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Interview- Spencer Berry

September 13, 2013 By Matt McDade

Photo courtesy of Elias Berry

In modern yoyoing, few can say that they’ve created as many memorable tricks as Spencer Berry. His name is synonymous with the undeniable classics Rancid Milk and Breath, as well as others such as Enigma, Havoc, and Wonder Woman. Spencer was a member of the Duncan Crew until 2008. These days, he is currently standing behind his own yoyo, the Walter. Spencer can also be found on 365yoyotricks.com every Wednesday in 2013, showing off another one of his tricks for an entire year. Spencer was kind enough to agree to do an interview for my site, and immediately I knew I had to dive into his tricks, how he got his start in yoyoing, and more.

Spencer, first and foremost I’d like to say thanks for taking the time to do an interview! I’d like to touch base on some stuff that I’ve personally always been curious about. You’ve been involved in yoyoing for over a decade, but how did you get your start?

Matt, thanks for showing some interest.

My introduction to yoyoing was sort of slow and took place over a few years. I was given a Proyo II one year for xmas when I was pretty young, but never really learned any tricks. A few years later, during the boom, I got excited about the prospect of a ball bearing yoyo and paid something ridiculous ($30?) for a Raider. But I never learned more than Rock the Cradle and One Handed Star. And quickly lost interest. In 8th grade (1998/99), as a sort of joke, I chose yoyos as the topic for a huge research paper/presentation. Mostly I presented on the history of the yoyo and I was not necessarily learning tricks at that point. It wasn’t until 2000 that the perfect storm hit and I actually became yoyo obsessed. That year a few elements combined:

I lost my older brother in late ’99, so I was full of grief. I craved a hobby to distract from the pain of loss and to ease me through the drastic transition my family had to go through.
My literature class had a twelfth night secret santa type gift give away and a girl bought me an X-Brain (because she remembered my presentation the year prior).
My mother worked for a gift store and was given a copy of Kickin’ Tricks by SuperYo on VHS as a product demo. She gave me the tape and it inspired me.

Those elements combined in January of 2000 and by the time I learned Braintwister, there was no turning back. I would sit in my room, practice yoyo tricks while watching Kickin’ Tricks and using AIM/ICQ/IRC to chat with yoyo folks. I probably averaged 6-8 hrs/day of practice in 2000.

Wow, I kind of began in a similar way. I picked up a Duncan Imperial somewhere when I was young, but could never use it. I got a knot in the string, and my Grandma cut the string off. She tied the string back on after getting the knot out rather than looping it, which caused the yoyo to come back automatically. I had no idea of course, and thought I was progressing rather quickly.

I put the yoyo down too after a while though, but got a FHZ for Christmas a couple of years later. I also lost interest though, and it wasn’t until 8th grade when a friend brought a yoyo to school that I remembered the few tricks I had learned on my FHZ (Sleeper, Walk the Dog, Eiffel Tower). and from that day on it was a wrap, and I’ve been yoyoing since. It seems like everyone has their own unique story with how they became involved with a yoyo, and I feel that it’s not just something you do but something that draws you in and really does become an obsession.

I’ve watched all of the Spindox videos from the early 2000’s, granted they were way before my time. How did you initially get involved in Spindox, and what was your early approach to making up tricks? Some of the early tricks I’ve seen from you include Grotty and Raging Demon, which if I’m not mistaken were before Rancid Milk (correct me if I’m wrong)

You must be young if you had a FHZ in 8th grade!! I remember testing the original Freehand in the “FH dark ages” before bandai bought the FHZ mold. (Editor’s Note: Bandai didn’t buy the mold, the original Freehand mold broke. Bandai requested the old shape, and Duncan Toys created a new mold to meet their demand.)

I started getting really into yoyoing at the beginning of 2000 and spent a lot of time on the internet reading about it. The first Spindox video by Gabe (02-05-00) was mindblowing at the time. It took me a few months to get the courage and to talk my parents into driving me out, but my first Spindox was April 8th 2000. I was just a kid and showed up. And I was welcomed with open arms. David Capurro (Cappy) even tried to talk my little brother (he was 9 at the time) into staying. He asked him what trick he’d have to show him to stay. And he told him Kamikaze. So Cappy called Paul Escolar over to show him. It actually only took him a few tries to hit it. I was in complete awe. I lived about 90 minutes away from Spindox but I was very lucky to have supportive parents who would drive me to club most months. So there I met Gary, Jeff, Gabe, Paul, Cappy, and everyone else. I’d just soak in all their madness and awesomeness and then go home and practice every waking moment until the next meet.

I think my first full length trick was actually Liquidizer or Ragnarok (though I’m not sure I ever had an ending for Ragnarok). Liquidizer is in the X Games video. The only inspiration for that was the under the arm suicide – the rest of the trick was mostly setup. Ragnarok on the other hand was more original – it was me trying to come up with complex new holds. So very very techy but not a lot of smoothness built in. In the beginning I was definitely more of a tech head than I am today. And by that I mean really obsessed with numbers games, complex/unique holds, and the idea of taking a super complex hold and throwing it all up in the air to have it land in a trapeze. Which was a common ending for a lot of my tricks to come. Raging demon was all about using your thumbs – but wasn’t too lush beyond that. Grotty I actually made up the day I shot it – so technically Rancid Milk came before. I just liked the mount, but again, not a trick that stuck with me or I take much pride in. Rancid Milk was really the first trick I got a reaction from. It was completely designed as a triple or nothing version of Kamikaze with more tech. It start in a triple, has a kamikaze hop, then adds around the arm stuff, and then layers more complexity around each piece of kamikaze (at least the first half – no magic drop to be seen). But to address your broader question regarding my early approach to making tricks: Pre-Rancid Milk, it was usually a singular move that I built the trick around. Rancid Milk and beyond I started to get much more into having a concept to explore:

Rancid Milk was Kamikaze extreme
Engima was all upside down
Cataclysm was all about plucks
Havoc about motion and growing complexity
Wonder Woman was an inverse Superman

You get the idea.

Then of course you have the laceration, which was just a lucky discovery one late night while trying to land a suicide on my doorknob. So there was definitely a growing order to my tricks. I think right around the time Rancid Milk came out I saw a lot more tech tricks in videos across the world. The Spindox helped me realize the value of smoothness and flow. They influenced my tricks slowly but surely and I think my tricks became more potent because of their advice and influence

Yes! I actually turn 17 in February. Wow, that’s interesting. It had to be cool to meet all of the guys from the Kickin’ Tricks video in person. I definitely know what you mean about being a “tech head”, and how there were more tech tricks in videos around the time Rancid Milk came out. That sort of slow, techy, style was getting popular around 2001 and I’ve seen guys like Kalani Bergdorf doing it in videos from the era. I feel that it would be hard NOT to evolve in someway while hanging around the guys who made up classics like Seasick, White Buddha, Kamikaze, and Timetwister. Personally, I’d have to say that my favorite Spindox video is definitely “Wish We Were At Worlds”. Of course, that’s where Breath first appeared which is in my opinion one of the greatest tricks ever invented. I’ve heard that Breath was invented as pieces of other tricks that you were working on put together, is that true? The other tricks in the Breath series are Breeze and Inhale, right? I recently saw the 365yoyotricks.com video for Inhale, and it blew me away (heh). I think Breath is an amazing trick for being invented in 2001.

Breath was definitely an AHA trick for me. It wasn’t really pieces of other tricks – once I had the first “breath” move – the rest of the trick followed pretty quickly. But getting it all together and smooth took quite a while. I was learning White Buddha 2 during BAC of 2001 (I believe this was when Paul had shown me it, but it wasn’t yet “released”). There is that flip to plane bend that is the main new component of white buddha 2. Well, one time, the loop fell off my left hand, but I had a strong pinch on my right thumb and the loop just sort of hung there. And I cocked my head to one side and whipped the loop around. From that the rest of Breath was born. I see a lot of people trying to make Breath work with a traditional, thumb+index pinch. To me that makes it look very forced and amateurish. It is the “thumb butt pinch” that makes breath what it is. I always hated pinched because they killed the flow of most tricks and made them look much more awkward. So when I found the thumb butt pinch, I was really excited to put it into a trick.

Breeze is the sequel to Breath. It is like breath but with doubled variations. I was a bit bummed about Breeze because Gabe filmed it for Project Sector Y. But before that project came out, JD came out with his grind videos. And I thought they were very campy and I know the “palm tap” in breeze would be categorized alongside them. Breeze sort of quietly came out years later but I don’t think it was a very popular trick.

Inhale was more of a sister trick. It isn’t really a full length trick – it doesn’t really have a strong theme like breath/breeze (or the third trick which could be done one day). But it has that crazy loop knot thing at the end. So I put it in the same family but not really part of the linear trilogy.

