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Archives for August 2013

Interview – Gentry Stein

August 31, 2013 By Matt McDade

YoYoNews Interview – Gentry Stein

Gentry Stein

To a music afficionado (or hip hop head), the term “G Funk” would typically be remembered as the style of rap music that was extremely popular in the early to mid nineties. Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Dr. Dre, the list goes on. To a yoyoer, however, “G Funk” is the name of Gentry Stein’s signature yoyo released in 2011. The G Funk is a pocket-sized throw which was released just after Gentry’s full-sized signature, the Super G. Now, in 2013, Yoyofactory is releasing Gentry’s 3rd signature, the Shutter. The Shutter is an awesome departure away from what we’ve seen in the past from Yoyofactory, and an exciting addition to Gentry’s list of signature throws. I had the awesome oppurtunity to chat with Gentry about tricks, contests, his new throw, and more. Check it out!

Gentry, you’ve been making waves and killing it in the contest, clip video, and trick development scenes for quite some time now, but how did you originally get your start in yoyoing?

Thanks! I appreciate the props! I started yoyoing after I went to the club at Bird in Hand (in Chico, California) years ago, in 3rd grade. I took a break after a year or two, and have been back at it for about 4 years since then. I started the contest scene and hit my first contest in mid 2009, then my second contest in early February.

Gentry1

Awesome! If I’m not mistaken you’ve been a member of Yoyofactory’s team since you originally became sponsored, and have been doing extremely well as far as evolving your tricks and doing well in contests, recently even placing first in California states and also making it into the top 25 at Worlds. What are some of your favorite elements to work into tricks, and how do you decide a trick is good enough to throw into a routine for a contest?

I have done a lot of work changing up my tricks and putting my own style into each element. Recently I have just been trying to create tricks that look interesting. For Nationals I have a few tricks that I have been working with that aren’t necessarily complicated, but are hard to really capture or understand for someone who hasn’t had the trick broken down to them by me in person. I don’t come up with any fancy complicated terminology for the elements in my tricks. I just do what feels right.

I definitely think that’s a great way to go about it for sure, and I think that the fact that you do so well in contests proves that method works. I personally think your style is sick because it looks so good not only in clip videos, but on stage as well. What’s going through your head just before you step on stage at a contest? What’s your favorite contest you’ve competed in?

It’s hard to say what my favorite contest I’ve competed in is, but I would have to go with my first win at PNWR (Pacific Northwest Regionals) 2011 in Seattle. Before I step on stage, I think to myself that I get to show everyone what I have been working hard for. After that moment, it just feels like I’m in my room by myself practicing.

gstein3

That definitely makes sense, I think everyone that competes has their own method to deal with being on stage. Winning a contest has to feel like such a huge accomplishment, nothing like feeling hard work pay off. Back in 2011, I bought one of your signature throws, the G Funk. It was my first pocket sized throw, and still one of my favorites. What was the process like with your new signature, the Shutter? Did you have a lot of input with how it turned out?

Glad you like the G funk! I was offered both the Super G and G funk as signature yoyos, with designing something else as the other option. At that point, I didn’t know what I wanted, and they were too good to pass up, so I accepted them as is. After using both for a couple years, I learned more about parts of design that make a yoyo play a certain way. I could use both yoyos, mainly the Super G, for a reference as to what I like and don’t like in a yoyo. I wanted to maintain the spin and stability of the Super G, but adjust the shape to be more unique, comfortable, and agile. The Shutter has everything I liked about the Super G, but it is a lot more fun to play with, while still maintaining its assets that are wanted in a yoyo to rock the stage with. I also wanted aesthetics to be a priority. I’m stoked on how the final shape enables the logo to be integrated in the design. It fits together so perfectly. I couldn’t be happier with it.

 YoYoFactory Shutter

I love the shape of the Shutter too. I have to say, my favorite colorway is either violet/blue or red/black. The yoyo looks so good, I’m psyched to try one. I like how the logo integrates into the shape too, as well as the font that “Shutter” is written in. I wish you luck with this throw, I think it’s going to be a big one! I also want to wish you luck for Nationals, coming up October 5th 2013. Any advice for any aspiring yoyo champions out there? Although you’re about to release a new signature throw, what else can we plan to see from Gentry Stein in the near future?

