I read somewhere that the boom of Kendama in Hawaii caused a lot of cheap, second rate kendamas to show up in stores. This, in turn, dissatisfied a lot of the community and potential kendama players, slowly killing off the Hawaii scene. Wouldn't know myself though, I just saw this somewhere.
On the Hawaii thing, talked to friend about it here in Japan and they mentioned that they thought it was because schools started banning them. They had gone there a couple of years for demonstrations and the last time they went few people watched the demo and no one was playing.
People in Hawaii are very trendy, as people got older more people didn't feel like it was "cool" anymore. I'm pretty positive it will never become as big as it was again since kendama doesn't really have a good image here anymore.
Any insight on the Nevada scene? Lots of pros are based there (TJ, Dave, Aydneter), plus events are held there as well (KROM takeover LV).
Ye but the Nevada scene is literally just Edmonton and vegas. The whole rest of Nevada is essentially a barren wasteland. Tj also lives in San Diego now.