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International News? (Read 1869 times)
hubert
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Re: International News?
Reply #15 - May 4th, 2021 at 2:13pm
 
I've been doing what CA writes for years.Unfortunately, the Roman events are very far away, so that no continuous training can be organized.But otherwise it works great, especially when the noose pops loudly, it is a magical attraction. Wink
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Josephusflav
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Re: International News?
Reply #16 - May 6th, 2021 at 1:29am
 
Question: i want to get serious about slinging

I was looking for prices to travel to the two big comps

Guam and Spain

Guam's prices were like 3k $ so that's out

Mallcora was 1.5k which is doable

My question is What would it take to organize a continental  USA event?
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Morphy
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Re: International News?
Reply #17 - May 6th, 2021 at 12:07pm
 
Josephusflav wrote on May 6th, 2021 at 1:29am:
Question: i want to get serious about slinging

I was looking for prices to travel to the two big comps

Guam and Spain

Guam's prices were like 3k $ so that's out

Mallcora was 1.5k which is doable

My question is What would it take to organize a continental  USA event?


Ideally it would be localized in an area with lots of slingers as well as a community of people already big into bushcraft and primitive skills.

Then money, time and a bit of luck.
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Curious Aardvark
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Re: International News?
Reply #18 - May 6th, 2021 at 12:50pm
 
Quote:
and a bit of luck.

shitton of luck Smiley

What would it take to ORGANISE a USA event.

Based on the only international slinging event, to ever be held in the united states - to date.

It takes:
1 retired engineer with 32 acres in wyoming (pretty central) and enough spare cash and determination to hold an international slinging event.

1 englishman who's there to work AND cook (my first job was to build the bbq george had bought for me to use) for 2 weeks.

So we had:
Loads of private land.
Onsite catering and acommodation and plenty land for camping, rv's etc
The world record distance slinger: Larry Bray
Plenty of local newspaper coverage
Permission to play sling golf on the local golf course - powell golf course.
Commemorative T-shirts and hats.

We did it right.
The sling ranges were made from threaded 2 inch metal pipe. I did the cutting and threading and heavy manual labour, george did the welding.

We built two full size ranges where the uprights slotted into recessed holders in the ground.
We also built a pretty large canopy - it got pretty hot.
It also got blown away - almost. At one point I was hanging on to an edge with my feet off the ground !

So who turned up ?
larry bray and his wife and nephew. A guy whose name I can't remember - but it's in the slingfest threads.
And 2 locals who turned up on the last day as we were packing everything up.

So, that's why YOU do NOT do it like that.

If you want people to turn up - FIRST you need to make sure there is  a local group of sling enthuisiasts.
So a target and tennis balls and lots of slings at local events where people will already be.

The first sling event I held in england.
I made two target frames, with balearic sized netting and bullseye - although at the time I had no idea balearic slinging even existed. It's just a nice size for a target Smiley
I had a great field at a local farm - in the exact geographical centre of england.
I put of food and drink and hired a portaloo.

About 15 people turned up. We had a great day - check out the threads.
I gave the slings away and paid all costs myself.
Business was much better back then and I'm a generous soul by nature.

The third event I did was with david morningstar at a bushcraft camp in wales.
And was arguably the most succesful.

I took a new target and a bunch of tennis balls and sockballs, a lot of leather and all supplies and kit to make slings with.
We ran a sling making class the night I got there, a teaching sesion the following day and a competition on the third day.
So everyone who wanted a sling had one and had done some practice.

I charged £5 for leather and paracord to make a sling - it almost covered my petrol for the weekend. The arse end of wales is a long way from where I live.

And we ran the very first sling training and competition to be held in the uk (at slingfest uk - we didn't have a formal competition)
We had a captive and inclined group of people and it was very succesful.
And also very cheap to run.

The moral of this story is two fold:

1) where you hold an 'event' is a LOT more important than how much you spend to set it up.

2) If you Build it, they will NOT come.

So what you need is:

1) lightweight target that is easy to move around and set up.
2) a car to move the target around in.
3) somewhere you will find people - if they are already interested in history and primitive ballistics, survival craft, bush craft - all the better.

What NEEDS to happen.

Is for each and every forum member to make a portable target, make a load of basic slings - see https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1344443925
Butterfly slings with my loop attachment method can be made from any reasonable tough fabric. tent canvas, denim etc - it does not need to be leather.

