Interview with Christian Encomienda, A.K.A. Kitchyo Mods!
Today I have a very special interview lined up for us. I will be speaking with Kitchy, a rising star in the yoyo world, quickly becoming famous through his amazing anodizing jobs.
Q: So Kitchy, tell us, how did you get started with Yoyoing?
Kitchy: Let’s see lol.. Around my sophomore year, I brought a yo-yo to school and one of my friends borrowed it and showed me tricks like sleeping it and doing a forward pass. That left me wondering how to learn these tricks, so when I got home, I googled “yoyo” and the first thing that popped out was this video with a guy named Andrey boulay. I saw his yoyo tutorials and started learning yoyo tricks from there!
Q: I’m sure many of us started with Andres tutorials, and him telling us about his favourite tricks! What are some of your favorite tricks?
Kitchy: Ooooh, Eli and other hops from Mickey, any “follow-like” slack tricks, suicides, gyroscopic flop still amazes me haha, fingerspin/body involved and Eric Koloski’s slack tricks!
Q:And what are some of your favourite yoyos?
Kitchy: Hmmm, let’s see, Freq.Wave from Recreational Revolution, Phenomizm from Yoyojam, Yoyofactory Genesis 2008 Undeniable Edition, Superfly from YoYoAddict
Q:I’m sure many of our readers have seen your anodizing jobs. I must say, they are very impressive. How did you get started with modding?
Kitchy: I LOVE THIS QUESTION!!! I watched a video of “Modfather” mirror polishing yoyo rims. It was so vague on how he did it. The first time I’ve watched it but it had me want to mirror polish a yoyo… I failed miserably and ended up looking satin lol. My first “yo-yo” mod was this:
I combined a reflex (installed lights on it from a Duncan pulse) with a Duncan flying squirrel, Lol. It was sorta vibey but I loved the idea of modding a yoyo. Everyone starts somewhere, Eh?
Q:That looks like a fun throw! How did you start anodizing?
Kitchy: Oh yes, this is where the fun begins… First of all, i “hate” dinging my yoyos, I really hated the fact that the only way to restore it is to buy a new one for the same retail price.. So I thought, why not just research on how they “color” the yoyo. Well not restore, just to be able to have a mint condition (yoyo) again. So, I just googled how to splash a yoyo.. And I read the comments saying they were “anodized”. The video was a kid blowing paint on the yoyo to do some “splash” paint on it! Painting is totally different from anodizing so I googled anodizing and then I watched videos of how anodizing at home works. Researching about it took months.. I never was into anodizing a sample until Summer of 2013. I bought battery acid and some aluminum wires. So…. I knew how to remove the anodize down to a mirror polish. I attempted to anodize by using a…*cough*Carbatterycharger*cough*. Oh yeah I failed so badly. Lol I Ddidn’t know anything about it. The yoyo ended up looking corroded! Sadly, no photo. Anyways, after that.. I gave up and just continued mirror polishing for people of the yoyo community. So, I started researching about how yoyos have that “matte” texture.. So I google about it and ended up with “powdercoating”, I liked Wesley (Cheng another yoyo modder)’s service and so I bought a cheap set from Harbor Freight. Here it is, my first powdercoat:
I bought baking soda and an abrasive gun for soda blasting. Made my own blasting cabinet, and put plexi-glass on it… I upgraded it after. Here’s one of my favourite blasting jobs:
Ok, and I started anodizing around October (of 2014). I gathered up materials and I was super into anodizing: and this was the end result,
Keep in mind I USED A LAPTOP BATTERY (yeah this is for all you modders out there, I’m shouting out that it’s not hard to anodize). The only hard part I honestly would say is the prepping and designing it. Oh yeah btw my parents kept reminding me to be careful because some stuff can be cancerous. Always be safe, as a good rule of thumb for modders out there. Wear long chemical resistant gloves and a respirator with a ventilator system turned on.
Q: Wow! What does the future hold for Kitchyo anodizing?
Kitchy: Be sure to keep an eye out for my anodizing in yoyoexpert, YYBB, and retailers all over the world pretty soon!
Q: Can you tell us more about finding your anodizing jobs in retailers?
Kitchy: Well, lately I know some of the more established yoyo anodizers are planning to retire or take a break from long runs.. Recently, CLYW has asked me to anodize a small run of their yoyos. I’ll be doing that (around 300 maybe?). Most likely,I’ll be doing limited edition runs.
Q: I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for news! Any last words for our readers?
Kitchy: I love anodizing for you guys, I can and will someday teach anyone who would love to anodize at home! Be sure to check my IG: Kitchyo And Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Kitchyo
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by Alex Yarusch-Lapierre
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