like. If your response is reasonably aggressive, when you drop everything you’ll be sitting in a simple Trapeze Stall. Similarly, there’s nothing inherently difficult about trick #2 (just your basic Laceration Stall), but it CAN be a good test of your control to go from a regular Laceration to the stalled-out version. At 0:16, we have one of my favorite “tech” stalls. This is a weird bucket I discovered after learning the Millbury version of the popular ladder-mount. Actually since most ladder-mounts are landed on the trapeze side, you can stall the majority of them from a standard breakaway. The wonderful thing about ladders is that they create about 6 totally makeable string segments – lots of room to explore, whether in stalls or otherwise.

I’m not sure what the next trick is called or who I learned it from. I know I’ve heard it described as “Robin Hood”, but that pertains to at least 3 other tricks I know, too. The mount is easy enough. It’s basically just a 1.5, but caught prematurely on the FREE hand between the thumb and forefinger. Like virtually everything else, it’s also perfectly stallable, with a few nice regen possibilities on the way out. One of my favorite unresponsive Stop-N-Go’s is off of this mount, and I feel like there’s a lot left to play with in the stall version, too.

Around 0:36, you have a simplified version of one of my favorite tricks from my stint on 365, “Infinite Instants“. It took about an hour of discussion with Sir Mounts-a-Lot (AKA Randy “the Candy-Man Dancin” Jansen) to ensure that the insta-bucket-stall I’d happened upon was not the same as any of his own. Though less manly than the Manly Bucket, insta-buckets of all sorts are huge fun on fixed axle, and this trick is just a repetition of one stalled version (the original alternates with a Man-Bro stall). Oh, and look! More of my 365 material has come out to play. “Dead On Arrival” is a stall version of a brilliant Seth Peterson suicide trick (at least that’s where I learned it), and the next trick is the back half of “24in Pythonz“, basically an over-the-bicep bro-stall.

Alot of what I like to do with fixed axle yo-yo’s involves applying the stall-regen rhythms which are so applicable to fixed axle yo-yo’s to classic 1a elements. During his relatively brief career as a trick innovator, SAGE got about as close to the East Coast version of Paul Escolar or Spencer Berry as possible. That isn’t meant to make him sound derivative, either, as much of his stuff feels refreshingly distinct from that Spindox style. “8-Diagram Pole” is an icon of modern 1a, and 1:03 shows a fixed axle interpretation of the first hop. No reason you couldn’t apply the way back, either. Maybe next week. Skipping ahead to 1:24, we have another stall-turned-repeater which I like a lot. “Teratoregens” is basically a convoluted/inverted Lunar Landing caught on the brother side (which is usually reserved for the opposite spin direction). In this case it works, since the wrist is flipped over.

The last two tricks have that kendama-ish flavor which continues to pervade and inform Fixed Friday. Around 1:50, we have a combo featuring concepts I’m in the midst of exploring. We’ve discussed Dumptrucks quite a bit, and hops within stalls to some extent (Drew uses both of these elements frequently). And bringing it home, my trusty “Iron Stall” is a pretty good way to drive yourself insane on an otherwise fine day. You really have to lift the yo-yo evenly, keeping either half from flopping over. It helps to use a yo-yo with high walls, like this TMBR Freemont.

And that’s the news. Good night and good luck!

 

 

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Video Tagged With: ed haponik, featured, fixed friday, trick theory

Fixed Friday: 1.5zzzzz

June 14, 2013 By Drew Tetz

This Friday we’re going to take a deeper look at one of the most versatile mounts in modern responsive play, the 1.5 stall. The 1.5 is one of the foundational string trick mounts, so as you can imagine there’s a metric ton of fun stuff to do with it. Here’s a small sampling of that fun stuff transposed with the bearing taken out:

Before we get goin’ on the fancy stuff, let’s take a quick refresher course on what the 1.5 mount is: named because it’s a logical midpoint between a trapeze (“1”) and a double-or-nothing (“2”), the 1.5 is a sidestyle undermount on the throw hand. Another way to look at it is as a sidestyle split-bottom mount – but now we’re getting carried away. As FF devotees should know by now, the main difference when converting a mount to a stall is considering the spin direction, and doing a traditional 1.5 mount in a stall format can be difficult because of the way that undermounts tend to twist up. I dodge this in the first trick by keeping my hands vertically oriented and getting out as soon as possible, but there are more elegant solutions as well.

My favorite 1.5 stall variation is probably the mount shown at the end of the next combo, where you cross your throw hand over top of your free hand and intersect the string with those fingers instead. As a general rule, stalling trapeze-style is always going to be easier than catching an undermount stall, and this little tough love combo is a good way to practice the hand crossing motion. Once you’re comfortable with the cross, it becomes second nature to enter 1.5 this way right out of a breakaway.

