Boomerang sport grows with help from Western students, professor – Cascadia Daily News

In a city full of extracurricular communities, Bellingham can add one more to its list: boomerangs.
Julia Greene was one of the first Western Washington University students to throw boomerangs with professor Ed Love, who introduced the sport to campus. Greene, who is still involved with the club, was one of the organizers of the first-ever Bellingham Boomfest, a boomerang tournament at Downer Fields on Sunday, April 6.
Love, Greene and a few others ran the event that had 17 competitors, including a top global thrower and members of a national team. It also included new throwers who didn’t compete.
“This is a USBA-sanctioned event, but this isn’t a qualifier or something super serious,” Love said. “We’ll do a lot of novice-friendly stuff. It’s kind of like a track and field event where you’ve got all of these competitions.”
The United States Boomerang Association (USBA) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote the art, science and sport of boomerangs and hosts tournaments nationwide.
Even though the Bellingham Boomfest was a sanctioned event, it had an inclusive atmosphere that included Western students and members of the United States Boomerang Team.
“I love some little grassroots stuff because we’re not a big sport overall at all,” USBA president Richard Bower said. “Most top competitors actually do get a kick out of showing the less experienced how to compete. You see a lot of coaching and helping going on.” 
Bower is one of the top throwers in the world, and besides running Bellingham Boomfest, he also competed in the four events which included Aussie Round, Accuracy, Trick Catch and Fast Catch. 
The interest in boomerangs began In September 2024, during Western’s Honors Prologue, a program that introduces honors students to staff and other students. Love brought a few boomerangs to campus for students to try out.
“Before classes start, you meet everyone in the honors college and have a bunch of activities to do, and one of them was boomerangs,” Western freshman Forrest Morse said. “I signed up for that one and met Ed and had a good time.”
Morse, Love and a few other students created a boomerang club weeks later. Morse stepped into the president and founder role, filling out paperwork, creating the club and setting up throwing times every Friday. Since then, Western has seen about 10–20 members throwing boomerangs every week.
“I joined because Forrest is my suite mate,” said Western freshman Evan Hilgenberg. “It’s been a lot of fun. It is cool to see a community I didn’t know existed. I didn’t know anything about boomerangs before this quarter.”
Love, a marketing professor, has seen the sport take off.
“It felt like boomerangs started to grow over the last few years,” Love said. “It was pretty much just me throwing at Cornwall or Squalicum Park. Julia (Greene) and some other folks encouraged me to be a little more public about it, so I taught them how to make and throw boomerangs.”
Love, who has been throwing boomerangs competitively since 1986, says the sport has grown from a hobby because of the new throwers joining it. 
“Since it is suddenly taking off with a whole new generation of throwers, it has been thrilling,” Love said. “I’m inspired to up my game and become, technically, a better thrower.”
At boomerang competitions, throwers toss their boomerangs from the middle of a 20-meter circle, which also includes circles at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 meters. Aussie and Accuracy are basically when the throwers try to land the boomerang as close to the center as possible, trick catch is when the throwers tries to catch the boomerang is a variety of tricky ways and fast catch is the fastest thrower to throw and catch five boomerangs.
Morse said Bellingham Boomfest was exciting.
“I met some of the veterans and got to do all the competitions and learn. It was a good opportunity to meet people who have been throwing longer than I’ve been alive.”
Dan Bower, Richard’s brother, won Bellingham Boomfest with seven placement points, followed by Richard with 11 and Stevie Kavanaugh with 13. The winner of each event was awarded one placement point, while second place got two points and so on, to the last-place thrower earning 17 points. The objective is to have the least amount of placement points.
“I love the community,” Morse said. “We have gotten a lot of friends to join and it is a social time. Being able to do a fun activity with others who are nice is really fun.”
Love and the Western students hope to have the Boomfest return annually.
“When you see it, you’ll understand why it feels like it’s magic,” Love said. “I would love to see more recreational throwers throwing together on a regular basis. It’s something you can do by yourself, but it’s such a great experience when you’re throwing with other people, too.” 
Nick Zeller-Singh is CDN’s sports reporter; reach him at nickzellersingh@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.
Email newstips@cascadiadaily.com or Call/Text 360-922-3092

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