Andre Boulay posted this story from World’s 2024:

While I was at the World Yo-Yo Contest Dale Oliver showed me a picture of him doing offstring on stage at the The 4 – 4 Bandai Yo-Yo Festival in Japan – April 4th, 1998!

This photo was just mind blowing to me. He is on stage in front of such a HUGE crowd doing an offstring move behind his back! I’m not sure if this is the earliest offstring photo – but it just might be! Wild!

Later in the thread he references this article, which is an excellent read, followed up by this amazing video.

Overall, some amazing yo-yo history here!