My Friend Ned
When I decided to return to hunting and traditional archery, I started talking to my friend Ned. He has been a passionate hunter all of my life and is completely in his element whenever trees or the Schuylkill river surround him.
Looking like a guy you would want on your side in a bar fight, people are always surprised to learn that he reads about a book a week. Not readers digest or short stories for the impatient. Ned can peel through the Leather Stocking Tales in a month, hop to a modern piece of literature the next day then finish off with a western the following week. So when I told him I wanted to dive deep into traditional archery he opened up his library to me.
Introducing Life and Longbows
The first book I read from the handful he gave me is Life and Longbows by Nick Viau. I was hooked. Hook line and sinker the book drew me back into the woods like I was 10 years old. Life and Longbows is a modern work of literary art that captures the calm and the chaos of hunting traditional archery. Nick Viau does an amazing job displaying the emotions a traditional archer feels in the thick of a hunt.
The opening chapter shows how he came to traditional archery through the most unsuspecting of sources. A comic book! I, being a bit nerdy was pleasantly surprised by this. As I read his background on archery I couldn’t help but think of my personal journey shooting bow and arrow. I poured over my computer documenting and writing out my past archery experiences immediately after I finished the first chapter of Life and Longbows. From the tiny recurve my dad got my sister and me to the different bows I shot over the years leading up to the present. I would always return to archery like a skipping stone, finding relief and a break from the world with each arrow I shot.
As I continued to read Nick Viau’s collection of hunts and experiences I loved how he did not tell you what happened. He shows you. In between the pages of Life and Longbows, you will sit in a snowy field, track a blood trail and feel a wave of adrenaline as you pull back your bow’s string. Letting loose an arrow that has more power and force than you thought ink on a page could.
Like stories around the campfire with a friend he lets you know him; his doubts, his fears, his failures, and of course his celebrations and successes. If you are looking for a book on the best big buck hunts of a celebrity hunter this is not it. If you want to read about a hunter like you, a hunter that has a family he wants to provide for while also missing them on a hunt. A hunter that doesn’t get a deer and isn’t ashamed to tell you.
Elusive Turkey Hunts
Some of Nick’s best stories are the ones where he never gets the prize. In “Blunder Bust” he walks through his experience hunting turkey. You can feel his aggravation and exhilaration that one feels when hunting turkey with a bow and arrow. Turkey are difficult. He leaves you with the feeling many hunters know. The feeling of desire for the next hunt, and the comical satisfaction you still have even though you are leaving the woods empty-handed.
“While it would have been wonderful to kill one of those turkeys, part of me was happy they were still out there. They beat me and they deserved to live. The best part was knowing I would have the chance to hunt them again. And again. And again. That was more than I could ask for”
– Nick Viau
Another one of my favorite chapters is “The Oath”. Nick takes you through a hunt with him and his friend John. I was at the edge of my seat the entire hunt. The anticipation and emotion is so consuming as they play Marco Polo with the local turkey population. Guess what, they don’t get anything! I almost laughed and woke my wife as the chapter ended. Not only was the story comical, but usually on tv or in books when someone takes you through such a detailed journey you can almost always expect them to win and succeed at the end. They succeed in their hearts and commitment to an oath to get the turkeys, but they do not get the prize they set out for at the start of the story! How cool is that. A hunter that can tell, can write about hunts they didn’t get anything. That is the beauty of Life and Longbows.
The Beauty of Life and Longbows
Within this book, there is a pure love for hunting traditional archery. The stories are not driven by pride. The stories all present a humble hunting experience that any hunter, young or old, can relate to. We need more of this type of writing. We need more people in the next generation of traditional archers and hunters to not think hunting is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for the perfect as-seen-on-tv hunt. Hunting is fun and freeing. It is a place where the baggage of the world should not follow you, and if it does you have the time and peace to sort through it.
Nick Viau’s book inspired me to start documenting my outdoor adventures not because I think they are special. No. I’m writing because they are mine and if you can relate to these experiences or enjoy them, all the better.
Life and Longbows isn’t about the exploits of the extraordinary, rather it’s the celebration of the ordinary.
– Nick Viau