2015 Braeside WOD Men's Day Report

Report on MEN's DAY 2015

• Held at Braeside Camp, Paris, Ontario on 

September 12, 2015

• Norm Bishop has been running Braeside Men's Day for 15 years, and I joined 70 other men for this event.  The threat of rain, (although it didn't actually materialize), caused about 70 other men to stay home.  Norm has this annual event running very smoothly and it goes from 8AM until 6pm.  You, get to choose from a number of activities that are running across the sprawling Braeside campgrounds.  I decided on the Archery and Fly Fishing clinics, who promised to take a novice and make both an archer and a fly-fisherman in short order.  I chose these as I knew little about either one of them and I'm always up for a challenge.  I was not disappointed!

• Meet Ken Collins from Fergus, Ontario.  Ken was the Archery Instructor at the recent (September 12/2015) Western Ontario District's Men's Day.  Ken runs his own Outdoor Life company called Grand River Outfitters from Fergus.  He has been involved in archery for 40 years, and he's been teaching archery and fly fishing for over 25 years.  You don't need to spend much time with Ken to realize he's a very natural professional outdoorsmen with a passion for God.  He has been associated with Men's Day for about 15 years, and does an amazing job.
• He began the session by suiting us up for my bow according to my height and arm length.  He handed me a right-handed 28" Recurve-style bow with a 35 pound drawstring. The so-called right or left-hand is based on the hand you draw the drawstring with.  The bow is lightweight and great for learning on and quite powerful.  It's made by an Italian company and labelled "Ragim".
• The lesson begins. "Men, the three important things in learning this sport are: Stance, Bow-grip (V.S. "gorilla-grip) and String-grip.  Proper stance is with your feet a shoulder's length apart. The string is brought right to your eye-tooth."
• Ken brilliantly integrates his archery lessons with life examples that parallel the christian life, ...like some of the "targets" in life we are to pay attention to.  Short stories about how important Grace is, for example. During the time I spent with Ken, I learned he got caught up in the Jehovah Witness cult at an early age, before God got ahold of his life and saved him in an amazing way. 
• "...you'll notice one of the feather fletches on the arrow is a different color ....that should be positioned to the outside, and is called the "cockfletch".  His instruction has us all very excited about our new-found sport. He continues..."knock-squeeze occurs when your fingers contact an arrow...never touch any part of the arrow....this causes the arrow to porpoise and is highly unstable" "Watch, This is how you grip the drawstring with your leather finger protector....If I see your arrow porpoising, I'll be telling you to check your knock-squeeze"...and on it went as we all strained to get it just right.
• "I'm going to teach you the non-aim technique...."  and the lesson was on.  In an hour or so he had us accurately hitting targets at 25 yards.  Ken made it fun and safe.
• At one point Ken picked up his own bow and nailed a 60 yard target within a half inch, ...on the first attempt.  His "non-aim" technique was indeed effective. Any deer in sight wouldn't stand a chance.
• After several hours under Ken's supervision, I must say I developed a pretty good aim.  With a hunting arrow, I gained the confidence that I could likely bring down a deer without doubt...but at 25 yards!

 

 A page from Grand River Outfitters website   

 

My archery partner Nate Rizzo was from Hamilton Bethel Church.

• You can contact Ken Collins at:  trout@grandrivertroutfitters.com  He Travels throughout the province giving his clinics to men's groups and then talks to them about God.
• After my archery lessons, I went over to Dave's nearby Fly-fishing clinic. Dave is also from Grand River Outfitters.  There I learned how too cast a fly to within inches of a 25 foot target!  I discover Dave is also every inch a pro and is one of the most experienced fly-fishermen in Ontario.  He occasionally surfaces on television fishing shows.
• Make sure you don't miss 2016 Braeside Men's Day Next Year!