Kendama has been sweeping nations all over the world, and we want to hear about it! For this giveaway we've partnered with KROM to award a Thorkild May pro mod to one lucky user! Find out how to win below. HOW TO WIN: Post a comment with the following to this thread explaining your scene and what makes it special. We want to hear about how kendama has impacted the scene in your area! Where you're from How long you've been playing kendama 3-5 sentences about what you love about your scene and what makes it special. Whether it's weekly jams, influential players around you, etc., we want to know! The models are all made on Slaydawg kendamas in either premium ash or maple - each player picked his favorite wood and decided on the details for the 'dama. New shape - slightly larger & competition approved New Laser engravings for maximum grip New KROM LOL Clear paint New KROM Bearing - the bead just got upgraded Draw-string bag for safe storage Bigger hole - for endless spikes Extra string, stringing tool and sticker Full ash (ultra grainy) The best kendama ever. Finally each kendama is packed in a dope KROM string bag with a carabiner. Each bag will carry your players signature and pack some special stickers, extra sticker and bead. Specifications Paint: 2016 KROM LOL Clear - so sticky it makes you LOL. Wood type: Thorkild May --> Full ash Size: Competition+ ***Style points for teaching us how to say something in your native tongue***
Hey guys Im Edric, from the Philippines and i've been playing kendama for 2 1/2 years and counting. For me, the scene here is really premature & i find it really great on some aspects. For every individual players here, there are different way of influence when it come to their peers/friends/strangers & that makes us feel really unique as people. When we usually gather, either to teach the masses or just us casually out-duking each other (in kendama of course XD ahahaha ) it's always a great feeling for me to please people & maybe made them consider to buy a kendama , or playing with your fellow kendama player & just have a good time. For me, what makes the scene different from others is that there's never one face of kendama, considering that PH has not that much players. There will be one way or another. But besides that, we are still united & share a common bond
Hey. I'm that one guy James that ruins some really good jokes when I don't get them. I've been playing kendama for three years now, and I plan to keep going. Here in Milpitas, the scene isn't too big right now(it was so popular here about one-two years ago), but I managed to somewhat bring it back to a small group of friends in my first year of high school(which is right now!), and pretty much every day, we like to K.E.N. Battle each other for fun. Even though I stuck with kendama for the longest time, I'm still not the best in my area. Even my friends who haven't played in months or even years still remember old tricks that they were good at and can still lace them with little to no practice on that day! One main reason why I think that the scene in Milpitas is somewhat special is because of the group of friends I currently play dama with. Without them, I wouldn't be pushing myself to do higher level tricks that they have already mastered, but at the same time, it's also the same way vice versa. Not everyone that originally played kendama here is starting it back up again, but I have already managed to influence more classmates to pick up a kendama again and start shredding. If it never goes away for me, it will never, EVER go away in my group of friends for a long time.
Started playing while in college in Rhode Island about 3 years ago. My friend showed me and we got a few others to buy them. We would jam together in the dorms. I finally moved home to upstate New York and have absolutely no one else to play with. Hopefully I can inspire some of my local homies to start playing. Shout out to the other solo shredders
My name is Jacob Smith i'm a local dama player in Canton, Georgia. About 6 months ago my whole life has changed physically, mentally, and spiritually due to my good friend Trenton Dampier, bringing a kendama back to school since 5th grade. back then my family didn't have the money to buy a kendama at the time. Now that i can afford them i decided to purchase my own kendama and i realize that was one of the best choices of my life. My friend Trent didn't only bring it back at our school(Cherokee high school) the influence spread to neighboring schools and soon to the whole county. this was noticed by Kendama USA so there have been more jam's in the area. through these jam's i have met a number of new people, approaching new people has always been a difficulty for me, but there was something different about them. They were very excepting and ever since i've met these people they have taught me many things from new trick to history about this way of life for example my friend Ryan Plourd an employee of Kusa gave me a lot of advice about what the kendama community is all about and even Sol pro Lyndon Whalen and Sweets pro christian Fraser come out to our jams to give us the help and the motivation we need to progress. there is no way i could have gotten where i am this fast in 6 months without their help. So thank you Trent,Nick,Tucker,Corey,Ryan,Alex, and Ryan for all the support and thank you kendama USA for changing my life, much love to you.
