2024 Courses and Events
UBOOM Courses and Events:
UBOOM 102 - Intro to Endurance and Fast Catch - TBD
UBOOM 103 - Intro to Accuracy and Australian Round - TBD
UBOOM 104 - Intro to Trick Catch and Maximum Time Aloft (MTA) - TBD
USBA Events:
May 26 Gateway Classic Tournament
About
Founder: Sam Lemay
First, much respect to the ancient creators of the boomerang, the Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
Sam’s parents met in Labasa, Fiji Islands in the 1970s. Sam’s dad, Gerald, was a Peace Corps volunteer, an American of French Canadian descent, who taught math at a local secondary school. Sam’s mom Vilimaina, an indigenous Fijian, was the oldest child of Sakeo Nakale, who built a bure for Gerald in Wailevu village where he lived among the Fijians and learned their culture. They were married in Fiji and then traveled back to Fall River, Massachusetts.
In 1991, Sam learned how to make boomerangs from the book “Boomerang. How to Throw, Catch and Make it” by Benjamin Ruhe and Eric Darnell. He met Erik Fields who introduced competition and the worldwide boomerang community. In 1992, Sam competed in his first boomerang tournament at the age of 16, and left for Fiji that summer. In Fiji, Sam made and shared boomerangs his family in several villages. He returned to the USA in 1994 to throw in his second boomerang tournament in Oakland California.
In 2022, Sam took on organizing and coaching, with Jim Schramm, the first USA Youth Boomerang team named the Wind Benders. The team of four youths competed at the World Boomerang Championship in Bordeaux, France with the amazing French Kids.
Sam believes the boomerang is a modality to engage in awareness, spirituality, resilience, critical thinking and problem solving. Sam sees a huge potential for engaging youth in learning science, technology and math, health and mindfulness through the boomerang. In 2024, Sam founded the University of Boom as a way of providing this access to the everyone.
Currently ranked #10 in the US
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