The other day, Hiro and Jun went to visit Mickey in the hospital.

Last month, if you were at 44CLASH you might remember that he wasn't feeling too well the whole time, so he went to the doctor when he got home. They diagnosed him with pneumonia and made him check in! Apparently he had up to 2 liters of excess fluid drained from his body (ew!), and showed the guys his surgery scars. Looked painful. It's hard for him to practice, so he's just taking it easy for now. The guys brought him some manga to read and pass the time.

We hope he recovers quickly and starts practicing again soon! Looking forward to his next competition performance.

2010 44CLASH Report 5 Finally came the Battle Tournament & Showcase3, presented by KIKS TYO, an expedition tournament put on with help from the apparel brand.

16 top players (chosen beforehand) were lined up and set against each other in a head-to-head challenge, like a rap freestyle battle. These are the names that made it to the list:

• Futoshi Maruyama
• Hidemasa Semba
• Hiro Irifune
• Jensen Kimmitt
• Kenji Eto
• Kentaro Mannen
• Koichiro Ueta
• Rei Iwakura
• Ryota Ogi
• Shinya Kido
• Sojun Miyamura
• TAKA
• Tatsuya Fujisaka
• Tyler Severance
• Yasushi Furukawa
• And Secret Guest

So, who could that secret guest be?

The players gathered on the stage...


And the secret guest was none other than Nakamura Meijin! He came onstage in an emerald THP polo shirt. A wave of nostalgia hit the crowd!


First up was Nakamura vs. Rei Iwakura. Nakamura wove so many tricks together, from spider baby to the latest complicated tricks. Rei used all sorts of props for his performance, showing the level of thought and preparation he puts into his work.


Last year's winner, Kenji Eto, is rumored to seclude himself in the mountains to practice. His trick style is very unique, but he was up against Futoshi Maruyama, who put down his off string yo-yo to pick up some 1A lately.


Sojun vs. Tyler was like a beat-em-up movie.


Shinya put on a good show, but lost to Ryota Ogi.


TATSUYA vs ROAN!!


Jensen Kimmitt went up against Yo-Yo Master TAKA


Yasushi and Koichiro went head-to-head in a 2A battle


Since Rei, the MC for the contest, was busy participating in the battle, Jun took over the mic for him.


Jensen and Yasushi went head to head, for a world champion battle! Jensen threw 2A while Yasushi did 1A, heh.

Jensen ended up taking the whole thing, throwing down all his special movies for the title. Here's the final board:


Right after the Tournament came the final Showcase. Rei came on stage with a cellphone to his ear, and the crowd went wild.


The lights went out and he performed a killer yo-yo and juggling routine in the dark.


Amidst the excitement of the final performance, Iwada and Dee brought this year's 44CLASH to a close. Good work everybody!!

MCing the event were Rei, Pat and Dee.


Showcase 1 started off with John Ando taking the stage with a cellphone to his ear... which could only mean...


SHAQLER! Their famous performance from the World Contest made another special appearance at CLASH, to a warm welcome from the crowd.


After the performances, the seed players were gathered on stage. There was quite a crowd, but they are all world-class!


The guys were busy manning the booth, so they didn't get much footage of the actual event, but the crowd was packed in tight and going wild! It was another spectacular turnout for 44CLASH!

And the results are...

1A Division

1: Hiroyuki Suzuki
2: Christopher Chia
3: Takahiro Iizuka

2A Division

1: Shu Takada
2: Grant Jonson
3: Ryusei Saito

X Division

1: Tsubasa Onishi
2: Takeshi Matsuura
3: Sean Perez

Battle Tournament

1: Jensen Kimmitt

(from the 44CLASH Official page)

Mickey took 1st in 1A, despite being in poor health. He went to get checked out after the competition, and got hospitalized for pneumonia! We hope he recovers quickly. Singapore's champ Christopher Chia took 2nd, followed up by Iizuka, who exploded on stage with difficult moves.

2A was taken by Shu Takada, who had recently claimed 2nd at the Japan Nationals and 3rd at Worlds, and got scouted by Team YoYoFactory. Grant Johnson, who won the US Nationals just a month ago, took 2nd, and Ryusei Saito snagged 3rd with a memorable outfit and a solid performance after a long hiatus from the contest scene.

