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Message started by Selin on Jan 8th, 2007 at 1:56am

Title: Hi from another newbie
Post by Selin on Jan 8th, 2007 at 1:56am
Hi everybody, I'm typing from Sydney in Australia. I came across the site after an interesting chat with some folks from my medieval reenactment group - seems I wasn't the only one interested in learning how to sling. I'm so thrilled at the idea of getting decent with this, so a huge thanks for all those wonderful pictures and tutorials!

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Slinger_Man_Dan on Jan 8th, 2007 at 3:13am
    Selin!                                                                  
         Oy! We got ourselves another OZZIE!! Welcome to the forum!   [smiley=beer.gif]  Well, I am in  
Massachusetts about 50 miles west northwest of Boston, and I think you will find, as I did, that it is FUN
talking about slinging ( and other stuff ) with guys and gals from around the globe. If you haven't already,
be sure to check out the how-to articles and the member's gallery and historical gallery, as well as, of course,
all the fun pics that people post here on the forum.                                                    
         Are you on the outskirts of Sydney or in the city? Do you have a good spot to go slinging? I stumbled onto Slinging.org a little over a year ago and it is oddly addicting. I work second shift ( 3PM - 11PM ) and I have gotten in the habit of driving to work a bit early and stopping on the way at a forest to do some slinging.
Very relaxing before work!   [smiley=rolleyes.gif]                                                  
         Selin, welcome aboard, and I look forward to reading your posts!   [smiley=cheesy.gif]          
                                                                                                                                         .......Dan

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Mordechaj on Jan 8th, 2007 at 6:26am
hey selin. do you perhaps remember who gave you directions to this site?
well, have fun, but don't disregard saftey measures first.

yeah, slinging is addictive. i haven't been able to properly sling for allmost 6 moths, but i still check the boards daily (and braid slings when i feel like it).

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Selin on Jan 8th, 2007 at 8:28am
Hi, thanks for the enthusiastic welcome! :D Any other Sydneysiders poking around?

I'm living about half an hour from the Sydney city, on the busyish outskirts where there's lots of bush and enough parks to keep me in the slinging addiction, which I'm practically certain is going to hit me when I finish making my first. I can't wait!

I found this website pretty blindly, since no-one else in my group has started yet or knew enough to point me towards anywhere with info. It seems pretty awesome though, really informative and quite funky, so I'll tell everyone to check it out.

So people here are mainly in the US? Do alot of you live close to eachother? Do you get to meet up in person? That'd be great...

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Willeke on Jan 8th, 2007 at 12:04pm
Welcome Selin,
The people in the Netherlands/ Belgium area have met, we were with 4 plus the family of one.
But that was after I met a fellow slinger in Adelaide, Australia.

There are a few more people who live relatively close together, like some people in Finland.

We have a few Ausies, but I do not think any is near Sydney, so you will have to start a group yourself, if you can.
And maybe when one of the other members here is going your way you can get a slingmeet running.

Have a look at this thread: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1154560451/6#6

Willeke

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by aussieslinger on Jan 9th, 2007 at 4:02am
Hi Selin,

I'm from Melbourne. Not from Sydney, but still in Australia.

Give me your postal address and I'll send you one of my slings. I love making them but there are only so many that I can use. The pouch is designed so that round ammunition will not fall out ie. cupped. I generally make them in two sizes; for golf ball size, and tennis ball size. I recommend you start with tennis balls for safety's sake; yours as much as any one elses. Golf balls fly much further and faster but are as dangerous as stones, especially as at the beginning you are bound to send one or two straight up into the air. A golf ball landing on your head is no joke.

If you don't already have your own technique I recommend you watch Dave Taylor's video on Greek style. I've seen it dozens of times and he always hits that bucket he's aiming at.  (haha)


Regards,

Aussieslinger

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Tint on Jan 9th, 2007 at 4:13am
Welcome Selin.

I hope you'll enjoy chating on this forum as much as the rest of us!


Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Selin on Jan 9th, 2007 at 7:49am
Aussieslinger, thank you so much! The leather I have spare at home is completely stiff at about .7cm, so the only materials I've been able to find for my first sling is a cloth bag I took apart at the seems (which is fraying quite badly already), some old acrilic velcro from an old rollerblading wristguard and some annoying elastane-jean material. Your offer is very much appreciated, believe me!  ;)

And I probably should swap to tennis balls - I've managed to hit myself almost as much as the houses behind me... :D

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Willeke on Jan 9th, 2007 at 5:47pm
He Selin and Ludwik,
did you notice the tiny icons at the bottom of your messages?
Those help to get in contact, click on one of them and see what happens.

Willeke

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Mordechaj on Jan 9th, 2007 at 7:48pm
don't be like that wileke  :)

this way we have a truthfull presentation on how nice and cozy this little board of ours is, and i don't think it bothers any of us  8-)


there may be a thing if they wanted to keep the adress or the phone number private, but since this is not the case (you guys knew that we have PM's, right?), i don't see why not  :)




p.s. it'd be great if we could get some more smileies  :P

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Willeke on Jan 10th, 2007 at 11:51am
Mordechaj,
it is not because of us, slingers, but because this board is open to everyone that I thought it better to advice not to post personal info.

