Stabby Stab

Saturday I attempted something new.  My friend Conrad rented out the gym and fencing equipment from his Fencing Club for his birthday and invited a few friends out to give fencing a try.  I thought it was a cool and unique idea, so I decided to attend.  Who doesn't like stabbing people with swords with no repercussions?    Back in high school I went with a friend to his fencing club to try, but that was so long ago, I really don't remember much about it.  I arrived and patiently waited for Conrad and his fencing friends to set up.  Please excuse me in advance, as I'm no fencing expert and don't know all the terms.  First we suited up with a jacket, glove, mask, an orange cable that runs from the back of your jacket, through your sleeve to your hand that holds the epee and the epee itself.  Having just attended a pirate themed pool party the previous weekend, I decided to come equipped with a few pirate accessories. 

En garde!

Conrad and his comrades showed us the stances and a few basic moves.  The movements are a lot more difficult than what they show in pirate or mid evil movies.  Next it was time to get connected.  In the middle of the dueling area there's a box that indicates who scored a point.  A cable runs to the back of the dueling area on both sides to the rear of each fencing and connects to a red box seen in the picture above.  From there, there's a retractable cable that connects to the orange cable coming out the back of your jacket and tethered by a clip.  This allows you to move forward and back like a small child on a leash while staying connected.  The other end of the orange cable connects into your epee.  The tip of the epee has a trigger which signals the score box if a point is scored when it makes contact with your target.  So I had the jacket on and zipped up from the back, but was given the orange cable to feed through my sleeve.  I would need to remove my jacket to do this.  I then said something I never thought I'd say to another man while turning my back to him: "unzip me please". 

After feeding in the orange cable, getting zipped back up and getting connected, my first opponent was Charlie, one of Conrad's buddies.  Neither of us fence, so it was a fair match up.  We decided to duel up to 5.  I scored the first 2 points and was actually feeling confident in my abilities to fence.  I ended up winning 5-3.  My next opponent was against one of Conrad's fencing buddies.  I don't remember everyone's names.  We played to 10 this time and he beat me fairly easily.  I did manage to score a few points, but my inexperience started to show.  By now the gym had gotten very hot and I was sweating buckets, so  I decided to ditch the pirate gear.  I dueled several other people that afternoon, losing to all the real fencers, including Conrad 10-5.  I felt like I was improving, understanding the art of fencing a little more than when I walked in.  I managed to use some parries effectively, counter to score points and even use the lunge attack a few times.

At this point, the group decided to duel with sabers.  This required a different cable that runs through your sleeve and a different jacket worn over the regular jacket.  This jacket has some sort of conductive material over the surface which is connected to a wire and in turn connected to the helmet.  This allows any part of the saber's "blade" to score when contact is made on the jacket or helmet.  This allows to slashes on top of stabbing with the tip.  My first opponent was Cory, someone whom I had previously dominated at sumo wrestling at Conrad's bachelor party.   I quickly learned that saber dueling is much different than with the epee.  I often tried to stab, but wasn't defending well.  Cory dominated me with constant slashes to my right arm.  I could feel it stinging in multiple places.  Some of the fencers were giving me some tips, but I was too far behind for them to make a difference.  Cory won convincingly.  Upon removing the jackets later on, I was surprised that I had only one visible mark, despite the pain throughout my arm upon applied pressure from my finger. 

I had one more saber duel and a few more epee duels before our time there came to an end.  Overall, I had a great time and it was a fun experience.  If you get the chance to fence, I highly recommend it.  I don't think I'd take pursue it with all my other activities, but I'd certainly be up for it periodically.