1st Place – Lorenzo Sabatini (offstring)
2nd Place – Danny Martucci (counterweight)
3rd Place – Andres Pegam (counterweight)
4th Place – Armando La Rocca (offstring)
5th Place – Riccardo Fraolini (3A)
2012 Italian Nationals – 1A Freestyle Videos
1st Place – Lorenzo Sabatini
2nd Place – Francesco Giola
3rd Place – Armando LaRocca
4th Place – Riccardo Fraolini
5th Place – Allesio Dalla Villa
Click through to the contest website for more!
Alex Morton – Today
New video from Alex Morton, the second in his “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” series. “Yesterday” was released in October 2011, so enjoy this one…because “Tomorrow” might not be here for a while.
Yoyo used is the Chief by CLYW.
Wes Peden – Water on Mars
Juggler Wes Peden has released a new 45-minute show called “Water on Mars”, and it’s absolutely incredible. Water on Mars is a compilation sequence by Wes, Tony Pezzo, and Patrik Elmnert presenting routines, patterns, and tricks the three have been developing for the past 3 years. The project was motivated by good tricks, good angles, and the possibilities for prop transitions when you have extremely competent assistants. The video contains 81 new patterns, the 5 club diamond lock, an upside down albert triplex, a 11 club pirouette, the best 5 ring routine alive, and synchronized 7 clubs.
Training under Jay Gilligan, Wes has established himself as one of the most creative voices in modern juggling. Check out this trailer, and then head over to his site to buy the full show as a digital download for only 15 euros (about $20 USD).
Main feature: 45 minutes
Bonus Live show video: 25 minutes
Price: 15€
File format .MOV
File size. 2.8 GB
New Paolo Bueno Video Spot
You’d be hard pressed to find a more creative, passionate, drive group of professionals then those of the YoYoFactory Team. World and National Champions, International icons, Trick innovators. Each move of each trick is meticulously refined to be the most valuable, jaw dropping maneuver on stage, or film. Paulo is no exception. Holding it down for us in Southern California, and ushering in a new generation of Champion Yo-Yo Players, his tricks are deep. This new concept video takes it beyond just a new set of tricks, but explores a larger flow and visual concept that is wonderfully executed.
(Via YoYoFactory)
Kendama USA at NY Toy Fair
The folks over at Kengarden just posted this fantastic video…great tricks, good laughs, and it’s amazing how much all skill toy folks seem to get equally silly when they hang out together. Great stuff!
YoYoExpert and YoYoJam Present RING MASTER
From YoYoExpert:
|| YoYoJam RING MASTER || We met up with AJ Kirk to film an official video for his upcoming yo-yo release of the YoYoJam Ring Master! This is a great new yo-yo coming soon from YoYoJam!
Jesse Christe – Tomorrow
Suicide-to-Star
Malcolm from Singapore posted this fantastic trick…too good not to share!
YoYo used is the Duncan Metropolis.
IBS – Basement Session #1
Ibrahim Rahman, better known as IBS, gives us Basement Session #1. Stellar!
Gentry Stein wins PNWR!
The Pacific Northwest Regional contest was held yesterday in Seattle, WA, and Team YoyoFactory took home no less than three of the four titles!
Gentry Stein winning 1A and Miguel Correa in 5A come as no surprise, but 2A was won by none other than two-time World 1A champion Yuuki Spencer! 3A winner was YoyoJam’s Yoshi Mikamoto, and 4A was won by Zach Rubino.
1A
- Gentry Stein
- Daniel Dietz
- Zach Gormley
2A
- Yuuki Spencer
- Paul Yath
- Ryan Lai
3A
- Yoshi Mikamoto
- Paul Yath
- Ryan Lai
4A
- Zach Rubino
5A
- Miguel Correa
- Sterling Quinn
Kentaro Mannen Wins 5th North Japan Yo-yo Contest Title!
Kentaro Mannen continues to dominate the North in Japan and won 1A division at the North Japan Yo-yo Contest for the 5th time in a row! This year’s North Japan Yo-yo Contest (NJ) was held earlier today in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Veteran Sojun Miyamura took first in 5A, and Yasuki Tachibana won 3A. In 4A, Tomohiko Zanka took home the title, and Yuuzo Okada won the 2A division.
Check the top placings below:
1A
- Kentaro Mannen
- Tomoya Kawasaki
- Kohta Watanabe
2A
- Yuuzo Okada
- Yasuki Tachibana
- Shota Aizawa
3A
- Yasuki Tachibana
- Teruo Kameya
- Ryuji Enomoto
4A
- Tomohiko Zanka
- Atsushi Takeuchi
- Teruo Kameya
5A
- Sojun Miyamura
- Naoya Takeuchi
- Yoshihiro Abe
Luis Enrique and Paul Kerbel dominate Winter Contest (and Mexico!)
Mexico is no doubt quickly becoming a hot country in the yo-yo scene, and clearly ahead of the pack are YoyoFactory’s duo Luis Enrique and Paul Kerbel, who took first and second place at Mexico’s Winter contest, held last month.
While Paul has been competing internationally for a couple of years, Luis Enrique hit fast and hard this year, taking not only the Winter contest, but also the Summer contest in July and an impressive 5th place at this year’s World Yo-yo Contest. Paul comes from a win at this year’s Mexican national contest, the Triple Crown of Yoyo‘s East Coast Classic title, and a very respectable 7th place at the World Yo-yo Contest.
As demonstrated by Singapore’s recent success, the key to developing highly successful players may be a strong local competition scene, and that’s exactly what we see in Mexico right now. We look forward to seeing more of those guys!
2012 Japan Yo-yo League Kicks Off: Takeshi Matsuura Wins 1A at East Japan A
The 2012 Japan Yo-yo League officially started last weekend with the East Japan A Block Contest in Tokyo!
EJ has traditionally been a very strong regional contest, with the main Japanese competitors taking part. This year the contest was divided into two blocks, A and B. Block B will be held in Ichikawa City, in February.
In the A Block, Yoyojam’s prodigy and 5A World Champion Takeshi Matsuura surprised onlookers by winning the 1A division, ahead of YoyoRecreation’s Takahiro Iizuka, in 3rd, and Kento Noda, in 2nd. Is Takeshi Matsuura, who has won Japan Nationals in both 3A and 5A before, now aiming for the 1A title as well? Also worth noting is that 1A was the only division Takeshi competed in at EJ-A.
The winners in the other divisions were veteran Shuhei Kanai in 2A, Ken Takabayashi in 3A, Youhei Kagawa in 4A and Sora Ishikawa in 5A. Ishikawa was also the winner of the 44CLASH KIKSTYO Battle Tournament last month, and should be a contender for the Japanese title. 5A runner-up was Duncan Crew’s Shingo “Terry” Terada, who is still competing after more than 10 years in the scene!
The league continues next year with more regional contests throughout the country and finally the national contest:
- December 4th, 2011 – East Japan A Block Contest (EJ-A), Tokyo
- January 28th, 2012 – Central Japan Contest (CJ), Iwakura City
- February 4th, 2012 – East Japan B Block Contest (EJ-B), Ichiwaka City
- February 25th, 2012 – North Japan Contest (NJ), Sapporo
- March 11th, 2012 – South Japan Contest (SJ), Kasuya District
- April 21st, 2012 – West Japan Contest (WJ), Osaka
- June 30th, 2012 – Japan National Yo-yo Contest, Ichikawa City
For all those interested in checking the action, proceed to Mr. Yamaguchi’s new YouTube channel. Music is replaced in most freestyles due to copyright issues, but it’s nonetheless great to have such a great resource back online!