What is your name?

Calum Johnston (Not really, but thats a secret…) (@calumnotjohnston)

Where is home?

Born: Glasgow Living: Hamburg

How/when did kendama/SK become part of your life and who was involved?

How I started Kendama: There are a few variations of this story but im fairly sure Peter Mckee (Parkour Guy from coatbridge) brought one back from Denmark, where he was visiting regularly at the time. I was in a circus, as was Robbie Grffith and Iain MacDonanld, so we spent a lot of time being encouraged to play new toys. Us 4 and others spent a lot of time just playing with the basics and weird moves. As for how did SK become part of my life… I find that hard to say, cause the essence of SK started before SK was really a thing. It’s more a period of time with certain memories that comes to mind when I think of the 'early days' of SK. First would be actually before Paul had his own Kendama, when he was helping me to apply to go study Parkour in Denmark. He co-writting my application letter as well as proof reading it, two dyslexics are better than one. After a few weeks of not being too sure about Kendama, during the breaks between writing, I found Paul trying the cups of my kendama. It took a soild 2 or 3 sessions to get the application done, and by the end of that he had got round all the cups, and a few other tricks, and was pretty hooked. Second one would be when I bought Paul his first Kendama. I wanted to say thank you for helping with the application and it seemed only natural to buy him a Kendama. I sent it directly to his house without telling him and then I got a call from him a few days later 'Calum…. Did you send me a Kendama?' I can't remember what exactly it was but it was roughly Krom with a dark wood Ken and a purple Tama. And so it began.

The last memories are of 'The Spot'. Shortly after both of us getting kendamas, I moved in with Paul for a short time. We spent a lot of time together, a lot of that time was spent playing Kendama. We had a spot, 100 meters away from his place (And from the Scout Hall our first SKO was held) where every day for a soild few weeks/months we would go a few times a day to play. A little corner of grass with a tree stump to sit on and a view onto Sanda street and half in The Childrens Wood. These were the times where double earthturn was possibly that craziest trick we had ever seen. So many hours just at that spot, playing and chatting Dama and Life.

After that I went to Denmark and SK was officially founded. Those are my first memories of 'SK'. Well, thats the story to me at least.

Describe your play-style in three words.

Durty Street Steez

Preferred string length/wood type/shape etc.

9 or 10. Not fussed about the shape etc.

What is your most cherished kendama memory?

'The Spot' – Just me and my best mate finding value in nothingness :)

What else are you passionate about?

Many things, but to keep it simple 'Community' is a vague answer and I guess learning things and helping other love to learn things and get involved too.

What music do you listen to?

Hip hop mostly, I lie indi and emo and other genres but HipHop is where my heart is. If there was an album that id say was super influential in the process of SK, it would be 'The Growing Process – By Dizzy Wright'. Gem on an album shown to us by Peter Mckee too.

Fun fact about yourself?

I'm super blind.

Paul taught me Parkour.

Final thoughts/shout-outs

I dunno, shout out to Peter Mckee, without him SK wouldn't be. A thought would be to believe in your friends, there’s value in pointless things and triple whirlwind was were Kendama tricks peak for me, everything else is not worth doing.

#StreetDama