Give Me Some Spin...Spinback That Is!

Spinback 55 - A Boomerang Review

- Manny Olivares -

Boomerang:  Spinback 55 Graphite

Manufacturer:  Tomahawk

The Spinback 55 is a very unique boomerang that I’ve had for a good while now.  Previously I had not felt comfortable enough with the S55 to post a review, but now I feel more proficient.  However, even now the S55 is one of those rangs that I sometimes have difficulty using.  It seems to have a mind of its own sometimes and refuses to be completely tamed, even by a hand as masterful as mine (haha).  If you are intrigued by the S55 thus far, feel free to read on ahead to see if this is the rang for you.

Overview & Physical Characteristics

The S55 is a rather large boomerang as can be seen in the picture below.

From Manny's Rangs

I bought this rang off Mr. Rich Harrison's site (www.theboomerangman.com) and it is a very sturdy, heavy rang.  The first thing you'll notice is the way it looks obviously.  It very clearly says "Graphite" on the trailing arm and you won't soon forget it.  The rang is made out of a very dense polypropylene infused with some graphite and it has the weight to back that up.  I expected the rang to be extremely rigid and unyielding to tuning but I was very surprised to find that it has a considerable amount of flex.  The flex and "give" is also very apparent once you throw it.

The paint scheme on my S55 is a blue bar along the edge of the dingle arm.  The rest of the rang is a sort of faded black color.  Despite the lack of other "flair" it's a very impressive rang to hold and to look at in person.

Throw and Flight

"Kmphooosh!!" That is what phnxhawk is quoted as saying when asked what the S55 sounds like when thrown.  "As if it's tearing the air...a howl."

I'm always impressed by how awesome it sounds when I release it for the throw.  It also tends to make a very distinct metallic twang sound as the Spinback flexes on its flight outward.

This boomerang requires moderate to heavy winds in order the ease the throw.  On  a calm day you'll have to give this bad boom plenty of layover, about 30-35 degrees and as much power as you can muster.  The ideal conditions of course are those windy days when all your other boomerangs are failing.  This is when the S55 is in its element.  Not much layover is required, 10-15 degrees, and a medium strength throw released fairly level is all that's needed to get it to come back.  Too high or low a throw and you'll have a much harder time getting it close enough to catch.

I've always had difficulty with this boomerang due to the fact that conditions change very often at the beach.  We might start out to a calm windless morning and 1.5 hours later the winds have picked up and my other rangs aren't cutting it anymore.  The difference is night and day, from throwing S55 when the winds are nonexistent and having no luck getting it to return, to throwing it when the air is howling away.  This dramatic change in conditions throws me off and it's very easy to overthrow this rang in harder winds.   I've made the mistake many times of launching it too hard and hurting my hand on a catch that I perhaps should not have attempted.  Believe me, this rang hurts when it's coming back at full speed.  A smarter man would let it fly past perhaps haha.

S55 flies relatively low to medium height in a wide circular path with a range of approximately 55 meters as indicated by its name.  I've always been impressed with the hover it has.  Many a time I have seen it fly very low on the return trip and it just keeps chugging away and even passes me if I don't choose to stop it.

Note to the wise: This is definitely a boomerang that I would recommend wearing gloves to catch, though not required if you're really really awesome at slapping it between your two open palms.

Here's a video of me throwing the S55.

Summary


The Spinback 55 is one of my favorite rangs due to its great distance and the majestic flight I get out of it.  I can confidently recommend the S55 if you're an advanced thrower willing to rise to the challenge and take the time to figure out the perfect throw.  There is nothing better than seeing that gorgeous flight end in a picture perfect catch in your own two hands.

Happy Throwing!



Fancy your own Spinback 55?

It is available online at:

The Boomerang Man

and

LMI & Fox



Next time on aLAcrity......


Stay tuned for upcoming video of our new friend Gabe.  He has a very interesting way of throwing left-handed boomerangs...


