I took part in my first ever archery tournament last Sunday. It was brilliant and exhausting and educational and inspiring and great fun. Preparation involved extra practice sessions with two of the guys from the club who were TOTALLY kind and helpful as I took apart and readjusted the hardware on my bow time after time to get the sights set up to ( Read more... )

There are so many practical skills related to archery, and I find it fascinating and satisfying. The archery master at our club actually made a bowstring a couple of months back (I was very impressed), and today one of the girl at the club offered to show me how to use the arrow straightening tool in case any of my aluminium arrows ended up a bit ( Read more... )

Today I took my new archery accessories to the club and we had an entertaining communal assembly session.


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I'm updating my archery wish list with the help of some expert phone advice. My arrows are going to be a smart carbon / aluminium blend in classic black (to co-ordinate with my auto-generated three stage world domination plan) but the big question - of course - is what colour choices to make for the accessories.

I really am a big fan of classic ( Read more... )

I'm in high spirits today, thanks to a tiring but oh-so-entertaining weekend. Saturday brought with it an entirely new pleasure, laser tag! The Box Hill Dark Zone manages to hide four levels of darkened ramps, vantage points, blind corners and other exciting geography in what I swear is only a two story building. And they have pizza! Marvelous.

It ( Read more... )

Look at this!! Just look at it! I'm so pleased with myself today! This was from 30 metres, a decent but not outstanding distance - the top two guys in the club shoot at 90 m. I'm still very happy with it. This is four 10's and two 9's, a score of 58 out of a possible 60. The archery master said that I was "shooting with some class".


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I was so happy to get back to archery on Sunday after missing a week. That endorphin rush addiction has cut in fast and I'm seriously hooked, it seems.

This week I went straight to the 30 metre target, which is the furthest one in the beginners' line. There were a couple of guys there who I hadn't met before who greeted me and commented "Feel free ( Read more... )

I imagine that lots of engineers would like archery. It's all about repeatable processes, getting that perfect draw and release that's exactly the same each time and gets your arrows in just the right place. I'm still at the stage though were it isn't automatic at all yet, and I'm still running that mental check list in my head, "left hand, ( Read more... )