I totally agree about the “pinch” thing with Breath. I’ve hit that trick before, but it was more or less luck and it wasn’t smooth. I learned it from an old text description which described using your thumb for the pinch, and I know exactly what you mean. Everybody that I’ve seen do it besides you uses their thumb and index finger, which leads to tilting the hand in a weird way and does look awkward. JD is definitely sick and one of my favorite yoyoers, but I totally agree with you as far as being categorized with him goes. Breeze was probably created around the same time as JD’s first video, if not slightly before. Inhale is literally insane and I’d probably have to put it up there on my list of favorites despite only discovering it lately. It also appeared in your “Debt in Knowledge” video, what’s the story behind that? I know that video got some harsh and undeserved criticism, but I think from a trick standpoint it’s top notch.

If you’ve hit Breath, it was practice, not luck. So nice job.

I didn’t mean to say anything mean about being associated with JD. I think he is an awesome player and his skill level in those days was leagues more technically advanced than mine. I felt like the end to Breeze was more about the direction change than the skin contact, so it was more a feeling of it being associated with a concept that was very different. Not unlike the way that Laceration are used as a label for an entire genre or tricks, but the original idea was very specific.

As far as Debt in Knowledge goes, I’ve heard before that it received a lot of negativity – but I don’t remember that affecting me much. For some reason when I wasn’t making videos (2005-2007? Maybe earlier) – people thought I had stopped throwing. Debt was asked for by a lot of people (especially Adam Brewster), who had kept in touch and wanted to see what I was into. So that is what sparked it.

I was also in film school. So I was hearing a lot about music rights issues and and seeing videos pulled off of youtube, so I wanted to avoid using a copyrighted soundtrack. I also was in a film sound class so I had a crazy collection of weird sound effects I had gathered with my group. So that is where released soundtrack came from. But I had originally edited the video to radiohead’s “15 Steps.” You can see that edit on Sector Y.

As far as the style of the film – I intentionally didn’t show any throws or catches. This is a similar style to fidget. The idea there was to avoid fluff. There were a lot of yoyo videos at the time that had sloppy unresponsive catches, tons of mistakes left in the video, and all kinds of others time wasters that would inflate a video with two or three good tricks into a 5 minute production.

The choice to only bookend the video with full tricks came because I wasn’t making full tricks very often. I was throwing long combos back then and so instead of having a few long throws I just decided to capture the components I liked most. And then cutting them back to back. I can see how that editing style would annoy viewers though.

I also wanted to make a point of minimalist lighting. Lighting is often terrible in yoyo videos, especially when you can’t make out the string. Debt was shot with my normal lights on, plus a single open bulb at my feet with some tin foil to cut it off my body. That is why the string is sharp. I wanted to show people they could make their videos look crisp with minimal equipment. Plus the backdrop was an organized mess to sort of prove that lighting could make a yoyo video work even if you have white walls and clutter in frame.

There are also a couple weird easter egg-ish things I put into the video. That image in the lower left behind my leg (and sometimes on my leg/crotch) is from a slide film projector I had laying around, intended to add some texture. And in the final shot, during Shepherd, I tinkered with the green triangle sticker on the left side of the frame. You can see it slowly go from de-saturated to glowing green.

And Shepherd was super sloppy, I know.

Overall, Debt was made very deliberately but not conventionally. That was what made it worth doing to me: to try new things and to counter the yoyo climate with a video that I was proud of. Plus it is only 80 seconds!

I honestly think that you and JD both have certain things you do that are very cool, but especially cool when you really understand what’s going on. That’s all honestly so cool. Going to film school had to give a huge advantage with yoyo videos. Yoyo videos are probably a small blip on the map as far as film goes, but it would be cool to know more. I always liked Debt in Knowledge because it looked like it could have been filmed in my house, but looks good.

All of the things you said make sense, but I wouldn’t have thought of them. I totally understand the “deliberately but not conventionally” thing. I personally think the yoyo world needs more of that, now even more than in 2007. On a side note, what yoyo were you using in that? Is it a FHZ?

Not long ago, you released The Walter, a tug-responsive yoyo that I’ve seen you pull off some really great stuff with on 365yoyotricks.com. Any more yoyos ever coming, and any other things we can expect to see from you soon? I personally think a sequel to Debt in Knowledge would be great.

I think the Debt yoyo is technically a Hyper Freehand. Love that yoyo…

I’m glad you got the feeling that Debt was both attainable and looked good.

Walter has been a labor of love and took a very long time to complete. Walter fit a very definite gap in modern yoyos for me: responsive slimline that is ultra durable. The ultimate pocket yoyo. Now that I’ve finally completed the project, I do want to make more yoyos, but I am having to really think about what hole my next yoyo is going to fill.

Right now I have a full size responsive yoyo in the works named Theodore. I hope to really take it to the next level in terms of finish and packaging. The shape is somewhere between a Gnarwhal & the YWET (two of my favorite throws ever). Theodore will probably be more expensive than Walter, partially because of the yoyo materials, but mostly because I am going to have a truly exquisite custom case made for each Theodore. I hope I’ll have a product for sale before fall 2014, but I won’t rush him.

Oh yeah, I love Hyper Freehands too. That sounds so sick, the Gnarwhal is one of my favorite throws too, I’ve never thrown a YWET but seeing you throw one in your 365 videos has definitely made me want to try one. I haven’t gotten the chance to throw a Walter either, but I feel the same with that as the YWET, thats such an awesome throw to drop in 2013 (The Walter). Any last words/advice for any yoyers out there? On behalf of myself and YoYoNews, thank so much for doing this!

The YWET is from 2011, but I think I see what you’re saying.

And I definitely have some closing thoughts.

Most of all – throw what you love, when you love it, how you love it. There seems to be a lot of unnecessary drama in the yoyo world – as though one yoyo is inferior or one brand is the ONLY brand worth throwing. Get over it! Some people seem to feel the need to put people down or claim that they aren’t “real” yoyoers if they don’t do x, y, z. GET OVER IT!!! Everyone gets to find their own enjoyment in yoyoing and it may not match how everyone else enjoys yoyoing.

The hobby is incredibly multi-faceted – there are not only a plethora of divisions (1A-5A), but also responsive, fixed, p213, moebius, double dragon, whatever else. If you are getting burnt out or feeling an absurd amount of negativity – take a break or find something else that excites you.

There is no reason to poison the well and tell people what is right, wrong, cool or not cool. I’ve always been an incredibly self centered yoyoer – only competing when I wanted to – judging when I want to – making up tricks when I want to – not releasing videos for years on end. That is because I love yoyoing. It is an important aspect of my life and I want it to be there for me when I need stress relief, or a creative outlet, or just to have some goofy fun while waiting around in line. So cherish the joy you feel around yoyoing and don’t try and tell others that there is a right and wrong – because there isn’t. It’s a toy. Have fun.

I had 9 months where I only played with an imperial No Jive. Not because I wanted to prove anything – but because my life was incredibly stressful and I had no time to innovate or invent so the No Jive was like comfort food for me. I could go to the bus stop after a 13 hour day in the office and just do some loops or Braintwisters or behind the head regen to trapeze – and it was relaxing, therapeutic RELIEF. So while I didn’t move yoyoing forward or come up with a freestyle full of unique tricks, yoyoing still remained an important part of my daily life. That isn’t to say that making up tricks, building freestyles, and crafting videos aren’t fun too; they are, to the right person in the right frame of mind at the right time. So go with the flow and learn to enjoy yoyoing in the present – and spread the love.

Keep shredding.

Spencer B

YoYoTalk Interview – Spencer Berry

June 24, 2013 By Steve Brown

Check out this great video interview with Spencer Berry where he talks about his history as a yoyo player and his recently released yoyo, the Walter.

Walters are still available in pretty limited quantities at SpencerBerry.com.

Cabin Tutorial – Rancid Milk by Spencer Berry

May 29, 2013 By Steve Brown

Charles Haycock and CLYW bring us another Cabin Tutorial, this one laying out the loveliness of Spencer Berry’s milemarker of a trick, Rancid Milk.

And as a bonus…here’s Spencer doing it too!

YoYoRadio.net – Spencer Berry, Drew Tetz, & Paul Escolar (5.10)

May 8, 2013 By Steve Brown

The roster for YoYoRadio this weeks is pretty well stacked!

Spencer Berry talking about his new yo-yo, Walter; Drew Tetz talking about the special BarraDREWda from Duncan Toys and also the one and only Paul Escolar, legendary innovator from days of yore.

Listen live on Friday at 9:30 pm (EST) at YoYoRadio.net.

