Club Obi Wan

my first whip... 8 or 10 ft? If i'd be better off with the 10 than I'd rather pay the difference & get it now. any input?

How tall are you? I would have to say an 8 foot is a great starter whip...not too short, not too long. 10 footers in my experience are harder to crack. The whip action is slower. I feel you can do more with an 8 footer.

Indiana Jackson,

I just updated my website that may very well have some of the information for which you are looking. Hopefully that will help you out. Click on the different length categories.

Best Regards,

Paul Stenhouse

Indiana Texas-girl Posted: How tall are you?

I'm 5'10" (5'11" if I hang by my toes for a few hours )

I,m 5'11" and I have a nice 10 footer I got of E-bay,and I have no problem cracking it.
It is slower than an 8 footer but still cracks well.

I'm very much a youngling when it comes to whips- but I have a great Stenhouse 8' (which was my first) that I've been learning on and getting good action. I'm 5'11" as well.
My Dad has a 10' (non-Indy whip) that I'm finding harder to control. The 8' gives pretty good accuracy if you're into hitting targets- I find it feels tighter and faster (and safer ). It also helped that I wanted a Cairo marketplace scene whip- which seems to generally have been agreed to been an 8' (if things like that are important to you).

Neolithic wrote: It also helped that I wanted a Cairo marketplace scene whip- which seems to generally have been agreed to been an 8' (if things like that are important to you).

Interesting...I didn't know that. Did Indy carry a 10 footer around on his belt since it looked better coiled & used an 8 footer to crack since he had better control?

Just a thought....hmm....

I could be wrong, but I think he carried a 12 footer on his belt for looks, and cracked an 8 footer in the streets of Cairo scene.

Bufflehead Jones wrote:I could be wrong, but I think he carried a 12 footer on his belt for looks, and cracked an 8 footer in the streets of Cairo scene.

I thought he carried an 10 footer mostly and cracked an 8 footer, maybe 10 in some scenes. I know a 6 footer was used for the tank chase sequance in LC, but what you saw him whip Barraca (sp?) with in the opening of Raiders was a 10 footer I'm almost certain. 12' would be very bulky to carry around on the belt. I'd say 8 - 10 footer for what Ford carried.

I believe Sergei (I think it was him, forgive me if I'm wrong) posted a pic of Indy from the streets of Cairo and after some measuring, it was decided that he was using an 8 footer. For the forward and reverse forward he used in Cairo, an 8 footer would seem logical, since my 10 footer moves slower when I try that sequence. It could just be that Ford had it broken in that it moved faster.

It's all guess work, I wonder how many of the original whips are still in existance... Now's the time for a COW historian to walk by and post a link... ::waits::

I am wondering what the main concern over height vs. whip length is. The two are not really related. Cracking a whip is based on technique, and having enough room to crack the whip.

A while back the concern about height was brought up and I watched a demonstration by a whip handler who was cracking an 8' whip while kneeling on the ground. And he was not only doing overhead cracks, but also cattleman's cracks (circus) as well as Queensland Flash and volleys.

Cracking the whip is a matter of knowing where the whip is supposed to go and where it is supposed to end up, and then helping it to get to that point.

For example, Vince Bruce cuts flower stems with a 50' bull whip. True he walks towards the middle of the thong and then throws it to make a rolling loop and then sticks the flower stem out and the thong clips it as it goes by, but he can get her to crack. And Vince isn't a very big fella. And several on the list might remember Peter Jack doing some pretty awesome things with that 23' whip he had in Houston a couple of years ago. And he is not quite 5'10".

I've seen a number of youngsters that were 10 - 12 yrs old crack some 8' and bigger whips and crack them quite well. Those Keisner boys, Rider and Roper are pretty good hands with a whip at their young age.

Think of it this way. To do a good volley with a whip, the thong is actually travelling in a vertical plane about 4' high. So you don't need to be very tall to crack a whip.

Jerry R (who is 6'2" tall)

The 10 footer was the "default" indy whip length.

Other lengths were used for special scenes.

I feel that the 8 ft vs 10 ft question is a horse that gets beat often, but since there are newbies every day, we must answer that question.

Whip buyers come to me wanting a 10 or 12 foot whip and I make a STRONG suggestion that they buy 8 ft since they are fairly new to whipcracking. ITG knows that well and agrees. You can do target cutting with an 8 efficiently and lots of other neat tricks with it also. It is still a considerable length. With an approximate fall length of 30-34 inches and a 6" popper you will be swinging a whip with an effective length of 11 feet. Add that same 3 feet to a 10 footer and now you are swinging 13 feet. That cuts down on places to crack it and many tricks. Targeting is much more difficult though possible and is a bit harder to learn to throw than an 8 footer. Once someone really masters the 6 to 8 foot whip, if they are hungry for more, then get a longer whip.

Hey Jerry, Vince Bruce btw is pretty tall feller.... I think he is a coupla inches taller than you even.... I've met him a coupla times... where did you see him? If it was that Art of the Bullwhip video then that doesn't show much. He really is tall.

I use all different lengths of bullwhips and stockwhips in my shows. My longest whip is a 14 but have been considering making a 20+. THese long whips are impressive but they can't do the fancy cracking routines of a 6 to 8 foot bullwhip.
Now some people think long is cool, and I do too, but for stockwhips it just don't work. Don't ever get an 8 ft stockwhip.... LOL If you ever decide to purchase an Australian stockwhip pick one in the 5 to 6 foot range max.

So, Indiana Jackson, my opinion as always will be stick to an 8 ft and if you have really mastered it and saved up some more pennies and nickles, then buy a 10 or 12 if you so decide.

Cheers,
Robert Duke
http://www.DukeWhips.com

Not to hijack this post but... what about the differences between 6-8' ?

I crack a Stenhouse 10' and 4' pocket bull. I learned on the 10' but will admit that certain combos and targeting is difficult with that length.
And the 4 footer is just plain fun!

I recently had the opportunity to crack a JS 6'and 8' and was thinking about maybe going with a 7' to split the difference.
The 6' was really fun and handled nicely. Same with the 8' ,
but I'm thinking it might be more impressive for show in a routine.

Either way, it's time for a new shorter whip.

Dalexs

Dalex, I think going with a 7' whip is a great idea! I have a 7.5' bullwhip and love it!

There always seems to be a trend of people wanting the longer whips first. I was no different. My first was a 10 footer. I figured out the horizontal crack first off, but it took me forever to get a circus crack with that monster. Then we got a 6 footer... It was night and day. The circus crack was SOOOOO much easier with the 6. It was and still is my favorite lenght whip to crack. We also have a couple 8 footers as well. Eight is a good middle length, but if you wish to expand from the 4 basic cracks to multiple cracking, left and right hand cracking, routines, etc go with the shorter whips, as a six footer is perfect for this.