 Pine Underbrush. Grotto Mountain, 2001 |
Pine Underbrush. Grotto Mountain, 2001 |
What child has not at some point in their daily adventures laced a string under tension between the two ends of a freshly cut willow branch and gleefully flung stick after stick from the primitive apparatus? The gradual yet inevitable cracking sounds the bow would make as the wood fatigued was always somthing that both filled my heart with gloom and a longing to one day fashion something with a little more perminance.
One weekend, looking for some construction materials for whatever childhood fantasy I was exploring, a 10 year old Jason found himself rummaging through the garage. I came across an oddle shaped fiberglass stick which had a red rubber handle. After close examination, it looked suspiciously like a bow. An old piece of nylon string with crudely fashioned loops on the end confirmed this hypothosis. I had found heaven! My allowance was quickly allocated to the acquisition of those cheap wooden arrows you can buy at Canadian Tire.
Having moved on to other adventures, archery faded into my childhood. Then in the spring of 2001, something strange happened. I wound up driving by the Calgary Archery Center and for reasons I am somewhat at a loss to explain, I parked the car and walked in. Several hours later I emerged having spent far too much money on a left handed Bear Grizzly recurve bow.
Since then, I have flung countless arrows from a multitude of different bows. Some of the bows I have purchased, and others I have made. Below are some links to some various ongoing archery adventures.
 Stop motion release study. December, 2001 |
More comming soon about Jason and the world of flinging sticks from a stick with a string!
 Aboreal Archery Platform, Northern Alberta. August 2001 |
A predecessor to the bow and arrow, this spear throwing tool is known by many different names. Most commonly referred to as an Atlatl in North America, this seemingly simple stick is used to propel a flexible spear with surprising force. Indeed, the first time I notched one of the six foot darts onto the spur of the stick, wound up, and hurled with all my might, the dart leapt off the atlatl, hissed through the air, and burrowed several inches into the plywood lining my basement climbing gym!
 Carrying loaded atlatl. December, 2001. |
I am hoping to expand on this section of the website soon. I have several Atlatls under construction right now and am getting rigged up to do some stop motion photography of using the Atlatl. Click here for some photographs of the Atlatl-Prototype! This design is very similar to an atlatl made by Robert S. Berg of Thunderbird atlatl. His website can be found at www.thunderbirdatlatl.com.