Extreme Yo-Yoing

Roland Piquepaille writes "Unless you're a dedicated yo-yo fan and a serious competitor, I doubt that you'll hand over $400 for a yo-yo. Even if it's a state-of-the-art hogh-tech yoyo made with a forged-magnesium-alloy and coming with the latest in axle technology. With this one, you can use the freehand style, meaning that your hand is not connected to the yo-yo, but is replaced by a small counterweight. In 'Reinventing the Yo-Yo,' Science News Online says 'its balance is ensured with precision tooling to micrometer tolerances by a computer-controlled lathe.' This long article doesn't solely focus on this luxury item. Instead, it looks at the history and the physics of the yo-yo, and includes many references. A good read for a weekend! This overview contains other details and extra references about the Freehand yo-yo."

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Pricing

[octalc0de]

"The original Freehand yo-yo was the only yo-yo in the world that didn't need to be tied to your hand. With its patented counter-weight system, you can let go of the yo-yo in mid-trick, making the impossible look easy"

No wonder it costs $400! It's got an amazing antigravity device that allows the yo-yo to remain suspended in air after you drop it.

Re:Pricing

[Anonymous Coward]

You can (and many people do) make any old yoyo into a freehand with a little weighted fob looped at the end of the string. A six-sided die drilled through the center is the canonical example.

Re:Pricing

[eugene ts wong]

No wonder it costs $400! It's got an amazing antigravity device that allows the yo-yo to remain suspended in air after you drop it.

That's why you have to imagine a beowulf cluster of them. A beowulf cluster attached to cars will give us flying personal vehicles.

Note to the auto companies:
1.) attach to bottom of cars
2.) sell cars
3.) profit!!

Re:Pricing

[beaverfever]

You can (and many people do) make any old yoyo into a freehand with a little weighted fob looped at the end of the string.

...and risk being sued for patent infringement?!? Are you mad?

Wow!

[Bishop, Martin]

$400 for a State of the Art Hogh-Tech YoYo? Sounds awesome!

Re:Wow!

[boarder8925]

$400 for a State of the Art Hogh-Tech YoYo? Sounds awesome!

You're forgetting one thing:

Story + Internet = Truth

;)

"hogh-tech yo-yo"

[The Gline]

It's made from porcinite!

Re:"hogh-tech yo-yo"

[MisterLawyer]

"Say Garth, do you smell bacon?"

"I definitely smell a pork product of some type. It's your yo-yo"

Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Grant29]

Wow, that a nice yoyo. I have had good experience with the Yomega's before. It always seemed a lot smoother than a Duncan. I preferred using a bufferfly model at virst to get down the tricks, but the classic model is the way to eventually go. I could do lots of tricks at one time, but I could never do the dual tricks that required using a second yoyo with your left hand. BTW, a nice Yomega will set you back less than $20.

--
Retail Retreat

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Eberlin]

Um, you must've been REALLY good with the yoyo so as to keep the bullies at bay. Otherwise, you poor, poor soul. Your rocking-the-baby or walking-the-dog must've been followed swiftly by the ultimate-wedgie or the ultrageek-beatdown.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Bingo Foo]

As the owner of a Yomega Raider (~$10), a Spintastics (~$14), various Duncans (~$5), a few BC Spitfires (~$4), and a Custom Goldeneye (~$60), I can say that in metal-axle and ball bearing yoyos, you definitely get what you pay for. Duncans are not as good as yomega, for sure, but Yomega is not the top of the heap. I would look into an aluminum Custom, IIWY.

In wood-axle yoyos, you can get an amazing amount of play for cheap. The BC spitfire is still my favorite looper. I also found an unlabeled black wood saber-shape (with wooden transaxle) at a liquidation sale for $5, that rivaled the Spintastics for sleep time.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know if they suffer from the click of death?

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Anonymous Coward]

Well actually the mid level Duncans like the Freehand at around 20 dollars are great. Much better currently than anything Yomega is producing. Serious player now tend to use Duncan and YoYoJam yo-yos. The new Buzz-On line is also well liked. Spintastics and YoYoFactory also have their adherents. Almost no one uses Yomega for serious one hand string tricks. The Yomega Raider is still the gold standard for AA 2 hand looping though.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Compuser]

Not a flame. Honest. Can you translate this into English?
What's a looper? Sleep time?? Transaxle???