Willeke

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Mordechaj on Jan 10th, 2007 at 4:46pm
i know, ID theft and such. it was a (non succesfull) joke 70% of it any way.

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by aussieslinger on Jan 11th, 2007 at 4:07am
I've removed the posting just in case. If I get any crank calls I guess there's a 70% chance it's from you Mordechaj ;D

Title: 100% joke
Post by Mordechaj on Jan 11th, 2007 at 6:34am
damn it. now i have to give your nuber to all of my friends, because i'd be too suspicious.
wait. we don't have much slingers in croatia, it means you'll still know i'm responsible. hmmm.

that leaves me only one option - to make a banner with your number, and state that you give free psihological help, and put it on as many sites on the web as i can. i bet that would make for some really interesting callers :D

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Selin on Jan 11th, 2007 at 7:11am
And we could team up so that you could have skywriters writing that number over every continent! Great, eh?!  ;D

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by curious_aardvark on Jan 11th, 2007 at 11:17am
to put things into perspective - as I know willeke tends to get over protective - information on all of us is so easy to get that it's extremely unlikely anyone is ever going to scour this forum for the crumbs they might get.

So don't worry about posting locales, though phone numbers is not a good idea - 'cos there's so much other stuff to be paranoid about that you'd be better worrying about the thousand other things you can't control lol

The easiest way to get just about any info you might want on a person is to run a credit check on them.
Everything from where they live to what they spent on holiday - cost's couple of quid.
And that's just the easiest Legal method :-)

So don't worry about this board - worry about the rest of your life lmao
(don't think that helped much lol)

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by aussieslinger on Jan 14th, 2007 at 6:44pm
Guess I'll just have to live in fear for the rest of my life! And I thought we slingers were an innocuos bunch of eccentrics.  Just remember Selin I have your mobile number now too.

More to the point tell us how did the slings go?

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Selin on Jan 15th, 2007 at 7:35am
Meh, I suppose a bit of paranoia is healthy - and its not paranoia if people really are out to stalk you.  ;) Hey, why fight fate?

Aussie, the slings are fantastic! I've been using the one with the brown and yellow cord, and its soooooo amazing just to realize that I'm actually getting the feel for this... From about 15 paces away I'm averaging 5-10 deg. off target.

The only real problem I've got are friends and family who either think accuracy or any control whatsoever is impossible, or think strength and range are minimal i.e., the early sling hunters possessed super-modern-human abilities or something.

No worries though, I'll just have to get really, really, really good.  ;)

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by aussieslinger on Jan 16th, 2007 at 2:52am
Excellent! You obviously have a natural talent.

You won't impress people with power using a tennis ball. Wait till you build up a bit of speed then show them what an egg sized stone out of the smaller sling will do. (Be extremely careful with golf balls. Those little mongrels will bounce back at you with almost the same force as they left the sling if they hit anything hard.) I think they'll be impressed then. Remember that as you increase power your shots will tend to go low and to the left. (Assume you are right handed)

Good slinging stones are surprisingly hard to find though. They must be smooth, even and, as much as possible, all the same size. Crushed rock like railway ballast is hopeless for accuracy, especially when thrown hard. The angular stones wind plane all over the place. Bear in mind that when you change to stones or any other projectile, your accuracy will go out the window till you readjust. The release will be quite different from the feel of a tennis ball. Even though I recommended you use them, tennis balls are really quite poor sling ammunition. They are too light and have enormous drag so they lose speed extremely rapidly. Their main assets are that they are safe, consistent and easy to obtain.

This bring me to my next point. CONSISTENCY. The key to any shooting sport is consistency. Once you have found what works for you, stick with it! Do the same thing every time till it's reflex action.

Lots of luck and keep in touch,

Aussieslinger

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by slingbadger on Jan 16th, 2007 at 11:56am
Is the group you belong to the SCA? We have a few Scadians here that sling. We have to form our own elite corp. Anyone know the Latin translation for "Death from Above"??

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by Dale on Jan 16th, 2007 at 3:48pm
Slingbadger,
This is machine translation, checked against two online Latin dictionaries.  I typed in "death from above" and "nex superne" came out.  I translated "nex superne" back to English, and it came out "violent death from above."  One dictionary asserted that "nex" has the meaning of "violent death or murder", but had no entry for "superne"; a different dictionary asserted that "superne" has the meaning of "above" or "from above" but had no entry for "nex."

Warning: this translation was free and may be worth every penny.


Commenting on Aussieslinger's remark on golf balls: indeed, be careful with them.  I use golf balls frequently, slinging them at the end of a log, about 20 meters away from me.  Several times I have managed to hit the log, and then had to duck the ball as it returned to me.

Title: Re: Hi from another newbie
Post by aussieslinger on Jan 22nd, 2007 at 5:26am
Hi Dale,

I actually do use golf balls myself, but not when shooting at a target; only when shooting for distance in the wide open spaces of a park where I am sure the area is clear. Killing innocent passers-by woud bring the sport into disrepute. I have also made projectiles from practise golf balls by filling them with concrete. These are somewhat heavier than real golf balls. They fly better and do not bounce back dangerously. BUT when they hit something very firm the concrete pulverizes.

(There are a lot of golf courses near where I live and it constantly amazes me that they aren't strewn with bodies.I guess golfers are more careful than I give them credit.))

Regards,     Aussieslinger


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