DoctorPopular.com, about Doc Popular, by Dr Popular, for fans of Doctor Pop

Going to MoYo, Bringing 25 Blue Bolts With Me

2008-04-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

I'm so stoked about going to MoYo States this weekend in St. Louis! I was hoping to have DoctorPopular.com finished by then, but I'm going to have to wait until after the weekend. I have been getting a lot of emails about Blue Bolts, so I have decided to bring 25 Blue Bolts with me to sell at Missouri States.

These limited edition Bolts will be siliconed and bearing-cleaned for non-responsive play. There are less than 100 of them, and sell for $30. The rest of the Blue Bolts will go for sale once the site is finished.

Are you read-ay to Partay?!

2008-04-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

Tonight I'll be on Jonny's Partay, a live video chat show staring Jonny Goldstien. I'm really looking forward to this and I hope some of ya'll can catch it.

"Join us this Weds, April 9, 9PM EST, as DocPop (AKA Doctor Popular AKA Drown Radio) is drops his new nerdcore album Me Geek Pretty One Day on Jonny’s Par-tay. Tracks like “LolCats” and “Gygax” will send you into a spiral of geekgastic ecstasy…

So come Par-tay with us! Here’s the details:

What: A live online interactive video free for all with Doc Pop, hosted by Jonny Goldstein, and served up with flavor by Scott Stead.
When: 9-10 PM EST, Weds, April 9
Where: www.jonnyspartay.com
Why: This is your chance to par-tay with nerdcore star, world third ranked yoyoist, fashion icon, comic book artist DocPop. Need I say more?"

Blue Bolts

2008-03-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting to post these special edition Blue Bolts until the shop on my new site is up, but since everyone keeps asking (and I'm not sure when the new site will be finished) I've posted ten Blue Bolts on my Etsy page.

You can see them here.

They are bind return only. Limit of two per customer. Good times.

Spotlighted and Whitey Day preperations

2008-03-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

This morning, I discovered that PopCast is one of the videos featured in YouTube's "Spotlight" section (on the top of most YouTube search pages). I'm getting a lot of video views, comments, and positive ratings which is all very appreciated.

Although it does motivate me to want to work on the next PopCast episode, two things are preventing me from doing so at the moment; I'm way too busy with other big projects, my computer is too full to work on anything at the moment.

Still, I do hope to have somethings to show you guys soon.

BTW, March 10th is Whitey Day (Doc Pop's birfday). Dia do Branquelo. If any local yo-yo clubs are doing something special for this great event, let me know asap! I'm planning on relaunching DoctorPopular.com with a new store and other stuff for Whitey Day.

XXXXL's "Green Tea Edition" by Werrd

2008-02-26T09:39:00.000-08:00

While on a recent trip to the U.S., Stu (from Australia's Werrd Yo-Yos) flew into the Bay Area to hang out with some of the local yo-yoers. He was a real swell guy, who carried a big metal box of yo-yos everywhere he went. I had previously played with the Two Fat Ladies "Groovy Edition", a beefcaked aluminum yo-yo that I really enjoyed, so it was great to see what else Werrd had to offer.

I'm a big fan of Werrd's newest yo-yo, the QuadrupleExtraLarge (or XXXXL... or 4XL). Like the TFL, the XXXXL is an aluminum yo-yo with a beefcaked bearing set up, but it also has bearings on the sides of the yo-yo for hubstacks (similar to YoYoFactory's set up). The name, XXXXL, comes from the number of bearings it uses (4).

I had been waiting a long time for a good hubstacked yo-yo, but never found one that I liked until the XXXXL. Although it played well with it's original hubstacks, I switched mine out with a pair of YoYoFactory Z Stacks (custom painted by John Higby). The wider surface area of the Z-Stacks make the yo-yo much easier to grab, but it does also add a noticeable difference of additional friction to the yo-yos spin. Every time you grab the discs, then let go, it takes energy to get them to start spinning again. I can really feel the difference in spin between my TFL and my XXXXL with Z Stacks. I'm wondering if 888's suffer the same hubstack drag effect as the XXXXL does.

Like I said, I had been waiting for a while for a hubstack yo-yo that I liked, and now that I have one, I think it's going to be my carry around yo-yo for a while.

One other note, although the XXXXL is available at most online stores, the one pictured here features a special finish called "GreenTea". From Stu;

"They come in two finishes - Naked (raw billet) and
DeLorean (Satin) but the one you received from me is
called GreenT or GreenTea. It is a special coating or
finish done to the yoyo using little green triangle -
I kid you not - little green triangles. The one you
have takes about 24hours in the GreenTea machine."

"Peeeace!"

2008-02-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I was surfing some international yo-yo blogs when I stumbled upon this video I made with Alexander Maness from Current TV.

Alex came to Chico last year and followed me around as I told him about our humble hobbie. I hadn't heard anything since the trip, so I just figured the whole documentary got trashed. Needless to say, I'm delighted to see that it did get finished and I think it looks great.

Speaking of blogs, my new friend Cate Corbitt recently posted a picture (shown below) from yesterday's photo-shoot on her blog, SFFaces.com. The shoot was an potpourri mix of music publicity shots (for my band Drown Radio), product shots (for my new craft line), and a few yo-yo shots for Cate's blog. SFFaces.com documents a portion of the Bay Area's eclectic individuals.

Yo-yo meetup in SF Sunday the 10th

2008-02-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the late posting, but there is a big yo-yo meet up here in the Bay Area tomorrow. So if you aren't doing anything else, why not come by and yo-yo with us. Here is the info from Kiya:

Looks like the weather is going to be great on Sunday..

The next Team COY meeting will be a multiple team meeting at Golden Gate
park THIS Sunday February 10th.
The meet will take place in the bandshell area next to the De Young Museum.
Here's a map of the park for those that haven't been to Golden Gate park
before:
http://www.inetours.com/Pages/SFLndmrkVws/GGP_Map.html
It's the area labeled as "Music Concourse" next to the De Young.

There's also a little contest being run by the guys from the 2YO SF club
which
starts at 10am.
I'll be there at noon.
This will only take place if it's NOT raining.
So if it's pouring rain out, consider this event cancelled.
See ya on the 10th!

Golden Gate Park
Bandshell Area.
Look for flying yoyos.
February 10th, Sunday.
Noon.

Bring drinks, yoyos, beers, foods, and hula hoops.

If you show up and can't find us call me: (650) 245-2859

-kiya

BSP yo-yo bags for Anti-Yo

2008-01-29T15:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made my mock up holster for the BSP, a new yo-yo by Anti-yo. The denim is raw selvage denim. Now I have to make 74 more.

Plug-in to y'r muse

2008-01-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

The folks at Broken Yo-yos sent me one of their newest products, the Plug-in III.

The Plug-in III is smooth as hell on the string, and probably the shiniest yo-yo I've ever seen. But what I really like about it is how inspired I feel every time I pick it up. I've been trying out a bunch of new whip moves with mine, but it also motivated me to create a little tribute to MC Escher's self portrait in a metallic sphere.

I call it Hand With Reflecting Halves.

POPCAST E07 w/ Simon Welch

2008-01-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

Click To Play

This episode of the PopCast video blog features Simon Welch, the UK National Champion.

Simon talks about the B.S.P. from Anti-Yo and shows his new trick "Wedding Nails".

Doc teaches "La Parqour". Fun is had by all.

Also available on YouTube.

POPCAST E06 "Yo-Yo Core"

2008-01-15T02:18:00.000-08:00

Click To Play

In this episode of PopCast, I talk to my old friend Kyle Machulis about his newest project at Nonpolynomial Labs. Inspired by Johnny Lee's fantastic Wii-hacks, Kyle has created a yo-yo controlled musical interface using Max/MSP and a modified Torch circuit board. In the video, Kyle talks about the project and let's me make some yo-yo core.

You can check out Kyle's "WiiYo" post on www.nonpolynomial.com. Skin The Gerbil never sounded so good.

POPCAST E05, Stalls pt. II

2007-12-22T13:34:00.001-08:00

Click To Play

In Episode 3 "Stalls pt. I" I met up with two handed yo-yo guru Joseph Harris and challenged him to create a few two handed tricks based on the old "Lunar Landing" trick.

Due to several conflicts, Joseph and I were unable to record the results right away, but I hope you find the results worth the wait.

Also on this episode is Joseph's tips for picking up chicks and Doc shows just about every one handed version of stall you (by "you" I mean "me") can imagine.

POPCAST E04

2007-12-15T09:21:00.001-08:00

Click To Play

Inbetween yo-yo gigs and shipping orders from www.DocPopCrafts.com I managed make this week's PopCast.

This episode's tricks include The Brent and Branding

PopCast E03.5

2007-12-03T14:47:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Stalls Part 1 and a half.

Staring Drew Tetz.

Doc Pop is at the Winnies in L.A. this week and will return next week.

POPCAST E03, Stalls pt. I

2007-11-25T02:49:00.001-08:00

Click To Play

On this fantastic PopCast, I disscuss the art of stalling. Stalls are one of yo-yoing's newer moves and involves stalling the yo-yo as it returns back to your hand.

In this episode I give the talented Josheph Harris a two handed stall challenge and one week to see what he can come up with it.

My special co-host this week is the infamous Boxthor. Unfortunately, this episode had to be slightly edited due to the length of Joseph's segment.

DocPopCrafts.com SALE

2007-11-23T02:22:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays, kids.

It's Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, and if you are anything like me you'll be avoiding the stores for the rest of the year and doing your shopping online instead.
If you are looking for unique handmade gifts this year, check out my online shop DocPopCrafts.com

I make iPhone cases, wallets & wallet chains, and coffee cozies out of re-cycled materials. I'm especially fond of using durable upholstery and scraps from awesome selvage jeans like Samurai, Imperial, Nudie, Evisu, Sugarcane, Iron Heart, Skull, and some of Levi's better stuff.

Now for the SALE!

This weekend I'm adding some special new items to my shop, including wallets and wallet chains made from vintage neckties and selvage denim. I'm also including free shipping (within the US) from now until Monday evening (11/26 @11pm pacific time).

POPCAST E02

2007-11-18T13:42:00.001-08:00

Click To Play

Subscribe in a reader

In this episode, Doc waxes on Pringle's Prints, the writer's strike, Houdini Drops, and the Gondola.

Filmed 11/13/07

POPCAST, episode 1.

2007-11-11T10:09:00.001-08:00

Click to Play

Welcome to the first episode of Doctor Popular's yo-yo video blog.

This episode runs a bit long, but that's because Doc is used to doing 45 minute audiocasts, so six minutes really isn't that bad.

Topics include John Higby's painted yo-yos, back of the hand stalls, YoYoNation's vlog, and a new freehand flourish called "loom".

Master of Self Promotions

2007-11-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

Click To Play

I've finally gotten around to uploading the entire yo-yo segment from Master Of Champions. It was a huge file and took some work, but I've uploaded it to blip.tv and a few other online video places.

I've also taken the liberty of uploading the entire Master Of Champions show and just the edited Doc Pop interview. You can download them here.

Quicktime
Full Master of Champions 784 megs (the best quality I have)
Yo-yo Segment 24 megs
Doc Pop Interview 13 megs

iPhone ready
Full Master of Champions 308 megs
Yo-yo Segment 86 megs

Divx
Full Master of Champions 353 megs
Yo-yo Segment 99 megs

If anyone feels like creating a torrent of the Full quicktime file, let me know and I'll host the link here.

Aloha

2007-11-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

Today I'm featured on Veronica Belmont's cool Mahalo Daily video-cast, so I wanted to say hi to any new readers that may be surfing this site.

I was going to link to a couple videos or whatever, but it looks like Mahalo.com already has a good list of my yo-yo related article on their "Doc Popular" entry. For those who would like links to my craft site, personal blog, or even Twitter info, you can find all that stuff on www.DocPop.org.