Boomerangs: Frequent Flyers to the Perfect Tune

Teaser: The Deadly Fog

--by phnxhawk--

Oh, no! What will happen to Manny and phnxhawk? Will they simply get up as if nothing was wrong? Or is this the end?! Stay tuned...for the next video from aLAcrity!

Manny and I have been building up a bank of footage that we have not had a chance to process. I was sifting through some of it recently when I stumbled across some video from a most foggy day. We did continue to throw as the fog bank surrounded us. Although the boomerangs occasionally did get lost in the mist from time to time, we evaded injury yet again. For my part, I was trying to discern whether I could get some sense of the flow around the boomerang as it tore through the fog, but to no avail. I suppose it was not quite the weather I would need for that purpose.

At any rate, we do have some more videos and posts in the pipeline. So, please stay tuned!

Putting my spin on boomerangs...

Boomerangs by Moonlight

--by phnxhawk--

Overview

Ordinarily, the onset of dusk would force me from the beach or field after a long day of throwing boomerangs. Boomerangs start to disappear against the darkening sky, as if cloaked by some advanced stealth technology. So, it would seem quite foolish to continue throwing, not knowing whether the boomerang is about to land a dozen feet to your right or about to ruin thousands of dollars of orthodontic work.

(As a side note, I have been known to throw regular boomerangs in the dead of night. I admit that I was pretty damn lucky not to have hit myself.)

Of course, the overwhelming need to continue throwing 'rangs into the evening has driven some throwers to try different ways of filling that void in their boomerang life. Larry, whom I have mentioned previously, has been toying with embedding LEDs in the wings of some of his boomerangs. He had mentioned to me in previous conversations that it has worked pretty well for him. I have also had good experiences with the visibility of the LEDs embedded in the Scimitar by Eric Darnell. So, I had high hopes that Larry's night 'rangs would make for an awesome show when I joined him to throw them in May.

The Boomerangs

He had a few boomerangs set up for throwing that night, including two Night Pro Fly 'rangs (Eric Darnell) and two plastic Paragons (Adam Carroll). He also had a Night Tri Fly (Eric Darnell) that he tried out for a few throws.

From 2011-05-29_Night Throwing

From 2011-05-29_Night Throwing

From 2011-05-29_Night Throwing

As you can see, the LEDs and accompanying battery, switch and wiring have been embedded into the underside of each wing, generally near midspan. They stick up above the clean surface of the wings by perhaps one or two millimeters, and they have also been taped over for some extra protection during handling. The switch for each LED is a simple push-button under a dimple in the middle of the cover plate. If I recall correctly, pushing the button toggles it between steady light, flashing light and off (or something to that effect). All in all, it is a very slick installation. The LEDs are quite visible and bright, even at a distance, making the boomerang easy to spot, both in the air and on the ground.

The installation of the LEDs accounts for the majority of the modifications Larry made to the boomerangs. For the Darnell boomerangs, Larry also taped over the holes at the end of the wings, aiming to reduce the drag since the LED modifications already add a significant amount of weight.

The Flight

I took some video clips of Larry's throwing the Paragon and Night Pro Fly. It amounts to colored lights whirling about in the shadows...but it was night, after all.



In flight, the LEDs produce a neat effect, especially when set to the flashing mode. Check out the result in the video above. Actually, it was most fun when we had two night boomerangs in the air, seeming to chase each other up and down the flight path. The LEDs enabled me to readily track the boomerangs, and I seldom lost track of them. (When I did, it was due to the fact that I had shifted focus away from the boomerang I was throwing and had trouble reacquiring it...but that happens to me even during the day.)

The extra weight from the LEDs and batteries, although somewhat trivial when held in the hand by themselves, is significant relative to the existing weight and inertia of the boomerang. As you might expect, being "weighted," Larry's night boomerangs require a harder throw (or a windy night) for consistent returns. The flight path tends to be more teardrop in shape, but I happened to be lucky enough to visit him on a breezy evening. So, the path was wider and rounder than might have otherwise been the case.

