Interview with Carlo Albero Menon @ Oxygene

Carlo Alberto Menon Started the Oxygène yo-yo company in 1997. Oxygène have produced some of the most sought after yo-yos ever made, with the emphasis on smooth play   and classic Italian styling. Carlo was Italian Yoyo Champion 2003, we are very very proud to bring you this amazing  interview with the legend that started it all , a huge thank you to Carlo for this amazing story that should inspire you all  .

Q1 What was your first yo-yo? And at what age did you start to play yo-yo.

I’m really honoured and pleased to do this interview, thank You!!!
This question forces me to be long, because the story is long: I spent some years playing a sort of yo-yos that now I don’t even think they can be named yo-yos any more, but they had an important role in my life as well.
My very first yo-yo was prehistoric, in the sense it couldn’t sleep at all (the string was pinched between the axle and one of the halves). It must have been around 1994, I was almost 16 and we were at a friend’s all-night-long party. I found a wooden yo-yo on a shelf and tried to play. I wasn’t able to return it to my hand and many of the group laughed at me for this lack of basic ability. While the night was getting deeper, more and more of the guests fell asleep in their tents and I found myself with the yo-yo in my hand and Riccardo, a guy with whom I had many things to argue about (he was a sort of leader in our company and he had never approved my entrance in the group till that night) in front of me. We passed all the night talking and clarifying our problems, while I went on throwing the yo-yo. When people got up in the morning they were surprised that not only could I do gravity pulls securely but I even forward passed in many directions and hopped the fence fluently! Our host, the owner of the yo-yo, said that I had to keep it because he couldn’t believe that one could play it all the night: that must have been love and he wanted me to grow my skills. What I did was to go home and make a copy of that yo-yo on a small lathe in my workshop. It was simply composed of two wooden cylindric halves and an axle. It didn’t sleep, as I said, but by making that yo-yo I had my first experience with fixing the gap’s width: during my modest experiments I got aware that different axles give different feelings. Naturally my friend’s yo-yo went back home and the copy I made began staying in my pocket all the time and being personalized by pyrography.

I have a second yo-yo to talk about, because that is a fundamental part of the story. Andrea, another guest of the party, aware of my strong passion,wanted to make an aluminum yoyo for me. It was a solid single block of aluminum, with a little hole across the axle to tie the string in (we didn’t know that a yo-yo could sleep in my provincial town, sorry). The original version Andrea gave me was so heavy that the string tore at the first throw; thus I reduced its diameter and dug out the halves’ sides in order to make it playable. Thanking my love for metals and the small size that made it more comfortable to bear in the pocket, that yo-yo became my favorite. Despite the impossibility to make it sleep, I played wherever and whenever, basically alternating forward passes, loops and gravity pulls behind the back.
In September 1997, Riccardo, the same guy I argued with at the party and who became one of my best friends right after that night, rang my bell and showed me a science magazine where some high-tech yo-yos were illustrated. There was a picture of a two-handed star and a shop in Milan where those yo-yos were available was advertised. I couldn’t wait an instant: I phoned the shop and ordered the most expensive yo-yo they had, some strings and a trick book. When I got that yo-yo I finally learned what a sleeper is. I was completely alone and I had never seen any tricks done by anyone. You cannot imagine how surprised I was when I landed my first trapeze following the instructions in the book: that looked really amazing! This is the time I state that I began playing yo-yo, even if I had passed several years throwing already.
Unfortunately the yo-yo I bought didn’t last long. Early in November I let a friend try it and he screwed the gap too tight, ruining the axle’s thread. I was sad. I had no money to buy a new one but I didn’t really want to, either, honestly: even if that yo-yo had given me a lot of satisfactions, I couldn’t say it was as I had figured it out while I was waiting for it from the shop. I expected something somewhat more technological…
I showed the ruined thread to my dad hoping he could help me and he told me: “Such a thin thread is fragile; you could make it with titanium to gain some strength. I’ll also give you a special bronze for the female insert that couples titanium efficiently”. I took my pencil and draw the project of my first transaxle creation. On November the 23rd 1997, my 19th birthday, I got the first Oxygène 0 prototype. I had just a couple month experience with transaxle yo-yos, so my creation was very very similar to the yo-yo I had bought (that’s why I preferred to count it “0″), but I felt it more solid in my hands and I couldn’t but love it and being proud.

