The cataclysmic crash of cannon stealing the air from your lungs, the explosive report of a musket as it’s butt drives back into your shoulder and the feel of a blade leaving your hand to spiral towards a distant target all have the power to transport one back through the veils of time to a more romantic age. These things can anchor us to a history where men and women sailed the seas without the benefits of satellites to tell them where they were, or to traverse trackless, and often hostile, forests without even a map. It can remind of us of when only a campfire provided light and bereft reality television and smartphones bearing a thousand MP3s the only entertainment was the telling of tales and the joining of voices in song.

Photo courtesy of Byron Dazey

This tether to the past is part of why the pirates of PDXYAR do what they do (well, that and the rum).

Now though, we would like to share it with you in a way you wouldn’t be able to even if you were to visit us at the firing line at the Rockaway Beach Pirate Festival or at the infamous Thunder Ridge at the Portland Pirate Festival. No this time we don’t want you to watch us perform, we want to teach you to do it.

PDXYAR has teamed up the preeminent outdoor educators of TrackersPDX to create a wholly unique two day, overnight, learning experience. Together we have put together a course of safe hands-on training with cannons, black powder small arms and bladed weapons.

Intrigued yet? You really should be.

You will come away from this weekend with a wealth of experiences that you simply can not acquire elsewhere. TrackersPDX and PDXYAR will teach you to be a part of a gun crew for both carriage mounted cannons and single mortars. You will not only learn to load and shoot a variety of black powder weapons, but engage in a target shoot to demonstrate your new skills. You can even polish your boarding party skills by learning to throw knives, daggers and tomahawks.

Even the location and accommodations for this class will be memorable. Being held at Camp Tracker in Sandy, you will be camping in either a custom built yurt or tipi, eating meals prepared in a wood fired outdoor kitchen and at night you will hear tales of high seas and learn sea shanties around the campfire.

Now, waste not a minute and make like smoke ‘n oakum over to the TrackersPDX site for complete class details and to reserve your place now via the link below!