YoYo Related News From Around The World
National YoYo Master Nathan Crissey is the newest addition to the Werrd Alliance!
Nathan has served as the Deputy Chairman of the World Yo-Yo Contest, is the former Contest Director of the Pacific Northwest Yo-Yo Championships, and currently serves as a co-organizer of the Bay Area Classic and Tricks & Rules Coordinator for the National YoYo League.
Congratulations to Werrd and Nathan!
You can always count on 2013 Canadian National Champion Harrison Lee for a great recap video! Here is Harrison’s look at the 2014 Pacific Northwest Regional event, recently held in Seattle, WA. PNWR is the first NYYL Regional event of 2014, and a great way to kick off the contest season. Click here for full results from the event.
This is the 10th year of PNWR, organized by National YoYo Master Nathan Crissey. Next year he’ll be handing the contest over to TMBR’s Colin Leland and it’s moving up to Portland. Nathan had an absolutely amazing run building this event up into something truly first class…congratulations on an amazing run, Nathan!
L to R: Tomonori Ishiguro, Johnnie DelValle, and Nathan Crissey
At this years US National YoYo Contest, the National YoYo Museum awarded three more players the rank of National YoYo Master. The rank of Master is an honor reserved for players who have provided outstanding contributions to the art, sport, and industry of yoyo play. It’s just shy of a Lifetime Achievement Award, as the honorees are people who are still actively contributing and are nowhere near retirement.
The National Master award is not given out yearly; only when an individual shows in some way to be a valued and long-time contributor in multiple facets of yoyoing is their name brought up by the Museum, and then vetted by existing Masters.
This year, three players were honored with the rank of Master.
Tomonari Ishiguro, who performs under the name BLACK, is a Japanese player and performer as well as a two-time World YoYo Champion. He has served as an inspiration to countless players in the worldwide yoyo scene with his polished and unique stage presence, and recently took the world by storm as one of the most lauded and talked about speakers at the 2013 TED conference, with video of his talk reaching more than 800,000 views.
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Nathan Crissey’s contributions to yoyoing have been as a stalwart judge and organizer for an incredible number of yoyo contests. Nathan has served as a Deputy Chairman for the World YoYo Contest, a co-organizer of the Bay Area Classic, and is the organizer and Contest Director for the Pacific Northwest Regionals. A passionate yoyo player, Crissey is a regular fixture at judges’ tables across the country where he frequently serves as lead judge, and manages score tabulation. Crissey is the first phone call made from any contest with a scoring problem or question, and every contest organizer in the country is wise enough to default to his experience and knowledge.
This video is recommended for audiences 18 years and older.
Youtube version here.
Because it is my regional contest, The Bay Area Classic is dear to my heart. Currently held in San Francisco, CA, the BAC always manages to bring together many of the world’s greatest players.
Since I personally never compete, I am always a spectator on the sidelines. I don’t mind this. In fact, I embrace it. Very rarely do you see me without my trusty camera. Since 1998, I have shot video at pretty much every yoyo event I’ve gone to. Some people have said that my work has documented the growth and change of yoyoing over the past 15 years. While I don’t feel I’m worthy of such high praise, I do feel that my videos have made a large impact in the yoyo community. That is why when the BAC committee asked me if I was willing to help shoot freestyles for the event, I gladly accepted. This acceptance, however, came with a downside.
This year, BAC ran freestyles throughout the day (as opposed to the end of the day). While this made everything run much smoother, it meant that I was unable to film tricks for a clip video since I would be busy with freestyles all day. I was pretty bummed, as I really enjoy making clip videos. So, to get my “documenting fix” in, I decided to shoot photographs and maybe hope that I could grab some good video footage at the Official BAC BBQ on Sunday.
My initial video plan was to make a video that showed people hanging out at the BAC BBQ. I wanted to make a sequel to last year’s BAC video, but this time focus on the players themselves, instead of their tricks. I wanted to show all of us hanging out, laughing, having a good time, making up and sharing tricks, and relaxing after a tough competition. This was the plan until I got home and realized that the photos I had taken all weekend showed a much more interesting story.
Over the course of the weekend, I shot approximately 2000 photos using a combination of my iPhone, Lumix LX7, and Sony NEX-5N using (primarily) a 8mm fisheye. If you were in my vicinity at any point this weekend, odds are I took your picture.
Inspired by Kohta’s EYYC 2012 video, this BAC 2013 video shows a different side of the contest filled with friends, family, spirits, camaraderie, yoyoing, and kendama.