I've found it interesting that even though I refer to myself as Doctor Popular or Doc Pop, I often get referred to as Doctor Pop or Doc Popular in the media. It first started happening on that ABC show I was on last year and it really drove me nuts. Hearing Oksana Baiul repeatedly butcher your name would give you nightmares.

Oh, and speaking of Master Of Champions, I'm currently encoding the entire episode we were on and some of the individual segments for the web. Check back in the next few days to see those.

Back from Nats

2007-10-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

This year's National Yo-Yo Contest was one of my favorites. Congratulations to Jake Bullock and JonRob on being the first joint recipients of the Trick Innovator of the year award. On another note, I thought this year was easily the best year for Freehand at Nats. Historically, freehand was one of the most anticipated divisions and often turned out to be one of the most disappointing.

I mentioned previously that I would be live blogging the event from my iPhone and updating it to my flickr as well as twittering the event. The twitter thing was pretty iffy, but you can see all my Nationals flickr set here.

I also recommend JD_WMWMW's photo set, where the above photo was culled from, and Sarah and Michelle's sets too.

For those about to flock...

2007-10-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

to Nationals, sign up for a Twitter account, and let's keep each other notified on the happenings in Chico via text messaging on your cell phone, IM, or PDA.

Twitter is a web based web site that makes it easy to communicate with your friends. The basic idea is you have 140 characters to be able to tell everybody what your doing or thinking at any time. Ordinarily it's not the strongest branch of the new web2.o, but it is perfect for events like this, especially since it works so well with cell phones and most of us get free weekends (right?).

The first step is to go to Twitter.com and register your account, then go to http://twitter.com/devices to add your device (cell phone, IM, PDA, whatever). Once your device is registered text "track NYYC" to 40404 and you will be automatically notified whenever someone posts a Twitter containing NYYC (which stands for National yo-yo Contest... "NYYC" does not have to appear in all caps btw). This process is also described on http://twitter.com/blog/2007/09/tracking-twitter.html

Again; login to twitter, set up your mobile device, then send "track nyyc" to Twitter's text number (40404). Afterwards, feel free to find friends to follow or send a test NYYC message.

This is a big event, at times we are all at the park, other times we are scattered around, but if we use Twitter to communicate what's going on, we can make sure we don't miss a thing.

For example, "NYYC triple A throwdown going down now in the parking lot at H.I." or "OMG, @DocPop is the new NYYC champion in every single division!!!1!".

To send a message or reply to a specific Twitterer, just type the "@" in front of their name. Mine would be @DocPop or you can also check out my Twitter page http://twitter.com/DocPop

If you are Twittering any National Yo-Yo stuff, be sure to type NYYC in the message somewhere, otherwise it won't go out to everyone's Twitter Tracker.

BTW, in combination with my flickr updating, this might be a good way to keep track of what's happening in Chico this weekend.

Big Bad Popular Doctor

2007-09-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

I'm on the verge of the next busy season for a yo-yo pro, but I've already been getting some bigger gigs lately. Today I opened for Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at a huge corporate gig in Santa Clara. I snapped a quick pic of BBVD right before I took off.

My goal is to make this the best holiday season I've ever had. It's already been the most productive, most creatively successful year I've ever had, so I have high hopes for the next 3 months.

The Rosgana Challenge

2007-09-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

My buddy Rosgana, from Indonesia, recently posted this cool picture challenge on yoyoing.com/news.

How many differences can you spot between the two pictures?

I found 8. Oh wait, 9.

So cute!

2007-09-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture from an Indonesian yo-yo player named Rosgana of his daughter Hasya playing with a Doctor Popular Bolt yo-yo. Isn't it cute?

And the daughter is cute too.

Seriously, Rosgana is an awesome dude and an incredible artist. I sent him some Bolts a few months ago and they've started turning up in all of the Indonesian yo-yo players hands. Check out pics from a yo-yo contest in Jakarta (and more here).

Cal States this weekend

2007-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

Are you ready for this year's California State Yo-Yo Contest? It's this Saturday at the Exploratorium in San Francisco from 10am till 5pm.

The Chronicle article is up, you can read it online here. Be sure to check out the cool video too. I seem to have barely made it into the article, which is a shame 'cause I said some neat stuff, but that's how this stuff always goes. I hear the photo is huge in the paper though. BTW, I'm using a B.I.S.T., that's a new italian yo-yo.

Today, Bill is gonna be all over the local tv stations, hucking his YoYoJams at the cameramen.

The event has also garnered a few bits of press in the Alternative Weeklies, but they are the typical condescending drivel you'd expect to find in these types of papers.

I can't wait to see everyone there!

Putting and End to that

2007-08-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

After a recent posting on Yoyonation's forum regarding shmooving and beefcaking, I received an interesting email from Lorenzo Bassani from BrokenYoYos team in Milan. Lorenzo is planning on releasing a yo-yo with grooved insides and wanted to talk with me about it.

As it turns out, Lorenzo posted the idea of grooves to reduce the yo-yos inner surface back in July of 2005 on The Yo's forum, complete with description and diagrams. Read the full thread here.

Thats 3 months earlier than Phil and I made our first shmooved yo-yo out of a Bolt.

To clarify that, Yes, Absolutely. was the first company to produce a shmooved yo-yo, but I believe it's obvious that Mr. Bassani was beat us to the idea and deserves credit for his innovative design.

Risky Busine$$

2007-08-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Anti-Yo will soon be releasing their newest yo-yo, and they have asked me to design and manufacture the bags for it.

The "Risky Busine$$" should start shipping this week. It is an updated version of "The Busine$$" that is made from X (wherein X represents some ungodly expensive rare metal that I can't recall the name of).

The yo-yo holsters are of course made from raw denim with a red and white selvage line. To match the selvage, I used red thread and white buttons. I actually learned how to make button holes just for this project, and Shan was really cool and hand stitched the buttons on to help save time. These holsters use a nickel plated "scissor snap", the same as you would find on a high quality wallet chain.

On a similar but different note, check out my blog entry regarding the raw denim messenger bags I'm producing.

Results from the World Yo-Yo Mod Contest

2007-08-21T01:04:00.002-07:00

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Eric Wolff's fantastic photo set from this year's World Mod Contest (as well as his excellent summary of the entries here).

Eric, a wonderful yo-yo modder in his own right, has been one of the Mod Contest's judges since it's first year and posted a brief summary of this year's entries here.

From all accounts, Shinobu Konmoto's "Nostalgia" was the clear winner and perhaps one of the most amazing entries the contest has ever seen. Shinobu's creation was a scratch built recreation of a vintage car wheel. The outer rim is connected to the ball bearing hubs via spokes.

Shinobu (or "s.kon") has been one of the contest's top modders since 2004 with entries like the Carbon Battler mod, the bicycle bell based Ting Aling, a monster truck tribute to Big Foot, and his leather covered magnesium yo-yo the Revlover. If you get the chance, check out his Coca Cola can yo-yo, his yo-yos made from yo-yo strings, and his recap of the Japanese mod contest.

One of this years most innovative mods came from Yoshitaro Kudo who added free spinning out rings to the rims of his yo-yo for longer palm grinds.

Takahiko Hasegawa entered a yo-yo called "Buddah's Bell" which I believe he also used in his Artistic Performance entry. From what I have been told, at the beginning of his routine, Taka threw a sleeper with his yo-yo than hit it with a stick. The entire performance was based around the sound that his yo-yo made. The vibration of the bell was probably affected greatly by the spinning motion, with only surface air friction and a piece of yo-yo string dampening the sound. That must have been cool.

I thought Dave Poyzer's Kickside/Purpleheart wood/Zombie was a mod that really captured the modder spirit. Dave took the best attributes of different materials and put 'em all together. The metal Zombie rings for outer rim weight, wood for smooth-ness, and the a celcon Kickside hub for working with YoYoJam's awesome response system and bearing set up.

Thanks Eric for posting your pics. Check out his photo sets from 2006, 2004, 2003, and 2002.

Bizarre yo-yo listings on eBay from China.

2007-08-12T17:37:00.000-07:00

On a recent eBay search, I stumbled upon a seller named penptech. I first noticed that penptech had a slim metallic yo-yo with slight butterfly shape and rubber rims. This bizarre yo-yo was listed as a "Metallic Missile" and was further described as "This is the flagship in Yomega's High Performance fleet". Most striking was the yo-yo's low price; $.99.

I've seen many scams on eBay, but this item seemed legit. Shipping was about $7 and there was good buyer feedback, so I went ahead and bought two of these "Metallic Missiles" and one of their "Power Brain" yo-yo.

A few weeks later, the yo-yos arrived. I couldn't believe. Yeah, they are totally cheap POS's, but it wasn't a scam. One of the metallic missile knock offs was missing it's bearing, which wasn't a big deal since the first thing I did was but Buzzon SPR guts in it anyway. The Power Brain knock off was just a cheap ball bearing butterfly yo-yo. Not great, but worth 8 bucks. To be honest, the Metallic Missiles actually play really well with SPR kits in them. Do yourself a favor and pick up some of the remaining stock. You could also feel free to buy the size 44 Valentino Jacket for me while you are at it. It's only $.99!

Project 213 part two

2007-08-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

My friend Terry Trimble just sent me a link to Active People's (from Switzerland) new toy, the [YO]2 Delta.

The Delta is a yo-yo top hybrid. From the video, it appears to be a very well balanced yo-yo, but for some reason they did put a groove on the top tip, which would have provided for a better blend of yo-yoing and top tricks, but whatever.

Obviously the shape is a little similar to the old yo-yo tops I used to put together.

I should also mention that Active People have a complete yo-yo line. See if you can identify where each of there yo-yos got their shape from.

For anyone intersted, LetsHaveFun.biz has the full line of Active People toys (as well as carrying Vulto's Yo-yos).

Popular Science

2007-08-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

In my time spent yo-yoing, I've created a few tricks and a few mods. In my mind, if a trick catches on, it's a success... but I guess if I create a trick that doesn't catch on, but I love, it would also be a success.

In terms of mods, I guess I feel pretty much the same way. My mods are mostly created for me, but when they catch on, I'm doubly happy. A few years ago though, Spintastics and a few other companies started releasing "beefcaked" yo-yos.

Beefcaking was something I created for modding Vipers. Viper bearings are tiny, but if you put two side by side, you can get some great play out of it. Beefcaking was a total fad mod, but when companies started using me technique and the name I had given it too, well I felt a little cheated. I mean if someone would have simply called and asked, I would have said sure.

What I'm getting at, I suppose, is just a reminder that if you are basing something you manufacture on the works of someone else, it's a good idea to at least let them know about it. Give them credit, maybe even offer them a prototype, or a discounted price or something.

It's just sort of common sense, not just in yo-yoing, but through any other hobbies your life may come across.

If anyone would like to make a small run of beefcaked or shmooved yo-yos, feel free to contact me and at least say "Hi, do you mind if we do this?" Of course, if you are just doing a single mod or something you totally don't need to let me know, but I'd love it if you feel like sharing the results with me.

Reach me at doc at doctorpopular.com

Oh, and Dave... where's my Save Deth DVD? I've been getting emails and instant messages about my Moebius section, and I'm dying to see it for myself.

Back from MOYO States

2007-07-19T09:50:00.000-07:00

I accumulated a lot of new items at The Missouri State Yo-Yo Contest. This is some of it.

Clockwise from left;

Drown Radio signage from my show.

MOYO tag on my Blackspot sneaker.

Louisville Slugger clicker from Rick.

Dert by Russ Andert. Traded for a something something. I love it.

Baby Dert, bought from Chris. First yo-yo I've bought in a long long time.

Baby Dert, traded for a something something. I love the Baby Dert, it's totally my favorite new yo-yo of the year.

MOYO cufflinks. Sterling silver with the date of the event stamped on the back.

Modded trucker hat. With a MOYO pin over the printed logo.

