Okawa Open/Boardwalk Open

[akaiyuki]

Would love to hear how both events went, and any suggestions for improvements for next year

[Purple Fencer]

, and any suggestions for improvements for next year

Don't schedule them on the same day???

Turnout seemed good at Okawa, but I read elsewhere that No Fear went to Santa Cruz..

[seven6ty]

Ah ****, I missed the Okawa Open? Damnit, who won it? Gonna go look it up on Fred now, but just curious. I couldn't have gone anyways, 2 out of my 3 blades are busted and LP is taking their time in shipping them out to me, grrr.

[notalent]

Don't schedule them on the same day???

Turnout seemed good at Okawa, but I read elsewhere that No Fear went to Santa Cruz..

I'm sure that was the reason that epee and foil were lower, Sabre was the only event that had any draw from no cal. There were a couple of SLO foilists that may have done both. Seeing the number of women fencers and the growth over the years it maybe time for a 2 day event with tournaments for the ladies. That ofcourse demands that they can get the venue for 2 days, something we couldn't do at USC.
Overall things went well, I believe fencing was done by 630 or so. Refs were an issue, but that is a reflection of numbers available, as well as waiting too long to invite us.

[akaiyuki]

Ah ****, I missed the Okawa Open? Damnit, who won it? Gonna go look it up on Fred now, but just curious. I couldn't have gone anyways, 2 out of my 3 blades are busted and LP is taking their time in shipping them out to me, grrr.

Oh surprise surprise... will you ever show up? You have no excuse! You had one working blade and you could buy another one from Sam at the venue or ... borrow one...

Seeing the number of women fencers and the growth over the years it maybe time for a 2 day event with tournaments for the ladies.

Hrm, good idea. I'll suggest it to the underclassmen who will run it next year (ha! no more hosting tournaments for me! yayyyyyy). It's definitely possible to get the gym for two days, the biggest problem will probably be schedule conflicts.

[Purple Fencer]

Oh surprise surprise... will you ever show up? You have no excuse! You had one working blade and you could buy another one from Sam at the venue or ... borrow one...

I was gonna say....I even have a few LP FIEs in stock....

[seven6ty]

Oh surprise surprise... will you ever show up? You have no excuse! You had one working blade and you could buy another one from Sam at the venue or ... borrow one...

You obbbvvvviously aren't as picky about your blades as I am! And no, LP FIE's won't do, only BF's at this point. :-/

Oh, and PLUS! It was my mom's birthday... How's that for an excuse, eh eh eh??? True, she lives in Texas, but still...

[Purple Fencer]

You obbbvvvviously aren't as picky about your blades as I am! And no, LP FIE's won't do, only BF's at this point.

I can get those easily...

[notalent]

Hrm, good idea. I'll suggest it to the underclassmen who will run it next year (ha! no more hosting tournaments for me! yayyyyyy). It's definitely possible to get the gym for two days, the biggest problem will probably be schedule conflicts.

You likely to stay down here? Schedule it in early april. Whatever weekend doesn't conflict with Boardwalk. They should have their dates soon. Get Jr to put on the schedule early so he doesn't stick quals that weekend.

[OROD]

The Boardwalk Open went pretty well, at least as far as the Mixed Foil event which started at 8:30 AM on Saturday. Yeah, you read that right... 8:30, bleh. There was no equipment check which kind of surprised me. We started fencing a little before 9 AM.

But anyway, there were 50 people there for the event. There was a shortage of refs at the start so they did 2 flights. I think there were 6 or 7 strips total... not very big, but then again it was ok for 50 fencers w/ the 2 flights.

The directing was mostly ok... a couple of very good refs and some ok ones. I didnt watch all of them, but the ones I watched did at least a fair job.

There was one equipment vendor, cant remember which one. They also didnt have anyone selling food, which sucked for those of us that didnt bring anything to eat. Ya, ya, my own fault I know. All throughout the pools I kept thinking more about how hungry I was than about the guy I was fencing. Oh well, I ended the pool undefeated so maybe it was a good thing.

The mixed foil ended around 4 or 4:30 I think. I ended up in 3rd place after losing 15-9 to Padgitt. Tedd then defeated O'Barr 15-13 to take first place. So, all in all it was a good event.

