boomerang - Design, Basic throwing instructions, Boomerangs in Fiction, Boomerangs in Video Games, Boomerang quotes, Further reading

A throwing stick, so shaped as to fly great distances and strike a severe blow; mainly Australian, but known elsewhere (eg among certain American Indian groups). Some are made to take a curved path and return, and are used mainly for play or training.

For other uses, see boomerang (disambiguation).

A boomerang is a simple wooden implement used for various purposes. The most recognisable type is the returning boomerang which, when thrown correctly, travels in a curved path and returns to its point of origin. Other types of boomerang are of the non-returning sort, and indeed, some are not thrown at all but are used in hand-to-hand combat by Aboriginal people. Boomerangs can be variously used as hunting weapons, percussive musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, decoys for hunting waterfowl, and as recreational playthings. However, the world famous "country of the boomerang" is Australia, where the Australian Aborigines have used both boomerangs and hunting sticks for thousands of years.

Today, boomerangs are most used as sporting items. Most sport boomerangs typically weigh less than 100 grams, with MTA boomerangs (boomerangs used for the maximum time aloft event) often under 25 grams.

Events

In the U.S., most competitions are comprised of six standard events as follows:

Accuracy 50/100: Boomerangs are thrown from the center of a bullseye and points are awarded based on where they land. Aussie Round: Boomerangs are thrown from the centre of a bullseye and points are awarded both for where they are caught within the bullseye and for how far they travel (up to 50 meters). MTA 100: In MTA, or Maximum Time Aloft, boomerangs are thrown and must be caught within a 100 meter diameter circle.

World records

(November 2006)

Discipline	Result	Name	Year	Tournament
Accuracy 100	97 points	H.G. Hoffmann / Tom Szartowicz (D)	2005	Lausanne (CH)
Accuracy 50	68 points	Thomas Stehrenberger (CH)	2001	Lausanne (CH)
Aussie Round	96 points	Fridolin Frost (D) / John Flynn (USA) / Michael Siems (D)	2005	Lausanne (CH) / Delaware (USA) / Viareggio 2006 (I)
Endurance	81 catches	Manuel Schütz (CH)	2005	Milano (I)
Fast Catch	14.60 s	Adam Ruhf (USA)	1996	Emmaus (USA)
Trick Catch/Doubling	390 points	Manuel Schütz (CH)	2004	Milano (I)
Consecutive Catch	1297 catches	Manuel Schütz (CH)	2005	Aalen (D)
MTA 100	104.87 s	Eric Darnell (USA)	1997	Portland (USA)
MTA unlimited	190.2 s	Arnaud Tribillon (F)	2005	Dijon (F)
Long Distance	238 m	Manuel Schütz (CH)	1999	Kloten (CH)

None-discipline record: Smallest Boomerang: Sadir Kattan of Australia in 1997 with 48 mm [1.8 in] long and 45 mm [1.77 in] wide.

Design

A returning boomerang is a airfoil. Larger boomerangs are used in hunting, thus they drop on the ground after striking the target. Smaller ones are used in sport, and are the only boomerangs that return to the thrower. When thrown correctly, a boomerang returns to its starting point.

Now in more detail:

Returning boomerangs consist of two or more arms or wings, connected at an angle.

This is what makes the boomerang 'return gracefully to the thrower, fluttering to a stop in his hand'... With the exception of long-distance boomerangs, they should not be thrown sidearm or like a frisbee, but rather throw with the long axis of the wings rotating in an almost-vertical plane.

Fast Catch boomerangs usually have three symmetrical wings (in the planform view), whereas a Long Distance boomerang is most often shaped very similar to a question mark.

Prominent boomerang designer/builders include Bob Burwell and Tony Butz from Australia, Rusty Harding from the USA, Jerri Leu from Brazil and others.

Basic throwing instructions

A right-handed boomerang circles towards the left, a left-handed boomerang circles towards the right. The range on most of these is between 25 - 40 yards (or meters) A right or left handed boomerang can be thrown with either hand, but the flight direction will depend upon the boomerang, not the thrower. Grasp one wing of the boomerang nearly vertically so that the other wing points forward and the flat side is away from you. The boomerang should flatten out on its own and arc around, sometimes coming to rest a little in front of the thrower or behind the thrower, but ideally it should hover gently and allow the thrower to catch it as a sort of "boomerang sandwich" between the thrower's hands. The boomerang will turn in the direction of the top of its airfoils, so if that direction happens to be up rather than to the side it may fly high enough that the landing causes damage to the boomerang or whatever it lands on. The boomerang sport in Brazil is growing fast with many news: special plywood created for boomerangs (BWoods), Kellogg's company inserting five million boomerangs in cereal boxes, and the First Pan-American Championship set for August 2005. The long distance boomerang world record is 238 m, held by Manuel Schütz of Switzerland.

Boomerangs in Fiction

A metal boomerang is the primary weapon and most prized possession of Sokka, a main protagonist in the asian-fluenced Avatar the Last Airbender, given to him by his father before going off to war. The Sword Strike Gundam, Justice Gundam, Sword Impulse Gundam, Infinite Justice Gundam and Destiny Gundam from the anime series Gundam Seed and its sequel Gundam Seed Destiny are all equipped with beam boomerangs. An electronic boomerang is featured in the movie Batman Returns On the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Gary Takes A Bath", Gary plays with a "Boomerang Pet Ball". In the anime series Code Lyoko the character Yumi uses handheld fans as a weapon, and the fans act like boomerangs. In the popular video game series Dynasty Warriors the playable character Zhu Rong is equipped with a boomerang as her weapon.

Boomerangs in Video Games

Generally, boomerangs in video games will invariably return to the thrower, no matter what the thrower does to avoid it (including running in circles and hiding behind walls). The Mega Man series has featured a few bosses that have used boomerangs as weapons. The most obvious example is in Mega Man II, in which Quick Man uses his "Quick Boomerang" against Mega Man. Mega Man 8 's Tengu Man carries a giant shuriken on his back that returns to him like a boomerang and Mega Man X 's Boomer Kuwanga can detach his headpiece to use as a boomerang. The character Aika from the game Skies of Arcadia uses a boomerang of sorts as her primary weapon. In Suikoden 2 the character Millie uses a normal wooden boomerang and in its sequel Suikoden 5 the character Faylen uses a huge metal boomerang, also the characters (in Suikoden 5) Sialeeds and Sharmitsa use chakrams that act like boomerangs. In Kya Dark Lineage the main character Kya uses a boomy which is a boomerang except that its shape and size are different than a normal boomerang. Boomerangs can be thrown, fly in a circular pattern and may return to the thrower if no monster is hit and the player has sufficient dexterity. Boomerangs appear in Neopets as a Crystal Weapon used by Neopets themselves.

Boomerang quotes

"Remember, you are the target!"