iTopSpin
Current Posts => Latest Spin => Topic started by: ta0 on August 12, 2013, 07:20:34 AM
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Of all the memories of worlds, which was in many ways a breakthrough contest, the most indelible is the camaraderie between all the different nationalities. Salvador (Ketzaltlipoka), Omar (pplgrande) and myself were in full translating mod, but that was not enough. Many had crash courses in either English or Spanish (including Mexican and Colombian idoms). Austen and Martha even conducted what may have been the first flirting using tops and an iphone translator (Austen ended up throwing big Colombian tops and Martha tricking US tops). I don't remember seeing so much bartering and gifting of spinning tops and souvenirs. S8 tops (even Sophias), large Colombian tops (even the ones used in the freestyles), the new Cometa Turbos with metal rings, Trompo Grandes, Tshirts, etc., changed hands like crazy.
Lots of more reporting coming soon.
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Some incredible sights from worlds:
Seeing Salvador, long hair, sleeveless, with a large bat amulet pendant, come out of customs at the Orlando airport. He was followed 45 minutes later by the Colombians and then we found Gus and Carlos Solis by the shuttle area (they were waiting for the rest of the Cometa team that had missed the connection in Miami). I had to pinch myself. Having all of them in Orlando was like a dream.
Watching the Colombians throw their traditional tops with super-long ropes on the worlds stage (but hoping they did not aim towards the judges table!).
Taka taking the initiative to teach tops to some Japanese players while we were having the target combat.
Little Martha boomeranging Autograph on her first try. I am not sure who of the two weighs more.
Gus jumping in the center of a circle of two dozen hard core yo-yoers that were doing a throw-down after the awards ceremony, and getting them cheering with his combos of top tricks. Something like that had never happened before.
A Taiwanese fellow (who got his name?), dressed in traditional Taiwanese garb, trying an S8 top (he already knew how to throw tops) and learning new tricks.
The face of Mark Hayward when Gus challenged all of us to a boomerang (hand-duration) contest, giving himself a full 20 seconds handicap, and beating us hands down! Several times in a row. He was using a standard Cometa top with no weight ring (still hand, no regens) and we (including Salvador, Mark and myself) using much heavier tops and longer strings.
Salvador teaching tops, what for him necessarily includes top-philosophy, to many players in awe of his skills, including a Malaysian, a Japanese (or Taiwanese ?) guy and many others. He could start a cult if he wanted.
Takeshi doing top tricks at the Duncan show in Downtown Disney. Guess who of the 6 international Duncan demonstrators got a line of kids after the show . . . ?
Dale Oliver's face when Salvador in the corkscrew challenge achieved a 10-wrap using a fixed-tip Premier Jumbo top.
A 4 inch plastic and steel top coming from the Cincinnati labs. And a 2nd one. And then a much larger blue version. Wow! Damn if they don't play well!
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PS: It seems I lost my camera >:( But we had a lot of people taking photographs, so there should still be plenty posted.
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Austen's translator app was fabulous! I was there when he was discovering how handy and useful it was. He is no dummy. He used it a lot around our spinning area and perfected his technique before using it on Martha! They were cute together. You cannot help but fall in love with her giggle. The clincher was when she boomeranged Autograph and began laughing and dancing! There have been a lot of smiles and great reactions from people when they finally catch it but hers was a topper.
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Here are the official results.
2013 Spintop Freestyles:
| 1 | Gustavo Castro | _ | MEX | mod | _ | 99.35 |
| 2 | Tyler Young | _ | USA | mod | _ | 99.26 |
| 3 | Salvador Martinez | _ | MEX | mod | _ | 71.23 |
| 4 | Carlos Galvis | _ | COL | trad | _ | 66.67 |
| 5 | Carlos Solis | _ | MEX | mod | _ | 60.20 |
| 6 | Alex Torres | _ | MEX | mod | _ | 57.63 |
| 7 | Martha Gallo | _ | COL | trad | _ | 41.36 |
| 8 | Tom Connolly | _ | USA | mod | _ | 23.23 |
| 9 | Mike Hout | _ | USA | mod | _ | 22.12 |
| 10 | Rodrigo Arbelaez | _ | COL | trad | _ | 16.11 |
Carlos Galvis took the special award for the best freestyle with a traditional top (solid wood top with fixed tip).
The raw results had 3 decimal points but I rounded them two 2 for the table. They probably should be rounded to 1 decimal point, which was the difference between Gus and Tyler. That is a virtual draw. Just one extra or fewer click by one judge would have switched their places. In hindsight, perhaps we should have called it a tie.
Before commenting specifically on the freestyles I want to watch them again, but I can say that it was a great show with plenty of difficult tricks, some never seen before.
