Caber toss
From Free net encyclopedia
The caber toss is a traditional Scottish athletic event involving the tossing of a large wooden pole called a caber, similar to a telephone pole.
Image:Caber toss-2004 highland games.jpg
To toss the caber, the thrower first cups their hands together. The caber is then held vertically with the 'bottom' end in the thrower's cupped hands. Continuing to hold the caber vertically (which requires a good deal of careful balance), the thrower runs forward and tosses the caber into the air so that it turns 180° end-over-end in the air and lands on the former 'top' end. Because the caber still has angular momentum, the former 'bottom' end then (hopefully) falls forward and away from the thrower.
The object is not the distance of the throw, but rather to have the caber fall directly away from the thrower after landing. A perfect throw ends with the 'top' end nearest to the thrower and the 'bottom' end pointing exactly away. If the throw is not perfect, it is scored by viewing the caber as though it were a hand on the clock. The ideal position is 12:00. A caber pointing to 11:00 would yield a better score than one pointing to 10:30. If the caber lands on its end and falls back towards the thrower, the score is lower than for any throw that falls away from the thrower but will be based upon the maximum vertical angle that the caber achieved. An angle of 87° is better than 75°.
Image:Caber 05Tac 001.jpg
A traditional caber is around 16–20 feet (5–6 m) long and weighs around 80–130 pounds (35–60 kg). The size, and particularly the length, of the caber means that enormous strength is required simply to balance it vertically, and even more is required to toss it. For competitions involving less skilled athletes a shorter and/or lighter caber is used. It is not unusual for a caber to break in the course of a competition.
The game originated in Scotland some hundreds of years ago, and is a regular fixture at Highland Games.
The word caber (or kaber) comes from Scottish Gaelic 'cabar'.
The history of the caber toss is not known. The present form of the toss came into existence in the early 19th century. Many think that the caber toss originated with the throwing of logs into enemy battlements or the throwing of logs across rivers to create bridges, or even in the forestry industry.gd:Cabar nl:Paalwerpen fi:Tukinheitto