The event was a blast, I saw lots of old friends from my early days in the midwest and did tons of climbing in the City Museum.

Sphere of bonding.

Day 28: My First Yo-Yo

2007-06-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

There was no yo-yo boom in my childhood. In fact it seems that yo-yoing skipped the 80's completely. As a result I never really picked one up until I after my 21st birthday.

I was still living in Tennessee at the time, but I decided to fly out to Seattle for my 21st birthday. I had made contact with some label reps at K Records and Kill Rock Stars in Olympia, WA, so I booked a two week flight and headed out west.

As a long time fan of World's Fair expo sites, my first stop in Seattle was of course the Space Needle. The Space Needle was built for the 1962 Worlds Fair. This was my first trip to the Space Needle and I needed a trinket for my World's Fair collection.

I had narrowed down the choices to either getting a Snow Dome or a yo-yo. I decided on the yo-yo because it was $.50 cheaper... I often wonder about how different my life would have been had sprung for the snow dome instead.

Throughout the next few weeks I played with my new yo-yo while walking around Seattle and Olympia. I wouldn't say that I had gotten good with it by the time I returned to Tennessee, but I had two weeks more practice than most of my friends. After arriving back in Nashville I stopped by a local mall to get a bite from the food court. It was early in the morning and most of the shops were just opening. On my way to get a taco I saw a guy opening up a new kiosk called Yo Momma's. His store was full of yo-yos, so I pulled out my green wooden souvenir and show him some of the tricks I was working on during my excursion to the Northwest.

He hired me on the spot and I started working the very next day. A month later I became manager of that kiosk and we opened 3 more in the city. Pretty soon we had opened 8 locations and I was a regional manager. Of course the whole time I was training employees and watching the stores, I got to play a whole bunch.

So, for the first weeks of my yo-yoing life, this souvenir from Seattle was the only piece in my collection. Then I moved up to Bumblebees and Vipers and Bumblebee GTs and Renegades and Hitmen etc....

Stay in touch with an RSS feed

2007-06-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of the 28 Days of Yo blogging project, but that obviously doesn't mean it will be the last thing I ever post so if you'd like to keep up to date on my blogging, I suggest you subscribe to the RSS feed.

An RSS feed is a way to see whenever a site use has updated or not. In order to use the feed though you'll need an RSS aggregator. I use Newsgator, it works similar to web based email but for keeping track of sites. To get started with a subscription, just sign in to your RSS aggregator, then go to add feeds and add this url:

http://doctorpopular.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

RSS really simplifies my web surfing and it's becoming a standard tool on most sites. In fact many blog and web 2.0 sites have automatic RSS generators that the site owners might not even know about. Many sites feature RSS "subscribe now" buttons that you simply have to click to add to your aggregator. Here are a few more feed urls to add.

http://www.yoyonation.com/blog/feed/
http://www.yoyoing.com/blog/?feed=rss2
http://www.schalicto.com/feed
http://www.docpop.org/feed
http://www.drownradio.com/feed

You can even use RSS feeds to maintain a search on services like eBay, Craigslist, and Amazon. For example:

http://rss.api.ebay.com/ws/rssapi?FeedName=SearchResults&siteId=0&language=en-US&output=RSS20&catref=C6&sabfmts=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&ftrv=1&ftrt=1&fsop=1&fsoo=1&from=R10&satitle=super+sellout&sacat=-1&saobfmts=insif&_trksid=m37

Of course if you are using Firefox you can subscribe to a live bookmark feed too, but I don't thing live bookmarks are nearly as usefull as a web based aggregator.

Blah blah blah, hey just think... if you subscribe to my feed... you'll be notified every time I write on my blog... about getting you to subscribe to my feed... so that you can be notified... every time I write about subscribing to my blog. It keeps going on and on my friends.

If you know any other rss feed urls, post 'em below.

Day 27: Modified Bolts

2007-06-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

The Bolt yo-yo is a fun yo-yo to mod. Whether it's a basicsilicone mod or work on the lathe, Bolts are a cheap base for mods.

In the picture above I have three of my favorite mods.

On the left is Dave Poyzer's modified Bolt. It's made with weight rings from a Yomega Hyper Warp Wing. The pogs are clear with printing on them and a second layer underneath the clear pogs with more printing. This yo-yo placed third at the modding contest at the World Yo-Yo Contest.

In the middle is another of Poyzer's fine creations. This Bolt has been lathed to fit weight rings chopped off of the Zombie by Small Minds. Both of Poyzer's mods feature IRS (interchangable response) rings, which is like a starburst insert for o-ring yo-yos.

The Bolt on the right is similar to the Doctor'd Bolts I sell on my site, but my buddy Nick tweaked it a little more on the inside with shmoove rings. This Bolt is one of my two top yo-yos in my arsenal. Check out the pictures on the bottom for close ups.

Day 26: The Twin Twirler

2007-06-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

The Twin Twirler, made by Kusan in the 50's and 60's, was a yo-yo top combo. From what I've heard, the Twin Twirler was only sold in Chattanooga, TN (with the exception of the Kusan World Yo-Yo Contest in NYC)... Of course I found that out about a month after moving from Chattanooga to ST. Louis. I wish I would have known that I should have looked for Twin Twirlers while I was living there.

In this picture of a pack of Twin Twirler string (via Dave's Yo-Yo Museum) you can see the two ways the Twin Twirler was intended to be played; as a top or a yo-yo.

Bob Baab was a Kusan demonstrator in the 60's. During a phone conversation with Bob in November of 2000, he described how he and fellow Kusan demonstrator Dale Oliver used to demonstrate the Twin Twirler. Bob said that they would wind up their yo-yo using the same offstring winding technique we use now, then they would throw their yo-yos sideways (parallel to the ground) and they would spin freely on the ground like a top.

Bob went on to describe a method of getting the yo-yo back on the string and wound back up to the hand by sliding the yo-yo string into the gap, wrapping it around axle, and pulling. Baab was pretty much describing the beginnings of offstring yo-yoing. Throughout the years, Dale continued this offstring winding technique, but he started throwing the yo-yo from a forward pass and catching it on the string. It would take about 30 years though before Jon Gates would find a method of making an offstring yo-yo return to the hand.

Day 25: Screw Ball Mini

2007-06-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

The Screw Ball Mini was made by Tomy in 1998. It was one of the first transaxle miniature yo-yos and was only available in Japan. The Screw Ball didn't have ball bearings, but the plastic sleeve worked great. In fact, I believe the Screw Ball played better than most of the ball bearing minis that came out 3 years later.

Hironori Mii (offstring world champion and founder of Team Off-String) once told me that in order to achieve the highest level of Team Off-String, a player had to do all of the team's offstring trick list on a Screw Ball. That is hardcore, but of course the guys from T.O.S. were freakin' hardcore as well.

Day 24: Alan Gray's Yo-Yo Top

2007-06-23T17:07:00.000-07:00

As early as 2000, I was working on designs for a yo-yo/top combo, but it wasn't until 2004 that I was actually able to get one of my favorite designs made. I asked my friend, and expert top and yo-yo crafter, Alan Gray to make a yo-yo with a yo-yo with a whole for for a shaft to run through. This is the yo-yo he made.

The yo-yo is built from a BC wooden yo-yo, with a ball bearing added. Through the hub of the yo-yo, Alan made a hole that runs through the axle. Through the hole, there is a shaft with elongated top tips. On either side of the hole, there are ball bearings that the shaft sits on.

So, there is a ball bearing in the center of the yo-yo, and two bearings on either side of the hub for the top tips to sit on. The yo-yo plays decent, it has a little wobble, but it's not bad for a wooden yo-yo.

Day 23: The Patriot

2007-06-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

After the release of Duncan's popular Freehand yo-yo, YoYoJam felt they needed a wide bodied yo-yo in the $15 range. They used their Dragon Jam as the basis, but pulled the edges out further to give it that wide/smooth design. I begged Dale to make the yo-yo with friction stickers, but Dale just wouldn't go for it.

The design of the yo-yo began in October of 2001 and the yo-yo was released in September. I don't recall ever hearing this new wide bodied YYJ referred to as anything other than a modified Dragonjam, so I assume that calling it "The Patriot" was a reference to the terrorist attacks earlier than month.

Around this time, everyone had little flags on their car and there was a certain universal patriotism in the air, so it wasn't really a surprise to find out that YoYoJam had decided to call their new yo-yo The Patriot... but I was a little surprised when I first got mine and saw that the pog art was of Uncle Sam riding what appeared to be a missile (but it could be a firecracker) with an American flag. The whole thing seemed a bit too over the top. It looked like a bad biker tattoo, minus the bald eagle carrying lightning bolts with it's wings wide spread and symmetrical.

Luckily, I wasn't the only person who thought the pogs looked horrible, so the next batch of Patriots came with engraving on the inside of the pogs of an American Flag. This lasted for a month and then they started making a simpler foil pog with a much simpler Patriot logo and no imagery.

The Patriot later became the basis for the Bolt and the Kickside. Why they changed the name to the Kickside is beyond me, it's just a Patriot with o-rings.

In the bottom pic you can see my Midwest Regional special edition Patriot with a logo designed by TitiFreak. Just a reminder, this year's MWR is this weekend at the Mall of America. Wish I could be there!

pause.

2007-06-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

FYI, I have been extremely busy over the last two days working on this project. I've obviously had to take a break from the 28 Days project, but I will begin blogging again tomorrow (Friday).

Day 22: Enyo Spinfaktor HG

2007-06-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

This yo-yo was given to me by Al (Jun Aramaki) at the 2005 California State Yo-Yo Contest. This YoYoJam Spinfaktor HG, is made of enyo plastic and was made exclusively for the Japan National Yo-Yo Contest.

It's a hybrid yo-yo (starbursts and an o-ring), but with some shims and a cleaned bearing it plays as well as it looks.

During California States, Al did one of his awesome triple a freestyles which we unfortunately had to end early due to explicit language. He was using some Beastie Boys song that I had not previously heard... and had more cussing than any other Beastie Boys song I had ever heard. As a matter of fact, sometimes the music would even cut out write at when the swearing would get heavy.

The funny thing was that Al had no idea... unless he was just trying to see how much he could get away with by pretending he didn't speak enough English to know that the song was inappropriate. For the rest of his stay we referred to him as Jun "F Word" Aramaki.

Day 21: The Mongu Freehand

2007-06-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ever since Whip (Brazilian artist and member of the Duncan Crew) brought his first Mongus to the World Yo-Yo Contest, I've been Mongu-lomaniac. I bought the last available Mongu doll that weekend and coincidentally got my first tattoo which was based on art by Whip's brother TitiFreak.

A year later, Duncan released the Mongu Freehand Zero. Even though I'm deathly allergic to friction stickers, I bought one and kept it in the package next to my doll. Every time I saw it, I yearned to be able to feel it's smooth brown plastic pressed against my palm, but knowing that the sonically welded packaging was the only thing protecting me from those evil friction stickers.

Finally, I got the idea to send my Mongu Freehand Zero to my friend Nick (Feral Parrot) for some quick modifications. A week later, he brought me my Modded Mongu, complete with recessed silicone and shmoove rings (like those found in The End yo-yo). The mod is great, definitely the favorite Duncan in my collection.

Day 20: The Turbo Bumble Bee GT

2007-06-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

Back in the days when I still had the yo-yo store in St. Louis, we all loved the Bumble Bee GT. It was a favorite of all the staff, and one of our top sellers.

I remember one day I was working the store when I noticed a young boy walking towards the booth carrying one of our product bags in his left hand. He was sheepishly approaching the store with his mom right behind him, she was nudging him on.

"Hey buddy, what's going on?" I asked.

"Uh, I need to make a return." He whispered.

"No problem man." I responded "What's the problem?"