Buy a bunch of used tennis balls - I think I paid 30 pence per ball - all quality ex-tennis club balls. Look on ebay.

And just go find somewhere to set up and promote interest and recruit slingers.
You can sell slings. make them cheap and sell a sling and tennis ball for 5-10$
If you're lucky it'll cover any costs.
If you're Uwe and can charge a LOT more money for your slings - it'll make you rich whistle

there is little or no point in trying to hold a big international event, without a pre-existing large base of slingers to draw upon.

And at the moment we are still very much at the early stages of creating a large enough group of slingers.   

So what is really needed is a LOT of small events to build up numbers.

When you have local numbers you can think about running regular weekend or evening meetings and form a club.

At THAT point - where there are clubs in lots of places. You might think about running something on a more ambitious scale.

But - honestly - at the  moment it really is not worth the expense and considerable effort required to run a large event yourself.
Trust me on this Smiley

Stop thinking: Where can I ATTEND a sling event ?
And start thinking: Where can I HOLD a sling event !
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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David Morningstar
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Re: International News?
Reply #19 - May 6th, 2021 at 1:43pm
 

I echo what C_A says. Find where people who might like slinging are gathered, and introduce them to slinging. Some of them will be surprisingly good right away. Have lots of tennis balls and cheap slings and a nice safe open space. Get lots of people slinging and a small proportion of them, usually the best ones, will continue to sling afterwards.
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Hirtius
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Re: International News?
Reply #20 - May 6th, 2021 at 1:51pm
 
I’m sorry that turned out so poorly, but as an American I found it hilarious that you held it in central Wyoming.
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Re: International News?
Reply #21 - May 6th, 2021 at 2:25pm
 
well it was where george lived.

And as the ONLY american who's ever bothered to do ANYTHING sling event wise.....

But yep long way from anywhere.

America is a huge place.

And the only way you'll ever be able to attend a slinging event you can walk (5 minutes max, we don't want to over strain you) to.
Is to hold it yourself Smiley

And when you've done that and got some slinging companions - one of whom might have a car.
You can drive somewhere - in shifts - to an event someone else is holding.
Slinging road trips are great fun.
Well unless you're sat in the front seat, on a mortorway and slingbadger is driving.
I swear that's when david's hair went white.

Slingers - and I DO include most forum members - are lazy bastards who can't be arsed to go anywhere or do anything. They like to belly ache about no events in their town - but they won't actually make an effort to do anything about it.
Detracting someone who did do something about it - is NOT the answer.

None of the events I've been to or put on have been easy.

I flew from england in 2007 - nobody on the forum could even be arsed to travel from a neighbouring state.
We were offering free: accomodation, food, drink and events.
All anyone had to do was make an effort and get there.
It took me 2 years to pay the cost of the flights off.

The balearic islands are over 1000 miles from where I live.

The bushmoot was a 4 hour drive - and on british roads, that's like a 12 hour drive in the states (I have done both, on more than one occasion).

I've no idea how david even gets to the bushmoot - he don't drive.
But the point is, we've both made the effort to go places and do things.

So, yes, I have earned the right to call you lot lazy bastards Smiley
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Morphy
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Re: International News?
Reply #22 - May 6th, 2021 at 6:30pm
 
You never really needed to earn anything to call me a lazy bastard. Actually I am both a lazy bastard and a bit of a introvert so ya, good luck getting me anywhere lol.
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Hirtius
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Re: International News?
Reply #23 - May 6th, 2021 at 7:36pm
 
I wasn’t “detracting”, I just thought it was funny. I know you put an amazing amount of effort into it.

Yeah, we’re lazy bastards. No denying that. But to be fair, it’s hard to do. I’m sure you know it well more than I can say. In 2007, I was actually in Wyoming for a couple weeks. However, I was a kid and had never heard of slings before. Anyways, the trip there from where I live is 2 days of 14 hour drives. I live in the Midwest, not in the East. It’s rough. You put in extraordinary amount of effort. I wouldn’t say we’re lazy in this regard, you’re just extremely determined. I think it’s actually inspiring, I should do more. And I plan to.

You’re completely right we need to make a more local outreach. I think we’ll need to get connected to other primitive weapons groups, though even that is a small pool to draw people from. It’s hard to imagine where we could find more.