Hi! My name is Kacper Gąsior and I am a kendama slayer from Poland! I started playing kendama 1,5 years ago. About the kendama community in my area ? Firsty there was only one other kendama player in my city, but I hyped 4 more friends fro m school, and they also bought a kendama sometimes I drive to the other city (100km) where there are more kendama players l, so I can talk to kendama freaks like me and play kendama with them. After all, kendama community in Poland is not that big, but at least it is I am working on making it bigger whenever and wherever I can. For example, month ago, I was introducing kendama on the international street art festival called BuskerBus. I was performing on the market square, but I also carried out a kendama training course. It was amazing that I had an opportunity to take a part in event like this I am a Polish kendama love spreader
The powers of the dawg! 1. I'm from San Mateo, California. Its right in between San Francisco and San Jose. 2. I've been playing kendama for over 3 years now. Hit my 3 year mark back in July! 3. I'm really fortunate to be able to have the Bay Area kendama scene, even if it is not as big as it once was. Not only do I have the option of going to weekly kendama jams on Tuesdays and Saturdays, I also get to hang out with people like Ben Herald and Jake Wiens who inspire me creatively, whether it be trick concepts or just going out and actually filming. I firmly believe that the Tuesday seshes alone have kept me interested in kendama, just because its one of the best feelings to be able to kick it with the homies and have fun playing kendama. If it weren't for the Bay Area kendama scene, I don't think I would have experienced a lot of the things that I have in the last 3 years (Cherry Blossom Festival, San Francisco, Japantown, Oakland, San Jose, Vacaville, more), so I'm really grateful for it
Hello Downspike! I'm from Quezon City in the Philippines, and I've been playing kendama for over a year now! The kendama scene in the Philippines is not very big, but what it lacks in size, it makes up for in enthusiasm and an all around good vibe shared by the local slayers. The Quezon City scene is centered on the Go-en Ramen Shoppe, owned by @goenKendama. In this Ramen shop, which also doubles as the local kendama store (where else do you find that???), we have everything from Casual Jams, to workshops for beginners, to yearly full-on contests! We also have an official hashtag, #WoodyWednesdays, as a platform for players to share their work on social media; try searching the hashtag and see all the hype from the Pearl of The Orient! Overall, what's special about Philippine Kendama is that while other scenes may have shrunk or plateaued, we are only growing from here, plus after all the slayage, you can tuck in to a nice, delicious bowl of ramen (where you could get 10% off if you do 10 moshikame ). P.S. I only saw the style points now, so let me teach you all a few Filipino Phrases commonly used in my dama scene: 1. "Magkita tayo!" - "Let's meet up!" 2. "Laro tayo KEN!" - "Let's play KEN!" 3. "Ganda ng kendama mo!" - "You have a great kendama!" 4. "Ang kendama ay laro na galing sa Japan." - "Kendama is a game from japan." (A sentence I often use when introducing people to kendama) Hope I see some of you use these phrases when you come over to the Philippines to Jam!
Heyy what's up! I'm from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia! I've been playing since 2013, so that makes it 4 years now? It's really a small group of us, with about 30 or so total players, and less than half of them play regularly. We kinda discovered the game thanks to peeps like KUSA, who helped make the toy popular worldwide. We don't have any big names around, hardly anyone from any company (except Gloken and Yusuke Ito) comes by, we just do our thing ya know? What matters most is that we're just one big family - no hate, no politics, just some regular pendejos playing a cup n' ball game. We don't know how to do crazy tricks like boarders balance, or taps, but we're content with what we have. And stuff like this makes me happy.
Hey, I'm Kieran, I'm from the UK and I've been playing dama for around 8-10 months. Currently the IRL scene for me isn't great, I know no one IRL that plays dama which sucks as I can only play on my own. I get motivation from instagram and youtube but it is really sad that I don't know anyone at all to play with.
