drew tetz – Page 2

Fixed Friday: DIY or Die

October 25, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Hey fixomaniacs! We got a special treat for you this week, as we set the tricks on the backburner and make our own fixed axle yo-yos at home.

A huge chunk of the current Fixed Axle renaissance can be credited to the woodworking geniuses keeping the idea of pure & simple yo-yoing alive: TMBR led the charge, of course, but Hildy Bros, and Once Upon a Tree are all doing amazing things. When you throw their spinning works of art, it’s hard not to catch the bug and dream of making your own fixie. Unfortunately, not all of us have access to a lathe, but necessity is the mother of invention, and one unconventional (but extremely fun) way around this problem is silicone molding. Sonny Patrick of Anti-Yo fame was the first person that I know to do this with yo-yos, he made some super cool bootleg Freehand Zeros in 2006.

Now, before we get going, I’m going to throw out some spoilers: I’m making a bootleg Butterfly. As dear as the Butterfly is to my heart, I can look at it objectively and recognize that it’s not as high-class a performer as a Barracuda. To complicate matters further, these butterflies are going to be poured from wax, and let’s just say that there’s a reason there aren’t any crayon yo-yos on the market. Honestly, though, if you’re throwing fixed axle you’re probably already familiar with the fun of working within constraints, and a little extra “surface noise” on a trick shouldn’t bother you too much; to be perfectly frank, I kind of like a yo-yo that doesn’t listen to a thing I tell it.

There are a ton of way better tutorials on how to make molds on the internet, so I don’t want to get too caught up in specifics, but here’s the basic process:

Prepare the yo-yo for molding; for the butterfly, this involved wrapping a piece of Sculpey clay around the axle post and then smooshing the cap into it to make the yo-yo airtight. Put it in a small airtight box. (I took the opportunity to make an extra spiky art yo-yo, and I highly recommend taking the chance to make your yo-yo unique… but it’s also worth noting that the normal Butterfly worked better.)
Mix together the silicone compounds. I used Oomoo 30 from Inventables. Pour it all over the yo-yo.
After waiting for the mold to cure, pop the yo-yo out and clean up any nasty bits of unnecessary silicone or chocolate chips stuck in the mold or whatever.
Melt some wax. I recommend following the instructions on that link and being very very safe, but will confess to melting wax in a soda bottle sitting in a bowl of boiling water from time to time. You’ll get better results by going to Goodwill and buying a cheap pot, though.
Pour the wax into the mold! This is very exciting, but try to do it slow and avoid bubbles.
Wait 20-30 minutes for the wax to cool entirely, pop it out, do it again, and bam! You got some yo-yo halves. I used a Duncan Butterfly axle, but found that it worked much much better if I put a little bit of hot glue on the axle before sliding it into the halves.

And that’s it! You got yourself a yo-yo you made all by yourself. You should probably be noticing by now that wax does not really play like any other yo-yo material; if you used crayons like we did, your string should change colors within four or five throws, and get noticeably stiffer as well. After 20 throws, it may be tough to make it sleep, let alone do a braintwister.

And that’s GREAT! It may not be the same feeling as designing a perfectly smooth machined bearing contest monster, but there’s definitely going to be some smiles the first time you hit a Kickflip on it. If the novelty wears off, you might enjoy casting one out of resin; Death Ray Kendama has made some really awesome resin stuff, if you want some inspiration.

I threw some funky bonus tricks with the yo-yo at the end so you can see it in action. Not gonna do as much tutorial writing this week, but just to highlight three new things:

At 1:00, we got a weird chopsticks flipback carrying on from where the trick at the end of “Imperialism” left off. The inital dump truck transition is the main conceptual meat of the trick, but the end is also noteworthy for relying on the return of the yo-yo to switch the orientation of the string.
At 1:33, we have a follow-up to that Mach-5 Kickflip Suicide that people seemed to like in the Flip Tricks vid. I’ve found that it’s actually a little bit easier to whip it than to take the rotating slack loop approach, so give it a shot! It’s also worth noting that an unexpected bonus(?) of wax yo-yos is that it makes the string super stiff, which either makes flip suicides a dream or a nightmare.
I wanted to close out the clip with a recent horizontal favorite. This is probably one of the simplest fixed axle ‘zontals I’ve found, but it’s still pretty flashy & fun, so give it a shot! From a trapeze stall (ideally caught with a very small loop), use your thumb to tilt the yo-yo up on its side before throwing it out into a UFO. With a little practice, you can intercept it on the return and catch it in a trapeze stall. Bam!

Alright, suckers, that’s all for this week! Now, go try it at home.

Fixed Friday: Ddoouubblee

October 11, 2013 By Drew Tetz

This Fixed Friday, we’re keeping it short & sweet with a little something for everybody—or, at least, one or two tricks for a very specific type of person. Double regens, double trapeze, and the double scary snapstart to flinch. Let’s take a look!

The opening trick is probably the easiest to learn out of this batch, a simple pinwheel-based repeater to transition between a cross-armed 1.5 stall and a split-bottom stall. One of the first stall combos that most people learn is the trapeze>trapeze brother repeater, and this could be looked at as a continuation on that theme. This trick should be fairly straightforward, provided that you’re comfortable with the mounts, just try and focus on controlling the regeneration through the pinwheel and land on the proper strings. While it’s not that impressive on its own, I have sung and will continue to sing the praises of these particular mounts and highly recommend adding them to your stall mixup combos.

We’ll follow up that stall staple with something a little further outside the box: thumb start to flinch. If you’re not familiar with Flinch, it’s a high risk thumb stall that Ed Haponik likes to do, noteworthy because you gotta catch it directly above your face for it to count. Doing it in one motion from a thumb start is a good way to mix it up, and also a good way to knock your teeth out if you’re using a heavy unresponsive yo-yo. Practice your thumb starts to reverse lunar landings and then move your head in the way when you’re ready. Become the envy of your friends!