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[stuffman64]

I sprung for a ProYo Cold Fusion (about $120) when it came out. I was shocked at its performance- I could easily make it sleep for up to 3 minutes right out of the box. Once the berings broke in, 4 to 5 minutes was not uncommon. It has the world record at the time, I think something like 7 minutes and change. I've heard of unofficial times approaching 10 minutes. This thing could do tricks that were up the then impossible on other yoyos.

That said, $120 is a good deal of money to drop on a yoyo. Unless you are really serious about your tricks, you are better of with something like a Team Losi Cherry Bomb, of which you can buy about 8 for the same price of the Cold Fusion. I do not yoyo as much as I did a few years back, but I'd love to take this new one for a spin (pardon the pun) to see what it is capable of.

As in the car world, you usually get what you pay for, in terms of performance and prestige. Cheap Duncans are like used Yugos, they might get you where you need to go, but not much else. Cold Fusions, and this new Freehand Mg are like the Lamborghinis and McLarens - you get killer performance, drop-dead style - but you pay the price.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[timmi]

I know that "Sleep" is where you leave the yo-yo spinning at the end of the string, for an extended period of time, before giving it a flick that will get it started winding back up again.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[zaffir]

My favorite yo-yo was one from an R/C Car manufacturer of all places. Team Losi made it, for those that are into the hobby. It had a high-quality sealed ball-bearing taken right from their cars. The sleep time was amazing compared to any other yo-yo i owned. It's still kicking around at home somewhere.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[gantrep]

Actually, 7 or 8 years ago when I was in middle school, there was this year that yo-yo's were extremely cool. All of the cool kids had them. If an "uncool" kid started yo-yoing, he'd probably get bullied and called a copycat poser. It was pretty recockulous.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Cyno01]

Back during the surge in popularity yo-yos enjoyed about 5-6 years ago i bought a firebrain or whatever and it was pretty sweet, and i got pretty good with it, but it was still pretty lame, automatic vs manual and all that... Then i bought a THP tourney model off somebody for like $20, best damn yo-yo i ever had, till i lost one of the bearings...:(

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the world record for sleep time is now 14 minutes 3 seconds by Rick Wyatt with a YoYoJam Mega SpinFaktor. It was set at the 2003 National Championship in Chico. He held the record previously as well. Buth Hans Van Dan Elzen and Kate Miller did hod the record with Playmaxx Cold Fusions earlier.

Re:Yomega yoyos rock too, at a much better price

[Anonymous Coward]

Tricks are broken into two main categories, string tricks and loop tricks. String tricks involve "sleeping" the yoyo (allowing it to spin freely at the end of the string without coming back up) and manipulating the string and yoyo for an extended time before unraveling it all and then letting the still spinning yoyo grab the string and wind back to your hand. Loop tricks are mostly variations on the standard "down and up" yoyo motion, for example, you might throw the yoyo horizontally, let it extend and wind back toward your hand, then miss your hand and go out the other direction, come back, etc.

Some yoyos have a fixed axle, some have a freely rotating axle on a bearing, often called a "transaxle." The axle, interestingly, is not the source of friction that causes the yoyo to wind back up. It is the friction between the string and the inner walls of the yoyo. Therefore, you can eliminate friction on the axle for long sleep times, but still be able to return the yoyo by allowing a bit of slack in the string until it winds and sticks to the walls.

Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[DarkHelmet]

Wow...

An activity OTHER than browsing slashdot that will guarantee I'll never get laid again.

Re:Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[Anonymous Coward]

An activity OTHER than browsing slashdot that will guarantee I'll never get laid again.

"again" !?!

Scandalous.

Re:Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[DarkHelmet]

"again" !?!

With a yo-yo in my hand, the animal might not hold still. :P

Re:Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[boredMDer]

Again?

Lucky bastard.

Re:Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[MoronGames]

"Wow...

An activity OTHER than browsing slashdot that will guarantee I'll never get laid again."

The again implies that you got laid once before. You must be new here.

Re:Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[DarkHelmet]

The again implies that you got laid once before. You must be new here.

You should have tried comparing our UIDs before saying something like that.

I could have had a 3 digit UID, you know?

Re:Cause Yo-Yo-ing is just sooo cool.

[EduardoFonseca]

Again?!

Evolution is a Cyclical Process

[osewa77]

Modern technology has brought us to the point where, finally, we have better yo-yos .. again!

Re:Evolution is a Cyclical Process

[Lord_Dweomer]

Yeah, that Darwin is a sneaky bastard. Yet ANOTHER way of filtering out those of us who won't get to pass on our genes.

