This is tough, everyone has great things to look up to. If I had to choose just a few I would say Kevin DeSoto, wyatt bray, nic stodd, coop and norx.
In no particular order and off the top of my head I think of Alex Smith, Colin Sander, Thorkild May, Philip Eldridge, Tamotsu Kubota and Cooper Eddy.
I always love watching Cooper Eddy, Nic Stodd, Jake Fischer, and the Gallanger twins. But I have met Christian Fraser and he is an all around great dude and fun to hang around with.
@htimSxelA At NKR this last summer (2016), I was in Josh FlowGroves cabin and as a group exercise we did peace sticks (totally fun thing, really want to do it again). Alex was walking by our group and joined in and I ended up getting partnered with him for a doubles exercise. Super chill guy, freaking tall (I'm about 5'6" and he had a good head and a half on me). Was really humble and relaxed, kinda made me nervous doing our peace stick exercise together hahaha.
After hearing him talk about the things he wants/plans to do with kendama, its probably Jake Wiens. Jake knows how to spread kendama and can always manage to get people interested even if they're just walking by and glancing. Also, are we counting people who are sponsored but technically not pro or just pro players only? Ex. Tribe players, HG team, GT flow, etc.
My favorite pros are Matt Ballard Thorkild May Ben Mastek Jake Wiens Twooo Bears Christian Fraser They all have such a unique STYLE!!!
This is an old tread, but stodd or bray are both pretty cool, stodd because he's great, and bray because I relate to him
It's gotta be @htimSxelA for me. Dude's the kinda guy that you can crack open a few cold ones, and just talk smack and dama on, all day all night. @Congarranza must be thinking "No Krom homies? Blasphemy!" But really, if it's with Philip, i can chill with him too, and crack open a few. Probably less smack talk and dama, though. When it comes to Thorkild and Iji, well they hardly talk, Bonz and Bolf are too much of a nutcase for me to spend extended time with (lol), i will have not much topics to talk about with Jake Fisch and Matt Ballard.
When I look at the history of biggest influences on me and my play style. Max Norcross Alex Smith Zoomadanke duo
I'm totally with you on this one @azleonhart! I had the opportunity to chill with @htimSxelA durong the Downspike night through the "after party". It was truly a blast hanging out and chatting about whatever was at the end of our neural synapses. I'm sure one day we will meet and do the same. I am looking forward to it!
@azleonhart always good to hang! I fondly recall skipping out on the KWC afterparty 'dinner' to find some real food of our own with a little crew. @Congarranza likewise, the DS urban lights night was a really fun trip, very happy we got some good time to hang! Always good to put a face to someone you've spent time chatting with online
Haha! We should totally meet like somewhere in between (like KWC) and chill Hahahaaa! Maaan, that KWC “dinner” was honestly not worth it IMO. That Chinese food we had down the street was the bomb! Next time: a chess match!