Fixed Friday: Play Like A Wild Man with Spencer Berry

April 5, 2013 By Drew Tetz

This Friday we’ll take a step away from purely instructional videos and instead focus on something that can’t be taught: style. To help illustrate this, I’ve rounded up some footage from one of the most unique and original yo-yo players in the world, Spencer Berry. New players may recognize Spencer from his contributions to the current season of 365yoyotricks (he’s the one with the mustache that isn’t Steve), while older heads will instantly know him as the father of the Laceration. Spencer, along with the Spindox, provided a staggering amount of the trick vocabulary we associate with modern 1A, and tricks such as Ragnarok and Rancid Milk are still regarded as masterpieces a decade later.

Watching Spencer yo-yo for the first time, though, you’re less likely to notice the timelessness of his transitions or his deep back catalogue of tricks and more likely to duck out of the way to avoid his rowdy regens. This is not to say that he can’t be smooth! Breath is still regarded as one of the gold standard 1A tricks, and he plays with the classic ease of the generation brought up on Renegades and Freehand1s. Many of the Spindox actually attribute the smoothness of their styles to learning to play on crazy responsive yo-yos, which is where the application to modern fixed play comes in (see how neatly I tied that up?).

As I said earlier, style is something that can’t be taught, and copying somebody’s style to a tee is somewhat self-defeating, but let’s at least analyze Mr. Berry’s style for a little bit. He once told me that he’d like to write a piece for Fixed Friday, titled “Embracing Chaos, and Why Messing Up on a Fixed Axle is More Fun (AKA How Much Fun it is to Flail Around with Insane Regens Instead of Doing Tricks)”. I may be stealing his thunder somewhat by featuring him this week, but that title is fairly telling to his approach to fixed axle. The short spin times, unpredictable hardware, and heightened response of fixie play can be frustrating when trying to hit big complicated modern 1A tricks, so the lens focuses in a little bit and there’s a heightened emphasis on throws, catches, and regens: things that would be considered minutiae or “filler” in a contest freestyle suddenly become the whole show. Spencer’s style really comes to the foreground here, as practiced combos come apart at the seams and shift into wild improvised swinging loops. He proves that you don’t necessarily have to hit your tricks to have fun and look good doing it.

Part of this, though, undoubtedly comes from having enough variations and material to keep things interesting while your yo-yo runs off the rails. It helps to have a firm grip on the foundations: basic inside/outside loops, planet hops, hop the fence, shoot the moon, regenerations into and out of trapeze. It’s good to develop the habit of just looping out of everything to make yourself more comfortable with regens. Another thing that Spencer does is regens within a mount, or “assisted loops” where he controls the regeneration with his free hand. These can help you build up spin or change spin directions for a stall without sacrificing the setup of a mount.

Also, he does “Pop the Clutch Hands Must Touch (your head)”. This trick frightens me, but it is worth noting.

I wanted to call particular interest to one regen, the frontstyle throw > behind the head planet hop > trapeze sequence. This move, most likely invented by Steve in 1997, is super fun and I recommend it to everybody! I put Spencer’s in slomo and added one of my variations of it in hopes that it would help with learning, because honestly there’s not too much to teach. I will say that you should definitely practice it in front of your body first until you’re comfortable, ’cause this one can definitely sneak up on you, and nobody likes taking a yo-yo to the face… but once you get it, it’s one of the most fun & flashy simple regens out there.

Also, as a bonus trick, I threw on a chopsticks stall repeater inspired by Spencer & Jason Lee’s classic clip The Fidget. That should keep your fingers busy for a bit.

Thanks to Spencer for letting me film him in Kansas this fall. If you want more Spence (and don’t we all?), check out his demo at Finnish Nationals and his weekly contributions to 365yoyotricks. Keep an eye out for his upcoming yo-yo, Walter, which I can honestly say is one of the best slimline metals I’ve ever played.

Cabin Tutorial – Spencer’s Havoc

August 2, 2013 By Steve Brown

Spencer Berry gets some love in this new Cabin Tutorial from CLYW and Charles Haycock.

Spencer Vs. Drew: Mind Melee

May 10, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Just when you’d caught your breath from Takeshi vs. Drew, it’s another single trick throwdown! This time we’ve got two responsive 1A heaters from Spencer “The Wild Man” Berry and Drew “Keeps Giving Himself Nicknames” Tetz. Spencer puts the Walter through its paces with his trick “Armadillo”, a classically-styled mount/regen sequence trick given a twist by his unique blend of grace and chaos, while I chose to return fire with “Crisis”, a plane-bending tribute to the golden age of Spindox.

Who deserves the crown? Cast your vote below, tell us why in the comments, and stay tuned for even more battles!

P.S. Don’t forget to tune in to YoYoRadio tonight to hear me talk about these battles, the Barradrewda, and…. probably whatever Joe wants to talk about. I don’t know. Hope it’s not baseball!

Throwback Thursday – SpinDox Perform At Oakland A’s Game

March 26, 2015 By Steve Brown

Huge thanks to Gabriel Lozano for making this awesome time capsule of a video available! Here we have the legendary SpinDox YoYo Club, performing during the seventh inning stretch of an Oakland A’s baseball game on July 29th, 2000. This yoyo club is single-handedly responsible for some of the biggest innovations in modern 1A yoyo play! From suicides to magic drops, most of what we consider modern 1A is based off concepts from these players. And seriously…check out Paul Escolar’s hair. Damn, dude!

Performance Order: David Capurro, Jason Tracy, Eric Pollard, Joe Derr, Tom Kuhn, Rick Cobb, Mark Yvanovich, Joey Yvanovich, Nathan Crissey, Jon Kennedy, Spencer Berry, Gabriel Lozano, Gary Longoria, Paul Escolar, Jeff Longoria, Kristi Lozano/Laurie Harris, ?, Bill deBoisblanc, Gani Macaraig, Gary Longoria, Cappy/Jason Tracy, Nathan Crissey/Gabriel Lozano/Gary Longoria, Everyone.

Interview – Charles Haycock

October 22, 2014 By Matt McDade

Charles Haycock is an extremely creative, skilled, and unique yoyo player who is continuously creating amazing tricks, tutorials, videos, and more. The Team Manager for CLYW, Charles in an integral personality within the company and does a lot of great work in both promoting the company online and working with the company behind-the-scenes. To the yoyo community, Charles embodies creativity, and is a favorite amongst countless players for his unique, well-developed tricks. Charles was requested for an interview more than once, and I was beyond excited to talk with him about tricks, videos, CLYW, and more!

Charles, first and foremost, how did you start yoyoing?

My dad first bought me a wooden yoyo when I was about 8 or 9 years old (it might have been a Tom Kuhn yoyo actually, now knowing what they look like). He taught me Gravity Pull, Sleeper and Forward Pass, but it wasn’t long before I lost it. I ended up kind of forgetting about it for a long time; however, I still seem to remember how it intrigued me. Years later, when I was about 13, I snatched another wooden yoyo from a tourist shop while traveling in Oregon.

During that trip, I also obtained a back injury which, for me, meant no gymnastics. So, I had a lot of time on my hands. My neighbor knew and taught me Eiffel Tower and Rock the Baby. Thanks to the internet, I then found the Yomega website where I learned some more basics, and was introduced to yoyos that looked more capable. My little sister knew of my interest, and for Christmas she bought me the most expensive yoyo she could find: the Metallic Missile. After that, I learned Trapeze and Double or Nothing, and soon found yoyonation.com and Andre Boulay’s tutorials on Expert Village. That was when the infinite portal was opened, and I’ve never been bored since.

How long did it take you to get to the “Master” level on Andre’s tutorials?

Oh, I really can’t remember, maybe a year after the portal opened? That could be inaccurate, but I remember skipping Ladder Escape and Superman because they were too hard for me. I ended up learning Superman years later from a friend, it’s a great trick.

What were some of your favorite tricks that you actually did learn back then?

It was so long ago, that time frame is a blur to me in some regards. But, I remember that some of the tricks/concepts that stuck with me early on were Kwyjibo, Magic Drops, Boing-E-Boing variations, and Whips/Hooks, of course. Then, a bit later from other places, I learned and liked Yuuki Slack Chops, Hashbrowns (Jake Bullock), Rancid Milk, and other Yuuki, Spencer Berry and Jake Bullock elements that I picked up from videos. There were many other inspirational players to me, but it was mostly those guys.

By the way, for a laugh if anything, you can check out some of my super-old videos here: http://vimeo.com/user445659/videos

Was that the period where you learned some of Spencer’s old tricks that you later made Cabin Tutorials for, like Enigma and Havoc?

Yeah, Enigma came fairly early on, Sterling [Quinn] taught me that one, and Havoc some time after. I also learned elements from Breath and the Superman-ish trick in the “Spencer Berry’s Apartment” BAC 2008 video. I watched that video a ton.