Q2 Apart from playing yo-yo and developing concepts for new designs, what other interests and hobbies do you have

Music has a predominant role in my life. I played the flute when I was a child and later I began playing the bass guitar in several bands. I even made a bass with titanium and acrylic in 1999 (yes…I tend to make my own toys …). Right after my degree in Economics I subscribed the Venice Conservatory of Music, where I studied conducting, piano and cello, too: I am going to be graduated in Composition in September. I still play the titanium bass in my band, the Syzygy (we’re just two) and we just ended to realize a modest recording studio, so be ready for something to listen from us!
Skateboarding has been a great passion in my life and I guess yo-yoing has substituted it to feed my love for tricks. Moreover I practiced Kendo for ten years, following a Japanese Sensei and I was the Jodo European Champion in 2004. Kendo was a fantastic experience for me, I am aware I owe it a lot of what I am now. I quit it when music became a truely intense study and I don’t think I’ll enter it again, but I hope I’ll bring its most basic and important teachings with me forever. Lately I am loving contact juggling and acrobatic kites. I could spend hours with these artistic toys, if I just had more time to spend…

Q3 Your background includes working in the automotive engineering industry does that skill and experience bring anything to your yo-yo designs

Of course it does! My father founded his firm in the building next to my home. It has the latin name “Titanium” and there are made valves for racing cars out of special alloys only. Everything is made searching for top quality and I really admire how my father could gain esteem among the most famous engine companies. The workshop has always been my second home: I did everything there…made toy swords, tuned my skateboards, fixed my bicycles, made my bass guitar and yo-yos… My family has been into mechanics for several generations: my grandfather’s grandfather made the first four-wheeled engine-propelled car in Italy, in 1895. It’s as if mechanics were in our DNA When I was 8, my dad decided to buy a new drawing desk for his office and asked me if I wanted to keep the old one for me. I accepted and since then he pushed me to draw his projects, as an exercise first and then more and more professionally. I was 13 when, following my father’s instructions, I drew by cad the valves for the Williams – Renault car that Nigel Mansell led to win the Formula 1 World Championship in 1992.
Having good projecting capabilities is fundamental to transform fantasy into realization: it teaches what’s easier or harder to make on a machine, gives you a good eye to design efficiently, respecting the materials’ characteristics while taking out the best of them and, of course, is a necessary step to insert proper coordinates into the machines. Moreover, I’ve worked personally on machines and this concrete part helps me solving problems that most workshops where one may ask for a prototype don’t feel like solving for you.
Some distinctive marks of the Oxygène line of yo-yos are dictated by these experiences for sure: I’m inspired by motor engineering. I discard some materials due to our ability of working noble alloys; I avoid to make a thread on aluminum because it may work on a yo-yo, but would never be admitted in a good engine; I use rigid edges for aesthetics in some cases, but curves are more common in my designs because edges can be rupture starters in motor applications…

Q4 You are very active in the yoyo playing community which players have inspired you to keep throwing a yo-yo

Oh, you are way too kind if you really think this. I’m just an old player by now… It is true I still have a lot of fun playing and I try to be at as many meetings as I can to share tricks, but I am not trying to be competitive any more. My attitude in playing has changed along the years. Once I really wanted to learn every trick that exsisted (when I started it was almost possible, eheh) while now I’ve become a sort of minimalist player: I learn the tricks I really like only and I pay my attention mostly to my personal interpretation and to how a trick, even the simplest, can look beautiful. I could pass entire afternoons listening to the sound of a bearing while repeating basic trick steps. I’ve always preferred style to speed and maybe this minimalist attitude is my reaction to the general trend of speeding up the tricks. And let’s add that, as a maker, I often have fun simply feeling how my yo-yos spin, so I don’t feel the need to practice fancy tricks, but I’d rather concentrate on some steps that could be a critic for the yo-yo itself, so that I can try to find a way to improve my instruments.
Premised this, I can say that once I was inspired by the Champions and the famous video makers: I wished I could pass my days playing with idols like Black, Mr. Whip or Takeshi; today I still love to play with great players and of course, I learn many tricks from them and I’m really grateful for this, but I can’t say they are my deep inspiration. In most cases I am inspired by common players who share this passion with me and with whom I am in touch thanking the web and the meetings. Today I’d say it is the whole group that inspires me. I love to be part of a big community in where both the beginner and the champion are bricks of a growing building; I am inspired by the passion for our fantastic toy that is so strong among all the players, independently from their skills…
About mere tricks, I believe that any player has some that may inspire me. Among the players who generally do stuff that I really like are our Italian Siminitto, Jensen Kimmitt and Guy Wright. But please, remember what I said before and don’t consider this list exhaustive at all!

