yo-yo #37: steve brown 888 (small bearing)

heh... in college, my band was called "37". we were a bizarre amalgamation of friends/musicians who just sort of congealed at bc in 1995. pete was a full on "marty friedman/jason becker/dream theater" progressive shred guitar player. hilary "the guy" was a d.c.-scene punk rocker who knew all of the epitaph catalog by heart and oscillated between several hairstyles that seemed to set him in a different dimension from his preppy college peers. i was a jazz/funk bassist who felt the need to inject at least 3 slap-solos into every song, to the chagrin of bandmates and audiences. at first we had no drummer, and we seriously played our first few shows with a programmable roland drum machine (who we introduced to the crowd as "roland"). later, we picked up brian norbert blaise binkowski, an indy rocker who fit nicely into our "no one fits at all" setup. we played a lot of shows (including a pair of epic ones at "the rat" in the month before it closed), released a tape (yes, a TAPE), and had a lot of fun. the name grew out of the fact that hilary and i were perpetually running into the number 37. that and the "37 dicks" scene from the movie "clerks". anyway, sorry for the diatribe.

...

this is one of the few yo-yo's that i've won (at least that holds any real significance to me).

during the end of the boom, steve brown was one of the only yo-yo players i had heard of (along with all of team proyo and a few of the thp kids, but i didn't remember their names at the time). steve was interesting because he didn't conform to the totally introspective, nerdy stereotype that the uninitiated first associate with yo-yoers. to call him a "punk" (even in the most positive sense) would still be pretty limiting, because steve's one of the most multi-faceted guys i know, and categories just seem to evaporate off of him. anyway, when i finally made my way back to "the scene" around 04, i was really happy to see him still riding the wave, leading the duncan crew, which he had transformed from a battleship being outpaced by the more agile boom-companies into an edgy and relevant force. when i was learning yo-yo as a y-camp counselor, duncan was so far behind, it had become a punchline. in the intervening years, due mostly to the success of steve's freehand (both the style and the yo-yo) and brilliant branding, it had developed a well-deserved legion of fans.

it's funny how one can be 25ish, and pretty well-balanced and intelligent, and still geek out about a totally regular person and act like they're a complete rock star. although i wouldn't use the term "man-crush" per se, i was pretty taken aback when steve e-mailed me out of the blue one day in 06. as i remember, it was a pretty innocuous question about bass gear, but it generated a series of conversations that developed into a surprising friendship (not like "best buds" and tandem-bikes, but as two people who could commiserate on music, kids, comics, and on being geriatric as far most yo-yoers were concerned). we shared enough similarities to make sense to one another, but enough differences to still be interesting (ok at least i felt like that). although he was one of the guys that really shook yo-yoing up, i really appreciated his knowledge of and respect for the yo-yoing of the past, and he was a major influence in my gravitation toward responsive, fixed axle yo-yo's.

anyway, this would have been right around the time that steve left duncan amidst tumult and uproar (as is his wont). almost immediately thereafter, it seemed, he was whisked away to asia with the yoyofactory guys doing all manner of f.a.s.t. demos. shortly after he returned, yyf was hard at work designing the g5 (the first ideas for which, if i remember correctly, were sketched out on a napkin by ben and hans during the trip), and it was clear that steve would be a central piece of the yyf puzzle. i had known that he had nothing but glowing praise for the 401k, and in january of the next year, he showed me the side-art for what would be his signature yo-yo (the "fb.one", which was never realized). he said that while he loved what the factory was doing, he needed something with a small bearing if he was going to come out of "retirement" and compete again in 5a, the style he invented.

