Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

I live to FENCE · 08-10-2006, 06:49 AM

Anyone on this board smokes? If so are you still smoking or have quit? If you have quit, please cite your reasons for doing so. Thanks

pigeonmeister · 08-10-2006, 06:57 AM

I believe Golibitsky is, and has always been, a pretty heavy smoker. I heard he tried giving up for a major competition, didn't do that well and subsequently gave up giving up! In reality though giving up smoking should have nothing to do with fencing, there are slightly more pressing reasons- such as an appetite for life?

LUDICROUS · 08-10-2006, 07:14 AM

I daresay Golubitsky would be a tad faster if wasnt a smoker?

Five Rings · 08-10-2006, 07:45 AM

My experience is that non-US fencers tend to be equally divided among smokers (occasional and regular) and non-smokers. The occasional ones smoke during the post-fencing drinks session and don't really inhale.

Funny anecdote - I was at the Oceania Games back in the 80s (first international) and went to the bathroom between bouts and found one of the Korean national squad hiding in a stall - smoking! He indicated that his coach would have beaten him if he was found out. Don't know if the beating part was true.

banane16 · 08-10-2006, 07:50 AM

In our recreational fencing group a lot of people smoke, actually also the coach does. he says, when he was still going competitive abou 10 yrs ago, almost everyone did without problems with their performance.

actually, having been a smoker for yrs, but having quit for a few yrs now, i doubt this.

however, i never see anyone coughing after practise, so this still might be true. but remember, we are only recreational, with a few local tornaments for some of us.

i have stoped smoking because of swimming. i know people who run and smoke, bike and smoke, obviously a lot of people who fence and smoke – but i have never met someone who does any kind of half-serious swimming and smokes.

AndrewH · 08-10-2006, 08:16 AM

Go to any NAC/Summer nationals. Standing around the door of the convention center is always a group of coaches smoking.

As for fencers... I know a few. I have a teammate who, a couple years ago, was fencing in the top 4 of a big college tournament. He jumped to take a parry and his cigarettes promptly fell out of his back pocket and all over the strip.

I've yet to see anyone light up during DE breaks though...

IHateMrPotatohead · 08-10-2006, 08:51 AM

I smoke, but I'm not exactly a "world class" competitor. Just a recreational fencer.

ChubbyHubby · 08-10-2006, 09:20 AM

From what I've seen going to World Cup events with BooBoo, pretty much all the top fencers smoke. You just see them puffing away outside between rounds etc. I often say to her "want to get to the top, start smoking!".

No doubt it is bad for you, but who knows how it calms your nerves etc to make you fence better?

D+F+P=Hadouken! · 08-10-2006, 10:06 AM

Fencing is an anaerobic sport, smoking will not hurt you.

Mr Epee · 08-10-2006, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

Fencing is an anaerobic sport, smoking will not hurt you.

Epee fencing is a mixture...

D+F+P=Hadouken! · 08-10-2006, 10:11 AM

Boing... Boing... Boing...

Zilverzmurfen · 08-10-2006, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by I live to FENCE

If you have quit, please cite your reasons for doing so. Thanks

I never even started. (Yeah, I'm a good girl...)

Not only is it expensive, it's also unhealthy -- not only to yourself, but to others through second hand smoke -- and disgusting. To me it just looks really 'unfresh' when people smoke.

CvilleFencer · 08-10-2006, 11:02 AM

I smoke. I used to smoke full strength Parliment's and I smoked about a half a pack a day. About a year or so ago I switched to a brand (a bit hard to find) called eclipse. They are pretty cool in that they don't directly burn the tobacco. They have a magnesium/composite nosecone that heats the tobacco inside a metal "cup" (with the bottom of the cut being towards the heat source) that vaporizes the moisture in the tobacco so that you get all the nicotine but without the smoke and less bad stuff for you. Still not perfect, as in it still has stuff that can cause cancer (so does sunlight...) but you don't smell like an ashtray, they burn clean without ashes, they won't stink up or discolor houses/cars/teeth, second hand smoke "effects" are something like 80% less and I certaily don't feel it when I am working out or fencing. I also tend to not smoke as many. I am down to about 5 a day if that.

So if you are a smoker and worry about it but can't quit (and we fencers are rarely quiters) check them out. They taste really really mild until you get through your first pack or two. After that a full strength smoke is like getting punched in the chest...

Fencergrl · 08-10-2006, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zilverzmurfen

To me it just looks really 'unfresh' when people smoke.

That's an interesting way to put it ZZ... just compare people in their 40's and 50's. Typically, the smokers look much older and less healthy (more wrinkles, skin looks grey). I've never smoked, nor would I ever live with a smoker. Which is fairly easily achieved where I live. We have the fewest number of smokers in the country here.

Zilverzmurfen · 08-10-2006, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

That's an interesting way to put it ZZ... just compare people in their 40's and 50's. Typically, the smokers look much older and less healthy (more wrinkles, skin looks grey). I've never smoked, nor would I ever live with a smoker.

Perhaps what I meant is lost in translation, I wasn't talking about whether people looked younger or not.

I meant that it looks really unhealthy and...filthy. Disgusting. (I know those are strong words but my english vocabulary limits me to use more fine-tuned words, sorry.)

For a visual comparison, imagine someone picking up left-overs from a trashcan and putting it in their mouth. That's what it looks like to me. Yuk.

Fencergrl · 08-10-2006, 11:44 AM

Ah... I was thinking you meant that non-smokers look fresh and young and smoker's skin tends to look more reptilian (thicker, more coarse).

Mr Epee · 08-10-2006, 11:49 AM

The thicker skin comes in handy when dealing with uppity/smug/snide comments coming from self-righteous non-smokers.

Peach · 08-10-2006, 11:56 AM

I've been married for thirty years to a smoker. His skin looks great.

And he smokes outside so I don't have to smell it. When we fly to England, he'll bring a nicotine patch so that he doesn't go berserk on the plane.

Me, I had to give up pipes and cigars fourteen years ago because they were gateway drugs to the hard stuff--cigarettes.

Fencergrl · 08-10-2006, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Epee

The thicker skin comes in handy when dealing with uppity/smug/snide comments coming from self-righteous non-smokers.

Guilty as charged.

Five Rings · 08-10-2006, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CvilleFencer

They have a magnesium/composite nosecone that heats the tobacco inside a metal "cup" (with the bottom of the cut being towards the heat source) that vaporizes the moisture in the tobacco so that you get all the nicotine but without the smoke and less bad stuff for you.

Dude . . . that sounds like . . . a bong.