I'll post sports division next.
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2013 Spintop Sports (hybrid ladder)
| 1st overall | Eli Hickerson |
| 1st 14 to 29 yr. | Eli Hickerson |
| 1st 30 to 44 yr. | Miguel Angel Chavez |
| 1st 45 to 104 yr. | Kirk Charles |
| Name | Age Div. | Score |
| Eli Hickerson | A | 40 |
| Miguel Angel Chavez | B | 21 |
| Kirk Charles | C | 13 |
| Mike Hickerson | C | 12 |
| Rene Martinez | A | 11 |
| Austen Hickerson | A | 11? |
| Dave Schulte | B | 10 |
| Tim Simco | B | 6 |
| Bryce Benton | A | 3 |
I am missing Austen's score sheet, so his score is a guess (I am sorry if I lowered).
Thanks to Bryce (YodaGuy5) for being gracious enough for participating even though he was not planning to and had not prepared. I know that Jason (jrodriguez) was planning to enter but he got confused with the time. I think that if the sports division would have been later and not the very first event Saturday, we could have got more people trying it, like Taka, for example.
I think the hybrid format worked very well, specially for the public. We did the Neff thing throughout the 1 point tricks and then we switched to players-choice with 3 misses and you are out.
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Something that was posted somewhere had the ladder at 1:00. Maybe that is what jrodriguez saw? Sorry to hear that.
I watched the whole thing but could not exactly tell how the final standings would look. All I know is that there were lots of smiles on stage and smiles in the audience. I do not think we are used to so many happy faces up there during the ladder (except when Jack Ringca is participating).
Eli was the man in this and just about everything he did all week.
How about that battle in the C bracket. Kirk did a fantastic job overcoming his hand injury. And Mike has to feel good about his efforts since he is always joking about how poorly he did in the past. Not this year as the format seemed to be helpful for him. His experience up there is also really starting to pay off.
I appreciate Dazzling Dave joining us for this. He is a natural on stage. Miguel also did well in the competition and interacting with the audience. He was hilarious!
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Gustavo's Freestyle:
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #11 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpZJ7q43-bg#ws)
You can tell he was not relaxed. He felt a lot of pressure, in part because everyone expected him to win, but also (from what I hear) because of his boss. Most of the misses were not in the difficult parts of the routine and were uncharacteristic. You can tell at the end that he is not happy and wanted to continue showing what he can really do.
At 2:11 the top actually bounces from the ceiling and comes down wobbling, thus the exclamations when he still catches it. The trick he does 2:48 (Gustavina or Indiana Jones) I have been trying to learn since I visited him last year, without success. It is easy to forget that he is using a small under $10 plastic fixed-tip top.
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The bounce off the ceiling that he caught was pretty spectacular.
I was surely glad to not have to perform under the same pressure of a sponsor. The Bikeway Bike Shop that I represented still doesn't even know that I represented them!!!
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Tyler Young
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #10 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZbJXEh04j8#ws)
Relaxed awesomeness, is how I would describe his freestyle (I wish I could sing while freestyling like he does.) A few misses but a dynamite routine. For example, the behind-the-back sun is new to me.
Salvador Martinez
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #9 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmhfEAOeZ2Q#ws)
Salvador looked really happy during his routine. He later said that perhaps he was too relaxed. It is a pity he could not complete the elaborate (crazy!) foot combos he can do.
Carlos Galvis
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lf8ZHTwgo4#ws)
How can you compare a freestyle with these tops with one with our tops? I am not sure. But that was why we had the special Traditional freestyle award. And it was so great to have this style of play in the competition!
Carlos Solis
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #7 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwoXcssfuws#ws)
The last two-top trick went over the 3 minutes and did not count. I could not help remembering Takeshi and his tangler. Carlos told me that he wanted to do a trick that the yo-yoers would feel familiar with and demonstrate to them that similar things could be done with tops than with yo-yos (but personally, I don't share that approach).
Alex (Alejandro) Torres
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTC4dNVayg#ws)
Very good first-time freestyle.
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Martha Gallo
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2zPK20wdDA#ws)
First female we have had since Val retired. Nice to watch. In the main contest in Colombia (Caldas) they can get 50 girls competing!
Tom Connolly
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uY1T6ZZpsI#ws)
This time he volunteered at the last minute without any pressure from us (well, there may have been a "sponsorship" T-shirt from YYJ involved). It is always fun to watch him on stage.
Mike Hout
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWCj4W_Z5yo#ws)
If we could consider the overall difficulty, regardless of the fact that this was a top contest, we would have had to give him a huge score. Anyways, big points for going where nobody has gone before. I wish I could have looked at the faces of the public (Mark could and he says they were with the mouths open).
