Contest Returns Prove This Group Has Gotten Hang of Boomerang

They call it boomerang fever. Once you catch it, they say, you never get over it.

Take John Mauro, for example, a gray-haired media research director from Richmond, Va. He said he read an article about boomerangs during an airplane trip five or six years ago and was hooked immediately.

“I knew very little about the physical sciences. That article on boomerangs fascinated me,” Mauro said Sunday. “I couldn’t understand why they always came back. So, I set out to learn about them.”

Mauro became so involved with boomerangs and their aerodynamics that he began participating in the sport. He has written a book, “An Introduction to Boomerangs.” This year, he was elected president of the U.S. Boomerang Assn., which held its annual national competition over the weekend at California State University, Northridge.

Few California Competitors

The event attracted 125 boomerang enthusiasts from throughout the country--Cleveland; Newport News, Va.; New York City and various cities in North Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida. Few of the competitors were from California, however.

“It really hasn’t caught on very well here,” Mauro said, glancing around at the sparse crowd. “We usually have about 500 spectators.”

Among the California competitors was Jerry Caplan of Thousand Oaks. Caplan, a 34-year-old office supply salesman, is on the national association’s board of directors. He said he hurled his first boomerang 14 years ago and has been a “boomerang fanatic” ever since. To prove it, Caplan carries a bag of 30 boomerangs everywhere he goes.

Mauro, who has about 100 boomerangs, said different boomerangs are needed for various events. “Each boomerang is different,” he said. In keeping with that, Mauro names his boomerangs after cartoon characters.

Started Boomerang School

John Lakey, a bartender, and David Boehm, a market analyst, both from Cleveland, have their boomerangs custom-made in Sydney, Australia.

Boehm, who started a boomerang school in Cleveland, said that, contrary to what many people believe, boomerangs are not dangerous.

“It’s sort of like surfing,” he said. “You don’t give someone a surfboard who doesn’t know how to swim. You don’t give a boomerang to someone who doesn’t know how to throw it.”

He said only about three people in 100 really catch “boomerang fever.”

“It’s not a fascination like with the Frisbee or Hula Hoop,” he said. “Boomerangs will never be as popular as Frisbees. They’ll never catch on that well.”

Wins Novice Competition

Two Californians, Tom Meisner of Thousand Oaks and Bruce Whalen of Moorpark, participated in their first boomerang competition this weekend.

Meisner said he has been throwing boomerangs since 1980 but, until he participated in the novice competition Saturday, was afraid to catch them.

“I won the novice competition in consecutive catch,” he said. “You have to catch the boomerang several ways--first with two hands, then with one hand, then behind your back. I was thrilled to death to catch it with one hand. Then, I did it behind my back.”

Meisner said that, had an opponent not missed the behind-the-back catch, he would have had to catch the boomerang with his feet.

“I doubt that I could have done that,” he said.

Whalen, who said he has been throwing the boomerang for about four months, did not compete in Saturday’s novice events but, along with Meisner, mustered up the courage to compete against the pros Sunday. Neither won.

Other events in the competition included tests in speed, accuracy, position and juggling, in which participants tossed two boomerangs at once.