BruceArmstrong.net

We got a new HD camcorder (Canon Vixia HF20) recently and this weekend, Ace and I went out to make our first boomerang video. It was over 100 degrees and the winds were gusty and shifty. To make matters worse, the field we were on was near trees and we were getting some crazy turbulence. Two throws that I would feel were identical might end up 50 yards away from each other. All this added up to a brutal afternoon with way more throwing than catching.

Here’s the video that Ace put together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwXt19XU_4&fmt=22. If your computer and bandwidth are up to it, make sure to click on “Watch in HD”. YouTube down-converted our video from 1080i to 720p/30fps, but it’s still reasonably high-definition. Unfortunately, the boomerangs we used the most were unpainted, but you can still make them out pretty well.

One new thing we tried was using a fish-eye lens to be able to keep the boomerang in the frame more easily. This worked pretty well for fast catch.

Saturday was the 3rd Annual “LD in Big D” long distance boomerang tournament. Once again, Ace, Cameron, and myself competed. Ace and Cameron had difficulty getting things dialed in, but still managed decent throws of 95 meters each. I fared better with a new personal best throw of 113 meters! This was enough to tie me for second place in the tournament, the best I’ve ever placed in an LD tournament. I actually beat my previous personal best of 107 twice during the tournament. My first scoring throw was 108.

Tom Wythes ran away from the field with some really consistent throwing. He tied his personal best with a throw of 140 meters.

Click here for a small gallery of photos from the tournament.

The 2008 National Boomerang Championships and Expo are coming to Dallas!

I am co-hosting the tournament at Eastfield College in Mesquite Thursday through Sunday. It’s my bad luck that we finally got the tournament on the same year that the world championships were in Seattle. Lots of the regular competitors used up their travel budget for that tournament, so I’m not expecting as big a turnout as the Nationals usually have. We’ll have around thirty throwers, and some of these folks are the best in the world.

If you want to see something you’ve never seen before and may never see again, come on down to Mesquite on Saturday or Sunday and watch a bunch of guys and gals throw curved sticks at themselves. In addition to seeing some exciting action, you can purchase boomerangs and we’ll teach you how to throw and maybe even catch them.

Here’s the official web site with maps and schedules: www.boomerangexpo.com.

 He waited until the last minute, but Andrew finally whipped up a T-shirt design for the 2008 National Boomerang Championships and Expo. The design will be on the front of over 100 shirts that we’re ordering for the event. Click the thumbnail to see a larger version. Go to the Expo site to see what the design looks like on different colored shirts.

For the second year in a row, my nephew Cameron Kelsey was down from Oklahoma visiting during the weekend of the “LD in Big-D” long distance boomerang tournament. Last year Cameron, Ace, and I all competed in the tournament, and we were all disappointed in our performances. Cameron showed great promise, throwing incredible distances, but not quite getting those awesome throws to fully return.

This year was different. On Cameron’s first throw, he got what looked like respectable distance, and a very nice return. The official measurement: 118 meters! This was the first successful return of the tournament, and it would stand through all 5 rounds as the winning throw.

We weren’t able to be at the tournament for the second day so we only got in three rounds, but Ace and I didn’t do too shabby ourselves. Ace set a new personal best at 106 meters and I set new personal bests with throws of 89, 94, 100, and finally 107 meters. (Yes, my best beat Ace’s by 1 measly meter.) Not only did we all set personal bests, but we are finally in the “100 Meter Club”. Our results should be up on the LD website, www.baggressive.com soon.

At the end of the second round, Cameron, myself, and Ace were in first, second, and third. This drew some good-natured ribbing and threats of finding something in the by-laws against that kind of family collusion.

We all have to thank the tournament host, David Hirsch for sharing his LD boomerangs with us, and helping tune them between throws. Thanks, David!

Since neither Cameron, myself, or Ace had ever thrown over 100 meters before, we were classified as “Intermediate” competitors. So not only was Cameron the Tournament Champion, he was also the Intermediate Champion. Ace was the Junior Champion, though there were only 2 juniors entered.

There was other excitement too. We had a storm blow in and cause a rain delay. I needed a break at that point, because I had worn myself out by chasing my wind-blown golf umbrella clear off the campus and into an apartment complex across the street. There was a also scary moment when one of my throws hit a range spotter, slicing his pinky finger to the bone. Glad to hear you’re OK, Larry!

I didn’t have my good camera out much, but I did take a few phone-camera shots. A small gallery is available here.

