Archeon 3D
Jan. 31st, 2011 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzAn archery competition in a theme park... that must sound weird. But then, Archeon isn't your average theme parc.
Because of the winter, the park is closed and that made it a perfect opportunity for the Scuttery of Saint Sebastian and the NVVTH (Dutch organisation for traditional archers) to organise a 3D archery competition. It was a good thing there weren't any visitors though, because sometimes the range would just cross a path. And they made good use of obstacles from the park itself.
There were 30 ranges, with 30 animals to shoot. The styrofoam beasties (ranging from lions, bears and tigers to hawks, piglets, an okapi, beavers, frogs and even rats! were sometimes hidden in the scenery. The animals were placed sometimes near, sometimes far away.
Each group of approximately 7 people would start at a different range. We started at range 24, in the Roman arena. From the top tier of the arena we'd have to shoot a tiger that was hidden behind some christmas trees. I started off well with 11 points there!
NoKey focusing on his shot
The points were arranged a little differently than with a normal competition. There was a "kill" zone on the animal, usually on the torso, which would be 20 points max. Any other hit would just count as a "hit" with a maximum of 17 and minimum of 5 points. Points were awarded according to the arrow used. The first arrow is the most points (20 for a kill, 17 for a hit) and the third arrow the least (5 for a hit).
At #25, (our second target) I immediately lost one of my arrows. Out of a set of six, I was a little dismayed. It probably went through the fence there: plastic with vertical logs and some creeper growth. But I bought another set of arrows at Fairbow later. 12 bamboo arrows with the same colour flights.
#26 was where we had to climb up on some wooden construction in order to shoot over a wall. The wood was slippery and because of the shape of the thing it was hard to keep a proper archer's pose. It was just the first of many interesting conundrums....
Shooting from the middle of a few trees, growing close together wasn't all that bad compared to the Roman Wall. It's a reconstruction on the side of the jousting field, and they had two targets that had to be shot from the wall.
Roman wall bristling with archers. Behind the jousting field is the Taverna.
The first one was a pair of two animals. The lynx was eating a hare, and our target was the hare. If we shot the lynx, we would get -20 points. The targets were right next to the wall and we had to shoot them from above, and a little to the right. Of course, my first arrow got the lynx in the side of the neck.
NoKey did me one better by shooting the lynx in the ear. Oh well, it wasn't like any of our group was keeping track of points!
After the Triple targets of a rabbit and two beavers near the water (miss and lose an arrow!) and the almost-invisible crocodile on the side of the road, near the water (miss and lose another arrow!) we got to the moving target. A bird, weigthed with a bit of wood, running down a rope from right to left. The bit of wood would catch on the trees and background rubble, making it even harder to hit. Here I am trying my best but utterly failing at everything except looking pretty in my coat.
My new coat was brilliant as the sleeves would hang back as I aimed.
Some of the targets were really hard to hit. This particular bird was tiny and hard to see from where we stood. The wooden posts it is tied to are good at killing arrows too, by taking your points.
At the cloister, we had to shoot from above again, down into the graveyard where a piglet was hiding underneath an elderberry bush.
A proper pose is hard to take and this complicates hitting the target even more!
This one was called "Moving target" - the target is stationary, but you move! I tried crouching on the swing, but my first two arrows missed. The third one was a hit, and I was standing up too!
Our final target was 'The King's Shot'. We had to use blunts and a bow less than 35 lbs strong to try and shoot the bird from the pole.
I got it on my first try!
Despite not all ranges being as safe as I'd like to see them, the organisers tried their best to make sure we were all safe. With 90 to 99% of the people there being very careful and aware of what they were doing, there were no incidents I know of, but some arrows flew out of the park through the fence.
One particular incident was scary: the "Hunter" target in the Iron Age. The beaver we were aiming at was at the other side of the ice, and when Fred from our group loosed his arrow it bounced off the ice, over the beaver and the boulder behind it, only to land in the road some four meters to the right of the next group.... Scary shit!
Still, it was a wonderful day, made better by our awesome group. Henk, Willem, Fred and Gijs from Helmond, who were marvellous archers and fun to boot. People nagging about points can make or break your contest, and I was glad to see that none of us really cared about the points as long as we had a fun day.
See the rest of the pictures over on Flickr!
Because of the winter, the park is closed and that made it a perfect opportunity for the Scuttery of Saint Sebastian and the NVVTH (Dutch organisation for traditional archers) to organise a 3D archery competition. It was a good thing there weren't any visitors though, because sometimes the range would just cross a path. And they made good use of obstacles from the park itself.