TK created many innovations in the Yo-Yo industry

[Anonymous Coward]

The article is slightly mistaken, the Silver Bullet II (All metal yo-yo) and a number of other wooden TK Yo-Yos models had steel axles with replaceable ball bearings and a finely adjustable string gap based on a threaded inset that could be adjusted with a coin - this was the real innovation the adjustable string gap and it was the main innovation that they patented.
The ratcheting, telescoping and other means of trying to adjust the string gap were too imprecise and difficult to set and retain on a quickly moving high g-force yo-yo. An amazing amount of work and prototyping (years) went into that yo-yo and even though they patented aspects of it, other yo-yo companies went right ahead and copied the design and innovations. The Silver Bullets came in these cool anodized versions, too.

Interesting facts:

[WegianWarrior]

The yoyo is one of the oldest known toys. It's also not evolved from a weapon, country to popular myth.

All the stuff I know that is useless... I don't need no yoyo to prevent me from getting laid ;)

Re:Interesting facts:

[sejmeister]

I was under the impression that it was evolved from a weapon, and I was given that impression by the official learn-to-yo-yo video by Duncan.

Re:Interesting facts:

[Pliny]

Obviously you've never seen Clifford Stoll with one.

The man's a bloody menace.

Re:Interesting facts:

[tloh]

The yoyo is one of the oldest known toys. It's also not evolved from a weapon, country to popular myth.

Yo-yos have been around for millennia. Historians have found evidence in a painting on a Greek bowl from around 500 B.C., for example. No one knows whether it was the ancient Greeks or Chinese or someone else who invented this toy.

Really?? I have a very distinct memory of being first exposed to this "myth". Years ago when I was in elementary school, I was a fan of author Donald J. Sobol. In addition to the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, he had also penned a book consisting of nothing but obscure trivia facts. There was one blurb declaring the yo-yo as being of polynesian origin - originally used as a hunting tool. There was a cartoon showing a little boy perched from the safty of a tree branch deploying a stone yo-yo at the snout of a wild boar. Now I'm wondering how this myth got started such that it made it's way into the awarness of my boyhood literary hero.

Re:Interesting facts:

[JuggleGeek]

Yoyo's as weapons are myths. http://www.nationalyoyo.org/museum/generalhistory. htm

Re:Interesting facts:

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, RTF file your pointing to:

Historical records indicate that 16th century hunters in the Philippines hid up trees and used a rock tied to a long cord, up to 20 feet in length, to throw at wild animals beneath them. The weapon was able to be pulled up and thrown back down for multiple attempts at the prey.

Thus, its NOT a muth.

Re:Interesting facts:

[JuggleGeek]

The paragraph you quot from continues. Lets look at the entire paragraph, instead of taking things out of context in order to propogate nonsense.

Historical records indicate that 16th century hunters in the Philippines hid up trees and used a rock tied to a long cord, up to 20 feet in length, to throw at wild animals beneath them. The weapon was able to be pulled up and thrown back down for multiple attempts at the prey. This gave rise to the widespread idea that the practice was the true forerunner of the yo-yo, but this is a stretch of imagination and has no real basis in fact. It is extremely likely, however, that the yo-yo did travel from China not only to Greece, but also to the Philippines, where the yo-yo is known to have been a popular toy for children over a very long period of time.

No one appreciates true geekness anymore

[Graftweed]

Well that's just great! You spend the whole damn year learning elvish and then some annoying kid comes along with a $400 yo-yo and steals the show.

Is anyone else weirded out by this...

[Anonymous Coward]

.
.
Eyeball yoyo
ewwww...

Projected Sales?

[i love pineapples]

I'd be interested in seeing how many of these Duncan expects to sell. After all, professional yo-yoers are a pretty niche market as it is, and I'd expect the number of people willing to spend $400 on one to be even smaller.

Re:Projected Sales?

[JuggleGeek]

It's kind of like the guy selling Million Dollar pencils. Ask him how many he expects to sell at that price, and his answer is "I only need to sell one!".

Re:Projected Sales?

[oldyoyoguy]

Professionals won't use these. Only folks with more money than they know what to do with or die-hard metal yo-yo collectors will buy them. But that may be enough. Professionals use more reasonably-priced yo-yos like the late model hardcore series from Duncan (ThrowMonkey, Flying Panda) or YoYoJam's Hitman or Night Moves. There are some really cool, playable yo-yos out there now in the $15-$20 price range (Duncan Freehand, YoYoJam Lyn Fury, Spintastics Maelstrom).

