Ted Bailey is a retired Aerospace Engineer who has been making and throwing boomerangs since the early 1970s. The first boomerangs that he marketed were multi-bladers that he sold on the C.S.U. Sacramento campus in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, Ted sold traditional boomerangs at the West Palm Beach Mall. In the early 1980s, Ted moved to Ohio and became active in the competition circuit. He developed a line of miniature boomerangs that performed well in competition. In the mid 1980s, new products included lap joint boomerangs made out of exotic woods and high performance competition boomerangs, especially Fast Catch and MTA. Ted was active in the USBA and served as Secretary, President and as a board member in the 1980s. He was the editor of the USBA newsletter, Many Happy Returns, for two decades and also produced two independent publications: Boomerang Journal and Boomerang News. Currently, Ted is involved in internet marketing of boomerang products (this internet catalog) and teaching flight science is schools in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan. Find out more about Ted Bailey on the About Ted Bailey web page.

This item is an early lap joint boomerang, made out of Koa from Hawaii. The tips are inlayed with Zabrawood, Maple, Ebony, Coco Bolo and Bubinga (see photo below). This boomerang was traded to Brother Brian Thomas in the mid-1980s and is part of the Brother Brian Thomas estate. Very few of these fancy wood lap joints remain and most are in older collections. The fancy wood lap joints were only made for trade and never for sale. I would prefer that the buyer treat this as a collectable. It is not know if the bonding strength of the wood glue has degraded over the past 20+ years. It was test thrown by Ted Bailey in 2006. It has proper tuning with a flight range of about 35 metres. There is no hover. It is very accurate and drops right at your feet which is what it did when it was originally made. This boomerang likes a light straight out throw with lots of spin, but not a hard throw. Please be gentle.