yo-yo #20: the flying camel

i bought this yo-yo from the tom kuhn website a few years ago. obviously, it's just an ordinary maple no jive yo-yo, but this version comes in butterfly configuration and features a pretty intricate engraving on the sides. the legend is that while backpacking in the 70's, tom looked up and saw a cloud and thought it looked like a big camel... so he decided to put it on a yo-yo. i can totally believe that, [sorta] knowing tom. he's a very whimsical guy, and is pretty in tune with the outdoors. one time he emailed me a picture he took of a hawk and a blackbird with the sole caption "quit jivin' me, blackbird!"

a thread on yoyonation got me thinking about yoyoing "and the world" (as if they're two separate entities).

so much of yoyoing takes place in peoples rooms, or in tiny places. so many freestyles and videos are essentially compressed to fit into a miniscule, imaginary box. people regularly say that they don't like to yo-yo in public, for fear of embarrassment or persecution for such a "nerdy" pastime.

i find it kind of depressing, because to me, one of the most remarkable qualities of yoyoing is its inherent portability. growing up, i played piano. when i got a little older, the lure of a rock band (meaning an actual one, and not a video game) made me gravitate to the electric bass, followed by the big, honkin' upright. i always kind of wished that i played harmonica, pocket trumpet, or something comparably tiny, because i want to be able to make art and express myself on a whim, and in any situation. if i'm in line at the grocery store, or in the forest, i can take out a yo-yo, and just "dial in". for some people, it seems like a tool used to distance one's self from others; something i do in my room that no one can touch or interfere with. for me, yoyoing is one more art i can use to interact with the larger world.

i took this yo-yo to the beach around this time last winter. i love nature, and the outdoors, and playing wood just seems so natural and "right". i hesitate to use the word "organic", which has been sequestered by every supermarket trying to "go green", but there's something about playing wood that resonates well with being out under the sky. anyway, i'm also a surfer (though i've been less dedicated in recent years, i'm sad to say), and i got to thinking about the similarities and differences between playing yo-yo, and riding waves.

whether you've ever dropped in or not, surfing is fascinating because it involves the manipulation of a natural, primal energy source to propel you into what's essentially a controlled fall. i've never seen an activity more imbued with inherent grace. like yo-yoing, it's the simplest idea possible, which we've gradually refined and processed into a multifaceted and saleable "sport". (notice i didn't say "ruined", because i don't think it's in our power to do so to either.)

let's look at the respects in which surfing and yoyoing are similar:

• in surfing, the wave is the energy source, and it moves you and your board through space in the way that you want. in yoyoing, the roles are changed. YOU are the energy source, and you manipulate the toy in the way you want. though the differences are many, it's still just playing with finite energy. a wave only has so much juice before it dissipates on the shore. your throw only has so much juice before the force is dissipated by friction. maybe i like throwing wood because this is so much more palpable and obvious (in n.c., i'm used to short rides anyway).

• both occur in a similar time frame, and involve a similar breakdown of parts. yoyoing involves the throw, the trick, and the return. surfing breaks down to the paddle, the ride, and the kickout (or the glorious wipeout-beating that happens plenty, too).

• both are subject to fanatic, factious, tribal niches which generally perceive themselves to be more important to the greater world than they actually are. surfers and yoyoers are similar in their fierce devotion to their friends, and their general willingness to speak ill of their "enemies", as well as the uninitiated. a quick glance at any surfing or yoyoing forum proves as much.

although surfing and yoyoing are only similar in the most academic respects, the primary difference between them relates to "fear". when you're out there in the water (especially alone, or on a huge day), it can get scary. there are a thousand ways to kill yourself surfing in the ocean. i've been surprised by a half-dozen sharks sharing the same space in the lineup as me. i've been pulled from behind "over the falls" during hurricane swells. i've been faced with the terror of having no idea which direction is up while underwater. (and i'm only a relatively casual surfer on the east coast!). EVERY paddleout requires a bit of a gut-check.

