Boomerang Lessons

Here I am holding the boomerang in the wrong direction.

There's a boomerang and Aboriginal crafts shop near where we live that we've walked by probably a few dozen times. Jean finally ventured into the shop last week and got an exhaustive tour of the shop's wares from the ebullient store keeper. Jean also signed us for a boomerang lesson taught by "an authentic Aboriginal" as the clerk phrased it.

We met Alfred, the authentic Aboriginal, at the shop Tuesday afternoon. There were over a dozen or so other lesson participants already gathered. We trooped over to Rushcutter's Bay Park where Alfred lined us up and gave a demonstration. The overriding messages of the lesson were:

1. Always throw into the wind or you might not get your boomerang back.
2. Give yourself plenty of space or you might knock someone out.

Then the flinging began. The flight dynamics of a boomerang are really amazing. You throw it overhand like a baseball. The boomerang goes out vertical spinning end over end and looks like it's gone for good. Then as its forward momentum slows the boomerang flattens out and the spin causes it to turn left. That motion combined with the wind returns the boomerang back to its point of origin. That the theory at least. With the score of novices assembled on the lawn that day sticks were raining down everywhere.

I eventually got some of a technique and could usually get the boomerang to land somewhere in my general vicinity and even caught a few. Talking to Alfred, the small boomerangs we were throwing were used for hunting birds like magpies. The boomerang would strike the bird from behind stunning it. Then the hunter could nip off and get his tuck before the bird came to its senses. I noticed Wikipedia says the boomerang was used to scare flocks of birds into nets. I'll have to go with the authentic Aboriginal on this one. Both Alfred and Wikipedia agree that the larger boomerangs were thrown in a side arm fashion and used to knock the legs out from under a kangaroo or emu.

The experience was a lot of fun. Being a great fan of disc sports like Ultimate Frisbee and disc golf I've since had the nagging thought in my head that there has be some sort of game based around the boomerang. Perhaps I need to turn over a few throwing sticks to my disc hurling father and see what he can come up with.