Another mount I wanted to explore this week is the inverted undermount stall, seen immediately after the trapeze in the next combo. This mount had an increased burst of popularity with the advent of Ando’s arm tricks, but is somewhat finickier with stalls because of the tendency to turn the yo-yo. One neat thing it sets up, though, is the cross-armed dumptruck seen in slow motion here. This can set up in split bottom, a repeater, or any number of things… but the dumptruck is the cool part, so who cares?

Next up, we have velvet stalls. Now, legit fixed axle 3A tricks are probably still a ways off, but we do have this mount in the meantime. Since velvet rolls is basically double braintwister, it opens with a double throw and the right hand mounting an undermount stall. Your yo-yos should be responsive enough that the mount triggers the other yo-yo’s return, at which point you roll backwards and mount it in an under mount stall on its own string. Seem complicated? Unfortunately, it’s harder than it looks… but once you get the hang of spacing your hands out properly and hit it a few times, it starts to fall into place.

The next trick is kind of a conglomeration of weird orphan elements, so I don’t know how to talk about it too much, but Nate’s pocketwatch element sets up surprisingly well for Sebastian’s “hammer time” element.

Double trapeze stall is actually considerably easier than the velvet stall, but looks really scary because everything happens all at once. Actually, I shouldn’t say “looks”; it IS really scary because everything happens all at once. You’re going to want a solid grip on double trapeze before even attempting it, but if you’re a 3A player, I highly recommend giving it a shot ’cause looping out feels awesome. Though everything still seems just barely out of reach, there’s plenty of theoretical craziness that could come out of this: double trapeze-bro stalls, double dumptrucks, double kickflips?!

I’d like to end this clip with a classic: the super disco regen. This one is a lot of fun, not too difficult, and fits into combos between throws, so I definitely think it’s worth learning. It plays off of the multiple whip concept you see in contest laceration tricks so often where you rotate your hand around the yo-yo extra times for an element, but in this case the element just happens to be a regen. Basically: throw a soft frontstyle throw, tug the yo-yo back, and when it gets near the top of the string circle the yo-yo with your hand. It takes a little bit of practice throwing soft and getting the “hangtime” necessary, but it feels great, so do it! Suckers. Oh yeah, and if that’s a little too easy, you can always go for the triple that I hit at the end… that’s on you!

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s Fixed Friday! Don’t forget to tell us what tricks you’ve been working on in the comments, in the Facebook group, and over on the YoYoExpert Forums.

Fixed Friday: Flip Tricks

September 27, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Welcome to your weekly dose of fixomania! Let’s talk about flippin’ out.

Flip tricks are a fairly new element, borne out of the realization that a stalled yo-yo need not stay in a single plane the way a spinning yo-yo does. They could be seen as cousins to the suicide, because the meat of the trick is throwing and catching a loop of string, with the crucial difference being that the motion of the loop comes from the stalled yo-yo rotating off-axis. The foundational flip tricks were created on fixed axle yo-yos, and the high-walled responsive nature of fixies may make them easier to learn on, but as Ed pointed out last week these concepts can be applied to bearings just as easily. (Speaking of applying responsive concepts to modern play, did everybody catch Alexis JV’s crazy new video? Holy smokes!)

The first trick in the video is the one that started it, the kickflip suicide. Catch the yo-yo in a trapeze stall, swing it forward, and release the string when the yo-yo is roughly horizontal. With practice, you should be able to send the yo-yo into a controlled flip with the string loop following behind so that when the yo-yo comes back around you can catch the loop on your finger. This is probably the easiest flip trick to learn, as the concept is fairly straightforward, but the execution can admittedly be a little tricky at first; make sure your string tension is good, try to get as big a loop as possible, and GO SLOW. I find this trick gets way easier when I try to focus on moving the yo-yo through a long, slow, graceful flip. It helps you build your control, and gives you more time to stick the landing.

Any readers familiar with skateboard tricks should be able to guess the next trick: heelflips. These are basically “reverse kickflips” where you flip the string towards you instead of away from you—a little bit easier said than done, but made simpler if you turn your hand towards yourself for the catch. I showed this trick earlier this month in our Imperialism column where I did the whole thing from an inverted trapeze stall rather than a normal trapeze stall; this makes throwing the loop a lot easier, in my opinion, but the mount may be more difficult, so really just see what works best for you.

The FS (“Frontside”) Flip is a new one, and definitely a little bit more advanced. As the yo-yo moves through a kickflip, bring your throwhand around the yo-yo as though you’re doing a 360. There’s definitely a trick in timing your hand to properly follow the rotation of the yo-yo, but it’s enormously satisfying once you land it. If you get the hang of this one, try rotating the opposite direction for a backside flip, or get even crazier with a frontside heel.

Shuvits are the newest addition to the flip trick family. Where the kickflip flips the yo-yo forward, shuvits push the yo-yo in a flat spin, which is a bit of an exciting mix-up. While it’s possible to throw a shuvit from a straight stall, it’s much more fun to pre-load the spin by swinging the stalled yo-yo to the side and twisting the string up. When the yo-yo starts to untwist, spread the loop with your fingers and throw it around the axis of rotation. It takes a little practice to see where the loop is going to end up, but once you can catch it at the end of a 360 you feel like a genius. I personally think that sticking a clean landing with no extra twists is the most satisfying, but there’s a certain joy in catching it and letting it continue to twist, and Rafael even suggested that you could let it twist back into a reverse shuvit(!) I find it helps a lot to move your throwhand up above the yo-yo so that the loop can move more cleanly.