There were 30 ranges, with 30 animals to shoot. The styrofoam beasties (ranging from lions, bears and tigers to hawks, piglets, an okapi, beavers, frogs and even rats! were sometimes hidden in the scenery. The animals were placed sometimes near, sometimes far away.
Each group of approximately 7 people would start at a different range. We started at range 24, in the Roman arena. From the top tier of the arena we'd have to shoot a tiger that was hidden behind some christmas trees. I started off well with 11 points there!
NoKey focusing on his shot
The points were arranged a little differently than with a normal competition. There was a "kill" zone on the animal, usually on the torso, which would be 20 points max. Any other hit would just count as a "hit" with a maximum of 17 and minimum of 5 points. Points were awarded according to the arrow used. The first arrow is the most points (20 for a kill, 17 for a hit) and the third arrow the least (5 for a hit).
At #25, (our second target) I immediately lost one of my arrows. Out of a set of six, I was a little dismayed. It probably went through the fence there: plastic with vertical logs and some creeper growth. But I bought another set of arrows at Fairbow later. 12 bamboo arrows with the same colour flights.
#26 was where we had to climb up on some wooden construction in order to shoot over a wall. The wood was slippery and because of the shape of the thing it was hard to keep a proper archer's pose. It was just the first of many interesting conundrums....
Shooting from the middle of a few trees, growing close together wasn't all that bad compared to the Roman Wall. It's a reconstruction on the side of the jousting field, and they had two targets that had to be shot from the wall.
Roman wall bristling with archers. Behind the jousting field is the Taverna.
The first one was a pair of two animals. The lynx was eating a hare, and our target was the hare. If we shot the lynx, we would get -20 points. The targets were right next to the wall and we had to shoot them from above, and a little to the right. Of course, my first arrow got the lynx in the side of the neck.
NoKey did me one better by shooting the lynx in the ear. Oh well, it wasn't like any of our group was keeping track of points!
After the Triple targets of a rabbit and two beavers near the water (miss and lose an arrow!) and the almost-invisible crocodile on the side of the road, near the water (miss and lose another arrow!) we got to the moving target. A bird, weigthed with a bit of wood, running down a rope from right to left. The bit of wood would catch on the trees and background rubble, making it even harder to hit. Here I am trying my best but utterly failing at everything except looking pretty in my coat.
My new coat was brilliant as the sleeves would hang back as I aimed.
Some of the targets were really hard to hit. This particular bird was tiny and hard to see from where we stood. The wooden posts it is tied to are good at killing arrows too, by taking your points.
At the cloister, we had to shoot from above again, down into the graveyard where a piglet was hiding underneath an elderberry bush.
A proper pose is hard to take and this complicates hitting the target even more!
This one was called "Moving target" - the target is stationary, but you move! I tried crouching on the swing, but my first two arrows missed. The third one was a hit, and I was standing up too!
Our final target was 'The King's Shot'. We had to use blunts and a bow less than 35 lbs strong to try and shoot the bird from the pole.
I got it on my first try!
Despite not all ranges being as safe as I'd like to see them, the organisers tried their best to make sure we were all safe. With 90 to 99% of the people there being very careful and aware of what they were doing, there were no incidents I know of, but some arrows flew out of the park through the fence.
One particular incident was scary: the "Hunter" target in the Iron Age. The beaver we were aiming at was at the other side of the ice, and when Fred from our group loosed his arrow it bounced off the ice, over the beaver and the boulder behind it, only to land in the road some four meters to the right of the next group.... Scary shit!
Still, it was a wonderful day, made better by our awesome group. Henk, Willem, Fred and Gijs from Helmond, who were marvellous archers and fun to boot. People nagging about points can make or break your contest, and I was glad to see that none of us really cared about the points as long as we had a fun day.
See the rest of the pictures over on Flickr!
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 09:23 am (UTC)That answers my question in your other blog. I was just a minute too early. :-)
It looks like you had a good time shooting. even with the safety issues.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 09:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 02:06 pm (UTC)Didn't your sleeve get in the way?
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 02:08 pm (UTC)In September you could join in with the Archeon open archery competition (25 meters) if you'd like? There's all sorts of people shooting there, from larpers to competitive archers. All you need is a historic longbow. =)
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-01 08:46 am (UTC)I can't string my own bow, but I can draw it, no problems. It's a different kind of strength to use, but it's also in the technique.