Hit up @Ethan Howard and @rhysgoespeace! They're UK slayers who were featured on Downspike Community Edit 2!
Hey everyone. My name is Dean Manning. I live in Akron Ohio and I've been playing kendama for a year and a half. In my area there is not a strong kendama culture/community. I can't remember the first time exactly that I saw a kendama but I know that it was in school. A couple guys had it and I just had to try it. After 1 week I ordered my own and was determined to play and practice to get to their level. They had been playing about a year. Eventually I caught up to them and even got better, but they stopped playing. I kept playing all through highschool and my brother started playing too. A lot of his friends picked it up in middle school and a few more of mine in highschool. They really liked playing and they started a club in the school. Sadly I was a senior and graduated. Outside of this little community in Bath, the town outside of Akron, there was no other kendama players that I have known. I have met a few people who have said they have seen that but don't know the name. Stuff like that. But there is no big community around myself. I have always kinda liked that because I eventually want to be the kid who came out of a non dama area and is really good. I try to practice at least a few hours a day to keep getting better. It's hard because there are only a few followers because of me. Eventually they will catch up and we will all progress and slay together.
Hi everyone! I'm Elliott and I live in the East Midlands in the United Kingdom. The scene down here is growing steadily so here's my story. I first got into kendama when 2 of my friends showed me the mad ting! For about a month we jammed all the time but sadly both of them stoped playing! Then I looked into meets put on by kendama uk but there weren't many within 2 hours drive of me! So I played on my own for a bit but one day I posted a trick on instagram and a few of my friends got involved! I jammed with them Regularly and even got one of the friends who quit to play again! It's getting pretty hyped on Monday as well because 3 new performance people are coming to the jam!! Anyway, the scene will hopefully continue to grow and I will continue to spread the dama love!!! Thank you for reading (hope I win) see you all later!
I'm Miguel from Suffolk, VA. I gotta say, even tho the dama scene is minimal here on the east coast, it really makes it that much more special to meet another person that plays. I've been playing for 2 years and have only run into a handful of people that play or know what it is, so it feels good to be the one introducing it to new players around here who are curious about these simplistically wonderful toys.
My name is Brandon, I'm from Pine Village,Indiana. I learned of kendama in college after meeting some friends who got me into yoyoing. I still remember when Charles Haycock dropped "clyws hearding cats edit" and watching it in my buddies dorm room and thinking how cool it was. my friend bought one soon after and he had it in his room and we would all try the cups or spike it was so much fun even though we were extreamlly noobs even by 2013 standards. Fast forwards to this past January when I found this old dama we had and started to learn to play for real and as I got hooked i started to get everyone in my fraternity house hooked on it and everyone I could find and so in southern Indiana at one small college we have a growing scene and I'm excited to see how the midwest scene grows as a whole in the next year or two.
Hey guys, my name is Isaac Ericksen. I've been playing Kendama for about 7 years now, and I live in Southern Utah. When I was younger I went to Japan and was gifted a TK 16 in Ibigawa. I brought it home and helped spread it as much as I could. I got a job at a Toy store and started a weekly jam/club and got a bunch of people into it! Now the scene has deminished a little bit since then, but the people that still play SHRED. In fact, most of them are sponsored players haha. Super stoked to be a part of, and even a "founding father" to, the Southern Utah Kendama scene. Shouts out to the Utah homies! #stgeorge
Hi! My name is Andrew Benincasa, I'm 15 years old, and I have been playing kendama for about 3 years. I currently live in Barneveld, NY, which is in the Central New York. I was one of the first people in my area to play kendama, and to get others into it, I started a kendama club. Ever since then, thanks to Kendama USA and some other companies, I have been able to provide people in my area with kendamas. Although my scene is very small, what I love about it is everyone is super stoked on dama. Whenever we have club meetings, the energy level is super high and very contagious. If someone in the room lands a trick, everyone goes nuts (sometimes the teachers have to tell us to calm down). At a recent event I hosted, we met a new player, and immeadiatly we were getting super hyped when he landed tricks and rooting him on in the events. This energy in my area pushes me to keep playing kendama everyday.