Rodrigo Arbelaez
World YoYo Contest 2013 in Orlando - Spinning Top Player #2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68feuijW8RA#ws)
The apparent string snag he has at 1:10 is actually a top-like-a-yoyo trick that he later showed me (but at the time I assumed is was just a bad throw). Singing and dancing :) If I ever freestyle again I will try to lip sing: it is nice to see a player who looks happy on stage. And I assured you, he was more than happy to be there after teaching thousands of kids to play tops over several decades.
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We just got home from Florida.
PS: It seems I lost my camera >:( But we had a lot of people taking photographs, so there should still be plenty posted.
Did you find it? Rachel will post some images as soon as she can get caught up on her client photo work.
I think the hybrid format worked very well, specially for the public. We did the Neff thing throughout the 1 point tricks and then we switched to players-choice with 3 misses and you are out.
Actually 2 misses.
I agree about how well the format worked. We could hear crowd reaction from stage.
It is a thrill to get third overall, even if rather humbling to score less than 1/3rd of Eli's winning score.
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What i can say now... i really want to be with all of you, so many good and crazy people from every place of the planet, is something i dream since i start to throw a top. Tyler... i write to him, I'm realy proud of his passion, his play but the best thing is how he enjoy and shares the spintop play. Everyone in competition is a champ, i like them all!!!
Maurizio
P.S. still surfing the forum, drawing on cad and planning the future of Strummol8
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Videos! Where did you get these videos? This is terrific. I thought I would have to only imagine what I did (and let it get better and better like a fish story).
Thanks for your kind words about my freestyle. It was the culmination of a year of work. Still, I could do very little up until the last few weeks and then very inconsistently. The under the leg while idling was something that was going so badly I was going to leave it out. But while I was up there I said to myself "Where is your courage?" and it ended up being the turning point of my routine. The upside down tricks seldom go this well and to have it be the finish, plus putting everything together.......I was stunned. Still, I could not sing like Tyler!
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Videos! Where did you get these videos?
The youtube uploader wrote:
Spinning Top is really awesome!!! Everybody is so fantastic!
We're from Taiwan. Thank you for watching.
;D ;D ;D
Did you find it? Rachel will post some images as soon as she can get caught up on her client photo work.
That will be great. I still hope my camera appears. If not, there should be versions of most of the pictures I took in other cameras, but I may lose some of the ones for the Figaro Gallery :'( I know Tyler's dad took him photos with Figaro, and there are also photos of Figaro with the Colombians and the Mexican players. But I am not sure if there were other photos with Bryce and Jason.
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Sorry about your camera. I know you have worked hard for the specific shots you want.....especially the Figaro gallery. Hope it turns up!
How exciting to have some top spinning enthusiasts from Taiwan!!! That is a big surprise and my big smile of the day.
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I think Gustavo is the best in the WORLD.
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How many people can have (what they believe) is a real subpar performance and still win? The Earl has to bow down to the King and say "long live the King"......but there are some seriously impressive young royals out there!!!
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We made it back from Orlando at Midnight on Sunday. My wife, Eli and Austen had to be at work and school at 7:00 am Monday morning. They were tired all day Monday. Eli, Austen and I had a great time at Worlds this year. This in my opinion was the Best Worlds for Spintop Action. I really enjoyed the different styles of play and spintops from Colombia and Mexico. This Trip to Orlando influenced my oldest son Austen to learn Spanish. (I Wonder Why ;D ;D ;D). Don't know yet what we will do for next year, but Prague is out for us. $$$$
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How I love the video. Thanks so much for posting them. How I wish I could have been there just to meet the world's best top spinners. :) :)
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I think Gustavo is the best in the WORLD.
It is not just that Gus is considered by many, including myself, the best player ever. Much more important that his skill performing tricks, is the fact that he is the father of the current Mexican style of play which is becoming the dominant style world wide. He has invented a large number of the paradigm tricks of this style.
The corkscrew challenge continues to be be a highlight of worlds. I just wished I had started at a higher wrap count than 5, as the challenge went on for well over 2 hours! Unfortunately, I did not keep a score sheet, but I believe competing were: Eli, Austen, shootist, czyoyo, The Earl, pplgrande, Mark Hayward, Takeshi, Salvador, Gus, Kirk, and myself. Am I missing somebody? We also had some audience (Dale, Val, czyoyo's mom, and others who left early). The Colombian contingent was shopping for souvenirs and the Cometa team had gone for a late lunch, except Gus who prefers to be hungry but throw tops.
Salvador insisted in only using a Premier Jumbo top and completed 10 wraps! :o That is now an official world record for fixed tip. He never tried 11 wraps as on his practice throws on the side he could not do it.