So, now the question is why was akaiyuki not at the Okawa. Studying? Hot date? Who wants to speculate?

..

[edew]

The bad thing about the Boardwalk Open (nothing to to with the organizers, most likely) was the motorcycle fatality on Hwy 17 North that occurred at around 5PM. I left at 6:30PM and inched my way home, arriving at around 9:30PM. Usual time is just over an hour.

[notalent]

So, now the question is why was akaiyuki not at the Okawa. Studying? Hot date? Who wants to speculate?

..

Seeing as she goes to ucla its unlikely she is going to meet any guys worthy of a hot date
Or she could of reffed, which seeing as goes to ucla ....

[wahrman]

Boardwalk epee went pretty well. Very well compared to last year.

Yeah, having some food around would have been nice but that's not a big deal.

I'd like that last DE back though.

But considering the crowd I'm not too bummed about 8th place.

[Piranha]

I was very pleased with how efficiently run the Boardwalk Open was. It was insanely hot, so the speed with which the event was run was critical. Better ventilation would be the only thing I would recommend, but I don't think anyone could have anticipated the mini heat wave last weekend...

[akaiyuki]

Seeing as she goes to ucla its unlikely she is going to meet any guys worthy of a hot date
Or she could of reffed, which seeing as goes to ucla ....

Yea, relative to all of us hot chicks at UCLA, the guys just get overshadowed...

So yep I reffed. We had a little tug-o-war with Boardwalk for referees, and there just weren't enough referees to go around.

I think next year we will try pushing the close of check-in time for the three weapons for okawa closer together. We had enough strips (14) and that would probably make the event run a little bit faster.

[teacup]

Yea, relative to all of us hot chicks at UCLA, the guys just get overshadowed...

So yep I reffed. We had a little tug-o-war with Boardwalk for referees, and there just weren't enough referees to go around.

I think next year we will try pushing the close of check-in time for the three weapons for okawa closer together. We had enough strips (14) and that would probably make the event run a little bit faster.

If there was lots of time and not enough refs available, with 56 fencers for the mixed epee, why didn't you use 8 pools of seven rather than 4 pools of five and 6 pools of six?

[notalent]

If there was lots of time and few refs available, with 56 fencers for the mixed epee, why didn't you use 8 pools of seven rather than 4 pools of five and 6 pools of six?

Likely because they needed the refs to ref foil. By getting pools done quickly they were able to get foil started in a timely fashion. With the larger pools you not able to finish quickly enough to get foil off in time so as to be able to finish the day in a timely fashion. If the numbers grow significantly more strips will be needed, changing the layout can get another 2 strips.

[Agent_V]

If there was lots of time and not enough refs available, with 56 fencers for the mixed epee, why didn't you use 8 pools of seven rather than 4 pools of five and 6 pools of six?

We had plenty of refs in the morning, but a couple of them had to leave, and one other was fencing in a later event. If I had a few more refs and strips I would have preferred double-stripped pools of 7. What was unfortunate was the pools of 5 and 6 for saber - it took longer to switch around the refs, find boxes with the new timings, and convince a few of the better fencers to help out than it took to actually run those pools. Especially when we indeed were using all 14 strips with the end of the epee and the foil DE's being at their midpoint.

[SenorEquis]

At the Okawa, what was the cause of the delay of the start of the foil pools? Epee pools were finished, and foil registration had closed at 11, but the pools still did not start until close to noon. There was a stretch when the only fencing happening in the room was people warming up.

[Agent_V]

At the Okawa, what was the cause of the delay of the start of the foil pools? Epee pools were finished, and foil registration had closed at 11, but the pools still did not start until close to noon. There was a stretch when the only fencing happening in the room was people warming up.

The foil actually closed a bit later, and because epee had finished quicker than expected, the bout table was processing both the foil entries and the last of the epee pools at the same time. On the plus side, that got the epee DE's started sooner. Data entry does take time, even when you have someone as skilled as Linda running it. As akaiyuki mentioned, foil reg. should have been set to close earlier - like at 10:30 - which would have rendered the latter problem moot.