How and When did you start Kendama?

hmm i would say i probably saw a kendama back in 2010 maybe in an old Be-Mag article (shoutout if ya know what im talking about) and it was about a trip a bunch of dudes took to Japan to skate. I believe Jero was on that trip shooting for it as well. After that i saw Franky Morales playing a Gold MUGEN in a few edits so i decided to buy one. I spent awhile looking around and i think i ended up ordering one from Japan somewhere. Blue TK-16 i believe, don't actually have it anymore, let an ex girlfriends friend borrow it and never got it back.

But i spent a month or so playing it when i first got it, then as most do shelved it for awhile. Then i went travelling through central/south america and decided last minute to toss it in my bag. Thats when i really started playing with it and discovered how addicting it can be. Once i got home i spent no time buying another 4 from KendamaUSA. After that i would go out and film in public (some of those first edits are cringe worthy) and whenever someone was interested id whip out another one and show them.

Glad i stuck it out, the community has been growing astronomically since i began playing by myself and im happy to see it thrive.

LONG LIVE THE DAMA

 

Right - that's the one. Fake Catchy Air.

I plan on getting myself the JKA kendamas , I believe it's closer to the roots of the kendama origin.

Solid group indeed. More power to #DS community.

 

Now i can't remember if i ever shared my kendama origin story in some other thread but just to revisit my humble beginnings, i'll just tell it anyways.


Now, first i ever discovered a kendama was in highschool (& by my time, the Philippines has middleschool & highschool integrated. so in short middleschool is highschool here before) . It was in my 3rd year when me & a friend are library bums (not bookworms, we just stay there till closing time cause we could watch youtube for the rest of the day) watching on youtube & sneaking on fb, when i get to see Ryan Higa's "Kendama Toy". At first i find it entertaining given a fact that he's a sketch comedian on youtube but kendama wasn't that much appealing, i just find it interesting.

Suddenly... After a few months or a year so, i kinda see the appearance of kendama on some Youtube dancers i watched before (with dtrix as exemption cause i think one of his video has a kendam displayed there so i assumed he played kendama before) so i kinda get the mentality that kendama is starting as a sub culture to the hiphop dance community. Bu the one Video.that really stand out for me was Brian Puspos' Rocket/Pusher love choreo. At the post part of the video, Mike Falorina (member of kinjaz who was into kendama, i don't quite see/seldomly he post some in his ig. Fun Fact: Colin Sander, @Cheech_Sander brother, is a friend of his & kinda teach him a few tricks before.) did a nunchuck handroll spacewalk line & was so amazed. I thought to myself, "wow, there's more than catching & spiking the ball when it comes to playing this toy" & i told myself that i should get a kendama soon. College is by the time i keep a close interest in kendama with the intention to do adlibs for dance routines so i was still a dancer at that time so i wasn't that much aware of kendama completely & how to get one.

Reaching my second year in college is where the search for getting my first kendama starts. I keep searching mostly on facebook if there are people selling or is about kendama. First page i ever get to like was sweets & see what they offer. I was eyeing on the f2 natty dama cause i was searching for either black which is my fav color or RGB or natty. Upon searching & searching i've get to see @goenKendama 's fb page which is i know the existing kendama seller here at our country. I check.the site & look for each kendama they sell. my very first option if i was to buy was a shokendama which was equivalent to a mini kendama at the time. But knowing it was too small.from the normal size, i've got to see the shinfuji beech which at the time what i was eyeing for. So i've seen the dama i want, now all.i have to is to buy it. Problem is at the time i was in college which mean more spending either time or money, sometime both that it's hard to budget. So, i try to save as much as i can. It's finals in our semester when i got enough to buy one which btw by the time i was saving , i keep checking for stocks at that time cause i don't wanna loose my oportunity to buy & there it goes, my first kendama... But the journey disn't stop there.

Now having my first kendama, i just can't start playing without atleast a motivation for playing besides a possible adlib for my dance skill (by which deminished due to more college stuff & kendama itself), I got to see more how this could be played. Now, what really sets off my kendama journey is watching Zoomadanke's Kuma edit & i became an instant fan (with that i watch the KUSA desert session after, which at the time was i was like 'meh' but i still LOVE KUSA till today)...

And that's how my kendama journey started...

But if you are lazy to read, TL;DR

I was a library bum that watches videos & sees a kendama played impressively, buys a kendama..... eventually

 

And juggle to spike? I'm over a year in and am still trying to get the hang of juggle to spike lol.

 

Last June I was watching a NoJumper video on YT and it had alot of popular people from kendama in it, Bonz, Norx and Coop, Reed, I'm sure a couple others. I knew right away I had to get one, the only problem was I couldn't understand what they were calling it loll

 

My cousin gifted me one about 3 years ago and i havent stopped since!

 

It's funny how many people that are in the yoyo community are shown kendama.

I used to yoyo religiously, and eventually, I got bored. I live on Eastern Shore of Maryland, which is like the farmland of Maryland that no one has ever heard of. I remember the first video I saw of Kendama was Jake Wiens with some KendamaUSA video, and eventually I saw the Kuma Films vid that I am sure everyone knows I am talking about. I bought a tk16 red (classic) and that's it. It took me so long to understand the idea of completion that came with kendama because with yoyoing the goal is to get it back to your hand or make sure it was spinning. It sat around for 6 months or so, and I decided to by a Tribute Silk because a. I like to collect b. I wanted a reason to get back into it and c. I figured a different paint would change the play. I remember vividly getting my first lighthouse and I was hooked.

 

you know that i pretty much owe you for that one & im very greatful for it & every opportunity after that