as 07 pushed on, yyf announced a contest called "tricked out", built around its flagship yo-yo, the g5. participants were to create tricks using the g5's free-spinning hubstacks, which while amazing, clearly weirded most yo-yoers out to the point that they simply ignored them. in the first few months following the g5's release, the renaissance of innovation that steve had implied would take place just hadn't materialized. the g5 was such a solid 1a yo-yo, that the hubstacks had remained little more than an under-utilized "extra" which, aside from pull-starts, users were blissfully ignoring. in effort to change that, the "tricked out" contest would award 3 winners: best overall trick, most views, and peoples' choice. each would receive their choice of yo-yo's from the yyf vault. i came up with a pretty run-of-the-mill top-tip trick i called "mess with the bull" (basically making a "bull" or "666" sign and grinding the tips between your index and pinky). it was an easy trick, and i thought i had no prayer. my norweigian pal (and fellow skater, though MUCH better than me), pekka won best overall with a sick 'hacky-sack' trick, dropping the yo-yo to spin on his foot, before kicking it back up to his palm. bemis advertised his trick brilliantly on yoyonation and was way ahead of everyone on views. the only chance i had was peoples' choice, and for whatever reason, people voted for me. i still have no idea why (here's the original vid, btw).

the same day that ben emailed me to tell me i won (his name registering in my email as "pedro flores") and to ask me to "choose my prize", steve confided that he'd be getting a small bearing signature 888 in black hardcoat WITH some of his tattoos engraved around the outside. i immediately replied to ben with an innocuous (though transparent) request: "well... do you have anything small bearing... and black?" predictably, he replied saying they had something in the works but it would be a few weeks, and did i mind waiting? of course i didn't. in the intervening weeks, i visited steve in va beach, where he was performing on the main drag for the summer. i tried out his pre-pro loop 720s and was flabbergasted when he revealed the ingenius response system. he also let me know (amidst much hooting and laughter) that yyf was creating red "dice hubstacks", both as an homage to steve's 5a, and as a means of circumventing duncan's counterweight patent. the original plan was to be able to string the two halves of the dice together to form a counterweight (which would really have stuck it to duncan). in the end, however, the dice were a brilliant, but purely aesthetic addition.

unbeknownst to me, there developed a real problem with the hardcoat process, and no more than a dozen of the small bearing steve brown 888's were produced (aking this one of the rarest yo-yo's i own), one of which arrived at my door about a month later. they had some large bearing ones for sale at worlds that year, but the black ano can't touch the hardcoated ones that were never made again. i met ben at that contest, and, in addition to the dice stacks he tossed me a red and black f.a.s.t. yo-yo holster "to match my yo-yo". ben talks loudly, both online and off, and his manner can seem brash and intimidating. however, his generosity just never ceases to amaze me.

steve used his 888 to freestyle that year. although 5a had taken on a life of its own, and was being pushed forward in new directions by many of yo-yoing's top innovators, steve had intimated that very few people (less than 5) actually "got" his original intentions for it. his big reason for being excited over the yyf hubstacks was his ability to use them to get closer to his original goal (which i will not describe in detail here). his hubstack freestyle was insane. INSANE. and if memory serves, he was sick as stink when he did it. as he predicted, most people couldn't look at it and appreciate how difficult it was, or its potential to change things. they still don't, and that's a shame. he actually posted it online a few weeks before the contest so that judges could see it and at least try to think through how the'd score it. it just wasn't the same 5a as most everyone else's. he walked through pieces of it with me in virginia, and though i'm not a freehand player, it was so ambidextrous, and so reliant on impossible pinch-catches, it was hard to imagine him "going clean". he didn't, and it was hard to be bitter over my other good friend, tyler severance winning the division. i know steve was disappointed, but it remains, in my eyes, one of the most innovative contest freestyles ever, but the most innovative stuff doesn't always reveal itself clearly or immediately, and certainly doesn't always win. 2 years later, people still don't understand it or its significance.

maybe it IS just "man crush residue" talking, but i certainly associate this yo-yo with steve, with the concepts that underpin that freestyle, and with the potential still just sitting there waiting to be exploited.

steve brown's 07 worlds freestyle

yo-yo #33: blood-red 888

this is just the yo-yo i happened to pick up. it's a great yo-yo, and i love the color (which is in some way relevant to the topic i have in mind). i got it from a friend (mike salcito) last week at an nc yo-yo meet. i traded him a green monster skyline, which i will not pretend that i'm not going to miss. this is a blood-red 888. mike said it was only available in europe (but i wouldn't know anyhow). the 888 is cool because, to my mind, it really "takes no prisoners". it was designed to set a new standard for consistent, progressive play, and that's exactly what it did.

