The New York YoYo Club has been meeting every weekend year-round round for over a decade. With a core group of familiar faces, the club is always growing and provides folks with a fun and safe environment for anyone wanting to explore yoyo and other skill toys like Kendama! Many of their members play Kendama so they started a Kendama club as well! You can catch them at Washington Square Park between 2 -4 most Sundays. Stay updated with events and info by following the New York Yo-Yo Club on Facebook.
A little about the NYYYC, the club was founded 10 years ago by Bronx resident Joseph O’Neil with the goal of introducing people around the city to the fun of yo-yos and is run by President and state YoYo champion, Brian Melford. The club is spreading the Kendama love every weekend and they have helped dozens of players get their first Kendama and continue to introduce the game to anyone that will listen.
Be sure and check them out on IG or go to the next meetup if you live in the area!
@nyyyc
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Meet May player of the month Kellie Kawahara-Niimi; @kelli.love.art
Kellie’s partner has been playing for years and asked them to create a custom tama. Kellie decided they couldn’t paint one without knowing how to play, so they started using the kendama as a canvas and Kellie practiced in-between painting sessions.
Literally, my whole life is kendama now. It’s amazing!
Kellie’s is a huge fan of bold graphics or matte solid colors, but right now my their favorite is a sticky ash tama + ash ken. and just learned how to do ken flips.
I’m obsessed. It’s the only thing I want to practice.
“Special love to the artists and art lovers that support, encourage, and inspire us all to keep creating. It can be really scary stepping into something new, but the community has been so incredible. Big, big hugs to the new friends I’ve made. In the short time I’ve been here, I’ve seen so much kindness, friendship, and joy. I love how you hype each other up and want the best for one another. Keep that. It makes the world a better place. Also, hamsters can only blink one eye at a time.
Follow her on Instagram for more inspiration @kelli.love.art
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Meet April Player of the Month Nick Dodenhoff, from Marietta, Georgia. Nick started playing Kendama in 2011, “kendama was especially popular the high school I was attending; Cherokee. Everyone was playing it, and everyone got good enough that we were making edits. For most people, it was a fad, but for me, kendama stopped being fun.”
“Currently, one of my favorite setups is the nova shape craft ken with a saucy coral tama, that is the move. My favorite kinds of tricks right now are stalls and strings, the Sweets’ Special has a place in my heart as the first advanced trick I ever learned. My left index finger actually has a callus from ‘em, haha.”
So many shoutouts. Shoutout to Ryan Plourd for coming to my jams at KSU and introducing me to so many people. Shoutout to Christian Fraser for being the first kendama player I looked up to and helping me plan so many GA Kendama events. Shoutout to Jero for believing in me years ago and showing up out-of-the-blue to a jam just to hand me my first ever prizes for our jams (and not to mention the WHOLE GA DAMA COLLAB Ken we did years later). Shoutout to Corey Sipes for being the biggest Kendama homie ever and pushing me to get better in those early days. Shoutout to Chad Covington for giving me the roadmap to hosting great Kendama competitions. And probably most importantly shoutout to Nick Fisch, Aidan Smith, Aidan Hitz, Jay Garland, Jonah Holcomb, George Marshall, Austin Johnson, Juwan Shields, Katarina Dodenhoff, T Mac, Alissa DeCoteau, and all the Georgia homies that come out to the jams on the regular. You all are the reason I play and do what I do for GA Dama.
“Georgia has one of the best squads in the nation (the world!?). Any time you are in our state, hit us @gakendamaplayers and we will make things happen for you! Hope to see you all in September at ATLO 2022!, Much Love & Respect to Kendama USA, the community, & everyone pushing to help it grow.”
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