A yo-yo Sunday

My son, Jeremy, first became interested in the yo-yo way back in 2005. My wife and I didn't even know there was a thriving yo-yo scene locally until we took him to the Sunway Pyramid in Petaling Jaya to see first-hand people playing this game. My own experience with the yo-yo only went as far as a simple looping the loop, so I was quite glad that he wanted to explore further into the game.

The following year, he threw himself into the deep end of the game when he asked me whether he could compete in the second Asia-Pacific yo-yo championship at Genting. Naturally, he was all at sea. A real novice drowned out by the yo-yo experts. As he himself had expected, he was knocked out in the preliminary round.

I'm glad he did not quit the game despite this result. Today, we were at the Queensbay Mall where he competed in a northern region competition organised by the Malaysian Yo-Yo Club. I was watching him. The years had steadied his game. He no longer looked the complete novice that he was in 2006 or 2005. Though he only came third in the 5A event, I'm proud of his achievement. It's not whether he came in first, third or last. It's all about competing and I'm happy for him that he still chose to compete.

The picture is not clear because it was taken off a video recording on my camera, but here's a picture of him competing.


By the way, I'd like to acknowledge the following people I've known from the Malaysian yo-yo scene who were in Penang during the weekend: Dimi (who is the president of the Malaysian Yo-Yo Club), Azrul, Raymond, Shakeel and Kong. Dimi was the first person that Jeremy knew at the Sunway Pyramid in 2005. He gave my son that little bit of initial encouragement.