i'm also typing this on my wife's laptop, and holy hell... she has a way better keyboard than i do. holy hell.

anyway... this morning, in lieu of my normal zazen ritual, i yanked out my shinken (or katana if you prefer, a japanese sword) for a much needed iaido practice. i'm embarrassed to admit that it had been months. i dusted off my blue keikogi and black hakama (which, it could be argued, makes me look like a bit of a girl - it's not a dress... it's pleated PANTS, dammit!) and i headed out to the spot behind my house where i like to practice. it's a warm day, and the birds are singing again. (for frame of reference, here's an old video me doing some iai in said spot: http://www.vimeo.com/1786917 )

iaido is the ceremonial, ritualistic, japanese martial art associated with handling the long sword. i say "handling" because the more you do it, the more you come to realize that every moment of carrying it is incorporated into the art, even prior to getting on the mat. most people would associate it with "drawing the sword", but that only represents a splinter of its function and true nature. iaido is one of the budo (ways of war), and that "do" character specifies not just a "method", but a true life "path". there's a lot to pay attention to.

in practice, iaido contains a great deal of ritual in terms of taking care of/respecting the sword, wearing the sword in a very specific way, drawing the sword from its saya (scabbard), performing one or more cuts against an opponent (which you have to visualize), and returning the sword to your side.

since it's really just you alone (unless you're in a group practice, which i really never do anymore), your brain is positively inundated by each misstep and mistake. although i've trained in iaido for over a decade (shit, i'm old), i usually feel like a bit of a failure when i practice. unlike aikido, the other japanese art that i practice, there most definitely IS a right and wrong way to do iaido. granted, each instructor may differ on the finer points, but the hallmark of iai is the fact that it's guided by an ideal. since it's not an application-based art (no one carries swords these days), it's all about studying and retaining the traditions of japanese swordsmanship. one might argue "what's the use in that if you can't use it on the street?", but practicing iaido requires a lot of dedication and discipline, both mental and physical. it teaches you how to command your body and mind to a level of attention that many martial arts ignore. though you'll never use the techniques of iaido in a fight, the awareness and understanding of life and death that it espouses help to ensure that you'll be able to avoid or defuse one.

iai is broken into different kata (forms). each school has their own set that have been handed down from teacher to student, in many cases directly from origins in feudal japan. as in all martial arts, there are tons of fakers and phonies, and if you aren't able to separate them from the legitimate sources, then on some level, you deserve what you get. although the style i trained in has a fancy name, "muso-shinden ryu iaido", and i've practiced the kata of that style, i mostly stick with the setei kata now, which are a set of basic techniques that many different schools have agreed on, which utilize and represent aspects of each tradition. learning a kata is a lot like learning a yo-yo trick. you have to break it down into its elements and reference points. you have to repeat it over and over in order to get anything meaningful out of it. you oscillate between periods of being totally exhilerated by it and totally bored with it, but after awhile, it kind of becomes a part of you.

when i practice, i like to do all of the setei kata 3 or 4 times each, and then pick one or two from the muso-shinden ryu catalog to focus on. some of them start standing, some start on your knees in seiza, and some start in the often-excruciating battle-armor-half-knee stance, tate-hiza. after training today, i got to thinking about yo-yoing and how it relates to this martial tradition. yoyoing has its own "kata" in the standardized tricks that we do. the sport ladder trick-list that's a staple of any yo-yo contest gives examples of tricks that have been deemed to be "important". their presence on the list identifies them as tricks that yo-yoers "ought to know". a key difference between the martial arts and yo-yoing is that you don't NEED to conform to any specific trick-ideals to be a good yo-yoer. lots of highly respected yoyoers couldn't find their way through the ladder (certainly not in 2a). as a martial artist in virtually any tradition, you absolutely have to work your way "up" through a set of techniques, and as you progress, you remain duty-bound to retain them. that's the standard format for the dissemination of knowledge. as the budding warrior makes his way through the kata and waza (technique), he develops in two ways. 1.) he learns the full scope of the material that makes up his art and 2.) he builds the discipline to use his art appropriately.

