Al Gerhards is one of America's most famous boomerang manufacturers. Al started making strip laminated boomerangs in the 1970s and only made boomerangs until the mid 1980s. Al would spend up to a year test throwing and tuning a single boomerang. He never sold or gave away a boomerang until it was perfect. Al taught himself to tune completely from scratch. Al was my tuning mentor and everything that I contributed to tuning of the MTA boomerang in the early 1980s was a direct result of what I had learned from Al. The Classic weighted hook was the most popular Gerhards boomerang. The Boomerang Man sold a few in his early 1980s catalogs as a regular stock item. They were bought up by eager long distance throwers as fast as Al supplied them to Rich. Supply was always a problem. This model had a typical flight range of 77 yards. A few, made out of heavier woods or with added weights, had ranges out to 100+ yards.

This long distance Gerhards hook has a single weight in each blade tip and an extra half weight on the underside of the elbow. This boomerang is signed and dated June 1979. The wood is identified as White Oak. It has the serial number 222 stamped into the weight on the lift arm tip. This one is a battle hardened collectable that was used by Larry Ruhf in long distance competitions as early as 1979. There are no indications of major delamination, but Gerhards hooks are not indestructable. In fact, the majority of these hooks have been thrown until broken or until delamination occured. The buyer must be very careful with this one because of it's age. It is best to purchase this one as a collectable and make copies of it for your own use.