Wiper

Wipers are tricks performed while holding the pen at the ends and using that point as a pivot, creating rotation with gravity and or momentum generated by the arm and wrist. Wipers generally lend themselves to types of spinning that heavily use them as it's much easier to transition from wiper to wiper than wiper to non-wiper and vice versa, but they can be used in any style due to their sheer diversity and versatility.

The normal is palm-side and rotates counter-clockwise as the pen follows gravity, and the reverse rotates clockwise as it goes against gravity.

History

Although tricks from the wiper family like the infinity had been known since the year 2000, it was in November of 2002 when Tohlz from PenstudioZ named wiper and its reverse:

“Wiper got its name from the idea of the car screen wiper (the thing which wipe the car screen when raining). The trick looks similar to a car screen wiper and can be link to other tricks. A very nice and simple trick for beginners to learn.”

In Japan, the name ハーフウィンドミル (half windmill) originated some- time around 2002-2003, although its exact origin isn’t known. The direction of rotation of the Japanese half windmill is opposite that of a wiper. It was in none of the early web pages; its origin is in the bulletin boards. One of the earliest instances of the trick is from 2003, in a Shitaraba thread. One theory is that someone gave the name “windmill” to figure 8 so a single wiper became “half windmill”. Some spinners remember that use, and it’s also written down in Aysh’s wiki. Another theory is that the trick “windmill” was listed at some point in Hideaki’s website, so people speculated what half a windmill would be. However, there’s no trace on the archived version of the website of that ever happening. Another theory is that the mysterious “windmill” trick was a direct translation of the Korean 윈드밀 (windmill), which is a twisted sonic. This is unlikely since there are no other pen spinning loanwords from Korean in Japanese.

Variations

Figure 8

A simple, continuous linkage notated as such: Wiper T1 -> PD Wiper Reverse T1.

The trick was created by Tohlz in 2003. In PenstudioZ, he explains how he found it while doing wiper harmonic. He gave it that name since it looked like a horizontal 8 when done correctly, and infinity was already taken.

Infinity

Another continuous but slightly more complex linkage or minicombo notated as such: Wiper T1 -> PD Pass T1-12 -> PD Wiper Rev 12 -> Pass Rev 12-T1.

Double, triple, and quadruple versions are rarely used terms that describe including the middle, ring, and pinky fingers respectively to extend the linkage.

It is the first wiper minicombo to ever be found. The first person to record the trick was Szeto, who called it infinity loop. Kam then listed the trick on Pentix as infinity, which is the name that has stuck. Kam considered including it among the fundamentals, but didn’t do so in the end. However, modern trick guides like Megas’ trick learning order do include it as a fundamental.

Fingercross

Any wiper performed with at least one finger holding the pen in the fingercross position. They can vary to being as simple as holding the pen with a crossed finger or holding the pen within the crossing.

Palm

Wipers can be performed using just one finger by holding the pen against the palm with a curled finger.

2H

Notably utilized by TMRW of JEB, wipers can be performed using fingers from both hands which significantly boosts the difficulty.

1P1H Twirls

See also: Charge#In-Out

This variation uses a thumb slot and is performed with one finger holding the pen on the palm side and the other on the back hand, with the positions swapping during execution.

Cardioid

See also: Cardioids