World's Largest YoYo

Home  Contact  Order  Author  World's Largest Guitar World's Largest YoYo

Big Yo-Yo . . . The Shakamak High School wood working class taught by Jeff McNabb launched the world's largest yo-yo Thursday night at the school with hopes of getting in the “Guinness Book of world Records.”

By Dana Rahe
Daily Citizen Reporter of The Linton Daily Citizen

Jasonville – The world’s largest yo-yo didn't “walk the dog” or do a fancy “ loop to loop” Thursday night, but its launching may have gotten some woodworking students at Shakamak High School into the “Guinness Book of World Records.”
The six-foot-tall, 820-pound yo-yo didn't get taken for a spin by the Jolly Green Giant – but by a large crane. Students in grades nine through 12 enrolled in Jeff McNabb's Industrial Arts class, who worked on the project, admitted their hearts were beating hard as the crowd did the final countdown before the launch. The project was started last November. NcNabb estimated that it took about 130 hours total to build the yo-yo.

 

 The guys said the toughest part of the entire project for them was working the math. "We did a lot of shop math. We learned a lot of math," Tracy Hancock said. In addition to working those horrendous equations, McNabb explained that all the students, with the help of their English teachers, had to write letters to the media to tell them about the launch. McNabb said Richmond was the exception to the rule because he isn't enrolled in an English class, but is in a speech class. That's how Richmond became the spokesman for the project and had to give the speech prior to the launch. Building the world's largest yo-yo is quite an undertaking. So were there any doubts along the way? The guys admitted' there were a few times. But, Richmond said, "After we saw it was going to take shape, we worked on it every day." Looking at the ear-to-ear smiles on the students' faces after the launch, it was obvious they were satisfied with their accomplishment. "I'm glad it worked. I didn't think it would work like that," Richmond said. "I thought it might come up once."
Jeremy Jackson explained he had it all figured out what they would do if the yo-yo crashed. "I thought if it had minor damage, we'd repair it," he said.

 

The young men said one of the guys in the class had been drawing cartoons of the yo-yo including a few picturing a crash at the launch. Needless to say, the fellows had flashbacks of the cartoons before the big moment, causing a second or so of doubt. Instantly after the crowd finished the countdown, the yo-yo began to roll, and everyone was wide-eyed, wondering if the wooden masterpiece would crash to the ground. Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as the baby blue and white yo-yo gently traveled down the string. Then came the big surprise of the evening - the yo-yo actually had backspin and came back up. And not once, but about nine or more times. "The last world record only went up seven times," Jeff Zuder noted. The crowd gasped "Oh" with a tone of excitement and surprise all rolled into one. Everyone seemed so surprised that it came back up. But, isn't that what a yo-yo is supposed to do? And after all, why shouldn't it have worked? It was built to scale.

 

It appeared more than obvious that the construction of the world's largest yo-yo was just as much educational as fun. And possibly the most valuable lesson of all that they learned was summed up when Jackson said, "If you don't work as a team on something, it won't get done."
The yo-yo is being given to the Indianapolis Children's Museum accompanied by a video tape documenting the construction process. However, Jackson said, "We wanted to give it to the yo-yo man - Tommy Smothers."

McNabb said, "It just worked better than I dreamed." He admitted just before the launch he too suffered from thoughts of it not working. Senior spokesman Brad Richmond in a speech prior to the launch explained each half of the 820 pound yo-yo consists of 26 layers. The first 13 layers followed the same pattern. However, he continued from the 14th layer on up a different mathematical equation had to figure to keep the yo-yo to scale. Richmond said that during the day the class had sold autographs on the yo-yo for a dollar each, to raise money for new shop equipment. He also thanked a long list of people, including several teachers and the school's administrators, for supporting the project. The yo-yo's string was 50 feet long. Although, Michael Hadley explained, "We had to roll some of it up because it was too long." He said it took about three weeks to complete all the necessary calculations to begin the actual building process. "The math teachers and one science teacher helped us." Hadley added. The students' enthusiasm for the project seemed to be undying as Zuder said, "It (building the yo-yo) was something we really wanted to do. We worked after school until 5 p.m. nearly every day." Wayne Simmons explained, "We built the first half out of scrap wood." However, the fellows said that to get the materials for the second half, everyone chipped in out of their own pockets. They noted the second half of the yo-yo cost between $200 and $250.

McNabb said he is preparing a packet to send to Guinness including photos and affidavits regarding the vital statistic on the yo-yo. "I hope to get the package out tomorrow," he noted. Then it will be a waiting game till Guinness replies. However, McNabb optimistically noted of hearing, "No later than two weeks for actual verification."
The yo-yo will be on display in the elementary cafeteria a few days next week and the opportunity for autographs will exist as long as the yo-yo is on display.