He reached into his bag and said "This yo-yo melts to easy." He pulled out a Bumble Bee GT that was still in it's package, but one side had been totally melted. Strings of melted plastic mixed together like oil paints on an artist's pallet.

"What happened to it?"

"A lamp feel on it last night, when I found it this morning it was all melted."

"Wow. You know what? There is no way I'm going to give you a refund for that... but I will buy it from you for ten dollars."

He took me up on the offer, so I emptied up one of our glass display cases and I placed the melted Bee GT inside. Thus the "Broken ProYo Museum" was born. Throughout the next few weeks people would bring in their old broken Playmaxx yo-yos and we added them to the case. ProYo IIs, Vid-E-Yos, Bumble Bees, and even a Cold Fusion all made their way into the case.

Day 19: The Sunset Trajectory NXG

2007-06-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

My week of writing about looping yo-yos is at it's end, but there are plenty of other looping yo-yos I may still squeeze in later.

I haven't been writing about many yo-yos that are still currently available, but I couldn't talk about looping without bringing up the Sunset Trajectory NXG.

With a simple modification, the Trajectory NXG is absolutely my favorite yo-yo for two handed tricks.

I know that the Raider will still be the Double A standard for a long time, but I just can't get into a looping yo-yo that isn't gap adjustable. Of all the adjustable looping yo-yos, I think the Trajectory has the best feel to it. To modify it, I simply added flowable silicone. If you aren't familiar with how this is done, please check out "How to mod a Doc Pop Bolt".

The gap for the silicone is much smaller than most YoYoJams, so it takes a little more work, but the end result is totally worth it. It seems somewhat contradictory that adding a flush layer of silicone would work for a looping yo-yo, but I like it so much I'm-a probably grab another pair.

Day 18: Jason Tracy's Cosmic Otter

2007-06-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

In 1999, I moved to O'Fallon, IL (just a few miles from St. Louis) to open a yo-yo store in a local mall. What followed was one of the worst years of my life. Not to be overly dramatic, but it really just sucked. I lived out of my car, a Chevy Cavalier, for the first month and a half, and spent every day working my kiosk from 9am till 9 pm (except on Sundays 10am-6pm). I regretted moving from Chattanooga (my favorite little city in nation), especially when St. Louis's long hot summer kicked in.

The humidity was so hot, that when I opened the door of my house to leave for work every morning, it felt like I was opening the door to an oven. The heat would press against me and I'd brace myself for another long day standing at a mall kiosk.

At least there was a Krispy Kreme across the street from my house.

One day I heard about the upcoming Van's Warped Tour. I found out that many yo-yo companies would have pros there and there would be a performance stage set up and everything, so I bought a ticket... I think it was $60 bucks (or something crazy expensive), but I was able to find someone to work for me that day so I decided to splurge and attend.

It was another hot day, but I was really excited about seeing the pros, it was looking like it would the best thing to happen all year. When I pulled up to the event though, I was shocked to find out that there was only one parking lot and it was $25 to park. I had never been to an outdoor arena before, so I didn't know this was really common. I literally had no money that day. Not in my bank account, not in my wallet, nothing. I had even spent the last of the change I could find on gas. So I had to pull away and find a parking spot at some apartments about a mile or two away and walked to the arena.

It turns out the land all around the arena (except for the parking lot) was swampland. I had no idea that they had swamp land in the Midwest, but soon I was knee deep in it. Finally I made it to the front gate and saw one of the kids from my yo-yo club sadly sitting against the wall by the ticket booth. They wouldn't let him in with his yo-yo bag... a problem I soon came up against too.

"I'm sorry, those could be weapons. You'll have to leave them in your car." The door person said. I replied, "But Tommy was dropped off by his mom an hour ago and my car is parked a few miles away." He gave me a look like I was full of bull, so I pointed to my muddy shoes as proof of my journey. "Look that's not my problem, leave 'em outside then." he said. We asked to see his boss, so he had us wait in an in between holding area for her. She ended up saying the same thing he did, and would not let us in with our bags full of yo-yos. She too suggested that we just leave them outside. I told her we were special performers and she could find someone from the yo-yo stage to verify that, so she left supposedly to look for the yo-yoers inside the event.

After sitting in that space for about an hour, I spotted a gap were there were no guards, so Tommy and I made a dash into the arena. Three hours after I had left my car we were finally in the Vans Warped Tour and on our way to see the pros. I was thinking about the expression "nothing good comes easily" and was starting to get pumped up again about being there.

This was the year following the big yo-yo boom, so all the companies had crazy money to spend on promotions. When a chance to exhibit and travel with the Warped tour came along, Duncan, Yomega, BC Yo-Yos, Henrys, ProYo and Fiend Magazine all jumped on it, making the Fiend North America Tour of 1999 the largest multi sponsored event in yo-yo history. The pros on hand were Steve Brown, Chris Neff, Mark McBride, Jason Tracy, Julius Szakolczai, Nick VanDerSchie, and Lester the duck.

When we found the yo-yo pros though, we soon realized that we weren't the only ones effected by the heat and humidity. The energy at the yo-yo stage was low. At this point on the tour, I believe that folks were starting to wear on each others nerves, people were getting tired of travelling, string burns and aches were starting to develop, etc. So there was very little actual yo-yoing going on or near the yo-yo stage. Instead, the pros just seemed to grab the mic and find different ways to get girls to lift up their shirts in exchange for stickers. Julius, who is always a pro, was the only guy I can remember getting on stage and yo-yoing the whole time we were there. We did get to meet all of the pros though, and I recall Mark showing us how he made his extra long string, but most of the folks didn't seem all that talkative. So after all of the crap we went through, Tommy and I just ended up yo-yoing with each other instead of with any of the pros.

Plenty of stickers were given out, and at some point Jason Tracy came over to us and gave us some of his beautiful Cosmic Otter yo-yos. The Cosmic Otters came in a few colors, my favorite is the "dreamsicle" one pictured above and below.

After an hour or two, Tommy said it was time for his mom to pick him up, so we said goodbye to some of the pros and I walked out with him. Unfortunately, after all the troubles of getting to the pros, the whole thing ended up being a total bust, I couldn't have felt any sadder. While walking out the front gate I bumped into one of the pros that we didn't see inside the event. His name was "The Lao". The Lao worked for Infinite Illusions in Florida. He did yo-yo a little, but throwing tops was really his thing. The Lao and I totally hit it off, immediately feeding off each other and making up new tricks or variations of both yo-yo and top tricks. We hung out for at least an hour, it was great. The best part of the whole Warped Tour for me, happened outside the same gate that wouldn't let us in with our yo-yos earlier. Man, if I would have known that I could have saved $60 bucks and had enough money to eat.

As I look now at my orange and white Cosmic Otter, it always brings back memories of one of the lowest points in my life. The crappy day, living in a city I hated, being flat broke with all of my money tied up in my store, eventually losing all that money because the store couldn't even break even the year after the boom, etc. It's weird to look at a yo-yo and be filled with this feeling of regret. It's as if when I look at it, I'm looking into a crystal ball and seeing myself saying "Sure I'll move to St. Louis, it sounds like a fun opportunity."

Joe Mitchell has some awesome photos from the Philly stop here.

Day 17: The Pink Duncan ProYo

2007-06-14T16:58:00.001-07:00

Shortly after Duncan's acquisition of the Playmaxx line in late 2001, new versions of old Playmaxx yo-yos were hitting store shelves nation wide.

This wasn't the first time that Playmaxx made it into stores like Walgreens, Target, and Walmart. During the big boom, these stores had racks full of ProYos, Playmaxx's wooden axled beginner yo-yo, but now the ProYo was back in stores.

It looked weird to see the ProYo in the Duncan section of my nearest convenience store. Seeing the Duncan pogs and same vacuum sealed packaging that is used for the Duncan Imperial, I couldn't help but the two men most associated with the two companies... Steve Brown and Tom Van Dan Elzen. An odder couple could not be found.

Earlier today I saw a post on yoyoing.com/news about modding a Duncan ProYo. While reading it, I suddenly remembered that when Duncan released their first batch of ProYos in 2002, a mistake was made. All the pink ProYos were actually pink Bumble Bees (Playmaxx's higher end ball bearing yo-yo). So for just $2, you were actually getting a $15 ball bearing yo-yo.

Day 16: The Super Tournament Repro

2007-06-13T23:58:00.000-07:00

If you walk around town and yo-yo, you've probably been stopped by someone and told about "the good old days" of yo-yoing. We all hear the same old stories about how the "Yo-Yo Man" would come to town and do a show in front of the corner store. Afterwards the demonstrator would carve his name onto yo-yos for the kids in attendance, often adding images like a palm tree on an island to supposedly represent the Philippines (most of the early demonstrators were Filipino).

So it's no surprise that when Duncan released their wooden yo-yo reproductions 9 years ago, Steve Brown and Chris Neff re-instituted the tradition of yo-yo carving Duncan pros.

Neff gave me a carved Duncan Super Tournament during his first tour for Duncan. At the time, he basically lived out of a camper van for months at a time. It's funny that while the early demonstrators were carving images of far away oceanic scenes, Chris was carving his camper van.

The blue "Doc Pop" Super Tournament was a gift from the awesome Tom Cunningham (aka oldyoyoguy). Awe inspiring, isn't it?

Day 15: The AXLerator

2007-06-11T23:47:00.000-07:00

The AXLerator isn't exactly the first narrow body aluminum yo-yo, but it's probably the first one designed specifically for looping. Up until it's release, aluminum yo-yos were designed as "sleeping" yo-yos, but Custom didn't see any reason that aluminum yo-yos couldn't be used for two handed looping tricks so they gave it a shot.

The AXLerator is a narrow body "Imperial" type design. Like the Roadster by Playmaxx, the sides are concaved, but since the body is hollow, this doesn't exactly remove middle weight.

The yo-yo didn't catch on, the two handed yo-yo market was dominated by the Yomega Raider (which is still a standard) and the AXLerator didn't really offer any improved looping action. I think the biggest flaw in Custom's design is it's lack of gap adjustment. Even with brand new "tub tread response" (Custom's friction sticker) the yo-yos would loop upward. This would only get worse as the stickers got worn in, thus increasing the gap.

The AXLerator appears to be heavy for a looping yo-yo but it's only 1 gram heavier than the Raider.

Gap issues aside, the yo-yos are very pleasant to use and loop surprisingly well. Actually, if Custom could just narrow the gap I'd quite enjoy this yo-yo.

Day 14: The Roadster

2007-06-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Most wooden yo-yos on the market are made from multiple pieces of wood. It's the most cost effective way to make a wooden yo-yo, but working with multiple pieces of wood can cause performance issues since it's very difficult to ensure that both pieces are the same weight.

According to Tom Van Dan Elzen, the only way to make a well balanced wooden yo-yo is by making it out of a solid piece of wood. That's why Tom's company, Playmaxx, released the Roadster Yo-Yo.

The Roadster was larger in diameter than most looping yo-yos. Aside from being a solid piece yo-yo, the Roadster was also given a higher rim weight ratio by concaving the sides (removing some of the yo-yos middle weight).

Around the time of the yo-yos release, Tom acquired the rights to Flores Yo-Yos. The Roadsters that were sold through Dave's Skilltoys were emblazoned with individual numbers and called Flores Yo-Yos.

So the company that started off as Duncraft, and later became ProYo, but preferred being called Playmaxx, made wooden yo-yos called Flores. I think Tom even mentioned to me his plans of releasing other wooden yo-yos under the Flores name, but these were never made.

blistered fingers et all

2007-06-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

This time of year is a busy season for yo-yo shows and I've been very fortunate to really take advantage of it this year.

In fact, I've been performing so much lately that I've reblistered both of my middle fingers. This is the first time in 5 years I've gotten blisters on my well calloused fingers.

With my recent performances, I've decided to amp up my two handed yo-yo skills. I started with some modified Raiders, but got bored and decided to dig up all my old Double A yos to practice with.

