I made my first boomerang in early 1974 out of 8.7 mm Fir plywood. I was an Engineering student at California State University Sacramento taking the hard core Engineering classes like Fluid Mechanics (airfoil design) and Dynamics (spinning tops and gyroscopes). On the way to an Engineering meeting off campus, I stopped at a sporting goods store to ask directions and the clerk had the early Lorin Hawes Wham-O (no hole) on the counter. I saw the gyroscopic motion and the airfoil design and purchased 3 of these for further study. I soon figured out that being left handed while trying to throw a right handed boomerang had its problems.

I decided to make a mirror image left handed boomerang for my left handed throw. The Wham-O was made out of a dense plastic and I didn't want to try and carve that twist in the lift arm tip using plywood, so I carved airfoils similar to model gliders on both blades with no undercutting. I used think (8/7 mm) Fir plywood avoiding the voids that you usually see running though construction plywood. I took the finished boomerang down to a field by my home and gave it a toss. It was an incredible flyer with a low and circular flight of about 25 metres. I was so pleased with the results that I started to make more of these flying toys for friends at the University.

The problem that I had was that I was left handed and my friends were right handed, so I learned to throw right handed boomerangs with my left hand so that I could test throw them before passing them on to others. That is how I developed my odd throwing style that I never changed in 50 years of throwing. I still throw right handed boomerangs with my left hand and I won a lot of events in competition with this throwing style.

This left handed traditional is in excellent condition with no chips or dings. It was such a good flyer that I retired it after a week of throwing so I could use it as a master. I have not thrown this boomerang for more than 50 years.

As for the 3 Wham-O boomerangs. The first was lost the night I purchased it. A fellow student told me he had learned to throw his grandfather's boomerang, so I let him show me in a dark parking lot. I saw it make the turn and then it slid under some cars and we could not find it. The second Wham-O was part of my throwing kit for about 30 years. I actually won Fast Catch using it in my first tournament ever. I also did 50 consecutive one handed catches with it at a demo; I passed this one on to a friend about 10 years ago because he liked it a lot. The third Wham-O is still in the original packaging and it looks just like it did when I purchased it 50 years ago. This Wham-O which was the master for my first boomerang is also included in this auction.

The following specs are for my first boomerang and not for the Wham-O.