Daunye Synigal, a 21-year-old Kendama whiz from Modesto, CA, has been playing Kendama for seven years and is now on Kendama USA’s Tribe Team! Daunye was introduced to Kendama in Vacaville by a friend at their middle-school bus stop.
“I remember some of the kids at the stop being super hyped on trying it out. I thought it was a super cool toy that he stole from his older brother who was in high school. He soon showed me videos of professional/highly-skilled kendama players and told me that he was a part of a kendama team called Balanced Kendama Team (check them out on Youtube). It really interested and amazed me that my friend was on a team, especially considering everyone else on that team was in high school while we were middle schoolers. Their Youtube Edit had over 1000 views (in 2012!) and that made it seem super legit.”
The same friend gave Daunye his first Kendama which was a natty Sunrise Kendama which he played for 3 months before buying his first Kendama from Kendama USA; a Black TK-16 Kendama.
BONUS: My next three kendamas were a null, a blue on black triple stripe KUSA Tribute, and a Zack Yourd 2012 Pro Model.
Daunye is an all-around Kendama player who has an appreciation for all tricks and styles. He was sponsored by Dave Mateo onto the Tribe team. Daunye met Dave for the first time at a Learning Express jam hosted by Dave, and Logan Tosta in Roseville CA.
That event was an amazing experience for me. I won second place at a mini game and there wasn’t a prize for second place so Dave took it upon himself to give me his personal Grain Theory kendama. I was stoked!
Daunye helps host kendama jams at Japan Town San Francisco every Friday from 5-9pm called KG Fridays.
We jam inside the Peace Pagoda in the center of Japan Town Plaza and when the weather is bad we jam near the Kinokuniya Book Store inside Japan Town Mall. These jams are a homage to KG Tuesdays that KUSA’s Jake Wiens hosted for years.
Daunye’s current favorite setup is anything with a Shift shape and a long string.
Help us in welcoming Daunye to the team! We hope to see Daunye continue to spread the game, push his limits and those around him.
San Francisco’s Chronicle covered the Cherry Blossom Festival and although it rained it didn’t deter anyone from enjoying the festival. Tony Bravo, SFGate & Chronicle contributor, ran into Jake during the festival and had this to say…
Away from the food bazaar, the Japanese skill game Kendama, in which a player juggles a ball on a string between three cups and a spike on the same stick, attracted its own crowd as some of the 90 competitors in the festival’s Sakura Classic demonstrated their techniques.
“The sport has been around for about 100 years,” said Jake Wiens, a professional Kendama player from Oakland.
“This is my third time as part of this competition. It’s a really great event, and we get a lot of support from the Japanese consul general to make it happen. We literally have players as young as 8 years old from all over the Bay Area that have discovered it.”
Jake Wiens was recently featured on NBC’s Asian Pacific America w/ Robert Handa. Jake talks about the art of Kendama & the upcoming Sakura Classic competition.
Madison Wisconsin has a lively Kendama community and Kendama USA Pro Zack Yourd stopped in and hosted a couple of events.
Here’s what Zack had to say about Madison, WI:
“There is no doubt that Madison, WI is on the rise to becoming a large Kendama community. A solid crew of both new and experienced Kendama players attended each event. The amount of people who attended and the level of Kendama play was incredible. The buzz even attracted the local news to cover one of the events. The ladder competition came down to the wire but local shredder Gino G. took home the crown! I look forward to visiting again in the future.”
Yourd followed up by reporting nothing but positive remarks about all of the players and their kind/humble/skilled attitude toward Kendama. Keep a look out for more of our players heading to Wisconsin!
Kendama was featured today on CBS News 8; “Kendama Craze Sweeping the Country”. Thanks to CBS & Jeff Zevely for the story. You can check out the full story here or watch the video below.