in yoyoing, there's no immediate fear of death, and maybe there should be. who puts on the slipknot and wonders to themselves "will this be the last time?" who considers for a moment that they might pay for a "high risk" trick by eating a serious beatdown? yeah, i've got stringburn, and i've bonked myself on the head plenty with a yo-yo. i never fail to laugh though, when i read the myriad threads asking "how bad have you hurt yourself with a yo-yo?"

but we SHOULD yo-yo like that. we should LIVE like that. we should maintain within ourselves the ember of the understanding that every session and every throw may be our last. tomorrow is promised to no man. surfing causes its exponents to really value what they do because of the inherent danger, but even without the omnipresent risk of death, we should recognize that our lives are fragile, and that the pursuits to which we dedicate time and effort are truly worthwhile. our yoyoing should matter to us more than just a throwaway that we use to kill time. you can't "kill time", but you can surely waste it. this comparison with surfing (and so this yo-yo) reminds me to throw and live with a little more "intent".

though i live 100+ miles from the beach now, it's a beautiful day.
so, i'm picking up my camel, and taking it for a walk. ;)

yo-yo #18: b-grade g5+

yoyofactory is unbelievable. unbelievable.

the first yoyofactory yo-yo i played was the original grind machine (the 2nd, seasick green run). while i felt the yo-yo was something of a misnomer, being that it was not a spectacular grinder, i was amazed by its consistency. i remember disliking the plastic inserts and caps (the same as a fast 201), but once i ditched them (and the adjustable gap), that yo-yo was effectively a metal freehand.

i'm not sure of the exact moment in time when yoyofactory exploded, inundating the yo-yo scene with hype and metal. the 401k was a great seller, but was readily available for a long time. at some point after the release of the g5 though, yoyofactory became synonymous not only with consistency, but also yo-yo fashion. they didn't just set the standard. they became it, and by 2007, had fully dominated the 1a market.

i first tried a g5+ at the "golden ticket" extravaganza at worlds '07. the exclusive celebration itself was not as huge a deal as many had assumed it would be, but some cool products were unveiled, and this yo-yo became available for the 1st time immediately afterwards. at the time, it came in a dull gray and a brilliant orange. i think the orange sold out in a matter of hours, whereas the gray could be bought on yoyonation for weeks thereafter. augie fash used one of the oranges to throw a memorable (and planned) aerial into the chandelier during an onstage freestyle. boyd seth somehow got it down that night and claimed it for his own. i think he gave it back at some point.

at the east coast classic the following year, yoyofactory began selling its "b-grade" yo-yo's. these were essentially flawed rejects that didn't meet the company's high standards. the first of these were red 888's with blotchy ano and limited engraving. they sold for $60, which incited a substantial frenzy to get them. since their flaws were primarily cosmetic, they were incredibly solid players, and yoyofactory correctly recognized that they could still make the masses salivate at a lower price point.

at iyyo this year in nyc, i bought this b-grade g5+ from samm scott. samm and i have been friends for a few years. though he lives in virginia, he was one of the first guys to come hang out at the park when the north carolina easily amused chapter was just getting together. he's a pretty amazing technical yo-yo player, skilled in all the major styles but 2a. we were rooming together with brandon jackson, adam brewster, and mike salcito (another nc crew guy) at this place called "the pod hotel". it was aptly named, as the floorplans were so unbelievably cramped that we felt literally compressed into each other like seeds desperately awaiting dispersal. there was only slightly more room than their had been in my element during the drive up.

after day 1, samm and i were back at the room, and he had acquired a pair of b-grade g5+'s. i'm not sure if he had bought them for the $55 they were going for at the table, or if ben had just given them to him outright. (ben is ridiculously generous, and once sent me a pair of top-tip g5's he had scratched a bit while stacking them.) anyway, samm just couldn't get into them, and was quickly running down to his last hundred (which in nyc will buy you a sandwich and styrofoam cup for your tap water). he said "give me $40 and it's yours," and i said sure.

