Crescent City Baby! (New Orleans, LA)

[RebelFencer]

So, who's all going to Crescent City this coming weekend? We should try and get a Fencing.net group/cheering section or something. It'd be cool to put a face to the screennames.

[R. Exnicios]

I'll be there

[Mergs]

Ditto! See ya der!

[flying foil]

Hee hee- Hey Mergs- I'll be there (waddle waddle) and don't forget there is a social of sorts (drinks at the bar overlooking the venue) - that would be a good place to start. . . and of course the bar will be open throughout the event - just in case the refs get nervous as the final bouts get closer - jk

Tootles!

[fluidfencer]

Birmingham should send 8-10 again this year. I can't make it once again *sigh*. Only eight more years before my youngest goes off to college and I can get serious about fencing.

[RebelFencer]

Well, good luck to everyone going. Hope to meet you all (I'll be the only guy fencing for MTSU).

[ReallyFatFencer]

im going, and im going to win too. im 500+ lbs, and the best fencer in the world. you need to eat lots more if ya wanna beat me!

[Rolls]

Been there, done that. No seriously, I just got back from the CCO. I fenced foil. It was a great event. There were a LOT of people there.

Hey, I even wrote a full review of the event (shameless self-promotion).

Rolls.

[R. Exnicios]

It's over! The tournament that is. Just wanted to thank everyone who came this year. We haven't crunched the statistics yet but we had fencers from both coasts and even one of our own returned from Hungary to compete in Epee. I think our "no- show" rate was less than 5%. 6 or seven no shows out of 280 or so. We were very happy with that. Thanks Peet!

The complete results are up on askfred.net.

Wanted to address Rolls Comments from his journal.

He wrote: "There were nice locker rooms with showers, a hot tub, and a sauna, but with lots of old naked men. . . ."

The women's hot tub and sauna had far fewer old men

He wrote:
"I only have two small complaints. One, the grounded strips were bunchy and had a tendency to slip. Other than that, the floor of this venue is a little shaky. When someone is fencing near by, you can feel the whole floor bounce. Oh, and the mask check line was a little long."

The Metallic strips were taped down wrong the first day (my fault!) but we pulled them up and re-taped them for Sunday's events and they worked GREAT. We had to do the carpet padding under them so that brings he cost for each metallic strip to somewhere around $265. I'll post the specifics and pictures on the strips after I get some sleep.

The bounce in the floor is noticeable but not too bad. We just have to deal with that one.

The mask check line. We did mask check? Oh, right, we had coffee pot problems. We were moving slow until the red light came on.

All kidding aside. Comments good or bad are always welcome.

I want to take the chance to thank everyone and give him or her credit.

We had a great crew running things. Graham Norris and His wife came in from Utah to run the computer and bout committee tasks.

Greg Dilworth came in From Philadelphia to be our head Referee and FOC Observer.

He was assisted in his mission and comical relief by Mike D'Asaro and Bill Becker (just to make sure we had the east and west coasts covered) and a corps of Referees from all sorts of places

The Armory was run by Terry Unrein

We were fortunate to get two vendors. The new folks at Triplette and Karen Johnson who both set up their shops of fencing goods to meet the needs of anyone’s desires.

Thanks everyone.


Hope to see everyone next year!


Now I’m off to get some sleep!

Cheers

[peet]

All of the FRED/Fencing Time aspects of the event went well, I hope? If Nancy &/or Richard (or anyone else, for that matter) has any feedback or me on the FRED end of things, feel free to PM or email me...

And for convenience, here is a link to the results.

Sounds like it was an awesome tournament. Next time, maybe I'll get to come and fence!

Cheers!

-p

[KD5MDK]

I am incredibly dissatisfied with the results.

Tomasz missed his A by 1 touch, and my teammate James Lo failed to take first.

I blame NO for the above.

[wflaschka]

The tournament was excellent! I got to put faces to some online names, like Rolls and Mergs, but didn't get nearly enough time to sit and chat. The D'Asaros were there in sabre, which was a great surprise. In foil, the Birmingham crew is shaping up to be very powerful; three guys in the top 4, if you count Nonpat Panchan, who seemed to have some relation to Birmingham. And though I didn't fence all that well, I placed better than I deserved, and it was a great reintroduction to competition. The Triplette guys were very helpful, they actually brought coaching gear and I loaded up.

I had the usual problems with finding the venue. The directions said the athletic center wasn't strictly part of the hotel, so I squandered some minutes looking for an outside entrance to the self-parking garage (not having a car to park). I found a way in by going through the hotel. Nobody else seemed to have my problem with finding the venue.

