Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => English Warbow => Topic started by: fishfinder401 on December 23, 2011, 03:38:14 am
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i decided to make this thread to get people interested to introduce themselves and say where they are from, you know, try to get a familiarity with our possible group members
i'll start
i'm Noel Laflamme, and i'm from the only place where the state is smaller than many of my bows, Rhode Island
...... who's next
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My turn!
I am Cody Werner, from Washington state in the beautiful Pacific Northwest! The place where the beloved Yew trees grow though I have yet to get my hands on some! haha
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Here's Part 1 of my introductory video on my new Youtube channel "American Warbow SW": ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ2hZsUWaEQ
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Nicely done, 'Crafty Jack'! That's a good introduction video!
That ash-Juniper wood looks beautiful for warbows! Hope that works out well for you, and can't wait to see you shoot your 70#er.
I'm Jonathan and I'm in the D.C. area. Closest person I know about around here is probably Noel in R.I. , but maybe I'll find some more closer to my area.
I may be able to drive into Virginia or as far north as aastern Pennsylvania (was there for the holiday weekend and it's really nice up there) if there are any practitioners around thereabouts that want to practice with me or have regular get togethers.
But first, I'll have to get a scene going near D.C. too this next year which is one of my goals I hope to accomplish. And I'll need to get my bow back and start practicing again; can't do much good without a bow!
Let's see, so far we have:
Northeast region (noel)
Mid-Atlantic Region (myself)
Southeast Region (Mark R)
Southwest Region (jackcrafty)
Northwest Region ("Dag")
Canada region (we haven't had anyone from there sign to the e-mail list yet, but maybe the Canadian enthusiasts would like to work with us as well?)
Could we tentatively say these are the regions we're working with in an American Warbow Society?
Looks like we're fairly spread out so far, but maybe if we can get some local groups set up with a few consistently practicing members, we can get things rolling as far as regional events, national events, and perhaps events across the pond too potentially, as we try to coordinate with our fellow enthusiasts in the U.K with the EWBS. And of course, keep a steady stream of ideas going all over the place as to how to set up the group's organization, how to organize events/shoots, and how to maintain and grow membership.
I'll keep up the e-mail list, and once I get my bow back I'll try to get something going in my local area. Let me know if I can be of help with anything!
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SE that'd be me 8)
--Mark R.
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Excellent, I guess I'll edit my previous post and put people in there, maybe create a thread if the list gets significant enough for that.
Question: for the sake of simplicity for now, would "mid-atlantic" states go to the northeast side of things or to the southeast if it were combined with either? Florida is a lot farther away than Rhode Island, so I'd lean to the former for practical reasons (and the cities in the mid-atlantic seem to be more connected to the northeast corridor from Richmond up), but I'm from Florida and there is a rail line to Jacksonville (sadly not to many other places in the state) that would make a long weekend trip possible.
Once I can get some funds saved up for traveling, I might be able to go a ways and meet some people in the middle.
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i think middle east would be best as its own section or with the south east, i would say mid east should be nc- penn and north east ny-maine, just my opinion :-\
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The middle east? I believe there already is a Middle East, and it ain't on this side of the pond :P If we were, say, focusing on Turkish horse bows as a theme, I'd be all for it cause I think those are cool, but I don't think that's a focus for this group.
Let's say East Coast for now, so including yourself (R.I.), me (Maryland), Marz5 (florida), and anyone else we can find. We can expand regions if need be, but since we're so spread out, we can worry about who's where.
Anyway, the "regions" don't really matter that much in the long run, it's the local groups we can set up and build interest. So I have the following ideas:
1. We need more people interested in this!!! More is better! So I want our New Years goal to be, by the end of March 2012, we should each try to have a minimum of two other people that we practice with on a regular basis. Once, twice, three times a week? Biweekly would be acceptable if the people were a ways away or if the weather's really bad. I think three people practicing could constitute a local "group". whatever we decide to call that. What do you think?