Re:Ahead of the trend.

[jrl87]

With all of the popularity all of you "early adapters" will recieve, you may have to use your new yo-yo for its original purpose ... to beat off your attackers .......

uh oh

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

For a yo-yo to sleep at all is a fairly modern development.

mmmm-yeeees, no doubt due to the great advances in the field of hypnotic drugs.

Extreme yo-yo-ing, Mr Bond

[AtariAmarok]

"Extreme yo-yoing"? Am I the only one who remembers the guy with the buzz-saw yoyo in the James Bond "Octopussy" movie?

Re:Extreme yo-yo-ing, Mr Bond

[Anonymous Coward]

"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."


Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore) probably ranks as the oldest "Bond Girl" - she was 37 in 1964 [the year the movie was made].

Re:Extreme yo-yo-ing, Mr Bond

[Seehund]

Am I the only one who read the headline as "Extreme Yu-Gung" and thought it was about a new CD with Einstürzende Neubauten remixes?

Let me answer that question: yes. ;)

Re:Extreme yo-yo-ing, Mr Bond

[Anonymous Coward]

Einstürzende...

Holy shit! Since when has Slashdot accepted umlauts?

Re:Extreme yo-yo-ing, Mr Bond

[Seehund]

I was as surprised as you are. It's almost as if they rediscovered that slashcode was meant to be used on TEH INTARWEB where it happens that people use more than US ASCII.

It'll probably be "fixed" again in the next release... :P

Ja jävlar i min lilla låda, är det värt att försöka med svenska bokstäver?

Re:Extreme yo-yo-ing, Mr Bond

[Anonymous Coward]

Jævlar! Jævlar! Se kjeksen, den er ute og kjører. Du har vel ikke tilfeldigvis en øl på deg? All you need is HEEAADCLEEEAANEER!!!

We're banning Yo-yos

[Anonymous Coward]

As a notable public figure, I have to remain anonymous.

Due to some injuries with yo-yo fanatics in our school systems, we have decided as a whole to ban yo-yos in our state in public buildings; schools included.

Recently, a teacher had to have surgery done on her eye to fix a laceration caused by a yo-yo hitting her eye while a student was showing off in show in tell. It cost taxpayers $37,000 to repair the damage caused by an item no more than $4.

Yo-yos being banned here will set a precedent.

Re:We're banning Yo-yos

[Anonymous Coward]

What will you do when a student throws a hard-cover book at a teacher's head? Ban books from school?

Then again, it's not the yo-yo that hurts the teacher, it's the student. I got it! Let's ban students from school!

Re:We're banning Yo-yos

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, the parent comment may have some truth to it, as it's already happened back in '98. My favorite quote:

"I also believe the yo-yos can be socially divisive because they can cost up to eight or nine pounds and some families might not be able to afford to buy them."

Holy cow!

Re:We're banning Yo-yos

[real_smiff]

um in case you are a notable public figure (and I believe you) can I make a suggestion: you implement policies to (as part of their education) teach kids not to throw things in their teachers' eyes.

Better idea than trying to work through a list of all the things that could cause eye injury (pens? paper aeroplanes?). This common sense idea brought to you from Britain.

(mods: sorry if this was off-topic, but it needed to be said and i'm saving my mod points).

"Yo-yos being banned here will set a precedent." hmm maybe you're trolling/joking.

Yoyo Baggins

[AtariAmarok]

Yoyo Baggins, is that you?

Re:Ahead of the trend.

[Anonymous Coward]

"hairy potter"?? Gah, I'm having flashbacks of Ghost!

Tournament music video (13 megs)

[MagPulse]

Highlights from the 2003 Japan National Yo-Yo Contest

Re:Tournament music video (13 megs)

[cebarro]

I'm pretty sure if I tried ANY of that I'd end up with my fingers stuck in a knot and a yo-yo embedded in my forehead.

Re:Tournament music video (13 megs)

[Anonymous Coward]

Bastard! You just slashdotted all of Iceland.

Re:Tournament music video (13 megs)

[Anonymous Coward]

For anyone who's interested, here's another nice vid that's a bit newer.

The Gum-free Lion City

[AtariAmarok]

"As a notable public figure, I have to remain anonymous.... Yo-yos being banned here will set a precedent"

Glad to see you at last on Slashdot, honorable President of Singapore! "Drop a 'yo? get caned!" is a truly admirable public policy.

