Unfortunately, for me, my brother is the opposite. Well, when it comes to badminton rackets, at least. That, and my brother is a big local stringer here in the Northwest...let me explain.
When it comes to rackets, my brother has broken one-too-many rackets throughout his badminton career. He never has the heart to throw them away, though, so we've stashed them Harry Potter-style in the closet under the stairs. Friends thought this was hilarious so, for some reason, they thought their trash was our treasure and proceeded to give us all of their broken rackets. Needless to say, we have...many. Any racket you can name-- we have them. Broken.
This is a little heart breaking to me because
#1) I clean the house. Or, attempt to. These rackets aren't helping me much.
#2) I hate to see this $100-$300 dollar rackets go to waste.
What to do? Well the good people at badmintoncentral (along with founder Kwun H.) compiled a great list of things to do when you want to recycle your old racket!
Here's what got me gawking with awe:
AMAZING?! My house is going to become an inky mess when I try my hand on making these!! What pen do you use? Oh, you know, I like them light so I have a Nanospeed 9900...easy on my hands, but sometimes I wish I had an Armortec so I could smash that final essay to oblivion. Feeeeeel the power.....
Any more ideas?
FIRST OF ALL, before you get overexcited and take your saw out (which, by the way, is very hazardous to one's health), make sure that your warranty is expired and you can no longer return it for a new one. SECOND, ask around your local badminton groups and see if anyone does repairs-- some mysterious character here does it for $30 dollars a racket. Not as good as new, but close enough!
1) Friends of mine have also taken old rackets and duck taped the head like crazy or covered the head with a racket cover and used them for wrist training. I wonder how much the amount of ducktape needed would cost, though...
2) I'm embarrassed to say that broken rackets can be used for funny [facebook profile] pictures, too-- breaking the racket on someone's head, putting it through their arm etc....(personal experience...sigh)
3) FLY SWATTERS! I thought this would be a little more obvious.
4) Outdoor BBQ/Picnic fun. (embarrassing personal experience #2). Friends and I got bored at an outdoor party and attempted recreate Fruit Ninja with a potato we dropped. We weren't as precise as we thought, though, so we ended up using a broken badminton racket and took turns swatting at the poor potato. Ended up raining fries all over the lawn....
5) Allow your child to be a badminton-prodigy by allowing him to dissect the racket. (This is a joke. Please don't.)
6) And don't forget, you can always take out the grommets and keep them for future rackets!
What about birdies? That's something I haven't really been able to figure out yet, but students at the local badminton clubs have cut off the remaining feathers and thread colored string through the holes on the bird and made cute little keychains. (In my honest opinion, the threaded-birdie-clad Christmas tree is hideous...but as keychains, they're quite creative!)
:) Get your toolbox out and be creative!
No comments:
Post a Comment