The Juggling Equipment Blog

here’s a nice video of the procedure of raising the tent of the Knie circus in Switzerland. The video is the summary of 2 hours of work, and if you look closely during the first half of the video it sure looks like they are walking around a lot without anything really happening.

Zirkus Knie Timelapse tilt shift from SanktGallen.ch on Vimeo.

A very nice editing try by Matias.
Hmm.. what else can I say…? watch it?

Name: Ori Roth
Country: Israel
Age: 22
Favorite prop: Balls
Started Juggling: 9 years old
Currently working on: A big juggling video!
Other than that.. a bit of cup stacking, guitar hero/rockband, and 3-5 balls.
Website: www.juggleroth.com

Short Bio:
After 9 years of watching hundreds of my father Yuval, and his partner Tal Ginat, shows, I eventually learnt to juggle.
Through the next 2 years I trained with my brother Shay almost nonstop.
Then I got a bit tired of it and forgot about it till I was 16.
When Vova and Olga Galchenko came to the 10th IJC they stayed one week after in my house and it really got me (and my brother and cousin (Avner)) back to juggling.
After that it was mostly Avner that continued juggling and practicing with me. We started making videos and perform together in a local circus.
2 years later it was Avner’s turn to quit again and going full power with his basketball career.
Since then I attended and performed in juggling conventions (mostly IJC’s and EJC’s) and making videos of me and my friends.
Defining moment in my juggling history: Going to the 2004 EJC. After a couple of short IJC’s it was my first EJC and everything there just shocked me.

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Shugi
3 things you didn’t know about me:
1. I broke my right hand 5 times in 10 years.
2. I made a world record (unofficial) in Bejeweled 2.0 Deluxe.
3. I taught Bar Mualem how to do club passing.

If I weren’t a juggler, I would be: A snail, or something with computers…
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: 4 months
Is juggling sport or art? Both!
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: A beanbag…
Jugglers in my family: Everyone except my mother…
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: Triple poi
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: Anthony Gatto
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
Knowing diabolo may be useful, but also bad for your right wrist.

Benjamin Thompson shows us again his unbelievable smooth and highly technical style.
9 clubs flash in the end??!?!

This review was first posted on the diabolo.ca forum

I sometimes help out Butterfingers at festivals and conventions, I sometimes get the chance to play with some equipment before it makes it onto the market. I haven’t been over to Butterfingers since last year but today I received a package of handsticks in the post and a request to test them and report back. I thought I might as well tell the forum about them as well.

Steph (from Butterfingers) kindly sent me 2 sets of sticks, 1 set of aluminiums (Alu ST 50) and a set of carbons. Here are my initial thoughts.

I’m an ally man at heart so I’ll start with these. They are very similar to the Henrys Aluminiums (that I have used for 5+ years) with a few tweaks.

Mr. Babache Aluminium Sticks

They come in the usual Babache packaging of a plastic sleeve with an instruction sheet and 1 length of Babache coloured string.
They seem to be improving the instructions these days, they have some handy little hints on what knots to use, how to deal with the excess string and a hint about what to do about knicks. All fairly obvious stuff really but still not a bad idea if you realise that it’s not allways hardcore diaboloists buying these products. I might slightly disagree with the lengths of string advised for different numbers of diabolos but it’s nice to point out that diaboloists do use different lengths of strings (no more 4′ high kids with 6′ long strings )

When I first saw a picture of these sticks I was a bit worried by the look of the handles, they looked pretty chunky but now I’ve tried them they’re not that huge. The handles feel a touch chunkier than the Henrys allys but feel better and smoother than the Babache ‘classic’ foam grips. (IMHO)
The grips sat in my hands well, I hold sticks pretty lightly and these contoured grips lock into my palm and the skinny bit feels like it will stop slippages and prove useful when catching an inverted stick (suicides etc). The ends of the grips extend further than the internal metal bit so no more ‘donk’ when the end hits the ground.
The Mr B line on the grips is ‘Ergonomic handle for little and big hands’ – I’m looking at them more as a grown up and someone who looks at props in detail but the 10/11 year old beginners who used these sticks at todays workshops seemed to find them comfortable enough.

The method of string adjustment is similar to the Henrys method. Where as Henrys have an angled hole to insert the string the Babache ones have the hole drilled in at 90 deg with a secondary slot at an angle. It’s a small change in the design but a useful one. I like to have my string rotating if possible. It usually takes some messing about with a lighter or a worry about a slim knot pulling through but I got spinning string first go with these (with chubby Mr B string). The slot also makes getting the string out again nice and handy.

For those that care about these kind of things, the balance and grip size etc. feel pretty nice for flipping and twiddling

I didn’t have any Henrys allys with me to compare in general use today at work but to me they felt pretty similar. I haven’t done a side by side check for size/weight etc but here are the stats from the packaging.

Length 32cm
dia 7mm
weight 30 grms/pce

(online non Henrys stats for Henrys Allys = 33cm long 86g/set)

Colours, silver with white or black handles
anodised to be released later(?)

Pretty cool sticks, Think I’ll be using these a lot.

Mr. Babache Carbon Sticks

I first tried these at the EJC. They seemed nice enough to me then although I’m only an occasional user on plastic sticks.
I think Mr B has done a long run of testing with these so hopefully they come to market with the kinks worked out.
I don’t own any Henrys Carbons so I’m comparing these with Henrys Fibres and Sundia Carbons.

The grips are the same as you find on their Alu ST so no real problems there,
they are a touch shorter than Henrys shorts and the tubing is to my eyes a touch thinner.

The 2 main ways in which these sticks differ from other carbons is the use of a screw end cap to attach the string and the the use of a solid carbon rod thru the length of the stick within a protective sleeve. I’m hoping the use of a solid carbon rod reduces the chance of snapping. The sleeve appears to be a touch harder than the sleeve on my fibres.

