From One Drop:
“Year: 1991
City: Laguna Beach
Location: Club Post Nuclear
Music: New Beat and Industrial
Laguna Beach is important and special in the history of One Drop because that is where the owners (Shawn and David) met way back in 1991. We happened to both be hanging out at Club Post Nuclear every Friday night and ended up being roommates and friends. It’s fair to say that One Drop started in Laguna Beach. It feels right to honor how this all came to be by calling this new yo-yo the Laguna.
What also started in 1991 was a life long friendship. The idea to start a business together happened not too long after meeting and becoming roommates. It took a decade for it to actually happen and One Drop Design was formed in 2001. We started making yo-yos in 2007. “They” say to not go into business with your friends, and while that is probably generally true, One Drop is fueled by our friendship and it just works. Pretty cool!
The first thing that happened in the design process was that we were able to buy blue Delrin in a reasonable quantity. Normally we can easily get black and white but other colors are usually really expensive and only available in large quantities. We jumped on it.
We made only two Delrin models previously: Cabal and Cabal Gen 2 and it was definitely time for a new model. The goal was to achieve modern specs and proportions without using a weight ring. Because Delrin is less dense than aluminum, it weighs less, so you need more of it to achieve a desirable weight. The first Cabal wasn’t very wide so it had to be really thick to achieve the weight without a ring. By making the Laguna much wider and lighter (10mm wider and 5 grams lighter than the Cabal), we were able to achieve the correct weight without it being overly thick. This also allowed us to push a ton of weight out to the rim.
Our trusty physicist and good friend, Dirty Birdy, crunched the numbers and the Laguna is well into the “Dark Side” which means it has large amounts of rim weight and spins forever. The overall feeling of machined Delrin in your hand is always nostalgic to the old plastic yo-yos, but the performance meets modern expectations. It’s a joy to play.”