Mister X himself, Tsubasa Onishi took the X division. Last year's champ, Takeshi Matsuura still amazed the crowd and brought home the silver. Filipino champ, Sean Perez took third with a high energy performance.

Last year's CLASH winner and current 1A reigning champ, Jensen Kimmitt won this year's battle tournament.

As a gold sponsor, REWIND had permission to film and publicize the performances so we have a DVD here at the office. We were going to publish our videos to youtube, but couldn't get the go-ahead from the event, so we apologize to those of you out there who are hungry for CLASH footage!

To be continued...

This year is REWIND's first 44CLASH, and we were a gold sponsor this year, with our own sales booth. The booth was in a room separate from the performance stage, where we spent a majority of our time. From fresh faces to ones we hadn't seen in years, it was great to meet everyone at our booth. We had a little something from each maker. The Hyper Yo-Yo StormTigers were surprisingly popular!


Paul Yath's Crucial booth was next to ours, offering discounts to those who could best him at Ro-Sham-Bo!


On our other side was yoyorecreation's booth, serving up some of Japan's finest yo-yos.


44CLASH had their own booth, selling not only limited edition yo-yos but also accessories and apparel.


YoYoJam's booth featured special edition Phenoms, and their new ReXtreme and Unleashed.

Duncan's booth was manned by Crew leader MAYA, whom we rarely get a chance to meet up with! After the contest, we will be carrying their 44CLASH Special Edition Raptors.


American 3A top players, Paul and Hank were tearing up the practice area. Solid stuff!


Team Shaqler's KURI and Duncan Crew's Terry!


Singaporean player Iskander Shah. He has a really cool, distinct counterweight style. Formerly on Team YoYoJam, we hear he's currently sponsored by Adegle.


DUNCAN Crew!!!! DJ Kohta spent all day in the DJ booth so he couldn't make it in the photo. Thanks for all your hard work, Kohta!

So many more people came out that we forgot to get photos with. Big thanks to everyone for coming to visit our booth!

to be continued...

This year marked the 3rd CLASH, arguably one of the coolest yo-yo contests held. Of course, REWIND was there to participate in all forms, including being a gold sponsor of the event.



The guys piled into the REWIND mobile early in the morning to get to the preliminaries. The halls were choked with top players from around the world; the likes of Ishkander, FajarJun competed in the 1A prelims and didn't make it through, but was satisfied with his performance. The level was exceptionally high considering the proper contest hadn't started yet. He didn't even dip too deep into his new bag of tricks, so he can save them to bring them out on a later day.

After prelims and dinner, Jun went to the official CLASH hotel for the first Japanese 3A Throwdown. The throwdown has its roots in the states, started by father of 3A, Mark McBride in 2001. The unofficial contest is held late at night following the US Nationals, and has become an annual tradition in Chico. Here's footage from the first one:

>>2001 3A Throwdown


>>2010 3A Throwdown


The theme/challenge changes every year, and the trophy duck is brought back each year by the reigning champ to pass on to the new one. It's so much fun that the boys decided to bring the contest over to Japan, with a giant rubber ducky as the new trophy. They picked the theme and got together at the CLASH hotel. This year's theme was to balance the duck on your head as you start the trick. After a full night out, it was harder than it sounded!

Everyone participated


Some did pretty well


Some didn't fare so well


And the winner was.... drumroll please

Jun! He got to take home the first rubber ducky. He'd participated in the American throwdown in the past, and although it's just for fun, he was really pleased to take home the duck. Some front and back shots:




After all the excitement, Jun caught the last train back to his parent's place in Tokyo. He didn't have a bag for the duck, so he just carried it in his arms. It's an unusual thing to be carrying around on the train, so he was rather embarrassed, but amused.

The next day, he carried the duck back to the contest. One of the moms who had come to the contest told him "I have a friend who told me they saw someone walking through Tokyo station with a giant rubber ducky!" He was Spotted!

More to come...

The third annual 44CLASH opened for entries the other day, have you signed up yet? This year, it will be held at the Yokohama Sunphonix Hall, in Yokohama, Japan. Come to watch, play, or compete. You won't want to miss this.