Okay… those are some of the foundation tricks. Now, we’ll have a short interlude with a stalled magic drop (more on that later!) and get into some new stuff.

First off, the mach-5 whip flip. This was hinted at in the Whips installment of FF but was way too hard at the time for me to actually hit (haha.) Basically, you set up a houdini mount, throw a kickflip suicide, and whip the thumb loop horizontally around your hand to catch the yo-yo as you complete the suicide. Definitely a precision trick, but immensely satisfying when you stick it. One million internet points to the first person who can show me this whip with a shuvit…

Next in the advanced concepts, we got a shuvit 180 drop suicide. This trick is a tribute to the era when Yuuki was doing all these super sick drop suicides and all I could ever learn was the 2or0 to 1.5 drop. Sorry buddy!.. but I digress. The setup is a double or nothing, which is immediately followed by twisting the yo-yo to setup for a shuvit. As soon as the yo-yo launches, you’re going to move your non-throwhand up as though you’re supporting a trapeze-brother and get your throwhand in position to catch the loop as it rotates around. When you catch it, the yo-yo should be stalled on the opposite side, which lends itself to all kinds of tech applications.

Finally, the Kwijibo Flip. This trick was teased in my FACoatW Warmup column, but I think this version (without flipping your hands over) works a little better. Kickflipping from trapeze to 1.5 isn’t too tough… 1.5 to 2or0, well, I encourage you all to try it!

This should keep your hands full for the weekend, but if you want some more flip tricks to practice, you might want to check out these tricks from Alex Curfman, Malcolm Chiu, and of course the Fixed Friday archives. Ed recently responded to the shuvit with a varial flip, something I’ve been totally unable to hit thusfar. Happy throwing, everybody!

Fixed Friday: Imperialism

September 14, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Welcome back to Fixed… Saturday? Okay, I’m a little late this week, but I got some tricks to make up for it. Let’s take a look:

We’ve got a bit of hodgepodge this week, trickwise, but hopefully that means there’s something for everybody to learn. I opened up with a recent favorite move, “Pocketwatch with Extra Pocket,” a cheeky hybrid of Nate Sutter’s phenomenal Pocketwatch trick (discussed more in the DCUS FF article) and demonstrator classic Bank Deposit. This is a different entrance to Pocketwatch than what Isaac showed last time: rather than catching in your non-throwhand, you start to throw a 1.5, catch it back in your throw hand, and pull the string tight with your free hand. This cuts down a bit on the finger pain, and is also useful for setting up moves like this simple bouncy combo. The real highlight of the trick, though, is the drop into the pocket (a move accentuated best with a corny joke.) Swing hard to dislodge the snag, loop out, and bust some more sweet dance moves to celebrate.

Next on the chopping block we got another followup to a trick in the DCUS column, this time taking on Hank’s loop to triangle. The offhand loop wrap is a valuable weapon in the 2A arsenal, but not always the easiest first wrap to learn. I’ve been spending a lot more time throwing Duncan Imperials lately and strongly believe in the potential of mixing up looping tricks with string tricks, and this is a fairly easy trick that can really help your offhand regen mix-ups. Start with a frontstyle throw over your finger and then start a planet hop, but when the yo-yo returns twist your finger around the string so as to loop it back out. Use this hand to control the loops, maybe land in a split-bottom stall, boom!

I asked the Fixed Friday Facebook group what people wanted to learn and one of the requests was for wrist mount stalls. Jacob Jensen recently reminded me about Shawn Fumo’s extraordinary Wrist Mount Project video, so in the spirit of Mr. Fumo, here are a few variations on the wrist mount stall for you to learn.

First, the most basic: throw lightly and navigate the strings carefully to get into a wrist mount stall, then dunk the strings and dismount like the end of spirit bomb to dissolve to a trapeze stall. The fact that the yo-yo isn’t spinning can muck things up occasionally, but hopefully muscle memory will guide you through. The next sequence is debatably even simpler, though not necessarily easier: after mounting, open the strings back up and hop the yo-yo up through the gap. While this one takes some practice, it’s very satisfying to use the wind of the stall to continue into a regen. After that, we have a variation on the first exit that minimalizes yo-yo wobbliness and adds in a bit of fancy arm movin’ to boot… but really all you’re doing is using your non-throwhand to mount the yo-yo on the string behind the wrist mount.

The next trick with the black Imperial is actually fairly tech: throw into the wrist mount, but instead of landing on the string, let the yo-yo pass on the outside and mount on your non-throwhand finger. You should be in a variation of the kink mount; don’t drop those throwhand strings unless you want a knot! My favorite exit for this is a little tricky, but very satisfying: dismount from the stall and use the momentum to maneuver the yo-yo up through the gap, undoing the kink and looking like the craziest flyaway ever. If you have a really responsive yo-yo you can loop out at the top, but if not you can try to catch it in a trapeze or whatever.

The move after this is an original one seen briefly in the DCUS video, a variation on dumptrucks through the wristmount; basically, open up the kink with your non-throwhand, turn the whole formation over, and kick the yo-yo out the bottom and back to your hand. Following that, we have an advanced variation on the bounce house trick from our “Huh? Wha?” FF segment: get in the wrist mount, pop the stalled yo-yo up into the top string, and bounce the yo-yo down and out. I end the wrist mount mini-extravaganza with a sketchy attempt at stall spirit bomb, if anybody can do it better go ahead and show me.

The next trick explores one of my recent favorite moves, the frontstyle pinwheel into shoot the moon. Pinwheeling out of a frontstyle throw gets the yo-yo right above your head and slightly in front of you, which lets you power into one of those awesome-feeling shoot the moons that passes right between your arms while barely missing your face, hopefully. It’s a little scary, and even scarier when you connect it to a behind the head stall, but I gotta do what I gotta do. The trick after that takes the danger quotient down a notch with a fairly safe & silly behind the back pocketwatch sequence that more or less speaks for itself.

