Diabolo is Booming... what do you think?

[fredo]

I' definitely agree on Germany and France being the best "juggling countries"! Then there's GB and what about the Netherlands?

[martijn]

Netherlands has hundreds of jugglers. Something like 400-500 juggler go the the annual Dutch convention every year, although there will also be a few belgians, germans, britains, etc.

Diabolo has become VERY popular the last year(s), mainly because of Arjan and me I guess.

And the best part is, is that Holland is a very small place, so traveling to conventions (about 1 a month) and other jugglers is not a very big deal

[Chiok]

For example, I usually don't mention to people that I watch anime, because it's associated either with little annoying kids (digimon, pokemon, dbz) or with being a total nerd (like Animecon cosplay stuff).

Aww, I love digimon and all that jazz, not that you can lump DBZ in there as well.  I think you're ashamed of your hobbies

I think it has to be considered that USA is a pretty huge place with loads going on at either side and a bit less in the middle.  It's not surprising that something as small as diabolo or juggling in general isn't moving it's way across.  Perhaps if Coca-Cola released a range of diabolos with 7-Up and Coke pogs on, it'd spread like wild fire...

I'm quite happy with our juggling club here in Bath, lots of promising people and lots of good people and we've had lots of gigs lately which has been nice.  We're still a niche and I'd like it to stay that way, at least till I get good so I can stay ahead of the curve.

Chiok

[Christopher]

Perhaps if Coca-Cola released a range of diabolos with 7-Up and Coke pogs on, it'd spread like wild fire...
Chiok

i guess thats why bandai sold the DiaBig.

[Matt_]

Aww, I love digimon and all that jazz, not that you can lump DBZ in there as well.  I think you're ashamed of your hobbies

Digimon and all that jazz? And somehow DBZ isn't in there? Hmm, anime that's dubbed into English and heavily marketed to the American market via videogames, clothing, toys, and movies. I think Digimon, Pokemon and DBZ all fall under that blanket

And anyway, the reason that I don't like to associate with that is because I prefer anime that's for an older audience, which is completely different than DBZ or Digimon. I don't want to see fighting superheroes anymore. Almost everything I watch is intended for an adult audience, although I still get a kick out of high school dramas too. But my point is that it's entirely different, and the American audience seems to lump everything together.

[fredo]

What about an Anime thread in the Off-Topic section?

[martijn]

What about no anime thread at all?

[Matt_]

What about an Anime thread in the Off-Topic section?

What about it? Go make one, it's not against the rules or anything

[William]

Perhaps if Coca-Cola released a range of diabolos with 7-Up and Coke pogs on, it'd spread like wild fire...

Haha yeah! *Waits for Mr Babache and Coca Cola to strike a deal* Or McDonalds could put them in their happy meals! 

[diplodicai]

I got a diabolo back in 1995 whilst still at Uni as I was massively into yo yo. I learnt maybe three tricks and then didn't get back into it until 2000. I would muck about in the evenings after helping out at an outdoor site. The only reference material was the Donald Grant books. Passing people would ask what I was using and look vaguely perplexed. It was only when I picked up a copy of diabology in late 2004 from Oddballs in Camden that I had any idea of what was possible. Since then I have wound up with about 5 finesses and 3 circuses, several pairs of sticks and a teandancy to have a diabolo with me a lot of the time. Even though, I have met about three lads at Leeds festival in 2003 using them, one or two at a juggling club, and seen one busker in Covent Garden. However, now when using diabolos in the street or at the pub (cool landlord), everyone knows what it is and wants to try it. At the download Heavy Metal festival this year there was at least 10 people who were throwing them about and it seems people are becoming more open to juggling.

I think a lot of it is a reflection of the people using D's. I met a guy doing poi who was a 24 carat prat who just wanted to show off. Most of the diabolo guys were swapping traicks and teaching people how to build up spin and some basic stuff to help get started. That is what will start a real boom. Noone likes diabolo until they can get it spinning and do a throw and a catch. By then, they're often hooked. 

[Jester]

I heard from a little bird that some of the skateboarding communitys in australia have started getting into diabolo as well
and cos there not afraid of hurting themselves they go straight into genocides and intergrals and all that jazz

interesting cross discipline proliferation

mabye we can look at other places to expand diabolo other demographics rather than just kids who get bought to juggling clubs by thier mums (we've all been there, Thanks mum) after all its up to us!