Q5. Who or What inspired you both to set-up Oxygène and to make your first yo-yo ?

The part of the question about the first yo-yo has already been answered above and I think it’s clear that my father and his firm were fundamental to make this all possible. About the setting up of Oxygène, things have developed with time. When I made my first yo-yo I was the only player I knew so I didn’t really think of a potential market. I remember I made three (or maybe five) pieces at my first attempt just because once the machine is ready the effort required to make some more pieces is minimum. The extra pieces were presents to friends who looked interested, but not true players though…
With time I noticed the limits of Oxy 0 and I acquired some freedom in designing its successors, following what I thought may improve them, especially seeking for more smoothness on the string. And I met other players, got suggestions from them, tried different models. Community means richness. Some people liked what I had done and really wanted to own one piece, so I did my best to satisfy them, but the spirit was dictated by friendship rather than business. The Italian community was really positive with me and I could be in daily touch with it thank the web: the group basing on www.yoyomaniacs.com was rich of enthusiasts that supported me and gave me many ideas. I think they loved as much as me the fact that I was one of them and not a mere external businessman. The same happened when I showed my works outside Italy…
When I organized the first European Meeting I was testing the first Oxy 3 prototype and this fact is an index of how the development of my products followed step by step the simultaneous spreading of my contacts as a player, also outside the Italian boundaries. With Oxy 3 the whole world became aware of my products and asked for them; at that point it was natural for me to think that the Oxygène model numeration would go on, being alone no more.

Q6. I know you spend a lot of time researching and developing new designs, can you give us some insight into what it takes to produce an Oxy yo-yo ?

I pay particular attention to the project phase. If it’s difficult that somebody can find the means to search for quality as I do, still that is possible (and it is clear if you notice how well most yo-yos are made today), while I think my very personal touch is in the design and its aim to efficiency: in designing others can do better or worse than me, but not equal almost for sure. So I consider it my signature and I dedicate a huge effort to it. Let’s also remember that I began making yo-yos also because I wanted something different from what the market offered at that time, so it would be nonsense for me to make something without its own originality. And originality requires an effort.
Of course you remember that after the Oxygène 4 I haven’t made any models for some years. At that time I was going on producing prototypes both with aluminum and titanium, but none was satisfying me and some even play awfully: I still preferred to play my Oxy 4 even if I was tired of it. The failures were painful, but I learned a lot from them. Later I understood some of my mistakes and I realized that the 3 and the 4 were good but I had been pretty lucky and that didn’t mean I could make anything spin , despite the precision I could put on my prototypes. I learned that in designing there are more rules than I thought, that must be respected in order to get what I want, and I found the way to calculate several parameters that now I keep checked when I design. Today I am working essentially on my ability to maximize all those parameters still keeping my freedom in aesthetics; I assure you it is not easy.
About material production, I basically use a cnc lathe and gauges to check measurements meticulously. Then I have what is needed to plant the valve guides and seats in motor heads and I use it to plant my axles and nuts in the halves. I clean every single bearing (the Ti’s excepted because that yo-yo should be eternal and a 20 days period for breaking it in is nothing compared to its life, in my opinion, especially if one wants the ceramic to last long) using gasoline and a compressed air gun to make them spin and dry at once. Polishing the raw yo-yos takes me quite a long time. First I sandpaper the halves with thinner and thinner paper, then I brush them with a thin abrasive paste. Finally I wash the yo-yos and assemble them. Before putting them in their pouch I test them one by one, doing a couple combos with each. During the tests I realize none of my yo-yos is exactly like another. But if they pass the tests it means that they have a good character that I assume will be loved by the owner. Sometimes I am scared that a very precise and silent yo-yo will be brought by the fate to the hands of a player who would prefer another yo-yo, maybe the one tested right after, that spins with a little noise but looks more alive. But I believe the yo-yo will change a little through its breaking in, following what its owner wants from it. The player should just be sensible enough to break it in by feeling what his yo-yo needs are before demanding out of it what he wants.
Sometimes it happens I discard a yo-yo. That yo-yo will be tested longer, the spare parts will be replaced and in worst cases the axle will as well.