The next trick in the video is fairly “tech,” in the sense that it may be too subtle to look new, but… heelflip suicides! You’re probably all familiar with kickflip suicides by now, this is their slightly more finicky younger brother, distinguished by the loop rotating the opposite direction. Throwing a loop towards your body is a little more awkward than throwing it away from your body, but I’ve found you can make it a little easier by turning your non-throwhand towards yourself for a gorilla-style stall. It can be frustrating, but really quite rewarding once you hit it.

Speaking of kickflip suicides, somebody else asked for some fixed 5A this week, so I threw in a little tribute to Singapore next: Dice thru triangle kickflips. It definitely looks like a banger, but if you’ve ever hit the original DTT then you probably have the counterweight skills necessary to hit it—just focus on getting a big floaty loop and you’re golden.

After that, a brief return to shoot the moon land: continuing the idea of “broadway shoot the moon”, a terrifying concept that Ed & Bryan got surprisingly comfortable with at Worlds, this trick has you following the yo-yo from a shoot the moon into an undermount stall… except, you have to turn your body 180 to catch it. Yikes! Watch your head, but do give it a try.

The final trick uses the most gratuitous unnecessary slomo yet, but I wanted to get all the way to the end of the song, so WHATEVER. This combo is a tribute to Jason Lee’s first chopsticks combo in Glasslab Experiment 006, one of my favorite combos ever. It opens with a dumptruck-type motion that transitions the yo-yo from the finger to the thumb, stalls over on the other hand like a trapeze-bro, then mounts back on the finger. After the final hop, I like to let the twists naturally unwind themselves, which might be construed as laziness, but hey! That ain’t happening on a spinning yo-yo, so I’ll count it as “using my tools to my advantage.”

Thanks for tuning in to this extra-long installment of Fixed Friday! I used Duncan Butterflies and Imperials. As always, post any questions in the comments, download the song off of my Soundcloud, connect with other afixianados on the FF Facebook and the Yoyoexpert fixie megathread, and have a great weekend.

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!

Alternative Freestyle – Drew Tetz

August 15, 2013 By Steve Brown

Our next installment of video from the 2013 Alternative Freestyle Invitational features Drew Tetz! Drew is a veteran of 365yoyotricks.com, a member of more teams that we have pixels to list, and a regular contributor to YoYoNews.

Enjoy!

Fixed Friday: Fixed Axle Championship of All the World Warmup

July 26, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Happy Fixed… almost Saturday! Okay, yes, I’m running extremely late on this one, but hopefully Kyle warmed you guys up and we can keep the Fixie train rollin’.

This week is special because it’s my last Fixed Friday column before the World Yo-yo Contest! While Fixed Axle doesn’t have a dedicated division like 1A-5A, the Fixed Axle Throwdown is a time-honored tradition, and last year’s onstage antics brought it to new heights (as you may remember from David Ung’s documentation of it.) While the show is traditionally semi-invitational in order to fill the correct number of slots, we’re accepting applications, so if you want a shot at being a wildcard comment below and find me or Ed at Worlds to let us know you’ve got what it takes… to be Fixed Axle Champion of All the World!!!

Please pardon the extra exclamation points, it’s just so exciting.

This year, as in years past, we’re going to have a peer-judged, criteria-based best trick contest. What does this mean? We randomly choose a theme, the competitors perform a trick based on the theme, and then use their shoes to vote for their favorites. We’ve got a good solid lineup of star players and some fun surprises for the day of the contest, but why spoil those? Let’s get back to the column.

There’s no real unifying theme on the tricks this week, but I brought out a couple of bangers & combos to get myself pumped up for Worlds. Combo #1 is performed on one of those crazy 70mm wood yo-yos Chuck & Jensen have been using. It’s not my place to hype, so I can’t tell you if or when these will be available, but Jensen’s impeccable flow was definitely a big inspiration in these sequence. If you want a challenging trick for the weekend, give the broadway 2or0 a shot: throw a breakaway, rotate your body towards your throwhand (clockwise for righties) and try to catch the yo-yo in a double-or-nothing. Tough stuff, especially if you aren’t into hitting your face! Not to brag or nothin’, but the one in the video is actually a broadway 2or0 stall that I regenerated into… hit it in front of me at Worlds and I’ll give you a Butterfly or somethin’.

Next on the chopping block, another string/stall fusion sequence, showing how you can exit a complicated mount straight into a stall and mix it up with your normal tricks. This particular example is more a combo of some of my recent favorite moves than a super original trick, but I encourage people to try and find similar links.

Next up, we got a reimagining of one of the most classic string tricks of all time, the Kwijibo. My favorite thing about Kwijibo is that it’s such a recognizable, classic format that people can really play with it and get some interesting “tributes” to it. For example, Elephark & yours truly each came up with a distinct E-fan Kwijibo. This variation throws kickflip suicides into the mix, which isn’t too tough on the first transfer but deceptively tricky for the second throw. I’m proud of it.

For an intermission, a brief glimpse at one of the perils of plastic yo-yos. We love ’em. I’ve really been putting this orange butterfly through its paces this week, but was still a little surprised when it popped open on camera.

…but let’s get back to the real tricks. The next trick, the Fingerflip. This is a bit of a retcon on the original “kickflip” trick, combined with the tough love setup for slacks & whips. Basically, throw the yo-yo, catch it with your non-throwhand, throw a flip (carefully!) and remember to use your knees when you catch it back on the string. A subtle, but very rewarding move.