“Spencer Berry’s Apartment” is such a good video, that’s like the equivalent of having most of the CLYW team in the same video nowadays.

Haha, well thanks man. But yeah, the camaraderie felt in that video is so appealing, and the tricks happen to be amazing as well.

When did you first start getting into making up your own stuff?

I started making up my own stuff very early on. That was, and is, where most of the fun is for me. I look at the yoyo and the string as me on a playground. So, I just play, letting my curiosity roam free to discover new things (‘new’ for me at least). Of course, it is easier to explore after you have learned some basics elements to work off of. But yoyoing can also just be pleasurable in itself, the feeling of doing a trick or how it looks. That’s why I have always enjoyed learning other people’s tricks, and it definitely affects my style.

It’s like Ernest Hemingway, he used to write out entire Charles Dickens novels just so that he could know what it feels like to write a great book. Not to say that this is the only way to go about it; playing yoyo means something different to everyone, and even within the creative realm the process can vary greatly. Jensen, for example, never learns other people’s tricks. He is a real off-grid-type-hermit in that creative sense. Although, starting out, even he had to learn from others to implement that playground structure.

Do you remember any of the early things you came up with?

I can’t really remember that far back, but I think you can track it pretty well with my early videos. I started making videos fairly soon after I started, within the second year I think.

Did you start competing early on? How did you get hooked up with CLYW?

Well, I went to my very first contest in Seattle (PNWR) after about two years of yoyoing, and that happened to be where Chris asked me to join the team. I had put out a couple of videos at that point, and Jensen was messaging me before the contest to say that they were interested. So, I was very comfortable to not accept the other sponsorship offers I got.

For those that don’t know, can you explain what you do at CLYW aside from just being sponsored by them?

I work with the team to make videos, make sure they are getting gear, answer questions, support projects, make travel plans, etc. Then, I also contribute on CLYW’s social media.

Speaking of videos, what’s your personal favorite that you’ve made or appeared in?

My personal favorite that I’ve made is Ill Vibes. I think the idea was neat and it was fun to collaborate with Jensen. Good memories.

How do you pick what tricks to throw in a particular video?

As far as choosing tricks goes, sometimes there will be a theme for a video, so I’ll put in the tricks that work alongside that. For example, in Ill Vibes the theme was horizontals (simple enough). For Goldmine, we knew that we would be shooting slow motion and that tighter, more technical tricks would look better.

Then, a lot of videos have just been me doing the most recent tricks that I’ve been working on since the last video. Actually, most of my videos have been done this way. For my next project, however, I’m going to try to group tricks a little bit better together according to their vibes and flows and such (there will be 3 different parts to the video). Some tricks feel more complete and look good just by themselves, whereas other tricks look better in a combo strung together with complimentary elements.

At least, these are just some of the things that I think about. But, I’m really not that organized, so I should shut up, haha.

Ill Vibes is one of my favorites too, along with The Yeti. Other videos that you’ve obviously appeared in are The Cabin Tutorial series. What inspired you to start making tutorials?

Chris and I had talked about making tutorials for a while before it all started. We were inspired by Jensen’s Ghetto Tutorials and the fact that there weren’t any other resources out there that were teaching the more advanced, specialized, personal tricks that we like. So, it just made sense.

Is the trick selection process similar for those as well?

As for choosing tricks, I really just do the ones that I like from either myself, or what I’ve learned from other people.

Based on what you wear in the tutorials, what’s your favorite sweater/pair of socks that you own?

My favorite sweater has got to be that green/brown plaid one I got; it literally feels like wearing a blanket and has thus been the cause of much comfort throughout these cold winters. I have a thick pair of knitted socks that I got (yellow/orange/green stripes) that are hella comfy and durable. I dress for comfort exclusively if you can’t tell already.

Next, what, in your opinion, makes a trick “good”? What do you look for in yoyoing that you like?

Well, I usually try not to over-analyze why something is appealing to me, because beauty for the sake of beauty is not something explicable by reason or logic. There are things that come from the heart, and I submit to that (admiration is also subjective). However, I will try to articulate a bit of how I think and what I tend to admire. I will be talking about the creative and expressive side of what the toy can be, not the sport/competing side, which I respect but have less interest in.

I never understood what people meant by “finding your voice” or “hitting your stride”, but I think more recently I’ve gained a better understanding of what that means. I think that it’s quite simple, organic and just takes a very long time. I think “hitting you’re stride” is when you have practiced and put so many years into a medium at hand that it becomes a natural extension of yourself, a third limb so to speak. Then, you are able to use that new medium to express yourself seamlessly, as you would with a hand or eye gesture. It’s not a place you can think yourself too or reach in a forced intellectual way, it’s just a slow, ever-evolving natural progression. Of course, this is a theory of types, that I think proves to be useful.

So, what I’m trying to say is that the tricks and styles that I feel drawn to and love most of all come from the people I feel have hit their stride and turned their yoyoing into a reflection of their personality. They’ve become so comfortable with the toy that it effortlessly channels their essence and their interests and frames it in a way that connects with others.

Let’s take an example: Ky Zizan. When you meet this dude and then see his yoyoing you just think, “Yeah, that makes sense.” His style is so honest and genuine to who he is that, even if he tried to, he couldn’t do it any differently. It’s organized chaos in the most harmonious way. His concepts are hooops level complex and borderline alien, and his flow is as confident and as organic as a curvy beach babe. His execution is Mr. Clean clean too- you can really tell that he’s an old school player and has put in the time to get good. Of course, this is me trying to put his style into words.

Then, you get someone like Anthony Rojas who is just as dope in a completely different way. Anthony’s style is almost like watching comedy because he is such a master of the element of surprise, you can never predict where the trick is gonna go, and he always makes it better than you can try to guess. In the framework of conventional play, Anthony’s tricks are basically non-linear. Moving in unusual planes and axes is just what he does naturally. His style is also very musical and has a prominent dance-like rhythm to it (the way he incorporates his body is very rhythmic too).

So, there are many different tools available to one’s disposal, and as you can see with Ky and Anthony, you can use totally different tools (or the same tools in a totally different way) to make something just as totally dope. Totally.

I hope that sort of translates how I look at it.

Another reason why I don’t attempt to break down what makes a trick good in completely technical terms is because there is so much more to a yoyo trick than the mathematical reduction of elements. You could learn a Yuuki Spencer trick, but you could never learn how to do it the way that he does it. That’s where flavor and personality comes into play, the real inexplicable good stuff.

Part of what I admire about the old school generation (and why I think that it’s important for everyone to keep looking back and learn from these players), is that they seemed to have had a strong focus on execution and style (plus many of the tricks themselves have stood the test of time). Back then, players were brought up on responsive plastic and wooden yoyos, which are far more strict in nature and forces, which causes your movements to be more fluid, composed, and organic. If you want a Renegade to not snap back and hit you in the face, you have to do the trick right.

I think that there are a lot of great new school players who’s content (tricks) are fantastic, but perhaps a little bit sloppy and interrupted in flow because they don’t have those fixed axle instincts engrained into their execution, and modern yoyos are too forgiving. I think that a lot of players (myself included), would greatly benefit from putting more time into responsive play. It would probably influence the content of the tricks themselves as well.

Wow, I hardly ever talk as much in person.

I totally agree. So, what are you planning for the near future?

Right now, I’m finishing a set of videos for the team, but afterwards I’ll be working on my own project (which I’d like to keep as a pleasant surprise). It will take some time too.

Do you think you’ll ever have a signature yoyo with CLYW?

As far as the signature yoyo, Chris and I met up recently to work on the design. So, hopefully we can get the ball rolling soon.

Lastly, what advice can you share for any aspiring yoyoer out there?

To me, there are two different types of advice I can think of; from the soul, and from the player.

From the soul; I would advise any player to have an honest answer to the question, “Why do you yoyo?” If you find that you are doing it to appease someone else, impress others, get some sort of attention, status, achievement… essentially using it as a means to an end (of which I have been guilty of), then there will be trouble. However, if you can do what it is you do with this toy (whether for you that is a hobby, an artistic expression, a form of socializing, a creative outlet, a sport, etc.) simply out of love, all shall be gravy, baby.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…”

From a player’s perspective, I can give some suggestions of technical things to try that I have adopted along the way and found to be helpful, enjoyable, or refreshing.

Trying new yoyos: If you do the same movements with your hands using a light, round, small yoyo vs. a large, v shaped, heavy yoyo, the respective yoyo will go into completely different places, at different speeds, and with a different flow. Neither is better or worse, and I personally enjoy the variety it brings, and how it spices up your play style. Of course, after a long time I have found certain designs that I will gravitate more strongly towards. But nevertheless, if you have the privilege to try new throws, do it!

