On a lark, bought myself an Eagle boom for an early Christmas
presentÂ… wooden, advertised at 40 yards. For every waking minute
since, booms have become my obsession.

I am an aging hippie, own a PR firm, and am about to turn 55. I hike
and throw rocks to stay in shape and am a pretty decent racquetball
player as would be expected after playing for thirty years. While my
hair is falling, my belly growing, and my ankles corrodingÂ… I still
have a half decent throwing arm.

To my absolute amazement, the Eagle boomerang traveled far and low
and came right back. I could not get over the circular flight path
and threw it again and again laughing every time it came back,
catching many on even the first day. That night I lay awake and kept
going over its flight trajectory in my head. I would wonder why I
have never seen anyone else ever play with a boomerang, why so rare
and unpopular?

While I was pleased with the Eagle, I talked my sons into buying me a
better boom. If a 40 yard rating is cool, 65 yards ought to be
better, so I had them order a Delicate Arch SE.

The first time I threw it, I enjoyed such an ecstasy that you might
call it a spiritual experience. The thing just kept going and going
and going and it did a low perfect circle and came right back. I lay
awake at night picturing that second quadrant, when the `rang takes
that first 90 degree turn yet keeps traveling further and further
away until just at that last impossible instant, at 180 degrees, its
starts coming right back home. I was in awe.

I always regarded Frisbee playing to be a contemplative experience,
but this boomerang throwing was otherworldly.

For a while, I started obsessing on long distance booms. The 65
yarder relegated my 40 yard eagle to the discarded toy box. I started
fantasizing about joining the "100 meter club". I wondered about the
world record for distance for 55 year old bald, fat men. When I
splattered the delicate arch against a light pole at the soccer
field, I searched every web site to find a 100 meter version of the
Eagle and Arch that had given me such pleasure.

Having 18 and 20 year old sons to occassionally throw with is very
rewarding and the younger one gave me a reality check. "Dad, why do
you want to buy a thin plastic thing, hard to see and hard to catch
and hard to findÂ… when those clunky wooden boomerangs give you so
much pleasure.

This morning, here in Royal Palm Beach Florida, for about the tenth
day in a row, I took my 80 pound, ten year old red dog and my three
boomerangs to my favorite throwing location. It's an abandoned golf
course with hundreds of yards of wide fairways flanked by the most
amazing ancient banyan trees. There is never a soul there, and the
high grass, exotic trees, and warm moist air make it feel like an
African plain. The weather has been cooperative, slight steady
breeze, near 80 degrees today.

The Eagle is more fun to throw now that I have accepted it for what
it is. My new Delicate Arch SE, against all odds, works just as well
as the first one and I enjoy using it in all wind conditions. Even
had the pleasure of throwing it through patchy fog the other
morning. My idea of the perfect flight is one that travels so low
that occasionally it even skims some of the higher grass in the
second quadrant before rising and returning. My third friend is a
Kilimanjaro. It's a big, clunky lumbering piece of lumber that is
uncannily stable in flight and you can actually hear it "cuchunga,
cuchunga, cuchunga" struggling through the air as if it is a slow
steam locomotive under load. My wife throws it occasionally and she
achieves such a slow spin that the thing looks more like a hand
glider than a spinning rang.

Boomerang is my new hobby, my new exercise, my new meditation. You
guys on this board are the only ones that might understand that.
Regards to all,
Denis Eirikis
Eirikis@clearlightPR.com