In honor of this recent loop-mania, I've decided to focus on looping yo-yos throughout the week.

Enjoy.

Day 13: YoYoJam's Ben Jammin

2007-06-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

The Ben Jammin was based on a novel idea; why couldn't two handed players have a decent soft rubber yo-yo like everybody else did?

Based (presumably) on their Gator Jam yo-yo, YoYoJam made their own looping yo-yo with a rubber outer surface. The Ben Jammin, named in honor of Team YYJ player Ben Conde, was their only attempt at this.

I guess the idea wassn't that far fetched. The Coral Snake, Moonstar, and the Mondial were all supposed to be looping yo-yos with rubber exteriors to cushion the impact on a player's hand, but all of these yo-yos were also aluminum.

Prior to the Ben Jammin, YYJ's only experience with rubber was the large o-rings on the outer diameter of their popular Spinfaktor line. So they had very little experience with molding rubber. Dale started off with a soft rubber (see the pictured black rubber yo-yo), but molding this material was tricky and inconsistent.

For the final product, YYJ plasticized the rubber to make it more predictable. In the end though, the final Ben Jammin (with the white rubber) is so dense it basically feels like a hard plastic.

With both models, getting a consistent mold just never seemed possible. If you look at the pictures, you can see the irregular shapes of the rubber components.

Day 12: The Rubber Bee GT

2007-06-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

File Under: Coolest Yo-Yo That never got made.

While searching through some of my old yo-yo photos this morning, I came across these pics of a Bumble Bee GT molded out of a soft white rubber material. I'm not sure who took the photos, but I believe it was Tom Van Dan Elzen that emailed them to me (so presumably he took them).

The concept is awesome, a rubber yo-yo with no plastic or metal hubs. Just a simple one piece design with room for a brake pad and spacers.

Of course the yo-yo had a major flaw though... when spinning it would just go crazy. The centrifugal force would pull the rubber shells in crazy directions making the yo-yo wobble at first, then it would just totally lose control and go unstable.

To this day, I don't think anyone has successfully built a yo-yo with a rubber hub. The closest thing would be Yomega's Crossfire yo-yo (video of squishy hubs here). But of course the Rubber Bumble Bee GT was a very simple design and the Crossfire was equipped with like 16 pieces.

Day 11: The Yomega Wing Force

2007-06-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

Writing the 28 Days project has been a lot of fun so far. It's great to analytically dig through my collection and share what I find. What's really been a blast has been looking at old yo-yos with a new perspective.

Take, for instance, the Wing Force by Yomega. The Wing Force, manufactured in 1998, was Yomega's first "butterfly" shaped aluminum yo-yo. Upon first glance, the only thing that makes this yo-yo interesting is it's very narrow body, but I was surprised when I opened mine up and found a removable spacer system that also doubled as a friction sticker surface.

When I thought about it more, I remembered that Yomega had a hard time selling all of their Wing Forces, so they actually experimented with various machining methods to update their pieces still in stock. The original model was a starburst yo-yo, which might have worked if not for the thick powder coat paint that ended up smoothing over the starburst teeth. The later models had a deep area lathed away where the starbursts used to be. The Raider style spacers had been replaced with a new, wide spacer system that was designed to fit the old friction stickers made by Custom.

It seems that Yomega made the precursor to the SPR system currently made by Buzz-On Yo-Yos. Since they were designed for a smaller friction sticker, the Yomega Wing Force spacers are slightly narrower than SPR spacers, but the design is very similar otherwise. SPR systems even fit great into Wing Forces.

With the narrow gap though, the yo-yo was far to responsive, I took out one of the wide spacers and replaced it with a Raider spacer. I then put the friction sticker into the gap that used to be covered by the wider spacer. This recessed sticker worked great if I only did it on one side and had a wide spacer with no sticker on it, but two recessed stickers were not responsive enough to get decent response. If only we'd known about bind returns back then.

Day 10: Prototype Freehand

2007-06-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

When Steve Brown first started working with the folks at Duncan on the Freehand yo-yo, he called me up and asked if I would be test some of the prototypes. Of course I accepted and a week later a box of yellow Freehands arrived. Like most yo-yos of that time, the Freehand protos used a simple starburst design for response. The only differences between the different prototypes were the sizes and shapes of the starbursts. One week passed, and Steve called and asked what I thought of the yo-yos. He thanked me for testing them out and said he had to call the other testers to see which was their favorite. A month later the production model Freehand was released. When I got mine, I ripped into the package to see what size starburst he used. Man was I surprised to find out that Duncan had decided to use friction stickers.

At the time, ProYo was suing Custom for releasing friction stickers, which Tom Van Dan Elzen claimed were infringing on his patent. The lawsuit was costing both companies a ton of money, so it was surprising that Duncan would release their own version on the Brake Pad (ProYo's friction sticker) during this time.

When I next talked to Steve, he mentioned that they had also molded many other response system prototypes, including a bunch of Freehands with negative starbursts. He shipped me a box of these halves, and I put together a working prototype using two halves of translucent blue Freehand prototypes. One half is smooth with a friction sticker, the other half has a combination of positive and negative starbursts. I wanted caps on it, but didn't want any opaque caps to prevent light from going through, so I had my friend Skizzy remove the centers from them to allow light pass through.

I assume the reason he didn't send me any of these protos was because ProYo held a patent on negative starbursts. It was a bullshit patent (toy patents are often awarded without close scrutiny), but the guys at Duncan didn't want to waste time fighting it. Then I guess they must have felt that if they were going to release something that may infringe on a patent, they might as well go for the full monty and release their own version of a friction sticker.

Negative starbursts are usually just dimples in the surface of a yo-yo. Both positive and negative starbursts are just providing an interrupted surface which pulls on the string when it has slack. One of the most unusual prototypes that Duncan made was the batch of Freehand prototypes with "DUNCAN" written around the area where the starbursts would go, thus creating negative starbursts AND branding at the same time. A few years later, a company called Yes, Absolutely completely ripped off the name around the inner hub of the yo-yo idea.

Room104- feel free to post pictures of your awesome freehand proto collection.
Steve- Feel free to correct me. I'm sure I got some info wrong.

Day 9: The (modified) Viper

2007-06-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I blogged about Henrys AXYS yo-yos, so today I'd like to wax on the classic Viper yo-yo. Actually, I wanted to discuss some of the old fashioned modding techniques associated with the Viper, using the pictured yo-yo above as an example

For many years, the modified Viper was my favorite yo-yo. I used modded Vipers when I placed third at the World Yo-Yo Contest in Florida, in fact this is one of those yo-yos.

The stock Viper was great for offstring play, but suffered in traditional yoing by it's small gap and lack of response (when single looped). Shims could be used to widen the gap a little, but the classic Viper was equipped with a very narrow bearing. So you could only shim it out so far before the side of the bearing was exposed.

Henrys used an unusual bearing size that made it impossible to find wider bearings that fit, so to fix the gap problem I would take to Viper bearings and place them side by side on the axle. This technique, which I called the Beefcake Mod, gave the Viper a huge gap, but it also seemed to have a secondary benefit. Yo-Yo string would often rest on the groove between the two bearings, thus keeping it centered and away from the sides. This concave technique was also used by Black Mamba's auto return yo-yo and would later be developed by Frank Difeo to use in his Dif-e-yo bearings.

The Viper came with the string double looped around the axle and relied on the yo-yos tapered narrow gap for response. Now that the gap was wider, a new response system would be needed. This was most easily done of by simply adding a Duncan friction sticker, but other methods where sometimes used as well including added super-glued "starbursts" or engraving. This Viper has a sticker on one side and has been engraved on the other side to create a negative starburst. The engraving was done at a Things Remembered store in the Mall of America. They charge by the word so I asked them to engrave "010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101" in a concentric circle around the hub.

In a final touch of beauty, the shells where taken in to a friends tattoo parlor. Using older needles he etched away at the shells with his tattoo gun. He did a few shells for me and I had him make some for Steve Brown and Jen Niles as well. Once tattooed, the shells are very textured. In fact you could probably read the writing by just feeling it with your eyes closed. My friend even numbered the tattooed shells "0001", I guess he felt someday he may make it into the thousands.

Later on, Henrys released the AXYS Viper which came with a much wider bearing, making it much easier to mod.

ps- Happy National Yo-Yo Day!

Day 8: The Coral Snake

2007-06-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

The Coral Snake, manufactured by Henrys, is an aluminum yo-yo with rubber rings and an adjustable gap. For many years Henrys only produced a single yo-yo, the Viper, which was popular with offstring players but outdated as a one handed yo-yo. With the release of AXYS system (which included The Cobra, Coral Snake, Lizard, and an updated version of the Viper), Henrys was trying to step up their game.

This particular yo-yo was one of the very first ones released at the Midwest Regional Yo-Yo Contest in The Mall of America. I was working for Air Traffic, the US distributor of Henrys, at the time, so I was one of the first guys to grab a Coral Snake when they arrived. To our surprise, the Coral Snakes had engraving on both the inside and the outside of the yo-yo. Apparently the engraver, who probably didn't have much experience with yo-yos, engraved the wrong side on the entire first batch of yo-yos, so they sent them back to him and he engraved the other side too.

Some people say that the engraving actually affects the play of the yo-yo, making it more responsive or eating up string etc. I can't really attest to either of those theories, but I can say that I've always been inspired to have a yo-yo engraved on the inside like a "secret" gift that only the owner gets to see... Of course this eventually did happen with The END yo-yo, when we engraved "S-H-M-O-O-V-E" into the recessed silicone yo-yo. It was more work and cost, especially considering you can't see it from the outside, but I remember how much fun it was to open up my Coral Snake and show that awesome engraving off to friends.

Day 7: The Rev-G

2007-06-03T10:08:00.001-07:00

During the big yo-yo boom of the 1990's, yo-yo's and kite stores went hand in hand. While it was nearly impossible to find any transaxle yo-yos in most chain toy stores, kite stores often had a full rack or display case of the hottest new yo-yos.

So it is little surprise then that a kite company would try to get into the yo-yo game. Revolution Kites, known for their fantastic quad line kites, stepped into the yo-yo market with the Rev-G in 2000. This was the first (and possibly only) carbon fiber yo-yo around. Due to it's light weight and high strength, carbon fiber is common material for producing kites but we probably never saw it used for yo-yos due to it's complex manufacturing process.

Working with carbon fiber allowed Revolution to build a yo-yo with very little inner weight. In fact I believe more than %75 of the yo-yos weight is in it's outer rims (the pinkish-purple part), but I can't find anywhere that lists the specific rim to hub weight ratio right now.

Yo-yo companies are always trying to pack in more rim weight without making their yo-yo too heavy, but at 53.6 grams, I don't think anyone has a higher rim to weight ratio than the Rev G.

It should also be noted that, like the Doble Titania, the Rev G was sold with a adjustable finger loop sleeve. Unlike the finger loop on the Titania, Revolution's sleeve slipped over cotton yo-yo strings. Revolution patented their finger sleeve along with their "ultra performance modular yo-yo" in 2000.

So what stopped the revolution? Their yo-yo design was just to weird and cumbersome. The yo-yo's outer diameter was very large, while it's gap was comparatively small making it awkward to hold. The yo-yo just didn't have the smoothness of competitors such as the Bumblebee GT and the SuperYo Renegade.

Do I think that a carbon fiber yo-yo could ever be successful? Sure, why not? But given the popularity of most aluminum yo-yos, I think a company attempting to design a carbon fiber yo-yo should stick away from novel shapes and try to work more within the realms of a the more common yo-yo. Imagine a carbon fiber Samurai or a carbon fiber hubbed YoYoJam with celcon weight rings.

Day 6: The Titania

2007-06-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

With the recent popularity of YoYoFactory's hubstack system, it's a good time to take a look back at some similar yo-yo innovations from the past. Some folks like to point out that yo-yos with free spinning caps or ball bearing tips were being made back in 2002, but nobody has mentioned the Titania yet.

