ChristopherK's blog

If you have paid close attention to who is battling for us on and off stage, the below shouldn't be any news to you.

Nevertheless, I cannot omit reminding you of our three latest amazing team members, each of which I am extremely proud to have with us.

The one and only Plamek

If you don't know his name, you are giving an indication when you started yoyoing :) Poland has been one of the main influences of modern tricks and skill levels, and Poland has been influenced by Plamek.
Plamek has amazed me on numerous fronts. Needless to say his trick skill levels and speed is mind-blowing if you stand in front of him when he plays. But mostly, Plamek is a person of amazing discipline, endurance, calm and sincerity. There is no bullsh*t about anything he does: Plamek is in the yoyoing community for the yoyoing. He would be able to do what he does even with a 1990 Hummingbird wooden fixed axle (almost). Hence there is pretty much nothing any yoyo maker can offer him on an equipment front. He still chose to work with us, which I am proud of. You can ask him why :)
Plamek is using the NVx at the moment, but we discussed a signature yoyo during EYYC - stay tuned.

Corli "Aspatat" du Toit

She is an amazingly good player, especially considering how fast she has learned. Corli has competed on stage a few times by now, and most recently, she has shown her talent on stage in front of Europe's crème der la crème in Prague during EYYC. Her freestyle is a must see, check it out here:
http://vimeo.com/9400731

Major thank you to Plamek for this stunning video! Plamek has by the way expressed interest to me to produce more videos under the HSPIN NETWORK, you might understand how excited I am about this.

Thanks Plamek,
Chris

a gorylla in the mountains from xela on Vimeo.
Major thanks to Xela for this stunning video featuring the Gorylla during a day skiing in the alps!

January is soon over. We have been very busy to get ready for EYYC 2010 (to which we are one of three main sponsors!!) and to get a few other projects off the ground. I want to make sure it's not February for our 2010 update.

H-Spin is hosting a new division at this year's EYYC: 3x3 Battle!

The European Yo-yo Contest is set to match up the greatest players in the world to determine who are the best in Europe. In the 3x3 Battle we do away with the clocks and the points and bring Europe a new take on the battle-style contest system that the most respected and underground contests have been using around the world.

Click article to read more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpAHTlPHqPU

Chech him out... one of the most talented players in Europe and one of HSPIN's competitors during the European Yoyo Contest 2010. Magl33to, Plamek and Shpek are our other team members sharing the same top league with Martin and competing for EYYC titles! Unfortunately, Gaberus cannot make it to Prague :(
Back to the video: I'd like to say Maritn's so good because of the yoyo (NVx) , but he's that good even without. Hm... what if I gave him a no-jive to play? I'll see when I see him in Prague in two weeks. Enjoy.

Major thank you from HSPIN for your faithful support during 2009. I look forward to 2010 with you. Two brand new models are already being assembled - how's that for a year starter!

Warmest regards, happy 2010!
Chris

In all humbleness, our anodizing capabilities are among the best out there. In spite of this, I find it worthwhile to push our skills further and share some of our findings. See below.

The NVx release has been very successful so far. I am very pleased. With it being the first official yoyo carrying our new Axle & Reponse 2.0 system (A&R2), we observed a lot of questions popping up, which need to be addressed.

--> "Can you use flowable silicone with the the NVx (and with any A&R2)?"
Answer: Yes you can.
There were concerns that the recess was too shallow. It isn't. It's 0.8mm deep and 2mm wide. That provides plenty of "wall" for the silicone to hold on to, and is narrow enough to stay "stuck" in there. We have tried this even with blank aluminum on the prototypes and during weeks of testing, the silicone did not fall out. See picture above for illustration.

Consider also: The CUT yoyo is NOT equipped with the A&R2. The recess is 1mm deep and 4mm wide. There is much less "wall" relative to the width for the silicone to hold on to, yet it stays, and many of our CUT lovers have siliconed their yoyos. If it stays in the CUT, it definitely stays in the NVx.
Tip for the CUT: Only silicone one half to avoid it getting responsive. The NVx can be siliconed on both sides though.

A siliconed CUT.

--> "Why is the hybrid steel-plastic bearing so great?"
Answer: It has the lowest friction of all bearings we have tested, and spins the longest. It is basically on par with ceramic bearings. It has shields removed to further reduce friction, low "stiction" friction between the "balls" and the cage, it is extremely durable - and affordable!
Read more: http://www.hspin.com/webpage/?q=node/1129

--> "Will my bearing cleaning solvent ruin the bearing cage?"
Answer: No it will not.

Last weekend, I invited all the guys from the network to come to London. Most things happen in the US and I have spent a lot of time with our American friends in New York and Orlando, so it was time to also do something in Europe.

We spent two days filming (major thanks to Anamorphic) for a clip, taking photos (thank you Corli!!!), discussing HSPIN, trying NVxes, the Beysick, checking out my collection of HSPIN yoyos since 1997, two great evenings in two pubs, English pub breakfast... quite a bit of rain, but from what I hear: Everyone had tons of fun.

HSPIN will no doubt change in 2010, particularily with the arrival of the BeySick and with all the input I received from the team.

Thank you. Thank you all for your support,

Chris