Field Notes: Ahmad Kharisma

Hello, my name is Ahmad Karisma, and I've been yo-yoing for 15 years now.

I feel like yo-yoing for me is now a habit but also a lifestyle. I was in Turkey studying for four years, and then in Portugal for a year. Even though I don't compete, I still yo-yo wherever I go somehow. It’s a habit and lifestyle. It's just become a part of my life. Not just competition.

Yeah, I think it’s bigger than the competition itself, you know?

I think it's unique, fun, and also pretty chill. There’s a lot of joking around, even during competitions. It's not always so serious.

Yes, it's great to see that.

Of course. In my opinion, one of the most important key players right now is Jonathan Sitanggang. He's not just good at competition; he's also very social. He’s friends with people from all over—Americans, Japanese, he speaks Japanese, his English is great. He can talk to everyone. His tricks are also amazing and inspiring, both locally and internationally. It’s like, wow, mind blowing - finally someone surpassed me!

Yeah, it was something else. For a lot of people, I think he was the highlight of the day.

I cried when I saw it live. I was so proud. I even have the video. And then there's Christian James Welly, the 3A guy. He’s amazing, and he broke the boundaries of Indonesian yo-yoing in 3A. He was the first to really do proper 3A here, which was a huge milestone for us.

Seeing Jonathan’s routine really put our country on the map.

In Indonesia, even on humid days, some cities still have outdoor meetups. One of my friend, Joyo, practiced for nationals in the humidity, doing speed combos and horizontal tricks. When the contest day came, he just nailed it, minus five in three minutes. He came second place.

Back then, our community was always fluctuating. A lot of people joined because of the Blazing Teens anime, so you'd get a lot of new players—like a hundred people would join—and some would become really good in a year or two. But then, they’d quit when they went to university or high school. The ones who stayed, though, became really, really good. I feel like I played a role in the evolution of the community, along with Kevin Nicholas. He competed in the U.S. scene, and I competed in the AP scene. Together, we helped put Indonesia on the map, breaking boundaries both in the Americas and in Asia.

The support in our community is incredible. When I was younger, in fifth grade, I did a freestyle and all the Indonesian champions, like Kevin Nicholas, came up to my dad and told him I was really good. They encouraged him to support me, and that was when my dad agreed to fly me to AP to compete. Even now, if we see a young, talented kid, people like me and Jonathan approach them and encourage them to keep going and not quit. That’s one of the best things about the yo-yo community—everyone’s so supportive, regardless of how long you've been playing or how old you are.

Yeah! It’s so special to see new players join because this hobby is so niche. It feels like a big deal when someone new comes into the community.

It was really fun and a new experience for me because I’ve organized contests before, but not video content. Jakarta is a big city, and I had to organize different locations and players, so the backgrounds and the players were always changing, which I really liked. We filmed at a park, the old city, and a lake. Actually, it wasn’t a lake, it was a sea. It was humid, so in the morning, it was great for filming, but as the day went on, the heat made it harder to hit our tricks. We struggled, but it was so rewarding when we finally got the combos right. It was a lot of fun, and there were plenty of mistakes along the way, but it made the final shots even more rewarding.

Yeah, it all came together. The cameraman, Tata Hadi, did a great job. When I saw the footage, I was so happy with how it turned out. Big thanks to Canopy for trusting us to film and for bringing us together to make it happen.

Yeah, so we usually have normal contests, but this time, a music festival approached me and asked to have a yo-yo event at their festival. The catch was they only gave us three hours, which is pretty tight for a traditional contest. But I thought a yo-yo battle would work better—something that both yo-yo fans and non-yo-yo fans could enjoy. I was inspired by the Stargazing Night videos I watched, the battles after the Worlds contest. I saw how the crowd really got into it, even more than the regular freestyle performances. So, I thought why not try this at a festival? It was a huge hit. The crowd was amazing, even better than expected.

Yeah, the music festival invited us very last minute, maybe we weren’t even supposed to be there! But it worked out. The organizers told us the audience and crowd were even bigger than they expected, which made it so rewarding for us. It’s great to have a platform to practice our bangers and showcase yo-yoing in front of a new audience. The opportunity to do it again next year is exciting, and I’m looking forward to building on that.

I hope Indonesian yo-yoing can always continue to grow, and like I said before, three different words that can describe Indonesian yo-yoing. I feel like our community or like personality is kind of unique, both in tricks and the way they present their freestyle. So, I hope that continues, and also that it spreads its wings to the international community. Recently, I’ll also be holding Spinkult sessions Indonesia, which will be supported by Spinkult, and it will be another platform to explore judging. I think it's more relatable to the Indonesian yo-yo community.

So, I was really interested because, in Indonesia, our contests usually happen in shopping malls, which is also cool, but we don’t have a private contest until I created a contest called Expressiyon last March, which was amazing. I’ve been to a lot of contests in different countries, and I felt a private contest should exist in Indonesia too. I really like the aesthetics of the contests Spinkult made, like their Russian yo-yoing competition and Spinkult Sessions. I loved how Mark organized everything. I asked Mark how he did it—how he found the venue and made it work. Then Mark suddenly asked me, “Why don’t we make Spinkult sessions in Indonesia?” I was like, “Wow!” This is a great opportunity to collaborate and let our community shine internationally. Mark helped guide me in terms of the aesthetics standard, which has been a huge learning experience for me. Big thanks to Mark from Spinkult.

I can say that we always try to be unique, even in our freestyles. I’m sorry, but I feel like freestyles these days are kind of generic. Our community goes the opposite way, just being unique, chill and also fun—not too serious. The competitive scene is nice, but in our community, we’re really chill about the contest.

Yeah, no, I’m so proud of him and the whole Indonesian community.

Thanks for having me!