Q7 The Oxy4 is regarded as one of the smoothest playing yo-yos ever designed in fact it seems to be the bench mark for smooth play were you surprised just how well received it was ?

Of course I was surprised, happy and honored for the great esteem the players showed towards that model. I was aware every Oxy was machined very well and tested with care, but I also knew that titanium is neither necessary nor enough on an axle to make a good yoyo: as a matter of fact, the additional expense it brings could even be seen with diffidence by the players. I was really glad to notice that most players appreciated quality in manufacturing as much as the quality in playing, instead, and I’m very very grateful to those who still spend a word to tell me how much they appreciate my work.
Many contemporary players don’t know that when Oxy 3 and 4 were presented, aluminum was not so popular on yo-yos. Today many other yo-yos are as smooth as the Oxy 4 or even more, but I am really proud of having had some role in pushing other manufacturers to look for smoothness in their products. I am very happy to be allowed to say I could give my humble contribution to progress.

Q8. Do you have any exclusive news for us, new designs, in the pipeline anything at all to whet our readers appetites ?

I don’t know how wide the news spread already, but I’m working on an offstring yoyo. I am not sure an offstring Oxy will be ever sold, but I wanted to start learning something on that field, too. Lorenzo Sabatini now has the latest prototype and he’s playing with it daily in order to give me his competent feedback. He is not in my team, but he helped me for the great friend he is. I want to take advantage of this interview to thank him for the help he’s giving me.
I am really happy for the nice words he already spent to appreciate this attempt of mine, which seems to be satisfactory already.

Q9. Where did the name Oxygène come from ?

Do you remember the aluminum fixed-axled prehistoric yo-yo my friend Andrea made and that I machined to make playable? Well, I was in a park walking while making that yo-yo fly around me. The sky was very clear that day and the yoyo reflected blue. I found myself whistling the theme of Oxygène (part 7) by Jean-Michel Jarre, a brand new piece at that time… I found that the sort of technology that the song inspired me was the same I perceived by using a metal yo-yo rather than a plastic or wooden one. It must have been just a few days before I got my first transaxle and of course I couldn’t imagine I would lead a “yo-yo company” one day. But that day I thought seriously to engrave the French word Oxygène on it (I never did it though). For me Oxygène became that yoyo’s name and later, when I made more serious yo-yos, the same word sounded again in my mind. So pure and though reminding me of the technological feeling the song infuses.

Q10. I very much like the way you have setup your Oxygène team with a good mix of experienced and younger players, this is very forward thinking and a positive pro-active way of promoting yo-yo as a sport. what criteria do you look for in potential new team members

