Juggling with other diabolo players is the best and the most fun way to enjoy diabolo. Juggling with other diabolo players helps you stay motivated, get inspired and you have someone to bounce ideas off of.
If however, you don’t know anyone in real life that plays diabolo, finding someone who does is not too hard.
In Real Life
To find diabolo players to juggle with, the first thing to check is your local toy shop, or if you are lucky your local juggling shop, and ask the owner if they know about other diabolo players or juggling meetings in your area. Don’t forget to leave your contact info so others can find you.
You can also find diaboloists near you thanks to this map:
https://umap.openstreetmap.de/en/map/diabolo-people_22104#4/50.64/34.75
Put yourself on the map and find fellow jugglers in your area. Click on view full screen, then on edit (on the top right corner) and draw a marker where you are and fill in your name and how to contact you.
Local juggling clubs are also a great place to go and meet diabolo players. You can find a list of juggling clubs here : https://www.jugglingedge.com/clublistings.php
You might be the only diabolo player at your local club, but training around other jugglers will help you nonetheless.
Juggling conventions are a great catalyst for improvement, these events are fun, inspiring and other diabolists will help you loads. Go to one as soon as you can!
You can check out juggling conventions near you here.
At juggling conventions, you will learn a lot, get feedback and exchange tricks with other diaboloists. You can find workshops to attend and most (if not all) diabolo players are willing to share their knowledge even to a total beginner. There is no skill level required. In fact, my only regret, regarding juggling conventions, is that I didn’t go to one sooner. Two days at a juggling convention can be the equivalent of two months on your own.
Juggling conventions are also great for motivation and inspiration. Most conventions have shows, an open stage or renegade. If the convention is big enough you can also participate or just watch diabolo battles.
You will also be able to test gear, if you ask nicely and are respectful of others’ property you can try sticks and diabolos before buying them. There are juggling shops at most conventions too so you can buy what you like usually at a cheaper price than online.
Online Communities
If you don’t have anybody to juggle with in person, the next best thing is the online community.
Forums like /r/diabolo or FB groups like https://www.facebook.com/groups/690729387640517 are great ressources to help one another and share wins and inspiration. If you have any question, don’t hesitate to post there as members will be more than happy to help.
diabolo.ca used to be THE forum about diabolo. It is not online anymore, but you can access some of it on the wayback machine.
Some simple, beginner websites explain the basics really well. I learned a lot thanks to http://diabolotricks.com/ . If you speak french this site is great too https://www.2diabolos.com/
YouTube is the best way to learn, it’s filled with tutorials from beginner tricks to ones you can only dream of performing.
For basic tricks go to https://www.youtube.com/user/MrDiabolosTutorials/ .
For vertax my favorite channel is diabolo lounge https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFC73O_HahD8ePe7Mdr7t7g
And for everything in between check out https://www.youtube.com/user/richardclement
You can also check out juggling.tv, it was meant to be the juggling YouTube, you can’t upload anymore but you can still watch what was published here
Instagram is the best plateform to get inspired and watch creative diabolo content. Just explore #diabolo, follow (me) fellow diabolists and share your tricks.
