02-27-2008, 02:58 PM
|
#1 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: CA, SF Bay Area
Posts: 109
| Epee in the SF Bay Area
Hey there,
I am getting back into fencing (was out with a broken back for a few years, but as they say; I got better) and was wondering where all the Epee fencers hang out and/or the best place to train. I will be getting back into comp and enjoy the more competative/hardcore enviornments to the slacker ones.
I was thinking Halberstadt, but that is only because I trained with Peter back in the '80s before I went to CSULB.
Thoughts?
__________________
Timing is everything.
Ty
| 
|  | | And now for this message... |
| |
02-27-2008, 03:01 PM
|
#2 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Venice Beach, CA
Posts: 1,272
| GGFC, Golden Gate Fencer's Center?
__________________
"Life is like a wheel, where everyone steals, but when we rise, it's like Strawberry Fields."
| |
| | |
02-27-2008, 03:05 PM
|
#3 | | Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 44
| Halberstadt is more of a low-key environment, and adults usually train M/W evenings from 7:30-9:30. Epee in the evenings is almost entirely adults, of varying skill levels.
GGFC is a more intense environment, and I'm not sure how many adults train there regularly (at least a few). They have many juniors, especially females, andtheir main epee nights are also M/W.
EBFG in Oakland is also a good epee environment with many adults. They train 7:30-10 Tuesdays and Thursdays. | |
| | |
02-27-2008, 03:10 PM
|
#4 | | Fencing Expert
Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: CA area
Posts: 6,049
| GGFC (Golden Gate FenCING Center) is probably your best bet in the city. HFC doesn't have too large an epee group. However, epee is growing well in the SF Bay Area:
Here are the dominant clubs:
GGFC - Golden Gate Fencing Center, SF
EBFG - East Bay Fences Gym, Oakland
GPS - George Platt's Swordplay, Inc.
MFA - Marin Fencing Academy
MPC(?) - Marin Pentathlon Club (or something like that, but primarily a kids group)
EMFC - Elite Musketeers Fencers Club, Menlo Park
CARD - Cardinal Fencing Club, Stanford
TFC - The Fencing Center, San Jose
CFA-SJ - California Fencing Academy, San Jose
CFA-MV - California Fencing Academy, Mountain View
SSC - Salle Santa Cruz, duh
DFA - Davis Fencing Academy, Davis
Yeah, SSC and DFA may be a bit far from the peninsula, but the above are all decent choices. As for the fencing, join the bayarea_epee yahoo group (don't recall the group name) and get the latest scoop on when the next mash-up of fencers will be. They tend to all show up at some random club and beat up on each other for the evening.
__________________
=)=///
| |
| | |
02-27-2008, 04:01 PM
|
#5 | | Bitter young coach
Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bay Area
Posts: 4,501
| Well, I'm a bit biased, but I'd say come down to GGFC. We work hard, but it's really a great environment, and the level of coaching and fencing in epee and foil is quite strong.
We have epee training tonight from 6 to 8:30 if you'd like to swing by and check us out.
__________________
"If I were ever to challenge you to a duel, your best bet would be battle axes in a very dark basement." Misquoted from The Prisoner
"Technical excellence is the antecedant of tactical creativity." - Nat Goodhartz
But those things which belong neither to God nor to Caeser, feeleth free to writeth them off, for yea, they are deductable.
| |
| | |
02-27-2008, 04:35 PM
|
#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: CA, SF Bay Area
Posts: 109
| Thank you very much for the replys. I will check out GGFC as soon as I can, today is my wife's birthday so not a good one to start on...
Found the Yahoo group, and signed up. I think Saturday will find me a AFS to get geared up  Assuming they still have the best selection of gear. None of my old stuff fits, except my glove... /sigh
__________________
Timing is everything.
Ty
| |
| | |
02-27-2008, 11:31 PM
|
#7 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: SF bay wine country
Posts: 297
| M, W: Halberstadt (HFC) or Golden Gate(GGFC)
T, TH: East Bay Fencers Gym (EBFC) in Oakland or Standford (Cardinals).
Also EBFC is open on Sat.
There are others also, as EDEW mentioned. www.TheBaycup.com lists all of the clubs in the area.
If you go to HFG or Cardinals, I'll be pleased to bout you.
HFC and EBFG: $10 floor fee.
Cardinals and GGFC: $15 floor fee.
All of the above clubs have a pretty substantial number of fencers, usually 10 or more.
Welcome back.
Sam | |
| | |
02-28-2008, 01:05 AM
|
#8 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: the Salle(I no longer have a home address)
Posts: 1,074
| I would add to RDG's comment and say that you should check out several clubs before making a choice. Some things aren't evident immediately. What works for one person might not be the best for you.
__________________
J Jefferies | |
| | |
02-28-2008, 01:20 AM
|
#9 | | Fencing Expert
Join Date: May 2000 Location: The valley of the -hot- sun, NorCal
Posts: 3,184
| If you're looking for a place to train on Mondays, on the peninsula, EMFC has a good epee group. That's where I am at, usually.
__________________ - Epee is the Louis Vuitton bag of fencing: only the best can get it, and the rest of the masses must content themselves with cheap knockoffs (sabre, foil)
- To not recognize the power of the French grip is to be in denial
| |
| | |
02-29-2008, 02:24 PM
|
#10 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: CA, SF Bay Area
Posts: 109
| Monday & Tuesday nights should open up for me in late March. I will check out EMFC, I tried them a year or so back but was not as recovered as I thought so it was a one shot deal. The Epee team had been at a tournament that weekend so only the newbies were in that night; I did not get a solid impression. Everyone was very nice and one of the coaches was able to identify my previous ranking after a couple touches. Pretty impressive considering how rusty I was/am.
Living in Foster City and working in the East Bay makes pretty much everywhere workable for me.
I did see Dan Tibbitts name on CFA's site and I suspect he is the same guy I traded welts with in my first Sabre class back at SJSU in '86. It will be fun to see how many of my generation are still around.
I am looking forward to meeting you all.
__________________
Timing is everything.
Ty
| |
| | |
02-29-2008, 03:17 PM
|
#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Northern California
Posts: 293
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Tydive  Monday & Tuesday nights should open up for me in late March. I will check out EMFC, I tried them a year or so back but was not as recovered as I thought so it was a one shot deal. The Epee team had been at a tournament that weekend so only the newbies were in that night; I did not get a solid impression. Everyone was very nice and one of the coaches was able to identify my previous ranking after a couple touches. Pretty impressive considering how rusty I was/am.
Living in Foster City and working in the East Bay makes pretty much everywhere workable for me.
I did see Dan Tibbitts name on CFA's site and I suspect he is the same guy I traded welts with in my first Sabre class back at SJSU in '86. It will be fun to see how many of my generation are still around.
I am looking forward to meeting you all. | I was fencing at SJSU in '87, and Tibbetts was there. Same guy running CFA.
__________________
- Wisdom is the knowledge of how much you don't know.
| |
| | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off | | | All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:06 AM. |
