Hello. My name is Rueben and I have been slinging on and off since I was about 10 years old (I am currently 28). At the moment I am living in North Vancouver, which lacks suitable locations to throw rocks. But I bought some tennis balls and am trying to get out throwing twice a week now.

Since I have been slinging for a while, there are three distinct phases to my slinging:
     
1) Elementary school. Slinging in my parents back yard (5 acres) with denim or leather pouches tied to string. Since I did not quite know what I was doing I only spun the sling around my head and did not use much arm movement. I could hit a tree about 10m away, but with very little force. The denim sling pouches did not last long, usually ripping where the cords attached, but one leather pouch from this period was latter turned into a staff sling.

2) High school. Somehow, I figured out that a good amount of force could be generated by using one spin around my head and then a throwing motion (a 45 deg. "horizontal" throw).

At this time I experimented with other sling construction techniques and created slings similar to Zorrro's Medical tape design (similar problems, similar solutions), except I used denim instead of tape for a pouch and tied the cords to each other instead of sewing them together. The strings would then take the majority of the force, instead of the pouch. I also made very small sling pouches (1 3/4" by 4 1/2", since my previous pouches were very large and had too much drag.

During this period, I needed to move to a nearby gravel pit to sling, since the open area at my parents was no longer large enough.

3) University. Eventually I learned about this thing called the Internet and searched for sling information on it. At this time (1997?) there were a few mailing lists and websites with sling information on them. From these I learned about Korfmann's "The sling as a weapon" article, staff slings and some alternative styles.

I found slinging.org last summer when I was getting back into slinging. I had a field job during the summer, and my coworker humoured me while I would throw a few rocks in clearcuts after work. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my underhand throwing improved enough to rip the denim pouch on my longer sling.

A few weeks ago I completed a new sling based on Jeff Holt's "A Simple Braided Sling in 20 Steps" article. I changed the pouch dimensions from the pattern in the article, but luckily it is still large enough for tennis balls (which I had not planned for).

The styles that I try to keep in practice are the underhand, figure 8 (still working on this one), and Apache (also needs more work). I occasionally still throw horizontal (45 degree), but my elbow does not agree with this throw.

I would like to thank the many people who run and contribute to slinging.org. Since I started browsing the articles and forums here, I have vastly expanded what I knew about the sling. While I would like to contribute, I will only be around as time or procrastination permits. I am trying to finish my masters thesis (on a topic unrelated to slinging) and also work full time (today happens to be a holiday in Canada).

Rueben

Hello lupis,

I often used to sling at Wreak Beach (just South of the two towers) when I was at UBC. Ammunition was plentiful and there are some isolated places with fewer people. You also need to be wary of "targets" at Wreak Beach and watch out for kayaks, geese, etc. I would not like to see a rock connecting with a tugboat on any other vehicle or person.

There is a man-made beach beside where I work (near the North Shore Automall), but it contains too many targets (canoes, barges, large tugboats). Also there is a park behind the "beach" and a misfire (though unlikely) could have serious consequences. For now I will have to stick with tennis balls and a few rocks when I am at the beach or hiking.

My masters topic is on historic wildfire modelling in Saskatchewan. I work full time as a GIS / forestry analyst and have not been spending as much time on my thesis as I should.

Rueben