Hi;
  One of my younger friends from the neighborhood, Austin, just came over and showed me his new staff sling.  It's a relatively short sling, maybe 3 1/2 feet, made from a fishing rod.  He had a peacefuljeffrey sling on it and it looked very well done.  The kids that are making their own slings around here are doing so with no help from me other than a bit of advice from time to time.  Mostly they're coming here to slinging.org and learning how to make them.  The way they're taking to it makes me think that slinging has a future.  

course it will. and have you encouraged any of them to join the forum? slinger87, adsi, and i are probably feeling lonely in the world of teens and grownups you know...

I've suggested many times that they join.  I think that some will eventually.  Right now they seem satisfied to just lurk and learn.  Maybe some will read this and join.  I very much enjoy the contributions of our younger members and wish there were more.  

well we have Germany here now, he's only 13 so I'll still count him as a pre-teen/ kid

I'll have to look for Germany's posts.  

Well done, Rat Man. It must be great to see your "slinging seed" grow.

Yes, quite,  Fundibularius.  I wish I'd started at that age.  

Virtually everyone who has seen me slinging and expressed interest has received a handmade sling and instruction from me. Once people see me using it effectively they usually get pretty excited about slinging. I definitely think slinging has a future, it just needs a little promotion.

When I sling with some of my friends
they are all intrested in a own sling
so sometimes i make one for a friend
I think the people like slinging because it`s new

all my friends look down at it. only 2 friends actually like it, though one friend only likes it for the swishy noise from my captain Paul...  ;D

my parents aren't to happy about it, and my sister laughs scornfully at my "braiding" and tieing knots in string. i don't really care about my sister, becasue she probably would say it's uncivilized and stuff if she saw me actually slinging. i mean, if she was a pioneer she would be a mad "papoose" killing person. shes not violent, just a little bland and unmovable

Very much people in germany like it
because it is very new
nobody knew this weapon before I show it

Yes, germany, maybe because we Germans do not seem to have had a great slinging tradition. But it's good to hear that people in your region have a positive attitude towards it.

Rat Man, if things keep on developing like this, you may have the opportunity to become the director/president/dean/guru/chairman of the first real Slinging Academy.  ;) What about that?

Quote:

I think the people like slinging because it`s new

so old it's new :-)

I guess this current generation grew up with video game weapons.

Still good to see slinging being promoted :-)

Rat Man wrote on Aug 17^th, 2009 at 3:39pm:

Hi;   One of my younger friends from the neighborhood, Austin, just came over and showed me his new staff sling.  It's a relatively short sling, maybe 3 1/2 feet, made from a fishing rod.  He had a peacefuljeffrey sling on it and it looked very well done.  The kids that are making their own slings around here are doing so with no help from me other than a bit of advice from time to time.  Mostly they're coming here to slinging.org and learning how to make them.  The way they're taking to it makes me think that slinging has a future.

Wow! Cool!  He made a PeacefulJeffrey sling?!  I'm flattered!  Besides, that's a kind of ambitious design--it's not the simplest kind one can pick, anyway.

I was at my ol' amphitheater on Sunday night with a friend who was walking her dog.  I rode out to meet up with her.  When I got there, she was socializing with a woman who had two dogs, herself.  I took out my baseball sling and slung some baseballs and tennis balls, and when she saw the sling, she remarked that her son had recently made a sling (she didn't know the word for it until I gave it to her).  She said the she/he had met someone down there who had given a steer toward online resources.  I recall having done exactly that, so it must have been him or her I had seen some months ago at that very field.  Apparently he went online and learned how to make a sling.

I have to wonder if he's on this board now.  The mom's name is Andrea, and I think the son's name is Sam (but I'm not sure).  Sam, are you watching here?  If you want to work on slinging at some point down at the Meyer Amphitheater, send me a PM.  I can meet up most days around noon, or on weekends.  Never slung with another person before, really.  Plus, I'm dying to see what kind of sling you've come up with!  :D

Rat Man soon you will have your very own detatchment of slingers at your command. ;)

This weekend I am going slinging with some customers. They have all received slings from me in the past month (PJ 5 Cord) and now we are meeting up in the park to throw tennis balls.
The different levels of society that these guys come from amuse me on one end I have a doctor and an archeologist on the other a guy that owns a MMA Fighting Club and the gentleman I get my paracord from.

It should be good times and if not there is a kickball game following directly after that.

xxkid123 wrote on Aug 17^th, 2009 at 3:41pm:

course it will. and have you encouraged any of them to join the forum? slinger87, adsi, and i are probably feeling lonely in the world of teens and grownups you know...

Im a teen!

Slinging is still around after how many thousands of years?  I"m sure it'll be around pretty much forever. Maybe right now it's not as popular as archery or even blowguns but as long as there's a kid that wants to throw something and doesn't have much cash he'll learn how to make a sling to use. My middle and younger grandsons are both into it, maybe not as much as I am but they have a couple that I've made for em' and they know the basics on how to use em' so with that knowlege they have the tools to learn more later on if they want too and to show their kids how to do it too, that is if I'm not around to show em'. ;)

I don't find myself comfortable with the complacent belief that somehow, without any conscious or concerted effort, there would be nothing to fear regarding slinging becoming an atrophied and possibly extinct activity.

