PHOTOS: As Wimbledon is to tennis, so is Chico to yo-yo

Tyler Rose of Ahwatukee, Ariz., competes in the 1A Division at the 2010 National Yo-Yo Contest in Chico. He did not advance to the finals. In the heart of the city, Cal State Chico provides a cultural buzz — but yo-yo gives the town a spin all its own.
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Gentry Stein of Chico competes in the 1A Division at the 2010 National Yo-Yo Contest. He finished fourth with a score of 80.06. Last weekend, more than 80 players registered in the top tiers of the free competition, while dozens vied at lower levels. The peak crowd was estimated at 2,000.
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Daniel Mizell has the audience to himself as he competes in the 4A Division at the 2010 National Yo-Yo Contest. On Oct. 2, the day of the championship, 22 players clambered off a charter bus from Portland, Ore., wearing the bright yellow T-shirts of an after-school program called Yo-Yo University.
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Friends and teammates cheer on Paul Han as he competes in the 1A Division at the 2010 National Yo-Yo Contest. He finished second with a score of 88.05. One of the judges, Hironori Mii, flew in from Japan. Mii, who runs a Japanese yo-yo company, studied business at Cal State because of the city’s yo-yo reputation.
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Yoshi Mikamoto of Lomita has two yo-yo’s going simultaneously as he competes in the 2A Division at the 2010 National Yo-Yo Contest. He finished fourth with a score of 55.50. Over eight hours, the possibilities were strung out onstage. Some players were the picture of frozen focus, barely moving their bodies as their hands moved at warp speed, executing loops and whirls, whips and hooks, slacks and suicides.
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Patrick Mitchell of Huntington Beach competes in the 2A Division at the 2010 National Yo-Yo Contest. He finished second with an overall score of 87.75. Because advancing technology lets yo-yos spin for minutes rather than seconds, tricks tend to be a lot more complicated than old standbys like “Walk the Dog.”
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Sebastian Brock holds the 1A Division first-place trophy at the conclusion of the 2010 National Yo-Yo Championships at Chico’s City Plaza. At the top of the yo-yo ladder, players are sponsored by yo-yo companies — a perk that increases their exposure, pays their way to contests and provides plenty of free T-shirts.
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Yo-yo enthusiasts practice together at Chico’s City Plaza. Yo-yos “are so universal,” said Tom Kuhn, 67, a San Francisco dentist and yo-yo pioneer. “Everyone loves a yo-yo.”
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Enthusiasts put their yo-yos through the paces in the alley behind the Yo-Yo Museum in downtown Chico. The museum contains the world’s biggest yo-yo, a 256-pound wooden No Jive 3-in-1.
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Yo-yo enthusiasts head to the lobby of the Chico Holiday Inn the night before the 2010 National Yo-Yo Championships at City Plaza. Once practice is over, players throw physics and geometry for a loop.
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Paul Hauder of Wilton, Calif., checks out the world’s largest yo-yo at the National Yo-Yo Museum in Chico. On its first outing, it was dropped from a 150-foot crane, broke loose from its thick nautical rope and plunged into San Francisco Bay.
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