the yo-yo is matte black. the ano has some quirks in places where it's not super-dark; almost brown. the only engravings are the yyf b-grade logos on both rims. the finish is beadblasted and much better for grinding than the original grind machine. i'm always amazed that yoyofactory's "rejects" consistently outplay almost every other company's top-of-the line models, and yet they get barked at on forums for everything from customer service to not releasing certain colorways.

anyway, it was a crazy-good player... but like samm, i just never really got into it. i tried to trade it away a few times with no great prospects. i figured it didn't cost me much, and it's a good yo-yo that reminds me of that trip to new york. why not keep it?

then a few weeks ago, i noticed that yoyonation had started selling little rubber "nubs" to protect the yyf axle towers if you want to ditch the hubstacks (wow, i bet non-yoyoers will really enjoy that sentence). i bought a few pairs of the white ones and, just for kicks, took off the g5+'s stacks and put on the nubs.

holy shit.

i love this yo-yo now. i have nothing against hubstacks; they're fun and enable some weird tricks. but hadn't really occured to me that i might prefer a yoyofactory yo-yo without them. something about this particular yo-yo just kind of puts me off with hubstacks, but when they're removed i absolutely adore it. aesthetically, i think it looks great; a tiny white dot surrounded by a big, black mass. if you've got an 888 or g5 that you've never really connected with, i heartily recommend this rather obvious change. for better or worse, it completely changes the way the yo-yo feels, looks, and behaves. it's uncanny that a $2.00 upgrade (or downgrade, i guess) was able to bring a stagnating piece of my collection back to life.

thanks, samm. ;)

yo-yo #'s 14 and 15: pair of proyos

my 2a sucks. blows. it goes from suck to blow. it is atrocious. ok, it's not THAT bad. it's really my accursed left hand (the "sinister", as it were). my right, i can loop in any which way until the string unwinds. my left is not as good, but it really isn't until they both get together to tango that the hideous travesty unfolds.

i like to fancy myself as being cut from a kind of "o.g. yo-yo cloth", as if, since i like playing wood a lot, i'm channeling barney akers or gus somera or something. understand that i'm not egomaniacal enough to actually "have" this thought (though i guess i just did), but the "idea" of the old demonstrators kind of underpins everything i see in yo-yoing today. i think what appeals to me the most is the inherent minimalism. compared with today, where we (as a society) seem to believe that no field should be left fallow and all possibilities should be explored (if only for the sake of exploration itself), half a century ago, things were simpler.

so i guess the "germ of an idea" is that i should be able to live simply, too. and not just "get by", but "thrive" simply. those guys didn't have bearings, didn't have a wide variety of available materials, and didn't have the myriad and complex play-styles that have developed into modern yo-yoing canon. back then, you played a wood yo-yo. if you were good you played two. if you were great, you might make up some tricks of your own. i wasn't yo-yoing back then, and i'll welcome contradiction by anyone who was (or steve brown), but as i see it, the wild, obsessive need to be innovative that seems to consume so many yo-yoers today is a relatively recent development. fueled by the technology, the perspective often seems that if you aren't breaking new ground in yo-yoing, then you're doing something wrong. 50 years ago, making up new tricks was all fine and good, but it was being able to execute and perform the fundamentals that set you apart.

so what did the old demonstrators do? they got really, really, really good at the fundamentals, and at performing.

with so many yo-yo's, so many established tricks, and so many technological developments, it's easy to hide from the basics now. there IS no real canon anymore. lots of the most popular, most innovative players never bothered to learn some really basic tricks, because let's face it: learning basics isn't that fun, and you aren't extrinsically rewarded for it. in aikido, we call it kihon. the basic elements that you need to understand to manifest the art. but if you can "kick ass" without learning the kihon, i mean... why bother, right?

