hi my name is Manuel castañon Guerrero and I am from Oaxaca México. have you sometimes felt
like you are the only one who knows about slinging in your whole city?
well i feel the same. because even if Oaxaca is known ( or unknown, maybe this is the first time you hear about Oaxaca) as a rural city, practically a big town, and there are many shepherds,
nobody has seen (less know how to use) a sling. I know it is the same in many countries, but here,
where there are still some leftovers of the past discrimination against indigenous people,
a white boy slinging in a lonely street where the only people who pass are indigenous shepherds is seen as a joke to their ancestors. i have felt how people see you with a sling in hand and when you say the traditional "buenas tardes" you only get as a reply a "pshhhh" or sometimes no reply at all.
of course i have seen some sheperds that are kind and even seem interested but i dont see them a lot of times. and to add, i got enemistated with some "albañiles"(people who work on construction) that work just across the street because when I still hadn't shot a stone succesfully and therefore didn't know the range of my first sling i got lucky and made a perfect shot that flew through the air and almost hitted one of them on the head. know i dont like to travel near that building because inmediately i hear mumbling and the occassional "pinche niño de la honda".
And of course i cannot go sling to school. so in resume I feel this site is the only place available to me at this age where i can share my new passion and my ideas and thoughts about the sling.
i thank you for reading so far and I hope we could become good friends.

thank you for the welcome, you are right, i have been improving a lot thanks to this site and as far as i have seen this just a perfect site, yet i have seen no spammers, alot of people of different nations and willing to help newbies (like me  ) i think that if this site continues growing maybe someday the slinging will be considered again an international sport and maybe we will live to see it at the olympic games and if we get very lucky maybe participate in them .
thank you very much and good luck at your slinging

Asturian wrote on Mar 12^th, 2008 at 9:53pm:


Well Asturian, at least we will have lots of time to practise for the olympic games   

Thank you, I will try to find a shepherd that knows or remembers the use of the Mexican Sling
my father told me stories of when he visited my grandfather's hacienda and that at that time he
ocassionally saw shepherds using slings and that they were extremely accurate.
He also remember that once he and his brothers saw the material used to do it. apparently it was maguey fiber. Ill try and if I find information i will make an article on how to do the traditional Mexican Sling.