Hunting for wheelchair fencing equipment

[Catlady]

If someone has some used gear of this type to trade it would be great. However, what I'm really trying to do is track down a supplier that has some. I all ready know where to get the general equipment e.g. foils, jackets, and masks. What I'm looking for is the equipment that is specific to wheelchair fencing such as frames and grounding covers for the chairs. I've e-mailed most of the fencer suppliers I know of, and haven't gotten all the responses. Out of the responses I've gotten, I have one vendor, Santelli I think, who say they can special order the grounding covers, and PBT is checking price and availability on everything. It sounds like they may be able to get something. Other than that, no luck.

Anyway, to wrap up this novel, I know there are people on here who know much more about equipment than I do, and may even fence at clubs that all ready have a wheelchair program, so I'm hoping to get some leads. BTW I know there was a thread on the main board about starting such a program, but I haven't gotten around to looking it up again. As I recall though, it didn't mention anything about acquiring equipment.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Daylight]

After being horrified at the cost of a fencing frame we actually took the instructions provided online (I believe it was originally on Mario Rodriguez's webpage - special thanks!) and built our own frame. It cost us about $150 and that included labor! Granted, we only need one frame here as there are less than half a dozen wheelchair fencers in town (though hopefully those numbers will increase). I'm afraid I can't recall the url off the top of my head but I can look it up. At worst, I know I have a copy of the instructions at home. Good luck!

[DHCJr]

A suggested person to contact would be Bill Murphy cats306@earthlink.net as he was the commissioner for Fencing at the 2000 Paralympics and they needed to build the frames.

You are looking at an expense for the skirts. In the material alone, I would expect $400 - $500 per pair. Lame material is not cheap, but it is good to promote this.

You might also contact Westide Fencing Center http://westsidefencing.com/ about what they did to set up Wheelchair Fencing and Gary van der Wege wedge@centurytel.net who was in charge of the recently completed World Cup and Zonal.

[Voldune]

If none of those work you might want to get ahold of the people at the Louisville Fencing Center. I know they know all about specialized wheelchair fencing because my aunt is a wheelchair fencer there. There website is http://www.louisvillefencing.org or you can email them at info@louisvillefencing.org . Hope this helps you some or at least gives you more options than you currently have available.

[Catlady]

Just wanted to say thanks everybody. You're great.

I'll check out your suggestions.