Playing in front of a mirror: I know John Ando does this as well. It’s visually quite pleasing and I think it makes your brain look at tricks differently which helps to find new sorts of movements and concepts.

Playing responsive: I’ve touched on this earlier, but again, not only do I think it effects execution, but playing responsive has taught me how enjoyable a trick can feel if performed in a more elegant and concise manner. The feeling of executing a trick properly on a responsive throw is the closest feeling that I can get to what I imagine Tressley Cahill feels whenever he’s playing 🙂

Listening to music: yoyoing to music is where it’s at. It’s hella fun, get’s me energized, and it helps me believe that I have some inkling of rhythm or flow to my tricks. Plus, music can be a great source of inspiration.

Good lighting: I take a lot of pleasure in how visually pleasing yoyoing can be, and if you have good lighting (I find that a strong source from directly above yourself is best) it can inspire much enjoyment indeed.

String length: I believe it was Mark Montgomery or Jensen that first told me that string length should be proportionate to the size of the yoyo that you’re playing. I definitely think that’s a good rule to take loosely, but still, do some experimenting! Playing long string vs. short string is just like variety in yoyos, it forces you to do things differently. To me, it’s all about the exploration and discovering new things, and I just kind of bounce back-and-forth between the two while loosely sticking to the rule of proportions.

Bearings: A bearing is responsible for basically 50% of the performance of a yoyo. If you don’t like how something plays, don’t be quick to judge the design, put a good bearing in first.

I’m pretty sure that’s about all I can think of!

That is all amazing advice, thanks Chuck! Good luck with everything, and keep up the great work!

Thank you dude!

Interview – David Ung

September 15, 2014 By Matt McDade

Photo by YoYoFactory

David Ung is kind of a genius when it comes to making up yoyo tricks and putting together great clip videos. For a while now, David’s been sharing his innovative tricks with the community and making a name for himself as an extremely creative yoyoer with a lot of talent. Sponsored by YoYoFactory, David recently released his new video, “Daydream” and is without a doubt maintaining his reputation as a force to reckoned with in regards to trick creation. His short, subtle tricks are amazing, and he is along the same lines of great, modern trick-creators like Adam Brewster and Guy Wright. I was really excited to interview David, and we talked tricks, his videos, and more! Enjoy!

David, you’re one of my favorite yoyoers and are, in my opinion, a master at coming up with super creative tricks. When did you first pick up a yoyo?

Thanks for the kind words, Matt! I think my story with yo-yos is pretty similar to most people’s my age. When there was the huge yo-yo boom in the late 1990s, I learned to throw a sleeper on a cheap transaxle yo-yo and that was pretty much the extent of my tricks. Then in middle school (around 2005), I saw a FAST 201 commercial on TV and thought it looked super cool. A friend of mine bought one at the store and started to learn, so I did some research online and came across JD’s Worlds 2003 freestyle. It blew my mind and I was hooked. I bought a Kickside shortly after (which I then broke–long story).

I remember those commercials! So, I’m guessing you learned most of your tricks back then online?

Yup! I learned most of my fundamentals from André’s old website, Mastermagic. I think I got stuck on the more advanced tricks (ie: Black Hops, Spirit Bomb, Superman, etc) so I started to watch clip videos and tried to come up with my own stuff.

Aside from JD’s stuff, what were some of your other favorite tricks and influences when you first started?

As a beginner, I really tried to absorb anything I could, so there is a lot of influence from pretty much all of the big names. I would probably say that Spencer Berry and Jason Lee were the biggest influences in my early style, you can see this in my older videos “Visage”, “Incidental”, and “To and Fro”. Actually, if you watch Spencer/Jason’s video “The Fidget” and watch my videos “Incidental” and “Broke,” you’ll see that my videos were actually a bit of a tribute. I think my yo-yoing is mainly focused on doing subtle moves rather than constructing whole tricks (which is why I started filming short moves on Instagram–which I think lead to #trickcircle), so I find a lot of inspiration from pretty much everyone.

I love a lot of your older videos, when I started making my own tricks they definitely inspired me because they seemed like something that I would come up with. As I went on though, my tricks kind of branched out into something more unique to me. I definitely see the Jason/Spencer influence! What was your method to making up your own stuff then?

Back then, I was a big proponent of learning on a responsive yo-yo to get proficient at yo-yo control. After I had a solid foundation (smooth yo-yo control + tricks like White Buddha, Skin the Gerbil, etc) I just sort of stumbled on things. I spent a LOT of time watching yo-yo videos back then, so sometimes I would see a trick and then think of my own variation and sort of keep it in the back of my mind until I had a chance to try it out.

That’s definitely a good method, it worked well because a lot of your older (and newer!) tricks are really good. How did you end up getting sponsored by YoYoFactory?

Ben used to run the “Project Red Alert” blog back in G5/GM2/888 era which was basically the YYF blog that had all of the info on new releases. He posted my video “Visage” and I was super excited about it. It was a really big deal for me at the time, so I sent him an email just saying thanks. He responded saying how he really enjoyed the video and he mentioned wanting to sponsor/support me somehow, but I wasn’t quite at the Contest Team level. After a couple of emails, he asked me if I would be interested in joining a YoYoFactory Junior Team if they started one. I said yes, and that’s how the Junior Team was started. We then had video “auditions” and ended up adding Paul Kerbel, Patrick Borgerding, John Chow, and Yuji Kelly to the team. Looking back, it was a really impressive line up.

That is an impressive line-up, that’s awesome! One of my favorite videos of yours is “Broke”, which is a straight up trick video that’s over 4 minutes long. How long does it take you to compile enough tricks for a video like that?

“Broke” is a good one, I was always a big fan of those pure trick videos. Four minutes of new tricks sounds impressive at first, but I think it’s important to note that it was released three years after my last video at the time, which was “Your Future’s With Us” (I’m not counting “Edit,” which was just a quick clip).

What do you do to stay creative?

I don’t really do anything in particular to stay creative, I have periods of highs and lows. Being invited to Steve’s 365 Yo-Yo Tricks project with Ed, Drew, Nate, and Guy (+ guests!) was a big help, though. That year was really good for me. Actually, a lot of the tricks in “Daydream” have moves that directly came from that project.

That’s true, I’m not sure if I could come up with that much great stuff even in 3 years. For those that can’t tell yet, you make a lot of good clip videos. Do you have any creative inspiration behind those? You have a good variety with your videos too which I like.

In high school I got really interested in film making after talking to Miggy and Spencer a lot. “PATH to Agartha” is a tribute to Miggy’s “Tunnels” video, while “Incidental” and “Broke” are a tribute to Spencer’s “The Fidget.” I also remember talking to Bergy about making yo-yo videos that are tributes to the music video of the song. I think he wanted to do a video to Lisztomania by Phoenix. I thought that was such a neat idea and was really into Tokyo Police Club at the time, so I tried to make “Your Future’s With Us” a tribute to the music video for “Your English Is Good.” I thought it did a great job of capturing the feeling of a bunch of friends relaxing and hanging out.

“Daydream” was made as a goodbye video to LA. I was born and raised in LA and I’m moving to Seattle soon, so I wanted to celebrate my time in the city with a video that incorporated beautiful LA scenery with a nostalgic vibe. I like to think that the most important thing in a yo-yo video is the quality of the tricks, but I try very hard to incorporate a theme to give my videos an extra oomph. That’s partly because I’m not a very competitive yo-yoer, so a lot of my presence in the community is through my videos.

So, what were the ideas and process behind your new video, “Daydream?”

“Your Future’s With Us” was my favorite video I’ve ever made. It was my first time shooting in HD video, I filmed it with the help of my friends, and I learned how to use some video editing software for it too. It had good vibes, music, and color. For years I wanted to make a sequel to it, but I felt a ton of pressure (mostly from myself). If I went through the work of making a sequel, I wanted it to be better.

It had to stay true to theme of “Your Future’s With Us,” it had to have better tricks, and it needed to feature some of my favorite places in Los Angeles.I have tried filming for a sequel for a couple of years now, and I’ve always scrapped the footage because the shots weren’t good enough, or the tricks weren’t good enough, or I couldn’t find the right music. But in late December 2013, I learned that I was accepted to the University of Washington for a graduate school program in Chemistry and I decided that I wanted to get a video out before I moved. I decided I wanted to use the song “40 Day Dream” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and I wanted it to be a goodbye video to the city I grew up in, Los Angeles. So I gathered up some friends, and we did a ton of filming in January 2014. I had just gotten a new camera (Canon Rebel T3i) and was learning how to use it. I had 32+ gigs of footage and I ended up sitting on it for the months because school started again and I was really busy. I eventually went back to look at the footage and scrapped almost all of it–it just didn’t look good. I was still learning how to use the camera at the time, and I wasn’t satisfied with the results.

