Meet The Woodturner Spreading Kendama Throughout Austria

Lukas Beck is the owner of GreenDama, a kendama woodturning shop based out of Austria. Lukas also manages a Kendama Austria website that is entirely dedicated to spreading kendama awareness across the country. He has hosted many workshops to demonstrate and share the kendama experience to people of all ages.

Lukas Beck

Lukas has been able to routinely crank out not only the dutiful tasks above, but also videos, photos, and giveaways while doing everything else too. In other words, kendama has completely consumed his life.

Lukas reached out to HONED and sent us one of his hand turned Chocolate kendamas.











Woodturning alone is work that takes careful dedication, so I thought what Lukas was doing was interesting as you don’t see as many people hand turn their own kendamas anymore. Not only that, but I could just see the amazing effort he’s been making as an inspiring and important gesture for kendama. If only every country had somebody like Lukas in Austria, Ingus & Roach in Latvia, or Oase in Romania…etc, kendama as a whole would soar into an internationally recognized household activity.

After seeing Lukas’s work in person, I was even more amazed with what he’s doing over in Austria. So I reached out to him again wanting to learn more about his process, and why he has dedicated his life to playing kendama.

Ryan Reese: Hi Lukas. How were you introduced to kendama?

Lukas Beck: I stumbled upon kendama in 2013, as I was browsing Youtube for parkour videos. A guy named Alex posted a video in which he played kendama throughout it. The tricks that I saw in the edit amazed me so much. I was literally in front of my laptop screaming, “What!? WHAT!?“. After that I went out and bought one the next day.

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Who are some of your kendama inspirations/role models?

As I started I really looked up to the old KUSA Pro Team (Zack, TJ, Wiens, Dave, Turner, Colin, Alex). I loved how they worked together, filmed dope edits and overall had the common goal to spread kendama.

How has kendama changed your life?

It has been a real journey and it’s safe to say that it has become a major part my life. The year I started playing was also the year I made the first batch of kendamas. From then on it still look some years for the thing to become truly professional, but it has been what I’ve put my mind to on a daily basis since that wow moment in front of my computer.

Today it has become my job and I’m able to make a living from teaching, spreading and making this wonderful, simple and exciting toy. It helped me develop on a personal and emotional level but also on the business side of things. I met people that I share a similar passion with and I met a ton more that had never heard about kendama before. It made me scream out loud from happiness and anger, it made me cry from joy and fulfillment, I made people of all ages happy, made some mad. It gave me something meaningful to do with my life that I truly stand for and most importantly, I still love to play.

Were you already a woodturner before kendama? Or did kendama inspire you to start woodturning?

Kendama inspired me to start woodturning. I started it myself during summer a couple years ago in a tiny barn a friend let me work in. At the moment I do it for fun, and so that I can give them away. In general I love the possibilities you get when making your own.

Can you tell me about the woodturner in Austria who makes the vanilla/chocolate versions?

The dude is almost 60 years old and has been woodturning for all of his life. I taught him how to make kendamas and we’ve been working together for the last 3-4 Years.

What kind of woods do you use?

Mostly I use wood from local carpenters. Walnut, Maple, Ash, Pine, Beech, Akacia also Swiss Stone Pine.

Do you think a kendama having an original shape is important? Or it doesn’t matter as long as you can play it?

I think that originality in general is important. It doesn’t have to come down to the shape only. Of course the shape and its overall playability is important but you can also make your product stand out through design, wood types, interesting extras or painting.

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Tell us about how you have been establishing kendama in schools and other educational institutions.

Since almost two years now I’ve shifted my main focus on teaching children in schools and also their teachers how to play kendama. Basically it’s workshops, advanced training and courses that I do, but also at congressional events and fairs/exhibitions. My main goal is to establish it that way in schools around the country and further beyond. Kendama has lots of advantages it brings with that help achieving a balanced lifestyle, not only in schools but in everyday life. It works through joy and excitement and thats where it’s true potential is.

How would you describe the kendama experience in one word?

Joy.

Will GreenDama ever have a sponsored team? Or is that not important to your mission?

Yes! We will be announcing our first member pretty soon.