I would guess that the wind was blowing at a fairly steady 3-5 mph. I was able to throw his Night Fly 'rangs with about 10-20 degrees of layover and somewhat low (just below eye level) to coax the night fly into some consistent returns. They also seem to go out pretty far, but I did not take the time to evaluate the range. I would expect that they go out a few yards further than the unmodified versions.

On the return, one of his Night Fly boomerangs tended not to stop. It came in fast and needed a healthy dose of luck combined with some good hand-eye coordination to put one's hands out for a catch. The other Night Fly tended to slow down and end with a nice hover. In fact, it deceived me into thinking I could handily catch it, much to my chagrin. With only the LEDs clearly visible, I tended to fumble my catches, not having any visual cues as to the exact location and orientation of the rest of the boomerang. In one case, I put my hands out where I expected I could catch the boomerang, but wound up with one wing spinning around my hands and into my face, just over my left eye. Fortunately, the damage seemed to be minimal, and I was able to get back to throwing very quickly. (I also had no black eye the next morning.)

Overall, it was a great night of throwing boomerangs. The LEDs make for a dazzling light show. The calmer winds, combined with the "weighted" night boomerangs, do make for challenging throwing conditions, but not to the point at which they were unmanageable. And aside from the part in which I was freaking out about having a boomerang hit me in the face, I had a lot of fun. I would definitely go back and give those boomerangs another go. Hopefully, I can bring Manny and Charles along next time to create more chaos with four pairs of whirling lights in the air.

Additional Links

• Photos from the night throwing session with Larry
  
• Night Pro Fly - Night Pro Fly at theboomerangman.com
• Night Tri Fly - Night Tri Fly at theboomerangman.com
• Paragon - Paragon at realboomerangs.com's boomerang catalog

"Putting my spin on boomerangs..."

Second Look: Spirit Renewed

--by phnxhawk--

Boomerang: Spirit (ABS)
Manufacturer: Adam Carroll (realboomerangs.com)

Charles reviewed the Spirit last month. Having had more time to play with this boomerang, I decided to post my own review as a supplement to his. I hope the video and experiences I have collected provide some additional perspectives to how it looks and performs in the air.

Overview & Physical Characteristics

From phnxhawk's Boomerang Collection

The Spirit I recently added to my collection comes from Adam Carroll. Using a hook type of planform, the standard Spirit, made of a different plastic, is advertised to have a range of about 50 meters with a teardrop-shaped flight path. As with Charles' Spirit, mine is crafted from ABS, which seems a little more dense and stiff than the standard plastic material. This Spirit, weighing in at 51 g, has a weight and overall size like that of my Mozzie. In the future, I would like to compare the weight of the standard Spirit to its ABS cousin.

As you can see in the above picture, the paint scheme on my Spirit is of the abstract type that Adam is known to apply, using alternating bands of dark purple and lighter blues. This can make it difficult to pick out against the sky in the videos, but it tends to stay quite visible in person.

The Throw & Flight

Throwing at the park with Charles, I frequently obtained the advertised teardrop flight path. There, I was throwing hard with some layover--perhaps something like 10 or 15 degrees. I was also aiming to throw roughly 45 degrees off-wind and at about eye level or slightly higher. Without wind or with a light breeze, this would cause the Spirit to start low and quickly rise high in the outbound legs, diving back down on the return arc of the teardrop. In a severe calm, the boomerang would often stop short, giving out and circling its way down a few yards ahead.



At the beach, where the wind tends to be a little stronger and steadier, I was frequently able to coax the boomerang into a more rounded, elliptical flight path. In the video clips above, I would guess the winds were blowing somewhere between 5 and 8 mph. We were also marking the Spirit at around 45 yards in range, a little shy of the expected 50 meters (about 55 yards). Again, I would throw about 45 degrees off-wind and aim to throw just above eye level. For these clips, I was applying a "medium" strength throw for me--firm, but somewhat light, especially compared to some of the heftier G12 boomerangs I have been throwing lately. In terms of layover, I found that a small amount, 5 to 10 degrees tended to work best for my strength of throw and release height.

