Thread: Nats Competitors

Hi,

I was looking over the winners of the nats and didn't really find any familiar names atall apart from cody taylor and jack rinca.

Where did the members of Team YYJ and Team Duncan place?
Also who is Augie Fash and does he post on message boards?

maybe your the one out of the loop

Augie won Cali States last year. hes fully sponsored by Yo-Yo Factory

2nd 1A was Paul Han, been around for ages. hes also in YYF

3rd was Mark Montgumery (sp?) was on yomega for a long time, won AP last year, been palcing at contest for a wile

YYJ didnt do that well this year. yoyofacorty seems to be rising to the new contest leader position

Duncan Crew ripped it up in 5A thou. 2 of the top 3 spots (me 2nd Ringca 3rd)

actually, yoyofactory members are kicking arse, but with YYJ yos. it makes me sad to see that YYJ just keeps winning. we need a new company in the mix to win

what yo was augie using? The guys arms were waving about faster than E. Honda's 100 handslap so I couldnt see.

Who is John Ando sponsered by?

augie used a DM and ando is sponsored by yomega

e-honda!!!! i used to kick butt w/ him in super nintendo lol

john is yomega... im pretty sure

augie used dark magic

its not yyj's fault theyve found a perfect nitch for themselfs. all ya need to do is clear the bearing and ya got an unresponsive yo-yo. most yo-yos ya got a mod a bit to get nice and unresponsive.

yyf yo-yos are very nice thou. its jsut that most of the yyf guys have been throwing yyjs for a year or so now, so its a hard transition

Just another little tidbit of info, Mark is now on Buzz-On.

Ray

YYF sponsored kids using YYJ yoyos to win. I was always under the impression if you were sponsored you used their Product. I know it was that way in skateboarding. If you could not use their product you would move along.
Really YYF should be embarrassed that they have their sponsored player using YYJ product in a contest. Also very ticked off at their players for not using and adapting to their product. If I was YYJ I would put on their web page "YYJ YoYos win more contests with other teams players" or "YYJ the YoYo of choice of other teams players"

DaVinci 84:
I have been going to contests since 1999, but I rarely get into freestyles due to nervousness and being terrible at compulsories. I have been on Team Yoyo Factory for a little over two months. Just in case you want to check out any of the freestyle videos, I won CA States last Sep, placed 4th in the Bay Area Classic this year, and won Y3A this year, Yomega's contest. The CA State freestyle is on Sector Y, which is apart of a different store. Because of that, I don't think I should post the link. The BAC freestyle is on www.x-project.us. Unfortunately, none of the Y3A freestyles were put online.

Paul Han (2nd A Div.) is an incredible player who has placed numerous times in both Worlds and Nationals, as well as winning the Bay Area Classic multiple times. He used to only compete in Double A, but in the past year and a half, has changed over to mainly competing in Single A. He used to be on Team High Performance, and was then on Team Yomega for quite a while, before switching to Team Yoyo Factory.
Shane Karan (1st 5A and 4A Divs.) has been playing for years. He used to be on Team Yomega, but left and has been a free agent until now. He used to play mainly AA, but started playing Freehand and Offstring heavily last year, I think. He's also a very good single A player. He's progressed incredibly fast in my opinion in the last year, and is an extremely well rounded player.
Seth Peterson (2nd 5A) is on Duncan crew, and is an incredible yoyo modder. (As well as yoyoer obviously :) ) He helps run the Pretty Boy Spinners site and team
John Narum (3rd 4A) is on Team Yoyo Jam, and this is the first year that I have seen him freestyle. I think he has even been on Jay Leno, or a similar late night show. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong)
Masahiro Tanikawa (3rd AA) won US Nationals in 2001, placed 5th in 2002, 4th in Worlds 2003, 3rd in US Nationals 2003, and other placings I can't remember. he's been on Team Yomega.
Pat Mitchell (2nd AA) placed 2nd last year, 3rd in 2001, has won the CA State Championships numerous times, 2nd at Y3A this year, as well as other placings that I can't remember all of. He's been on Team Yomega.
John Ando (1st AA) placed 2nd in 2002, and 5th I believe last year. He also placed 4th at Worlds this, and I'm sure has other placings that I can't think of at the moment. he also has been on Team Yomega.