I should express my philosophy here. Oxygène’s first aim is not commercial at all. Oxygène yo-yos were born to satisfy me as a player first and got popular thanks to those yoers who appreciated them for the same reasons. I try to make quality yo-yos because I want to play with quality yo-yos and I think one should buy an Oxy only if he looks for quality as well, caring for it even beyond the aspect of playing. I’d never state one needs an Oxy to play better, to win a contest or to be as good as a member of my team’s. So I believe that quality is Oxygène’s best advertisement and that if the number of its lovers is going to grow, that must be with the same modalities it grew until now, that is for the respect gained among those who really appreciate the same characteristics I do appreciate in a yo-yo.
This should make it easier to understand that my team has no promotionalt reasons. Of course its nice if it does promote them, , but that is not essentially what it’s born for.
The Italian community used to be pretty old. Just a few players were under 25 a couple years ago. When young players began to love yo-yoing I realized I wanted to help them somehow. Most members of my team live near here and I do of my best to spend an afternoon every week to throw with them.
I am not sure I’d be able to manage a challenging team (I would hire somebody for that purpose and I don’t have the intentions nor the means to, at least for now), but for sure I have fun seeing the team’s kids improve and helping them as I can. When I met Petr Kavka for the first time he was a kid too and seeing him mature at the EYYC 2010 inspired me to ask him to join us in order to be an example for the others.
I’d like these kids to grow feeding style in their playing and a friendly spirit in their lives, first of all. I’d like to teach them my way, that is “yoyoing is an art, make it beautiful”. So I try to gather stylish players and potential stylish players, to help them with my modest means and to create a familiar ambient for them.
I’d like all the players who appreciate my products to know that the Oxygène team is not intended to exclude them at all. As I said before, community is richness and I’d never want it shared in many little teams competing. There are many fans out there that I love and thank as much as my team mates, even if they didn’t have a t-shirt or a yo-yo for free. And I love yo-yoing in general, so I’d like the total community to be my family: yo-yoing should join, not divide!
I would also like to suggest the players that they don’t really need a sponsor to enjoy yo-yoing and to improve. They just need to have fun and consistancy: there’s already a big family out there…no need for a logoed t-shirt to be in.

Q11. Fantasy dinner party guests you can invite 5 people from history or the present

Eh eh, musicians would be my first choice, but I’ll try to be heterogeneous. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was not only a genius but also an amusing guy to party with, so I’d pick him among the musicians. Then I’d be curious to meet Leonardo da Vinci for his extreme capabilities in several fields. My grandfather’s grandfather who made the car I mentioned before would be a guest star. Then I’d like to invite Michael Moschen (you said they can be from present, didn’t you?). He’s the guy who used crystal balls in contact juggling first and he’s an amazing juggler: he would make the party better, no doubt. And my girlfriend Roberta couldn’t miss this wonderful dinner!

Q12. If you where on a desert island you where allowed just 4 things one yo-yo one book and one recording and one random thing of your choice (no boats or planes) what would they be ?

The Ti for its resistance. The book could be “The Forever King” by Cochran and Murphy: I read it when I was a kid but I still like to read it from time to time. The recording may be the Symphony from the New World by Antonin Dvorak (but I couldn’t really choose…I picked it throwing the dices) and the random thing an acrylic contact ball: I could use it to light a fire for its lens behavior and I’d have fun with it. I’d have no musical instrument, but I trust I’d be able to play something, somehow…

Q13. Who would you like to see as the subject of the next YoyoZ news interview?

Someone original…hmm… Frederik Deryckere! He ideated the Oxy 5’s shape and I’ll never thank him enough for having surprised me so much with such a nice and original idea. He also made wonderful anodizing works on several yo-yos and I think he has a lot to tell us about them.

Q14. Is there a yo-yo on the market today or in the past that you think to yourself “I wish I had designed that” ?

I am really respectful of other yo-yo designers and I admire them. When I like a yo-yo it is also for its creator’s own personality… so no, I never wished I designed something others made. I have my limits and those make me design what I do, I accept them and work to push them further constantly. Other yo-yos can be an example and concur to write history, I want them to exist and I just hope to go on making something worth of the same respect as them.

Q15. Where do you see yourself and Oxygène being in 3/5 years from now?

Well, today I am leading Titanium, the firm my father founded. He retired in May and asked me if I wanted to take on my family’s mechanical tradition. Before that day I worked hard in order to become a professional conductor, but I accepted his offer also because of my love for yo-yos. I could have sold the firm and aimed to conduct, but that would mean no more Oxys, besides the constant uncertainty that musicians know well. I owe yo-yoing this too: it made me accept my fate willingly.
What I see in future is me working for racing engines mainly. But renouncing not to my passions: I hope I’ll be able to go on studying in order to conduct some concerts from time to time while taking on the Syzygy project, too. As for yo-yos, they’ve already been introduced in the production line of the firm. I don’t want them to be the head product and I doubt that could be possible, but I believe owning this small enterprise will be very helpful to go on offering good products made with the same philosophy they were made until now. Wish me good luck!