The Yo-Yo Is on the Upswing

The yo-yo is like disco: Both keep coming back, again and again.

“There seems to be a yo-yo craze going on,” says Sarah Lawton, who works at the Game-a-Lot toy store here. “We’ve been told that you can’t get a yo-yo anywhere because they’re so popular.”

The rejuvenated popularity of “yoing”--which has swept America several times since the toy first was brought here in the 1920s--was evident in the smiling cherub faces that gathered recently at the second annual Yo-Yo Extravaganza, where amateur and professional “yoers” demonstrated their skill.

“It’s definitely a cool fidget toy,” Lawton said as she sent a yo-yo spinning through the air. “It’s something to occupy your hands, and it’s even therapeutic.”

Taylor Randall, 13, was deeply involved in this “therapy” as he twirled his newly purchased yo-yo with complete concentration. “I really wanted to get a yo-yo because everyone else I know has one,” he said.

“It just gets addictive,” he said. “You figure out one trick and you think it’s the best thing in the world. Then you learn another one and that’s even better. Pretty soon you just can’t stop.”

Charlie Yo-yo--that is his legal last name--would agree. He’s been yoing for more than 20 years now and he’s still going strong. Yo-yo said he was so swept up in the yoing craze of the 1950s that he decided to make a career of it. He works for the Omega Factory, which manufactures yo-yos. To his delight, he travels the country promoting the toy and the company, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“We’re teaching kids the Zen of the yo-yo,” he said. “You can’t let the thing just drop; you’ve got to bring it back up. That’s what yoing is all about, finishing the task.”

Yo-yo is a busy man. After demonstrating his art at the Extravaganza in Santa Cruz, he was off to Seattle for a summer of educational yoing.

“It’s amazing. The yo-yo was invented in the Philippines, where they used them as weapons to kill snakes in the fields,” Yo-yo said. “Then it suddenly became a toy.” He said he is glad the weapon became a toy because, like Lawton, he believes it has healing properties.

“It’s great because it’s so relaxing,” he said. “It’s absolutely the most stress-free sport, and anyone can do it, no matter how old they are.”