YoYo Related News From Around The World
CLYW’s Adam Brewster has been a steady hand and heart on their team for many years now. It’s frequently noted that he’s one of the most underrated players out there, although not often enough to stop him being underrated. Enjoy this video from the CLYW vault, filmed at the 2016 World YoYo Contest in Cleveland, Ohio.
Yoyo used is the Heaven Sent Creep.
Long-time CLYW team member Adam Brewster is still one of the most unique and creative players in the scene. Check out his latest trick dump in glorious black & white.
Yoyo used is the CLYW Big Dipper.
Adam Brewster loves making those moody videos with damn good tricks, doesn’t he?
Yoyo used is the CLYW Yeti.
CLYW dropped a pile of Gnarwhal 2s at YoYoExpert last night, and along with them came a new video from team member Adam Brewster. Long considered a “player’s favorite”, Adam always brings unique, interesting concepts and trick construction to the table.
Yoyo used is the Gnarwhal 2 by CLYW.
CLYW player Adam Brewster is getting in the Halloween spirit with his new video, “Barricade”. Looks like the perfect place to film a yoyo video, or hole up during a zombie apocalypse.
Yoyo used is the Bonfire by CLYW.
Adam Brewster from CLYW documented his road trip with Alec Campbell and Bryce Benton to the 2014 Triple Crown of YoYo in Chicago, and dropped a 12-minute video recap of the event. Featuring Adam Brewster, Alec Campbell, Michael Ferdico, Colin Beckford, Eric Koloski, and more.
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! 🙂
CLYW released another video today from their MWR sessions, this one featuring Alec Campbell. Alec is quickly developing one of the most recognizable styles of play around, and is becoming both a player and fan favorite. Filmed and edited by Adam Brewster.
Yoyo used is the Chief by CLYW.
CLYW’s Adam Brewster has been long-regarded as a “player’s player”. His intricate and intuitive trick construction has been a favorite among trick theory enthusiasts for years, and this new video once again shows off his unique take on trick construction.
Yoyo used is the Bonfire by CLYW.
Adam Brewster and Alec Campbell from CLYW put together a video with Ben Conde and Shakeem Anderson from YoYoJam, and the result is three golden minutes of great tricks and good times.
It didn’t take long after the launch of Instagram video for yo-yo players around the world to start sharing their tricks in ≤15-second bursts. The hashtag #trickcircle started popping up, and there have been over a hundred yoyo tricks posted under that label in the past three months. We here at @YoyoNews have been monitoring that tag closely, and are now endeavoring to bring you the choicest morsels of instagoodness every week with a #trickcircle roundup. Want your 15 seconds of fame? Study these well, and start shooting…
This trick from @yoyoingadam (AKA Adam Brewster of CLYW) is called “Kefka’s Tower”, intended to be part of his Final Fantasy series showcased in “Eleven” but left off until “The Only Thing Worth Saying”. Adam’s always had a gift for creating (& naming) new elements, and the central feature of this one is something he calls a Portal. In his words: “A brother to the folding gate concept: with a ‘portal’ the yoyo breaks plane as it’s pushed through a gap in the mount, instead of remaining stationary while the mount folds over it as with a gate trick.” Gates (folding the string formation over/under a yoyo) are a relatively underused triangle entrance, and the pushiness of the portal gives the concept new energy. A frontstyle combo was the natural choice for the best view of the off-plane movement, and Adam ties the rest of the moves together nicely.
@werrdtranton (AKA Eric Tranton of Werrd) brings us a short & sweet sequence blending some recent favorites. He opens with a regen popularized in Gentry Stein’s winning US Nats 2013 freestyle: a bind caught in the off-hand, which is then tossed up and regenerated into… well, for Gentry it was a split-bottom mount, but where Eric really ups the ante is landing in a four-point star. This one might be hard to learn without slomo, but the concept is definitely one worth exploring, and maybe if you study some Ryosuke Iwasawa videos you’ll come around to your own variation.
@raygstl (AKA Ray Godefroid, AKA Baby Bear Treezy) takes us into the future with a 3D 5A trick that reminds me of a cross between Red’s double pinwheel sequences and the Red Rocket spintop trick. The root concept of the trick—up/down off-plane 3D pinwheels—is more than cool enough on its own, but there are some subtleties and that imply a lot of room for growth. My personal favorite part of the trick actually lies at the very beginning, as Ray uses a smooth & subtle rejection to enter the trick, which builds the proper amount of momentum while simultaneously creating a tantalizing bit of slack just begging to be incorporated in a tech combo. Ray naturally ends the combo with a bucket, the traditional endpoint for tricks with horizontal dice movement.
Let’s take a quick trip across the Pacific for a monster of a trick from @sakatuca, AKA Tsukasa Takatsu of One Drop. He’s been making jaws drop this year with his dense, intricate chopsticks tricks, merging a Japanese sense of trick economy with the technical sensibilities of Mark Montgomery and Sid Seed. As you can see in this clip, though, Tsukasa is much more than just a fusion of his influences and has fresh ideas to spare: the opening mount alone should be enough to keep you busy for the week, a herculean magic drop/chopsticks/bucket conglomeration that looks borderline impossible on a fullsize yoyo. In addition to being mindnumbingly difficult, this mount sets up a sequence of visually stunning slacks that form the backbone of the trick. The strongest impression I took away from this trick is the way a well-placed slack manipulation can break up the pace of a combo and raise the impact of the other elements.
We’ll wrap this week up with a trick from YoyoNews favorite @david0ung, AKA David Ung of Yoyofactory. This combo is a takeoff of a lesser known Spencer Berry trick, Inhale, a sister trick to his masterwork Breath, first seen in Debt in Knowledge. Inhale works off of the idea of setting up a hanging potential GT knot halfway down the string, something played with by luminaries like Kohta, and then resolves the snag by swinging the yoyo through. David applies his own spin to the concept at every stage of the trick, from setting up the knot with a GT chopsticks slack to resolving with a risky triangle suicide. The best part of the trick, though, may be how much restraint is used: both David and Spencer let the elements speak for themselves, using subtle mounts that invite the viewer to really study what’s happening instead of getting caught up in flash or needless technical flourishes. Also, did we mention that this trick is hard? It’s so freakin’ hard.
Tune in next week, and don’t forget to follow @YoyoNews on Instagram and tag your insta-clips with #trickcircle for a chance to be featured!
Chris Mikulin is going to cry when he sees this.
CLYW player Adam Brewster brings us another bit of eye candy with his newest video, Parks/Prairies/Berries. Adam is a player’s player…his style and creativity are a favorite among the top players in the world and it’s always a pleasure to see something new from him.
And once again, here are a fistful of yoyo tricks to make you popular with the ladies! (Or the fellas, we’re cool either way.)
Adam Brewster stares you down with unrivaled intensity with this Arrested Development reference trick.
Spencer Berry is all elbows, man.
Ed Haponik drops in for a guest spot and reminds us that Wood is Good.
Darnell Hairston, everybody. Because 365 is for the children. Puffy is good, but 365 is for the children.
NOBODY BEATS THE BIZ.
Drew Tetz just gets under your skin, doesn’t he? I’ve been messing with kickflips a lot lately. Also, dig that $200 Brioni tie that I got at the thrift store for $4!! SCORE!
And Rafael Matsunaga brings it home with an old trick that still looks new.
See you next week!