Continuing in the vein of the broadway 2or0 stall is another weird instamount, the Burly or Nothing stall. So called because it’s so burly, I very highly recommend practicing this trick in a mirror with an unresponsive yo-yo before going for the full blind catch. Once you feel comfortable (or at least not terrified) with that, try switching to a responsive yo-yo and catching it in a stall. It’s fun! As long as you don’t hit yourself in the face, I mean, but isn’t that true of everythign?

Now, I’d like to slow it down and return to the trick that was giving me technical difficulties earlier, the Straitjacket stall. Straitjacket is a trick pioneered by Brazilian visionary Sid Seed that involves eating your vegetables in the morning and having a lot of skin, and has caught on in a major way with some of the lankier young players — most notably, Isaac Sams. I think Isaac’s actually hit the straitjacket stall on camera before, so I made sure to add some original flavor with a behind the back catch to ninja spin. You’re welcome. (Also, for anybody attempting to learn this trick, I strongly recommend using some long string and a Butterfly. Trust me. You’re gonna bang your knuckles quite a few times, you’ll want something light.)

Final trick of the video is a weird & goofy trick with a lot of body language, but I like it. Heavy inspiration from Anthony, Chuck, and Kyle Nations. For those of you who are interested in trick theory, the binding concept for this trick’s construction was trying to cross/recross/uncross my arms at every step while remaining at one or two levels of string. It’s a lot slower than some other combos, but has a neat back & forth pumping effect, too.

While Fixed Friday is almost over, hopefully these tricks will carry you through the weekend. Don’t forget to sign up for the contest if you want a chance to shine, practice hard on your spin moves, and go have fun! Also, I know this week’s beat is kind of crazy, but if you wanna download it you can totally do that right here.

Drew Tetz – Walty

July 22, 2013 By Steve Brown

Drew Tetz just dropped a quick love letter to Spencer Berry’s Walter, and it’s definitely worth watching if you want to learn a little something about building combos. Damn, son.

Fixed Friday: Weirdsmobile

July 12, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Hello again, fixie faithful, and welcome back to another installment of Fixed Friday. This week we’re taking a look at a hodgepodge of maneuvers with no common thread beyond being bearingless… but isn’t that the joy of the fixed axle community?! We’ll get back to the group hug later, in the meantime let’s check out the tricks.

The first trick is actually maybe the hardest in the video, but also one of the most rewarding due to being a fusion of string trick techiness and responsive stall zippiness. The mount is based heavily on the 2or0 chopsticks stall that you may have learned in our Crisis installment, but keeps the throwhand more involved; basically, you’re going to throw a double or nothing, but spread your finger & thumb the first time the yo-yo comes around your non-throwhand so that the next time it comes around you can land between them. This can be tricky if you’re not experienced with chopsticks! I definitely recommend practicing it with a spinning yo-yo before trying to catch it as a stall. The fun part of the trick, though, is moving your throwhand (which is still holding a string) underneath the yo-yo and pulling down like a pulley trick to launch the yo-yo out of the mount—in this case, launching out initiates a regeneration, which I personally like to send into a Makin’ da Zines and transition right back into the trick. This trick is in the “little kid dropping their ice cream cone” family (along with Ice Cream on the Moon and Kid Cone), so in further tribute to Seth Peterson I like to call this trick “Lactose-Free French Fry Ice Cream.”

Next trick is a bit of a silly one: z-axis rolls to dumptrucks. One of the best parts of stalls is breaking out of the mindset that yo-yos stay stable and only move on one plane… while this trick is kind of silly, it’s also easy and fun, and using the momentum of the swing to continue into an upside-down dismount shows that it could have potential in the middle of “real” stall somersault combos. And who doesn’t like weird spinny things?

The next trick is a simple leg wrap behind the back stall combo. Now, I say “simple”, but as with any behind the back trick it has the potential to be totally obnoxious if you miss. I recommend learning the btb braintwister stall at :38 in “The Butterfly Video” as a primer for this if you’ve never done a btb stall before, but the turn and reset is one of my bread & butter moves to show nonyoyoers so I’ll stand by that, too. Under the moon to spin move out is optional.

Next up is more or less a string trick combo, but it’s good to remember that those can be done on responsive yo-yos, too. The most useful move to pick up out of this is probably the “monster tickler dismount” that happens at 32 seconds: from a trapeze, do that cross-armed dismount Kohta & Yuuki make look so good, but let the yo-yo start responding so you can catch it in a stall when you uncross. This gives you plenty of momentum to go right into a somersault a la zipper stalls.

The next trick is directly inspired by John Ando. While many new kids primarily think of him for his (mindblowing) 1A, never forget that he is also a 2A National Champion and that 2A concepts are ripe for the pickin’ in responsive 1A. This particular trick uses a trapeze dismount to send the yo-yo out behind the throwhand arm before recalling it, and then allows the yo-yo to bump the throwhand bicep on the return. The arm bump is one of the more subtle tough love regens, and (like everything I do) combos nicely into Zines.

At 50 seconds in, we got a “lazy laceration.” We briefly explored grabbing the yo-yo in our Whips column, and here’s another way to set up a string loop with a non-spinning yo-yo. Right after that, we got… I dunno… Horizontal revolutions to trapeze stall? It looks like cheating, but it’s somewhat relieving that horizontal stalls naturally swing right back down to trapeze (thanks, gravity!)

I close out the clip with another exit from the 2or0 chopsticks stall, this time using that z-axis somersault. Twenty points to the first person who can show me this trick in reverse – can you swing from a trapeze into a 2or0 chopsticks? Other possible applications include letting the momentum carry you into a dump truck dismount or a crisis flip into wrist mount. Let your heart be your guide!

What are you throwing this fixed friday? Learn a trick? Got a trick request for next time? Let us know in the comments!

