- President of Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc.
- Developer of the Science of Spin™ school program.
- 1992 World Yo-Yo Champion
- One of only four holders of the "National Grand Master" title
- Founder and Former President of the American Yo-Yo Association.
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Dale Oliver entered his first yo-yo contest in his hometown of Kansas City at the age of 12. He became a part time “yo-yo pro” at 15 and began traveling full time for the Duncan Yo-Yo Company two years later in 1957. For the next 17 years, Oliver’s yo-yo vocation took him throughout North American for a series of personal appearances. He starred in many TV commercials for two different yo-yo brands. He set up the Mexico division of Duncan Yo-Yo in 1973 and has done work as a consultant on design and promotion for various yo-yo and string manufacturers from 1974 to the present.
In 1989, he founded Oliver’s Toys and developed the Yo-Yo Fun and the Science of Spin TM school program, marketing yo-yos throughout the U.S. In 1995, he began manufacturing his own yo-yo, the Technic. In 1996, he went into partnership with Valerie Krantz and formed Spintastics Skill Toys, Inc. and developed additional yo-yos, i.e. The Tornado (ball-bearing), the Torch (LED lighted) and the TigerShark (concave ball bearing).
Oliver has invented numerous yo-yo tricks during his career, some of which have become standards, performed by yo-yo enthusiasts worldwide. With a repertoire of more than 200 tricks, he many be the world’s most versatile yo-yo performer. He set his first world record in 1976 with a 45 second spin with a fixed axle yo-yo. In 1978, he broke his own record with a spin of 51 seconds. During the California State Championship in October of 1991, a professor from the University of California, using a digital tachometer, timed Dale’s spin in excess of 14,300 r.p.m. – almost 100 miles per hour. Dale is considered the father of the modern freestyle yo-yoing technique, having promoted and introduced it into major competition beginning in 1992. Dale also introduced the “off-string” technique to the yo-yo world. Having first done it in 1958, he reintroduced this type of play upon the introduction of the TigerShark yo-yo in 1998.
Today, Oliver travels extensively doing yo-yo promotions and his well-known Yo-Yo Fun and Science of Spin TM school programs. An hour-long school assembly is followed by P.E. clinics where he teaches the art of yo-yoing to more than 40,000 children each year. He was the first yo-yo pro to make an instructional video and is considered to be the premier yo-yo coach in the world. His video is used by schools and libraries in several states as an educational aid for the development of eye-hand coordination. His spintastic performances include yo-yos, spinning tops and diabolos. He effortlessly removes coins from the ears of amazed volunteers with whirling yo-yos, yo-yos while being totally blindfolded, and, for a finale, launches the yo-yo over 40 feet into the air only to come down for a soft landing into his pocket.
Dale Oliver and his Yo-Yo Fun and Science of Spin TM program hit the front page of the Wall Street Journal on December 21, 1998. He was consultant and editor of The Klutz Yo-Yo Book published by Klutz Press, selling over 400,000 copies in 1998, as well as You Can Yo-Yo published by Scholastic Books, which sold over 900,000 copies in 1998. He has also co-authored and edited the second yo-yo book in this Scholastic series.
Dale is presently involved in training other yo-yo players to duplicate his school program in their own states and has set and runs annual national and international yo-yo contests, hoping that someday yo-yoing will become an Olympic event. Dale is currently engaged in world yo-yo tours, promoting the sport of yo-yoing, his educational school program, and sales of Spintastics yo-yos.
Email: yopro@spintastics.com
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