Seminar today went well. Informal but it was a real blast being able to talk for almost an hour about evapotranspiration modelling and the use of the FAO-56 Penman-Monteith. I think I could get used to doing longer performances, except I'm not going to drink an espresso right before!
Compound Bow Names
I'm starting to notice some patterns in how compound bow models get named or categorized... some of which include:
1) If it's an insanely fast bow that's marketed as "the fastest on the market", it has the word "Black" in it. Case in point being Mathews' Black Max, Bowtech's Black Knight (no longer in production), and APA Innovation's Black Mamba Extreme. The word "Extreme" and the letter "X" also show up a lot.
2) If it's for draws under about 26" or 27", there's 4 terms that seem to get used a lot... along with a humorous description (to be taken with a few salt shakers of salt) of what they really mean:
a) Micro-bow: the generic term for a bow designed for shorter draw lengths, typically reserved for (b) or (c). For some reason, a lot of guys I know cringe at the thought of even handling a "micro-bow". I don't like this term either... it's annoying enough having short arms and small hands!
b) Youth bow: "Small and usually cute compound bow for a growing kid and usually has the word `Lite' or `Micro' in it (eg. Rapture Lite or Micro-Adrenaline)" or a fairly "neutral"-sounding name like Odyssey or Badge... typically shot by dabblers and kids and they actually tend to be decent bows in terms of neat features like not requiring a bow-press or not having a specific draw length... also tend to be fairly easy to adjust.
c) Ladies' bow: "Small, usually gaudy, compound bow that usually doesn't go past 50 lbs draw weight and doesn't hunt very well but usually makes for a good target bow". These tend to have either girly names (eg. Tigress or Banshee) or annoying names (eg. Selena... sounds too much like some talentless celebrity with the wits of a fermented radish).
d) Short-draw bow: "Smaller high-performance compound bow that guys don't want to be referred to as any of the above in fear of looking wimpy... and can go to 60 or 70 lbs" Names on these bows go all over the place -- anything from APA Innovation's Suphan to BowTech's Equalizer, but they tend to err on something that still sounds as tough as their longer-draw cohorts.
3) The more appealing-looking models tend to be named after predators, especially great cats (eg., Cougar, Jaguar, Panther), poisonous snakes (Viper, Mamba, Cobra), some word that's connected to killing (Slayer, Fatal Impact, Terminator), or rough weather conditions (Typhoon, Thunder, Storm).
4) Less appealing bows tend to be named after non-predatory animals (eg. Mustang, Caribou) or something that sounds like it could come straight from Star Trek (eg., RinTec, ProTec, Trykon).
I know being prejudiced by a model (or even a company's) name is not the best of things, but there are just some names I just wouldn't want to be associated with. I don't know if it's a bias towards traditional bows anyway, but I do like the traditional bow names a lot more -- typically revolving around nature instead of fads. So far, here's a list of some things I'm observing all across the board... without any regard for what the actual bow (traditional or compound) really looks or feels like.
Best Model Names: Falcon, Desert Fox, Vazul
Worst Model Names: Non-Typical, Prestige
Most Common Words: Hunter, Cobra, Viper, Mamba, Hawk, Eagle, Wolf, Ranger
Most Unusual Names: Non-Typical, King's Pawn, Stick
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