Berindean Mihnea

Alias Beri

Born & Raised Pitești, Romania

Living Since 2000
Playing since 2015

Instagram @berindean_mihnea

Hobbies
Cardistry, fingerboarding and random fidget thingies. Sometimes I like to DJ at parties. Used to play tennis "professionally" when I was a kid.

Titles 
EKC 2022 Top 16 Freestyle
SpikeDama 2018, 5th place 
Superstoker Gathering participant 
SKO 2022 Dama Blitz, 2nd place 
Juggler Kendama Video Contest 2016 Amateur, 1st place
ZNDK 2016 Pitești, 3rd place 
Eroii la Cluj Amateur, 1st place

School of Thought
Kendama is the best bridge between people that you can ever have. It honestly can be whatever you want, it has so many avenues that you can take and the cool part is that you don't even make a conscious choice, you kind of gravitate towards a certain path naturally and I think that's even better. It definitely changed my life, met so many people, traveled so many places and got the experience life through the lens of the beautiful people that are part of the kendama community. I guess I've always been a "people" person, but dama definitely boosted that sentiment in me. Kendama shaped me in a way I didn't think was possible, taught me so many things indirectly through many small different lessons and to this day, it still does. There's much more to say, but hard to summarize, so, yeah, pretty cool stick I'd say. 

Dama Story
Before I started playing Kendama I used to do cardistry for around 5 years or so. I basically discovered it through an old classmate from primary school, from my neighbourhood, in my hometown. I was outside chilling with a couple of homies and he showed me this bizarre thing - I didn't really have any reaction, it seemed kinda weird, he demonstrated how to big cup and spike and I did both of them first try and I thought it was kinda easy so I was pretty meh about it, moved on with my day, forgot about it. 

A couple months later after the classmate showed kendama to me *ahem* I was 14, in my hometown, in Pitești, (also called the City of Tulips, fun fact) and some random squad of the dama players walked in front of me and I was like: "Why are people playing this stupid little wooden thing? My hobby is far more superior and skillful than this!" So yeah big hater. Didn't know there was a community for this thing, I was pretty sad honestly cause there wasn't really any community for cardistry in Romania, so I just wanted to prove myself that kendama was not cool and it's easy and not worth it, damn I was mean towards it. Took some saved up money I got from my birthday, went to a place I knew they were selling it, a souvenir shop of some sorts and got a Green Kendama Europe Play Pro. Got home, unpackaged it, tried big cup, I missed. I was devastated, I was frustrated, it actually wasn't easy, I tried for a couple more minutes and I couldn't do anything. Got pretty upset, but eventually I started landing some stuff, and the satisfaction started to kick in after every attempt, so I kept going, it was actually fun. I started playing outside with my friends, found out there was a neighbour that had it for a couple of years and he taught me how to play, alongside an old friend, Andrei, and we got to learning tricks for the whole summer. 

Afterwards I got into high school school where I met a guy that was probably the best player in our town at the time, Schuster, so I showed him cardistry, he showed me kendama and then I told him I also have a kendama at home. He said to come around for the seshes and there I met that squad of dama players that walked in front of me that day and from there on, never stopped, will never stop. Damn I hope this isn't too long.