The next entrance that I use is debatably the hardest in the video, but also one of my favorite mounts of all time, so whatever you’re getting it! You’re welcome! Basically, after you learn the cross-armed 1.5, you take that and you do a double-or-nothing first, resulting in what looks like an insanely technical mount… that actually just uncrosses to a normal 1.5. This brilliant mount was initially discovered by Chris Neff (presumably back in ’98), but expanded into a repeater by Justin Weber. You can find an excellent breakdown of the repeater (and Zach’s reverse variation) in this Cabin Tutorial from CLYW. Catching it in a stall takes practice, mostly due to having to budget for extra string on the windup, but when you get it it feels awesome. Trust me. You can exit any way that you want, but one of my recent favorites (shown in the video) is to uncross, push out, and then cross over inside your arm for a quick shoot the moon regen out.

Now that we showed a tutorial Charles did of somebody else’s trick I’d like to teach a trick I made based on one of Charles’ moves. Say wha? Anyways… 27 seconds in, we got a move I’m calling “Chuckwagon”. You get that cross-armed 1.5 I’ve been talking about, then you perform a dump truck type motion, flipping the yo-yo back towards you and dismounting between your arms. From there, you continue into Charles’ “Smooth Double or Nothing Move” and catch it in a 2or0 stall. I like to dismount this by dropping the throwhand string, crossing my arms, and pushing the yo-yo down forcefully, which is something Steve Brown used to do with bearing yo-yos all the time around ’05 or so but gets extra points in fixed axle for giving you some hefty spin on the regeneration.

The next trick is a simple one – just a mount, really – but very useful for segueing between sidestyle and frontstyle. It’s like the cross-armed 1.5 mount we’ve been doing, but you point your throwhand towards your body, making it effectively a reverse split bottom mount. Seth Peterson, Yuuki Spencer, and Nate Sutter have all used this movement to great effect in gorilla style tricks, check them out for inspiration.

I figured we’d round out the cross-armed 1.5 section with some behind the back silliness. Catching a stall behind your back requires you to move fast and be a little flexible, but other than that isn’t too different from the normal one. In this trick, I like to follow the dismount by turning my body and catching the yo-yo in my freehand tough love style. If you leave yourself enough room in the string, you can move it over your shoulder and now the trick is no longer behind your back! Magic, or maybe just a goofy looking rotation, but either way a fun move that can’t be performed in a traditional spinning trick. As always, bonus points for ending in a thumb mount.

BRIEF KENDAMA INTERMISSION: Have you ever tried catching a lighthouse on an imperial yo-yo? My favorite modder Takeshi Kamisato chopped up this gorgeous Duncan Tournament and the shape really inspired me.

Okay, back to the yo-yos. The first lesson I’d like to teach you is that you should play off every mistake with a spin move. Trust me! It’ll confuse your enemies and make you feel better. Moving on to the actual trick, though, we have a cousin to the cross-armed 1.5 we were doing earlier, that’s… actually, it’s also a cross-armed 1.5. Huh. The critical difference is that this time you cross your throw hand underneath the free hand, which lets you do this Kwijibo-esque pop to double-or-nothing. I tend to find the other entrance a little easier, but there are distinct uses for each and I encourage playing around with both.

I ended the video with another weird kendama/yo-yo fusion trick. It’s definitely more yo-yo inspired, but it is fun getting to play around with the spike and clicky-clack the yo-yo a bit at the end. Never fear, yo-yo purists! The first step where you hold the yo-yo and rotate your hand around it before the proper throw does not require you to touch our dreaded rival skilltoy… also, kendamas are pretty fun? So, y’know, whatever.

Thanks to Takeshi for the super cool Tournament & ’80s Butterfly, and to CLYW & Yoyonews for the hat. Also, if you like the music, you can download it on my soundcloud. Tell us what tricks you’re working on this Friday in the comments below!

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Players, Trick Theory, Video Tagged With: 1.5, butterfly, drew tetz, Duncan, duncan tournament, featured, fixed axle, fixed friday, kendama

Fixed Friday: Lunars

June 7, 2013 By Ed Haponik

With the recent surge in kendama popularity lately, I felt like I really needed take this direction this week. I have no idea when “Lunar Landing” was first named on THAT OTHER skill toy, but I’m gonna go ahead and [baselessly] assume that it’s been a yo-yo trick for way longer. So here follows my perfunctory “taking back Lunars” endeavor.

To me, “Shoot the Moon” really is the quintessential yo-yo trick. It’s simple enough for anyone to see and understand, yet difficult enough to completely flummox and bewilder. It requires weeks (if not months) of dedicated practice to get consistent. You can go into it from virtually any other trick (i mean unless you’re still using an unresponsive bearing – LOL). Although I’m happy to Shoot the Moon all day – or would be if my arm didn’t fall asleep (I swear, Bill deB can do it just by controlling the amount of blood distending the vessels in his throw-hand finger. VOODOO.) As I was saying, I can StM all day, but sometimes you want to throw in a little funk.