Re:dilema

[Anonymous Coward]

Hah I checked out the screenshots.... vaguely reminiscent of Windows 3.x

They even had pictures of Descent 2.... goodness gracious, I haven't played that game since I sold my 486 in '95.

Amiga = waaaaaay behind the times.

Cool video - Japanese National Yo-Yo Contest

[ReKleSS]

http://www.antra.dk/-- get the video here, down the bottom of the page. It's 60mb or so, but it's pretty amazing. Some of those guys have way too much time on their hands. (But here I am reading /., so......) -ReK

Re:Cool video - Japanese National Yo-Yo Contest

[Anonymous Coward]

In addition (for those who don't know what they are in that video), the big things which look like free-spinning yo-yos are diabolos. There's often a lot of them at juggling festivals.

Re:Cool video - Japanese National Yo-Yo Contest

[jasonjacks0n]

Thanks for posting this .. before watching it I was laughing at the sheer pure nerdiness of yo-yo play, but now I'm impressed.

Some of the tricks those guys were doing are amazing .. plus they look like stuff I would have been mezmerized by years ago at raves.

Very cool. =)

Extra word.....

[vwjeff]

An activity OTHER than browsing slashdot that will guarantee I'll never get laid again.

You added an extra word. Your post should have been as follows:

An activity OTHER than browsing slashdot that will guarantee I'll never get laid.

The word again gives you a false sense of hope because I know that if I continue to browse /. I will never get laid again.

I read the article just long enough....

[AvantLegion]

.... to make sure the yo-yo was a Duncan.

may not be evolved from a weapon...

[i love pineapples]

But getting hit in the head with one of these metal ones has gotta sting.

A word from the NYYA

[AtariAmarok]

"Then again, it's not the yo-yo that hurts the teacher, it's the student. I got it! Let's ban students from school!"

Remember what the NYYA says: "If yo-yo's are outlawed, only outlaws will have yo-yos".

We must protect the right to bear arms, and the right to arm bears.

The Freehand Isn't 400$

[Anonymous Coward]

The freehand described in the article is a special yo-yo based on a popular yo-yo that is much cheaper. Chillax.

See here.

ehh.. doesnt sound that great, really

[mybadluck22]

well, hmm. $400 for a yoyo is the most ive ever seen for a non-vintage yoyo. i think the next one was something like 150... Anyway, I jsut looked in my bag of yoyos (i used to be a competitive yoyoer... now i do it occasionally for fun) and I see a duncan freehand that doesnt look like the picture and cost about 15 bucks. this is the first yoyo ive seen that was designed for freehand use, but not even close to the first one used for that. This one i have might just be an earlier version, seeing as how it's made of plastic and all, but i think it's wrong to claim this as the first yoyo that you dont need to attach to your hand. Even older is the "off-string" style where the string is attached to your finger, but not to the yoyo. in this method, one throws the yoyo into the air, and catches it on the string, going on to perform one of several tricks. Either way, the most i ever paid for a yoyo was 45 bucks for an aluminum yoyo. excellent quality, but still... still, I dont know anyone in who would throw something so expensive around on a string, while not attached to your hand, that could be permanantly broken if you drop it. With a normal yoyo, at least it's attached to the thrower's finger, but this... it would make me nervous. oh, one more thing. about yomega, they make decent yoyos, and I learned on a yomega fireball, then a saberwing fireball (fireballs use a transaxle system, which is like a ring around the axel tied to the string, and the saber wing means it's a butterfly shape), but after learning, I have come to realize that there are much better yoyos availabe imho. I use a pro-yo "Stunt Pilot" for all my yoyoing these days. it's great to use, and it beats any yomega or duncan ive had the oppertunity to use.

Re:ehh.. doesnt sound that great, really

[Anonymous Coward]

The mold broke on the original freehand (was a modified Duncan Wheels Prototype mold), so they rolled out a new version based on the Turbo Bumblebee GT. Just recently they've invested the cash to create a new series of the original freehand, and it kicks ass.

Re:Ahead of the trend.

[iminplaya]

...to beat off your attackers .......

Uh, you may want to re-phrase that.

Yo Yo Madness

[Anonymous Coward]

I encourage everyone to check out this:
http://smetske.madoka.be/0_movs/Japan_Natio nal_Yo- Yo_Contest_2003.wmv

A link sent to me by a friend of the Japanese Yo Yo championships...
I thought Ninja were lost with history, but I guess they still make them in Japan.

But can you install Linux on it?

[SmackCrackandPot]

... that's what eager minds want to know.

