YoYo Related News From Around The World
Our favorite regular yo-yo event has turned 3! 44FESTA celebrated its 3rd anniversary on August 6th, and they have a nifty report in English up on their website.
Go check out the crazy trick ladder and freestyle battles, and be sure to attend the next event in September if you are in Japan!
Much love to our 44FESTA brothers!
YoYoExpert.com is celebrating their 7th Anniversary; congratulations André and the rest of the Expert staff! Check out their great savings deal and wish them a happy anniversary.
Join us and let’s celebrate an amazing 7 years of YoYoExpert’s existence!
From today (10/26 at 10AM EST) to Wednesday night (10/28 at 11:59 PM EST) the more you spend the more you save! With some amazing new releases this is a perfect time to snag that yo-yo you have had your eye on!
Thank you to everyone who continues to support this amazing movement of the modern yo-yo. Join us as we continue to teach the world how amazing this simple toy is!
The post-contest blues hit hard after the absolutely fantastic World Yo-yo Contest in Japan, but the good folks at 44FESTA are ready to keep the ball rolling!
Our favorite regular yo-yo meeting celebrated its 2nd anniversary on August 29th, with their usual fun for the whole family.
The 44FESTA mini-contest has some serious prizes.
The mini-contest was a 32-player single elimination battle fought with randomly drawn old-school tricks.
Maybe you’d expect 1999 World Champion Takumi Nagase and the legend himself, Master Nakamura, to easily crush their opponents in a contest where the weapons ranged from Walk the Dog to Rocket in the Pocket, but the new generation proved their skill is not limited to freestyles and unresponsive yo-yos.
Pocket tricks, harder than most combos out there
Yamato Murata and Hajime Miura were the finalists in the contest, with Yamato Murata emerging victorious in the last round.
The freestyle contest switched from 2 to 3 minutes this time, but there was no single winner. Instead, each of the 44FESTA crew members and C3yoyodesign (represented by Shinya Kido) elected their own winner based on personal preferences:
The attendees were also asked to vote for the 44FESTA MVP, and the people’s choice was the two-time World Champion and impossibly talented boy-wonder Hajime Miura!
The people’s choice!
44FESTA will also be especially active during the off-contest season in Japan, expanding the widely successful 44FESTIVAL to three events!
44FESTIVAL East will be held on October 31st, in Yamato, Kanagawa
44FESTIVAL West will be held on December 19th, in Matsubara, Osaka
44FESTIVAL Final will be held on March 20th, and the location is yet to be determined.
The events are open to sponsorship, so if you are interested in supporting 44FESTIVAL, be sure to contact the organizers on the event’s site.
Also be sure to check the next edition of 44FESTA, which will be held next Sunday!
GSquared YoYos turns 3 years old this year, having put their first model on sale in March 2012. To celebrate the beginning of their company and step forward into the future, they are officially discontinuing the Albatross, their first model. GSquared has produced a small quantity of both 6061 and 7075 versions, and will release them at gsquaredyoyos.com on March 7th. Both versions will come in special wooden boxes.
Final colors and more details will be posted on GSquared’s Instagram account.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of 44FESTA, probably the best regular event for ALL attendees, from World Champions to moms and dads. And I’m quite happy to wish the FESTA crew – Masanobu, Hassy, Jun, Bryan, and Kenji – a very happy 1st anniversary!
As you know, 44FESTA has a year-long score kept for all attendees, and the anniversary event is where plenty of cute trophies and ducks are awarded. Freestyle award, mini-contest award, kid award, mom & dad award, and many more were awarded a the anniversary edition on August 3rd.
There was even a photo book for sale! I love yo-yo photo books! Especially those with Pon in them!
Also new for this event was the lack of a freestyle contest. Instead, a random-draw trick battle took place, and old-schooler Ryusei Saito beat the young Yamato Fujiwara in the final battle to take the duck home.
The 44FESTA crew sends many thanks for the companies and individuals who have been supporting the event since its first edition one year ago, and invites us all to the next events, on September 14th and October 12th!
Five years ago, André Boulay went to the National YoYo Contest and came home with three things: a sunburn, the title of National YoYo Master, and an email confirming the very first order placed at YoYoExpert.com.
Probably the most influential of all the National Masters, André’s tutorials have millions of views from aspiring yoyo players, and the number of people he’s helped learn to yoyo is incalculable. His work as a retailer has redefined the industry, and his tireless sponsoring and support of yoyo contests has been a game changer for many organizers.
So please join us in congratulating André and the rest of the YoYoExpert.com staff on five years of serving the yoyo community and industry as the largest specialty yoyo retailer in the world! And keep an eye on their website, as they gear up to announce some special deals to celebrate the anniversary.
Nehemiah Peterson and Noah Bachofen celebrate three years of throwing with this great video. It’s always nice to get a bit of a reference point for how long some of these players have been at it…often the skill level is so high that it’s hard to believe someone has only been playing for a few short years.
Both Nehemiah and Noah did fantastic at the recent Ohio State YoYo Contest, and they kick out some nice material in this new video. Congratulations to both of them!