By the way, I hope you're only comparing E Honda's speed to me, not our different physique's. ;)

Slotsurfer, I do not believe there is any reason to attack anybody. I've only been on Team Yoyo Factory since early August. Ever since I have been on the team, it had been Ok'ed that I could use another company's product this year at Nationals. The main reason is quoted below, but here are also some other ones. As a side note, I wanted to use Yoyo Factory product at Nationals, and I did use FAST's for the 5A preliminaries and the 5A final freestyle.
However, some main things that I was concerned about was that Yoyo Factory's aluminum yoyo's, although they are fantastic yoyos, just do not have a large amount of rim-weight. Normally this would not be too much of an issue, but I do a lot of fast tricks which pull the yoyo out of plane. Since there is not a whole lot of rim-weight to keep the yoyo stable when pulling the yoyo out of plane, it caused the sleep time to go way down, and mess up my freestyle a bit. Because of this I was going to use modified FAST's, that have more rim-weight, but they're not the best at grinding.
Even though I can hit nearly all of my tricks on modded FASTs and Grind Masters and Monsters at home, the added detrimental effects of nervousness, and of not having spent much time practicing with the yoyos, would harm my freestyle.
I would be using yoyos that I have not had a whole lot of time to practice on, where as I have been using Yoyo Jam yoyo's since 2000. I did not use Yoyo Jam's as a crutch; I am easily able to use other yoyos. However switching to another company's yoyos weeks before a major contest, after practicing my freestyle ticks for months on other brands, would not be a wise decision.
Another reason that I did not use Yoyo Factory yoyos for A, was that, for my freestyle I had a couple tricks planned where I would pick up the yoyo for a side grind. I cannot do that on any of the Yoyo Factory yoyos, unless I did it on the aluminum yoyos without side caps. Playing with the aluminum yoyos without side caps lowered the weight of the yoyo, and therefore lowered the sleep time further.
I discussed these things with Yoyo Factory, and I made sure that I could use another company's yoyos. This decision, by far, was not my first choice, but was one made out of necessity. I realize that it probably does not look favorably on my own, or even the companies reputation, but as I said above, it was a decision out of necessity, not one made out of personal character, integrity, or loyalty. It was not that I do not like their yoyos or the company. The people at Yoyo Factory have been very kind to me, and their yoyos are easily among my favorites. I am greatly looking forward to all that Yoyo Factory is going to do in the coming year/s, and it will almost surely be massive in my opinion. :)
Also, because I won the yoyo Jam award, and I am Team Yoyo Factory, it was decided (After thinking over a very good idea from a smart friend), that the prize will be donated to the National Yoyo Museum.

Here is a quote from Ben McPhee, the Product and Brand Manager of Yoyo Factory.

"At he start of the year we begun planning for 2005 when we
will have our competition line ready. A big part of the
competition line will be putting it in the hands of the
best players. So we looked at who we thought would dominate
yo-yo play in 2005. A few weeks before worlds we found out
MOST of the players we wanted to support next year could
not financially pay their way to worlds... so we helped out
(despite the fact we didnt have the product ready) Although
they didnt dominate at worlds this year they did a good
enough job that we wanted to continue supporting them for
nationals (where they took 4 out of the top 5 in Single A).
In 2005 when we have the proven 'best' players fronting all
new technology the revolution will be in full effect and
all these companies will be scratching their head as to why
the re-release old designs and release the same yo-yo in 20
slightly different shapes."

it comes down to this:

its between the sponsor and the player. its none of our busness.

Originally Posted by Augie

Shane Karan (1st 5A and 4A Divs.) has been playing for years. He used to be on Team Yomega, but left and has been a free agent until now.

