New epee

Yay, the epee I ordered arrived today. So now I have three. Well, three once I put a new blade on one of them. My other two are the cheapest electric epees from Absolute Fencing, and so far I've always replaced their blades with the cheapest wired blades from Absolute. So that kind of epee and blade is more or less all I have experience with. I mean, I had a different but equally cheap epee back in Denver, but that was a long time ago. And I've sometimes used one of the SAS club epees when I had to, and Marla's spare epees when she lent them to me and mine failed at a tournament. But I don't have more than passing experience with anything but these cheap Absolute epees. And they have been fine, but over time I've becoming increasingly annoying with the blades. They seem to always get a bit of an S-curve like bend that I can't straighten, and I suspect makes them more susceptible to breaking. They also seem to bend near the tip a lot, and I've now had two break right at the tip.

So, I'm interested to see how this Blue Gauntlet epee turns out. It is also a cheap epee, about the same price as the Absolute ones, although I spent a couple more dollars for a transparent pad. The blade seems quite a bit less stiff than the Absolute ones. A few test thrusts and flicks against a pillow felt nice. Will have to wait a few days to try it out for real—and put some scratches on its oh-so-shiny bell guard.

Also ordered one of Blue Gauntlet's cheapest body cords. To my surprise it looks more like the $30 Uhlmann cords than the $12 Absolute ones. So now I have three and a half working body cords and three epees (albeit one currently with a broken blade).

Battle in Seattle report

I competed in the Friday evening mixed vet epee event and was happy with the results. I took some pictures after I was out. On Saturday I went for a while, with Nathaniel in tow, to watch and take some pictures of the much larger men's senior epee event.

The results of the mixed vet epee are here,
http://askfred.net/Results/roundResults.php?seq=1&event_id=79718&highlight_competitor_id=91067

My pool bouts began with mixed results and I was starting to feel bad about it. First I lost to Benjamin Korn, 5-2. Then I beat William Walker 5-4, which was pretty close. Then I lost 5-0 to Eli Delgado. Then I had to fence Maria Copelan, who had been tearing our pool up, beating people who were beating me. She was obviously very good, very fast, with great toe touches and fleches. So, trying to set realistic goals, I told myself I would be happy if I scored one point against her. As it turned out I did quite well, getting to 4-2 and winning with a double, 5-3. I'm not sure how I managed it, other than keeping good distance and waiting for her fleches and toe touch attempts. At one point, perhaps after she tried a toe touch, I ended up chasing her down the strip almost to the end, all the while thinking "stop chasing!", and yet I managed to score at the end of it. Afterwards she said I did well and did things she couldn't deal with, like that chasing. I said how I didn't expect to win and had been hoping to merely score a single point. She something very nice about how I had won fair and square, or words to that effect.

After that, I was pleased with the night. It didn't really matter what else happened, I was happy. And I went on to win all my remaining pool bouts. I almost felt bad beating Jim Henderson 5-1. He is good, and I didn't think I would do that well. Maybe he was having an off night.

So for the DE round I seeded 12th out of 33. Much better than I have done before at events like this. With 33 fencers almost everyone got a bye in the first round. My first bout was against John Comes, who had seeded 21 and also got a bye. I'd fenced him before and done well. I didn't expect to win, but thought it was a real possibility. I remembered his fencing from before as being somewhat "large" and "telegraphed". This time, however, he was much better than before, and strong. Maybe he's been practicing! :) Anyway, it was close, but he won 10-8. He went on to fence Erich Cranor (seed 5) in the next round, and lost 10-6. I can't imagine I would have done much better.

John Varney, left, William Walker, right.

Other interesting things from the event: John Varney did well. He got the 1st seed and ended up getting 3rd place, losing to Erich Cranor in the final 4, in an extremely close bout that ended 10-9. At one point there was a question about whether John had scored a touch or hit the floor, and John said he hit the floor. Watching, I wasn't so sure, but he probably knows better than me. Still, a nice guy--saying he hit the floor might have cost him the bout in the end.

Also interesting to watch was Mikol Ryon losing to Maria Copeland 7-10. Mikol, someone I could not normally hope to beat, was beaten by the person I beat in the pools! Maria, who had seeded 10th (compared to my 12th!) then fenced Sean Ameli, seed 2. I was rooted for her, but she lost 8-10. It was rather close. Sean went on to beat Erich in the final bout, 9-10.

Maria Copeland going for a toe touch against Mikol Ryon. He withdrew his foot and she missed, but he didn't manage to score afterward.

Mikol Ryon scoring on Maria Copeland, with a lovely under the parry thrust.

So, in the end I came in 17th out of 33, which is pretty good for me in an event like this. Due to my having done well in the pools I ended up ranked the highest out of everyone who lost their first DE--17th, because the top 16 people by definition won their first DE. John Comes, who I lost to, came in 16th--the lowest of everyone who won their first DE, because his seed was fairly low. Rus got 12th, Mikol 11th. Lee Tobias seeded 13th, one below me, but did better in the DEs--getting to the final 8 before losing to Erich Cranor. Tobias came in 8th overall. Maria Copeland came in 6th.

The vet foil event was going on at the same time as the vet epee. This is the best picture I managed to get of the foil fencing.

From the senior epee event on Saturday, Andrew Lee making a touch.

Also from the Saturday senior epee, a funny moment.

February 2013 things to work on

Rather simple:

• Smaller blade movements; less wild, more precise.
• Back to footwork basics; left foot more planted, working on combining that with bouncing; try to reduce how often I overreach and end up off balance, sometimes hopping on my right foot.