Apple's iYoYo

[rh005]

can be seen here: Apple's iYoYo

...your hand is not connected to the yo-yo?

[Crusty Oldman]

Your hand is not connected to the yo-yo?

So, what's the point?

Re:...your hand is not connected to the yo-yo?

[Little Brother]

I think its a Jedi thing. Hrmm think Luke is going to pick up the psudonym "Jedi Yo"?

Re:Ahead of the trend.

[zakezuke]

The ladies *will* fall at our feet.

Oh yes... I've seen the kama sutra yo-yo edition and it's flat out wild.

Forged?

[Hobbex]

For 400 bucks, I want real magnesium alloy, damn it!

Re:Forged?

[Guano_Jim]

For 400 bucks the yo-yo better come with kneepads and a prostitute.

That's the cheapest $400 yo-yo I've ever seen...

[TWooster]

Odd... must be due to exchange rates:

The $400.. wait, $16 yo-yo.

Right...

cheaper solution

[whovian]

Or, if you don't want to spend $400, you can see him play in person for about $40-50 or so.

It's like I always say...

[Fr33z0r]

Nothing beats a "hogh-tech" yo-yo.

Yoyo tricks and Diablo juggling

[Terri416]

The article mentions a form of yoyo trick where the yoyo leaves the string altogether and the tricks involve balancing the yoyo on the sting.

This reminds me of diablo juggling. Think of a whacking great yoyo, about 8 inches diameter, and a 4 foot long string attached to 2 sticks. Loop the string around the diablo and move the string side to side rapidly to spin it up, then unloop the string and the tricks commence. Experienced performers can use a few diablos at once. I found some video here.

Re:Yoyo tricks and Diablo juggling

[antistuff]

Diabolo. Don't feel bad, everyone makes that mistake.

Re:Ahead of the trend.

[black mariah]

I'm sure he knew exactly what he was saying. ;-)

Freehand style?

[Lord_Dweomer]

Could someone please give an explanation of the Freehand style? The page is down.

Re:Freehand style?

[Anonymous Coward]

Freehand is where a die or bouncy ball or soemthing is attatched to the end of the string, so in stead of the yo-yo being attatched to the hand, you can spin the string around and also hold the yo-yo. It's rather interesting, but it also leads to quite nasty dings on the yo-yo (And on a 400 dollar yo-yo...)

Re:Freehand style?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, Freehand style involves a yo-yo where the string is attached not to your finger but to a counterweight. Initially drilled casino dice were used, but other objects such as drilled rubber balls are also popular. You hold the string just above the counterweight and throw the yo-yo, then do tricks that involve releasing and catching the counterweight while the yo-yo itself is also in motion and interacting with the string. A good place to check out are the various video site connected with http://www.yoyoing.com/ .

Re:Freehand style?

[Anonymous Coward]

Before putting the string on the yoyo, you loop the string through a counterweight (a die or a little superball are common and come with the Freehand yoyos that Duncan sells) then through the loop you normally use to make a slipknot for your finger. Then you attach the string to the yoyo as normal, and you're left with a yoyo and one end and a weight on the other.

The advantage is, obviously, that the yoyo and string are no longer attached to you, which allows you to do lots of unusual tricks. As a simple example, you can let go of everything, put a finger in the middle portion of the string, and do small circles with it to get the yoyo and weight both spinning around in circles. The disadvantages are that you can no longer do some normal tricks, others become much harder, and it's a more difficult style to get accustomed to.

Re:Freehand style?

[bnjf]

Freehand is a relatively new yo-yo style created by Steve Brown and Chris Neff.

For videos of Steve doing some FH tricks check out Sector Y

The Strings the Thing

[stuffduff]

While having a quality yo-yo is very important, I can't even count the times that I've seen even the best yo-yo with a totally shot string. The damn things have been used so much that it is no longer possible to loosten the string enought to get the yo-yo to sleepat all.

Like ancient guitar strings on collectors guitars people tend to wait until the string breaks. So check out someplace like the yoyostore and by yourself some strings, especially if you've never purchased any strings since getting your yo-yo. You'll be glad you did!

Re:The Strings the Thing

[gregbaker]

Several years ago, I bought a bulk pack of string, with 50 or 100 strings. Not much money and I haven't worried about strings since (I'm not a heavy user). Surprisingly, they haven't even formed a horribly knotted mess in the drawer.

It was long enough ago that I don't remember where I got them, which is too bad because they're nice strings. But a couple places that sell bulk string: Yo-yos4U and Infinite Illusions.

