I'm gonna send my kids to this school...

[twoiron]

A secondary school east of Melbourne will today aim to break a world record - by playing 400 wobble boards.

Students from the Warragul Regional College will take part in the "Great Wobble Off", which they hope will earn them an entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

The previous record stands at 230 wobble boards.

Sandy Ward from the school's art department says the students are feeling confident..

"They're really starting to get excited now. They started out a bit slowly but now that they're actually seeing that yeah, there definitely are 400 wobble boards, and the Guinness Book of Records has accepted our attempt, it seems real.

"At first I think they thought, 'What a crazy idea'."

Each board has been painted with Amnesty International themes.

[campy]

Too lazy for Google so, WTF is a wobble board?

[MFAWG]

I thought it was a balance board (basically a skate deck stuck on a barrell), but turns out it's a percussion instrument made out of whatever's handy, although masonite seems to be the material of choice....

[Seamus]

Let me know when they are breaking the record for the Didgeridoo.

I'm wicked good.

[twoiron]

Too lazy for Google so, WTF is a wobble board?

The wobble board is an instrument popularized by the Australian musician and artist Rolf Harris and featured in his most well-known song "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport". A wobble board, like some other musical instruments, can be ornately designed as its large surface area can act as a canvas without detracting from its musical capability.

Wobble boards are not commercially made, and most are made by the player. Almost any large, rigid but flexible sheet of material can be used as an impromptu wobble board, although some materials are markedly better than others. Rolf's instrument was originally made from a type of wood composite known as hardboard (Masonite in the USA). According to an interview he gave to Tony Barrell for The Sunday Times Magazine in 2001, Rolf discovered the musical properties of hardboard by chance, when he was about to paint a portrait of the conjurer Robert Harbin in 1959. Before his subject arrived, Rolf prepared the background, covering a large piece of hardboard with Prussian-blue oil paint mixed with turpentine. But the surface refused to dry. "It was all sticky and nasty. He was due to arrive in about half an hour." In desperation, he propped the board over a paraffin heater. When he touched it later, it was so hot it burned his finger. "So I propped it between the palms of my hands and shook it to cool it down. And... I thought, 'What a marvellous sound.'"

The instrument is played by holding the board lengthwise, hands at the sides and flicking the board outward, making the characteristic "whoop-whoop" noise

[Jules]

and here I was thinking, that Twoiron was going to send young Jensen to a really fantastic golf school!!!!

[TFT]

When he touched it later, it was so hot it burned his finger. "So I propped it between the palms of my hands and shook it to cool it down. And... I thought, 'What a marvellous sound.'"

Awww man, if only he had died instead.

[dystopia]

I'm not finding any good pics online.

Is this what a typical wobble board looks like?

[TFT]

All you ever wanted to know.....

http://www.wowest.com.au/home.htm

[spacey]

When I was a kid, for some reason my dad had a lot of those hanging Realtor's signs behind the garage (we didn't ask, he never told). We used to make a horrendous racket wobbling them back and forth but I never realized it was legitimate music. I suppose I was something of a prodigy.

[TFT]

Legitimate music?

You decide.......



http://youtube.com/watch?v=I1ON42WberY

[Seamus]

Legitimate music?
You decide.......
http://youtube.com/watch?v=I1ON42WberY

Why not? It's as legitimate as anything I hear nowadays, maybe even more so.

When I was a kid, for some reason my dad had a lot of those hanging Realtor's signs behind the garage (we didn't ask, he never told).

I remember reading stories, mid to late 70's, maybe even the early 80's about missing realtors, bodies never found, realty signs never found...

[gleek]

Legitimate music?
You decide.......
http://youtube.com/watch?v=I1ON42WberY

Why not? It's as legitimate as anything I hear nowadays, maybe even more so.

When I was a kid, for some reason my dad had a lot of those hanging Realtor's signs behind the garage (we didn't ask, he never told).

I remember reading stories, mid to late 70's, maybe even the early 80's about missing realtors, bodies never found, realty signs never found...

At minimum, he has the sing ability of a Lou Reed.