I moved back to LA in June and I rounded up my friends again to do some more filming. We filmed a ton in the peak of the summer and it was HOT! Unfortunately, I wanted to keep my look consistent between the footage in January and now, so I wore my oxford shirt and long pants for continuity. Eventually we finished filming and I sat down to edit it. I went back and forth editing for about a week. The hardest part was getting the colors right, I ended up having to try a couple of different programs to get the color to look the way I wanted it to. There was a lot to do and learn, but I think it all paid off at the end. “Daydream” is a tribute to the city I grew up in, the people I’ve met, and the memories I’ve made. It sounds a little serious for a yo-yo video, but I love LA and all of my friends I’ve made, and I’m going to miss them a lot.

That’s so cool, the whole experience definitely paid off. I think yoyo videos with that kind of thought put into them are the ones that turn out the best. It was so nice to see fresh tricks and a fresh, great video from you! Nice work! I personally think that impressive tricks in impressive clip videos are just as impressive as impressive contests freestyles.

Have you ever thought of having your own signature yoyo? As much as I love competition-ready throws, I also like yoyos that have more of a laid back, steady feel to them which I could see a signature throw of your’s having.

Thanks Matt. I appreciate it! It’s funny, I think I’m actually one of the guys that have been on the YYF team for the longest and doesn’t have a signature yo-yo. I don’t really mind, though, my yo-yo preferences change pretty rapidly. There are days where I’ll want something solid like a Superstar, or something plastic like a Northstar, or something lighter like a Shutter. Maybe a signature colorway or something would be nice. We’ll see!

You’re welcome! My preferences change a lot too, so I know what you mean. I would really have to generalize everything I like best into one yoyo if I ever had my own signature throw. I’ve noticed in “Broke” that a ton of your tricks start with a simple trapeze and all transcend into something different. Do you have any favorite elements or mounts to work with, like the trapeze?

The start/end in trapeze was actually my shoutout to “The Fidget.” Each one of Jason’s tricks ends in a trapeze in that video, and I thought it was a neat way to add a recurring theme into a video. As far as favorite elements go, I really like Magic Drops.

Oh yeah, I never thought about that. You definitely have some of my favorite magic drop tricks. It’s cool how you were inspired by other yoyoers, and made the inspiration into your own thing. What kind of advantages do you think making shorter tricks has as opposed to making longer ones?

I’m not sure if it has any advantages/disadvantages… it’s just an individual style thing. Some people can come up with really long, cohesive tricks (ie: Yuuki, Zach, Ando)… but I can’t. I don’t think I have the trick vocabulary to make really dense, long tricks like those guys do. On the other hand, I can still come up with neat moves and put them in short, < 15 second, tricks. I think Drew (Tetz) and I are really similar in that regard. Short tricks por vida.

I don’t think longer tricks are “better,” but I do think that the players that can create long tricks have an incredibly impressive trick vocabulary and consistency. But I pride myself in making neat, subtle moves in my yo-yoing.

I never thought about that comparison between you and Drew, but that’s totally right. I definitely like your mindset when it comes to making tricks. What advice would you give anyone trying to make their own stuff?

Learn the trick history. There is a ton of gold that people were working on in the old-mid school era when the technology wasn’t as good. A lot of those ideas deserve a second look. Also, style is just as important as originality. If you’re having a hard time coming up with something new, work on being able to perform a trick in a specific way or with a specific look.

I totally agree with all of that! There really is a goldmine of elements from back in the day, and I also think that being able to do things stylishly is important too. Lastly, what can we expect to see from you in the future? Do you have anything yoyo-related planned for when you get to Seattle?

I’m not too sure! I’ll probably do more #trickcircle stuff, but I am pretty much tapped out on new content. I’d love to make a sequel to “Broke” or “Daydream.” I want to try to get Sterling back into yo-yos (maybe film a video!) and I’m hoping to compete at PNWR next year and to do well.

That sounds like a great plan, good luck David! Thanks for doing this!

No problem, Matt. Thanks for having me!

Interview – Adam Brewster

July 14, 2014 By Matt McDade

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! 🙂

5A May Interview – Bryan Jardin

May 31, 2014 By Drew Tetz

Hot on the heels of his recent 5A May Torque video, Filipino wonderboy Bryan Jardin has agreed to answer a few questions about his 5A philosophy and yo-yo experience. With multiple championships under his belt at both Philippine Nationals & the Asian Pacific Yo-yo contest, he has already proven himself to be a formidable force on the Asian competitive scene, and a podium finish at the Bay Area Classic suggests that he has not slowed down upon moving to the US. In addition to being a great player, Bryan is well-known for his energetic off-stage antics and his huge smile. Pull up a chair and learn a little about the man behind the tricks.

How did you get started in yo-yoing?

I started yo-yoing when I was 9 years old, around the time that the Super Yo-yo scene crashed in the Philippines. Everyone had a yoyo. To make the long story short, Edmund San Antonio ( Duncan Crew Philippines ) introduced me to the advanced tricks, and I thought it was the coolest thing that I’d seen in my whole life. So he made me buy a ball bearing yoyo. I learned the tricks really quick because I’m into it. I tried competing for Basic, Intermediate and Advance- freestyle but I ended up losing. But I don’t care, I had fun! . Yoyoing helps me to build my confidence in the outside world, I’ve met a lot of friends and learned a lot of things in life.

Who are some of your favorite players & biggest influences?

Many of my favorite yo-yo players are old school players. Steve Brown, Rafael Matsunaga, Kohta, Yuuki Spencer, Sebby, Paul Escolar, Gary Longoria and Spencer Berry. I still look up to them.

For new rising star yoyo players, I like Michael Kurti, Isaac Sams, Andrew Maider, and Janos Karancz,

3. How do you generally create your tricks & combos?

I usually use 1A mounts for my 5A combos. I’ll create a lot of mini-tricks and put them together, I always make sure that the flow is right and I don’t usually care about technical. If I can’t come up with new tricks, I look back to the old 5A tricks, but I’ll add more style and put it in a competitive way.

4. You’re known in the community for your high energy both on and off the stage. What was the most fun you’ve ever had at a yo-yo contest?

Hahaha! This always happens, so I’m kind of used to it… After Sean Perez’s Freestyle, people will congratulate me because they think that I’m Sean. One time, a kid ran up wanting to hug me, take a picture and get my signature. I find it so funny because I always hang out with him and we both have the same Duncan Shirts. Brothers!!

5. You’re doing a great job showing off yo-yoing for Duncan at Downtown Disney. Is it more fun to perform for non-players who are impressed by everything or yoyoers who appreciate the technical difficulty of what you do?

For Non-players, I rarely do competition/technical/difficult tricks for them because even though it looks good, they don’t really understand it. Haha! One thing I like for the non-player crowd is to teach them tricks, I find it more fun and exciting.

I really like showing my tricks to yoyoers because at least they can understand the difficulty, style, flow and smoothness of my tricks. And if they like it, it gives me more hope to create new tricks!

6. What’s your favorite 5A trick of all time, and why?

My favorite 5A tricks are body tricks and aerials, because my definition of 5A is the counterweight/string/yoyo is away from me. I like it when I can add aerial moves and move the yoyo around my body.

7. You recently placed at BAC and have a history of strong performances at AP. How are American contests different from contests in Asia?

I’ve been competing in Asia for years and years, so I do tricks that fit to Asian Contests, which is more speed+technical. Here in the US, they focus more on style+flow+technical, which I find way easier to compete in, and I feel that this is were I belong when it comes to contest. I mostly like American 5A players because I can see the tricks whenever they freestyle, it’s much clearer. I really do appreciate a routine with good flow and not so fast. In my opinion, fast tricks are too robotic, especially for 5A.

8. What’s your favorite nickname for Brandon Jackson?

Haha! Before I answer this question, I would like to describe him. Brandon is Impossible. I think he is a walking Google, he knows everything! Brandon is a really good higher up and a friend… I always call him boss, because he is actually my boss! But I really want to call him BJ, Because we have the same acronym, I’m BJ too!

9. How do you plan your freestyles?

I plan my freestyle first before picking a song. I divide my freestyle into three pieces. It’ll help me to compress my freestyle so I can put more tricks in. It’s a little bit risky because I ended up putting a lot of tricks, and I don’t have spare time if I make a mistake. But that’s how I roll, I’ll go big or go home.

10. What do you think is going to be the biggest yo-yo trend of 2015?

I 2015 will be the battle of young yoyo players, they’re so crazy and innovative. I think kids will dominate the big stages in 2015. Old yoyo players will be history.

Any closing bits of advice?