However, I feel there’s another angle we can work with. Practical paracord has over 2,000 subscribers and gets hundreds of views on each video, which he posts often. I think what might help slings out quite a bit is having a more accessible online and video presence. Practical paracord is probably the only one doing that in our community. I’m not sure if that’s a role many people would be able to fill, but it’s there. I love the trick slinging and difficult shots, that might have a wider appeal if it was presented in the right way. And again, I’m going to bring it up again, hunting. Hear me out. For better or worse, it’s something I’m sure would capture more attention than most things we do. I’m not advocating anything illegal, cruel, or dangerous, nor that it’s not without moral considerations. Murdering things for views doesn’t sound too great, and wasn’t my initial idea when I made the suggestion a while ago. Anyways, that’s just one idea. The point is that with all of these suggestions is that instead of just showing people how to sling, we should show them why to sling and what can be done. I think it would probably get more people to come to us than search for them ourselves, though it would still be a small amount.
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Josephusflav
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Re: International News?
Reply #24 - May 6th, 2021 at 7:51pm
 
Hirtius wrote on May 6th, 2021 at 7:36pm:
I wasn’t “detracting”, I just thought it was funny. I know you put an amazing amount of effort into it.


You’re completely right we need to make a more local outreach. I think we’ll need to get connected to other primitive weapons groups, though even that is a small pool to draw people from. It’s hard to imagine where we could find more.


HEMA and SCA people are targetable

Historical European martial arts- wanna be swordsman, nerds who like having weird skills

Society of creative anachronism- martial aritst, craftsmen and larper types.

In fact one of the three big Egyptian sling tutorials on youtube is a woman from the SCA

Seriously though.

Make a offical club, find a spot where you can meet and make cards, hand them out to everyone you meet. Advertise in libraries


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Re: International News?
Reply #25 - May 7th, 2021 at 2:00am
 
This is a good time to be thinking and planning events as well. Very soon we'll have a load of people, stumbling and blinking into the sunlight, that have been locked up at home for months on end. Being outside, getting out some energy (and maybe a fair bit of frustration) slamming tennis balls into a target is the perfect remedy for lockdownitis as I think we all are aware.
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Re: International News?
Reply #26 - May 7th, 2021 at 8:18am
 
Slinging may actually be more popular than everyone thinks... at least the idea of slinging is if not the actual activity. Currently there are around 200 people per month who buy a sling on Amazon alone. Probably another 100 on Etsy. That’s not a huge number, but you can bet that a large proportion of those sales are new people rather than sling collectors.  We have no idea how many people make their own.

Let’s say 150 new people acquire a sling every month... where are they?  This forum is sufficiently difficult to use that very few of them join here. Slinging.org desperately needs a modern user interface.

The Continental US is 3.6 million square miles (9.4 million sq km).  The concentration of slingers is low, but there’s another problem... concentrations of population are mismatched with places to sling. It’s really difficult to find a place to sling in a city. That’s why I use tennis balls... but tennis balls are very limiting. It’s still fun, but it’s not the same slinging experience as  200g stones or rustyballs.   The folks in Guam are dealing with this by setting up netted slinging booths. It’s expense and it’s labor intensive, but if you can find the land, it’s a good idea to use safety netting unless it’s restricted to tennis balls.  Baseball diamonds might be a good place to start because they already have fencing, but if the fence is the only safety device you have, you wouldn’t get more than 2-3 simultaneous slingers per baseball field, and they could still hit each other, so that’s only good for very small groups.

Outside of cities, there are options but then people have to really want to go out of the way to experience it. That’s ok. It’s just a slightly different kind of crowd. In short... Looking for venues in populated areas in the US is not easy.

It could be done. What is really needed is 3 or 4 dedicated slingers who live close together and get together and make it happen.  If it’s done thoughtfully, safely, and in a way that attracts new people, it’s possible to have a slinging event, but it not easy. It would also help if slingers weren’t total cheapskates because events are expensive!
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Re: International News?
Reply #27 - May 8th, 2021 at 9:34am
 
If we tap the primitive skills/bushcrafting crowd you have an instant group of people that could show up. NOOC and I have discussed trying to set up some type of Ren Fair for that type of stuff. I’ve been to one in Ohio years ago and it was tons of fun. Lots of atlatls, bows and other crazy cavemen stuff. But I know both he and I are already doing more sling related stuff behind the scenes then might be apparent at first glance so that might have to wait until time allows.
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