directors and equipment checks...

[lochinvar]

Went to a tourny last Sunday.

In my second pool bout, the director tested my epee and told me it wasn't legal; seems the interior barrel was too large, since he couldn't get the notch in the shim to go all the way in.

So, I got my other weapon. Same thing.

So, I borrowed a weapon that had just been used on another strip. Same thing.

The long and the short of the story is, I got three red cards for equipment.

Last night I took those same weapons to the salle, where we whipped out a brand-new set of Uhlmann shims and guess what? Perfect fit!

Anyone else run into this before? And how should I handle it?

[edew]

I think you should have checked whether the referee knew what the heck (s)he was doing. The shim fit to see if the space between tip and barrel is seldom deformed enough to cause a problem. If the tip looks new, there's almost no chance the barrel will be so deformed as to cause this test to fail.

Now you know for your next tournament.

[swordsen]

I suspect he had shims made by one company and you had a tip made by another. So the notch wasn't wide enough. Of course it doesn't have to fit all the way into the notch. Just between the tip and the barrel. Novice director disease.

[OleMissFencer]

I would have questioned those shims used and requested that another pair be used. Remember, it never hurts to ask.

[DamedEscrime]

Now, you can tell them you used my weapon. And there was no problem with it on my strip. And what happened when I used a different shim? It was fine. They other weapons I gave you all tested fine too in my armoury. I will check on the size specs as far as the tip is concerned. Personally, I think there was someting fishy about the whole thing.

[MikeHarm]

The important thing is to get your own shims, test your weapons before and demonstrate that your weapons pass with your shims if there is an issue rather than just complaining that its not fair I think. I had a similar bad shim experience, and after demonstrating my weapons passed with my shims and a fellow director's at the competition, he set the bad set of shims aside and I was safely out of the red card zone. One of the other guys in my seeding pool that day got 3 red cards out of it and he just sort of accepted the whole thing. He probably was kicking himself after when he realized what happened. Too late to quarrel after your match is over though.

[Inquartata]

I offer once again my invariable solution: switch to sabre. The don't even LOOK at your weapons unless you start getting funkiness on the strip...

[OleMissFencer]

[quote]Originally posted by Inquartata:
<strong>I offer once again my invariable solution: switch to sabre. The don't even LOOK at your weapons unless you start getting funkiness on the strip...</strong><hr></blockquote>

Lol true, but last tourney i went to they made sure I had S2000 blades.
I've always hated that little period of testing, I always find myself praying "Please god just let it pass"