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Trash Talking Around the World
So in case you have ever had the slightest doubt that men are the same all over the world let me tell you about this photo. This village of Yucca indians is fifty miles by boat down the Amazon river from the city of Iquitos peru. On arriving in the village several women and two old men are working on a large batch of 'spit beer' which involves chewing the intended material briefly and spitting them into a communial pot to ferment for two or three days which in this case is intended to coincide with the return of the hunting party. So yes you can get a drink anywhere in the world.
The men pictured here are in the midst of practicing with the weapon of choice which is the long blow gun. Perhaps related to the fact that I have my gorgeous 17 daughter with me after we are watching for a couple minutes the fellows wave for us to come over. As I walk up there is an animated conversation between the three fellows and the one to my right hands me his blow gun but doesn't seem all that happy about it. I turn to guide Segundo who assures me it is fine and they really want to give me a go at it. They help me position the dart I raise and fire and hit the target dead center bulls eye to which the two fellows on my left literally bend over laughing and cracking up and the fellow to my right is stone faced with his arms now crossed. I am all smiles though a bit bewildered and offer a deep bow and present him back his blow gun and the animated talking between the three of them resumes. As soon as I am able I ask Segundo "what the heck happened with the whole blow gun episode" and he explains that the two fellows on my left are giving the fellow on my right a very hard time about his shooting skills and chide him to give me his blow gun to try since he obviously doesn't know how to use it. The set up for the big laugh is that right before I shoot the fellow in the middle says "if he is any good we'll take him hunting with us instead" and so of course when I hit the bulls eye it was crack up laughing time. Boys boys boys :-) (if you are local then yes I think of Robert Bjores and the Hodnett brothers every time I think about this story)
Why Ace Hole Gear
When not playing object dart golf deep in the amazon you can find me out playing or practicing disc golf. My long ago interest did begin with object dart golf in the late 60's and early 70's. We created all 1 shot courses aiming at various trees and telephone poles and throwing dart board darts. Yes a bad idea. When 'little Mike' from next door ending up with a dart so firmly stuck in his collar bone that the ER doctor had to pull it out with pliers we were summarily banned from dart golf and moved on to frisbees. In college my frisbee pal Kevin Rice and I mapped out a permanent object course on the Kentucky Wesleyan College campus (which just last year finally put in a basket course!) and proceeded to play about a million rounds using the weapon of the day which was the World Class series where I prefered the 141 gm and Kevin the 165 gm. By the mid 80's I had moved on to various other obsessions and did not return to frisbee (oops now disc) golf and the arsenal of discs now available until my youngest daughter suggested we play June 0f 08'. I bought a DX Leopard and with the first forehand toss across the field I was hooked again. It has been a pretty much daily thing since then.
I have been in the smart ass tongue in cheek tee shirt and novelity business once before with the Save the Y2K Bug campaign. So I already know how to loss money and waste time and ten years ago is too long to remember well the pain so here I am again.
When I got ready for my first PDGA tournamnet in October (3 months into playing :) I looked around the net and couldn't really find any apparel that got me fired up and so I started thinking up my own stuff. There is really nothing at all I could find aimed at the local and PDGA tourney crowd and I knew my mission had been formulated. Ace Hole Gear provided me the perfect tongue in cheek umbrella to carry on about all sorts of disc golf related silliness and the logo is just plain cool. The full on Ace Hole Gear logo has been adopted by some none disc golfers even and for the tamer at heart all my stuff is available with the milder Ace Gear logo or no logo at all. What's not to love.
I have a great "day job" so any 'profit' I mange to generate is going to get poured right back into the sport in terms of player and tourney sponsorship.