Yo-yo championship:
There are new tricks every year

Coutesy of the Chico Enterprise Record:
Sunday, September 29, 2002

By DANNY BERNARDINI - Staff Writer

Walk the dog - been there. Around the world - done that. The new generation of yo-yoing is here and it is bringing tricks like the plastic whip, the double gerbil and the spirit bomb with it.

Visit Diamond Alley in downtown Chico on Saturdays and you will find innovative yo-yoers pushing their tricks to the next level. This time, the Bird in Hand yo-yo team was found tying six strings together and sleeping a yo-yo from the third story of the parking garage.

"This sport is on the way up," said Thad Winzenz, who teaches the class every Saturday behind Bird in Hand. "The trick list changes every year. There are new tricks every year."

This weekend is a bit different than most. The team is gearing up to host and compete in the 2002 National Yo-Yo Contest in City Plaza on Saturday, Oct. 5.

"This still is the premier yo-yo contest in the world. People have come from Europe, Canada and Japan," Winzenz said. "From the stage back, it's people. They're here for yo-yos."

He said the competition has put Chico on the map for yo-yos.

"You think of Chico, you have Sierra Nevada and Chico State," he said. "Now a lot of people know it for yo-yos."

Gerrard White, 15, will be competing in his first nationals, three months after he picked up his first yo-yo.

"They say I progressed real fast," White said. "I learned about the class and just started."

He now flips and spins "My Baby," his $60 yo-yo giving advice to those he learned the basics from. He recently placed in the top 10 in a state competition in San Francisco.

"You're amazed at how many people are there. It makes you want to do it more," he said. "You meet people who know new tricks. No one is going to blow you off."

He said he doesn't brag about going to competitions because he gets mixed reactions.

"I don't really tell a lot of people. They think it's dumb," he said while going through the motions of his next trick. "You get a lot of people who are stupid about it. It's a big deal for some kids."

Bob Malowney, who started the yo-yo competition at Chico Jr. High, has seen the contest grow to national level.

"There was no format, there was no contest," said Malowney, director of the National Yo-Yo Contest and owner of Bird in Hand. "We didn't want a one season fad, we wanted a sport."

To help get the word out on tricks, competitions and news, the team has put together a Web site - www.nationalyoyo.org - to keep yo-yoers up to date.

He said because of the growing technology, which now has made ball bearing yo-yo common place, children pick up a yo-yo at a young age, but now are continuing into their teens.

"Kids stay with it longer," he said. "There's a camaraderie. These kids are not going to stop knowing each other. We've captured a feeling."

Although he said he can't put it to words, there is a special feeling while using the toy. "It relaxes you. It calms you down. It's the state of yo," he said.

(Glenn Fuentes/Enterprise-Record)

Gerrard White
Practicing his tricks Saturday in preparation for next week's 2002 National Yo-Yo Contest.