Staycation or Home Entertainment
According to Urbandictionary.com, staycation is "A vacation that is spent at one's home enjoying all that home and one's home environs have to offer." Staycation is a portmanteau or a blend of two or more words or morphemes and their meanings into a new word. Staycations have become popular nationwide due to the tough economic times and in 2008, the highest gas prices American had ever paid. Even though the term entered the lexicon several years earlier, it was officially added by its inclusion to the 2009 version of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Although common activities of a staycation can include visits to local parks and museums, staying at home and using the toys already purchased and gathering dust can be both fun and economical.
Whether you're planning a staycation of simply hunkering down to wait out the recession, we've come up with a few ideas as to how best to spend your time without spending too much money and still have something left should prosperity return. Two games that are both fun for the skill required and the social aspect are pool and darts. Most of all they're just plain fun. While pool requires a fair amount of room and a larger initial investment, darts are really affordable. For under $200, the investor can be well on the way to many hours of fun with friends and family.
Buyer Beware
It's fair to say that dart boards and dart sets can be purchased just about anywhere from stores like Wal-Mart and Fleet Farm to specialty retailers like All American Recreation (AAR), Peters Billiards and Doc's Bohemian Cue. In spite of what buyers might think, the specialty stores that we checked out turned out to be price competitive with the "big box" stores and offered the added bonus of being locally owned. The real bonus is the one-on-one attention with knowledgeable staff.
Getting Started
Decent electronic dartboards can be had for around $50 to $100. GLD's Viper 777 sells at local retailer AAR for $55 and includes the AC adapter if you don't want to use batteries and Target.com carries the Viper 787 for $72 without the AC adapter included. For those unfamiliar, Viper is a reasonable and cheaper alternative the better known and more expensive Arachnid boards. Both AAR and Target.com carry GLD's Solar Blast for $149, an excellent board that allows up to 16 players and displays four players at a time. It comes with 25 games programmed in with 146 options which covers just about every dart game known to man, including several versions of cricket and 301.
Less popular but just as much fun is the traditional bristle board. The up side is that it's less expensive and never breaks down. The down side, you have to keep score when you've had too much to drink. AAR's bristle boards range from $30 to $60 and Target.com has GLD's Shot King for just under $32.
Get the Point?
The fun really starts before you even get the board home. The darts that come with the boards are usually pretty inferior. The tips usually bend and break too easily and the shafts are the lousy nylon ones that drop flights all the time. To really increase the fun factor, take the time and spend a few extra dollars to find the right darts for you. If you've ever played darts at a bar or at a friend's house and swamped the competition only to return and experience the reverse, the reason is simple. Dart throwing is like pool, golf or bowling in that using the same equipment that has been selected for you can be extremely beneficial. Subconsciously the thrower becomes accustomed to the darts and accuracy improves.
The weight of most soft-tip darts usually doesn't exceed 18 grams and a length of 8 inches. Steel-tip darts can weigh as much as 55 grams and reach a length of 12 inches. Think lawn darts. The three main parts of a dart are flight, shaft, barrel and tip, all of which can be customized to fit your personality.
The flight helps the dart fly straight and is usually made of plastic or nylon. Flights are like men's neckties, there are hundreds to pick from and they usually tell a story about the owner. The common shapes are standard, teardrop, VX, cut down, delta, micro, coal cracker and kite. Everyone seems to have their own preference.
Shafts help with accuracy and are made from aluminum, nylon or poly-carb plastic. The aluminum ones can be beautifully etched and in every color of the rainbow. Some spin or rotate as to allow in-coming darts to pass, reducing deflection. Shaft lengths vary: micros at 3/4", x-short at 1 1/4", short at 1 1/2", in-between at 1 3/4", medium at 2" and long at 2 1/2". The heavier the dart, the longer the shaft you need. Darters experience wobble in their throw should experiment with a shorter shaft.
The barrel is where you hold the dart and provide most of the dart's weight. They're made of brass, nickel/silver or tungsten alloy and even more stylized than shafts, many are painted, enameled, knurled, grooved or are diamond cut faceted. Brass are generally the least expensive, starting at about $12 and are perfect for the novice. The mid-priced nickel/silver barrels have exceptional balance and sell for about $20 to $25. Tungsten alloy, the most expensive generally starting at around $30 to about $110, have a slim design for maximum control and accuracy. A price check of the three major dart supply retailers, AAR, Doc's & Peters, led me to conclude that their pricing of dart sets is competitive, right in line with the pricing above.
The tip is the part that connects with the board. Soft-tips are made of hard plastic or nylon and are removable for easy replacement and come in two sizes: 2BA and 1/4". Both are usually sold in packs of 50 or 100 starting at around $4 for good ones. The most popular are the I prefer super shorts from GLD because they rarely break or bend and seem to land just as consistently as the longer ones. Steel-tips are somewhat permanently fused into the barrel, but some stores sell replacement tips and sharpening stones for the frugal darter.
Protecting Your Assets
One hesitation prospective darters might have would be possible wall damage. Unless you live in a cave, this is a legitimate concern. Dart cabinets are the simple solution. Prices start at around $100 for solid wood. Sizes vary, so make sure you know the measurements of your board before whipping out the plastic. A low cost alternative is a piece of "clear" plywood with molding like quarter round around the edge and then mount it to the wall. Place the board in the middle to protect plaster or wallboard from beginners or the inebriated.
You Got Mad Skills
Soft-tip boards should be mounted so that the bull’s eye is 5' 8" from the ground and the throw line also known, as the bull line is 8 feet from the wall. For steel-tip, the bull line is at 7' 9 1/4" from the wall. Bull lines can be taped off or marked on the floor or my personal favorite is the padded vinyl dart mat from GLD for around $70. Most dartboards come pre-programmed to score numerous games. All you need to know is which one you like to play or be willing to learn a few more. The game played in all the top tournaments is 501. Most home dart players want more variety than just 501, so other dart games and variations on the classic games were developed. Cricket, 301 countdown are a couple of my favorites.
Taking Your Skills on the Road
According to Dawn Orloff at American Amusement Arcades (AAA), her company holds the hottest dart, pool, video game, and pinball contests, tournaments, leagues, and other promotions in the Twin Cities area. AAA operates coin-operated amusement equipment, specifically but not limited to electronic dart machines and business is good. She estimates that in Minneapolis alone they have leagues in over 50 popular locations like William's Pub, Gabby's, It's Brothers., Blarney's, The Bull Dog, Lyles and Jimmy's. The other two major vendor companies in the metro are Superior and Theisen and between the three, they manage most of the leagues and tournaments in the Metro.
On January 21 - 24 AAA will be holding the 25th Anniversary MOMA State Dart Tournament at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Minneapolis. The Grand Prize Give Away for the event is a 2010 Polaris Sportsman 50 H.O. ATV.
For the old school, on the second Friday of every month McMahon's Irish Pub (612-722-1377) at 3001 East Lake Street in Minneapolis holds a steel-tip $5 Luck of the Draw contest with the pot matched by the pub.
Whether you choose to simply play at home or venture forth, darts is a great pastime. If you're interested in more information than detailed in this article, the following links might prove helpful. Good darting!
Related links:
http://www.allwesellisfun.com/
http://www.petersbilliards.com/
http://www.docscues.com/store/
http://ndadarts.com/cgi-bin/NDAdarts/infoplayers.pl?domain=info/players&name=Find_A_League
http://www.twincitydarts.com/leagues.html
http://www.minnesotadarts.com/