Gus used a new Cometa turbo (bearing) top with metal ring for the first 10 wraps. By then the top did not seem to spin well and he switched to a borrowed Giulia and made 13 wraps, the old record.
Omar, Mark and myself got stuck on 12 wraps. My Throwback completed the corkscrew without problem on the 3 tries, but I always missed the exit. I should have switched to a longer string. By the way, everybody had a laugh when I slapped a top out of Mike's hand because I considered he had to bail out on the attempt and he wanted to continue.
Eli always volunteered to go first and until the 15th wrap count he did not have any misses, always a corkscrew with perfect form. I hear he had practiced for a year and it showed. He was the first to tie the record at 13th, break it at 14th, and again at 15th. But Tyler always refused to give up.
The new record put us back on track, at one extra wrap per year, after last year stall. From memory:
| Year | Wrap Count | Player |
| 2008 | 9 | Jon Gates |
| 2009 | 11 | ta0 |
| 2010 | 12 | Neff |
| 2011 | 13 | ta0 |
| 2012 | 13 | Omar/ta0 |
| 2013 | 15 | Eli/Tyler |
Tyler will take the trophy to Prague, so it will be waiting there for a new attempt at breaking the record. It would be great if Jim, the donor of the trophy, could join us.
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It is always a challenge to get the top spinners together for anything but the corkscrew competition does a great job of pulling people together and pulling for each other.
"By the way, everybody had a laugh when I slapped a top out of Mike's hand because I considered he had to bail out on the attempt and he wanted to continue."
I guess I wasn't laughing. I couldn't figure out what was going on. Ta0 was saying something to me during my attempt but when I compete I often tune out all the other noise and distractions.
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These videos are much better than the live feed which has already been taken down. Thanks to our mystery Youtube friend cliffstar0427 from Taiwan whose only uploads from the whole contest are from the spintop freestyles. :)
It is great to see yothomas play Autograph on stage again this year and cliffstar's video is good enough to read some of the names as Tom prepares.
The video of Carlos Galvis is the first time I can really see what is happening during the trick where the finger tracks the string under the top and pops the top a little as it passes (don't know a name for this) that he demonstrates starting at 2:25. He rotates with the precession as he play the crown knob and then can stop rotating as he alternates between the crown knob and the tip. Very nice!
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Actually, I did not compete in the corkscrew challenge, just hanging out and watching was pretty cool.
Much, much more cool is the fact that while Gustavo was practicing a dozen wraps in the hallway, he took the time to coach me. With his help I was able to land my first 3 wrap corkscrew and repeat it several times. I did not get to do it on stage in sports division as I fumbled an easier trick and got eliminated.
Thanks Gus!
Kirk
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We had just two tops entered in the Top Mod contest. It is a pity there were not more,
I was so overwhelmed with all that was going on, I did not pay attention to how to enter. I would have entered my plastic Koma style top. It is not very pretty but it spins very well. A gentle throw will give it a minute and 45. I guess if Gus threw it it would still be spinning. :D
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One of the Cometa guys (I think Humberto) gave me a turbo car. I just threw it tonight with the goal completing of a new (for me) trick that I saw Gustavo teaching a yoyoer after the awards. Merry Go Round to Upside Down Merry Go Round to hand. Thanks to Jorge's coaching, I was able to understand what Gus did and do it in my own home!
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It was defenetly alot of fun, this year was amazing, very glad to meet more people and see old friends
I would like to thank everyone for coming to orlando but specially Jorge, I want to tell you that your effords in the trompo community it is much appreciated
Salvador and I were talking on the way to the airport and we very much agree that without you, Worlds were just not be the same, trompos might not even be there at all
Thank you for making it all happen
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Following last year example, the other top was not entered by the maker but by the owner without the maker's knowledge. It was Johnm's 5" HDPE Jumbo. See the description on this thread (http://www.ta0.com/forum/index.php/topic,2967.0.html).
The rivals were in different weigh classes so the competition was unfair: the heavy weight won (I have a medal for you, John :) )
Sneaky guys.
The weight classes reminds me to ask, were all the large Colombian tops made by Don Antonio or are there other craftsmen making them in that/his style?
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Thanks for your kind words Omar. The truth is that we need everyone's help as we are not yet above the critical mass were this would just sail by itself.
Sneaky guys.
The weight classes reminds me to ask, were all the large Colombian tops made by Don Antonio or are there other craftsmen making them in that/his style?
Actually, all the large tops they used were made by Rodrigo's son (I need to get his name). The tips of the ones they used on the freestyles have the slight neck we had seen in recent videos. By the way, Carlos gave Omar his largest top (can you weigh the top? how long is the rope? can you measure it?) and Austen got the same from Martha. Although I salivated for those, I cannot complain as I got the second largest from Martha, with a dedication.
