Hudson-Berkshire

[Gabriel]

Just curious to see how many people here fence in the Hudson Berkshire division

[Shadow Fencer]

I do. Looking forward to my first tournament in 22 years next month at Berkshire Bucanneers, if the weather is OK and I can travel!

[Gabriel]

Shadow, I fence at Berkshire Bucaneers. That's terrific that you'll be competing after 22 years. Best of luck.

[Shadow Fencer]

Gabriel,
Hope to meet up with you! Looking forward to competition again! A great way to get and stay in good physical shape.

[Lordy]

I fence in the H-B. Yeah, sometimes I do Bernie's Friday night foil tournaments.

[foilist]

Ahh... the mighty Bernie... a great guy... I met him last year while he was coaching for UMASS... the only other persion i know from that salle is Laurie Dumais... who fences for UMASS this year... go Laurie : )

[Gabriel]

Lordy-
Do I know you? are you one of Bernie's students?

[Lordy]

No, I don't fence with Bernie, I fence with Rod Meagher up in Troy.

[Pommel]

I am an Albany based HB epee fencer, also a student of Rod's. Not sure who you others are though. I'm sure you are quite aware of just how disconnected our division tends to be. It's really quite a shame. I actually spoke to Bernie at his last tournament about trying to drum up support in my area for his next one. Hope to see you fellows around.

[Lordy]

Hey Guys, I think we should try to drum up support for at least a C-rated foil tournament. As crazy as it sounds for the H-B Division, I know it can be done. If we can get the numbers, via Mt. Anthony fencers, DFA, and B. Buccaneers, plus the rated foilists from my area, like Roberto Vega, Todd Benton, Rod Meagher, Scott Rizzo (from Newburgh) and me, we should definitely have the numbers and ratings for a "C" rated competition. Any thoughts?

[Shadow Fencer]

Lordy,
Absolutely! I'm definitely interested! I started fencing at RPI and just became acquainted with Rod and Roberto. My weapon is foil! What are the next steps for a C rated tournament?

[Lordy]

Well, first off, if you want to compete, you need to become a member of the USFA. You get a magazine, a newsletter and a little card. Neat stuff. But more importantly, you are now eligible to fence in USFA rated tournaments. If you haven't fenced competitively in twenty years, you'll be unranked, but thats ok, because we just need a lot of unranked people as much as we need a few with higher ratings. You're fencing at RPI? So do I (when I have time)! I had to take a little time off to do small silly things like apply to college, but next semester I should be there a lot more.

[Gabriel]

don't know if you all know, but the plan is that there is going to be a "c" tournament at Berkshire Bucaneers on Jan 26th. Bernie's already workin on it.

[Shadow Fencer]

Well, I finally got my USFA membership card and my first newsletter since it was known as AFLA! And I'm planning to fence in the January 26 tournament (barring no crazy snowstorms like the one we're having today. Am glad I have my practice area in the basement- an area large enough just to be able to do some footwork and lunge against a target on the wall. Looking forward to meeting Lordy when fencing practice starts up on Jan 9! At this stage of the game, I'm just happy to be back fencing!!!

[Crash55]

Lordy,
You are finally coming back to practice? Any chance you can drag Mat back as well? Epee was starting to get a little slim at the end of last semester. With Kristy only making Tues this semester it might be down to Mike, Joel and myself. I finally earned my E just before break so I want more practice (I want to get my D before Macri gets his C). We actually havea couple new peopel that are going to tournaments.

Shadow Fencer,
You fence at RPI? I can't place you. Then again I don't pay that much attention to foilists and Kristy deals with the new people. If you want to earn a rating you might want to look at the VFA tournaments in Middlebury. Everytime I have gone up there they seme to have had at least a D rated foil tournament. I know they had a C rated one once but one the rated fencers injured his knee so it dropped to a D.

[Shadow Fencer]

Crash55- You know me! I started fencing in October at RPI, but can't say that I started to learn as I returned to the sport after a 22 year break! I know the reason why you fence epee- it's because you've everytime you use to fence foil, you broke the foils and at least by fencing epee, the club can try to save money on all the foils you don't break now! Ha Ha Ha. See you next week! Thanks for the tip on the tournaments in Vermont!

[Lordy]

I'll be back after mid-terms which are in a week for me. I'll bring Matt too... I earned my D-00 at FMCC while in hiding. I actually re-earned my E at that VFA tournament. Rod beat me by two points in the final. Oh well, have there been many electrically equipped foilists coming? Minh? Vincent (I think thats what his name was)? Has Roberto been coaching all the time or has he been fencing at all?

[Crash55]

Lordy - Why wait till after midterms? Fencing is a good break from studying. Kristy never lets studying get in her way of fencing and neither did I. Another VFA tournament this Sun in Middlebury. Roberto has been fencing as well as coaching. Not that I pay attention to foil but there does seem to be a decent number of foilists around. Jen came back at the end of the semester.

[Lumberg]

I'm not in any division since I'm out rehabilitating my leg but I just moved recently to the area so I will be in the Hudson-Berkshire division. I was in the Northeast Division last year at VFA. I'll probably be checking out DFA as soon as I can fence.

------------------
Lumberg.
"...yeah...did you get the memo about the TPS reports?"

[darius]

Hey, if you guys do anything interesting near Albany, Troy, (or even better, further west!), give me a heads up -- we sent a crew to the RPI Open last year...now how about making that USFA this time around?

darius