I was so sad to miss the Faye Webster Yo-Yo Invitational last weekend, especially because I knew so many rad yo-yoers were in town for it. Luckily, I happened to bump into Spencer Berry while he was in town and we shot this short interview about Spencer’s history in SF, his tricks “Rancid Milk” and “Breath”, and his love of copper yo-yos.
And here’s a great video by Josh Yee about Faye Webster’s Yo-Yo Invitational:
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.
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.
In this episode of PopCast Yo-Yo Vlog, I share a new mount called Nitpicking. It’s a mount that mostly takes place in your non-throwhand, similar to the Chopsticks mount. Another move of mine called Scrunchies also served as inspiration for it.
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.
Hey y’all, today is National Donut Day. To celebrate, I filmed a yo-yo video at Dynamo Donuts in San Francisco. Fun fact: National Yo-Yo Day and National Donut Day will be on the same day next year!
June 6th, 2025 will be ???? and ???? day, so mark your calendars!
Happy National Yo-Yo Day! Here’s a new tutorial for Scrunchy Tower. This trick uses a Scrunchy Mount, which is a fun mount that I covered in more detail in a previous PopCast episode.
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
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:
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:
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.
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