In all, a model tournament. I missed Sunday's fencing, b/c I couldn't renegotiate w/ the wife. Nice results, tho, RebelFencer!

[fluidfencer]

Just a quick clarification. Non Panchan fences for Penn State (a senior there) and for Thailand internationally, but he trains with our coaches whenever he can and we (Birmingham) consider him a good friend. He agreed to help us at our advanced level camp in June as well. I would say that is a shameless plug, but our space is very limited for guests after allowing for our own students.

Anyway, good job New Orleans.

The tournament was excellent! I got to put faces to some online names, like Rolls and Mergs, but didn't get nearly enough time to sit and chat. The D'Asaros were there in sabre, which was a great surprise. In foil, the Birmingham crew is shaping up to be very powerful; three guys in the top 4, if you count Nonpat Panchan, who seemed to have some relation to Birmingham. And though I didn't fence all that well, I placed better than I deserved, and it was a great reintroduction to competition. The Triplette guys were very helpful, they actually brought coaching gear and I loaded up.

I had the usual problems with finding the venue. The directions said the athletic center wasn't strictly part of the hotel, so I squandered some minutes looking for an outside entrance to the self-parking garage (not having a car to park). I found a way in by going through the hotel. Nobody else seemed to have my problem with finding the venue.

In all, a model tournament. I missed Sunday's fencing, b/c I couldn't renegotiate w/ the wife. Nice results, tho, RebelFencer!

[RebelFencer]

Nice results, tho, RebelFencer!

haha, thanks Walter. Let's just say that beating a certain Ole Miss fencer in the DE's was pretty satisfying! That lesson helped a lot, I was able to use pretty much everything you showed me saturday night. Great seeing you guys there...really fun tournament.

[OleMissFencer]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, New Orleans is an awesome place to have a tournament. The CCO was a great tournament. I love the venue even if you do have to cope with naked old men in the locker room . My one critism however is this: self directed saber pools. An improvement from last year where at least the DEs were not just directed by anyone but none the less still a fault. I understand most of the directors were tied up with the Foil Finals, but a little love for saber wouldn't hurt next year. I was just a little PO'd that 1) I paid 30 bucks to be directed by people who didn't even know how to call and 2) With this being the Eugene Hamori Saber Cup that saber gets virtually shafted until DEs (which also confused me last year).

Other than that 1 beef however, definite props to the LOC. Keep up the good work and next year please please please more saber refs!

[Rolls]

I ended up placing 23rd which is exactly where I was seeded after pools. That's what I call powerful statistical foretelling.

I got eliminated by one of the B-ham bunch, Alex Bradford. I knew it was coming, but I stood up much better this time (11-15) than the last time I faced him (6-15). I must being doing something right, if only I could figure it out.

Richard, I don't really have a right to complain about the armoring line. I made my wife wait in it. All in all, it was a real great event. I should have stuck around for day 2.

I do have one feature suggestion for Peet: on the who's signed up and results pages, I've noticed that you have anchors tags for each event, but you don't have links at the top pointing to them. It would be nice to have a link at the top of the page; so, I could just click Mixed Foil and not have to scroll down.

[peet]

I do have one feature suggestion for Peet: on the who's signed up and results pages, I've noticed that you have anchors tags for each event, but you don't have links at the top pointing to them. It would be nice to have a link at the top of the page; so, I could just click Mixed Foil and not have to scroll down.

Actually, the results page does have those links in that box in the upper right, but you're right, the "who's preregistered" does not, an oversight that will soon be corrected.

Thanks for the feedback!

-p

[rcmatthews]

I would like to second the motion for sabre directors. If we our going to pay full price at what I believe is the biggest sabre tournament in the section, we should at least have competent directors. Now, Tomasz Stusinski directed one of my DEs, no problem there, but the size of the tournament warrants directors.

[Manethrin]

Hey this is a local. I used to live there and I can tell you one place you have to eat is Mothers the place is a deli style home cooking restaurant nothing high class, but definitely dropping by. Warning No your directions well because you can get lost rather easy, Big Easy Yeah right. I miss it though, The river walk is a good idea for free time, lots of fun. Careful how far u wonder into the French district, it gets creepy and into bad neighborhoods after a while

[R. Exnicios]

I would like to second the motion for sabre directors. If we our going to pay full price at what I believe is the biggest sabre tournament in the section, we should at least have competent directors. Now, Tomasz Stusinski directed one of my DEs, no problem there, but the size of the tournament warrants directors.

Getting Directors is our biggest challenge. We actually had more "no shows" from Referees than we did from Fencers.

We imported some but unfortunatly some of them are also the top saber fencers. If you have any recomendations as to who is available and willing to come please let us know.

Cheers