Maya vs. Drew: 5A Showdown

July 4, 2013 By Drew Tetz

YoYoNews battles return with a Duncan deathmatch! This week, old school 5A hero Maya Nakamura is taking on new school 5A upstart Drew Tetz in a Duncan Crew Deathmatch. Who will survive? Well, probably both of us, but it’s a bunch of exciting tricks so you should definitely check it out and vote. Maya brings the style & grace that we’ve come to expect from Japan’s counterweight queen with two high-level manuevers, one making a cheeky reference to classic trick Rock the Baby and the other a slick new triangle entrance, and I brought out the longest pinwheel/wrap combo I’ve ever done.

Not bad, eh? This battle is especially exciting for me because Maya’s winning 5A freestyle at ’05 Worlds was the first thing that made me want to take 5A seriously. It’s an honor to throw against such a talented & influential player. Vote below, and make sure to tell us who you voted for and why in the comments!

…also, if you wanna see my trick in slow motion you should click here, and if you wanna download the song you can do that here.

Fixed Friday: Planet Rock

June 28, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Controlling spin direction and regenerating properly are two of the biggest elements of fixed axle yo-yoing. Having trouble with your loops flipping? Don’t stop, planet hop!

That’s right, kids! This week we’re gonna be taking a deeper look at one of the staples of looping, the planet hop – or, rather, we’re going to explore how this classic regen can be mixed into responsive 1A. If you don’t know planet hop, well, your best bet would be to grab somethin’ responsive and check out the YoYoExpert tutorial for it, but for those of you who just need a quick refresher: a planet hop is just an upside-down shoot the moon. I know that sounds crazy, but because you don’t have to fight with gravity it’s actually one of the most mellow tricks around: throw down, bring the yo-yo back, and throw it back out the other direction without flipping. The fact that the yo-yo doesn’t have to flip (like it does in looping tricks) is especially handy when using butterfly-shaped yo-yos prone to tilting and trying to catch a string hit afterwards.

…of course, this wouldn’t be Fixed Friday if we just stuck to the classic vanilla version of the trick. No! Rather, most of this entry is dedicated to one of my favorite responsive repeaters, curiously named after one of my favorite dudes. More on that later; I just thought I’d mention it ’cause I kind of do it in the opening trick but I don’t want to talk about the opening trick yet (welp!)

So! On to the second trick. This is a fairly basic sequence: trapeze > regenerate into frontstyle spin > undermount > regenerate back to sidestyle spin. Most of the individual moves are probably already in your trick vocabulary, and it loops into itself nicely, which makes it one of my favorite “idling” tricks to practice when I’m not really thinking about anything else. While it looks simple, there is definitely a line between having a controlled punch out of a trapeze hop and just wildin’ out into the open; practice this one, you’ll be surprised how much it benefits your other tricks.

The next trick is that aforementioned star of the show, a lil’ somethin’ I like to call “Sethy P Makin’ Zines in Da Back (For Da Girls)”, or just “zines” for short. Once again, this may not look like much to the uninformed eye, but learning to control the redirect out of a stall back into a breakaway is incredibly valuable… and it just feels awesome, too. For this trick, throw a breakaway and catch the yo-yo in a trapeze stall, and when you dismount twist your finger so that the yo-yo somersaults inside the string. It should be nearing the end of its regeneration towards the end of the somersault circle, at which point you let go of the string and raise your throwhand. This creates a tiny bit of “hangtime”, which you’ll need ’cause you’re throwing the yo-yo immediately back out into a breakaway regeneration. Make sense? Maybe not, but watch the video and practice it and you’ll be makin’ da zines for da girls yourself in no time.

The next trick is a variation on zines, with the critical difference of being performed “Plus Style.” Without getting too deep into trick history, plus style is a way of looking at tricks where you mirror everything and add a string segment – think of it as doing left-handed tricks right-handed. Does that sound weird and crazy? It kind of is, but fortunately you don’t have to understand Spencer & Sonny’s crazy lingo to get this next trick. Basically: a trapeze brother mount can be thought of as a plus style trapeze, so for a plus style zines you get into a trapeze bro stall and then perform zines as though you were looking in a mirror. The one extra wrinkle to this trick is that you have to perform the regeneration portion while holding the string with your non-throwhand, which can be tricky at first, but give it a shot.

Once you master zines & zines+, the next trick is a fun little challenge for you: 2or0 zines. I’m not going to talk much about it because there’s not too much different there conceptually, but definitely worth exploring more. Also, right after that I do a double wrist wrap to thumb stall that I’m not going to talk about either ’cause it’s kind of a silly one-off, but hey! Who doesn’t like wraps?

The next trick is fully Ed’s: Zipper Stalls. Why am I throwing in somebody else’s trick, especially considering that he already wrote it up in his Static 1A Applications post? Probably ’cause it’s one of the best responsive 1A tricks ever, and absolutely the BEST way to practice planet hop regens in a string trick context. If you learn this trick and practice ’til you have straight regenerations and smooth somersaults, you will see the results in every other fixed axle regen you do. I promise.

I was worried that this week might’ve had too much of the “basics”, so I overcompensated and threw in a bunch of horizontal stuff at the end. First, we’ve got a banana turnover into a weird tough love handheld flip thing caught in a thumb mount. Not really sure what to call that, but I’d like to see it done offstring!

Next, we have something actually applicable to the theme: sideways zines. Being point blank honest with you, it’s really really scary getting that somersault and hangtime right in front of your face, so make sure you’re comfortable with both horizontal planet hops and horizontal trapeze stalls before you try this one. I managed not to hit myself in the face when filming, but it wouldn’t have been the first time. This move is really neat for mixing into the types of awesome horizontal responsive madness that Jensen Kimmitt’s been giving us lately... and, of course, sidewinder out of er’rythang.