The space in front of the entrance to the main ballroom was separated with ropes and wall dividers and marked as yo-yoing zone. According to Greg last year the hotel received a complaint from a guess who was hit by a yo-yo. But as tops are not yo-yos, we never threw there >:D The space on the other side of the divider and in front of the second ballroom was specially good for practicing Colombian style throwing. You started with a smaller version (they brought all sizes) and you built your throw up to the one Carlos used. Actually, even Martha threw the largest size for the first time. However, I don't think any of us used all the rope length, as Carlos did: we wrapped a full third around the hand.
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The video of Carlos Galvis is the first time I can really see what is happening during the trick where the finger tracks the string under the top and pops the top a little as it passes (don't know a name for this) that he demonstrates starting at 2:25. He rotates with the precession as he play the crown knob and then can stop rotating as he alternates between the crown knob and the tip. Very nice!
Weird. Carlos Solis has a great trick in his routine at 2:25 also, something very similar to a yo yo move, a split the atom double somersault thingy. Harder than it looks!
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The size, 8 1/4 inches, weight 2.1 pounds, almost a kilo, the rope is thick and measures 13feet 2 inch, or a little over 4 meters
Its a work out to throw, but im now only missing about a foot on the rope to actually boomerang the whole thing
Its crazy cause you have to jump back to boomerang it, there is no other way to do it
Alot of fun
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At last!!!!
Excuse me if I delayed a ittle into writing sth about this amazing, marvelous, exciting and so joyful, nice, wonderful, awesome, breathtaking (must I try to find more synonymous ? ) time.
I arrived the Sunday 11 Augost and I only had in my head just one thing: To sleep.
It was a rainy afternoon that Sunday when I arrived to Méxiko – Tenochtitlán.
I can´t explain myself why, next three days, I have been feeling myself completely tired out, almost exhausted, … I can´t describe it exactly…lazy, indolent, slothful, sluggish….like a combination of all these states of mind and being…slow-moving…..I had no desires to do anything at all…only to be in bed…all time in bed and sleep.
Today, Wednesday 14, I really started to get worried about this no moving three days and the thoughts that possibly it could be an illness, a serious disease.
Even tough I took a shower everyday (always ending with cold water at the end) the wishing of to go to bed all time defeated me.
I think that I overexagerated my wife’s recommendation of “take a rest”, “don´t do anything” ?
But I also thought that surely it´s got something to do with the fact that five days in Florida I almost didn´t sleep as I am used to do it.
Next weekend, I will write a very long and extensive text about this unforgettable experience.
All of you , are so nice and kind persons that I don´t want write ever so little words.
Jorge, Mike Hout, Mike and his sons Eli and Austen, Kirk and his wife, Tom Conolly, Mark Hayward, Dale and Vale Oliver, JrRodríguez, Rick, Takeshi Kamisato,
Omar…Omar, la neta, eres un guey a toda madre, cabrón!!! Eres una persona increible…ya estoy preparando tus estuches de hierbas.!!! La mera pinche bandota!!!..
Taka and his girlfriend, very nice Japanese persons, Alif from Indonesia,… excuse me if I am in this moment forgetting to mention someone else….
Jorge Alcoz, el señor Enrique y yo te bautizamos…eres…”EL TROMPO MAYOR”, when we were talking about that of this is posible mainly due to your actions, movements and efforts to spread the art of trompo worldwide, all over the world.
THANKS A LOT TO ALL OF YOU!!!!!!
Salvador.
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That's terrible about the camera. I was really excited to be in the gallery.
I get so mad that I can't hit tricks I do in my living room all the time up on that stage. I seriously did them for the Square Wheels guys right before that in the hotel and when I was practicing with the top guys. I have never been one to get up in front of a crowd and perform. I've only done it a few times, piano concerts, and punk concerts mostly. I'm getting better each time but still irritated I can't land at least the first 8 tricks consistently in front of a crowd. I was up all night with everyone having fun and got like 4 hours sleep with little to no water in my system.
Sorry I missed a lot of the stuff in the suites and the last half of the top freestyles. I was so busy hanging with all the yoyoers that I've always wanted to meet and watching freestyles it was hard to balance both. I think the way they posted the schedules and all the results was terrible. I wish he would have put more online and in various places around the hall.
Ta0 I wish you and Takeshi would have gone up for the Alternative Freestyles that were held at 2am in the other room. Takeshi told me he was but it seems at that point he just wanted to relax and sit back.