[Chiok]

We did a workshop on Monday at a youth centre in town and I was very surprised to find that about 5-6 children could already get a diabolo started and keep it going, which to be honest, is the tricky part.  One of the kids even had a pair of short carbons!  I've never come across this before so was most surprised.  Meant I could begin teaching tricks and things.

Where all these kids learnt to start it, I don't know, but it makes my job alot easier.

Chiok

[cpai]

I don't see much of a boom happening...
In Maryland (where I came from) only one person was interested
Here in California I have never seen a diabolo other than mine...
Maybe that is only because I have only been here one month

[Shawn Fumo]

I find it fascinating to watch all this since I've been involved closely in yo-yoing for like 8 years now, and have been watching the poi and juggling communities almost as long (though not as closely).

I think what's happening with diabolo has similarities to what happened with yoing, though a bit from a different angle.. Here's one thing..  Why is yo-yo so big in the USA and Diabolo so big in France? I'd guess part of it has to do with past history. From what I've heard, diabolo was always a toy in France. That most people played with it as a kid for generations, even if it was a cheap model and just throwing it in the air. In the same way, grandparents in the US will remember when the Yo-yo Man came to their playground.

But for the diabolo, most people in the US have never heard of it before. Sometimes I will get recognition if someone saw the ladies in Cirque du Solei, but that's it. Most people here have never juggled either. At most, it'd be throwing two balls in a circle. So there's the view of it being a circus thing as someone mentioned.

At first glance, it seems like prior knowledge can be a handicap, since most people still think of yo-yo as walk the dog or rock the cradle. But it provides an opening where you can go "but look at what's possible now!". It seems more likely to get parents involved because of nostalgia, there's cheapo models in stores for someone to try first, etc. I've never seen even a cheap diabolo here except in a specialized hobby shop.

I'm not really involved in the skating scene at all, but I think again the overlap is more with yo-yos (I've seen various yo-yo players that are also skaters, people that listen to skate music etc). I think in the US, the jugglers tend to be more of the somewhat geeky and/or hippy people at more college age, while skaters tends to be younger more punkish rebel (or like to think so anyway..heh) types.

Another thing that's helped yoing is lots of different manufacturers trying to get people's attention. There used to be teams that'd tour the world to show off yoing. This is why diabolo got big in Japan I think, from the Bandai push some years before. There isn't as much money to go around now in the yo-yo world, but still many of the local clubs and message boards are at least related to a store of some kind. And there's still a couple of teams for manufacturers (though touring is less of a thing and perks are smaller). It's still enough to get some attention here and there in the media. There's also a couple of demonstrators who do school programs (like Science of Spin). The juggling communities tend to be more scattered and free-form and so slip under the radar a bit more. I'm lucky in Massachusetts since the Umass juggling club is nearby and I could go east for more clubs..

Booms are kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they can be nice to expose a large portion of people to something. Even if 99% stop it fairly soon, they may still remember it when they have kids and be more open to the idea or come back to it themselves. It has negative aspects too, like causing stores to drop merchandise after it crashes, give an impression of "fad" to people, and put some strain on resources at the time with all the new people coming in. I think having a strong base of people is important and an occational boom can be nice now and then to infuse some new blood...

But yeah, I think it'd be hard for diabolo to really take off here. The combination of lack of history here and no companies to really promote things makes it difficult to get momentum going.

The internet presence is helping a lot for people that do get interested, though. Both for inspiration and general instruction. The role of that can't be overstated! The amount of stuff I learned from this forum in months after years of just fiddling around was amazing. And the more kids that get involved, the more it'll help. Yo-yoing got going faster I think because of the amount of younger people involved. So there was quite a lot of message boards, freestyle and clip videos, etc since so many people were already comfortable with the technology.

I'm glad to see diabolo spreading to many other countries now. It's probably easier too in smaller countries like someone else mentioned. If a couple of people can start interest and get enough people involved in the diabolo world online, that can really help things. I mean there are even yo-yo clubs in mainland china now. There's hot-spots in places I wouldn't have expected like the Czech Republic. If you can get a critical mass of a couple of talented players in one spot, things tend to take off quicker due to people feeding off of each other.

Sorry for the length..

[Alex!]

When me and my friend first took our diabolos into our school there was massive interest and in a couple of months there was a whole new craze that had started. I think it is good if it is booming because it means you can become more competitive and you are always striving for the next best trick to impress people more and more.

[_Matz_]

hey nick, btw, hwat knot you have in your avatar?