FAA FITA 2011

I didn't shoot particularly well this FITA overall, especially at 60 meters, but I broke state records in the following for adult female barebow: 70, 50, and 30 meters. I probably could've broken the overall record, but I took it really hard in the rear end at both 60 and 30 meters, which wasn't too surprising given that I didn't really practice much at those distances. I had a really hard time at 60 meters because I had some trouble with interpolation between 70 and 50 and swirly winds, but it was still an awesome shoot. I got to enjoy wonderful company, including a fellow barebow archer from the Villages, who is probably evenly matched with me when all's been said and done.

Barebow power!!!

Best group at 50 meters. It was quite the struggle to keep things where they belonged...

Un-challenged state champion, even if my fellow barebow was the one who shot the higher score today! Next time though, I'll get him. Of course, I *did* trounce him really, really hard at Sunshine State Games and at the Villages (his home turf) so it's my turn to get my butt handed to me on a plate!

Newberry archers and the parents who made it possible to shoot and a few of the local fixtures.

Indoor Personal Best

Still trying for a 25/25 but a 24/25 is still pretty darned impressive for me with a longbow!

The final distribution of shots at the end of the NFAA 300 round (12 ends of 5 at 20 yards) plus some calibration shots.

My final score: 261/300, 7X. My last personal best was somewhere in the low 240s with the shorty recurve and in the high 230s with the other longbows (probably the walnut bow). I even shot the high score of the night ... and everyone else was shooting either an Open Freestyle or an Olympic recurve setup.

Next goal on a 300 round... can I break 270/300?

Big Furry Visitor to my Stand

This fellow showed up to my stand about half an hour after I settled into it. Cute, but NOT what I want to be seeing until FL opens up a bear season.

Better View of New Longbow

70 meters... I love shooting at 70 meters for some reason. I'm jealous of my friends who get to shoot at various national and international events at this very distance. I have some friends who will be shooting at the Olympic tryouts at Texas A&M at College Junction, TX in about 2 weeks and I'll be rooting for them as best as I can. Who knows, maybe one day I'll finally get my paws on an Olympic recurve and try my luck on that...

Trying to Get Back to Sleep...

My large intestine has a mind of its own. It's decided to wake me up promptly at 2145 hrs... so here I am killing time before I can get back to sleep again.

I was mostly playing with the camera during some mental down-time and got a surprisingly good picture. I'm curling about 50 lbs on the bar and this is without any real pump. I'm still only about 11" around at my fullest with good pump but I'm getting better at optical illusions!

Another side-by-side comparison of longbow vs Olympic recurve. This was with Robert's latest creation, which is below...

Robert built me a new longbow, 46 lbs @ 28" and 66" long. It's the bow in the center and it is one sweet shooter! So far, it's the best of my two other longbows and shorty recurve: heavy riser and stable like the Chek-Mate Crusader, zippy like the walnut longbow, and pretty darned forgiving like the Chek-Mate Hunter 1. In fact, I think it may be a faster bow than even the Hunter 1, which I've clocked in at about 150 fps using GoldTip 1535 shafts and a spot-on distance of about 47-49 yards based on data from 900 rounds where my 50 yard mark was at the top of the gold ring. The same, identical arrow through this longbow is yielding an approximate spot-on distance 50-52 yards. How do I know? I'm just above spot-on at 55 meters with this bow.

In the Absence of the Gym...

See the target face? It's the inner 6 rings of an 80 cm target face at 70 meters.

One set of arrows belongs to an Olympic hopeful. The other belongs to a local traditional archer shooting a longbow...

Fall Coronation 2011

As always, click on the title or here for the full suite of pictures from Fall Coronation. I didn't do too much photography this time but I think I was having too much fun shooting, at least until some of my weight training and circuit training caught up to me. Apparently repeated stationary squats for 2+ minutes at a time does a real number to the legs, as do plie (sp?!) squats.

70 meters, Chek-Mate Hunter 1 recurve, GoldTip 1535 shafts.

Royal Round, 30 yards.

Given to me by Konrad Reinhard in recognition for having attained and maintained the ranking of Master Bowman (top 3 Royal Round average 80-99). Let's see who in Trimaris is going to reach Grandmaster Bowman ranking first... will it be Jochi, Aesa, Sir Erika, or Guenhwyvar?

