A Western Washington University marketing professor and two former students will carry the United States flag this summer at the 2026 World Boomerang Championships in Bandung, Indonesia, putting Bellingham unexpectedly on the map for a sport most people have never watched. The trio makes up half of Team USA's yet-unnamed "Team Two," and their path to the global stage runs straight through the hallways and open fields of Western Washington University.
Ed Love, a professor of Marketing and chair of the Department of Finance and Marketing at WWU's College of Business and Economics, has been throwing boomerangs for decades. For Love, the sport is less about novelty and more about a particular kind of wonder. "There's something about watching this thing make a magical turn," Love has said. "A beautiful arc that seems to defy what sticks are supposed to do." That sense of quiet amazement has drawn Love back to the sport year after year, and it has proven contagious among the students he has introduced to boomerang throwing through WWU's clubs and orientation programs.
Forrest Morse, a sophomore in WWU's Honors College majoring in energy science and technology through the university's Institute for Energy Studies, threw a boomerang for the first time about a year and a half ago. The occasion was Love's boomerang-throwing session during Western's Honors Prologue, an orientation program for incoming Honors students held just before fall quarter 2024. Within a year and a half of picking up his first boomerang, Morse had developed enough skill and precision to be selected for Team USA. He will be among the youngest competitors at the world championships.
Gavin Bohling, a 2024 marketing alum from Portland, Oregon, rounds out the team. Bohling and Morse represent a kind of institutional lineage, with both connected to WWU and to Love's mentorship in the sport. Together, Love, Morse, and Bohling will join three other Team USA members as "Team Two," facing competitors from boomerang-throwing nations around the world.
The 2026 World Boomerang Championships are scheduled to be held in Bandung, Indonesia from approximately July 26 through August 5. Bandung, located in West Java, is Indonesia's third-largest city and known for its colonial-era architecture and vibrant university culture. Competitive boomerang throwing at the world championship level involves multiple disciplines, including accuracy, maximum time aloft, endurance, trick catch, fast catch, and juggling, among others. Athletes are scored across all events, with both individual and team medals on offer.
Competitive boomerang throwing may surprise people who think of the sport only as a backyard novelty, but it has a dedicated international community of practitioners with a governing body, standardized rules, and a world championship event held every four years. The United States has historically been competitive at the international level, with American throwers contributing to Team USA's results in past championships held in Australia, Germany, and France.
For Western Washington University, the championships represent another instance of the school's reach across unexpected disciplines. WWU is perhaps best known regionally for its programs in environmental studies, education, and engineering technology, but the university has long supported student and faculty involvement in athletics, outdoor recreation, and unconventional pursuits through its club sports and honors programming. Love's boomerang club has created a pathway from a freshman orientation activity to a world championship stage in just a few years.
Anyone curious about competitive boomerang throwing or interested in learning the sport can reach out to Western Washington University through the Department of Finance and Marketing or the Honors College. Love has historically welcomed newcomers to the sport through his annual Honors Prologue sessions and ongoing club activities. For more on the championships themselves and to track Team USA's preparation, other recent Bellingham community stories are worth a look as well.
The World Boomerang Championships in Bandung mark a summer when Bellingham and Whatcom County will be quietly cheering on three of their own in a sport most residents have probably never watched at a competitive level. Ed Love, Forrest Morse, and Gavin Bohling will take to the field in Indonesia as representatives not just of Team USA, but of a university and a community that tends to produce people willing to follow unusual arcs wherever they lead.
