CLOVERDALE -- Just north of Cloverdale, the surround sound of hundreds of
arrows whistling through the air and hitting their targets with a thwack,
sounded off the 14th Annual Deer Creek Archers/ Cloverdale Traditional Nationals
at the Cloverdale Conservation Club.
The weekend event brought thousands
of archers to Cloverdale and included everything from carving a bow, to selling
one, to shooting an arrow.
Robert Hamano and his wife Kyoko drove down
from Chicago to attend the three-day convention.
"A friend told me about
it last year and I enjoyed it so much I came back again," he said.
"Coming from the big city you don't see this," Kyoko says as she looks
over the green hills of open space and wooded trails.
What appeals to
the Hamano's the most about the event is that it is strictly traditional
archery; no compound bows are used.
"People are more laid back here,"
Hamano says.
He says that this is in contrast to the seriousness and
competition of compound archery events in which people shoot more mechanical and
complicated bows. At a traditional event, like Cloverdale's, all the bows are
crafted out of wood such as bamboo, cocobolo and bacote.
Over in a red
and white tent, Buz Ackerman works on one of these wooden bows. Along with the
Association of Traditional Hunting Archers, Ackerman volunteered to make free
bows for children. As he carves the finishing touches on a bow, the large pile
of curly wood shavings below him illustrates his busy day. Trekking all the way
up from Huntsville, Ala., Ackerman says that he "can't think of a better reason
to come up north."
Ackerman finishes the little notches on each end of
the new bow and then passes a family with a couple of eager children standing
near. "Does this look like your bow?," he asks with a smile.
These
smiles and family spirit are what event coordinator Jim Voyles has been seeing
for 14 years.
When the event started in 1988, about 300 people attended.
Today, Voyles says about 1,200 shooters and their families come to Cloverdale on
the second weekend on June to practice shooting, browse through vendors and meet
other archers from across the nation. The crowd this year even included some
people from Germany.
For actual shooting, archers had their choice of 20
or 40 target practice ranges, aerial targets, novelty shoots and shooting
courses through the woods.
The foam red, white and blue circular aerial
targets whisk through the air as several archers pierce them with their arrows.
Meanwhile, on the wood trail course, a young Chelsea Pollack takes aim and
shoots an arrow towards a fake boar. The arrow finds its mark. Her father Chris
smiles and remarks that she has been shooting since she was 22 months old. "I've
got the pictures to prove it," he said with a laugh.
Back in the fields,
hundreds of people mingle between several large tents full of vendors. They sell
everything from bows and arrows to fake deer targets. Bill Foreman with Great
Plains Traditional Bow Company enjoys coming to Cloverdale because of the "good
size crowds of serious shooters."
"Cloverdale is certainly one of the
premier shows in the country," Foreman says.
His company fits well with
the traditional shooting atmosphere of the event. "People have a lot more fun
shooting these (wooden) bows," he says. "They are more relaxed and there are no
mechanical breakdowns as with the compound bows."
With another
successful year bullseyed, the three-day weekend event will return next year to
celebrate its 15th anniversary.