Visual Inspiration

Stuff like this is very inspiring for me. I'm actually completely turned off by a lot of what they consider "fitness models" where they look more like fashion models in my eyes, but visually, body-builders hold a lot more appeal to me. Then again, power-lifters and Olympic lifters are usually nowhere as ripped-looking as body-builders even if they tend to be a whole heck of a lot stronger. I'll take the strength of the more active lifters first, but if I can actually look good while I'm at it, why not? My training isn't optimized for either type of lifting at this point ... or much of anything for that matter, but at least it's buying me time before I have to become the human pincushion (tm) or the human pharmacy (tm).

One of my favorite exercises...

Either click here or the title for one of my favorite exercises. I always thought of burpees as the exercise that made me *almost* burp up whatever I ate before the workout. Definitely not an exercise to do after a big meal unless you savor the flavor of your last meal mixed in with some stomach acids!

I first got exposed to this exercise at GHFC, courtesy of two truly awesome floor instructors, who I refer to as M and C, particularly C, who had ways of increasing the "torture" factor, usually with a good sized weight or two. I used to dread them (and my guts certainly dread them) but now I'd consider them to be a staple of my own workouts, at least if I'm doing them on a relatively empty stomach!

SoCal Showdown Recurve vs Compound

Any bets who's going to win? Brady Ellison (recurve) vs Roger Willett Jr (compound) at Chula Vista, filmed by a fellow archer here in Gainesville who was fortunate enough to shoot at the SoCal Showdown.

Buggering Hot TBoF 2011

It was buggering hot, humid, and buggy but I survived the shoot in one piece. I think the bug spray may've gotten to me on Saturday, but I came out in one piece. I took 3rd in women's longbow, shot the open traditional division, and didn't attempt primitive. I've been focusing mostly on FITA-type rounds so my 3D has taken quite a hit, but given that I only shoot 3D when the other half really wants to and target is my real passion, it's not too much of an issue. All of my arrows also survived intact, which is pretty darned good!

As always, either click on the title of here to see the rest of the pictures.

Fun with an Olympic Recurve

66" Hoyt Nexus recurve that I borrowed from Coach Rob to test-shoot. It feels pretty good even though it is slightly on the long side. I also forgot to put the plunger in but it shot fine without one.

Me at about full draw with the Hoyt Nexus. I think I got most of my form right, although I still have a bit of trouble keeping my head consistently aligned. Note to self: test-shooting Olympic recurves immediately after a boot-camp style circuit training class does NOT feel very good...

The other bow (well, riser at any rate) that I test-shot and liked. This is a Hoyt Horizon, also a 25" riser like the Nexus... also used short limbs for a 66" bow. Both Coach Rob and Coach Bob recommend that I go with the 23" riser for a 64" bow for a little more punch, although I know the folks in Chula Vista recommend the 25" riser for a 66" bow for more stability. We'll see what the future holds, but for now, my longbow is pretty darned secure, as is my little shorty 58" recurve.

Favorite Clip from Wolf's Rain

A bit of context... Cheza the Flower Maiden is singing and puts the four wolves to sleep after two of them, Kiba and Tsume, fight. Wolves (along with their human illusory disguises) in order of appearance: Toboe the red wolf, Hige the Mexican wolf, Tsume the grey wolf, and Kiba the Arctic wolf.


Definitely one of my favorite series anywhere, animated or live-action.

Armadillo and Broken Nock

I love the zoom-in function on my camera. It was a bit weird seeing an armadillo running about during the day, but there it was. The little fellow was pretty oblivious to me and I made it a point to keep my distance because of the leprosy risk, plus there was no telling what a scared armadillo might do.

Great precision, iffy accuracy. The guy next to me had a hard time believing that someone with a barebow recurve could pull that off.

Vegas 3-spot versus the standard single-spot. The single-spot is a 40 cm target face.

Hyena at 70 meters

One of the instructors for the little kid archery classes thought it would be fun to have them shoot 70 meters at this target. Only two of us hit the target: a little girl who hit right above the kill while I was warming up, and then I hit it twice in a row after my first arrow went a little right of the target.

San Diego

Click on the title or here for the full suite of pictures. I flew out to San Diego for a friend's wedding and a chance to meet up with fellow Techers as well as a little bit of a pilgrimage to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.

Possibly more details later. I think I caught a cold from the boogery person next to me on one of the flights back.

Sunshine State Games 2011

As always, click either the title or here for the full suite of pictures.

Just for self-amusement purposes, I shot the Chek-Mate Hunter 1 with the GoldTip 1535 arrows. I figured worst case scenario was I was chasing my arrows everywhere... best case scenario being I shot some record high scores. In any event I knew I was going to have a lot of fun with friends. I finished the FITA with an 833, 20 points short of tying my record from last year, and the 900 with a 676, 14 points short of tying my personal high a few months ago but 56 points ahead of last year's Sunshine State Games record. So yeah, I shot extremely well.

