Dozens of students pass by the cafeteria and turn their heads to stare at him on stage, but freshman Isaiah Diaz is focused on just one thing: perfecting a Tsunami Bomb trick with his bright, plastic Duncan yoyo.
Diaz, more commonly known as “Yoyo Boy” by people at school, is a self-taught yoyo expert and can often be found performing various yoyo tricks on stage at lunchtime. Diaz’s favorite Tsunami Bomb trick, for example, is a complicated yoyo routine including two different string formations and requires complex weaving of string between the fingers.
His love for the hobby has even extended to online platforms such as YouTube, where he posts videos dedicated to yoyo trick tutorials, yoyo unboxing, yoyo maintenance and other types of related content. Currently, Diaz has a following of 292 subscribers on his YoyoBoi116 channel. He hopes that he can grow his fanbase and make his hobby something even bigger.
“I can see this becoming a career,” Diaz said. “If I could get sponsored by a company in the future, that would be really cool. I’d really just like to do something that includes the yoyo and work on growing my YouTube.”
Especially in his videos, Diaz makes sure to stress that yoyo-ing is not as easy as it looks. His “yoyo dojo” tutorials go over very particular arm motions, careful wrist flicks and string slipknots required to master the yoyo.
“I had a lot of trouble when I first started this hobby, but one thing I learned is that you just have to keep doing it. Never give up and always persevere. When things are hard, know that it will get better and so will you,” Diaz said.
Diaz still recalls receiving his first-ever yoyo from his parents three years ago. He never expected to become so committed to the trinket. Now, he has a collection of around 70 yoyos in total.
“My dad would get me yoyos a lot but I remember I wasn’t really into it at first. It wasn’t until I saw a video back in 2020 of a guy doing yoyo tricks that I was like, ‘Hey, I want to learn this.’ After that, I just started doing a bunch of tricks of my own,” Diaz said.
Diaz still continues to practice and improve upon his yoyo tricks for around three to four hours everyday. He has big ambitions for his unique pursuit, and his dedication is palpable.
“I don’t want people to see me as cocky or anything. I still have a long way to go and I’m definitely not perfect, but hopefully people will soon get to see that I can become the best yoyo-er ever,” Diaz said.
