THE AEROBIE ORBITER™ RECORD – AN AMAZING 720 THROWS AND CATCHES
Practice really can make perfect, even if you start from scratch.
For José Drummond, Professor of environmental policy and environmental history at the University of Brasília in Brazil, a 1991 chance sighting of an Aerobie Orbiter Boomerang in a Wisconsin sporting-goods store sparked that practice. His fascination with throwing it took him from newbie to record-setter status in a matter of a year or so.
The Aerobie Orbiter was Professor Drummond’s first boomerang. He learned to throw and catch it “without any instruction or help, and after months of trials and effort,” he says. Steady dedication to perfecting his skill led to an impressive record of 260 consecutive throws and catches on May 14th in 1992. Over the next 15 years, that number grew to an astonishing 720 - his most recent record set on June 5, 2007.
From Madison, Wisconsin to the University of Brasília’s Olympic Center soccer field, Professor Drummond has looped his boomerangs through the skies. Weather has not always been ideal and he has had past difficulties in the form of territorial birds and even an aggressive, Orbiter-chasing bat. His most recent feat was accomplished in a light wind under a heavily clouded sky.
Professor Drummond recalls that the throwing was easy in such wind conditions, with the boomerang returning neatly and smoothly to him after flight. “Most catches were made quite close to my home base,” he says. “I was not overly tired at the end of the series.”
Professor Drummond describes himself as “not much of an athlete,” though he has tried his hand at swimming, jogging, volleyball, and soccer. Despite the fact that his two daughters consider boomerang throwing to fall “somewhere between boring and embarrassing,” as he reports, we find
his efforts inspirational. Keep up the good throws, Professor Drummond!
The record of 720 was one that Professor Drummond chose himself—he never dropped the boomerang. He simply stopped at that number when nighttime darkness descended.