Today is Dale Oliver's 80th birthday! Congratulations!
We wouldn't be here talking about tops if it wasn't because of Dale. He created the the World Spintop contest in 2000 (after starting the World Yo-yo contest in 1992) and has been a judge every single year. He made his first spintop in 1998 and for 20 years Spintastics remained a company supporting spintops (sometimes the only one), introducing new models and keeping the supply of good tricking tops. His Spinology instructional video (with the freestyle from Herman Lau) was a big reason I was first hooked to this hobby. It was an honor to be judged by him and later to share the judging table. Always fair, always positive, always creative, always fun. He is of course also a legend in the yo-yo world (60 year pro!), but I'm so thankful that he put his effort this last 2 decades in supporting and helping grow the top community. Thanks a lot DALE!
I invite you to add any reminiscences you have about Dale on this thread. I also encourage you to send him happy birthday wishes to DaleOliveris80@gmail.com.
Dale is the best! Still a great influence with tops and yo-yos at 80 years young. Very nice photo too Ta0, even if it does look a bit like a Mountain Dew ad.
Very very nice video. I enjoyed watching it. I have always known of Dale's special connection with the yoyo/top community but this video emphasized that even more and introduced to even more ways he has made a lasting impression. Yes, happy 80th indeed.....which is only 13 in scrabble and 27 in Celsius (I love that part)!!!
Here is most of what I sent Dale for his birthday.....
Sure hope you are having a great day. My youngest son Joe and I were talking about you quite a bit recently. It seems like you have been a part of our lives for quite a while - like almost 30 years. I still remember you knocking the coin off a guy's ear with your yoyo at a 1991 IJA Renegade show in St. Louis. Of course, you received a very deserving standing ovation from the large crowd!!!
Joe remembers all the time you took with him to learn some tricks and to help him place in the junior division of some early world yoyo contests. My memory is that those were in Burlington, Vermont and Rapid City, Iowa. We still have a t-shirt from you that was signed for Joe. He has donated that to the Top Hall of Fame (my garage).
Speaking of Rapid City, that is where you won the first and only foot race in your life (as you like to put it). I was there to see you doing those inside loops with two yoyos and setting a world record. It was very impressive.
As I transitioned out of joggling I got involved in tops with their historic appeal and the connection to our historic downtown of Miamisburg. You were with me the whole way and came five different years to sleep on a couch and help us with our little festival. The numbers never did go crazy, but a lot of people learned so many new things - including me!!! It led to a long stretch of participation in worlds at Orlando and even Iceland. I look back on those competitions with lots of smiles at successes and failures but always with a sense of pride for learning so many new things at an age others are kicking back. Thanks for your help with all of that.
How thrilling it was for me to see you once again at Miamisburg, and to bring Val along. It was wonderful to have a special day in your honor and to be with us for the first time nationals were not held on the west coast. I have lots of great memories from that and all the tops from Don Olney. What a weekend it was.
You have lived a very rich life. I am honored to know you. I look forward to seeing what is next for you that will make your full life an even richer one.
Happy birthday!!!
Peace and thanks,
Mike Hout
Last edited by the Earl of Whirl on Sat Apr 25, 2020 8:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Wow! 80 young years spinning the world (with ups and downs and lot's of strings attached)!
We first met in person around April 2004 when you had a school program in San Antonio and you accepted my invitation to come to my house. I don't know if you remember this, but you were the first spintop player that I ever met in person! Until then I had learned and shared videos through the internet forums. I became addicted to spintops thanks to the trick sheet that came with a Sidewinder I got in 1999 and later your instruction course on VHS. For a long time Spintastics was the only company that pushed spintops forward and you kept adding models, being creative and trying new things while other companies didn't do anything. Of course, without you there wouldn't have been a spintop contest and I wouldn't have two world titles!
A few months after I met you, I went to my first worlds in Orlando. I remember entering the big ballroom and smiling because you were there and I knew somebody. Since then we have met at worlds almost every year (except 2006 and 2008), many times in Orlando, but then in Prague, Tokyo, Cleveland, Reykjavik and Shanghai! I recall after dinner with Val in front of the river in Prague with the fireworks, the mystery food in Tokyo (your guess was eel), the cheese with bread in the kitchen of the Reykjavik hostel. I also remember fondly visiting Val and you in Dallas, discussing tops on the San Antonio River Walk, battling tops at night in Chico. Let's not forget traveling through the mountains of Colombia at unsafe speeds! It was always a pleasure listening to your stories, sharing the judge's table or just hanging around with you and Val.
I couldn't imagine when I started how much of my leisure time and energy I would put into tops during the following two decades. But it has been a lot of fun and I have now a hobby for the rest of my life and a not so small collection. But more importantly, it has let me make friends from all over the world. And you are a big part of the reason for that, my first spintop friend! Thanks a lot Dale!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Jorge
PS: I hope you are wearing your Superman, I mean Spinman, shirt!