The Titania by Doble Yo-yo was really a head of it's time. In 1993, the Titania (along with Doble's Ariel and Calypso yo-yos) became one of the first patented adjustable gap yo-yos. What makes the Titania so noteworthy though is that it is designed from two free spinning halves with a solid axle running through the yo-yo with two knobs attached at either end. Making this the first yo-yo that you could grab by the hubs while it was spinning.

So hubstack and spinning cap mods usually consist of a normal yo-yo with added ball bearings on either side, but the Titania has the same effect by using one extra large axle and two loose halves with holes drilled all the way through.

For it's time, the Titania was probably something of a modern marvel, although the company never seems to receive much recognition for it's innovations. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even until a few years ago that competitors started using the company's Calypso to break world sleeping records, even though it had already been around for over a decade.

The Titania does not have any ball bearings (which probably could have helped it out), but with it's heavy weight (120 grams!) and unique trans axle system, it could still out-sleep most (if not all) the other trans axle yo-yos of it's time. Due to the yo-yos weight, it used a very thick cord that was tethered to a small free spinning brass sleeve. The cord was also equipped with a leather finger loop.

By today's standards, is a cool looking, but clumsy yo-yo with a narrow gap (in fact Doble has never made a butterfly yo-yo), but the idea of a solid post with free spinning halves could still be a good idea. When you try to grab the hubstacks on an 888, you are grabbing parts that are moving and stopping them. Even with good ball bearings this is going to add more drag on the yo-yos momentum, but with a solid axle, the hubs are never spinning... so they are easy to grab and don't add any extra friction to the yo-yo when they are held.

I recently checked and Doble is still quietly making their beautiful yo-yos, please check out their site, www.dobleyoyo.com.

And here is a great collection of yo-yo patents online.

Day 5: The AXL Elite

2007-06-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

The AXL Elite, by Custom Yo, was a very unique yo-yo. At the time of it's release, Custom was most known for it's MAG yo-yos, a series of aluminum yo-yos that were designed to resemble exotic car wheels. These MAG yo-yos, like most other aluminum yo-yos, where heavily rim-weighted for longer spins.

So it was surprising that when the AXL Elite was released, Custom had decided to try to make a very lightweight aluminum yo-yo with no added weight along the outer rims. The theory being that although rim weighting a yo-yo slows it's rotational speed (thus lengthening it's sleep time) a heavy yo-yo requires more energy. So Custom created a very light yo-yo that wouldn't require as much energy to keep spinning.

It works. At only 42.1 grams, the Custom AXL Elite is even lighter than most mini yo-yos (including Custom's own Chain Reactor which weighs 49 grams), but it outspins most yo-yos in flat sleep time. However the AXL Elite did tend to lose spin quicker than most rim weighted yo-yos. I think it's narrow gaps and grip-y pads were largely responsible for this.

With bind return yo-yos becoming more and more common, I'd like to see another attempt at the less is more mentality in yo-yoing. A wide gaped & ultra light butterfly yo-yo could really take the gold.

Speaking of [how's that for a segway?], today's blog is a two for one as I also wanted to mention Custom's gold plated version of the AXL Elite, the Golden Fly. This 24k beauty came packed with a matching stand (as do most Custom Yo-yos). I just realized that although Custom no longer manufactures yo-yos, they apparently do still offer them through their site!

Bungee String

2007-06-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry if my last post seem ed a bit "rambly". I had a 5 hour yo-yo gig that day, so I wanted to write it in the morning (in case I wouldn't have time later that day to blog).

Speaking of that gig, I was absolutely thrilled to wake up this morning and not be sore. Lucky me, I was really worried I might have overworked myself.

During my last visit to Minneapolis, Josh asked me to try one of his new yo-yos which happened to have Bungee String on it. Bungee String is the creation of Mathew Thoemke (aka YoYoFargo) and is created out of nylon blends. Mathew sent me a sample many months ago, and I thought it was fun but not really my style. When you first try it out, Bungee String is extremely stretchy which makes eli hops really fun, but consistent play is a bit difficult. After a few hours I put the string away and didn't really mess with it again. Josh, on the other hand, kept playing with his Bungee for a month before I tried it.

I usually change string every half an hour of solid play, but Bungee String actually gets better with age. It retains it's smoothness, but the elasticity goes away, making it play more like an ordinary piece of string. As a yo-yo performer, who often does day long walk around performances, this string is ideal, so I pulled my piece of Bungee String out yesterday morning and used it all day. Not only did it keep me from constantly changing my string, but I'd also credit it with preventing any new string burns.

I believe the only place to get Bungee String from is Joe Mitchell's Train and Beanie Baby store in Deleware, let me know if I'm wrong though.

BTW, my eBay auctions will all be ending within the next 24 hours.

Day 4: The Mongoose

2007-05-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

With the demise of Pro-Yo (also known as Playmaxx) several years ago, so too has the reputation of the once giant yo-yo manufacturer faded. Although the company, which was original founded by Donald Duncan Jr., set new standards for sponsored yo-yo professionals and yo-yo innovations, what most of us (at least the ones that have been yo-yoing for over 6 years) remember is Tom Van Dan Elzen.

Tom, the company's owner, had a penchant for lawsuits and a reputation for holding deep grudges. For whatever reason, Tom developed a grudge against the German yo-yo manufacturer Henrys. I was working for Henrys US distributor at the time, and none of us could figure out what bee got up Tom's bonnet. After all, Henry's was pretty much the most innocuous company around.

It was during that time that Tom released The Mongoose. This was a metal yo-yo hub that was the same size as the hubs on a Henry's Viper and even accepted the Viper's rubber shells.

But Tom claimed that any similarities between The Mongoose and the Viper were coincidental and that The Mongoose was just a mini yo-yo... a very terrible mini yo-yo... That just happened to perfectly fit into Viper shells... and was named after the natural enemy of the snake.

Of course he had to deny it because Henry's had a patent on the method of attaching the rubber shells to the yo-yo. He wasn't selling a Viper hub with brake pads... he was selling a "Mini Yo-Yo". I once had a conversation with Tom were he bragged about suing companies for stealing his patents while simultaneously expressing shock that Henrys was upset about the release of his patent infringing Mongoose.

What made the whole thing even more unbelievable was Tom's plan on releasing his own set of rubber shells to fit onto Viper hubs. The String Pilot shells, which were rubber versions of the Bumblebee GT shape, never got released. I assume that if the String Pilot shells ever would have gotten released, they would have been sold as "paper weights" or something.

I've always prided myself on being one of the premiere "Viper Knock-off" collectors out there... and this is definitely the peak of that collection, but I've put the String Pilot shells and Mongoose on eBay to help raise money for a new computer.

Day 3: Mo-Jive

2007-05-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

The Tom Kuhn No-Jive was one of the earliest take apart yo-yos. It's a reversible shape yo-yo (it can be altered from a wide gap shape to a narrow body shape) with a removable wooden axle.

It's a classic yo-yo that, along with the Silver Bullet, brought on the era of the modern yo-yo.

One day I was talking to Dr. Mo on the phone about how the SuperYo Renegade was such a rip off of the No-Jive. Somewhere along the conversation Mo offered to mod a No-Jive into a ball bearing yo-yo for me. So I shipped him a No-Jive and a Renegade.

The mod wasn't as easy as just switching the guts, in fact I'm very impressed as I look at all the work Mo did that I never noticed. Obviously the friction stickers are recessed, a necessary step since Renegade gaps can't be made wider. He also had to add some metal tubes for the bolt to slide through. I do believe the axle itself is the original axle though.

The yo-yo still has a "wood" feel to it, but it plays great with ball bearings. Actually, I think Dr. Tom should sell these himself. A Tom/Mo collabo. TomMo? MoTom?

This is on eBay right now btw.

Day 2: Yomega's Zero-G

2007-05-29T10:13:00.001-07:00

The Zero-G was a highly anticipated offstring yo-yo that never actually hit the market. It was one of Yomega's first attempts at creating a rubber shelled yo-yo, a effort that would again appear in their Xodus, Crossfire, and Lancer.

Friction stickers and rubber shells seemed to be the two patented items that everyone wanted. Just as companies were trying to work their way around the friction brake pad patent, many were also trying to get around Henry's patented removable rubber shells patent.

Yomega's idea was simple, don't make the shells removable. Which also solved the problem of how to work with soft rubber without it flying off of a high spinning yo-yo. the Zero-G's plastic shells are assembled over the rubber shells, locking the shells in to place and making removal of the shells impossible without dis-assembling the plastic body.

Those who are familiar with the new "soft-core" process that Yomega are doing with yo-yos like the Crossfire, you may notice similarities between the assembly of the Zero-G and that of the Crossfire.

The biggest technical flaw with the Zero-G would have to be it's trans-axle system. Yomega decided to use a trans-axle system similar to the Fireball (probably to save money), but the Zero-G's trans-axle was much narrower. Meaning you couldn't exchange it's parts with a fireball or any of their ball bearing yo-yos. Around this time, Yomega really seemed to be into making all their systems incompatible. They didn't want you to be able to buy a fireball, through in some bearings, and make your own Raider. The parts were all propietary, so that Yomega had full control of their yo-yos. Ultimately, Yomega released that making all their parts inter-changable would only help their sales (open source yo-yos), but not in time for the Zero-G

This one is on eBay right now.

Day 1: The Philip Travelant MiniJam

2007-05-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

In 2001, yo-yo companies were clammering for novel new ideas for a yo-yo. A few companies decided to try to out-do each other by creating the smallest playing yo-yo that they could. The first miniature transaxle yo-yo would undoubtedly have been the Mini Screwball, a Japanese yo-yo that was a narrow body design and just a little larger than a quarter. About a year later, YoYoJam, ProYo, and Tom Kuhn would all have their own entries in the mini market.

YoYoJam's model, the MiniJam, was in my opinion the best playing of all the other models. It has a plastic hub and aluminum weight rings (as opposed to ProYo's and Tom Kuhn's all metal minis) and pointless rubber rings that seemed to be the hallmark of YoYoJam in those days.

The MiniJam was equiped with their "B" size bearing and negative starbursts.

It was one of YoYojam's earliest signature series, brandished with Philip Travelant's name on the side and the phrase "Mini Yo World Champion" underneath it. I believe that title refers to a contest that either WindWizards or YoYoJam ran were competitors entered using only miniature yo-yos.

This MiniJam is up for eBay auction here.

My buddy Shawn has posted videos of young Philip here.

After 28 Days of talking about it...

2007-05-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

With the newest batch of my yo-yos on eBay, I've decided to finally start my 28 Days of Yo project that I've been talking about on YoYoWiki Radio for some time now.

The basic goal of the project is simply to post some cool pictures of a bunch of yo-yos in my collection and share some history or personal stories related to those pieces.

In case anyone is wondering why Doc is suddenly selling off all of his most prized yo-yos, the answer is simple.... My laptop is dying/dead. So I'm doing the unthinkable (selling prototypes, etc...) to raise money for a new laptop. What type of laptop really just depends on how much I make off the auctions.

How to Mod a Bolt Yo-Yo... and Maker Faire

2007-05-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

I sell a lot of modified Bolt's through this site, but I always like to help teach folks how to modify their own yo-yos, so I've published How to Mod a Bolt Yo-Yo on Instructables.com.

Any feedback is always appreciated. I'd love to see more yo-yo instructables.

For those of you in the Bay Area, I'll be doing a yo-yo demo and a yo-yo workshop at the Maker Faire this weekend. If you are at the Faire, stop by and say hi.

Coming to Minneapolis

2007-04-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

I have been booked for a performance at this year MONDO in Minneapolis.