Remember Startropics?

[Q-Mont]

The guy from Startropics had a hardcore yo-yo that could kill zombies and all sorts of monsters.

Possible Sue?

[EduardoFonseca]

Have you guys checked out Duncan's logo? It looks like Nintendo's, or the other way around.

Mario, get ready. You have a new foe to face... :-D

hogh-tech

[hellmarch]

i've always prefered high-tech to hogh-tech. the latter seem like a cheap rip-off similar to "suny' or "Panosanic"

Obligatory Jasper Carrott Quote

[Cloud K]

"All these new crazes they have nowadays...
My daughter came home with a YoYo once. I think his name was Pete."

MOD PARENT UP +17 HIRRARIOUS!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, that is funny.

There are better "fun" yo-yo's out

[Anonymous Coward]

www.yoyojam.com
YoyoJam makes good yo-yo's from 15 -> 40 dollars.
Which will probably have just as good performance and www.yoyoing.com is a great resource for news on things such as this...

Sad news ... Abdel Aziz Rantisi, dead at 56

[Anonymous Coward]

I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Terrorist/Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi was found dead in his Gaza City car this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly a Palestinian icon.

Re:Sad news ... Abdel Aziz Rantisi, dead at 56

[Anonymous Coward]

You better change your news sources - you're getting gypped. That was on the news circuits several hours ago - especially as that area of the world is Z+5? Z+6? It was many, many hours ago.

Re:Sad news ... Abdel Aziz Rantisi, dead at 56

[Anonymous Coward]

Duh, I know all about it. He was bombed in his car. I just like to follow the classic troll outline.

1000 words

I think Ogrish.com uses cookies and checks referrers now, so you have to navigate to that from their frontpage. It's the top posting right now.

What's Scarier.....

[NarrMaster]

1) You have yo-yo-ed enough to need new strings
2) You know enough to buy new yo-yo strings
3) you were modded +3: Insightful....

Discuss Amonst yourselves....

Yoyoing has come a long way in the past 5 years

[olon]

Here's a small video of a freehand style trick that was invented last week by a guy I happen to know. http://www.tjstunes.com/~tristan/Flourish.mpg The website of the current world champion can be found at: http://www.yoyofreaks.com I literally have around one hundered yoyos. It's as fun a hobby as anything. I'm nowhere near as good as these guys, but it's really enjoyable and relaxing nevertheless.

Hmm...

[tvh2k]

Am I the only one that thinks paying $400 for a yo-yo tied to a die is a bit rediculous?

Re:Hmm...

[splerdu]

and spending $400 on the newest video card isn't?

Tom Kuhn deserves more credit

[cgenman]

The article credits Tom Kuhn with the Silver Bullet 2, the first production yo-yo with a ball-bearing axle, but they don't truly give the man his due credit. He is also the creator of the world's largest functional yoyo, and the first yoyo you can disassemble. The article mentions that gap width is now adjustable, but doesn't mention that Tom Kuhn was the first person to do that (in the aformentioned SB2, nonetheless). His Silver Bullet 1 was the first yo-yo weighted out the outside, and the first manufactured from aircraft aluminum. Basically, he defined state-of-the-art for yo-yos up until the mid 90's, when his business started having problems (his San Fransisco shop closed down, sadly).

If you are doing an article on bringing the YoYo from the 1950's fad to the mid 90's high-performance device, Tom deserves a lot of credit. He doesn't have the revolutionary influence that he once did, but that's like saying Chuck Barry doesn't have the influence that he once did. Both defined where we are today, and their industries would be tremendously different without them.

Duncan FireWheel

[nickos]

As a UK school kid in the late eighties, I have fond memories of a yoyo called something like the "Duncan FireWheel". It was a wide yoyo made of a heavy wood and was almost like two hemispeheres joined at the centre.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and can anyone recommend me a modern replacement?

Re:Duncan FireWheel

[bnjf]

Duncan Wheels

or try a modern yoyo

Re:Duncan FireWheel

[oldyoyoguy]

Oh yes, these fetch a pretty penny on Ebay in good condition. The closest current offering is the fixed-axle Duncan Wheel, but an even more fun version is the Bandai HyperFreehand or the soon-to-be released Duncan Freehand Zero, both of which have ball bearing transaxles. The progenitor of both of these is the original Duncan Freehand (FH1), the mold of which broke a couple of years ago. These now fetch US $50 and up on Ebay. The current Duncan Freehand (sometimes referred to as the FH2) is a great yo-yo, but is a descendant of the ProYo line of yo-yos produced by Don Duncan Jr.'s Playmaxx company and is a different shape from the classic Wheel design.

