California yoyo player Hayden Brickman scored himself a nice profile piece on, of all places, a real estate blog that caters to Burlingame, California. It’s a great personality piece, though, and it’s nice to see more up-and-coming talent doing what they can to promote competitive yoyoing! Check out an excerpt below, and click through for the full article.

Hayden Brickman is a normal 11-year-old boy who likes skateboarding and basketball. His parents, Stuart and Rachael, have run Burlingame Optical on Burlingame Avenue since the 80s. Maybe you’ve seen him there. Last fall, Hayden started sixth grade at BIS (Burlingame Intermediate School). With his late August birthday, he is be one of the youngest kids in his class, and one of the smallest, which he doesn’t mind because it means he can “fit through certain things.” He wears stylish glasses, which is appropriate, given the family business, and favors shorts and t-shirts, like any kid his age.

If you attended my annual barbecue in Washington Park last year, you know something else about Hayden, something besides the hip glasses and diminutive frame that separates him from all the other “normal” 10-year-olds: Hayden is a national yo-yo champion.

The barbecue is an annual thing, one of the best perks of my job. I love getting the chance to hang out with friends, family and clients in a relaxed setting. Last year, I decided to hire Hayden, who I’d recently met, to perform yo-yo tricks for my guests. Hire a 10-year-old as entertainment? This is no “normal” 10-year-old. He was, just as I’d figured he’d be, a huge hit.

What’s amazing is that Hayden got his first yo-yo a little over two years ago, in December of 2012. “I was nine,” he remembers. “One of my dad’s employees came into (the store) with a yo-yo and I thought it was really cool.” He asked his parents to get him a yo-yo for Christmas.

“He immediately started doing some tricks that were already beyond what people usually can do,” recalls his father, Stuart Brickman, a lifelong Burlingame area resident who opened Burlingame Optical when he was only 27 years old. “The light came on, definitely.”

“My dad showed me a few tricks,” Hayden recalls. “It took me about a month to get consistent (with them).” Soon after that, Hayden singlehandedly started a yo-yo craze at his school, Franklin Elementary. “At first I didn’t take (yo-yos) to school because I wasn’t sure they’d allow it,” he explains, “but then I started bringing them to school. I got other kids to get yo-yos and it was a trend for a few months.”

Click through for the full article…nice job, Hayden!