Epee: Blades at the Beach…

As some of you know and many others might not know (I say many … there’s like, what, three of you that read this junk), I spent this last weekend in Myrtle Beach, SC. It is certainly not unusual for someone to go to the beach in the middle of summer, but I didn’t go to Myrtle Beach for the beach. No, I went for the fencing!

For the second year in a row, the Coastal Carolina Fencing Association hosted their Blades at the Beach tournament. I didn’t go last year because I felt no where near ready for competition, but Cameron went and had a grand time and so she and Woody gathered a group together for this year and, with Kathy’s invaluable help in securing lodgings and leading us there, we all went.

I’ve only been fencing epee for about five months and, initially, I was only going to this tournament to participate in the team epee event with Jim and Jordan. Upon giving it further thought, though, I also entered into the mixed individual epee event which ended up being a men’s epee event. They had a very good turn-out of women and the women petitioned to have the mixed epee event split into men’s and women’s events. I tried very hard not to let the fact that there were a couple of C rated fencers, a few Ds, and many Es spook me too much. I set a goal of scoring at least one touch on everyone I faced.

Let me say first that it was tremendously hot in the venue. I expected it to be a little cooler near the coast, but it was actually much warmer out that way than it had been here in the mountains. Woody put the temp at somewhere near 90°F and I have to agree whole-heartedly with him. I was sweating, without my kit on, just sitting there waiting for the epee event to begin. By the time my pool was over I could feel my body just reaching critical mass. Thankfully, the hallway leading into the gym was air-conditioned and so I stripped my jacket and plastron off and went in there to cool off a touch before DEs began.

I got lucky with my pool in that, despite being there with five other men from my club, I had never met any of the other six men in it. This I considered lucky because my biggest goal, apart from the one touch per opponent thing, was to learn. I felt I stood the best chance of learning something new by facing opponents I’d never faced before. Good lord, was I right. Of the six bouts I won only one, and that by a narrow 5-4 margin. However, the other men in my pool were great sportsmen (with one notable exception) and, seeing I was clearly a noob, were very generous with pointers and tips to improve my en garde and parries. My pool, thus, was one big private lesson and I enjoyed every minute of it. I really feel like I took something valuable away with me and this became somewhat apparent in my first DE round.

After cooling off in that hall, downing a couple handfuls of gorp and two granola bars (and countless ounces of water), and toweling off I discovered my first DE bout would be against Woody. I knew he hadn’t been to a tournament, as a competitor, in some time and that his greater strengths as my coach lay in the other weapons, but it is still quite intimidating to know you’re going to face your coach on the strip in competition. We have had pool bouts in club, and Woody has always come away victorious as it should be. Frankly, I don’t feel like I learn from victories. It’s when I lose that I learn lessons and I always learn something when I fence Woody (even if he has to beat it into me). But, I digress; here I was going to have to face Woody. I told myself I had scored touches on him before, in club bouts, and so I could at least give a good accounting of myself and hopefully learn something, just as I had from pools earlier that day. We mounted the strip, had our weapons checked, saluted, and came en garde.

I don’t have a great memory of the details from that point. I remember the pointers the guys had given me were fresh in my mind. I remember the first touch and thinking, “Cool, I got my one touch on Woody. Anything after this is gravy.” The next thing I remember is scoring my sixth touch and thinking I could just drop right there, dead from heat and exhaustion, on the strip and be happy. I wasn’t conscious of the total score, just my own touches. It wasn’t until the time keeper called out that there were twenty-eight seconds left in the period that I realized I’d scored fourteen touches and Woody was down. He scored the next two touches and then I scored my last right before the buzzer ending the first period. Yes, you read that right. This all happened in the first of three three-minute periods. I don’t know what carried me off that strip, because I felt like I was going to pop from the heat and the sweat and the god-oh-god-my-legs-hurt. I honestly cannot tell you exactly what happened. I only saw the next touch, and then the next touch. I guess I got into that ‘zone‘ people talk about. I stripped down again, fast as I could, and wobbled to the hall for more AC. I was a little late to my second DE round.

I’d just started dressing back up when I heard my name. I scrambled to gather up all my gear and trot over to the strip. Thankfully the director hadn’t started testing my opponent’s weapon yet, so by the time he was done I was ready to have mine tested. This next bout was against one of the Cs in the event. To top it off he was left handed, but we have a couple lefties in the club so I’ve had some experience with them. Despite this, I felt I would be lucky to come away with even my single touch. I’d noticed he liked to crowd his outside line by riding the edge of the strip. I decided I was going to pull him out and force him to fight on a line closer to my inside and the center of the strip. I figured if I got the chance to fleche, I didn’t want to have to run off strip to do it. This, I think, threw him off a touch. Before all was said and done I’d scored five touches. He, of course, beat me, but I felt like I’d surprised him and he seemed to have at least had fun judging by the big smile on his sweaty face when we shook hands. Either that or he thought I was funny looking. I walked away from DEs very satisfied with my performance and looking forward to the time to cool off before the team event.

The team event came around and Jim, Jordan, and I, collectively known for the event as Maid and Malcontents (because she’s sixteen and Jim and I are grumpy old men), discovered that our first match was against Skulls and Bone, a.k.a. Kathy, Cameron, and Woody. We held our own, and had a great time, but our coaches proved their salt and schooled us soundly on the strip, 45-28. I came into my team bout with Woody knowing he’d have learned from our DE bout and that my new tricks might not hold. I held my own, gave him a run for his money, but in the end his Kung Fu was stronger than mine as I knew it would be. We spent the rest of the event cheering Skulls and Bone on. All-in-all I think all of our fencers gave a great accounting of themselves. In the end we all made the trip to have fun and I think we certainly achieved that goal.

On a side note, I also learned that lighting in a gymnasium type environment is not conducive to photography without flash and/or tripod. We discourage flash photography as it can be distracting to the fencers, but tripods are allowed. I’m definitely bringing one next time. I got a few shots, which I’ll post later, but nothing decent. Oh, well, there’s always the next event.

The rest of the weekend was spent in chatter, food, and a rousing game of Munchkin, which I had never played and am now hopelessly addicted to. For this I blame Woody, Cameron, and Kathy. Or, you know, thank them, at least, for a wonderful experience.