Boomerangs

Seeing the kite thread reminded me that I used to be quite into boomerangs about 20 years ago.

Me and a mate got pretty good, I’ll never forget the first time I got it to go out in a perfect loop and land at my feet.

After that we started making them bigger out of half inch ply and epoxy, on a blowy day they would stay up for ages. You could fire them out to sea and watch them skim back into land

Anybody into to them these days? I am tempted to make another one

As a young boy, we once went on holiday to the Welsh coast and found a plastic boomerang. Big brother and I took it to the sea front in a state of high excitement, desperate to make it work. Big brother faced into the onshore breeze, hoping to at least get it to come back onto the beach, wound up, fired…. And it went about twenty feet forward, rising sharply all the time before arcing back over us, clearing the gardens then the houses behind us, never to be seen again. As far as I know, it could still be going.

That is my only boomerang experience. 🙂

Ha ha that is quality!

I had a similar experience in a Glasgow park trying to impress a ladyfriend. The boomerang caught a gust and disappeared overhead, clattering off tenements as it made it’s merry way towards turning into matchsticks.

That was the last time I saw her (the ladyfriend)

Aerobie Orbiter boomerang works well. Not so Mick Dundee though.

There is always one that lives in the back of our car.Have had it for years and at the time it was the biggest wooden one that they had in the shop ( 40cmx45cm wings). It takes some launching ,but I now have the knack ,and as long as it’s not too windy I can land it at my feet* most throws,very satisfying. #suchasimplepleasure 🙂

* I have never,ever tried to catch it..would break yir blinkin fingers

I could never get the things to work, probably due to a lack of YouTube and being left-handed.

Not all Boomerangs are expected to come back.

Check out those acrylic melon killers on YouTube.

If my Frisbee skills are anything to go by, it would be safer for everyone if i never get to throw a boomerang

Are they making a comeback?

My grandma gave me one.

Eventually I go it to return and was expecting to catch it. The speed it came back was terrifying as it came straight at my head!

I never returned to it after that

I could never get the things to work, probably due to a lack of YouTube and being left-handed

I had never thought about them being handed, but it’s obvious when you think about it

There’s no way I’d be catching the big ones we had!

Edit. Now I’m not sure if they are all handed. The ones I made were shaped like an aerofoil, properly wing shaped with a leading edge. But some I have seen are just curved on the top so I think would work in both directions. Aggh. Confusing my early morning brain..

I had a three-winged “boomerang” when I was younger. Absolutely lethal if it decided to return to sender. Probably still in a tree somewhere, tainted with blood.

I had a joke about a boomerang…but I’ve forgotten it… it’ll come back to me, I’m sure!

Used to have a plastic one when I was at junior school (so over 40 years ago)

Was pretty good at getting it to come back to me but usually too scared to try and catch it!

I think, cause the world hates lefties 😉 most trad wooden ones are right handed. The leading wing is longer and you hold the short wing flat side to your palm. If there is any wind it gets launched at 45%  to the direction of the wind . It it’s too windy all bets are off as to where it will land 🙂

You can get left-handed boomerangs on Amazon… might have to get one!

I once got told off by the Rangers for boomeranging on Hampstead Heath.  Quite fun to make , I think there was an article about how they worked in New Scientist and you could send off for plans (pre Internet days).

When my parents returned from visiting my aunt in Australia my Dad brought a stack of locally made ones back. They were all left handed ones except one (Dad was left handed no one else in the family were / are)

I could get it to fly reasonably well but only occasionally back to somewhere close to where I threw it. From memory they are either frustrating or deadly.

I heard boo means ‘to return’ in an Aboriginal Indigenous language, because if you throw a normal meringue it doesn’t come back.

I once got told off by Rangers for boomeranging on Hampden park

FTFY

Now I’m not sure if they are all handed. The ones I made were shaped like an aerofoil, properly wing shaped with a leading edge. But some I have seen are just curved on the top so I think would work in both directions. Aggh. Confusing my early morning brain..

They’re not now.  The ones – OK, one – I had access to as a kid was a traditional right-handed wooden one that a mate had.  The tri-arm plastic ones, if I’m thinking of the same thing wordnumb mentioned, are more like a frisbee than a wing-profile boomerang and are ambidextrous.  I think.

You can get left-handed boomerangs on Amazon… might have to get one!

Oh, don’t tell me that…!

(… of course, modern ones are called Genzeeangs.)

CougarFull Member
(… of course, modern ones are called Genzeeangs

I was never interested in boomerangs, the thought of hurling something with an airfoil cross-section into the air that’s supposed to come back, possibly with extreme predjudice, I found more than off-putting!

Frisbees, on the other hand, I had a lot of fun with, and it’s fairly easy to get a Frisbee to return and catch it, sometimes almost dropping into my hand. Still got a bunch of them out in the shed somewhere, including a luminous one – that’s a tricky thing to catch in the dark, all your depth perception goes to pot, so it’s really difficult to judge how close it is…

Can’t find a suitable emoji for being hit in the face with a plastic flying disc…