My advice to any upcoming yoyoers on any level, is to not let anyone stop you from achieving greatness. There are a lot of people out there who are ignorant, and may seem as if they are out to get you when it comes to your yoyoing. Use all that as positive energy and let it improve your skill. What can you plan to see from me in the near future? Big things 🙂

I totally agree. Not only does that apply in yoyoing, but in all aspects of life. On behalf of myself and YoYoNews I’d like to say thanks for doing this, and good luck on your future endeavors! Personally, I’m excited to see you take on Nationals in October!

Filed Under: Interview Tagged With: featured, gentry stein, Interview, shutter, yoyofactory

Fixed Friday: Duncan Crew USA Chillin’

August 30, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Greetings, Fixed Axle Fanatics! Welcome to another glorious friday, and another clip from your friends at Yoyonews. As an extra special treat, this week those friends are more than just me! We’ve got some of Duncan Crew USA’s finest throwing down fixed axle knowledge—let’s take a peek, shall we?

First up to the plate, we’ve got Isaac Sams bringing his own unique twist to Nate Sutter’s “Pocketwatch” trick (which you can see in both the FACoatW finals and his alternative freestyle). This unique move captured the attention of plenty of top players at Worlds ’13 with its counterintuitive (yet brilliant!) method of stopping the yo-yo halfway down the string. This is normally considered a snag, but when used intentionally (as Isaac does here for a shortened somersault before entering 2or0) it can really mix up your tricks. What makes pocketwatch even better is how simple it is to learn: catch the yo-yo in your non-throwhand as it’s responding, give it a good hard yank, and then let that baby twirl.

I bump the tech level up for the next combo, which utilizes dump trucks to maneuver between more technical mounts. It opens with one of my favorite chopsticks stalls—I don’t know if it really has a name, as it’s just landing between the non-throwhand thumb/finger after a double or nothing, but I call it “ice cream cone”. I call a lot of tricks that, I guess. The trickiest part of this trick is swinging the yo-yo forward into a chopsticks dump truck, which puts a kink in the string. We get rid of the kink with another dump truck through the bucket before entering a reverse bucket with yet another dump truck. So many trucks!!

World Champion Hank Freeman brings us back to reality and shows that you don’t need string hits for tough tricks with his newest signature move, “The Turbo Rotary Hankinator.” (I name most of Hank’s tricks, btw.) If you wanna try this, just start with a shoot the moon down under, but when you get to the punches turn 180 degrees each rep. You’ll never stop punching! Just like Hank.

Takeshi has something very special this week, showing once again why he’s one of the best modders in the world with a fixed axle Exit 8. He powers through one of his signature 1A combos, a decidedly new school twist on the fixie formula, and proves that wood & metal yo-yos can live in harmony.

Isaac shows us more unconventional uses of the pocketwatch with a trick that could be considered even stall-ier than normal stalls, a pocketwatch to thumb mount. This trick is great because it’s simple, immediately understandable… but still challenging and entertaining. Dig the pacing.

The next trick that I show in the video is actually an ingenious technique for kickflip suicides pioneered by five time national offstring champ, Bryan Figueroa. Before you throw the suicide, if you wrap a bind of string around the axle, the loop will hang on through anything—clearly demonstrated by my even-sloppier-than-usual knee bonk suicide catch. You do have to keep an eye out for the yo-yo twisting around after the wrap, but if you’re the kind of player who likes risky tricks with big rewards and you want to take your kickflips to the next level, it’s definitely worth learning.

Hank takes it back to 2A town with possibly one of the first tricks ever to include both a loop wrap and a green triangle. The loop wrap (using your non-throwhand wrist to control loops) is an invaluable regen tool, but Hank kicks it up a notch by using the wrist twist to create a triangle and catch the yo-yo in a stall. Daaang! Bust this one out on all your friends for butterfly horse, they’ll be salty.

My last trick in the video is another dumptruck-heavy tech trick, titled “Peanut Butter Loves Honey.” This one opens with a wristmount stall, turns it upside-down, and after remounting into a fake bucket goes into some hyperspeed knee bounces.

Finally, Isaac closes out the fixed portion of the clip with a burly variation on his wrist magic drop straight into a thumb stall. Gnarly! Stick around after the credits for some bonus bearing booty from the boys, and don’t forget to comment below about your favorite tricks. Oh, and you can download the song here if you’d like. Until next week, Fixed Axle Aficinados!

