Cutting cane on Gardenia Island and Tortuga Island is the high point of the year for me because it is an escape from the torture of Arctic air that we experience this time of the year up here in the snow belt of Upstate New York. It almost seems like spring time when we step onto our favorite island sanctuaries, where bamboo grows like giant stalks of grass waving in the soft warm winds of the Okeefenokee Swamp.
The bamboo grows strong and straight in those parts and makes outstanding dart shafts that fly like the Thunderbird. It takes a lot of hard and careful work to harvest, season, heat treat and straighten these shafts but the effort is worth it. It is always kind of a downer as we travel north through Pennsylvania on our way back and start seeing the snow again. Oh well, it’s back to winter.
Wendel Adams, my good friend who passed away several years ago was a fellow atlatlist who helped in the Great Atlatl Hunting Experiment where we relearned how to use atlatls for hunting big game. Wendel was from Kentucky. He was an amazing machinist and an avid outdoorsman.
The art of atlatl hunting had been lost and after about a decade of experimentation we figured out how to do it again. We also shared atlatl fishing trips in Florida and Kentucky.
Wendel helped me build my first dart tapering machine when he and his wife Bobbi came to visit us in New York. I think it was 2001 or 2002. Not to forget, the many times Bobbi and Wendel helped make my life and my family’s life much more comfortable on the road through their gracious hospitality.Our dear friend and fellow atlatlist the late Wendel Adams.
I also remember the late Lou Becker, an atlatlist and boyer from Michigan who was an inspiration for me also in the effort to discover how the atlatl may have been used for hunting. I met Lou in the early 1990s when he was experimenting and making atlatls. Lou was a kind and gentle friend who shared his enthusiasm for hunting and learning with me. Along with his many other responsibilities, Lou served as President of the Michigan Atlatl Association.
Good friend and fellow atlatlist and boyer the late Lou Becker.
We still treasure the handwritten notes we received many years ago from World Atlatl Association secretary Leni Clubb. When we first started going to atlatl events in the early 90s, we were thrilled to find our there was a World Atlatl Association.
We became members and have been members ever since. Leni attended atlatl events and kept everyone informed about atlatl events and rules for over two decades. Many of us fondly remember her handwritten notes and support as we set up atlatl events in those early years. Leni has been retired from her secretary job now for a few years but her dedication and loyalty to the World Atlatl Association made it the terrific organization it is today.
Membership in the World Atlatl Association is well worth the minimal annual dues. The WAA has an informative webpage and members receive quarterly newsletters. Check out Thunderbird Atlatl’s Bob Berg hunting with one of our Wyalusing atlatls on this page of the World Atlatl Association web page.
Interested in joining? Go to the webpage or print the application form below:
Okay so it’s snowy and cold in a lot of places but we can dream of what awaits us (or if you live in a warmer climate, get ready for an adventure)! We’re already getting seed catalogs in the mail so think spring!
Fishing with atlatls and harpoons is exciting and fun. It’s one of the most satisfying uses of an atlatl even if you don’t get anything. We and our customers have experienced atlatl harpoon fishing in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on lakes in Kentucky and New York, Michigan, Florida and Michigan. Thunderbird Atlatl’s harpoons have proven themselves over and over again. Bob Berg with a blue fish caught with a Wyalusing atlatl and a Thunderbird Atlatl harpoon. Bob was fishing in Long Island Sound off the Connecticut coast with Gary Nolf and Scott Van Arsdale.
Last July just off of Drummond Island in Lake Huron, Michigan, a group of us spent an enjoyable day and night making our equipment and preparing for atlatl fishing. We fastened two canoes together to make a pontoon so people could stand up in the boat safely so they could see into the water to shoot fish. This was all part of the Great Lakes Traditional Arts Gathering which will take place again in July 2014. Fishing with harpoons in Lake Huron, Michigan, just off of Drummond Island. No fish were harmed in the production of this photo.
One of our canoes used battery powered lights. The other more traditional setup used birch bark torches. The piece of birch about the torch is a blind to keep the harpooner from being blinded by the light. Night Fishing at Drummond Island with birch bark torches at the Great Lakes Traditional Arts Gathering.
Making your own atlatls and darts from one of our kits is a great way to save money and have the satisfaction of finishing your very own atlatl. Thunderbird Atlatl kits have been featured in Make Magazine.
We have five different types of atlatl kits: Catatonk Atlatl kit, Nanticoke Atlatl kit, Kanakadea Atlatl kit, Catatonk Hunter kit and our Wyalusing Atlatl kit. All come with easy to understand instructions.
With our dart kits, you can make five, six or seven foot darts. Dart kits come with a shaft, sinew, feathers and a point. Our Kanakdea Atlatl Kit with a dart kit as featured in Make Magazine
