Sabre in the Surf!!!

[Black Jeebus]

My club just had a great event called "Sabre In The Surf". It was some of the most fun I have had fencing. The first bouts were in a few inches of water and it culminated with the shorter fencer in the gold medal bout being in at least waist deep.

Take note- this was dry fencing for fun. Nobody used their competition equipment.

We're planning to do it again next year as an end-of-season event, if anyone is interested check www.gafencing.org, or check in with me around this time next year.

Oh, and since it was all dry we didn't epee, it's a pain to see hand shots and actually the fencing in the water would cut off some of the target.

Just as an aside at least one of our sabre fencers was parried by the water ! And in those waist-deep gold-medal bouts, lunging was difficult so coincidentally there were a lot of water leaping fleches!

[schlager7]

Sounds similar to something I came across while doing some local fencing history...

The 1955-1956 fencing season began on September 25, with the W. A. Franks Memorial Tournament, an invitational, at the Fort Crockett Gym in Galveston. The two events fenced were men’s open saber and women’s open foil. Arnold Mercado recalled the Franks Memorial. "The trophy was created by the Galveston Fencers among whom the most prominent were Jack Baird and Bill Brown... Steve Farid won the Franks the first two times. That's when it was fenced on the sand itself..."

My understanding is that the "strip" ran perpendicular to the shoreline so someone backed into the surf if they retreated.

[Larrison]

Beach fencing?

Years ago, in my first incarnation as a fencer my gf's family had a house on the sand. Every year she'd invite the fencing club to have a summer beach party on the sand in front of her place.

We did saber and foil on the sand (the club wasn't big into epee at the time), usually fencing barefoot. The best traction and surface as parallel to the water on the damp more solid sand along the edge of the surf and we found while you could fence in the softer, dry sand away from the water's edge it really slows you down. Usually we'd have a short club tournament (direct elimination, with multiple strips laid out by just scraping your foot in in the sand to outline them) and then do variations on fencing for fun... Plus beer, barbeque hot dogs and burgers, and etc... Plus surfing, swiming, frisbee, and body surfing.

- Mock Schlager, with a glass of beer (or soft drink) behind your back foot. (Make sure its a plastic cup though -- you don't want broken glass at the beach....). The object was the two fencers armed with dry sabers to pop one of three balloons attached to the forehead and both cheeks on a fencing mask. And done at a distance where the two entended arms touched bellguard to bellguard.

- Team saber (team foil didn't work as well), with 5 man teams of saber fencing to pop balloons on the opponents mask -- plus chest, shoulder and elbow. One balloon pops and you're out, leaving your team to fence on without you.

- "Beam fencing". This was done on about the 12" wide top of a sea wall put up to prevent sand erosion. You fenced foil or saber on top of the beam -- which was a trick since it was very narrow and your footwork had to be precise. Fortunately it was only about 18-24" above the soft sand, but you still had to be very careful not to miss a footstep and come crashing off.

[Black Jeebus]

We also had a picnic afterwards. One of the cheaper things the shorter fencers seemed to do to take away some of the taller fencer's less impaired movements is to occasionally crouch a little. It's hard to hit a target when it's submerged.

[Inquartata]

Hmm, perhaps this is the true origin of the sabre target area.

[Morgaine]

Wow, that sounds like fun. I've always wanted to ride a horse along the beach, but I never thought about fencing on the beach!

[KD5MDK]

My coach tells stories of doing things like this, with special emphasis on turning your opponent so they get hit in the back by the biggest wave you can find.

[Point_Left]

Originally Posted by Black Jeebus

Take note- this was dry fencing for fun. Nobody used their competition equipment.

*snip*

Oh, and since it was all dry we didn't epee, it's a pain to see hand shots and actually the fencing in the water would cut off some of the target.

All dry fencing? You guys must have been wearing thigh high boots or something...

Dry fencing in waist deep water. Oh, the irony.

[esskreemr]

ZMURF?! Did someone say zmurf? Where is she? I thought she wasn't due back for another week..... awwwwww......