Filed Under: Fixed Friday, Players, Trick Theory, Video Tagged With: butterfly, drew tetz, Duncan, duncan crew USA, fist salud, fixed axle, fixed friday, hank freeman, Isaac Sams, lil' ripper, takeshi kamisato

Greg Kennedy – Conic 9-Ball Pirouette

August 30, 2013 By Steve Brown

Legendary juggler Greg Kennedy nails a seemingly impossible trick in his “juggling cone”, a 9-ball pirouette.

Jugglers will appreciate how technically insane this is. Yoyo players should probably just be impressed that this guy is basically juggling in the walls of a giant blender. If you’re unfamiliar with Greg’s juggling cone, here’s another video that should blow your mind. (Note, the sound is kind of jenky, so just turn it down and listen to something else. Trust me on this.)

 

Filed Under: Skill Toys Tagged With: 9 ball, cone, greg kennedy, juggling

Weave ft. Chang KaiRay

August 29, 2013 By Steve Brown

Adegle dropped a nice promo video for their Accel yoyo featuring Chang KaiRay. Chang seems to have graduated from the “look at my sunglasses / I do not smile” school of yoyoing, but there’s some nice play in here and the combo starting at 1:46 is a really nice plane-changer. The hat and ultra-serious demeanor are kind of unintentionally hilarious, but hey…whatever works!

Filed Under: Manufacturer, Video Tagged With: accel, adegle, chang kairay, video

Werrd Banger Trick Contest 2

August 29, 2013 By Steve Brown

Werrd Banger Trick Contest

Werrd has fired up their Banger Trick Contest again! Information about the contest is below, and you can visit their site for full details and rules.

Film your best banger trick (stand-alone trick – not a combo) and send us a link to the vid (See terms below).

There will be FOUR lucky winners chosen as the favorite by Werrd. One for best “amplitude” (see definition below), one for the most creative banger as voted by us…and one lucky random winner. Yep, we’re doing that again. Just by entering you could win. The lucky random winner will be in the running for a Werrd MINUTE. If you win best banger trick in the Amplitude category you will win a brand new 2K13 Werrd Irony JP. In addition, we will be giving away a brand new 2K13 HOUR for the video with the most views (cut-off as of voting day).

To be eligible to win:

  • Your video must not exceed 30 seconds in length (it’s a banger, remember, not a combo – so your vid should be fairly short.).
  • Your video must be hosted on a publicly accessibly streaming site (like youtube or vimeo).
  • You must include this Werrd intro title (http://www.werrd.com/logos/video/Werrd_Sketch_Standard.mov) as the intro to your video
  • You must email a link to your video to andrew@werrd.com
  • You may enter as many times as you like, however you can only win one category (except the “Most Views” category).
  • Winners of the Amplitude and Most Creative Banger categories are not eligible for the Lucky Draw prize.
  • Judging will be done by Werrd crew and all decisions are final.

The deadline for entry is midnight September 20, 2013 EST.

Prizes are:

The prize for Amplitude is an Irony JP – color choice is at our discretion.

The price for the Most Creative Prize for lucky random winner is a Werrd HOUR – color at our discretion.

Filed Under: Contests, Manufacturer Tagged With: banger, trick contest, Werrd

Alternative Freestyle – Ryosuke Iwasawa

August 28, 2013 By Steve Brown

Another freestyle from the 2013 Alternative Freestyle Invitational, here we have a great performance by Ryosuke Iwasawa.

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: alternative freestyle invitational, Ryosuke Iwasawa, video

Kendama on Japanese TV

August 28, 2013 By Steve Brown

In the summer 2013 a crew of kendama players from USA, Canada and Denmark went to Japan to hang out with friends, learn about Japanese culture, meet players and participate in competitions.

As part of their trip they went to Kendama Rock Café and a TV crew showed up.

Players:
Matthew Ballard
Thorkild May
Alex Smith
Rodney Ansell
Trevor Starnes
Matt Decoteau
Keith Matsumura
Kristin Olinyk
Hajime Ishibashi
Tamotsu Kabuto

Supported by:
KROM Kendama x Kendama.dk, Terra, Gloken, Kendama USA

I can’t wait to see all the kendama haters complain about this post on Facebook. Ha ha, you guys…seriously? Calm down. 

Filed Under: Kendama, Video Tagged With: japan, kendama, tv, video

We Got This – Part 2

August 28, 2013 By Steve Brown

Filmed at the 2013 World YoYo Contest, Harrison Lee, Ayumu Harada, and Coleman Weimer rock out a great video with more talent than we know what to do with. Ayumu is the newest member of the CLYW team, and we’re expecting some great things from him.

