Aya's Archery News

Besides archery, the Berlin Wall takes up a great deal of my interest. Since I was 16 I have had a fascination for the Berliner Mauer as a structure and as a canvas for expression. When I joined the US Air Force, I was to go to Monterey, CA to become a German Linguist and it was my hope I could be stationed in Germany with any chance of getting to Berlin and most importantly seeing the Berlin Wall or the remains thereof. Desert Storm changed all that and I became a meteorologist, which I don't regret either.

When I finally got my assignment to Germany, I also got an appointment to the US Air Force Academy. Berlin Wall or higher education, I had to choose. Well, putting my interest on hold was wise but when I finally got to Berlin… there was almost nothing left of the Berlin Wall. Remnants were pecked away by Mauer Spechte (wall peckers) and the bold graffiti of the 80’s was marred by tourist doodling and wads of chewing gum disrespectfully squished onto the supposed memorial. It seemed no one cared much for protecting what should be a historical monument.

This jumpstarted my old love affair with the Berlin Wall… enough that my archery has taken a hit in the last years because I spend much of my time travelling to Berlin to research the Berlin Wall for the construction of scale models depicting the different generations of the Berliner Mauer from 1961-1989. My efforts to preserve the Berlin Wall's structure has lead to my work at the Checkpoint Charlie Mauermuseum and being recognized as an authority on the Mauerbau (wall construction).

And recently another unimaginable event happened in conjunction with my passion for the Berlin Wall… I met Thierry Noir... ...my favorite Mauer Kunstler (Wall artist) whose simple yet striking work of caricaturistic heads inspired some of my models. He came to Berlin with nothing and now Thierry Noir is an internationally renowned artist whose painted Wall segments can be found all over the world. Please see his website: Thierry Noir Gallerie

Well you get out of archery what you put in... or what you can put in. This became very apparent for me during the first qualification round of the Face2Face in Amsterdam. But it wouldn't be normal if something didn't go wrong. Literally seconds before we were to step to the shooting line another shooter tripped over my bow sending it crashing to the floor. My stabilizer came apart on the end and I rushed to get all the parts and get it assembled before the whistle. The first round my arrows were nearly off the target and my heart sunk when I looked at my bow sight and saw it was damaged. The next few rounds I worked to get new marks and started shooting well and won a few matches and I was optimistic I could over come the deficit.

But as the rounds progressed, the real problem arose: my stamina. A year ago, the archery range near my house closed and prompted me to drive 45 min to 1.5 hours to another indoor range, crossing a toll bridge to add to the misery of the highy gas prices until recent. When I returned to California a month ago from Berlin, my intention was to go to this range as often as possible because I trained so little during my time in Berlin. But to my utter dismay, that range was closed for a relocation move and I was stuck. Shooting at 10 feet in my cold garage was just not an option I planned for. I did it... but not diligently.

So I made plans and returned to Berlin a week early in the hopes of getting some training but I couldn't make the necessary contact with the German Archery Center and next thing you know, I was here in Amsterdam having only shot 5-6 times since Sept.

Indeed, it just goes to show what I have always known about the necessity of practice. My motivation has dropped considerably because archery is not the same since losing the fellowship at the range for a few feet in my garage. I need to relocate or I may find myself losing more and more stamina and most importantly my interest because I have no range to train at.