yo-yoing has none of that stuff, really. in the budo, what force "regulates" the students? it's really a 3-pronged attack. the student is regulated by the teacher, by his/her peers, and by the grueling art itself. if you want to study a martial art that's worth anything, those 3 guiding lights will, at some point, need to beat some respect into you. if learning an art just amounted to walking up to some benevolent "master", forking over a thousand bucks and receiving your own teaching license and crisp black belt (sadly there are schools that effectively DO this), what would it be worth, really? it's not just "going through the motions". in truth, "going through the motions" is what ends up building your character as a martial artist and as a person.

is there any regulatory force in yoyoing? awhile ago, if you wanted to freestyle at a big contest, you had to do "compulsories". these were kind of like a ladder on steroids, wherein you had to perform a series of tricks of incremental difficulty, and were judged not just on whether you completed them, but HOW. it was a lot like being judged for a dan exam. the highest compulsory scores moved on to freestyles. now that the days of compulsories are no more (and i'm not arguing that's a bad thing), you never need to demonstrate "canon" as a yo-yoer. the forums have become the primary regulating force of the community, usually dispensing half-baked judgment on videos, new yo-yo's, and players. yo-yoing is a very free and experimental art form, and no standards are perceived to be required. in any case, when you practice yo-yoing, you don't repeat the same sequence of tricks (unless you're practicing for a contest). and i certainly can't imagine an iaido practitioner just jumping around freely through various kata and waza. it would be feel more like a dance or jam session; more like yo-yoing.

also, how many samurai owned 50+ swords? even today, an earnest iaido/kendo/batto-do practitioner would typically own one, or at most, very few swords. they're expensive ($5k+ for the real deal from japan), and of course... how many do you need? sure there are a plenty of sword collectors out there, but in my experience, not many of them are really practitioners. i've known a lot of iaidoka, many of whom are very serious about their art, but i've probably only known a handful that have more than 3 swords, and one of them imports swords for a living. yo-yo's are comparatively cheap, and kids can buy a lot of them. this blog is evidence that i have many myself. but in owning many, do you begin to dillute your approach to any one of them? that is to say, in owning 100 yo-yo's, is it really possible for me to fully invest myself in a single one, and use it to express my clearest self? to a samurai, the shinken was a manifestation of the soul. if i own 100 yo-yo's, has my soul been cut into 100 fragments like something out of harry potter? i only have one japanese sword (well, and another i received as a gift from my sensei, but that one's a "wall-hanger"), and i treat it like its a family member. even when i go through a stretch without practicing with it, i take it out to oil it (or mabe just to look upon it). having just one of something really instills a familiarity and a sense of caring or appreciation for it. not judging at all; just stating a pronounced difference.

the most obvious difference though, lies in the fact that, contrary to SO many ill-informed perpetuators of the urban myth, no one ever killed anybody with a yo-yo. when you pick up a shinken, which is basically a 3-foot razor blade, you can't help but feel a little awed; by its history or by its grim and blatant functionality. swords are for killing people. anyone who says otherwise is twisting (and thus, disrespecting) the "nature of the beast". when you pick up a yo-yo, you pick it up as a toy, or if you're really serious about it, as a tool for self-discovery. who picks up a yo-yo with reverance? who does so with serious presence of mind and with intent? i'm not saying you need to hold your yo-yo like your going to slay samurai with it, but... in a sense... well, maybe you should.

one of the things the martial arts teach us to do is to approach EVERY aspect of our lives with intent; with abandon. there are no useless, trivial moments. so when we pick up the sword, there are rules for picking it up. rules for carrying it, walking with it, bowing to it. how long do i bow? what should the inclination of the head be? where should my hands be when i'm holding it at my side? how should i carry it through a doorway? these rules and details were born of the fact that swordsmanship is about TAKING LIFE. it's a serious deal, and a little bit of disrespect or careless ignorance can be fatal. even now, as a "way", it's about taking your own life to an extent; about extinguishing our own inherently selfish preconceptions. not only are there no standards for things like lifting a yo-yo from its spot in your case or tying the slipknot, but virtually no one even considers those "incidental" moments with any presence.