Here’s something I had heard about, but just now found. I don’t know how long this link will remain active, but there’s a pre-tournament news spot video on WFAA’s site here: http://www.wfaa.com/video/?z=y&nvid=253881

Here are the full final results:

• Cameron Kelsey - 118m
• Tom Wythes - 116m
• Joe Rader - 116m
• Dennis “Juice” Joyce - 112m
• Bruce Armstrong - 107m
• Ace Armstrong - 106m
• David Hirsch - 98m
• Stuart Jones - 98m
• Mark Wolff - 90m
• Larry Burns - 86m
• Bob Rudy - 86m
• Roy Dempsey - 86m
• Barry Burns - 72m
• Walter Owens - 59m
• Xee Rader - 50m

For a 3rd grade science project, Holly had the choice of doing a video demonstration or an in-class demonstration of anything at all “scientific”. I’m so glad she chose to do a video, because it is so much fun to watch, even four years later. Some of you may already have seen it on boomsmith.com, but I just now uploaded it to YouTube and it is being well-received. Here’s the description:

This is a “How Boomerangs Work” video from the perspective of a 3rd grader. The video discusses some boomerang flight science, shows construction, throwing, and catching.

This video was done for Holly’s 3rd grade science class and was so well-received that it was shown to all the other classes as well.

And here’s the video: 

Holly’s 7th grade Art class had a discussion on Aboriginal art and Holly mentioned that her family happened to have “a few boomerangs”. The teacher wanted to see some, so the next day, Holly took a few to school. With all the questions of “Do they really come back?”, the whole class soon ended up out on the football field with Holly giving an impromptu demonstration. Luckily, she had also taken a lightweight Carlotta to show how more “modern” paintjobs contrast to the Aboriginal. So she had something easy to throw to start with. After she threw and caught the Carlotta, the teacher and other kids wanted to see one of the bigger boomerangs in action. Though Holly had never thrown anything so large, she made a go of it and got some good returns. The class was very impressed and now know that yes, they really do come back. The teacher sent me this photo of Holly holding some boomerangs in front of some of the class’s aboriginal art.

Some guys on the Boomerang Talk Yahoo Group were talking about lighted boomerangs and I shared with them a sparkler boomerang video I had made a few years ago. I realized that I had never posted a video on YouTube and decided this would be a perfect way to start. Here it is:

Ace and I, along with my nephew Cameron attended the inaugural LD in Big D boomerang tournament. This was a Long Distance competition that took place at Eastfield College in Mesquite. The three of us performed below our expectations, but several of the competitors got over 100 meters. The top three finishers were Tom Wythes with 130 meters, Stu Jones with 113 meters, and Joe Rader and David Hirsch tying with 112 meters.

Ace was the family champion (2nd place in Intermediate), beating Cameron and I with his toss of 79 meters. This was 10-meter improvement on his personal best set in Houston in 2004 when he was also about 10 inches shorter.

It was blazing hot, and we went through water and Gatorade like crazy. One gentleman collapsed from the heat well before noon (he was fine after cooling down in the shade and being checked out by paramedics), and it only got hotter from there. Unfortunately, prior engagements kept us for coming back for Day 2, so we only got two rounds of throwing in, and I felt terrible about not being able to help the guys out on Sunday. The good news is that they were able to round up enough people to range-spot and line-judge, so they were able to get another official round in on Sunday, even though the 3 of us couldn’t make it back.

It was definitely a fun outing, and even though LD isn’t my strong suit, it sure whet my appetite for trying to beat my personal best at some point in the near future.

See my small photo gallery here, and here’s a link to the Dallas Morning News’ pre-tournment write-up.

I still haven’t finished my write-ups for each day of our Atlanta trip, but since I’m asked so often “How’d you guys do?” and “What’d you win?”, I thought I should put this quick summary together. (For anyone not aware, Andrew has been known by his school friends as “Ace” since 3rd grade, and that has been his boomerang tourney name since our first outing in 2003.)

Ace got 2nd place overall in the Junior Division (18 and under). These are his finishes in the individual events:

• 1st in Australian Round
• 2nd in Fast Catch
• 2nd in Endurance
• 2nd in Trick Catch
• 2nd in Maximum Time Aloft
• 2nd in Accuracy
• 2nd Overall

These same scores were tallied in the Intermediate Division, and Ace placed twice:

• 3rd in Australian Round
• 3rd in Trick Catch

I was also in the Intermediate Division, competing directly against Ace. As he is getting stronger and more skilled every year, this is probably the last time I’ll be able to beat him at any of these events, so I’d better enjoy it while I can. Bruce’s finishes in the Intermediate Division:

• 1st in Endurance (tie)
• 2nd in Australian Round
• 2nd in Fast Catch
• 2nd in Trick Catch
• 3rd in Accuracy
• 2nd Overall

Though neither of us placed in the Intermediate division for MTA, I do have to point out that Ace beat me by a couple of seconds.

We made 3 boomerangs to enter into the Aesthetics Competition. Only our Texas Longhorn didn’t win. Here are our awards:

• 1st place in the Decoration category for our “Flying V Guitar” boomerang (This is a shared award for Ace and I)
• 1st place in the Craftsmanship category for a hardwood Red Oak Lap-jointed “V” boomerang

To see past USBA Aesthetics winners, click here.
To see our full album of photos from the Expo, click here.
To see an excellent writeup by one of the Advanced competitors, click here.