Quote:

I don't find myself comfortable with the complacent belief that somehow, without any conscious or concerted effort, there would be nothing to fear regarding slinging becoming an atrophied and possibly extinct activity.

I figure we're safe till the interweb implodes and all online knowlege is lost.
At this point the latest generation will discover they just can't work a library :-)

lol

peacefuljeffrey wrote on Oct 9^th, 2009 at 1:34am:

I don't find myself comfortable with the complacent belief that somehow, without any conscious or concerted effort, there would be nothing to fear regarding slinging becoming an atrophied and possibly extinct activity.

c_a, I wonder about out armed forces.. we've become so dependent on electronics and technology that if we ever get hit be a big enough solar flare we won't have the faintest idea of how to really fight.  
pj, I sort of agree with you.  I think that somewhere in the world, possibly in poorer or more backwards countries, slinging will always exist to some degree.  But it can, for all intents, disappear from Western culture.  Kids like it.  As long as we have people to present it to them we'll have slinging.  

peacefuljeffrey wrote on Oct 9^th, 2009 at 1:34am:

I don't find myself comfortable with the complacent belief that somehow, without any conscious or concerted effort, there would be nothing to fear regarding slinging becoming an atrophied and possibly extinct activity.

That is why we all need to make a concentrated effort to promote slinging. If it is marketed as a "safe" activity, using tennis balls as primary ammo, you shouldn't attract much if any negative attention.

well, if we want kids to like this so to spread- wouldn't tennis balls be a bit too heavy? I'm around the size of a 3rd grader (yeah, i know, it sucks but at least I'm not the shortest in 7th), and tennis balls are just too heavy- you loose control, and they're slow too. the fuzzy stuff doesn't help.

I'm thinking more of water balloons- they have water balloon slingshots (as in elastic) that shoot up to 100yds. they can cause quite a large bruise too, yet their selling well. on the back it usually says not for use with tennis balls, baseballs, rocks, etc. use at own risk. so the market already approves of this- why not water balloons? what's the chance that a new slinger will already be able to burst the balloon n throw?

kid, you have your homework assignment from slinging.org for the weekend.  Sling some water balloons and let us know if they blew up all over you or if you were able to sling them, how far.  Also, how big a balloon were you able to sling.  There will be a test on Monday.  I've been curious about this for a while also.

ive tried ballons in my staff slings, even frozen ones

aw come on- I'm supposed to be doing an essay right now :D

and where the heck can i get water balloons?

Getting water ballons, try a toy store or any place that sells halloween costumes.  Remember to not overfill them.  For slinging they should not be bigger than golf balls, to avoid in-pouch splatting.
timann

My young buddy Mark has been doing an excellent job of spreading the word to other kids in the neighborhood.  When I walked Kali and Odin by the little lake on our street this afternoon he had three kids slinging with him.  I donated a Cobra to the cause.  On our return trip he had three more slingers but some of their slings, which were made on the spot, left something to be desired.  I donated two more slings.. a TSSS and a tape pouch, which I had in the Kali bag.  The kids asked for more Cobras.  They like them a lot.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any more with me, but I'll make some for them. Another asked for a Rockman.  I didn't tell him no, but I explained the time involved and that he'd have to wait a bit for it.  The Cobras take about as long as a pj sling to make.  
  I don't think any of the kids other than Mark had ever used a sling before.  They were doing quite well. It was a good site, the seven of them bombing the crap out of the woods, as the dogs and I left.  They all know about slinging.org.  WTG Mark!!!

I tried water balloons months ago and it went bust.  If I were to get any decent distance, I had to muscle the balloons to the point that they broke in the sling.  :(

Same thing happened to me, so I made a dedicated water balloon sling with a massive pouch to cradle the balloon and reduce pre-launch busts. I worked-- kind of. :-/ Low release velocity meant that even with one helluva long sling I still felt back splash. I think I've worked out some improvements in my head, but its too cold now.

I just came inside this morning after slinging with my 8 year old daughter.  We made a game that in order to eat breakfast we had to "hunt" it.  She had to hit a milk jug and I had to hit a 20 oz water bottle.  Granted it was only from 6 yards away.  We're not Balearic Spaniards... yet.  ;)

lol, back then (as you may have read in thearos' Balearic slinging camp) you had to hit your food to eat it.

xxkid123 wrote on Oct 13^th, 2009 at 4:04pm:

lol, back then (as you may have read in thearos' Balearic slinging camp) you had to hit your food to eat it.

LOL  I'm not going to bash up my bread and eggs with rocks.  Water bottles will have to do for now.

me neither, but i bet beef jerky would live up to it ;)

One hundred paces probably averages for most to be about equal to one hundred yards.  So you would have to knock your pack off of its branch from a hundred yards away.  It probably would take me most of the afternoon, but if there were enough rocks I think I could eventually knock the pack out of the tree.  It'd be suppertime by the time I ate lunch though.  

for me it'd be only 70 yards. unfortunately i can't shoot that far :(

You'll get there.  Seventy yards isn't terrible.