[Black Jeebus]

Originally Posted by Point_Left

All dry fencing? You guys must have been wearing thigh high boots or something...

Dry fencing in waist deep water. Oh, the irony.

I'm actually suprised that one made it past Inq.

[Mauler]

My brother and I were fencing kids raised in a die-hard SCUBA diving sub-tropical family.

We have been known to fence underwater from time to time. If you think that's odd, I also used to drink canned soda underwater as well. All this while wearing diving gear.

At least it wasn't as bad as playing jousting on bikes with Epee!

[Mr Epee]

Mauler,

You frighten me, seriously!

I need to introduce you to my friend who is the only male in his family to still have all 10 original fingers.

[bmcfencer]

Was this fencing OUTSIDE in Savannah during the summer? Wow, I'm impressed! My dad and I kept meaning to fence on the beach while we were there last week, and it was just too blasted hot. Though I suppose fencing in water would help...

[swordsen]

Also doing it in the evening in the breeze off the water helped.

[pkt]

the kendokas do practice often on the beach to toughen their soles.

In the 60s, my and my friend did an under-water-kendo bout in an unheated pool. Even though this was in HKG the water's still bleeping cold since the pool was indoors.

Every cutting movement with the wooden sword was in slow motion. The only sensible, fastest attack was a point attack.

for obvious reasons, the bouts were short.

Gasp, gasp...

PK

[Mauler]

In the Far East, it's a common practice for martial artists and sports players to practice underwater. A "wind tunnel" of sorts for their movement. I know that what my brother and I did wasn't considered that much out of place by those who saw us engage in the mentioned extracurricular activities. Only odd thing being that we brought in western fencing swords, rather than a bokken or shinai.

As for bike-mounted Epee jousting.... IT HURTS.

[ChubbyHubby]

Originally Posted by Larrison

Beach fencing?

Years ago, in my first incarnation as a fencer my gf's family had a house on the sand. Every year she'd invite the fencing club to have a summer beach party on the sand in front of her place.

We did saber and foil on the sand (the club wasn't big into epee at the time), usually fencing barefoot. The best traction and surface as parallel to the water on the damp more solid sand along the edge of the surf and we found while you could fence in the softer, dry sand away from the water's edge it really slows you down. Usually we'd have a short club tournament (direct elimination, with multiple strips laid out by just scraping your foot in in the sand to outline them) and then do variations on fencing for fun... Plus beer, barbeque hot dogs and burgers, and etc... Plus surfing, swiming, frisbee, and body surfing.

- Mock Schlager, with a glass of beer (or soft drink) behind your back foot. (Make sure its a plastic cup though -- you don't want broken glass at the beach....). The object was the two fencers armed with dry sabers to pop one of three balloons attached to the forehead and both cheeks on a fencing mask. And done at a distance where the two entended arms touched bellguard to bellguard.

- Team saber (team foil didn't work as well), with 5 man teams of saber fencing to pop balloons on the opponents mask -- plus chest, shoulder and elbow. One balloon pops and you're out, leaving your team to fence on without you.

- "Beam fencing". This was done on about the 12" wide top of a sea wall put up to prevent sand erosion. You fenced foil or saber on top of the beam -- which was a trick since it was very narrow and your footwork had to be precise. Fortunately it was only about 18-24" above the soft sand, but you still had to be very careful not to miss a footstep and come crashing off.

Check this out, last weekend we had the "Duel on the Beach" in Cornwall, England.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...y=-g3a6am&Ux=1

[Black Jeebus]

Originally Posted by ChubbyHubby

Check this out, last weekend we had the "Duel on the Beach" in Cornwall, England.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...y=-g3a6am&Ux=1

Ok you guys go way beyond what we could ever hope for. If we brought a bull dozer anywhere near the beach the local cops would open fire on us for sure. Hell part of the year you can't even legally walk on certain parts of the beachs here (sea turtle nests).

[lanier]

"Black tie" Martini soiree night before, and girls fencing in bikinis day of.

[little_old_me]

anybody take any pictures, Jeebus? I wanted to come but had other plans in Atlanta.