Throwing in this fashion would allow me to obtain flights in which the boomerang stays fairly low and level throughout return, rising a little higher as it completed the turn back to me. On the return leg, the boomerang would "put on the brakes" and drop back to my feet or into my hands for an easy catch. In these types of returns, the Spirit would exhibit some hover--not as pronounced as with some of my omega type booms, but enough to make catches easier on the hands.

What might I change about how I use the boomerang in the future? To get up to the advertised range, I expect I would need to do some tuning to both the boomerang and my throw. I might try to reduce wing dihedral and incidence angles on the tip combined with a low or level, hard throw. For the moment, however, I have been spoiled by the ease of the throw and return as it is currently tuned.

Summary

The Spirit is a fun addition to my collection, working reasonably well in calm and light winds and, although not ideal, remains somewhat manageable in medium winds (say, 7 to 10 mph). As it takes a harder throw and can be a little sensitive to how it is released, I might place this in the intermediate class of 'rang. Depending on the wind conditions, it may take some additional work to decipher how to throw and tune it best for the desired flight pattern. A light wind is generally preferable to round out the flight into a more elliptical pattern. So far, this has been a great addition to my boom bag, and I look forward to additional throwing sessions with it in hand.

Links

Interested in picking up your own Spirit? Check out these links:

• realboomerangs.com Catalog Page
• Spirit ABS at theboomerangman.com
• Spirit ABS at flight-toys.com Catalog Page
  

"Putting my spin on boomerangs..."

New Booms in the Bag & Other Stories

--by phnxhawk--

I have uploaded pictures of some of the latest boomerangs to be added to my throwing bag. Have a look. Since the start of the calendar year, I have added several Blue Star and Adam Carroll 'rangs: Volker's Sussex Hook in paxolin and G12, Large Marathon, Suzuki and Wyche and Adam's Spirit and Blast.

In other news, I reminded myself yesterday why I should not throw when the winds are gusting up to 18 mph. I had decided to throw for an hour or so at a local park, since I had some free time in my schedule for the day. It started out well enough; the wind was a pretty stiff breeze, but was still manageable. Over the course of the hour, I was driven around the park by the arrival of families and their children as well as the deteriorating weather conditions. (Well, it was still a sunny day, but the winds had picked up tremendously in that time.)

In defiance of common sense, I decided to try throwing in a lowered basin which happens to be ringed by tall trees and is adjacent to a fence dividing the park from a small airport. A couple test throws with my Windeater 3 were blown around, but not to the point at which I would have been convinced to stop. On my third throw--at eye level, by my reckoning--the boomerang suddenly climbed high into the air and proceeded to swing back well overhead, careening toward the airport. A stinging wall of wind seemed to follow in its wake.

As I whipped around to track it, I realized how much I had underestimated the effects of the gusts. My poor boomerang had been carried up to a height greater than that of the fence (which is at the top of the basin, to boot). Whispering various expletives as I imagined the mayhem that could ensue if it found its way past the fence, I watched it fly into one of the trees along the rim of the basin. I paused for a moment and let out a sigh of relief.

Dread sunk in. I knew that Volker Behrens was shutting down production and foresaw that I had just added another boomerang to any final order I would place this weekend. I packed up my bag and worked my way up the slope to assess the situation. Standing by the tree, I craned my head to look up at the branch where the boomerang had been caught, mulling over various means of retrieving it. Suddenly, the boomerang tumbled from its initial perch and caught on a lower branch. The gusts were shaking the tree enough that it was loosening its grip on my boomerang. Two minutes later, my hopes were fulfilled, and Windeater hit the grass with a dull thud.

I had narrowly escaped "disaster," and I knew it. The last thing I needed was to have the owner of an expensive airplane demanding answers as to why his aluminum skins were dented. Every now and then, I need to learn an old lesson once again. (Hopefully, the price remains only as high as the cost of one boomerang.)

"Putting my spin boomerangs..."

