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Save Deth Volume 2: Doctor Popular segment

The Save Deth videos, by Dave Poyzer and Seth Peterson, are fantastic time-capsules of yo-yo culture. Inspired by skate videos, Save Deth wanted to make high quality videos that captured the style of each yo-yo player. I really was excited about recording my segment for Save Deth Volume 2, but when the day came to record the segment in SF, everything was running later than expected and I had a hard stop that I had to get to. So I think my clip looks a little more rushed and sloppy than many of the other pros…. but I guess that I’m also known as being a little more sloppy in style too, so maybe this captures the day just right?

Here it is:

If you view the on Youtube, you can see a timeline showing what trick is playing for each part of the video. A few highlights for me are the “Gerbil Wheel” at :23 in, which might be the first time that counterweight move was documented. You can also see a bunch of my favorite moves documented here, like the Overhand 1.5 Whip, The Sabering Dismount, the Bicycle Kick Rejection, and some Astro-Style counterweight tricks.

At 1:03 I grab a coffee and start doing some one-handed tricks. This may seem kind of random, but I’ve been wanting to do a one-handed Artistic Performance routine in the World Yo-Yo Contest for many years. The idea would be I’d bring a cup of coffee on stage with me and do tricks with the non-coffee hand. I never fleshed it out much further than what you see though.

Artist: So Many Wizards
Song: "My Friends Are Nice"
Website: somanywizards.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/somanywizards
Notes: The concept of this video was to show what goes into making a Save Deth video. Behind the scenes shots, bloopers and really good yo-yoing. Yo-yos used are the Yes, Absolutely The End and YoYo Jam + Doc Pop Bolt. Shot in San Francisco California, May 2009.

If you want to see the rest of the videos from Save Deth Volume II, you can go to http://www.savedeth.com/volumeii/

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Restocked on Bolts, Pawns, and Bishops

5 yo-yos on a white surface. The yo-yos are Bolt yo-yos in each colorway. Black, red, blud, white, and green.

Good news everyone, I’ve just restocked my site with fresh new Bolt yo-yos and counterweights.

Brand new to this batch is the new green Bolt yo-yo, which comes sets up for responsive play. This yo-yo comes lubed with a narrow bearing and is great for beginners or old school players.

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PopCast #47: Astro Counterweight Style

I’m really excited to finally feature Astro counterweight in this new PopCast video. Astro is a sub-style of counterweight that uses two weights instead of one. One of the weights slides around while the other is tethered to the end of the string.

The goal for Astro was to still be able to do all the normal 5A counterweight tricks, but occasionally throw in a sliding trick to really keep things fresh, but recently a bunch of players have been taking the style and really developing it into it’s own thing. Seeing the work they were doing really motivated me to come back in and share some of the basics I’ve found along the years.

Along with the video, I’ve also released a set of 3D printable Astro designs that you can print out at home. The licensing on these designs is really wide open, so I hope that manufacturers start playing around with them and selling their own versions.

There is a ton of great Astro content going up on Instagram too, so be sure to check #astrocw for tricks and ideas.