MONDO is this nice big juggling festival that happens this time of year in the Twin Cities. Unfortunately this will take me out of the Bay Area during BAC, but if you live in Northern California, you should still be sure to catch that.

I'll be teaching a few workshops and performing on the Main Stage for MONDO's open to the public event. I will also have yo-yos, comics, and clothes for sale and will hopefully be running a Yolympics contest.

The Hesitator

2007-03-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

Josh from www.Schalicto.com recently wrote a blog about The Hesitator yo-yo.

The Hesitator was a very limited run of Spinatstics Eclipses that I hand painted and assembled. Less than 40 where made. Actually I made about 55, but trashed 15 pairs that I didn't feel looked up to standard.

The name of the yo-yo came from the constant number of kids that would come in to my store looking for hesitator yo-yos.

"You know, the kind that hesitate."

I would try to explain to them that all of our yo-yos slept, but they would only look for yo-yos that hesitate.

I don't have any Hesitator's left.

Josh has three.

Life can be cruel sometimes.

He has some fantastic pictures of them on his flickr page.

The pog art features my art as well. One side has a version of me scaling a giant yo-yo and spray tagging it. The other pog is a pair of hands with a floating "H" above them.

Painting the Hesitators was a total nightmare. Nail polish, blue ink, 3 colors of spray paint, sharpies, black paint, glitter and the lids off of McDonald's McFlurries were all used to get the desired effect. Each half was numbered, signed, and had a cool flame effect. On one half of each yo-yo the flames would spell out HESITATOR. Since all the work was done on the inside of the yo-yo, all spelling had to be done backwards. I even had to learn how to sign my name backwards. Once, after completing 20 Hesitators, I wrote an entire sentence backwards on a post it note to a friend before I realized I was not writing normally. That could have also been a result of being subjected to many hours of breathing aerosol and nail polish fumes.

For the record, it is widely believed that John(bot) Russeth has the best Hesitator made.

The Washing Machine, an instructable

2007-02-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

Instructables.com is a wonderful tool for "showing what you make and how others can make it", but I also believe that it could also become a tool used by yo-yoers to share what they do and how others can do it as well.

I started with a basic trick, Rock The Baby, just to try it out as an instructable.

Now I have just finished uploading all the details you really need to do the Washing Machine. Check it out HERE.

The Washing Machine was created about 7 years ago, and it's still one of the neatest looking tricks in my arsenal. It's an offstring trick, that doesn't require you to start offstring. In fact you can do it in the middle of a normal one handed performance with very little set up.

Adding this trick to the website is more than just an exercise in how useful instructables.com can be for yo-yoers, it's also an attempt to make one of my favorite tricks more accessible. The Washing Machine intimidates many players, but I'm telling you that any intermediate player can do the basics of the trick (removing the yo-yo and putting it back on).

So please check out my instructable, try it out, and let me know if any of the steps are confusing or could be worded better.

Yo-yo Segment On Cartoon Network

2007-01-27T18:12:00.001-08:00

REEDIT:
Alright, I just found out there are a few different versions of this Cartoon Network video.
One is only 1:15 long and I appear at the end doing the "Martini".
The other is 3:15 and I get a few good quotes.
So... I'm still trying to catch the good version. But I can't watch all that anime for one more second.
Below is the shorter version.

Doc Pop breaks Rick Wyatt's Record.

2006-12-31T18:47:00.000-08:00

Rick Wyatt is a legend in the yo-yo community. A National Master, instructional video star, and pro for both Yomega and YoYoJam, Rick is most known as the world record holder for longest sleep. I was there when Rick broke the 9 minute record and again when he beat 11 minutes, so I've studied his technique closely.

Finally, after a couple weeks of trash talk on the yo-yo boards, Rick and I battled on the stage at the National Yo-Yo Contest in Chico California. Watch as I break Rick's record with a stock Fireball!

Doing okay

2006-11-02T23:26:00.000-08:00

I posted about Phil's recent accident and I just wanted to update ya'll.

He's much better, in fact he's back at work now.

Is this a pic from yesterday? Yes, Absolutely.

Dazzling Dave's eBay Auctions

2006-10-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

Dazzling Dave Schulte has listed a bunch of great yo-yos on eBay recently. I'd highly suggest checking out his stuff listed here, there are some great deals on new and old yo-yos and Dave is a very trustworthy seller so bid with confidence and all that stuff.

In case you missed it.

2006-10-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

Spindox March 2005

If you haven't seen this video check it out. I made it from a Spindox meetup last year and Spencer totally steals the show.

http://spindox.org/

Nationals in one week

2006-09-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready for the National Yo-Yo Contest in one week.

I'll be entering in the One Handed and Freehand divisions this year, same as last.

Phil (from Yes, Absolutely.) and I where hoping to have some shmooved up Bolt yo-yos for sale, but right after picking up the yo-yos from my pad, Phil was hit by a semi-truck. Don't worry, I know that sounds terrible, but luckily the only damage Phil had was to his right foot. Icky image below.

Mmmm, taste the Painbow.

So Phil is off his foot for a week or two.

I'll have modded and stock Bolts, comic books, and medium shirts with me for sale or trade at the event.

Branding- new trick video

2006-08-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

I posted a new video on yo-yoing.com's vid thingy, it's of a move called Branding. I put it up after getting a bunch of questions from folks who saw it in Coast On Starlight.

The set up makes the actual move easier, and it helps if you try to keep the yo-yo isolated while the yo hand does ALL the movement.

The beginning of the End

2006-08-14T23:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a short film showing the creation of The End. Some of it is shot on my modified PXL 2000. I used a song by Work of Saws, one of my favorite Minneapolis bands.

Coast Starlight... End of the line...

2006-08-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

First off, Phil and I would like to thank everyone for their support of the our first yo-yo, The End. As of Saturday we are sold out, that was lightning quick, but not a big surprise since we saw a big demand for this type of yo-yo. Yes, Absolutely. is already at work on our next yo-yo the BLT.

Feedback of the End is high, and most of them have been shipped this morning. Boxthor got his hands on one early and has posted picks on his Flickr page, check those out. Special thanks to Kiya and Sonny of Anti-Yo, The End is pretty much just a souped up Eetsit, and none of this would have been doable without their making it possible.

I have a new video out called Coast On Starlight that was started immediately after arriving back from shooting Master Of Champions in LA... So it's been a long work in progress. It's been delayed up until now largely because of problems with iMovie, but I figured out a cool trick to get it all up and so here it is! Featuring new music by Drown Radio (of course).

Quicktime here and .mp4 here

I always love hearing feedback, constructive is prefered.

The End is Nigh...

2006-08-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

It all started with The End.

Last night Len, the laser engraver, dropped of the yo-yos and Phil and I will spend most of this week getting these babies fully put together and shipping the pre-orders.

Now that I have a pic online, let me explain a little bit about The End. It all started while working with Kiya and Sonny, I asked them for an exclusive batch of unpainted raw Eetsits to use for a special run. Of course nothing is ever as simple as that. So Phil Cox and myself started working together as "Yes, Absolutely." and recruited our good friend Nick Corea to help modify these raw eetsits into even better devices. First we sank the bearing well in, to prevent the slipping string problem, then we removed some in surface to keep the yo-yo from being to narrow, then added groves for the silicone, then we added Shmoove Rings.

Now, this is kind of different, the Shmoove Rings are the two recessed circles on the inside of the yo-yo. It's a new concept, I've never been a fan of concave bearings, but I can understand why someone would want something to reduce the friction of the string rubbing the side of the yo-yo. So I thought, why not just remove more of the inside surface? So using these rings, we've managed to reduce the inside surface that could rub against the string by about %50, but it doesn't affect the wind or throw or anything.

Once the yo-yos were finished, we had them anodized. We wanted these yo-yos to have a classic and unique color, it's hard to describe exactly what they are.. Orange/bronze/yellow/oil-ish? I like 'em, whatever color they are.

Then, with a lot of help from Nick, I took the halves to Len for the Laser Engraving process. The yo-yos were engraved on several places; the outer ring, the inside well, numbered on the posts and even writing on the inside. The inside writing, which says "Shmoove" is a subtle touch that gives the silicone more of a surface to grip on and is partially visible through the clear silicone.

Each yo-yo comes with a concave bearing and a handmade The End yo-yo holster by me. They play great and only 22 will be made. Of those, only 17 will be sold.

I'm expecting the yo-yos to ship by next monday, they retail for $150, if you are interested in getting your hands on an End by Yes, Absolutely. please email me for paypal instructions.

BLC

2006-07-27T23:22:00.000-07:00

Just a heads up, it looks like I'm going to ride down to the BLC this weekend in LA with Johnny DelValle.

Whee!

I hope to see tons of ya'll there, 'cause I'm not going to worlds this year.

My Twelve Minutes and Twenty Eight Seconds of Fame

2006-07-08T12:54:00.000-07:00

You can download a high res version of the show here.

Last night was the episode of Master Of Champions that I’ve been waiting for, no surprise that they crazy edited it for drama and stuff.

I had a watching party with some friends last night and was able to give a little commentary during commercial breaks, here’s a bit of what you didn't see on ABC.

When I first signed on for the show, the main priority for the producers was music. Oh my god we can’t have copyrighted tracks on the show. So they had us send in stuff that we liked and they would create a similar song. I was actually happy with what they chose for us, but Dave hated his song. I think he called it disco on a casio.

So we got our songs taken care of, then they came down to film each of us for a day. It was an entire day, we filmed some of my friends and I hanging out at Zeitgiest, then went to the Golden Gate Bridge (which was actually the first time I’d ever walked on it). Drove around a bunch and got some really cool stuff. So they pretty much allow me to say and do whatever I want, but they did ask me to say “I am the best yo-yoer in the world”. Like I would ever say something that stupid, I told them I wouldn’t do it, eventually they twisted my arm to say “I would say my innovation is what makes me one of the best yo-yoers in the world”, I hated saying something like that, but I could see why they would want something like that for the show to make it more interesting to folks. So I said it.

I tried to sneak as many of my friends and their art in as possible, they interviewed my buddies Nick and Phil, but only Phil made it in the final cut. Phil and I are building yo-yos together now as Yes, Absolutely. (our new yo-yo “The End” is now available for pre-sale, only 17 for sale, blah blah blah).

So I got 8bit bEtty’s 1” button on the show, and my Fony Hat, plus a shirt that I sewed all up with my heart on my sleeve (a theme that pops up later in the show), but they would never let me be on camera with my LoveLife Bag because of the tag on it. We filmed in my girlfriends apartment and got some of her Frida shrine (and subsequently some of her friends paintings) on there too.

The next thing they wanted was a name, originally I think that Dave and his crew where going to be Team Buzzon (an obvious selection since they are of course all core members of Buzzon), but for whatever reason the name was changed to Texas Crew. It was probably because ABC wanted to avoid specifically promoting any brand. Matter of fact, I don't think they ever even mentioned that Bazan owns a yo-yo company do they?

Our team name was puzzling, the producers wanted to call it Team Doctor Popular, which I flat out told them I wouldn't do. Augie, Paul, and I aren't on the same team or anything, and they definetly don't work for me or get paid by me, so I wouldn't want to make them associate themselves with my site or anything. So I played around with a bunch of names that I tried to get the producers to accept, especially "Sleeper Cell" which I guess was just a little too edgy for the producers given the current political climate. Eventually the would allow me to promote The College for the Easily Amused ( http://www.easily-amused.org ). The CFTEA is a group I started with a friend a long long time ago in Minneapolis. It is purely a non-profit that I'm really no longer associated with, there are chapters everywhere, each one is run in it's own way by the locals there. So none of us where really capitalizing by the name, it just sort of helps out these other groups.

So, we never were able to rehearse before the show, Paul lives way south, Augie lives hella north, so we didn’t actually try our routine out until we all went to LA.

There was going to be tons of practice time with the harness and lighting and stunts, but all that fell through and we only got a few runs in the harness on Thursday and none on the day of filming.

