The New England atlatl community is going strong this spring! Two events were held in Vermont and Maine the last weekend of April. Another event is set for June 14 in Vermont!
John Morris sent out the following report on the Vermont event. Here is John’s report:
“Greg Maurer put on a terrific atlatl competition at “The North Country Atlatl Open” in Williston, Vermont (April 26). It was a ground breaking event for us in New England… The first tournament here, sponsored by the New York Atlatl Association.. The NYAA president, Doug Bassett, was there and introduced us all to many competitions previously unknown to many.
The weather forecast was for rain showers but it turned out to be a perfect day. We had a small but enthusiastic group of people there, including first time atlatlists.”
“Greg has a second Atlatl open coming on Saturday June 14. It also will include the: ISAC, IASAC, The NYAA** events, a moving target, a Clay Pigeon shoot, plus balloon targets ect for kids of all ages.
The second open will be at the same place. The North Country Sportsman’s [Gun] Club, Williston Vermont.”
John has put together an email list of New England Atlatlists if you are interested in being included, email John at faywood@sover.net
The Thunderbird Atlatl staff was at the University of Southern Maine for the school’s third annual knap-in. There was a small but steady crowd at the event. There was a lot of interest from those attending. Participants were able to learn flint knapping, fire building, cordage skills, atlatl building, pottery skills and more. The students set up an atlatl range on a soccer field. We look forward to next year’s event.

Knowing that scores can change quickly, we still think it’s important to note that at the moment Doug Bassett of New York holds an Atlatl Triple Crown!!
As of March 18th, it looks like Doug was holding the top scores in the following events:
#1 WAA – 94-X in ISAC (The World Atlatl Association’s International Standard Accuracy Contest) done on 3/15/08
#1 IAS – 101-XXX (The International Atlatl Society’s Accuracy Contest) done on 1/12/08
#1 Distance – 215.5m (707′ or 235.7yds) done on 3/18/08

Congratulations Doug! The above scores were posted by Scott Van Arsdale on the Paleo Planet website. The World Atlatl Association annual meeting at Valley of Fire is coming up in two weeks, we’ll let you know if anyone breaks Doug’s winning streak!

The pictures are back in the catalog section of this web page – thanks to our webmaster – Peter Berg’s efforts! The order form is not going through all way and that should be corrected in the next few hours – again, thanks to Peter!

In the meantime, if you want to submit an order, just give us a call at 1-800-836-4520 or 607-659-3854. Or you can email us directly at: contact@thunderbirdatlatl.com or thunderbirdatlatl@gmail.com

Thanks for your patience and we will continue to keep this web page updated and current. In April, we will be back on the road again with a workshop in Maine at the end of the month. We will post more information on that in a couple of weeks. The World Atlatl Association will be meeting the first weekend of April at Valley of Fire in Nevada. We would like to be there but it doesn’t look like we will be able to make it this year.