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Bryce, it was obvious that you could have done much better except for the nerves. We could see your hand shaking. But you'll soon get much better, it is just a matter of getting stage experience. I am extremely sorry about the Figaro photograph. Send me a photograph with the pose and I'll photoshop Figaro in. That will be temporarily until we meet again. There were many witnesses who saw you handling Figaro and you deserve to be there.
By the way, it doesn't seem that I will get the camera back :'( (My wife wants to kill me as there were also photos from Pablo's b-day that I had never downloaded.) So, when you can please post the photos that you have (or email them to me and I will post them).
I did not realize that the alternative stage was open for anybody. I know of some players who would have loved to jump in there ::)
Yes, Huitzi, worlds can leave you drained. I slept 16 hours straight when I got home and it is still difficult for me to concentrate in my work. Thanks a lot for coming. Many players were thrilled to meet you in person and, I can assure you, they were not disappointed, on the contrary.
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It was invitational at first, for those who didn't make it to finals in yoyoing. I'm sure Takeshi could have vouched for you or any of the top players. I think 14 - 17 people went up total. I just know that Sebby wanted to keep it to pros or highly skilled players so he could pack in as much action as possible and not have any boring freestyles.
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I can vouch for the stage struggles. It does get better, though! It seemed like I could not do anything right on my freestyle the first year. But every year after that I was closer to what I wanted to do. After seven years I had a shocker and did more than I have ever done before in practice with the unicycle. Yippee!!!
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hi folks
home in paris now
thanx for the reports and comments
i 've had this same feeling "Seeing Salvador, long hair, sleeveless, with a large bat amulet pendant, come out of customs at the Orlando airport. He was followed 45 minutes later by the Colombians and then we found Gus and Carlos Solis by the shuttle area (they were waiting for the rest of the Cometa team that had missed the connection in Miami). I had to pinch myself. Having all of them in Orlando was like a dream.
after some much time spent on this ineptt project, the behind the stage work of Larry D Jorge and me to make the things happen !!
big accomplishment !!
jim
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Thanks Omar for the Colombian top measurements.
I'll make another post in the next few days about ex-ineptt, the accomplishments and the future. But Jim is right, there was a lot of work behind the scenes to make this possible. Not just by the committee, but by people like Enrique Leal from Colombia.
I have not yet talked about the top battles >:D
The first ones took place Friday night, using tops provided at a nominal price by Rick Osbourne. These were the same wooden ones we used last year, but this time we did not reverse the tips to get the killer points (we must be getting old). But some people (Tyler, I think) asked for light bulbs . . . We started with a circle, each player throwing to the target top and becoming a target if it was a miss or if the top did not spin. We had some of the Mexican and Colombian players but this time they did not dominate. Gus was a mere mortal on this (on the other hand, Enrique Leal showed better aim than the youngsters.) We had several different winners (Omar, Salvador, Mark?, ?). Contrary to other years, the battle was pretty civilized. So after a while we changed to another game to put some more excitement: money! Actually, just a bunch of coins that we placed inside a circular motif of the carpet. Coin out is yours! We started with direct throws but afterwards we allowed big scoops and throwing from the hand. Now Gus finally started to shine. I am not sure if he or Salvador took the largest booty.
Saturday night (well, it was well into Sunday) we played "target battle". Everybody threw into an elevated platform at the same time. Last top spinning on it got 3 points, the second to last 2 points, and the previous one 1 point. You could use any top you wished, but if it was bearing you were called a cheater :D As platform we used my yellow Pelican case. I asked for no killer throws, but some people could not resist, so now it is decorated with a few little holes that will remind me worlds 2013 for as long as I own it ::)
The circle got pretty large and we had problems getting enough space to throw. At one point even Hank Friedman, joined us, who was fresh from winning his 2nd (or 3rd?) consecutive 3A title. Also Rob Tsou joined us from nowhere (hadn't seen him before), carrying the pool-ball yo-yo that gave him the mod title. Taka also joined us, until he started to teach some other Japanese to throw tops. For the first time I did well on a battle and won the first round. As in previous years, we also played a game throwing in sequence, moving the starting player one place from round to round until the circle was completed and the highest score won.
I guess this is a good place to point out that we missed Eric Wolff, who had to cancel at the last second. Fortunately, the international players have no idea of the type of things they missed taking home, or they would have been crying ;)
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Some photos taken by the Colombians (more here (https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4km6f5od17ex959/ynoFT3V2Ez#/)):
Freestyle awards ceremony:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/Worlds13/W13_freestyles-awards.jpg)
Sports awards ceremony:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/Worlds13/W13_sports-awards.jpg)
15 Seconds of Fame winners at Lucky's:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/Worlds13/W13_15secfame-awards.jpg)
The tall guy who was second may be familiar to jugglers (he did a 7 ball routine).