The crew watched us like babysitters, we couldn’t even pee without crew members coming along, they were always rushing us around just to end up waiting. All the rehearsals fell through and we spend most of our time in our trailer. Hurry up and wait.

During this time I got to hang out with Rick and throw cards together. I’m okay at card throwing, I think I’ve got some distance and accuracy, but not the strength this guy had, he was amazing.

So the day of the filming they kept us in a little area and wouldn’t let us watch the other acts for some reason. But Augie found a little whole in the set that we could watch some of Joe Eigo’s set. We got in trouble for that. I heard the director on his bullhorn “The ******ing yo-yo guys are in the shot!”. Way to go Augie.

Ivan was a trip, a really nice, but really out there individual. I don’t think I’ll ever meet anybody else in my life who just seemed so cool as Ivan. He is on his own planet, but he’s just so cool about it. I mean, he gave us his promo dvds and stuff, and he misspelled his own website. I assume you just gotta know that by working with Ivan you just can’t control him. So check this out, in the very middle of his set, right after the backflip off the platform, Ivan just took off. He left the building. Cameras and crew everywhere and somehow Ivan just vanished. They came pounding on all of our trailers “Have you guys seen Ivan?!”, which is hilarious ‘cause I’m thinking how could you guys lose him in the MIDDLE of his routine. You can’t go anywhere without crew people on the set, and you guys lost him?

He went to the restroom. He did a backflip, pumped up the crowd, then went to pee… came back five to ten minutes later, and went right back into his routine. Ivan hijacked the show, it was great!

The car guys were nice of course, but I didn’t get to see their routine, I just remember coming out onto the stage and thinking “wtf is this flipped car doing here?”. So last night I got to see how it got there. I think the producers were actually surprised by that, but I’m not sure.

The card throwers routine, I’m going to be honest here, it was not his night. I did get to watch his routine take place and it was just one of those nights, and all you performers out there know what I’m talking about, where you are watching someone just crash on stage. Nothing was going right for Rick. I don’t know if there was a weird draft or something because I know he could easily nail all of these tricks, but it just wasn’t happening right then. He had them reset the stage a couple of times and take way more attempts than we thought he would. There was an entire extra section with an assistant in a red dress, The first take with her didn’t go swell at all. Just lots of misses. So they took the cards of the foam board behind her and tried again, this time went even worse, he accidentally cut her with 3 throws in a row.

The funny part about all of this is that he nailed the finale on the first try. He just looked at it, and BAM! Right in there. So they edited all of his routine to make it look snazzier, except for the only trick he nailed on the first try, which they added misses to make it more dramatic I guess. The producers couldn’t just let the show be, all the real drama was deleted and all this b.s. drama was added, crazy.

So I guess that leaves the Texas Crew and Easily Amused performances.

All of our costumed rehearsals were cancelled for the day, which meant two things, the cameramen had NEVER seen our performances, and we never got a stage rehearsal with lights and everything.

So they didn’t let us watch Dave’s routine, which I didn’t mind at the time because I figured I’d see it on the TV… Now I really regret it because it looked like a bunch of stuff was missing, and they were using redundant footage, so we only saw a teeny tiny bit of their routine. I know they did offstring in the routine but they never showed it.

The harness looks like fun right? It was! A bit uncomfortable, but fun as heck. I loved practicing my Hong Kong fight scene style moves in it. Chun Li ain't got nothing on my bicycle kick now. It doesn't really look like it, but my jump movements where supposed to be imitating Super Mario. Imagine a gold brick above me as I jump.

There were certain uh.. costume requirements for the harness.

Oh, our costumes looked great, right?

I was really happy with our routine for the most part, since we didn’t have any practice that day, I think it helped the routine seem more spontaneous. We really did have fun while doing it, and our energy was high. After it was done, they asked if we wanted another run and I said no, because I thought it may take away from the energy, but I kinda regret that now because I don’t think they got all the good stuff on tape. The camera guys were watching it for the first time and I think they missed some of the cool things, for instance the routine ended with me being 20 feet up in the air and using a 12 long string on a viper, with Paul doing tricks with it below me. They also messed up the lighting for both acts, we invested about $125 dollars on light up yo-yos and they never even turned the lights off. The routine was supposed to begin in the dark and stay dark until halfway through, so that was pretty messed up. All of Dave’s routine was supposed to be in black light, they had dayglow string, neon yo-yos, etc, and it never even happened.

Add to that the biggest insult, they didn’t use any of the music! The routines were all cut up weird and they didn’t use the music, so all that practice of the routines and choreography was sort of thrown out the window. We could have come out to Master of Puppets, it wouldn’t have mattered.

So, I mentioned how they made Rick hit the tricks he missed and miss the tricks he hit… They totally butchered our stuff in the weirdest ways… Did you notice they kept re-using the same close ups of Dave and I? Just to add these emotions that weren’t there. Man what was up with the part where they introduced us and they said “Gentlemen, great your opponent.” Then they took out his shaking hands and added this footage from us waiting to be miked. Those shots were from us standing around when they weren’t supposedly filming. So weird, so they took out any real drama, and added this totally fake looking drama. Basically, you could tell they had an agenda from the very start of thee show, how they were going to make people look, and all that. We were hanging out with Dave’s team the whole week, Dave and I have done business together for years, and yet there are writers or cameramen coming up to us all the time saying “So, what is up with the rivalry?” WHAT?! Stop asking that.

There was probably more rivalry between Ivan and Eigo. I think the shows biggest flaw could be that reluctance to go with unfolds naturally, and stick to a preconceived idea. The talent is high, but they twist whatever happens into something else. Make a good performer look bad, create false emotions using stock footage, ignore the amazing things that happen right in front of the camera.

Blah blah blah. I’m not bitching, seriously, I’m just giving extra info for those who care about the process of the show, and the performers involved. Of course I’m bias and stuff, but I think it’s a pretty interesting story. The end result is that all of us involved are so grateful to be a part of this. It was a huge thing for our sport and for each of us to have a chance to come out there. I felt personally that we did the best we could do, we had an awesome time filming it and hanging out, and hopefully everyone will see extra performances out of this. I’m sure Dave will have some cool new kids come to his club, I’m hoping to meet more yoers in the area, and maybe more folks will check out some of my comics and music and stuff.

added: And just to show how yo-yoing can enter the pop culture vocabulary for a day or two, check this vid out

New date for Master of Champions

2006-06-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hello cool world,

I have just heard from the ABC executives that our show date has been officially moved to July 6th!

So, watch it this Thursday if you like, but be sure to schedule a free evening for the 6th, and might as well go ahead and request the following day off from work to... Cause your just gonna stay up all night watching it over and over again on your TiVo.

Word?

I'm finishing up the last of the silkscreened and embroidered Hand of Yo shirts, if you interested, send me your shirt size (keeping in mind that American Apparel is just a little smaller than other tees) and I'm expecting a new yo-yo in the Doc Pop Store any day now.

Word.

Thursday Thursday Thursday

2006-06-19T16:40:00.000-07:00

This Thursday, June 22nd, I'll be performing with DJ Marz at the Hemlock Tavern. I'm not exactly sure what we'll be doing yet, but I'm sure it'll be keen as heck. Here's a secret, if you say "Pippylongstockings" at the door, you get in for free, not kidding.

I've been informed by the producers over at ABC that our episode of Master of Champions will air on June 29th, unless the big basketball game goes on an extra week, then the show will air on the following thursday.

That being said, here is a listing from the Futon Critic with show info and a different time slot.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings.aspx?id=20060615abc03

Master of Costumes

2006-06-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

There’s a new boutique on lower fourteenth, right beside where Needles and Pens used to be*. It’s owned by Miranda Carol’s, and primarily features Miranda’s own designs, however my friend Bethanne has some jewelry there too.

For the show, I wanted our team to have some decent costumes, so I went to Ross and bought three orange shirts to work with. I got together with Miranda and discussed my idea, based on old shirt with a heart on the sleeve that I designed (that will also probably be in the show also). Amanda sewed the original shirt design.

I’m really happy with the end result, I also bought a black coat to have as a back up in case we needed it for our stunt. A heart was added to the coat as well as cool blue and orange trim.

Miranda took my heart on the sleeve idea and made it uber sexy, note the embroidery on the collar too. She also added a zipper to my pants and surged the edges of the coat with orange and blue thread.

Bottom line, Paul, Auggie, and I look great in our fresh new gear, word.

miranda caroligne - a living construction boutique
485 14th st @ guerrero sf ca
open 1-7pm tuesday - sunday
415-355-1900
www.mirandacaroligne.com

* Needles and Pens moved over to where Otsu used to be** on Guerrero and 16th..

** Otsu has moved across the street from 826 Valencia.

2006-06-12T14:34:00.000-07:00

Augie, Paul, and myself are all back in the Bay Area now after a week of rehearsing and filming a yo-yo routine for ABC's new prime time TV show Master Of Champions. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the show should air on June 29th right before an NBA game.

The idea of the show is that they find people who are in the very top of their field and they have them compete against another act, then all of the finalists come back at the end of the show and a group of celebrity judges choose the "Master of Champions". The show is an hour long, and our show features a pimped out car, b-boy, karate expert, and card thrower.

The other act they matched us up against was Dave Bazan's Texas Crew (w/ Jesse Garcia, Miguel Correa). Incidentally, our crew was called The College For the Easily Amused.

The show was crazy, hectic, and stressful. I'm not gonna lie, it was 4 days of mis-communications, hotel problems, waiting in hot trailers, and production problems that had us all stressed out. Both teams were jerked around, with last minute extra challenges and changes to the show. I was way out of the loop on so many things, even all they way up to when they were interviewing us for the show, I know I said some stupid stuff about hoping to come back or something, because they said something about some guests having a chance to come back later. So I'll probably look pretty silly. The week was a rollercoaster to say the least. Speaking of which, Augie and I met up with my girlfriend Shannon in LA and took a train ride back.

2006-06-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hello folks,

It's been a while, not due to a lack of things to type about, but actually because I've been overwhelmed with new projects.

First off, I will be going to LA next week to shoot some material for an upcoming show on ABC television. I don't want to talk to much about it right now, because things always change, but a camera crew will be coming to SF this weekend to shot some bio material on Doctor Popular, and then me, Paul, and Augie will be heading down to LA to compete as a team against another yo-yo squad. The show will likely be airing in early July.

Pretty nifty.

My buddy RJ has updated the site a bit, fixed some links and added some stuff to the store. I have copies of my newest comic book "Ideas" for sale, super cheap and it's 24 pages!

Next week I will be picking up special edition Doctor Popular Element X's from Buzzon. These will be recessed, big bearinged, marble blue, black metal rimmed, with bright orange pogs. Gaudy? Heck ya, that's the point!

Yes, Absolutely. is the name of a new yo-yo company headed by Phil Cox and myself, our first yo-yo, The End will be a special edition of Anti-Yo's Eetsit, featuring an awesome new anodized paint job, laser printing, silicone response, and shmoove rings. This yo-yo is about a month away in production.

For fans of Drown Radio, my music project, check out NerdcoreHipHop.org and RhymeTorrents.com for some new tracks. Drown Radio will be featured on a couple tracks on the upcoming Nerdcore Hip Hop Compilation coming out on June 6th and downloadable for free from RhymeTorrents.com. Here is a new verse and beat I did for my session on the Nerdcore Posse track. I like it... note the mouth harp.

Those of you in LA, send me a "hey howdy" if you'd like to be part of our National Yo-Yo Day hang out activities. I'm propossing a game of Miniature Yolf right here, right now.

If you live in the Bay Area and are over 21, this Sunday is Consurtium of Yo at Zeitgiest bar, this would be a good chance to wear your Doc Pop Hand of God shirts and be caught on film by the ABC film crew.

Check my calendar on www.DocotorPopular.com