Indoor archery range approved near Galleria
Archery instructor Paul Farbman, right, at
Redondo Beach will be home to an archery range on the city’s north side, following approval from the city’s Planning Commission last week.
Redondo Beach resident Paul Farbman, owner of South Bay Archery Lessons, received the go-ahead to convert a warehouse space at 1300 Kingsdale Ave., just south of the South Bay Galleria, into an archery range at the Planning Commission’s October meeting, following nearly half an hour of impassioned testimony. Farbman currently offers lessons at The Refinery, a Torrance batting cage facility. But he’s unable to give lessons on weekdays, so renting his own facilities would be a boon to his business, particularly with corporate team-building exercises.
Farbman is a retired educator, having spent 25 years teaching English and working as a research librarian for LA Unified.
“I was teaching archery on weekends, and my daughter noticed I was coming home happier from that than from school,” Farbman said. He’s had difficulty finding a permanent home for his lessons in the years since his retirement.
“I always make sure to have extra insurance,” Farbman told the commission. He said Olympic-style archery is a safe sport. Fewer than one student per thousand suffers an injury in archery, he said.
His lessons begin on low-powered, low-draw-weight bows, intended for beginners. Crossbow users wouldn’t be allowed to use the space. Neither would people intending to use broadhead arrow tips, commonly used for hunting.
Farbman plans to teach students ages 8 and up.
“There seems to be a marked transition in the ability to grasp concepts that 6 and 7-year-olds don’t get,” Farbman said. “[At that age] a student knows the focus isn’t the bulls-eye, and they learn how the body and the bow work together.”
Much of his emphasis is in training students to focus on improvement; the focus is on shooting accurately and with positive emphasis, rather than solely hitting the dead-center of the target.
“Right now [at The Refinery] there’s batting noise, yelling, pitching machines whirring…with an archer and a target, there’s only one thing they’re thinking about. You let muscle memory do the shooting,” Farbman said. “Every arrow is a success; viewed that way, kids feel great…to turn every time they shoot into a success makes me and them feel good.”
The approval vote was unanimous.
Farbman was surprised that commissioners didn’t raise concerns regarding patrons of the nearby King Harbor Brewing Company.
“But I’ve got a plan for that, too,” he said.