By saying "until now" do you mean he's sponsered again?

Ray

Evan Nagao was the kid on Leno, not John Narum

Augie,
I was not making a personal attack on you. I am glad you won the 2004 Nats.From what I saw on the team YYF photo you were not expecting to win till 2005.You did a smart thing giving YYJ award to the Museum.
Saber started this whole thing

actually, yoyofactory members are kicking arse, but with YYJ yos. it makes me sad to see that YYJ just keeps winning. we need a new company in the mix to win

For me it surprized me that YYF did not make you play with their yoyos.Or supply you with properly modified yoyos to use at Nats.
I use to do Freestyle skateboarding we would have freestyle routines and get use to doing our own tricks.All of us would would modfiy the boards to our shape or how we like it set up. If you were lucky to be on Powell Peralta or Vision they would cut you your shape put expermental on the bottom or silk screen some other models graphics on it for the team riders. We would not use other companys equipment/clothing/shoes in contests.We would just move along to the other team or be independent if we found out we did not like the product they manufactuer. This is the point of view I am looking at it from my own life experience.

Ray of Evil; I have no idea what Shane is going to do about sponsors, I just meant that he's not on any teams that I know of at the moment. I'm guessing he might have a few offers though :)
Oh yeah Nathan, you're right; I never got to see the episode so I wasn't too sure.
Hey Slotsurfer, sorry I didn't mean attack...sorry about that. Hope I didn't sound like too much of a jerk.
I think alot of the reason Team Yoyo Factory could use other brands was I believe that the Team wasn't originally going to be p and running until early 2005. The company just might not have been as well prepared as it would like for the competition team, partly because of switching soon before big contests. I think another part of it was that maybe Yoyo Factory thought that making players switch yoyos so soon might harm the players freestyles, so that might have been another tradeoff.
Just to let you know, I was never expecting to win Nationals this year or next year; it took me completely by surprise when I won :) Ben put that picture up as a joke.

Holy Olsen Twins! I just had a reply from Augie Fash! Augie Fash as in the United States Yo Yo Champion!

Ok...so your not quite Hollywood, but dam I think its a priviledge to talk to you.

Augie how long have you yo'd and how many hours on average do you practice a week? I too would hands as fast E Honda's and yourself, is there any other hobbies/techniques I can take up (apart from the obviers) that will improve my speed?

That's one of the awesome parts about yoing. Unlike other sports and hobbies, the pros are just normal people, who will talk to you and give you tips or whatever. Just here at theyo, we have JD as a mod, Augie, Spencer Berry, Yuuki, Steve Brown, among others. It's cool being able to have a conversation with a player that has inspired you.

Ray

Yup just what I was thinking Ray. Shame Thierry Henry doesn't post on the soccer boards I go on, or Markus Naslund post on the Ice Hockey boards I go on. But then there on £100,000 a week so thier probably out playing poker, having girls dance for them and snorting snow.

Seriously...I love yoing just asmuch as Soccer and Ice Hockey and Its only natural to get dam excited when you meet or talk to one of your idols. I think JD is probably my favourite yo'er. Not because of who he is or that he has his own yo yo. Just because I dont know anyone in my area nor have I ever yo'd properly with anybody before. So when I feel like giving up and throwing my DM out of the window. I'll watch 'Hitman The Final Chapter', or 'Grindslave'.

Surely hope within a year I'll get good at single A and maybe meet some of you guys.

Haha, exactly. Whenever I get pissed off, I watch a vid, and get inspired then usually learn some sort of new trick and get back into it.

Ray

ya know... now that augie is responding to this, why exactly is YYF not making you use their yo's??? i find that a little bit odd. i can understand them letting you use mods but totally differen't companies???

For the eighteenth time, the current YYF team is the 2005 contest team. According to Ben, the YYF contest line will be coming out in 2005 and that's when the players will start having to use YYF yo-yos. Ben just decided to help the team with Worlds and Nats this year because he saw great potential in them (and rightly so).