2. By that time, we should have our own website, or perhaps a subforum on here depending? I'd be glad to help with this or try to make one (my limited experience putting some emphasis on try). On this website, we'll have links to our youtube channel(s) and other warbow material, vendors that make bows, arrows, and all that jazz that we practice with, some articles about the history and practice of the English/European warbow, and a discussion forum where we can do whatever we need to grow and flourish.
3. Be able to communicate and coordinate the needs of each local group that's signed up with us. I think that for now, we shouldn't worry about being a super complicated non profit just yet. We need to have sufficient bottom-to-top support for that to really work. For now, local groups that aim to work together for a common cause-- that is, the appreciation of and skill in the use of the English/European warbow-- would be our best goal.
Needs might be the following:
-establishing guidelines for safety, non-liability waiver forms, etc. Basic language for the archery range, when to loose, when to stop, when to retrieve, etc.
-Guidelines on acceptable parameters for bows, arrows, official events; what do we consider to be a war bow? We could borrow the English Warbow Society's guidelines for this for now, or think up our own potentially if that is permissible to them.
-Membership dues or free? If the range (like say, an indoor shooting range for winter archery) requires a minimum fee, and you're looking to expand your group, I'd highly recommend a monthly fee to help get money for extra supplies. But if you aim for more casual environment ("get your own stuff" rule), free is cool too. I think being flexible with this is good.
-Resources for local craftsman. I for one am very excited about the idea of making my own stuff, even if I suck at it at first. The people on here are fantastic for this, so let's stay in touch
4. Figure out how the EWBS does it and stay in close contact with them. We'd be starting as a chapter of their group, so we need to be mindful and respectful that they're the ones that know more about this than we do (for now anyway). The English war bow is their heritage and their weapon (not to say that it isn't some of ours too; I have Scotch/English/Irish ancestry for example), and if we're to be their chapter we need to recognize this and make sure we're on respectable terms with them, even if we give a little wiggle room to allow for other weapons (since we have our own archery traditions from native styles that are worth considering). From what I've heard from Dag, they sound pretty helpful and they have a relatively simple set up.
5. We can brainstorm and discuss the for quite a while since this is a secondary concern. Our primary weapon of study is the English/European Warbow, but I'd like to see if we can in our own spare time explore other bow arts and other European martial arts. The English staff tradition from the Renaissance is also very rich, for example. Or some of the European arts, like falchion/messer fighting, or sword and buckler, or even knife fighting, would compliment a martial archer very well. I'm not saying we'd require this, but what about having the bow as our primary weapon, and having some time to study other close combat styles on the side? Does the EWBS do this at all or is it bow-only for them? My main reason for including other martial arts is that we'd get help from people who have experience in these close martial arts (myself being an enthusiast), and it would be a very good pool of interest, as HEMA people are very serious about their art and would make excellent warbow practitioners. Some of them already study archery on the side, and it would be great if we could unite the disciplines. Close combat is separate from archery/ranged combat, but even so, I think the idea of integrating their study would be an angle that is rarely done these days in the Renaissance of their study.
That's the ideas I have so far. Hopefully it is not too much of a tangent. What do you all think?
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oops, meant mid atlantic :-[ ;)
i think i might know 1 or 2 people i could do this with, any ideas on finding out who else( ways of getting it out there)
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Social networks are one way, like:
facebook, meetup, craigslist, sites like that. Granted, meeting random strangers is not the safest thing in the world, so use your own discretion with that.
Word of mouth is probably better to start with, call up some of your friends and relatives, ask them if they're interested, see if they know anyone who's interested.
If you go to a school or university nearby, you could (if they allow it) post flyers on bullitin boards saying you're interested in forming a group. This might be a better step to do once you have a handful of people practicing and want to expand, though.
See if there's anyone who does any kind of archery whatsoever near you; if it's a large group there might be some interested in practicing the warbow or working up to it. A quick search of archery groups in your area might give you some options if there's anything close by. Try contacting their leader (take me to your leader!), and see if they'd be open to having someone practice the warbow with them without trying to "infect" you with either modern sport or "fantasy" archery stuff.