so how are they similar, if at all? easy.

within each, the ideal remains both wonderfully, beautifully unattainable.

think of a yo-yo trick you can do perfectly. perfect. textbook. every time. if you have an answer to that question, i honestly feel kind of bad for you. where else have you to go with that trick?

one of the most beautiful elements of yo-yoing is the fact that there is ALWAYS a way to refine your own technique. ALWAYS a way to refine your own attitude or performance. the very idea of perfection becomes paradoxical. the only thing that's perfect is the MOMENT... THIS moment. that's absolutely true of iaido as well. in a sense, no one has ever performed an iai kata perfectly. sure there are masters who are far beyond my ability to critique, but perfection? no way. and no thanks.

the greatest martial artists are just like heliotropic flowers that slowly bend toward the light. they are guided by the sun, but never will they reach it. even our "sleepers" should be treated this way. and i'm not saying we go around bitching about how imperfectly awful we are either. it's not about self-deprecation. it's wonderful, because when you realize that there IS no end to the journey; no goal aside from playing fully within the moment, we can really recognize that the PRACTICE is the goal, itself. why am i practicing yo-yo? to gain respect in the community? to win worlds? to get sponsored? no (apologies, and perhaps an uncontrollable surge of pity to those of you who say "yes"). i'm practicing because i'm practicing. it's how i want to experience this moment, which is bigger than the community, more epic than worlds, and more sacred than any sponsorship. and although i'll learn some tricks and invent some others, i'm gratified to know that i'm not truly capable of experiencing the full breadth of any one of them.

yo-yo #'s 29 & 30: s.o.s. f.a.s.t. 201's

so these will be quick (which is appropriate).

i love yyf f.a.s.t. 201's. since the 1st one i bought on clearance at a target circa 2005 (for $1.88!), i've found them to be totally surprising in their near-unlimited potential. stock, they represent (imo), the most perfectly conceived/executed "absolute beginner yo-yo", and with a 5-minute mod, i don't know any tricks that they can't perform with ease and grace. nice shape, nice weight, totally take-apart, and the old stock can still be found for under $5 at some stores.

for years, i taught school kids how to yo-yo. in planning which yo-yo's to distribute and use, i amassed something of an "arsenal" of beginner throws, allowing kids plenty of options while starting out. aside from 201's, my school case contained big bens, lyn furys, freehand 2's, mosquitos, raiders, and eventually the yyf precedents. as the kids and became more invested in the class, a daily race to be the first in the class (and so have first pick of the yo-yo's) developed. inevitably, all of the 201's went first, and since the class only had four, the fifth person in line was inevitably the most disappointed. it was funny to me, but it kind of made sense. the 201's didn't sleep as well as their big-bearing yyj peers, but their response was much more consistent, and when you're just starting, an unresponsive yo-yo can be downright frustrating. they weren't as smooth as the duncans, with their machine-gun-loud "active response", but they didn't snag randomly either, as newbies frequently experience with aggressive stickers. the 201's offered the steepest learning curve, and were justifiably sought after.

i liked them too. playing them stock is a great exercise for improving smoothness, and although they're noisy, they have unexpectedly impressive potential, even unmodded. that said, i do prefer to perform a ridiculously short mod on the ones i play regularly. these two 201's feature a super-quick mod i use to take a stock 201 into the realm that an experienced played will appreciate. if you're actually good at yo-yo, i'm sorry... but you SHOULD be able to rock the hell out of a totally stock, out of the package 201. (just throwing that out there.) but i do find that this mod makes them eaven more fun.

