Pen-spinner Kit

HK Magazine: Is pen spinning a formal sport? Are you involved in any kind of competition?
Kit: It's an amateur sport at best and nobody can make a living out of this, at least not in Hong Kong. But there is a Pen-spinning World Cup held this year. It is held by eight pen-spinning websites worldwide and features videos of the world’s top ten pen-heads doing their thing. I sent in a video but I got flung out in the first round.

HK: Why do people send in videos instead of performing live?
Kit: The momentum of pen spinning is easily disrupted. Pen-spinning is a sport with a small margin of error. Almost no one can complete the set when someone else is watching. Whether you finish a set smoothly depends on luck. It usually takes me hours just to finish a clip. The post-production process takes up extra time.

HK: So pen-spinning is seriously a viable sport?
Kit: There is actually the Universal Pen Spinning Board for spinners worldwide. More and more people are taking up spinning. I built a spinners’ website three years ago. There were only a few registered users in the first year, but now I have thousands of members and more people signing up every day. Like video gaming, pen-spinning is more popular in Japan and Korea and they have loads of websites on the subject, while Hong Kong only has two. And in South Korea, there is even a company producing pens specifically for spinning, as well as bracelets you can spin… Anything they can come up with to make people spend.

HK: What are spinners like?
Kit: People who spin are mostly guys. Girls are too serious for this - they just smirk at us! Most of them are students. I hold gatherings for spinners who register on my site. I’ve become good friends with a few of them in fact. Most of these people don’t speak much when we meet; we just spin in silence. Occasionally there are a few laughs but that’s it. If you see us in McDonalds, the park or on the street, you’d see a group of ten spinners twirling their pens as if nobody is around.

HK: What kind of pen do you use?
Kit: Basically you can use any pen, but there are special pens for spinners as well. These are longer with each side balancing out the other. Some spinners will alter their pen by adding a weight here and there. I like using vintage pens, like this wooden red and blue ballpoint by Zebra.

HK: Tell us some cool tricks.
Kit: There is The Fingerpass, which is spinning the pen through the four fingers of the hand; and The Sonic requires one to move the pen from one finger position to another position in as little time as possible. I have seen people spin their pen with fire or combine magic tricks with spinning.