Take that! Dave proudly shows the HFC patch as he lands a lunge.

Our newest Foil athlete, Dave “The Adonis” Jensen proudly upheld HFC’s banner at the recent 14 April Open Foil Event.  Though he didn’t take home a medal (this time!), he did bring home some thoughts to share and experiences to build upon.  In Dave’s own words:

April 14th’s tournament was my second and it proved to be a valuable learning experience for me. Not winning any bouts was the immediate outcome, but evaluation of my performance later provided tips I will bring with me into the future.  For one, I learned the specifics of a few rules I hadn’t known before but learned intimately (the hard way) while on the strip.  I was able to use that new information in later pool bout, pushing it into overtime with a fleche attack in the final second to tie it up.  I then learned that it was sudden death for the ensuing minute.

My thanks to Clubmate Connie did a great job of organizing the event, and kept everything running smoothly despite a plethora of weapons issues that came up, and Sword Fight Club’s  JR was keen on his directing. Overall not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.

Thanks, Dave, for representing HFC in competition!  See you in the salle!

(For the full results, go here:  Hawai’i Division Qualifiers:  Foil)

Hope I'm this spry at that age!

One of my friends sent me this photo, and I just had to re-post it! This is the original link http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=7713&fb_source=message

Irish Brigade charging Marye's Heights, Fredricksburg, 13 Dec 1862

Our hosts, the Pacific Buddhist Academy, will be sponsoring Family Promise, a charity for homeless families, the week of 17-25 March.  The club will be closed that week. In the meantime, have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Payton vs Okura

HFC had two fencers in the tournament, seasoned veteran Jesse “Bob” Payton and first timer Dave “Newbie” Jenson. Everybody got in a lot of fencing with a pool of 8. Jesse came oh so close to running the pool, losing to Ethan Okura in overtime. It was only fitting that the gold medal bout was once again Jesse vs Ethan, and what an exciting bout it was. In the end Jesse stood firm and took home the gold 15 – 14.

Fencing in KC

Day 1 was a good day, I finshed 15th overall. I was the only E that finsihed in the top 15 with the B’s and the C’s. It was also my vet 50 event so I qualified for some national points which will increase my national points ranking. Day 2 not so good, I had a pretty tough pool. Not sure where I finished but since it was the vet combined and didn’t count for points it was good experience against some very talented fencers. I also had a very good referee who gave me some good pointers.

For full results, go to USFA.

The club will be closed for Thanksgiving, Thursday, 24 November.  It will open again on Friday 25 November  to allow us to work off our added calories!

May you have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

For me, this event was a wonderful opportunity to improve my ref skills and I got the chance to do mostly Foil and Sabre pools and DEs but also a bit of Epee. Having a nationally rated referee there to help us put ourselves in order was a tremendous advantage, and we have to thank Terry Dix for making his way out to the boons of the US fencing world (although I believe he wasn’t complaining too much our panoramic backdrops).

The Sunday Referee Clinic was also very informative, and to everyone’s great surprise even the technical aspect went without a hitch. Thanks to Tom we even had a bigger monitor available for the reviews of fencing footage. Armed with a better understanding of the rules and better ability to recognize right of way, I hope the future local events will continue to improve for all competitors, local and visiting!   Conny