Illawarra Yo-Yoers were stringing out on Wednesday 4 January 2024 at the Kiama Farmers’ Market. At least 4 younger locals were showing off their best tricks to the general public.

‘Kiama Yo-yoers’ formed last year on Facebook and grew into the ‘Illawarra Yo-yoers’ later last year.  

The words Yo-Yo mean ‘Come, Come,’ in Tagalog language from the Philippines. 

What is a Yo-Yo? A Yo-Yo is a pair of joined discs on a string where the disc goes up and down on the string depending on how the string winds, unwinds, and rewinds.

The Yo-Yo was invented in the Philippines, and was spotted being used in San Francisco in 1928 by Filipino native Pedro Flores by an entrepreneur from Chicago, Donald F Duncan Sr, who then marketed and popularised the Yo-Yo to the USA in 1929 and then to the world.

The original Yo-Yos were made of wood, then plastic in the 1960s, and then metal in the 1990s. The first modern Yo-Yos were made in the town of Luck, Wisconsin, up to 3,500 a year, and is known as the ‘Yo-Yo Capital of the World.’

The town of Chico, California has the biggest Yo-Yo in the world at 116 kilograms and is in the Guiness Book of Records. Apparently it can function as a Yo-Yo on a chain off a large metal crane.

NASA discovered in 1985 that microgravity in space changes the behavior of Yo-Yos, so they don't ‘sleep’ which is where the disc spins on the end of the string and doesn't come back up. 

The online Museum of Yo-Yo states that the Yo-Yo has been seen throughout Europe in various forms and was probably invented in China. In pre-Revolutionary France, they were called ‘emigrette’ and a painting in 1789 shows future King Louis XVII holding one when he was four years old. 



There is also an Ancient Greek vase that shows a Yo Yo.

However, the big innovation of the Flores Yo-Yo from the Philippines was that the string was looped around the axle rather than directly attached, which allowed for a large number of tricks. Previously, hunters in the Philippines used a larger version to hunt animals.

The challenge for Yo-Yo aficionados in 2024 is not only to master the many tricks that already exist, but to create their own unique tricks.

Brandon Vu of Hunters Hill in Sydney popularised the Yo-Yo in Australia in 2014. One of the big changes before 2014 was the introduction of a bearing inside the Yo-Yo, which can allow the Yo-Yo to spin for up to 11 minutes. 

The Australian Yo-Yo Federation runs the Australian National Yo-Yo Championships every year and is part of the International Yo-Yo Federation. While the sport is not that popular in Australia, countries like Japan, Korea, the USA, Vietnam and China, you can find a large number of very skilled trick masters.

The Australian National Yo-Yo Championships in 2023 were held in Leichhardt Sydney at Martin Hall on 8 July.

One of the newest and most popular tricks is the DNA, (previously known as the Tornado Bind) where you hold the Yo-Yo passively in your finger and then manipulate the string to make the shape of a DNA string, the illusion of two strings crossing over each other in a long bow shape. 

The trick was invented in Iceland more than 10 years ago and went viral when Yo-Yo legend Gentry Stein posted a Youtube video of the trip which quickly went viral. 

The trick is now as well known to the general public as the walk the dog trick. 

If interested, check out the Illawarra Yoyoers Facebook group, at Illawarra Yo-yoers and maybe go to a meetup and learn some tricks.