[quote=“yophosis,post:30,topic:43766”]
if by “captured” you mean “downloaded off of a website before youtube was popular and then put it on youtube when i realized it wasn’t there already” then yes, that is what i did.
several years ago that video was more inspiring to me than probably any other pure-spintop video i’ve seen (aside from how to be a player volume 2), Mr. Brown shows what can be done, and how it’s done, and the regenerations with oversized tops in particular really helped me alot to fine tune what i’d learned from ta0’s website (ta0’s website www.ta0.com is the single greatest resource for topspinning i’ve had the pleasure of visiting on the internet, i remember the written explanations of the regeneration tricks made my life much happier).
Who got you spinning tops? For me it was Jon Gates. When we were in Hawaii at THP camp, he showed me some tricks with a red Duncan Imperial spin top. The tricks were cool, but what hooked me is he showed me how to balance one so it spins smoother. Being able to tune the thing made me feel much more in control. Jon Gates everybody:
my roommate was really into yoyos, and there was this video that duncan put out called “how to be a player volume one” for yoyos and there was a volume two, which was for tops (i do believe that one’s linked in this thread), and he got that to, so i guess it was my roommate technically but really, it was Steve Brown and some skinny dude… oh wait, i mean… it was Mr. Brown, and YOU Mr. Neff.
;D
Sticking to the big tops theme for a moment, following is the largest boomerang-able top I’ve seen. It was made by Alan Gray, the guy in the first video. Alan is a master craftsman rivaled only by Eric Wolff (my opinion of course), also a very skilled player.
There are many inspirational spin top players, the trouble is finding them. They lurk in dark basements and other undesirable places. You have to wait for them to come out to some obscure juggling festival where they squint their eyes saying it’s to bright and their skin glows and stuff. The next best thing is to find a video of them, which can sometimes be just as difficult, you have to search dark corners of the internet. Our friend David Buhrmester was on such a quest, trying to find footage of Felix Avellana, member of Duncan Crew Worldwide and 2009 World Spin Top Contest Bearing Division 1st Place winner. This evening I got a message from David, it went like this:
I FOUND IT I FOUNT IT I FOUND IT!!!
Warning: also contains yo yo tricks, Steve Brown, and Patrick Mitchell ;D
That was Salvador de la Rosa. This is Salvador Martinez:
This is on Jon Gates’ you tube channel, but I don’t think this is the original upload. Anyway at the time Salvador Martinez was a street performer in Mexico. Like seriously, in the STREET while the cars were stopped at a red light. This guy has created many extremely difficult regeneration variations, and is now on the Cometa team touring in Europe.
That is a solid 5" Watts top. Easy to catch because of it’s size, fun to regenerate but does not hold spin long so you have to keep it moving pretty good. It’s not light - using one of these will give you huge pectoral muscles (Renn voice)
This video inspires me to clean up my basement. BUT it inspires you to acquire one of the finest spin tops in the world!!! The top in this video is the original S8 STB. It is smaller than the STB 2.0 but bigger than the Love. I’ve gotten better since this video was shot, but
Could one of you post a video showing a fixed tip vs. a bearing tip vs. a one-way bearing tip? I’ve always been curious about each styles tricks and whatnot.
The video above your post would be a great example of top notch fixed tip play. Lots of regenerations, wirewalkers, fast paced, seemingly repetitive to some.
Bearing tip play tends to have more set-up time for the tricks but the wow factor for people who haven’t seen it before is still there. Can’t think of a good video example at the moment…
Well, I have decided… I must take time to learn fro TAO himself. I really want to take him on his offer to learn from him tops and all. I have been messing with this wooden top I got, and I feel this urge to learn…more…and more…So yes.