January 8, 2017

Meet Kurt Hoberg

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kurt Hoberg.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
First established in 1967 in Eastern Ventura, Conejo Valley Archers is a non-profit private archery club located in Simi Valley adjacent to Tapo Canyon Park, where we lease 80 acres from Ventura County. The club first started with a group of archers that were interested in creating a National Field Archery sanctioned club that would also provide them a nice, well-maintained place to shoot.

Over the years the club has moved from the Camarillo area to Newbury Park, and finally to Simi Valley, where we have been for over 20 years. The facility and club membership have also grown. We have a 28 target field archery range (if you visualize a golf range…same idea), a full time 30 target 3D range where archers can shoot a variety of novelty targets, and a 40 lane tournament range where CVA can host club and other archery specific competitions. Our club is 500 members strong.

While we are a private club, we also open our range on Saturdays from 9am-1pm to the general public so those who haven’t had the opportunity to try archery can do so in a safe and structured environment. Our volunteers are USA Archery certified instructors and coaches and are on hand to help both new archers take their first shots, and to assist competitive archers as well. For a $5 donation, we provide all the equipment and instruction.

This ‘Public Session’ as we call it is how I got my start in the sport. I grew up back east outside of Pittsburgh and grew up shooting guns and spending time in the woods, so I’ve always enjoyed shooting projectiles downrange. My wife found the range and wanted to try archery, and after my first shot, I was hooked.

Over the years I’ve become more and more involved in the sport. My family started competing and I quickly found out how much I didn’t know. I dove into learning and over the years have earned my Level 3 Coach Certification. At some point along the way, I was also elected to President of the club, with this year being my third in office.

I was lucky enough to have a fellow competitor recommend that I contact five-time Olympian and Bronze Medalist Khatuna Lorig for lessons. Khatuna is the archery coach that taught Jennifer Lawrence to shoot for the Hunger Games movies, and she quickly got my shooting to the best it’s ever been. In 2015 I took the gold at the National Senior Games, and last year took gold medals in 11 of the 13 competitions I entered.

I’ve found that my time with Khatuna and in competition helps me coach to a much higher level. I am very focused on coaching youth, as they are the future of the sport I love. I have also found that archery teaches lessons that aren’t typically taught in today’s society…lessons of hard work, discipline, understanding and learning from mistakes, and controlling one’s mind to being completely in the moment.

As we say in archery, the arrow doesn’t lie. The arrow shows how well you executed the shot with its placement in the target. If it isn’t in the middle, it’s telling you something. If it is in the middle, it is telling a story too. Archery is a sport of truth.

Has it been a smooth road?
Like any organization, the club has had its challenges. The wildfire that swept through the south-land in 2003 completely destroyed the range and all our equipment and targets. We had to start from scratch to rebuild the club, literally from the ground up.

As we lease our property from the county of Ventura, we are always concerned when our lease comes up for renewal. There are many equestrian organizations and soccer clubs that would like to have our property for their use. Luckily, we have a great relationship with the County and have re-upped our lease for another 10 years, so we aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!

As with any volunteer-run organization, 90% of the work is done by 5% of the membership. One of my constant challenges is encouraging members to volunteer to help with club tournaments, events, and range maintenance.

We are extremely safety conscious. In fact, archery is one of the safest sports to participate in, with safety statistics that exceed many of the typical sports we allow our youth to engage in. That being said, we are very aware of range safety and making sure that the general public and our membership are also versed in staying safe while on the range.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Conejo Valley Archers story. Tell us more.
Based on the discussions I’ve had with other archers and the community at large, CVA is known for three things.

On the tournament circuit, our youth program’s logo has a fun reputation. Conejo means rabbit, so our Youth Program logo is a crazy rabbit climbing up an archery target. On the tournament circuit the logo is known as the ‘Demented bunny”, and anyone wearing that logo can be counted on to help and assist where needed. As the President of the club, this really warms my heart!

The second aspect of our club that we are known for is our Saturday Public Session. Other clubs hold similar sessions, but none as large as CVA’s. During the summer months, we can have as many as 200 new archers on the range, so this makes for a fun time.

Finally, each year we run a signature two-day tournament called the Traditional Challenge. This is for traditional bows only (a stick and a string!) and consists over 100 targets over the entirety of our 80 acres. This is a huge event and is attended by people both in and out of state.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Archery is undergoing a huge influx of youth archers. There are youth programs popping up everywhere, which manifests in large turnouts at competitions. I do have to say that many of these programs are not producing the sportsmanlike and quality competitor that I would expect.

So – CVA is working to expand its youth program. USA Archery has a program called Junior Olympic Archery Development, or JOAD. CVA will be updating our JOAD program in 2017 to get CVA’s youth the training that they deserve. We have the coaching talent and need to utilize our facility to further the sport and better serve the youth of our club.

The Olympics have also garnered a great deal of interest in many archers on the range. I see more kids becoming interested in Olympic style bows instead of the traditional type of bow they see in popular movies such as Lord of the Rings. From my perspective, we are going to see a new crop of archers start competing in the National, World, and Olympic level in the coming years.

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