Life Outside Spring 2018 - 24

BY JES GEARING
PHOTOS BY HEATHER TURNER

"None of my equipment lies to me, and compound archery
shows how good I am: no more, no less." From Archer
Merritt, that's not a boast; it's a simple stating of facts from
an 18-year-old archery pro.
IT'S A BITTERLY COLD JANUARY morning and I

feel a little guilty about asking the young man to
meet me so early on a Saturday. With temperatures
dropping to single digits, I can only imagine how
little an 18-year-old wants to wake up early to talk
to a writer. But here he comes, fully awake with nary
a yawn in sight, striding towards me with several
bows strapped to his back.
His apology for being a few minutes late? "My
dad's truck ran out of gas about a quarter mile from
the house so I had to push it here." That's Archer
Merritt-earnest, honest, and to the point, with
an impressively good aim to boot.
One can't write about Archer Merritt, the rising
star of the compound archery world, without first
addressing his name. The oldest of three boys, he
was named after his father, David, but quickly it
became too confusing to have two Davids in the
house-thus the use of his middle name, Archer.
That their then infant son would soon rise in the
ranks of competitive archery to turn pro before he
graduated high school, neither could have known,
but serendipity, it seems, comes in spades in the
Merritt household.
But first, an equipment lesson: The sport of
competitive archery roughly divides itself into three
styles determined by bow type: recurve, compound
and barebow. Recurve bows are the oldest of the
three, dating back to the eighth century BC and
are what you typically think of when you imagine
a bow (like Cupid or Robin Hood's bow).
Compound bows, developed in the mid-1960s,
feature a levering system of cables and pulleys to
bend the limbs of the bow. This gives the archer a
mechanical advantage by assisting the archer in

drawing back the string with far more potential
energy than possible with a recurve bow.
Barebows are the ultimate minimalist bow with
no sights, stabilizer, clicker, or markings on the
bow to help the archer aim. Did you watch "The
Hunger Games"? Then imagine Katniss' bow-it's
the perfect example of a pared down barebow.

SON AND FATHER
Archer and David Merritt
stand outside of Spring Lake's
repair shop and store.

His apology for being a few minutes late? "My dad's truck ran out of
gas about a quarter mile from the house so I had to push it here."
-Archer Merritt
24

Spring 2018 \\ LifeOutside Magazine
Life Outside Spring 2018

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