'Fastest archer alive' wins YouTube fame
The Local Denmark - [email protected]
Published: 28 Jan, 2015 CET.
Updated: Wed 28 Jan 2015 09:28 CET
Danish archery geek Lars Andersen has garnered 20m hits on YouTube for a video of near-impossible Hollywood-style stunts, including “the ultimate trick” of splitting an arrow fired directly at him.
Andersen, a double world champion in rapid-fire archery who can lease off ten arrows in under five seconds, said he was unsure whether to include the trick. “I was in doubt whether it was smart to show this," he wrote in a press release under the video. "Because I don't want anyone to get hurt trying to copy the trick. I trained for years with soft boffer arrows and spent a LONG time before I tried it even the first time. And the arrow fired at me was not fired with a very powerful bow.” “That the arrow split," he adds, "was just pure luck." Andersen insisted that all of the incredible tricks shown in the video were genuine, and that he hadn't used trick photography, although he conceded that many were only possible because he uses a particularly light bow. The 50-year-old painter, writer and educator only discovered archery ten years ago when he was given the role of an archer in a live action role-play (Larp) game he was playing with some friends based on JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. "I began to shoot a bow and I became better and better,” he explained to the BD tabloid. “When I discovered that there were competitions in fast shooting with real bows and I thought 'I can do that even faster than them’”. After he had trained for several hours a day for about six years, he said, he saw a dramatic leap in his abilities. "From one day to the next, I broke so to speak, through the sound barrier,” he told the paper. “I think actually that I am the first archer for many hundreds of years that have trained enough to reach the point where you no longer have to think about it. You just look at the target, shoot an arrow, and it hits.” By 2012, Andersen was claiming to be "the fastest archer alive", getting 3m hits for his YouTube video ”Reinventing the fastest forgotten archery”. Since his latest video went viral, Anderson has been fielding calls from the media, potential sponsors and advertising agencies around the world, he claims. “It has been absolutely crazy what offers have come through the door," he says. “There is, for example, an award-winning television director who wants to make a TV show about me.” Right now, he says, he’s simply trying to take a break, and calm down before deciding what to do next.
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Andersen, a double world champion in rapid-fire archery who can lease off ten arrows in under five seconds, said he was unsure whether to include the trick.
“I was in doubt whether it was smart to show this," he wrote in a press release under the video. "Because I don't want anyone to get hurt trying to copy the trick. I trained for years with soft boffer arrows and spent a LONG time before I tried it even the first time. And the arrow fired at me was not fired with a very powerful bow.”
“That the arrow split," he adds, "was just pure luck."
Andersen insisted that all of the incredible tricks shown in the video were genuine, and that he hadn't used trick photography, although he conceded that many were only possible because he uses a particularly light bow.
The 50-year-old painter, writer and educator only discovered archery ten years ago when he was given the role of an archer in a live action role-play (Larp) game he was playing with some friends based on JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
"I began to shoot a bow and I became better and better,” he explained to the BD tabloid. “When I discovered that there were competitions in fast shooting with real bows and I thought 'I can do that even faster than them’”.
After he had trained for several hours a day for about six years, he said, he saw a dramatic leap in his abilities.
"From one day to the next, I broke so to speak, through the sound barrier,” he told the paper. “I think actually that I am the first archer for many hundreds of years that have trained enough to reach the point where you no longer have to think about it. You just look at the target, shoot an arrow, and it hits.”
By 2012, Andersen was claiming to be "the fastest archer alive", getting 3m hits for his YouTube video ”Reinventing the fastest forgotten archery”.
Since his latest video went viral, Anderson has been fielding calls from the media, potential sponsors and advertising agencies around the world, he claims.
“It has been absolutely crazy what offers have come through the door," he says. “There is, for example, an award-winning television director who wants to make a TV show about me.”
Right now, he says, he’s simply trying to take a break, and calm down before deciding what to do next.
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