I'm getting a jumbo pretty soon, what are the best ones out there? I've been searching but can't find many besides the Kusa and sunrise kens, let me know!
IMO, the best one out there, is also the hardest to find. It's a Boss Kendama, developed by Alex Ruisch and Jeffrey van Reeven, back in the day. Otherwise, the Krom ones are baller too!
Oops, Krom stopped selling them for the moment, but i have a gut feeling that they're gonna make a better one!
On the budget end Bahama Kendama Grand Bahama is nice. We've had a Tribute strung one on our demo table for about 3 years and it's still one of my favorites though the glossy paint does take a while to break in. The Taiyo, from the makers of Ozora, is good but higher in price and also standard glossy paint.
I just remembered that Sunrise Kendamas are available in jumbos as well, but that also needs some searching.
Sounds good. On thing however, I can't vouch for their "crackle" paint or other paints only the standard glossy one. Over the years it seems like it "sucked into" the wood so that you can see the texture of the wood under the paint; you can't see through the paint but it makes the tama very slightly textured. When I'm in Manila it's my go-to for trying out new stalls since once I figure it out on the Grand Bahama I can translate the skills to a regular size kendama. One other nice thing in general about jumbos is that they can sometimes help when you're teaching people that are having a harder time with fine motor control. The heavier kendama dampens their exaggerated movements and moves slower so they can catch it easier.
Yup forsure! I had a lion head kendama jumbo back in 2015 and haven't had one since, the spike broke off of it about a year and a half ago due to hard play stoked to get another once, thanks for the info man!
Wait 'til you break in in the tama I think you'll be surprised at how well it plays. We've had really good luck with the one at the shop (single color though). One of our team players also has the Rasta for a bit of "hiviz" when he's out and about. If you play it hard you might look into a stronger string however since we popped a few of the standard ones. We've been running 100# test line on it lately with pretty good results.
I have a rasta atack sweets biggie From 4 years ago or something. It was pretty rad. But the sarado got pushed way down so the tama doesn't touch it when it's on the spike. But I can bb that thing and it's pretty rad.
A couple of options if you want to bring the sarado up. You can use the larger Goody elastics doubled over to give you about 1/2 inch. (see video) Or you can use a long thin screw through the opposite side's string hole on the sarado like they do in this video.