Most exciting journey... world moving contests in the US, summer 2008 (part 2 added)

Part 2
Another blast passed. The International Yoyo Open is over and has been most successful.

So many great people, so little time
New York is my favorite city of all. I decided to spend the days before the IYYO in New York city. Working during the days, meeting yoyoers in the evenings. It's amazing. All the cell phone numbers I have stored in my blackberry are suddenly used several times a day, because everyone from everywhere was in town, ready to meet for a drink, coffee, chat, dinner, show. McBride, Kiya, Sonny, Nick, John, Stefan, Katelyn, Lars, Pat just to name a few. The sad thing is always that there are less evenings than people to meet - and like so many times, I wished for 36 hour days, the sun to set twice per day, or the weekend to be 5 days long.

The Day
The IYYO was located at the South Street Seaport, check it out in Google Maps. Tons of New Yorkers and visitors passed the spot every moment, so it is exciting to mix the yoyo fanatics with the average passer-by. Pat has some serious MC-ing skills, and managed to excited the totally unprepared crowd quite a bit!

Even though the program was very tight, it felt like it went by very smoothly, with a lot of variation and substantial entertainment value. Punk rock reminds me of my teenage time, so needless to say, I was quite happy to see the Peelander Z performance: Entertainment mostly requires ideas combined with the will to pull something through, not necessarily years of practice, which I find quite encouraging to realize.

World class yoyoing skill was present, no doubt: The HSPIN NETWORK mingled with great players from all over the world and vice versa. The IYYO is like no other contest or event I have witnessed, and I know how much energy the Yoyonation team put into the contest, and this energy shines right through. This was the first anniversary of this event, and given the WHAM! is already has, I am very excited to see what comes next year.

Congratulations to everyone at Yoyonation: Pat, Tim, Eugene in particular.

Part 1

I am writing this blog, exhausted of excitement, as I am sitting in a flat in central Manhattan, New York, taking a few days rest and expecting another blast of an event this coming weekend. A few days rest, and then HSPIN is ready for another world moving contest and yoyo meeting! (http://yoyoopen.com)

Photos
As I was running around mostly with my video camera, I didn't take any pictures this year (though expect even sharper and crisper podcasts :). So we would appreciate, if you could share some of YOUR photos from Worlds 2008, which you can upload to the...
2008 Worlds Photo gallery (http://www.hspin.com/webpage/?q=image/tid/26).
Thank you for your contribution!
http://www.hspin.com/webpage/?q=node/add/image

Impressions from Worlds
More nations were present!
Levels of competitiveness have gone up even further, which puts additional pressure on judges' capabilities and competitors skills and creativity.
Horizontal string tricks are continuing to be explored, mostly from APAC players, and so is involving body parts for tricks to push the envelope of creativity.
AP was the best I have seen in the past 5 years, hands down... what a show!!
TV coverage was superb... a couple of million people must have seen our logo here: http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/08/03/vo.world.yo.yo.cnn
Participation was perceived as being slightly lower, which we believe should be seen as a challenge, not an indication.

Yoyos
As you might already have seen on my recent posts...
http://yoyoing.com/news/viewpost.php?post=312047
http://www.yoyonation.com/talk/index.php/topic,31967.0.html
... we decided to take some extra-specials with us. In light of opening up to digital collaborative yoyo development with the HSPIN NETWORK, we wanted to share some of our very latest concept yoyos (Gorylla 616, Gorylla 513, Gorylla 511), experimental models (Beefcaked PYRO LIGHT) and prototypes (LC prototype). Photos of all of these yoyos can be found here:
http://www.hspin.com/webpage/?q=image/tid/17.
In spite of the observed downturn in the economy, the sales of these yoyos exceeded expectations, so we don't want to miss this chance to say thank you to many very loyal supporters out there! Revenue from these sales will go directly to funding prototypes and development, especially with the outstanding feedback collected from players, without exception.
Most of those special yoyos changed owners in Orlando. Talk to me in New York if you are interested in trying some of these rare yoyos. Also, don't forget to check out the Katelyn Anton Pink PYRO LIGHT (30 pieces made): http://www.hspin.com/webpage/?q=node/450

Thank you
A massive thank you is going out to Katelyn, Noel, Drew, Gaberus and Krisgoat for their support in the past weeks to strengthen the HSPIN NETWORK, for representing HSPIN during the event, for creativity, for energizing and highly valuable beta testing development feedback for the Gorylla, LC prototype, for drawing skills and professionalism. You are outstanding!
A very special thank you to Noel for his outstanding performance of and energy put into a world class AP performance!!
Magl33to will come to blast New York with HSPIN and I am extremely excited to have him with us. Thank you's will be extended soon!
Greg, Ben, Chuck, Jake and the Infinite Illusions team for organizing a superb event!

More to come soon... see you in New York!!
http://yoyoopen.com/

/ChrisK