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When a boomerang won't soar, he adds extra weight here, shaves a wing there or drills a hole somewhere else to improve flight characteristics. When asked what he's doing, Darnell -- who has coached three U.S. teams -- explains with a blizzard of information about airfoil shapes, Reynolds numbers, local atmospheric conditions, wind shear and the effects of drag.

But he also acknowledges the role of art and intuition: "One of the things that is near and dear to my heart about boomerangs is that there's still some magic involved. You can't completely computerize them. I've seen computer-designed boomerangs, and they're junk. Sometimes, to fly well, a rang needs to be asymmetrical or unbalanced or off-center. It's counterintuitive; it's not in textbooks about airfoils." Plus, imperfections make a boomerang more fun. "When you see a rang made for maximum time aloft vibrating in the air, it just seems alive."

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