the red one appears stock, but i've actually integrated another of yoyofactory's recent innovations, which works just as well on a 201 for 1a as it does on the popular loop 720's. essentially, all i've done is popped the caps, removed all of plastic the "active-response" nubs (they twist off with a light pinch). through the eight holes that accommodate said nubs, i've woven some poly string through, resulting in a raised "string-on-string" response area. since i've never been a fan of the unwieldy 201 bearing/spacer setup (or of adjustable gap), i replace it with the standard duncan mosquito/bumblebee guts, which fits perfectly and creates a nice gap. put it all back together with a poly string, and you;re good to go. total mod time here: 04:37


pretty much the same deal on the black one, only here i used a dremel to do a super-rushed "ghetto-recess" (literally carving the recess out). this is not the ideal way to do a recess, but with string-on-string, there's really no need to do it super clean, and i was kind of going for speed. i did spin the yo-yo on the dremel for a sec though, just to apply a light 440 satin. the same cap-popping, response-removal applied, and i repeated the string-on-string bit in the newly recessed area. easy. i actually had some minutes left on the stopwatch, so i cut out a pair of playing card inserts and replaced the stock pogs (which do have their own appeal, i guess). could a more elegant mod be done to a 201? of course! they're probably the most easily modified yo-yo on the market. but my total time with this one is nothing to sneeze at: 08:48

obviously, a sticker-mod would speed things up even more, since it does take a minute or so to thread in the string, but i've actually come to prefer the way s.o.s. plays. both of these mods handled rancid milk and pure 143 on the first 2 throws. (i'll grant you i had to relearn the former in order to test them.)

these are great yo-yo's, and a lot of times people seem to look at them as though they're somehow below-standard, either due to their modest price-point or their beginner-friendly stock setup. the fact is that they can be taken from novice-friendly to the stratosphere in virtually no time at all (much less work than it would take to silicone a zero, for example). i feel that they remain among the best things that yyf has done, especially given their wide availability. i'd LOVE to see them back in toy stores again. maybe they'd need to be redressed a bit to gain more popularit in the community. how cool would it be if yyf asked its contest team to collaborate in a series of "customized" 201 mods? who wouldn't buy a 201 set up to miggy's specs? or yuuki's? or augie's? they'd sell like baseball cards.

anyway, great little plastic yo-yo. too often overlooked.

yo-yo #19: the xmas eye-of-the-tiger skyline

"sunday! sunday! sunday! 4pm at the megalopaloplex!!! THE BATTLE of the CENTURY!!! YO-YO's vs. YO-YOING!!! you'll PAY for the WHOLE SEAT... but you'll only need... THE EDGE!!!"

...

i got a new yo-yo. got it for xmas. it was wrapped cleverly by my fantastic mom in a Jos A. Bank tie box (complete with Jos A. Bank tissue paper inside). she always gets me amazing yo-yo's with essentially zero guidance (more on that later). i'm the first to admit that i needed another yo-yo like the hindenburg needed to be sprayed with nitroglycerin. this one put me in the somewhat surreal position of exceeding the 25 yo-yo capacity of the golf ball holder that holds my metal yo-yo's (that's JUST my METAL yo-yo's, mind you). i know there are way more serious collectors out there, and this is kind of a chance for me to debate that perspective with myself. having just ACQUIRED another yo-yo... what do i think about ACQUIRING yo-yo's? what do i think about people who are much more concerned with their ability to procure, preserve, and display than with their ability to use the toys themselves?

i talk to some people, and they're perspective is essentially "i've got this one beat up pink zero that has been in the washing machine twice and that's all i ever need. anyone who thinks they need more yo-yo's than this is whack!" do i agree with this? of course i could subsist one one yo-yo (see "yo-yo #1). i could survive just fine without yo-yo's if need be, but do i believe that the fewer you possess, the better off you are? with a few notable exceptions, these people often seem a little bit judgmental of "possessing yo-yo's" (if not possessing things in general). talking to them sometimes has the effect of "man... i'm not hardcore unless i only have one yo-yo, and it's a total trash-can BEATER!"