at any given contest, sport ladder is the territory of as few as 3 or 4 intrepid beginners. and the 2a ladder is almost totally ignored. the ladder is largely shunned by advanced players because the prevalent mentality is that good yo-yoers are innovative first and consistent second. i hope i don't sound embittered; that's just the way i see it. freestyling provides a stage (literally) for showcasing the new-and-improved, whereas ladder is where yo-yo tricks go to die.

although i love the ladder, i fall into this as much as anyone. once again, my 2a (2a, which 50 years ago was how you proved yourself to be a "real" yo-yoer) blowsucks. and so, by the outmoded standard to which i hold myself, my status as a "real" yo-yoer is decidedly shaky.

yeah. and you know what else i suck at?

cutting carrots.

seriously. the other day, i was chopping up some carrots for a salad. my 10 month old son was doing his waddle-around-the living room thing. his new favorite game is pushing a sturdy, cube-shaped cardboard box around the entire house. occasionally, he'll pick it up and carry it a few steps, and he looks just like one of the world's strongest man competitors... except he's a baby. well, he sprinted into one of his trademark learning-to-walk faceplants and started wailing. i looked up to check the damage and... zzzzzt!

i almost cut my right index finger off at the knuckle. (it's damn funny that i spend so much time a.) flipping razor sharp bali-song knives around and b.) training with razor-sharper samurai swords and i never cut myself. but, hand me a kitchen knife to cut some veggies, and i'm as good as dead.)

it started bleeding... a lot. evidently there are quite a few capillaries that have to provide oxygenated blood to your fingertips, cause it was an effin' gusher. i felt bad for having to basically ignore my son's fall, but he comes from hardy skateboarding stock; he's gotta get used to it. i immediately ruled out the possibility of going to get stitches, basically because i think i'd rather bleed out through my finger than take a 10 month old to the e.r., especially with me reduced to one working hand (which would be used to apply pressure to the shredded one). if i needed to get stitched, i figured stacy could sew me up after she got home from her practice. we've got some thread somewhere.

after i stopped the bleeding (an hour later), it occurred to me that i really wanted to play some yo-yo. the feeling that followed could only be described as a "oh... damn" moment. with my finger carefully bandaged, and thus three times its normal size, there was no conceivable way for me to play. plus the idea of 1a string-burn over the raw cut pretty much made me want to vomit. it kind of still does, actually. but i wanted to play, so i was left with the mixed blessing of working on my left-handed loops.

i no-jived it up for the rest of that day and the next. in the evening, my wife and daughter went out for a lovely evening at the ballet (which must be pronounced as my daughter says it, accenting the 2nd syllable: "the BAL-let"). the baby and i opted for some late-sunday mall xmas shopping. i picked up "a little something" for my wife (go ahead and read it stacy, i'm not telling), a couple books for my mom, and some polar bear figurines for the little girl at the k-b... where i also spied... a duncan proyo aisle display. and, since k-b is closing its doors nationwide, and EVERYTHING MUST GO, they were on sale for a whopping $0.65 each. it was the single greatest yo-yo discount i have ever seen. for a buck-thirty, i walked out with a pair of emerald green (favorite color) and clear loopers; with the new caps, no less (did oke rosgana do these? they're FRESH!).

i got home, adjusted the string, and tried them together. my finger was still mummified, but except for super-hard catches, seemed painless and secure. partly bolstered by the fact that my injury had resulted in a more confident left hand, my 2-handed had greatly improved. i was also shocked to remember how much i used to like proyos. they are really, really good yo-yo's, and they immediately rekindled the flame of my desire to solidify the basics; to get consistent at the canon, even if i have to define it for myself. innovation's fine, and i'll keep making up tricks... but there's a lot to be said for appreciating simplicity.

it's a few days later now. i'm down to 2 band-aids while playing, and i haven't been able to put the proyos down. everything nice and familiar about a wood axle and all the consistency of a plastic body. although the memory of many epic cookie-dough-brick-eating sessions with my friend in college prevents me from saying it's the best $1.30 i ever spent... it certainly was a solid deal!