boomerangs

Coin Grading

2009-06-06T06:45:00.001-07:00

Bordeaux: Another valid return at 200+ m!

2008-05-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

Bordeaux: Another valid return at 200+ m!
It's the best start into a LD season since 1999, when I last had two >200m scores in two consecutive competitions. It has happened again: After a 203m in Kloten in April, I scored 201m in Bordeaux. Some throws were spotted at 250-270m, but they missed the return by more than 50m. A 220m throw missed the gate by only 1m. So I still believe I can break the 250m barrier.
Have a look how I throw at the images above (composed from two different sections). There's no secret. One differende is that my feet stay on the ground at almost every time. Compare with the preparation of Antoine Hernandez (France, 147 m):

And Uwe Kitzberger (GER, 149 m). He threw my 203m Boomerang of Kloten at this section of images.

More to come soon!

My start into the season 2008: Indoor at Besançon

2008-03-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

Besac'door 2008

It has become a tradition: For the 5th time in Besançon there was in indoor competition. Events were: Accuracy100, Fast Catch, Endurance 3min, Trick Catch50 and MTA.
Range was 14m, Bullseye with 0.8m radius.

-Allthough only 11 throwers took part, I was able to set some personal bests:
91p in Accuracy, 13.68 s in Fast Catch, 56 catches (1 drop) in Endurance and 13.19sec in MTA.

-To throw indoor is an excellent practise for the transitions in Fast Catch/Endurance: You win
these events rather with transitions under 1 sec than with low flighttimes: It's hard to reduce 2sec to 1.5sec flighttime per throw. But with a transition of 0.8 instead of 1.3sec you have the same effect. And in MTA I have a big advatage with my backhand throw using a balsa triblader.

-Accuracy is special too: Since the hall was only ca 8m high, a 100% return was hard to achieve! The flightpath has to be very flat. Additionally, your boomerang will slide on the ground after a bad landing. Some throwers took advantage of that and tried to have the first ground contact at ca 6m in front! Like a curling rock, the boomerang slided more or less into the precision points. My tactic was rather a soft landing at the 8points just in front of me without much sliding.

Here's a selection of my indoor boomerang bag:

MTA, 1.5mm Balsa Accuracy, 4mm plywood Fast Catch, Carlota, 4mm PP
3 pces glued together cambered edges! 3.8mm PP strongly cambered!
Slightly cambered

A boomerang puzzle to benefit the swiss team at the WBC 2008 in Seattle!

2008-03-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

The first real boomerang puzzle ever: A swiss flag composed of 7 boomerangs, all made of 3mm birch plywood by Manuel Schütz. Size = 40 cm x 40 cm This puzzle is available on Ted Baileys Auction till 2nd of May 2008 (Item 113, unusual shaped boomerangs). It shall benefit the Swiss national Team "Scandal" at the next boomerang world cup in Seattle, August 2008.

My favorite links

2008-03-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Here's a selection of important links in th eboomerang world:

The Swiss Boomerang Federation
THE Long distance page: Baggressive
Our german friends: The Deutscher Bumerang Club
The french boomerang federation
The internation federation of boomerang associations
Boomerangs are also thrown in Milano
Societa italiana boomerang sportivo
Ted Bailey's boomerang page

Boomerangs that stay in the air for minutes: High-tech!

2007-09-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a selection of the carbon composite MTAs (Maximum Tima Aloft) I've made in the past 6 years.
One of the twobladers has been thrown by Arnaud Tribillon (F), to set a new world record in MTA unlimited - The boomerang stayed in the air for 3min 10sec!
But the development still goes on. In 2006 I was the first boomerang designer who created an equal winged 3 bladed boomerang that easily flies 25sec or more. Other than the twobladed MTA boomerang, the triblader is very easy to catch.

In competitions, these models are THE boomerangs to use nowadays for the MTA event. The twobladers with flight times of 35+sec especially in calm wind conditions, the tribladers to assure 25-30sec in medium to strong wind conditions. Overall, I've been making over 500 of these boomerangs during the past 6 years.

The history of my long distance boomerangs

2007-08-20T03:37:00.000-07:00

I became ''infected'' with the ld- virus in 1997. During this time, ld were heavy and constructed using the motto "add more weight". I started something new and adapted the ideas of Axel Heckner (GER), a name can not be mentioned often enough in the world of LD-boomerangs! He made sub 100g boomerangs in the early 90's, throwing a german record in 1997: 139m! Considering that the world record was 149m, I developed my own small and light LD-boomerangs.
With this "Pathfinder" (3mm paxolin) I threw 124m in Troyes 1997, holding the swiss record for about 30min. Lorenz Gubler (SUI) won the competition with 132m and was record holder for 1 year.

This is the evolution of the "Pathfinder" above. During the warm-up of the swiss championship at June 1998 I've lost my best ld-boomerang and didn't have much hope to finally break the world record of 149m. So I took the second choice, the "Pathfinder II" shown.
To my surprise the measured distance of my best throw was 155m! But this world record held for only one month

World Championships in St.Louis (USA)
Parallel to my developments, a certain David Schummy threw 185m in practise. He used a "buzzwhip", a ld-boomerang without any additional lead weights! He announced to beat the world record in St.Louis.
The funny thing is, that actually a new record could not have been thrown. The reason was, that during the second round of 5 throws, only the Top 10 throwers were allowed to participate. An unwritten rule said that records can only be thrown under open conditions. I could barely qualify with a range of only 103m, wind was really down.
Second round: David Schummy made 151m, I had a range of 143m in the now better wind conditions. Finally, Schummy had 174m which was considered as a new world record. My last throw was far either, the judges on the field were discussing minutes where the furthest point of my boomerang was. The result was 172m. At least this was a new european record.

Back in Switzerland again. The fight for 200m !
During the autunm/winter 1998/1999 I was desiging a lot of new shapes and made them, now using 3mm glassfibre-epoxy. The new shape is much rounder & closer to a question mark. In practise I had ranges of >190m and the question arose, if 200m is possible.
The 27th of march 1999
During a small comtetition in Switzerland, near Fribourg, I finally had the opportunity to test this new boomerang, called "Voyager". It was the first or second throw which was valid (came back and crossed a gate of 40m, the throw was in the centre of the latter). The measurement said: 192m !
The world record has come back to Switzerland, but I wanted more... Only 8m remaining!
Powered up by the new record I threw with all my strength and finished with 207m
So I was the first person who threw a boomerang more than 200m, witnessed by at least 15 persons!
Just one month later, at 1st of May 1999 I managed to throw 238 m. This is still the current world record!

The boomerang that went 238 m out and back

2007-08-20T02:57:00.000-07:00

Here it is: THE long distance boomerang
It's made from Glassfibre epoxi with a thickness of 3mm. The weight is 71grams.
With this boomerang I won every major long distance (ld) boomerang competition.

It started at the Swiss ld championship at 1st of May 1999 in Kloten (SUI) near the airport, where I managed to throw this boomerang, called "Voyager" 238m out - and back of course!

Further with this boomerang I won the European ld championship in Payerne (SUI) with a distance of 192m.

In 2000, Medlbourne (AUS) I became ld world champion for the first time. The distance there was 199m.

After the german ld championship in 2001 I've never used this boomerang again in competition. I've lost and found it three times (!) during the past years and didn't want to lose this boomerang...