Wiped Out

Yesterday we held out first outdoor practice at the new practice site. I was there at 6:30. I wanted to be early in case anyone else showed up and was unsure where to go. Jacob actually got there before me and left while I was en route. He contacted my lady, who told him I was on my way and that he should head back there.

Lady Francesca arrived with a friend in tow. I can't recall his name, but he is interested in learning to fight. Unfortunately, he is not yet 18 and we don't have any other youth fighters. They arrived as I was sitting down to work on my weapons. We sat and discussed weapon construction and I briefly explained some of the combat rules the SCA has.

Jacob is a member of Belegarth, another group which practices medieval martial arts. He brought his weapons over to compare the weapons he uses to the ones we use. The weapons the SCA uses are made of rattan. The weapons Belegarth uses are made of PVC and foam. The Belegarth weapons Jonah brought weigh about 1/3 of comparable SCA weapons, and he was complaining his weapons were on the heavy side for Belegarth.

Gareth and Tancorix were running late. They are straightening up their house and working on several home improvement projects. As happens while cleaning, things got misplaced. It took them a while to get their armor together, and then they had a heck of a drive to get to practice. They finally did arrive at around 8:00. We armored up and went at it for about 45 minutes, until it got too dark.

I realized that I need to do more conditioning, because I was getting exhausted after very short bouts. My breathing was off and I got winded way too easily. I think this may be in part because I was experimenting with my gorget, and it may have been effecting my breathing. It may also have been due to the fact that we have been practicing indoors in the air conditioning. Gareth and Tancorix were also fighting with pole arms, while I was using sword and shield. This difference in weapon styles required me to be more aggressive in order for me to get into weapons range.

Either way, at the end of the 45 minutes I was completely wiped out.

FP and Border Skirmish updates

It seems we are having a repeat of last summer's scheduling snafu for fighter practice. We were informed at the last minute of the loss of our practice site for the summer. Fortunately I was able to find a suitable alternative almost immediately. We only lost 1 night's practice. The new site is an outdoor will also allow us to practice more effectively. There is also a large shelter on the site which will allow us to hold practice even during inclement weather.

On the brewing front, I ordered a drinking horn from Raymond's Quiet Press as a prize for the Populace Choice Brewing Competition. It wasn't my original idea to have a horn as a prize, but it just kind of fell into place. I think it will be better than what I had originally intended. I just don't know if it will be appropriate as a revolving prize. It may have to remain with the champion and a new prize acquired for next year.

That leads me to believe that we should consider an entry fee for next year's competition. I haven't looked at the other SCA Guilds out there to see if they are doing this or not. At the time, I'm not sure how well that will go over. I will admit I was hoping for more responses from the local guild members before now about helping out with this years competition. It's probably just nerves. I feel responsible for the brewing activities, and want to have a successful event. I just need to relax and let it happen.