I bought a caber

[Highland Logan]

I got a bit lost reading this. So let me get this straight... you guys in the 'States, re-use your cabers and modify them?

Frank

[Alan H]

I got a bit lost reading this. So let me get this straight... you guys in the 'States, re-use your cabers and modify them?

Frank

Our Heavy Athletics association has about a dozen cabers, from a few small, old and cracked practice sticks, to some 11 foot, 45 pound womens cabers...up to a 19-20 foot, 140 pound monster. What us regular guys wind up throwing mostly is one of several in the 14-16 foot range, from 70 - 90 pounds. These are all cut-down trees, barked, sanded and finished. Several of them have "names"...such as "Cranky Boy" and "The Toad".

We also have one ALUMINUM caber. That's right, aluminum. We call it the "cyber-caber". TimC is th eonly guy I know who's turned it. It's a tapered aluminum pole about 14 feet long and weighs about 80 pounds. It's utterly indestructable, so they use it for the Class C guys a lot, so the beginners don't destroy a "real" caber in a bad drop, or ditch after a failed pick.

Interestingly enough, buying an actual "cut down tree" here in the San Francisco Bay area isn't so easy. Incredibly, the only pace I can find to buy one is a hour and a half drive away, and they want $250 for one.

I could drive up to the Sierra Nevada in a big pickup with a rack on top and drive 15 miles of trailhead roads and find four or five good sticks that were cut down for road maintenance to bring back, but then I'd have to schmooze a couple of guys to go up there, find the pickup truck and borrow it, and then pay for 300 miles worth of gas. Oh, and there's 6 feet of snow up there right now, at the altitudes I'd be looking at. I'd have to wait until June.

OR.....I can go to the local lumber emporium and buy a well dried 6 x 6 bit of lumber for $70 and spend a long Saturday shaping it into a tapered pole.

If this one breaks within a few feet of one end, then yes I would probably recycle it into a small practice pole or womens caber.