i talk to other people who are PERPETUALLY trying to embroil themselves in some kind of complicated yo-yo trade. they never seem even remotely satisfied (or even aware) of what they have, but they're perspective is "by playing every possible yo-yo, i can better understand what really appeals to me, and what in which new directions i can take my play". others are unabashed about just wanting a ton of yo-yo's 'cause yo-yo's are cool. talking to these people always leaves me feeling sorry for them; as though they're chained to what they've got and what they want, and firm in the belief that more (or more fashionable) equates to "better". i can't help but feel that when they walk away from yoyoing, they will do so unsatisifed, but i hope not.

the rub is that both of these archetypes are largely "possessed" by possession. if you're attached to the idea that you're somethin' special because you just own one yo-yo you know through and through, you're no more free than the person who thinks they're somethin' special cause they have 4 of each one drop colorway.

speaking of colorways, this yo-yo is a skyline by yoyofactory. this is my 2nd skyline, and though i didn't ask for it, it occurs to me that i really, really like these yo-yo's. they're small and light(ish), but feel solid and spin forever. they have a very subtle "H" profile, and are pratty square in their weight distribution. this one is the "majestic white tiger" variation (or something), complete with stripe laser art and eyes on the hubs. it's hot; kind of walking that fine line between that which i want to play, bad, and that which i would like to protect, but the former wins ever time. however, i probably won't play it all the time, realistically. is that a problem?

as i see it, there are two kinds of collectors: those that justify collecting by saying it's for "posterity", and those who just want to have a lot of yo-yo's for themselves. i have no problem with the former, but they're rare in their true form. a lot of people want to say "i'm saving this because i think it's important to document this period in yo-yoing." but most of those people just get off on having a lot of yo-yo's. i have a lot of yo-yo's, and i don't seem to "mind it", so what's my issue with that?

i think getting excited about the things that you have (to the extent that you seek to acquire more) inevitably distracts from what i understand to be a yo-yo's function. if you asked 10 yo-yoer's what yo-yo's are for, you might get 10 different answers, but i bet 7 would be some variation on "fun". while i agree that yo-yo's ARE fun, if you've invested even a little time in learning to yo-yo, you probably understand that there are plenty of factors to the process that suck. string burn, bearing maintenance, vibes from cro-magnon high school peers... not to mention the actual learning of more difficult tricks; it's WORK. it's not playing barefoot wiffleball and sipping lemonade from a beer-helmet. and pretty much everything that involves work implicitly involves some kind of personal development. improving your yo-yoing is inextricably linked to improving the quality of your own character.

and every moment you commit to thinking about getting or having yo-yo's is a moment you're not applying the benefits of actually playing. having lots of yo-yo's is one thing; spending more mental effort manicuring your shiny collection than you do learning and developing is quite another. obviously no one is qualified to judge where you stand in that spectrum but yourself, and sadly, people who are honest with themselves are few and far between. this blog, and that which i'm currently composing would fall under the heading of "thinking about yo-yo's", and i certainly don't see it as detrimental.

in the climate we've constructed (and make no mistake WE constructed it), it's really difficult for a new yo-yoer to avoid the pitfalls of hype and acquisition. "how to play" often seems secondary to "what you've got". there was a thread on yoyonation today by a kid asking for help on his throw... because he could only manage a few seconds worth of sleep time with his "shark vs. zombie beaver" edition bear vs. man. my perspective is that if you're such a neonate to yo-yoing that you have to ask for this kind of advice, then why get a $100 metal yo-yo. familiarize yourself with the utter basics of the art and science before you get in over your head. speaking of the aforementioned "SvZB", several threads have already materialized offering to resell these yo-yo's, making no bones whatsoever about doing so at an inflated price. i find it depressing that people are so excited about this or that yo-yo that they'd seek to "scalp" less than a week after the big release. it's much more depressing, however, that WE enable such behavior by offering consistent demand at virtually any price.

yoyoing, as i see it, is a wonderful thing. but we're people, and people (it would seem) are not happy unless they are hard at work making themselves feel inadequate over NOT possessing "the next big thing". yo-yo's are lovely. this yo-yo is lovely, but only in that it allows me to experience the joy of play. would that we could appreciate the value in that.

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. ;)