Lastly, we got a ‘zontal tough love catch to whip and a pinwheel off a throw straight into a thumb mount. Why? Because it’s Friday! If you learned something, tell us ’bout it in the comments, and if you liked the song feel free to download it off of my SoundCloud. Tune in next week for more fixie madness.

Fixed Friday: 1.5zzzzz

June 14, 2013 By Drew Tetz

This Friday we’re going to take a deeper look at one of the most versatile mounts in modern responsive play, the 1.5 stall. The 1.5 is one of the foundational string trick mounts, so as you can imagine there’s a metric ton of fun stuff to do with it. Here’s a small sampling of that fun stuff transposed with the bearing taken out:

Before we get goin’ on the fancy stuff, let’s take a quick refresher course on what the 1.5 mount is: named because it’s a logical midpoint between a trapeze (“1”) and a double-or-nothing (“2”), the 1.5 is a sidestyle undermount on the throw hand. Another way to look at it is as a sidestyle split-bottom mount – but now we’re getting carried away. As FF devotees should know by now, the main difference when converting a mount to a stall is considering the spin direction, and doing a traditional 1.5 mount in a stall format can be difficult because of the way that undermounts tend to twist up. I dodge this in the first trick by keeping my hands vertically oriented and getting out as soon as possible, but there are more elegant solutions as well.

My favorite 1.5 stall variation is probably the mount shown at the end of the next combo, where you cross your throw hand over top of your free hand and intersect the string with those fingers instead. As a general rule, stalling trapeze-style is always going to be easier than catching an undermount stall, and this little tough love combo is a good way to practice the hand crossing motion. Once you’re comfortable with the cross, it becomes second nature to enter 1.5 this way right out of a breakaway.

The next entrance that I use is debatably the hardest in the video, but also one of my favorite mounts of all time, so whatever you’re getting it! You’re welcome! Basically, after you learn the cross-armed 1.5, you take that and you do a double-or-nothing first, resulting in what looks like an insanely technical mount… that actually just uncrosses to a normal 1.5. This brilliant mount was initially discovered by Chris Neff (presumably back in ’98), but expanded into a repeater by Justin Weber. You can find an excellent breakdown of the repeater (and Zach’s reverse variation) in this Cabin Tutorial from CLYW. Catching it in a stall takes practice, mostly due to having to budget for extra string on the windup, but when you get it it feels awesome. Trust me. You can exit any way that you want, but one of my recent favorites (shown in the video) is to uncross, push out, and then cross over inside your arm for a quick shoot the moon regen out.

Now that we showed a tutorial Charles did of somebody else’s trick I’d like to teach a trick I made based on one of Charles’ moves. Say wha? Anyways… 27 seconds in, we got a move I’m calling “Chuckwagon”. You get that cross-armed 1.5 I’ve been talking about, then you perform a dump truck type motion, flipping the yo-yo back towards you and dismounting between your arms. From there, you continue into Charles’ “Smooth Double or Nothing Move” and catch it in a 2or0 stall. I like to dismount this by dropping the throwhand string, crossing my arms, and pushing the yo-yo down forcefully, which is something Steve Brown used to do with bearing yo-yos all the time around ’05 or so but gets extra points in fixed axle for giving you some hefty spin on the regeneration.

The next trick is a simple one – just a mount, really – but very useful for segueing between sidestyle and frontstyle. It’s like the cross-armed 1.5 mount we’ve been doing, but you point your throwhand towards your body, making it effectively a reverse split bottom mount. Seth Peterson, Yuuki Spencer, and Nate Sutter have all used this movement to great effect in gorilla style tricks, check them out for inspiration.

I figured we’d round out the cross-armed 1.5 section with some behind the back silliness. Catching a stall behind your back requires you to move fast and be a little flexible, but other than that isn’t too different from the normal one. In this trick, I like to follow the dismount by turning my body and catching the yo-yo in my freehand tough love style. If you leave yourself enough room in the string, you can move it over your shoulder and now the trick is no longer behind your back! Magic, or maybe just a goofy looking rotation, but either way a fun move that can’t be performed in a traditional spinning trick. As always, bonus points for ending in a thumb mount.

BRIEF KENDAMA INTERMISSION: Have you ever tried catching a lighthouse on an imperial yo-yo? My favorite modder Takeshi Kamisato chopped up this gorgeous Duncan Tournament and the shape really inspired me.

Okay, back to the yo-yos. The first lesson I’d like to teach you is that you should play off every mistake with a spin move. Trust me! It’ll confuse your enemies and make you feel better. Moving on to the actual trick, though, we have a cousin to the cross-armed 1.5 we were doing earlier, that’s… actually, it’s also a cross-armed 1.5. Huh. The critical difference is that this time you cross your throw hand underneath the free hand, which lets you do this Kwijibo-esque pop to double-or-nothing. I tend to find the other entrance a little easier, but there are distinct uses for each and I encourage playing around with both.

I ended the video with another weird kendama/yo-yo fusion trick. It’s definitely more yo-yo inspired, but it is fun getting to play around with the spike and clicky-clack the yo-yo a bit at the end. Never fear, yo-yo purists! The first step where you hold the yo-yo and rotate your hand around it before the proper throw does not require you to touch our dreaded rival skilltoy… also, kendamas are pretty fun? So, y’know, whatever.

Thanks to Takeshi for the super cool Tournament & ’80s Butterfly, and to CLYW & Yoyonews for the hat. Also, if you like the music, you can download it on my soundcloud. Tell us what tricks you’re working on this Friday in the comments below!

Jensen Kimmitt, Chase Hadden, & Drew Tetz – Three From LSFC (NSFW Music)

June 4, 2013 By Drew Tetz

The notorious Little Scrappy Fetus Crew recently announced the addition of 1A G.O.A.T. Yuuki Spencer to their ragtag bunch, and decided to celebrate with three short videos. They also used some pretty NSFW music and poked a little bit of fun at a certain 5A GOAT along the way, which is decidedly rude for a group that’s 83% Canadian. It’s all in fun. Grab your headphones and check out the videos below, and if you wanna read more not-necessarily-yoyo-related swearin’ on tumblr you can do that too.