For the kids out there dreaming of becoming a sponsored player:

Be yourself
Know your roots
Be a role model to others
Be creative and Innovative
Be friendly, don’t act like a superstar
Be active in contests
Original Tricks are always the best tricks
Enjoy what you do

Once you’ve learn how to do these things, companies will find you!

5A May Interview – Miguel Correa

May 14, 2014 By Matt McDade

Miguel Correa at Bill Liebowitz Classic.

Whether you know him as Miguel, Miggy, “Flame”, or the guy who’s name is on the YoyoFactory Genesis (as it’s his signature yoyo), Miguel Correa is a 4x US National Champion and undeniably one of the best 5A players of all time. Starting his yoyo career in the late 90’s, Miguel went on to really pioneer 5A and do a lot of great things for yoyoing in general. Miguel has always been someone I wanted to interview, so upon having the chance I was definitely excited to learn more about him!

Miguel, you’ve been yoyoing for a pretty long time and unbeknownst to some were actually an important figure in the “midschool” era of yoyoing. How did you start yoyoing in the first place?

I have an earlier memory of playing with a yo-yo, but I really started playing in late 1999. I bought a knock off X-Brain at the mall…it shattered within half an hour of play. I took it back and the guy was cool enough to accept it as a return and swapped it out with a real X-Brain. I was young, but even then I knew he probably wasn’t supposed to do that. He hooked it up.

Aha, that’s awesome! You eventually became a pretty prominent 1A player back then, but how did you first start learning tricks and get integrated into the internet yoyo scene of the time?

Early on I bought some trick books and learned through illustrations. Occasionally, I also read text descriptions online. After I built some skill, most of the learning came from one on one interaction and online videos. Then, after convincing my dad to buy a camcorder, I was able to share online the tricks my friends and I were coming up. We only had a few forums and sites dedicated to yoyoing at the time so it was relatively easy, if you had the tricks, to get people to notice you.

Some of your old 1A tricks from back then are pretty cool. How would you describe the process with making up those kinds of tricks back then?

Back then it wasn’t difficult to make up something new. The difficult part was making it look good. For me, I always tried to have some fluidity to a trick. My process was generally to come up with an original move, and then find the natural rhythm it wanted. Basically, the tricks found me.

I think there are a lot of tricks from back then that might not look impressive but are actually pretty hard as far as the technical aspect goes. You went by the name “Flame” then, right? I remember seeing you in one of Spencer Berry’s Phalanx videos from way back then.

Ha! Yeah, Flame was my angsty web handle back then. Wasn’t cool then, still ain’t lol. I was a part of Spencer Berry’s Project Phalanx. Basically, it was an assembled crew of people Spencer deemed worthy. He had a site and we would send him our tricks and he would compile clip videos out of them. There were at least two Phalanx videos I can distinctly remember, “Primus” and “Secundus”. To be perfectly honest, when I was asked to be a part of the project, I wasn’t sure if I was actually good enough. I asked Spencer one time why he chose me to be part of the small collective and he said, simply, “I saw potential”. So, big shout out to Spencer for that motivation.

So, I have a debate with myself on a trick I did in the first Phalanx video, “Primus”. During my section I do a trapeze, to a trapeze and his brother, but right before it lands, I whip it. I never gave this a name, but everyone knows it as Jade Whip. That’s the earliest video I personally have ever seen of Jade Whip, so I’m claiming it until further proof is unearthed. I never gave it a name so I don’t know who named it.

Wow, that’s awesome! What made you want to gravitate more towards 5A?

I had moderate contest success in 1A early on, but my local peers like Jesse Garcia and Eric Hesterman were killing it. They were far and away better than I, so eventually as other styles emerged I decided I wanted to try out 5A. There weren’t a lot of tricks for it at the time so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try and help build something from the ground up. I made that decision around 2002.

It was definitely a good one! How was the 5A climate then as opposed to 1A?

After 1A overtook 2A as king, I feel it really opened up a spot for a new number 2 style. 5A was really really special back then. There weren’t many players at all and there wasn’t a real trick ladder set forth in the style. The style itself was intriguing enough that you would see pockets emerge of different styles of 5A, in particular in the U.S. I had my style of 5A, there was a distinct mid west style of 5A, and a west coast style too. It was the closest thing in the yoyo world to me like there was regional stylistic differences of the same music sub-genre. Punk sounds different in New York than it does in Gainesville, FL. Something about that spoke to me and excited me. This was all truly something NEW and it was all being developed in wildly different ways. Take that music analogy along with Steve Brown’s extroverted personality, it’s easy to see why people like Tyler and myself gravitated toward 5A and really tried to make it our own.

That totally makes sense, I definitely see why you did too. Were you just throwing the standard Freehand 1s then? I remember seeing you throw a Tigershark in one of those Phalanx videos.

I was on Team Spintastics early on, then I was on Team Buzz On after that. Somewhere in between I was throwing a lot of Freehand 1’s. I had a nice collection at one point too. For the Spintastics stuff, we could modify Tigersharks, mostly adding weight and later on changing the guts. I figured a way to get Renegade guts to fit and later Spintastics had spacers made to accommodate the Renegade bearing, then they added domed caps and called it the Eclipse.

That’s what the Eclipse was? Wow! I’ve always been super curious about the old Spintastics stuff. I’ve thrown the Great White Shark from back then, it was really light but it was possible to add weight rings to that too, right?

We used 8 gauge wire to add weight initially, under the cap, then for the Eclipse they added a custom machined brass weight ring.

That’s pretty legit! What initially led you to competing to 5A, and what was your first contest?

Well, for awhile 5A was part of the open division. So, I lost to 2A players a lot. My first contest was just a local mall contest nearby, I wasn’t even good enough to freestyle. In 2003, U.S Nationals held an exhibition contest for 3A, 4A, and 5A, I won the 5A exhibition. The next year, 2004, the winners were retroactively awarded National Champion trophies at the awards dinner. We were cited as performers showing excellence in our styles and contributing factors to the decision to open U.S Nationals to 5 total championship divisions.

Wow, thats crazy! You later went on to win several 1st place National titles since then. Whats your favorite contest you’ve competed in?

A great contest is never about what happens on stage. I don’t know if I can pick a favorite, the best stories are ones I can’t tell you here. There are many.

Keeping up the theme of 5A, what’s some advice you could throw out there for any aspiring 5A champion out there?

Know your basic and intermediate tricks well. Those are the foundations of 5A and knowing those elements and incorporating them into your more difficult tricks will make your tricks look better and score better.

Definitely. If you had to pick one from each, what would be your favorite 1A trick and your favorite 5A trick?

Speaking generally, my favorite 1A trick is easily Rancid Milk. I think the trick was at least a year old before I saw anyone besides Spencer be able to do it. My favorite 5A trick is one of my own called Siren. I have a tutorial of it up on my YouTube channel.

Rancid Milk is actually my favorite 1A trick too, by far. That sounds good! Speaking of which, you run your own site that’s pretty essential called The Definitive. What inspired to start that site?

There were a lot of factors that went into that. The Definitive right now is a place for my tutorials to live outside of YouTube. I try to update it with a written piece from time to time, but right now it’s not a priority. I do have more 1A tutorials filmed but I may re-shoot them, eventually.

I think it’s a really good site with a lot of good info all in one place. Lastly, what can we expect to see from you in the future?

You can catch me at BAC this year. We’ll see what happens after BAC, one contest at a time. I’ll be posting more promo stuff for the new Genesis. The Pulsar Collection Genesis is coming out to online stores soon, but be quick because they are super limited and some of them are already gone, sold at Japan Nationals. Be sure to follow me on instagram @themiggymigs and subscribe to my Youtube channel. Yeah, I think that does it.

Great, Thanks Miguel!

5 Unbelievably Underrated Midschool Tricks

April 2, 2014 By Matt McDade

Paul Escolar, Jason Lee, Chris Neff, Steve Brown, Jeffrey Longoria, and others at BAC 2000

Ah, the era of the “midschool” yoyoing. Videos were more grainy, hair was more spiky, and cargo pants had more than enough pockets to tote around Renegades, Freehand 1s, and Spinfaktors as opposed to the more slim denim options of today. “Midschool” can be defined exactly how it sounds, and in the yoyoing world it generally means the era just before, during, and after the “boom” of 1998. It was an era of innovation in absolutely all facets of yoyoing, including tricks, contests, yoyos, and the integration of the recently popularized internet into the yoyoing world.

The most popular tricks of the midschool era are some of the tricks that you may have seen or learned from André Boulay’s YoYoExpert tutorials. Some significant ones include White Buddha (Paul Escolar), Superman (Jason Lee), The Matrix (Doctor Popular), Spirit Bomb (Jeff Longoria), and Kwyjibo (Taylor Whitley). What some players may not not know is that these tricks were learned by André during the era in which yoyo videos had to be downloaded using the dial-up connections of the time. Similar to the recent explosion of the #trickcircle hashtag today, they were created by and shared with enthusiasts and those truly in the know dedicated many hours to staying current to the tricks and trends of the time.