Where do you usually practice? Is there a public archery range anywhere nearby? You could say, you're meeting there on such and such days and leave an open invitation to those interested in practicing with you. As long as they know what your focus is and they're ok with that, anyone practicing with you is a potential training partner.
But if you have one or two people to train with potentially, or even anyone that's interested, that would be a great start! Good luck, man, and I hope the above was helpful!
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thanks, i never thought of using craigslist, i have a large yard so i haven't gone to a range yet, but i think i know of one nearby that i could check at and i think i could get my cousin to do it
thanks for the suggestions
noel
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Jonathan, your ideas are excellent. I like the part about integrating other martial arts into the study of warbows. I also like the idea of "borrowing" the English way of setting things up until we can develop our own format(s).
You mentioned Native American use of bows in warfare and I think this will be a very interesting subject to explore. I will contribute as much as I can to the pursuit of this knowledge.
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Jackcrafty, I love the youtube channel!!! I think that is an amazing idea! If everyone else thinks it is a good idea as well I'd like to create a channel for the North West region of the US.
I personally found out about the EWBS through random youtube videos a few years ago. So I know it could drive so traffic and generate interest in this society.
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sounds good to me ;D, i might do one for the north east later in the year, right now i have so little time :'(
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Ok, I've went ahead and created an AmericanWarbowNW Youtube channel. No videos as of yet but I'll make a simple intro soon!
Subscribe if you would like to :)
http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanWarbowNW?feature=guide (http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanWarbowNW?feature=guide)
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My Latest vids for American Warbows SW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiVmXZ_38b0&context=C302fab3ADOEgsToPDskIHA77g7ABgRzb7Vx7peUeq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwbkGz79Tow&feature=endscreen&NR=1
I shoot and describe dimensions on my 70lb juniper long bow. ;D
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I am a former NAA Basic Instructor (I let my cert. run out) so I can set up any rules (safety and otherwise), ext. for shoots >:D
training instructors and range officers is something we might want to look into later on down the road
--Mark R.
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Great job with the youtube channel so far, jackcrafty! I'll keep up watching it! You are a fantastic craftsman, sir :D
And good luck getting a group together, fishfinder! Start small and go from there, sounds great!
Dag, and anyone else. definitely create a channel! (subscribes) We need to get the word out as much as we can that we're practicing this historic art of archery, and that it's a rewarding and fun art to study. Also, being transparent and putting out there our honest efforts is a great way to get feedback from other enthusiasts out there that we'd otherwise not be able to practice with in person.
Mark, that sounds excellent! I'd be especially interested in becoming certified in instruction (as I'm also interested in being certified and ranked in other historical martial arts) Would you like to help us form up rules for the (North) American Warbow Society? We will need to keep in touch with the EWBS and DWBS people and see what their basic format is, but there's no reason why we can't also have ideas and discussions about how to best ensure the safety of all practitioners and guests, and to avoid any potential legal disputes (I need to figure out how to do waiver forms!) in the states.
I propose that in the near future, we should get a group chat of some sort set up to discuss what we need to do form wise for the society/charter, what our group's purpose is all about, and basically anything we need to do in the next few months to get things going. Any ideas, feedback, advice, etc. would be welcome. I propose we try to do this on a monthly, or even biweekly basis if possible to start with.
Dag, jackcrafty, fishfinder, and Marz5, what do you think about that? I think between the five of us (am I leaving anyone out? feel free to chime in if I am) we could get a good discussion going to see what we could do.
Who would be interested in participating and what program would be best for this? Skype? Google chat? Something else?
I'm going to wait a couple weeks (going to be a busy month for me!), see if there's the interest and some sort of consensus of how to do this, and then I'll send an e-mail to those interested to try to set up a date/time to do this.
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i like the idea of the chat, i think skype would work, never heard of google chat
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Jonathan, a skype chat sounds good if we could have a "conference" type video chat. I've only used skype for one-on-one chat, so I don't know if there is a conference feature.
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Ok, two votes for skype, I believe there is a conference chat, I'm not sure if you guys would prefer typed or video, but we'll figure that out.