Best round at 70 meters in the FITA round -- also the final round at 70 meters.

Funniest round for me at 60 meters in the FITA round. I had an outlier in the upper blue somewhere. Great group, wrong place!

1st in Adult Female Barebow for the FITA.

Me and the trusty Chek-Mate Hunter 1. There's a reason why I jokingly refer to it as either "shorty" or "old reliable".

Final end of the 900 round with my fellow traditional archer in the young adult division.

Best round at 50 yards in the 900 round.

SE Sectional Field/Hunter/Animal 2011

As always, click on the title for the full set of pictures.

I had the precision even if my accuracy was a bit iffy!

First shot was a kill! The animal round was pretty darned difficult but I shot a personal best.

That poor buck just got an eye put out and an ear-piercing from my string-walker buddies. I got him on the second shot.

This little guy is so darned lucky when I was practicing. I'm surprised we didn't have any lizard casualties at the shoot.

My group from Saturday. These guys were all in the Master Senior Barebow division, which allows string-walking (multiple places to put the fingers on the string) and/or face-walking (multiple anchor points).

My group from Sunday. The guy in orange is the FAA VP for the northwestern section of the state and is in the bowhunter free-style limited division (compound fingers with fixed pin sights and short stabilizer). The other two guys are in the Master Senior Bowhunter division, which is compound without anything on it except maybe a short stabilizer and no string-walking or face-walking (single anchor and nocking point). Effectively, the Bowhunter division is shooting a compound like a traditional bow with either instinctive shooting or gap-shooting.

The face of true courage. He's shooting a Genesis bow, which most people would consider to be something for little kids or people who can't pull anything else back. There were a handful of people who thought he was crazier than I was, but he held his own and had a great time. He also out-shot me on the field and hunter rounds, but I did get him on the animal round!

Apparently I mis-extrapolated on an 80 yard shot. At least I know where the arrow went. We had quite a few of these actually when I shot with the Master Senior Bowhunter division, wasn't as much of an issue with the Barebow guys.

Potential Piece of the Side Project

There's two things that really amaze me of late...
1) What it takes for me to actually get to sleep at night these days -- namely a bit of time scribbling away in a notebook... and
2) How much a certain character who used to be at my gym really inspired me in my workouts (most of the exercises I do on my own I learned from him), archery (by helping me tune my workouts to help me handle the rigors of the KSL shooting technique taught to me at Newberry), and creepily enough, my non-academic writing.

That being said, here's a small piece of what may or may not get put into my current insomnia relief project, tentatively titled The Archer and the Swordsman... it all depends on which ending I ultimately choose to that one based on how I want to arc this story-line involving the Eternal Huntress and the Clawed Fury.

Two wolves haunt my dreams each night:
One lone grey from desert to the west,
Seeking perfection in moonlight.
The other, brown with a scar on his chest,
From sun- and rain-soaked lands in the east.
Who is this mysterious beast?

And what's this voice calling to me?
Can I accept my dim reflection?
Endless paths, unknown identity,
This search for strength and perfection.
The roads all look the same by day,
To what I journey to, I can't say.

I trek endlessly on my crusade
Though they say perfection doesn't exist,
Only mediocrity's dull blade.
But why does that voice in me insist
That I must pursue it ever onward,
That my road only goes forward?

Then I met you, fearsome and bold,
I wanted to run and hide from you,
A brutal beast enchanting to behold.
You woke the dormant grey wolf anew,
A spark from a frozen ember
Burning brighter than I remember.

You destroyed the soft human in me,
Though it hurt, I return for more,
Knowing that it'll finally set me free.
Last of my strength tapped to the core,
Though with your guidance I grow stronger,
Wolf awakened, human no longer.

Now bold and fearless I stand
As master archer and grey wolf knight.
Fires raging from embers you fanned
With your smile in the pale moonlight
And lending me your gentle aid
When my muscles' strength ebb and fade.

Grey wolf and brown wolf's paths must diverge:
Archer and doctor bonded through steel,
Separated by quests unlikely to re-converge
Fates that only their choices and time reveal
Though many fond memories endure ever on
Far past piercing lights of scarlet dawn.

Random Funny Moment

Ragnar's arrow up a tree. I think we need a ladder...

And Baron Rurik provides the ladder!