Lawn Sports

 

This page is devoted to stuff you can do with a big open space.  There are a number of flat grassy areas around ARC/Moffett Field, of which Shenandoah Plaza is probably the easiest to find.  (It's the big open lawn running mostly east-and-west between the main gate and Hangar One.)  There are also some open paved areas that can be good for some activities.

 

Where available, links to official rules are included.  Many of the official rules people seem to take themselves waaaaay too seriously - dude, the players are throwing frisbees at baskets, and half of them are on their third beer - but it's a handy site.

 

Eventually, it would be nice to track down places around ARC/Moffett Field where equipment for these activities could be borrowed, signed out, whatever, either free or for a nominal cost.  If you know of any place to get equipment, add it.

 

Croquet

Description:  This is about the game, not the software project, although the latter looks kind of cool.  Croquet, as you probably remember from your 8th grade phy ed class, is a game about whacking little wooden balls with big wooden mallets to drive them through little wire hoops.  It can be rather more entertaining than it may sound from that description; historically, it was played vigorously, if not viciously.  Keep in mind that croquet became popular in the mid-19th century, an era when even common sailors were issued half a pint of 160-proof rum per day (equal to a pint of modern 80-proof spirits).  Imagine a bunch of Victorians flailing about on the lawn with hammers after doing the equivalent of eight shots, and you'll have a good idea of how the game was played traditionally.

Official rules:  http://www.croquet.org.uk/association/laws.html

What you need:  mallets, hoops, and croquet balls

Where you can get it:  most garden stores, most big box general stores, and of course the internet (Oh internet, is there anything you won't sell me?)

Where you can get it for FREE:

 

Frisbee

Description:  Tossing a frisbee around is an ancient and honored way of killing time on a sunny afternoon.  Not to be confused with the Olympic discus, which is liable to put you in the hurt locker if you try to catch it.

Official rules:  none

What you need:  a frisbee

Where you can get it:  Frisbees are available pretty much anywhere; breakfast cereals give 'em out, for crying out loud.  If you want one that's really stylin', check this out.

Where you can get it for FREE: cereal boxes, promotional tables at events

 

Frisbee Golf

Description:  Officially called "disc golf", because Frisbee is a brand name.  It's very similar to regular golf, except that instead of a set of expensive graphite clubs, a membership in a country club, and a pair of really ugly plaid pants, you need a frisbee.  Instead of getting a ball in a hole, you're trying to get a frisbee in a  basket.  If you don't have a basket, though, you can just try to hit a designated object - a boulder, a lamp post, a tree, etc.  (Using moving cars or your room-mate as a target is generally considered bad form.)  Having a course helps, but in a pinch you can pick almost any physical object as your target (equivalent to the hole)

Official rules:  http://www.discgolfassoc.com/discgolf-news-information-resources/discgolf-education/howto-playdicgolf.html

What you need:  You need a frisbee.  Having an established course can be fun - if you know where there are courses in the area, feel free to add them - but you can get by without one.

Where you can get it:  See "Frisbee" above.

Where you can get it for FREE:  No, really, see "Frisbee" above, already.

 

Kites

Description:  The laid-back, recreational "Sunday in the park" style of flying kites that is so much a part of the Normal Rockwell image of American life isn't usually considered a sport.  However, it's something you can do in an open field, which is more or less what this page is about.

In addition, there is at least one type of kite flying that aguably does count as a sport:  kite fighting.  In kite fighting, the goal is to cut your opponent's line with your own, crash/wreck your opponent's kite, or touch your opponent's kite with your own.  Victory conditions and rules vary from place to place; the sport is popular in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Japan, and the San Francisco Bay area is fairly well known as a center of kite fighting in the United States.

Kite photography is also gaining a small following; http://www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap/ is run by a professor of architecture at UC Berkeley.

As always, be careful not to fly near power lines.  At Moffett Field, be careful not to fly near Blackhawk helicopters, high performance jet aircraft, or hybrid rocket motor tests.

Official rules:  There is no single uniform code of kite combat.  However, there are a number of web sites with rules, advice, kite plans, etc.

• http://www.kitefart.com/nckc/ - A local group.  NCKC stands for "Northern California Kite Club".  The term "kitefart" means...  Uh, well, it probably seemed like a good abbreviation for something at the time.  This group is not specifically devoted to kite fighting, but it's certain someone there will know something useful if you're interested.  NCKC has a major event scheduled at the Golden Gate Bridge on September 6.

• http://members.tripod.com/~TKOGunn1/kiteclubs.htm - A long list of kite clubs, with web links (at least some of them current).

• http://nafka.net/ - The North American Fighter Kite Association.  Dedicated to to the improvement of the kite species by ruthlessly killing off the weak.  (OK, I may be stretching things a bit.)

What you need:  a kite and an opponent

Where you can get it:  A lot of fighter kites seem to be home-built, but if there are kits or pre-built kites available, you can probably find them on the web sites above.

Where you can get it for FREE:   Who knows?  This is not the sort of thing that the Exchange Lodge is ever likely to have available under the front desk.

 

Street Hockey

Description:  Although its sometimes played in open fields rather than streets, this is not the same game as "field hockey", aka lacrosse.  This is basically just ice hockey without the ice.  You can use pretty much any ball you can find; tennis balls work well on streets and parking lots, soccer balls are better in tall grass.  (Although at least one group of inebriated college students has attempted to use a bowling ball, the results were disappointing, if highly amusing to the participants.)  Street hockey is, at least in theory, a non-contact activity, so no checking.  Also, none of that "pull your gloves off and whack each other silly for the cameras" thing.

Official rules:  http://www.streethockeyking.com/rules.html

What you need:  cheap hockey sticks, and a ball; sticks or cones to mark the goals are helpful

Where you can get it:  With a little looking, you can find hockey sticks online for $10 to $15.  Even if you have a better one, you probably don't want to use it on concrete or in grass.

Where you can get it for FREE:

 

Possible additions (and why they maybe shouldn't be included):

lacrosse (pretty equipment heavy)

lawn darts (just couldn't resist)

badminton (you need a net, raquets, and birdies)

volleyball (there are already courts set up)

 

Some things you probably shouldn't try

 

Potato Guns

Entertaining as it is to lob spuds into the Bay using just a couple of soup cans and some duct tape, using any sort of pyrotechnics on ARC/Moffett Field is a REALLY REALLY BAD IDEA.  Come on, you know you've thought about it; geeks are geeks, and stuff that goes "boom" is like an electromagnet for geeks.  But this sort of thing will get you arrested.  Oh, and building a trebuchet and trying to explain to the police that "it doesn't use pyrotechnics" probably won't turn out too well, either.

 

Amateur Rocketry

It might be possible to get permission to launch small rockets, but the critical part of that phrase is "get permission," because Moffett Field is a functioning airport.  Launching without permission will get you in trouble with the FAA, probably NASA, possibly the Navy, and for all anyone knows anymore maybe even Homeland Security, so don't do anything stupid.  However, there is an RC plane club, so putting foreign objects into the air around here apparently isn't absolutely forbidden.

Anyone who knows who to ask about this sort of thing, please add that information here.