The Colombian players were very happy and proud of having participated.
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/Worlds13/W13_Colombians.jpg)
This photo was taken just before the first battle:
(http://ta0.com/photos/images/contests/Worlds13/W13_group-battle1.jpg)
Back row from left: Mike (shootist), Rodrigo Arbelaez, ta0, Enrique Leal, Carlos Galvis, Omar (pplgrande), Antonio (Cometa's top-man), Alex Torres
Front row from left: Eli Hickerson, Martha Gallo, Kirk, Gus, Tyler (czyoyo), Carlos Solis
More photos will come later.
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nice shots !! ;)
thanx
jim
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Does anybody else see the ghost of Mark in the back of the top photo?! :o ;D
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I see Mark and also Dale (behind Tom C)
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Here is a clip from a TV news program in Colombia (Noticias Uno):
Colombia campeón del mundial de trompo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzryrhG4DgM#)
The first presenter starts saying: "This news is for real . . ." I guess he was afraid the audience might think it was a joke (a world spinning top contest?) ::) Carlos is presented as the new world champion (well, he did get the first place trophy for traditional top, so it is technically correct), while Martha "won in the modality of best trick in 15 seconds" (referring to Lucky's contest). Towards the end, Rodrigo claims to have invented the open whip, called La Vicentina, which is a classical trick and something I did not know he had done (the name might come from the name of their town, San Vicente.)
On a second clip from the same news, Carlos and Martha say they have started practicing to defend their title in Prague:
Imagen del día Agosto 19 de 2013 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWfbVegQkv8#)
However, from what I know it is unlikely they will go (some other Colombian might).
Here is a short clip in one of the two major TV chains (Caracol) titled "Colombia campeona mundial de trompo (http://www.noticiascaracol.com/deportes/video-302066-colombia-campeona-mundial-de-trompo)".
Anyway, I am very happy the contest is giving major exposure to top play in Colombia, even if the descriptions are not very accurate.
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Wow, I missed a lot! I wasn't able to get to World's until Saturday afternoon which is why you didn't see me before. Still it was great to play a little with you guys while I was there!
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Many more photos to come. For now we are off to Miamisburg.
Just a few are posted for public viewing here.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528894311326.1073741825.178337166325&type=3&uploaded=5 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528894311326.1073741825.178337166325&type=3&uploaded=5)
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It has not been so easy to find a space to write a message on this board.
First of all, this is mainly due to the lack of time.
I connect during this week, with the purpose of to write more about Worlds 2013, and then I saw the topic about the man playing top inside the barber shop and really excited me and I couldn´t resist the temptation of to comment about him. Besides, that same day I saw Toy Story movie and I felt the same impulse to describe that I saw a top there.
Well, here we go again. I forgot to mention also the Colombian crew. It was nice to know them, and they thought I was a kind of sorcerer when I assured them that their passports were going to appear again in a short period of time, and, so it was.
Sometimes it was a real, an authentic difficulty, to talk with them and ta0. Jorge with his so difficult porteño accent and pronunciation, and the Colombians with a lot of strange and unknown Colombians words.
I felt a little bad about some mistakes I made on the stage, but, not even when I do it almost every day, I do it perfectly well all times. Many times I fail, and that happens when oneself you lose the concentration. Anyway, It wasn´t too bad. I need to improve next one, in Praga 2014.
Mike Hout, thanks a lot by the book, and also by choosing me to be one of the owners of one of the John Markus´s big tops. Thanks also by the nice conversations we had. You are good with Spanish, don´t give up!
John Markus, Let me tell you, that, although I don´t know you personally, You, as Mike Hout said, are not only a person who only plays top, but also loves tops. I do love tops too. Since the first time I saw in the Mike´s hands that red big top, I immediately fell in love with it. I can´t promise to record a video with it (this is because I lost my camera the last year ´s summer) but someday I ´ll do.
I really want to thank that marvelous present, John, is an high-level top. Red, like the colour of blood. Hollow, like my head, and with the shape of my heart. Thanks!!!! Thanks a lot!!!
Mark Hayward, you are so nice and kind person. It was a pleasure to meet you also. I hope you are having success with that wheel of fortune. By the way, You talk so quiet and so clear that the most of the words you say were pretty well understood by me. I think that I understand you much better to you talking me in English, than talking with ta0 in Spanish, he,he, he, he, he!!! ? (it´s just a joke, mon chier ami!!!!
Altough I know that dale and Vale Oliver don´t read this board, I want to say that to talk with them was so pleasant also.
Rick…You are a nice Mister….by seeing you with that classic suit of former demonstrator, making me think in that old time in which the yoyo and trompo started to be spread.