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: Ayumu Harada, clyw, coleman weimer, Harrison Lee, video

Chris Makita – Chri$tyle Take 2

August 28, 2013 By Steve Brown

Chris Makita just dropped a video that’s 2+ minutes on a single throw with some really beautiful slack moves. So. Damn. Good.

Filed Under: Players, Video Tagged With: Chris Makita, duncan toys, video

Paul Dang – Rally Run 3

August 28, 2013 By Steve Brown

Here’s a quick burst from Paul Dang with what looks like a neon orange Rally. Obviously, since it has to match his neon orange Members Only jacket.

Obviously.

Filed Under: Video Tagged With: onedrop, paul dang, rally, video

Geezer

August 27, 2013 By Steve Brown



There is some really great juggling in this video, but I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you it kinda freaked me out.

Ok, it REALLY freaked me out. But damn, check out that club catch at 1:44. Solid.

Filed Under: Skill Toys, Video Tagged With: clubs, geezer, hats, juggling, the play people, video

2013 East Hungarian YoYo Contest Results & Video

August 27, 2013 By Steve Brown

2013 EHYYC

We’ve got full results for the 2013 East Hungarian YoYo Contest, and video of the top winners courtesy of YoYoRaven.

2013 East Hungarian YoYo Contest Results

EHYYC 2013 – 1A Semi-Pro – 1st Place – Adam Kolpak

EHYYC 2013 – 1A Semi-Pro – 2nd Place – Gergő Priately

EHYYC 2013 – 1A Semi-Pro – 3rd Place – Márk Ocsenás

 

EHYYC 2013 – 1A Pro – 1st Place – David Molnar

EHYYC 2013 – 1A Pro – 2nd Place – Daniel Budai

EHYYC 2013 – 1A Pro – 3rd Place – Gabor Boldog

EHYYC 2013 – X Division – 1st Place – Daniel Budai

EHYYC 2013 – X Division – 2nd Place – Norbert Jenei

EHYYC 2013 – X Division – 3rd Place – Roland Kovacs

Filed Under: Contests Tagged With: 2013 ehyyc, adam kolpak, daniel budai, david molnar, east hungarian yoyo contest, freestyle, gabor boldog, gergo priately, mark ocsenas, norbert jenei, results, roland kovacs, video

2013 Taiwan YoYo Contest Freestyles

August 27, 2013 By Steve Brown

Thanks to the good folks at Adegle YoYos for posting freestyles from the 2013 Taiwan YoYo Contest! Here are the top 3 in each division…visit Adegle’s YouTube channel for more freestyles from the contest.

2013 TYYC 1A – 1st Place -曾弘傑

2013 TYYC 1A – 2nd Place – 郭子瑋

2013 TYYC 1A – 3rd Place – 盧彥霖

 

2013 TYYC 2A – 1st Place – 后御群

2013 TYYC 2A – 2nd Place – 吳尚仁

2013 TYYC 2A – 3rd Place – 廖世鼎

2013 TYYC 3A – 1st Place – 余宗倫

2013 TYYC 3A – 2nd Place – 高中宸

2013 TYYC 3A – 3rd Place – 謝天戰

 

2013 TYYC 4A – 1st Place – 郭博翰

2013 TYYC 4A – 2nd Place – 張子威

2013 TYYC 4A – 3rd Place – 林家禾

 

2013 TYYC 5A – 1st Place – 崔正瑜

2013 TYYC 5A – 2nd Place – 朱聲詠

2013 TYYC 5A – 3rd Place – 韓毅

Filed Under: Contests, Video Tagged With: 2013, adegle yoyo, freestyle, results, taiwan yoyo contest, tyyc, video, winner

2013 Hebei YoYo Contest Winner Freestyles

August 27, 2013 By Steve Brown

We don’t know much about the Hebei YoYo Contest, but we know that our friends at C3YoYoDesign posted freestyles! Enjoy!

HBYC 1A – 1st Place – Ma Yi

HBYC 1A – 2nd Place – Zhang Yu Tong

HBYC 1A – 3rd Place – Liang Bo Lun

 

Filed Under: Contests, Video Tagged With: 1A, c3yoyodesign, freestyles, hbyc, hebei yoyo contest, video

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