Lunar Landing takes Shoot the Moon and gives it a beautiful, natural pause AND a resultant direction change which can be used to link fixed axle combos together very nicely. Though it’s been around forever, I’m 99% sure the first time I saw it was by John Higby in 2008. Not so surprising, since fixed axle was neither ubiquitous nor trendy then. I was throwing No Jives with Seth Peterson, Tyler Severance, and Spencer Berry (my life is incredible), and John was like “Oh, Shoot the Moon. Hey, do you know this one?” … No. No, I did not. It was pretty much my favorite trick after that.

If you don’t have Shoot the Moon down, this video whole entry is pretty useless. Go and get it down right now. If you’ve got it to where you can do 10-20 reps consistently, it’s probably worth trying to get Lunars dialed too. As you can see in the initial trick, the idea is pretty straightforward. As the yo-yo goes up toward the “moon”, your throw hand thumb sneaks in front of the string, pulling the segment away from the middle finger. This creates a nice little landing segment which (if your hand has a nice open shape) the yo-yo will really “want” to hit. In many ways, this is the original stall trick, having led to so many other variations which have come to define the current fixed axle style. Like any stall, it’s counterproductive to try to do Lunars hard or fast. You kind of have to bounce with it and flex with it as it lands. It always feels best to me when no part of my hand touches the yo-yo, but that’s a feel thing.

Once you have the basic Lunar down, the floodgates are open. The first variation (0:14) I came up with was one I called “Crash Landing” (basically a Lunar from a punch-regen/backwards Around the World). It’s way easier if you look up, but sometimes it feels cooler to hit it blind (sometimes making it a legitimate Crash Landing). Another simple variation which I’ve done numerous times in this column is to do an inverted Lunar Landing straight from forward pass. Bonus points for coming as close as possible to your teeth. (It’s yo-yoing – gotta inject some danger someplace.)

So is Lunar Landing a hold or is it dependent upon Shoot the Moon? I see it as the former, personally, which is pretty freeing since you can land it from anywhere. Eli Hop stalls are fun, but and Eli to Lunar offers even more compression. A nice variation I found which I call “Wax On, Wax Off” involves hopping into lunar, then regenerating into reverse trapeze before hopping into an inverted lunar. I find landing multiple reps of that one to be a pretty solid challenge.

At 0:50, we have a fun Drew-inspired tricks (which tricks aren’t Drew-inspired these days?). I can never remember what Nate Sutter calls his under-arm Shoot the Moon, but it feels so fun and alien. Higby’s “Shoot the Other Moon” variation (between the legs) is also a great one. Anyway, as the yo-yo returns, let it pop you in the shoulder for a tough-love regen. It really doesn’t hurt, and it’s easier than you might think to control the direction. Plus, it puts you in Forward Pass, which is prime for an inverted Lunar. Alternately, you can go up into a regular moon, rinse, and repeat.

Pretty sure I’ve used variations of the next few tricks in previous Fixed Fridays, but they’re relevant, so you will suffer through them! Hitting a fully sideways “UFO Landing” can be tougher than it looks, because with the string banging around, your thumb has a tough time holding it in place. At 1:02, you have the original snap-stall Steve taught me in my yo-yo room years ago, along with an inverted analog. It’s interesting because usually, it’s downright impossible to catch a backward-spinning stall, but this snap-stall works ok. Also, when you bring it back to your hand, the wind is reversed (which, I guess, makes sense).

There’s nothing better than coming up with a 3-second trick that you’re proud of. 1:17 features a sort of “plus-style” Lunar Landing, where you intercept the string with a free-hand chopsticks mount instead. Feels really, really weird at first, and I’m just starting to explore the potential. I do Lunar variations so often, and yet I almost never consider +-style applications. “Commit” (1:26) is a trick I came up with on the Flying V, which was a thin, responsive metal yo-yo SPYY produced. That thing was a Lunar machine, but when you missed one of these and got pegged in the collarbone or forehead… you felt it. It’s more awkward than you might assume to throw the forward pass straight up and down.

Lastly, we’ve got something I (modestly?) call Lunar Landing 2.0. It’s a simple concept, but really tough to execute. Same under-arm Shoot the Moon entry as the Tough Love trick earlier, but then you’ve got to run the gauntlet. Getting the yo-yo to land in your hold properly demands that you thread a needle between your shoulder, elbow, and wrist. 90% of the time, you’ll end up hitting one of them (actually you can still hit the trick if you do). It really helps me to take a step back, lean forward, and drop my knees a bit kendama-style. Feels great when you hit it, but getting it consistent is a full-on kodiak bear.

And that’s the news! Have a great week and Fix the Planet!!!©™®

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Video Tagged With: ed haponik, featured, fixed friday, lunar landing, lunars, shoot the moon

Hiroyuki Suzuki in Paris

March 11, 2013 By Steve Brown

HIroyuki Suzuki Deal With It

World YoYo Champion Hiroyuki Suzuki recently visited Paris and showed off the ANGLAM, some solid tricks, another pair of sunglasses, and the brightest hoodie we’ve seen this side of Seth Peterson.

 

Filed Under: Manufacturer, Video Tagged With: anglam, featured, hiroyuki suzuki, paris, sOMEThING, video, yoyoaddict

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