BY RAY ROUTHIER

MaineToday Media, Inc.

SCARBOROUGH -- Competitive yo-yo'ers?

Most people don't know they exist. But a teenage Brandon Baines not only knew they existed, he knew exactly how to become one.

A few years ago, Baines, now 20, decided to get a yo-yo company to sponsor him. So he spent six months or so developing yo-yo tricks that he felt nobody had ever done before, that nobody had ever seen before.

Then he put a video of his tricks online and waited for offers to come to his home in Scarborough.

He didn't wait very long.

"The tricks he came up with are really innovative, and anybody who knows the sport knows how technically hard they are," said Andre Boulay, captain of the 42-member competition team at YoYoJam, a yo-yo manufacturer and Baines' sponsor. "Technically, he's as good as anybody in the world."

Baines will have a chance to prove Boulay true today through Saturday, when he competes against 100 other yo-yo hotshots at the 2008 World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando, Fla.

If successful, it will be the result of literally a lifetime of training. Baines took up yo-yo'ing in the third grade, when a yo-yo craze was hitting his elementary school.

Other kids dropped it for the next big craze, but Baines stuck with it -- while also learning to juggle, ride a unicycle and do tricks for the Gym Dandies, a children's circus based in Scarborough.

"I knew I was coordinated enough to do it, but mentally, I had to work at it," Baines said.

He worked for years, including the three or four years he spent creating new tricks for the video that got him a sponsorship from YoYoJam. (The sponsorship, by the way, includes free yo-yos and covers travel expenses, but is not enough to pay the rent.)

His competitors and friends say Baines in not only technically great -- he specializes in fairly subtle string tricks -- but that he's the perfect person to be a face of the growing sport of competitive yo-yo.

"He's one of the good guys of yo-yo'ing. Not the quiet, shy type of good guy. He's the cool, rocking, determined type of good guy," said Rafael Matsunaga, a yo-yo'er from Brazil who will also be competing at the contest in Orlando this week.

In fact, as it tries to promote its product and the sport, YoYoJam strives to pick young people who are "role models" to play on its yo-yo team, said Valerie Aaron, vice president of the Georgia-based company.

And Aaron says it is hard to find a better role model than Baines.

He's an Eagle Scout. He made the honor roll in high school. He's majoring in video production at the University of Southern Maine, performs his yo-yo tricks at campgrounds and other group settings, is spending his summer working at two Ace Hardware stores in Scarborough, and hopes to someday attend watch-making school.

So when does he find time to practice his world-class yo-yo skills?

"I don't really practice, per se. I just have a yo-yo with me all the time, and if I have spare time, I'll do stuff," Baines said. "My boss (at the hardware store) doesn't mind."

Baines' tricks aren't flashy. If you expect to see him whip the yo-yo over his head at 100 miles per hour, forget it.

Most of his tricks are string tricks. He basically looks like he's weaving and tangling the string around his fingers and hands, while keeping the yo-yo spinning all the time. And then he seamlessly untangles the whole mess, while the yo-yo is still spinning.

"Plenty of players can do it fast and flashy; it's not that hard," Baines said. "Mine are more slow and intricate, but those are the ones I like to do."

Baines admits his style is not the best for competitions. At Orlando, he will be competing with people from all over the world who have qualified for the event by finishing high at other contests, just as Baines has.

There will be a cash prize for the six top finishers, but the amount hasn't been announced yet.

Baines says he doesn't care about that. By competing at yo-yo events during the past 10 years or so, he's made friends from all over the world.

And that's his prize.

"Most of us could care less about the competition aspect," Baines said. "I sort of care about it, but I mostly go for the social aspect. The yo-yo community is very tight.

"Some of the best friends I've made in my entire life have been through yo-yo'ing."