Does anyone that wants in on this not have the ability to have at least a type chat on skype? Or is anyone else opposed to the idea of using skype for a conference?
For a chat date, how does some time on the 21/23 or 28/29th (these are both saturday/sunday weekends)?
I'll wait a few days for others to chip in and then I'll send an e-mail out to those interested!
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so what time, we need to work it out with the differences in time zones
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Skype conference sounds like a great idea! I have skype on the comp im using now. However, this comp freezes up after a awhile, maybe 20 minutes or so. I'll try and figure something dependable out before the tentative conference.
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skype is fine for me (my cam is broke but my mike isn't), as far as the time goes at worst the is a tree hour time difference between me here on the east coast and those on the west coast. I can be available either weekend.
google chat is for google+ users....
man-o-man I just realized I never formally introduced myself, well here I go:
Hi my name is Mark Russell and I'm a bowaholic. I've been shooting somewhat constantly since I was 16 and been making my own product since the beginning of last year.... ::) >:D
--Mark R
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Ok, so we'll use Skype and try a group chat/conference chat (I'll familiarize myself more with the program as I haven't used it in a while).
And let's set the meeting tentatively for Saturday, January 21, at say, 6pm? We can adjust the time and date if need be, or postpone it to the next weekend if necessary.
Sound good, everyone?
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6 east coast?
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Oh yes, time zones.
If 6 pm U.S. east coast time zone (5pm central, 4pm mountain, 3pm pacific) is amenable to all involved, yes. If those in earlier time zones need to bump it to later (or earlier, or whenever is convenient), we have plenty of time to make sure we're all ok to talk then. I'm fine with pushing it to later eastern standard time if we need to.
What are your thoughts, everyone? Would 6 east coast work or is there a better time?
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that works, any time is fine
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That time and date works good for me as well!
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Sounds good.
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Here's a quick intro vid for the AWBS Northwest region...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjkENsediWg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjkENsediWg)
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Excellent intro, Cody! Look forward to seeing more from your group!
I sent everyone on the list for the AWBS an e-mail regarding the skype session in a couple weeks, and some ideas we can all think about until then. Feel free to contact me if you need to also!
-J.S.
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Ok, I sent everyone an e-mail that's on the list so far, so anyone interested in attending, please e-mail or skype me back and let me know.
my skype name is: kataphrakt85
So, our skype session is set for: Saturday, January 21, 6pm (eastern standard time, 5pm central, 4pm mountain, 3pm pacific)
Looking forward to talking to as many of you as possible on there!
Also, we have a great lead on some forum space that we could use for our group.
I'll keep in touch!
-Jon
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i figured this would be a good place to put it out there that i was going to make a youtube channel for the north east, but i have been having troubles making one so for now i am going to use my regular account, fishfinder401. then later on re upload the videos
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I'm a bit of a noob on youtube as well, but we'll see what we can do to get a Northeast or East coast presence on youtube, fishfinder.
I wanted to add, the skype session is begining, but we are currently waiting on people to join!
My skype is:
kataphrakt85, I hope to see some of you guys there if possible!
-Jonathan
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Ok, I'm giving you all a quick update from our first skype session, which went fairly well! Wish some more people could have made it, but we'll have another one just like it next weekend to see if we can get more people involved.
At the session were myself, Noel, and Mark, so only East Coasters.
We talked about:
-EWBS standards for bow and arrow classes and shooting rules (we need to contact them for some details)
-regions thusfar for the AWBS: we have Northwest, Southwest, and East Coast (so far, no members in the midwest or "heartland") for now (we might divide the east coast up later, but for now since we're so spread out, we might as well band together).
-leadership within the AWBS (proposal: having acting governing counsel members until official elections are held with members)
-a June event on the East Coast,
-incorporating Native American archery into the AWBS (we'll have to continue to discuss this amongst ourselves and with the EWBS and see what can be done) or having separate groups (an english warbow group and an "other warbow archery" group) affiliated with each other.
There was a lot of other things we talked about, but that should be a good teaser.
We plan on having another skype session next weekend, same time, unless some of you who weren't able to make it would like to change the time. Just let me know.