Boomerang Bash at Gary's part 1
Barb and I arrived at Gary's on Saturday morning, Dec 30th. Bill Rusky arrived the night before (well, so did we, but went right to our hotel). With Bill there we turned our attention to making some Underhand Boomerangs. We also made about 8 various size Lexan kylies. We got them shaped and headed to the field to test. As we were testing, John Fantone showed up with his son Kyle and his daughter. John and I had some UHB made by David Fantone so all of a sudden it was an underhanded throwing session.
Gary had brought out some fast catch booms out for testing so we did a bit of work with them. It was hard to believe that we were in Ohio the end of December and were tossing boomerangs in our shirtsleeves. Gary's "Wicked" fast catch is exactly that, wicked! It stays vertical all the way around and comes at you like a flying buzzsaw! None of us would stand close during testing for fear of getting maimed! The photo is not the Wicked but a slower "safe" fast catch. We ended with a round of "bash the garbage can" with a kylie.
We headed back inside for more boomerang making. We worked on various shapes and then we set up to start making lapjoint boomerangs. I got the laps cut to make 9 and Gary glued them up later that evening. Nate (last name forgot) arrived in the afternoon. Barb and I left for the hotel just before Dr Fred arrived. Gary, Fred and Bill worked into the wee hours of the morning.
Sunday we were back at it and made some fast catch along with the lapjoint rangs. Testing of those was a bit tough as it had started to rain lightly and we had bare hardwood booms. The booms flew great. The lap joint booms are interesting as I had no idea of the shape before I started. I took the glued up blanks and looked in Gary's shop for inspiration. In one case I took a Skippy and spread the arms to fit the blank. I did the same with another shape and included some modifications suggested by Fred. The hook shape was fun. It started as a Rusty Harding Concept style boomerang but I thought it looked clunky. I then used the dingle arm of a Big Al Hook and modified the Lead Arm too. I ended up with a Big Rusty Hook, which sounds like something found on the bottem of a fishing boat. The hardwood booms came out real nice. We also did more testing of fast catch booms and I threw my elbow out. We went back in and did more sanding. John Fantone came back for the second day and Bill Rusky headed home.
On New year's Eve, Gary was scheduled to do demos in Canfield about an hour away. It was raining and although he still had to go, Barb and I bailed out and spent the evening celebrating together.
On the first we stopped back with Gary before heading home. We weren't even planning to stop on New Year's day and instead head straight home from the hotel. Well, a little extra time and an early start got us back. Because of that I made 4 more boomerangs including the big one John from Ft Wayne brought. It's carpe diem at Gary's, 24/7. John from Ft Wayne was there with his family. John has been making boomerangs and had not met other boomerang enthusiasts before. So there were Gary, Dr Fred and I, along with John. tossing all kinds of boomerangs. John had some really nice rangs he made including a big 28 inch Napoleon Hat shape. He got one hung up in a tree but Gary had it out with two tossed of a ball. I even got to shape a copy of John's large boom before heading home.
While we were there Gary got a few calls from other boom enthusiats. Morri Mohr called from the Califonia boom bash, Stu Jones called from Houston and Zoran Jarnovic called from Slovinia! It was a special New Year's weekend.
Dave
Photo: L-R, Kyle and John Fantone, Gary, and Bill Rusky prepare to hunt garbage cans.
Gary had brought out some fast catch booms out for testing so we did a bit of work with them. It was hard to believe that we were in Ohio the end of December and were tossing boomerangs in our shirtsleeves. Gary's "Wicked" fast catch is exactly that, wicked! It stays vertical all the way around and comes at you like a flying buzzsaw! None of us would stand close during testing for fear of getting maimed! The photo is not the Wicked but a slower "safe" fast catch. We ended with a round of "bash the garbage can" with a kylie.
We headed back inside for more boomerang making. We worked on various shapes and then we set up to start making lapjoint boomerangs. I got the laps cut to make 9 and Gary glued them up later that evening. Nate (last name forgot) arrived in the afternoon. Barb and I left for the hotel just before Dr Fred arrived. Gary, Fred and Bill worked into the wee hours of the morning.
Sunday we were back at it and made some fast catch along with the lapjoint rangs. Testing of those was a bit tough as it had started to rain lightly and we had bare hardwood booms. The booms flew great. The lap joint booms are interesting as I had no idea of the shape before I started. I took the glued up blanks and looked in Gary's shop for inspiration. In one case I took a Skippy and spread the arms to fit the blank. I did the same with another shape and included some modifications suggested by Fred. The hook shape was fun. It started as a Rusty Harding Concept style boomerang but I thought it looked clunky. I then used the dingle arm of a Big Al Hook and modified the Lead Arm too. I ended up with a Big Rusty Hook, which sounds like something found on the bottem of a fishing boat. The hardwood booms came out real nice. We also did more testing of fast catch booms and I threw my elbow out. We went back in and did more sanding. John Fantone came back for the second day and Bill Rusky headed home.
On New year's Eve, Gary was scheduled to do demos in Canfield about an hour away. It was raining and although he still had to go, Barb and I bailed out and spent the evening celebrating together.
On the first we stopped back with Gary before heading home. We weren't even planning to stop on New Year's day and instead head straight home from the hotel. Well, a little extra time and an early start got us back. Because of that I made 4 more boomerangs including the big one John from Ft Wayne brought. It's carpe diem at Gary's, 24/7. John from Ft Wayne was there with his family. John has been making boomerangs and had not met other boomerang enthusiasts before. So there were Gary, Dr Fred and I, along with John. tossing all kinds of boomerangs. John had some really nice rangs he made including a big 28 inch Napoleon Hat shape. He got one hung up in a tree but Gary had it out with two tossed of a ball. I even got to shape a copy of John's large boom before heading home.
While we were there Gary got a few calls from other boom enthusiats. Morri Mohr called from the Califonia boom bash, Stu Jones called from Houston and Zoran Jarnovic called from Slovinia! It was a special New Year's weekend.
Dave
Photo: L-R, Kyle and John Fantone, Gary, and Bill Rusky prepare to hunt garbage cans.
Added on January 03, 2007 by bvdrangs
Comments