Back then, there were no GoPro tutorials in which you could see the trick as well as the pair of socks that the yoyoer has chosen to wear for the day. Tricks had to be learned through text, and if you were lucky, text and illustrations along with a short video. If you do enough digging, it is still possible to find some of the old tutorials and learn some old tricks if you have the dedication to do so.

In the years after the boom, the numerous tricks of the era were still discussed and learned on message boards of the time and were still some of the hardest tricks to learn. These days, yoyoers have all they could possibly want as far as learning tricks goes, and the tricks from the midschool era that do not have current tutorials of their own are old memories or completely unheard of by most yoyoers. Therefore, there is a goldmine of old tricks that many yoyoers may have never heard of and would probably break their knuckles attempting on one of the tug-responsive yoyos of the time. Yoyos then had to sleep for a long time, not “catch” the string in the middle of a trick, and still be reliably tug responsive.

Think old midschool tricks can’t hang with the tricks of today? Think again.

5. Orange Tulips (Red Clover II)- Paul Escolar

If you get the chance, head over to the Sector Y Archive and watch some of their videos in chronological order. Not only can you see yoyoing itself advance, but you can also see the members of the Spindox Yoyo Club push great concepts further and further with each video. At the release of their “Wish We Were at Worlds” clip video in 2001, the Spindox members were at the top of their game.

The most widely-recognized trick from “Wish We Were at Worlds” is probably Breath, by Spencer Berry. Another elusive-but-amazing trick in the video is Paul Escolar’s sequel to his his slightly-less-elusive trick, Red Clover. Red Clover II, otherwise known as Orange Tulips, combines interesting and still widely unexplored Houdini Mount concepts with a a Wrist Mount ending that makes for a fairly fluid, and pretty hard, trick. Check the video above for the trick, starting at 1:58.

The first move of Orange Tulips is taken from Red Clover, but after that, Orange Tulips makes it’s own identity and features a pop through a triangle string segment that is pretty difficult when first attempting the trick. The pop is necessary to complete the trick properly, and you’ll only know it’s done right when the yoyo lands and creates a Wrist Mount-esque segment that is situated on the fingers as opposed to the wrist. The end of the trick basically does the same thing as the ending of Superman by Jason Lee but in a significantly different way. An extra kink through the Wrist Mount is undone, and as the yoyo lands in a regular Wrist Mount, a normal dismount followed by a return to the hand completes the trick.

The trick is still difficult, and when doing it you can see that Paul was clearly connecting trick segments to do-and-undo each other. Even when performing the trick on a modern, unresponsive yoyo it has a midschool feel and completing it successfully definitely feels great.

The video of Orange Tulips in “Wish We Were at Worlds” is literally the only video of Orange Tulips that is currently online. While obscure, it is definitely underrated in my opinion and is honestly a great trick. Learning and performing it on a modern, unresponsive yoyo proves this, and it’s a shame that it hasn’t received more recognition within the community (A Cabin Tutorial, maybe?).

4. 8 Diagram Pole- SAGE

Coming to prominence around 2001, Black Hops is a trick that is mainly based around “hop” concepts that still remains somewhat relevant with players. SAGE (Albert Gonzales, inventor of the Iron Whip.), a yoyoer from the East Coast who was also doing grinds and slacks early in their creation, created a similar but significantly more difficult trick with 8 Diagram Pole in 2001.

I have yet to learn 8 Diagram Pole, but those that have speak of it’s difficulty. It doesn’t appear that it would be any easier on an unresponsive yoyo, but anyone that has thrown responsive and has seen the trick can most likely see it’s difficulty during the time it was created.

The concept behind the hops are somewhat similar to Spencer Berry’s “Insta-Mounts” (which Adam Brewster has been creating and sharing via #trickcircle lately) and despite lacking the flashiness and fluidity of today’s popular tricks, 8 Diagram Pole definitely deserves a place on this list as well as a place in trick history. SAGE has not been involved in yoyoing since the early 2000’s but his contributions undoubtedly left a mark on yoyoing.

3. TimeTwister- Gabriel Lozano

TimeTwister is probably the least underrated trick on this list, but it is still fairly underrated in my opinion and not necessarily known as well as some other tricks from the era. While it does have some “modern” exposure, TimeTwister is still a trick that some players may have never heard of or may have forgotten about. I actually learned TimeTwister early in my yoyoing career, and it’s remained one of my favorite tricks since.

In watching a lot of of old Spindox videos, you can see Citadel (Gabriel Lozano) playing around with a lot of concepts that are very similar to the ones in TimeTwister and you can also eventually see him throw TimeTwister itself, too. Everybody had their own elements to mess with back then, and Gabe chose twisty 1.5 mount concepts, rolls, and a sort of flowy trick that’s different than a lot of other stuff from it’s time and stuff from now as well.

In a non-cynical way, my favorite part of TimeTwister is the end. The part at the end in which you manually untwist the strings that you twisted a step prior really blew my mind when I first started yoyoing. The sideways barrel roll/hug movements within the trapeze towards the end were especially tricky for me to hit when first learning the trick too.

Pulling off TimeTwister feels really good, even on a newer yoyo. It’s a pretty long trick, and remembering all of the moves and doing them just right is definitely impressive.

2. Water Bomb- Steve Brown

I’m pretty sure that innovative frontstyle stuff was just about as common, if not a little more common, in the midschool era as it is today. Steve Brown had this frontstyle mount called the H20 Mount which was basically a Split Bottom Mount with an extra segment that allowed a little more creativity within frontstyle yoyoing. Water Bomb is my personal favorite that utilizes the mount, but another trick of Steve’s that utilizes the mount and is equally badass is Chinese Water Torture. Another yoyoer, throwing under the alias “Spiky Haired Raver” had a trick called Spring Water that utilized the mount as well.

Water Bomb definitely makes use of the extra segment within the H20 Mount, along with some rolls and boings to complete the trick. I just really like the midschool-esque fluidity of it all. It may sound obsessive, but I really think it was a combination of the yoyos, concepts being explored, and general climate of the late 90’s/early 2000’s that made for some really, really great yoyoing despite being outdated today.

I first saw Steve throw Water Bomb in the How to be a Player video by Duncan, and was impressed because at the time I had just learned Split the Atom and Mach 5. It really impressed me at the time, and it would still probably be a great challenge to learn today if a proper tutorial existed for the trick.

1. Havoc- Spencer Berry

It was genuinely hard to think of the #1 trick for this list. I didn’t necessarily write it in any particular order, but in any case “#1” should typically be exciting in some way or another. Well, what’s more exciting than a trick called “Havoc”, right?

It’s hard to believe that Spencer Berry invented in this trick in 2001. In my interview with Spencer, he said that Havoc was all about pushing complexity and he definitely did it with this trick. I first saw Havoc quite some time ago, and couldn’t even begin to get a grip on how to do it. Even now that I can do it quite well, it does not feel like any other yoyo trick that I’ve done before.

In my opinion, Havoc is the perfect trick technically, visually, and difficulty wise. Not only is it hard to learn, but it also hard to actually smooth out because all of the moves are so obscure that even a seasoned yoyoer will have trouble figuring them out at first. It follows the great tradition with it’s string segments doing-and-undoing themselves and lots of subtle movements being necessary to do in order for the trick to be performed properly.

Havoc is 1/3 of Spencer Berry’s Destruction trilogy of tricks (alongside Enigma and Cataclysm) and the reason that I chose Havoc out of the 3 is because it’s simply the most different and most difficult in my opinion. Luckily, Chuck over at CLYW dropped a Cabin Tutorial for it last year and if you’re interested in learning it, doing so is only a click away!

Hopefully you enjoyed this look at some obscure yoyo tricks! I actually didn’t start yoyoing seriously until 2011, but in the amount of time that I have been yoyoing I’ve definitely enjoyed learning about the vast history of our great hobby. Shoutout to Gabe and Spencer for letting me use their old videos, and shoutout to Steve for hopefully not feeling really old after reading this! If you have any stories, tricks, or anything to share feel free to email me at: throwplaza@gmail.com!

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5. Orange Tulips (Red Clover II)- Paul Escolar

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3. TimeTwister- Gabriel Lozano

2. Water Bomb- Steve Brown

1. Havoc- Spencer Berry

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5. Orange Tulips (Red Clover II)- Paul Escolar

4. 8 Diagram Pole- SAGE

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2. Water Bomb- Steve Brown

1. Havoc- Spencer Berry

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