Volker Behrens' Blue Star Boomerangs to Shut Down

--by phnxhawk--

Volker Behrens has posted a notice that he will shut down his boomerang shop at the end of this month, which is only a couple days away. After that, availability of Blue Star boomerangs will essentially be limited to whatever he or Ted Bailey at flight-toys.com has in stock.

So, if you have any last minute requests, you should make that inquiry soon. I found the notice late this week, so I myself must carefully consider what I can afford to pick up at this time.


"Putting my spin on boomerangs..."

The Boomerangs of William Glover, mixing old school experience with 21st century materials!

It was less than a year ago when I paid a visit to William Glover's web site, I wanted to get to know more about him, after all he created "Griffin" and "High Voltage" two popular and classic boomerangs from the 80's. I quickly learned that William was an old school kind of guy and that when it came to making his boomerangs, that they would only be made of the finest plywood available. I really admired that, but I thought if he would just take a look at some of modern materials that are available we would have some really awesome and interesting boomerangs.

Well, dreams do come true! During my search last winter for boomerangs made of synthetic materials, I was able to find one. I had originally started my search on Volker's site looking at G12 and Pax models, but I also decided to check out Ebay. On Ebay I found a boomerang that met all my needs and my budget (free shipping). That boomerang was "Patriot". Patriot was described as a serious Aussie round boomerang for competitors and advanced beginners, made of tough linen phenolic by William Glover! "Linen phenolic"........"William Glover"!...........Whaaaaaaaaat!!

I don't know what caused the change of heart, but I can tell you this. We all benefit! William perfectly blends his old school experience with new 21st century materials. Each of his linen phenolic boomerangs still have that great hand made feeling about them while retaining a modern look. Even his classic boomerangs look and fly fantastically. Paint schemes can vary from simple to artistic, when you have a Glover rang in hand, you know it. The way he applies paint to his boomerangs whether simple or art is some of the best and most durable I've seen. And he backs all his stuff up with some of the best customer service available. Check out the pictures and video below. I will be updating pictures and video soon.

Patriot

About a week ago William sent me another one of his linen phenolic masterpieces "Blue Thunder". He recently changed the name to "Distant Thunder". Probably because "Thunder" gets out far.

Blue Thunder

The collection so far!

Here is some video I put together, Enjoy!




To purchase please contact

Bill Glover at WWW.GLOVERRANGS.COM
Rich Harrison at WWW.BOOMERANGMAN.COM
Ted Bailey at WWW.FLIGHT-TOYS.COM

More pictures, video, reviews and updates to follow soon.

Charles aka hey_kuya

A Sword Day, A Blue Star Day

--by phnxhawk--

...Ere the sun rises!

A few weeks ago, Manny and I took some time to throw with Larry, another SoCal thrower (whom I mentioned in a previous post). Larry's boomerangs of choice are from the Blue Star line by Volker Behrens. In particular, his collection speaks to an interest in a "distance-fun" category of 'rangs. Many of them seem to work best with a good wind such as can be had in the early afternoons at the beaches around here.

From phnxhawk Miscellaneous

Larry cuts loose with Ghost Dog.

Throwing distance boomerangs with Larry makes for a fun change of pace from our short to medium range 'rangs. They take a fair bit more power in the throw to get them to stay up, so I tire a little faster. However, the pain is offset by the beauty of the resulting flights from many of the longer range boomerangs in Larry's bag. They seem to stay aloft for an eternity, lumbering along. Just when you think it might give up, the boomerang keeps chugging along until it drops into your hands (or somewhere near your feet). In fact, I was so enthralled by the majesty of the Sussex Hook in G12 that I put in an order for one not long after.

It was immediately clear from the moment that Larry first threw his Sussex Hook that day that he knew that boomerang inside and out. I like to think I have that consistency and confidence with the Rainier and Phoenix. But don't take my word for it; have a look for yourself. I was inspired to put together a video to commemorate a great day of throwing sticks with someone with such a passion for boomerangs.




"Putting my spin on boomerangs..."