boomerang - long distance lefty boomalum hook by mickey kinley

LH Boomalum Hook by Mickey Kinley

Item M01

This Item was Sold on 12 December 2017 for $118

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This left handed hook was made out of 2.3 mm Aluminum sheet in 1985. Mickey showed up at the 1984 USBA Nationals with the first generation of his long distance models and stunned the crowds with 120+ metre throws using this light weight Aluminum design. Mickey called this model the " Boomalum " and everyone wanted one, but Mickey made only a limited supply for retail sale. This lefty hook was custom made for me and it is a fantastic flyer with a flight range of 120+ metres. Mickey painted a portion of the upper surface red for added visibility. Lead tape is wrapped around both blades near the tip for weight tuning. This was my favorite long distance boomerang for many years. I have thrown it thousands of times and it has kept its tune with every throw. It does have wear and some minor scratches on the surface from use, but it is still in marvelous condition and a wonderful collectible. From my personal throw kit.

Specifications: Left Handed ; Tip-to-tip Span = 39 cm ; Weight = 79 gm

I first met Mickey Kinley in 1981 while living in West Palm Beach, Florida. I introduced my neighbor, Jim MacNeil, to the sport of boomerang throwing a few months earlier. Jim was throwing one of his Gerhards hooks in a big field in Boca Raton adjacent to the Florida Atlantic campus. A very excited man named Mickey Kinley introduced himself as a new boomerang maker and thrower. Mickey was a woodworker by profession. He had started making strip laminated traditional boomerangs on his own. He had never seen anything like a Gerhards hook before. Mickey begged Jim to loan him the Gerhards hook for a day so that he could make a copy. Jim agreed and made plans to meet Mickey the following day in the same field. I went with Jim to meet Mickey on the following day. It was hot and calm. Mickey arrived with an arm load of his strip laminated traditionals and a single copy of the Gerhards hook. This was a PERFECT COPY, complete with weights! The only problem was that it didn't return. I was not yet an expert at tuning and Mickey decided to adjust the flight by filing down the airfoils using instructions from the Lorin Hawes book. Mickey filed that hook down until it was so thin that it broke. The following year, I moved from West Palm Beach to Ohio, but I stayed in touch with Mickey. In 1983, Mickey sent me samples of his strip laminated traditional, hook and omega models. These were absolutely gorgeous. The hook and omega models were weighted and had a flight range of 75 - 100 metres. These were good returners, but they had a very slight tendency to spiral out of a stable hover at the end of the flight if thrown too low on the release. This was easily corrected by adding some tape flaps to slow the rotation down a bit. In 1984, Mickey moved on to make Boomalums, the first long distance boomerangs made out of Aluminum. Mickey is a famous and early pioneer in the long distance event. His name doesn't show up in the record books because he rarely went to tournaments, but his boomalums were the boomerangs of choice in the long distance event for many years.