Attaching the string was a doddle, I got nice rotating string and the end caps appear to be an improvement on the energy/xtreme versions.
I thought I might get some string hangups but so far I haven’t really.

On a flex front, they are less flexy than the fibres but not as stiff as the Sundias. I’m guessing they might be between Henrys Carbon and fibres for stiffness.

They play nice enough. Sit well in my hand and behave like other plastic sticks of a similar size. The cheap part of me likes the fact that I won’t be wasting the extra string other sticks have running thru the middle. Also I won’t be worrying about having the knot pulling thru into the tubing.
Time will tell about how they last lonterm but I haven’t felt like I should be nursing them. I’l see about finding somebody at the juggling club who might have some thoughts about how they measure up to the old school sticks and report back.

They grind really nice and smoothly for those who like that kind of thing.

They come with a length of Mr. Babache string and decent instructions with tips for which knots to use, use of teflon tape if you get loose ends with protacted use, advice on string length etc.

From the packaging
Length 34cm
Dia (shaft) 7mm, tip 9.5mm
Weight 30 grms/pce

(online non Henrys stats for Henrys carbon short = 35cm long 62g/set)

Colours
Classic: all black, all white.
Contrast: white and black, black and white.
Color Classic: orange or yellow shaft, black or white handles
(white, yellow and orange shafts UV reactant)

Progress report – written a couple of months after the initial review

No real news on the durability. I haven’t broke them yet but tbh I tend to use ally sticks most of the time so I haven’t given them an intense workout.

I brought them to the BJC and let people have a go of both sets.
People all seem a bit weary of the carbons but seemed happy enough about the feel. Carbon users sometimes commented on the light feel. One or two didn’t like the idea of the tip compared to the more in line Henrys version but to be fair they are different sticks and some people might prefer to have the lip for certain moves.

The Alu’s seemed to go down better. people seemed to like the idea of the string slot and liked the lighter feel. No one has bent them yet but that’s because we are so good in England
I can’t see an obvious reason for them being any more or less liable to bend than Henrys.

I got a slight knick in the end but nothing that wouldn’t have happened with other aluminium sticks, easy fix plus the packaging explains what to do in this case anyway (which is a good thing).

Name: Matthias Romir
Country: Germany
Age: 29
Favorite prop: Clubs/Balls
Started Juggling: 1992
Currently working on: many different things. It was always hard for me to focus on something specific. Recently I´ve been juggling more balls than clubs.
Website: www.ballmaschine.de

Short Bio:
I was born in 1980 in Nuremberg, Germany. When I was around 8, my mom bought my brother a unicycle, so he would strengthen his back. So this was my first contact to circus skills. A few years later, my mom attended a juggling course and brought home all the balls and clubs. In 1992 we went to see the gala show of a juggling convention with my family and that was when said I want to be on stage. So my first solo performance was around 1993. It was a 2min 3 ball juggling peace and I performed in school in front of 1000 people. I had around 10 drops in 2 minutes, but I didn´t give up.
In 1996 I went to live and go to school in Bolivia for a year. My first big solo travel experience. It was a great year.
After school during my civil service I decided to become a teacher for handicapped people and went to university for more than six years. I studied in Germany and Hungary and it was cool, but somehow juggling became more and more important to me, so I finished my studies and became a professional juggler. That was in 2007. Since that I travel around, presenting my shows.
Defining moment in my juggling history: I presented my act Pinball Paranoia for the first time in 2007 on the open stage of a Juggling Festival in Poland. Beforehand I really couldn´t imagine, if people would like it or not. People´s reactions made me cry.

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Nougat Bits
3 things you didn’t know about me:
- I play the pan flute.
- I started unicycling before juggling.
- I can whistle two tones in the same time. But it sounds horrible.
If I weren’t a juggler, I would be: probably a teacher
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: I don´t remember. Usually this kind of stuff takes me a lot of time.
Is juggling sport or art? For me it is art. That doesn´t necessarily mean, that I don´t like sport juggling.
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: a paranoid pinball
Jugglers in my family: my mom juggles a little bit.
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: fire kendama
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: I´m not a big passer.
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
don´t listen to your older self. He ain´t any better.

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A gaming, natural and spiritual diabolo journey by Chris Garcia (aka Draco Dragon).

Great locations and great new tricks with no diabolo sticks!

I wonder what these kids find out next….. maybe invisible diaboloing…….?

Enjoy!

Name: Mathieu Moustache
Country: France
Age: 29
Favorite prop: Body
Started Juggling: 1997
Currently working on: Strange things with strange objects
Website: www.mathieumoustache.fr

Short Bio:
In order of appearance : milk, fruits, school, piano, circus, love, cheese, love, shows, computers, shows, love
Defining moment in my juggling history: Learning “3 balls eyes closed” in WC.

Spoiler! »

Favorite Cereal: Spelt
3 things you didnt know about me:
the color of my mind, the shape of my life, the texture of my smile
If I werent a juggler, I would be: A trout
Time it took me to learn 5 balls: 730 days
Is juggling sport or art? Juggling is a spart
If I were a juggling equipment, I would be: An eggplant
Jugglers in my family: Cousins
Juggling equipment that has not been invented yet: The plartquirzee
Famous juggler i’d love to pass with: God.
after the invention of a time machine – what advice would you give to your younger self?
Cut your hair.

From the makers of “FULL POWER“,  “Ship Of Juggling” and “Juggling 13” comes the next big hit!
For me it’s one of the best videos of the year for sure. The editing with the music is just amazing, and most of the tricks are very creative. It also has a nice message!
ENJOY!