Build your own!

[cgenman]

Seriously, finding the right combination of string, loop tightness, gumming agents, and time will teach you a lot about what your yo-yo is actually doing. I used to create yoyo strings from kite string for the other kids in the neighborhood. I started with a traditional yoyo weight cotton fiber kite string, would soak it in water for several minutes, and then would twist it to a 4 foot length (slightly longer than usual). Then I would dry it slightly, coat it in honey, and leave it outside overnight. In the morning, a quick spray of hairspray would add even more to the tackyness, and the string would be ready to go. Metal cores would chew through the string like knives through butter, but maple axles would have significantly improved spin times. You would have to wind it a little more tightly than normal to wake it up at all, but improved sleep times were far more valuable than a somewhat groggy wake. Besides, if you caught it in free-flight it woke up without problem.

Re:That's the cheapest $400 yo-yo I've ever seen..

[Analog Penguin]

If you'd read the article (hell, even the Slashdot blub!), you'd see that the $400 yo-yo has not yet been released. The $16 one you found is an example of the first model utilizing the design of a counterweight, which the $400 not-yet-released model also uses.

Re:Ahead of the trend.

[DumbWhiteGuy777]

Funny and true. Yo-yo's were major weapons in the Earthbound Series.

And if it's in Earthbound, it must be true.

The Yo-yo industry can be fun...

[Anonymous Coward]

but it has its ups and downs!

Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your waitress.

aQazaQa

From the next time

[Neo's Nemesis]

I am going to look at the kid next door with yoyo like he's the most seriuos guy around, on a mission to learn...

Or Even Better...

[Elusive_Cure]

master Yo-yo-da.... "Up and down the forces let the Yo-Yo bounce"....

$400?

[Sv-Manowar]

I'm sure that $400 could be better spent on buying a nice (low battery time) laptop and running a yoyo simulation, and you would probably have enough change to pop out and buy a plastic yoyo for 1/100th of the price

parents

[not_a_product_id]

I'd quite like it in english too. Must be what's it's like when I talk to my parents about computers. Or art. Or anything...

no yoyo'ers will actually buy one

[kniteshade]

This new $400 yoyo that duncan are releasing isn't really designed for 'serious yoyo'ers', duncan made it purely so they could get lots of publicity (just like this article) for having the worlds most expensive retail yoyo. (and probably a world record aswell) They probably will produce just enough to give one to each of their competition team members, and enought that all the hardkore yoyo collectors to buy.

A few other notes:
all the major freestyle competition winners have used yoyo's such as duncans freehand1's (no longer in production) yoyojam hitmans's, yoyojam nightmoves etc etc - all yoyo's ranging from around 20-40bucks.
The most expensive yoyo's that any actual player would buy would probably be Dif-e-yo's (www.difeyo.com) - they are very very nice

What if...

[fuzzybunny]

...you drop the thing?

Micrometer precision engineering indeed. I'll take the $5 Butterfly Yo-Yo anyday, once Shep the friendly Golden Retriever takes a liking to it...

my record

[Anonymous Coward]

My record is 1112...

It's well worth the $400!

[paramecio]

Nice. Piquepaille avoids (for obvious reasons) talking about its main attractive: The $400 yo-yo is a very special yo-yo. Its ability to be remote-controlled and its anti-gravity features make it a great sex toy. While designed to retrieve the most delightful pleasures from any and every one of you, nerds, it just won't work for sex-gurus and porn-stars. So stop jerking off with autopr0n and run to buy your yo-yo! Choose your favourite fizzy flavours: win95 or linux!

"Parse" the yo-yo string?

[jbayes]

As string-trick masters execute complex, multistep maneuvers, they parse the yo-yo's string into multiple segments, some of them switched back into the shaft's gap.

I parse strings all the time, but that's the first time I've heard anyone claim to "parse the yo-yo's string".

Does anyone have a regexp for the syntax of a yo-yo string?

This is a joke, right?

[oldyoyoguy]

I can understand banning yo-yo play in crowded situations and in public buildings where people are not expecting a yo-yo to be flying around. However, the situation with the teacher simply sounds like an unfortunate accident. Did the string break? If not, why was the teacher so close to the performer? The student was "showing off" in a sanctioned forum, "show and tell". Common sense would dictate that a respectable distance must be maintained when a person is demonstrating yo-yo moves and tricks.