Yo-yoing: A hobby

When I'm not solving mysteries in the universe, I spend a lot of my spare time yo-yoing. I have been yo-yoing on and off since the late-90's, and I picked it up seriously in 2008 as a stress relief from my studies. One nice thing about yo-yoing is that you can do it almost anywhere any time. I always carry a yo-yo with me wherever I go.

I think the reason I got hooked is the tremendous amount of progress people made to yo-yos in the past decade or so. What used to be dollar-store toys have become precision instruments. The tricks we do today are simply impossible twenty years ago.

Me yo-yoing for my photoshoot with UofT Magazine.

Yo-yoing: Competitions

Before I travelled to Calgary in 2012 to compete in the Canadian Nationals, Toronto Star and UofT Magazine wrote articles about me. I finished 3rd in the Open division, but I felt that competitive yo-yoing wasn't really for me because of the stress it created. Instead, what I enjoyed the most was seeing so many people gathering and yo-yoing in one place. I decided to focus more on developing the local yo-yo scene.

Yo-yoing: Clubs and the national association

I founded the University of Toronto Yo-Yo Club in 2011 (now defunct; see our club video), and our club performed on stage in many events in and out of campus. I still do freelance performances from time to time (if you'd like to have a yo-yo feature in your event, feel free to contact me). After I graduated, I focused on the Toronto Yo-Yo Club where I organized monthly gatherings to bring local enthusiasts together.

In 2013, I became a board member of the Canadian Yo-yo Association. The association's goals are to promote yo-yoing and to regulate competitions across the country. I organized the 2014 and 2015 Eastern Canadian Regionals, the first major yo-yo competitions ever in Toronto, which attracted about 30 contestants from all over Ontario, Quebec, and US. In March 2016 I organized the 2016 Canadian National Yo-yo Contest in Toronto, which is the first Nationals held in Eastern Canada in seven years!

         

Two organizations I'm actively involved in: The Toronto Yo-Yo Club and the Canadian Yo-yo Association.