P.S. A little birdie told me that Jensen thinks bearing play is dead. Actually, that birdie was Jensen, I was just being coy. How does this make you feel?! Argue with us about it in the comments!

Fixed Friday: Crisis

May 31, 2013 By Drew Tetz

Cast down your bearings, ye fixed axle faithful, and join us for another glorious friday! This week we’ll be taking a closer look at my trick Crisis. This is a bit of an advanced trick, but there are some foundational steps that are handy for intermediate players, too.

You may recognize Crisis from the recent “Mind Melee” battle with Spencer Berry. Spencer is one of my favorite yoyoers of all time, and when he agreed to a battle I wanted to use a trick that paid tribute to the golden era of Spindox, the legendary California crew that he, Gabe, Jason, Escolar, Gary and company immortalized. While I used a Freehand1 for the battle to get a little more oomph, I actually did compose the trick on a Butterfly – but enough about me, let’s get learnin’!

The first move in the video is a thumb mount stall, or more specifically a chopstick double-or-nothing. The spinning version is one of the most fundamental thumb mount tricks, but can be a little challenging if you aren’t familiar with it – you might want to grab a bearing yo-yo and check out this video to get acquainted with it. The basic idea, though, is that you throw a breakaway and let the yo-yo travel around both your pointer and your thumb so you get sort of a miniature 2or0 formation. Landing a stall instead of a string hit is a bit of a wrinkle, but if you can hit the bearing version the stall should come with a bit of practice. My best advice is to use a light, responsive yo-yo and give yourself a little bit of extra room on the string to accommodate the yo-yo winding up. (If you’re interested in more thumb mount stalls, I suggest revisiting our Play Like A Wild Man article.)

The next fundamental move for Crisis is a wrist mount stall. Wrist mounts are fairly standard fare for modern 1A (and a staple of the Spindox!) but less frequently seen in stall-based play due to the possibility of knots. Having said this, if you can land a wrist mount with a spinning yo-yo, you’ll probably be able to hit the stall pretty quick. The tricky part is actually finding a good way to dismount since the traditional Spirit Bomb dismount is difficult when the yo-yo’s not spinning. In this example, I use a “bounce house” dismount, something introduced in the “Huh? Wha?” FF segment: pop the yo-yo up onto the top string and use the momentum to redirect it behind the lower string, thus dissolving the kink and setting the yo-yo spinning again. Crisis has a more advanced dismount, but more on that later.

Alright! Now that we’ve got those foundational mounts down, let’s get into the tough stuff. The next step is getting into the meat of Crisis with its centerpiece move, the crisis flip. The idea behind this is that you twist your throwhand to wrap the string around your thumb and forefinger, so you’re set up for a throwhand thumb mount, and then catch the yo-yo in a 2or0 chopstick stall on your free hand. Once your hands are sufficiently bound up, you’re going to swing the yo-yo forward so it breaks plane and catch it upside-down in the right hand thumb mount. THIS IS REALLY HARD. Don’t feel bad if you don’t get it right away, it’s pretty counterintuitive and took me a lot of practice. It’s an exciting concept, though, because it allows you to do tech-y thumb tricks within a stall, changes the stall direction, and all kinds of other cool weird stuff like that. I initially just dismount out of it by throwing it out the side, but the full trick gets a little fancier. (Sidenote: If the 2or0 chopsticks stall feels too awkward with the throw hand windup, you can see an alternate entrance at 1:00 where I use a normal double or nothing and drop the throw hand strings.)

The next step in Crisis is in line with the grand tradition of tech tricks, which is to say: adding a kink! This is why you needed that wrist mount stall. After you do the crisis flip and you’re in the inverted thumb hold, you move your throwhand forward and let the yo-yo go backward through the thumb mount, thus creating a kink – this is difficult to explain, but hopefully the slomo clarifies it a little bit. Players like Yuuki Spencer & Jesse Garcia do this move quite frequently. Because it’s a stall, though, that yo-yo is kind of just falling, and you wanna try your best to give it a swing to the left side so that it starts spinning again. It won’t spin for long, however, because you’re going to catch it in a trapeze stall in front while sustaining the kink mount on your thumbs. Those familiar with wrist mounts or kinks will know that if we dropped the strings now we’d get a knot, so let’s focus on getting out of that: my solution is to invert the entire structure by swinging the yo-yo forward and tilting your hands backwards, dismounting the yo-yo through the strings with a dumptruck motion. If you get through in the right spot, you’re home free!

Another thing that you can do out of a crisis flip is a move I like to call A Mountain Climber Who Plays An Electric Guitar. The idea behind this is that you flip up into the strings, but try to sustain the free hand loop, and then pop it up in the air so that you can catch it like a drop suicide. Wu-tang!

Yet another thing you can do, though I haven’t explored it much yet, is to flip the yo-yo through the thumb mount rather than landing it upside-down. As you can see, I don’t really have anything practical with this yet, so I sort of just do a wacky little untwisting motion, but surely one of you will find use for that extra twist in the string.

Finally, a bit of goofy fun with… uh… a Butterfly tied to a kendama? I haven’t caught the kendama bug as badly as some in the community have (mostly because I’m really bad at them!), but I do think it’s fun to try and crossbreed ideas between the two disciplines. For all of the yoyoers upset because people are playing with (gasp) a different toy… lighten up! Seriously. Toys. What are you doing?

Learn the trick? Want to see more kendama/yoyo fusion? Want me to stop using stupid light yo-yos? Let us know in the comments!