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SF Yo-Yo Meetup: October 5th at Yerba Buena Gardens

A flier made from cut up magazine pages, water color paint, white acrylic paint, and black ink from a rubber stamp. The flier says "SF yo-yo meetup, October 5th at Yerba Buena Gardens"

The next SF Yo-Yo Meetup is on Saturday, October 5th, at 3pm in Yerba Buena Garden in San Francisco. It’s free and open to yo-yoers of all skill levels. I’ll probably be there from 3-5:30pm and can bring some yo-yos for sale if anyone is interested in picking up a DIY or PLTPS.

We’ll be meeting at the Yerba Buena Garden park, near the Metreon. If the weather is rainy or way too windy, we’ll move inside the Metreon’s food court area. There will be live music in the park earlier that day, so feel free to get there early and enjoy it.

A map of Yerba Buena Park and the Metreon. There is a pin dropped on the map on the green grass area near Mission Street.
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Faye Webster’s Yo-Yo Invitational

A flier for Faye Webster's YoYo Invitational. It shows a horned creature that looks like a lizard person (or maybe a demon) that is playing with yo-yos. It is giant and is crushing and destroying the buildings and cars beneath it. Text says "Presented by Brain Dead, Saturday September 28th, Zellerbach Auditorium, Berkeley, CA"

Faye Webster is hosting a yo-yo contest in Berkeley?! https://www.ticketmaster.com/faye-webster-yoyo-invitational-berkeley-california-09-28-2024/event/1C006123F08D67C6

“Longtime yo-yo lover Faye Webster has announced the Faye Webster Yo-Yo Invitational, a one-day extravaganza featuring 12 of North America’s top yo-yo pros. The yo-yo masters will show off their most dazzling tricks in a no-rules exhibition, on September 28, at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley, California.”.

The event takes place on September 28th in Berkeley, CA. Here is a link. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it.

Here’s some footage of Faye doing yo-yo tricks back in 2020. She even does one of my tricks, The Gondola, in this video.

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OverTinkering’s responsive tutorials

I just stumbled upon a new video series by OverTinkering called “Learn Responsive Yoyoing”. You can see all the videos here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZBBypQzhGRoBR8gQzS2I3JoT0Bjx1iSi

I’m really excited to see more videos dedicated to this style, but also happy about some of the new things that Jason is documenting in the series, like his tutorials for responsive möbius tricks like this one and this one.

In case you missed it, I also have a youtube playlist, but it’s mostly focused on responsive counterweight tricks, so it’s nice to see someone making videos about the more basic elements in modern responsive play.

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The Art of Paul Escolar (In Memory)

A flier for an art show in Paul Escolar's honor. It shows a self-portrait of Paul in a Method Made shirt and a chain link going from him to a can of beer. The flier says: "Method Made SF Presents: The Art Of Paul Escolar (In Memory) - Saturday 4/20/24 from 4:20 to 8:20 PM at Method Made SF Gallery. Limited prints of Paul’s work & his collaboration with the Method Maker available for pre-order."

Paul Escolar was an extremely talented yo-yoer and artist who passed away in 2021. Though I met him through yo-yoing, I was always a huge fan of Paul’s illustrations and line work. The dude was a genius with a sharpie.

I’m excited that the folks at Method Made are putting together a show based on Paul’s work. The show opens tonight, April 20th, at 4:20 pm at 2544 Mission Street in San Francisco.

More details and artwork here https://www.tmmdl.com/collections/paul-escolar-in-memory

A self-portrait of Paul Escolar walking past a line of people. The people are all in corporate attire and looking at their phones. Paul is in a t-shirt and looking ahead hopefully and relaxed. The artwork is black and white. Paul's character pops out from the busy background by giving more black fills to his hair, pants, and shoes.

I had always hoped to film an interview with Paul about his art and the influence he had on the yo-yo community, but I missed my chance. I regret that, but I was able to find a rare interview with Paul about his art (which is republished here with The Method Makers approval) https://doctorpopular.com/the-method-makers-interview-with-paul-escolar/

And here is a great video about Paul’s influence on yo-yoing:

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Inverted Boingy Boing Tutorial

Pink text with sparkles that says "Boingy Boing", but the text is written upside down.

Ever since Yuta Ogawa debuted Boingy Boing in 1998, the trick became an instant classic. Every yo-yoer tried putting their own spin on the trick, like MarkMont’s “2nd Gen Boing” from 2004 or Rei Iwakara’s “Boingy Boing Switch“. My personal Boingy Boing goal was to be able to invert the Boingy Boing and keep it going. I struggled on this for years because I assumed that I’d need to switch the motion from my throw hand to my non-throw hand. I spent years trying to refine that motion, but finally figured out that I could easily do the trick without switching my dominant hand.

Here is my tutorial for Boingy Boing.:

And here are some other Boingy Boing variations from around the web:

And here is a great tutorial on the basic Boingy Boing:

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SF Yo-Yo Club on March 16th, 2024

A poster for the SF Yo-Yo Club. It shows a minimal drawing of a person throwing a red yo-yo.

Our next San Francisco Yo-Yo Club is at 3pm on Saturday, March 16th. We’ll be at Yerba Buena Gardens, but we’ll move it inside the Metreon food court if it ends up raining. Players of all skill levels are invited to join! We hope to see you there and it sounds like the weather is going to be amazing.

If traveling by BART, the Gardens are a short walk from both the Powell + Montgomery Street stations. The CalTrain Station at Fourth and Townsend is served directly by MUNI with stops on Third Street at Howard and at Mission. There is lots of parking downtown, but I encourage taking mass transit if possible for the easiest experience.