Forgive me if I am forgetting to mention someone else. There was so much people… I can´t remember all the names…
Like a very special mention…Jim in París, Larry D. and Jorge Alcoz, thanks a lot to have make this possible….thanks by your effort, your movements, and your patience with me.
and…only remains to say…thanks to everybody, guys:::!!!!!
Huitzi-Salva
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It has not been so easy to find a space to write a message on this board.
First of all, this is mainly due to the lack of time.
I connect during this week, with the purpose of to write more about Worlds 2013, and then I saw the topic about the man playing top inside the barber shop and really excited me and I couldn´t resist the temptation of to comment about him. Besides, that same day I saw Toy Story movie and I felt the same impulse to describe that I saw a top there.
Well, here we go again. I forgot to mention also the Colombian crew. It was nice to know them, and they thought I was a kind of sorcerer when I assured them that their passports were going to appear again in a short period of time, and, so it was.
Sometimes it was a real, an authentic difficulty, to talk with them and ta0. Jorge with his so difficult porteño accent and pronunciation, and the Colombians with a lot of strange and unknown Colombians words.
I felt a little bad about some mistakes I made on the stage, but, not even when I do it almost every day, I do it perfectly well all times. Many times I fail, and that happens when oneself you lose the concentration. Anyway, It wasn´t too bad. I need to improve next one, in Praga 2014...perhaps I 'll go.
Mike Hout, thanks a lot by the book, and also by choosing me to be one of the owners of one of the John Markus´s big tops. Thanks also by the nice conversations we had. You are good with Spanish, don´t give up!
John Markus, Let me tell you, that, although I don´t know you personally, You, as Mike Hout said, are not only a person who only plays top, but also loves tops. I do love tops too. Since the first time I saw in the Mike´s hands that red big top, I immediately fell in love with it. I can´t promise to record a video with it (this is because I lost my camera the last year ´s summer) but someday I ´ll do.
I really want to thank that marvelous present, John, is an high-level top. Red, like the colour of blood. Hollow, like my head, and with the shape of my heart. Thanks!!!! Thanks a lot!!!
Mark Hayward, you are so nice and kind person. It was a pleasure to meet you also. I hope you are having success with that wheel of fortune. By the way, You talk so quiet and so clear that the most of the words you say were pretty well understood by me. I think that I understand you much better to you talking me in English, than talking with ta0 in Spanish, he,he, he, he, he!!! ? (it´s just a joke, mon chier ami!!!!
Altough I know that dale and Vale Oliver don´t read this board, I want to say that to talk with them was so pleasant also.
Rick…You are a nice Mister….by seeing you with that classic suit of former demonstrator, making me think in that old time in which the yoyo and trompo started to be spread.
Forgive me if I am forgetting to mention someone else. There was so much people… I can´t remember all the names…
Like a very special mention…Jim in París, Larry D. and Jorge Alcoz, thanks a lot to have make this possible….thanks by your effort, your movements, and your patience with me.
and…only remains to say…thanks to everybody, guys:::!!!!!
Huitzi-Salva
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Everybody enjoyed you coming to worlds.
Sometimes it was a real, an authentic difficulty, to talk with them and ta0. Jorge with his so difficult porteño accent and pronunciation, and the Colombians with a lot of strange and unknown Colombians words.
I am not sure if it is my (now greatly washed out) rioplatense accent or my lack of good diction :-\ But, relating to lexicon, I would say that Mexican Spanish is further than Colombian or even Uruguayan from standard Spanish.
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I did not realize all the subtle differences between the Spanish speaking trompo players. Interesting!
It was fun to be around Salvador and hear his unique perspective on life and top spinning. I really appreciate having him at worlds and reading his report. I do not know how it would or could happen, but I look forward to seeing him again someday!
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Slowly we are getting more photos posted of the 2013 worlds.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528894311326.1073741825.178337166325&type=3 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151528894311326.1073741825.178337166325&type=3)
You don't need to be a facebook member to view these.
More coming soon.
Kirk
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WOW!
So many really great photos!
Thanks for posting them Kirk! :)
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Yeah, keep it coming!
This one with a faster shutter could have been a great one for the photo contest >:D :
(https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1378615_10151630218186326_1162303567_n.jpg)
PS: Kyo?
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great pictures
Lucky looks so cooool !
the photo "strangled top" is great even if blurred
the zombie digger game seems to have attracted many
what is it exactly ?
thanx for the report
jim
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The digger case was full of commemorative yoyos. Turn the crank to locate the bucket. Then stop. Continue turning to lower, grab, lift and deposit in the prize chute. The last of the digger photos shows one of the few yoyo winners.
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By the way Rachel took most all of what is posted, and she edited and posted them. (I was spinning tops)