Hello! Last weekend was a great weekend, packed with travel and learning, meeting new people and, of course, lightsabers. Was very excited to help bring the art of Lightspeed-saber to others.
On Thursday, Trish and I visited the Saberforge show room in Portland where we got to hold an SF Templar for the first time. After some talking with the salesperson, Rob, we figured out how to configure it to fall under Lightspeed hilt regulations. And of course I had to buy it.
For those wondering: if we ever have this as an officially recognized weapon in Lightspeed-saber, yes, we will count the entirety of the "guard" as a guard. Meaning it can be used in a traditional manner, even if it is not in the films (it's ambiguous in the movies thus far). It would be a waste otherwise.
Granted, there will be a lot of balancing required to make this work. Having a handguard is a huge advantage. I like the idea of balancing this through range and weight. Thus it would actually have a minimum mass. I believe all the Lightspeed-saber weapons need have their own characteristic techniques and feel.
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Interestingly enough, I think we'll arrive at a competition-ready crossguard setup earlier than we'll arrive at a competition-ready dual-wield setup.
On Friday, I finally got to meet Morgan Garrett, who runs Citadel Combat Arena. He gave us a great lesson in basic kali and we had a good conversation after over lunch. I'm looking forward to working with him in the future. When and what form that partnership will take is still not totally clear as it depends on the lightsaber and fencing market in this area. But I have high hopes, because...
We're learning to kill eachother!
...on Saturday we had out Lightspeed-saber workshop at Oregon Fencing Alliance, home of Mariel Zagunis, the first American to win a gold medal in fencing... ever. Cathy Zagunis-- who runs the school-- was fascinated with what we're doing and receptive to the idea of the Alliance learning our techniques and rules. I'm just going to have to build those materials for them to work off of. Clearly I'll have no shortage of work in the future.
Overall it seemed like everyone enjoyed the workshop. Attendance was 90% so that was good. That actually ended up being a perfect number. I hope to be in touch with the students so in the future we can work toward establishing Portland in the Lightspeed network, along with Morgan and the Citadel.
It's too bad the lights couldn't be partially dimmed at OFA (all or nothing). But it was a nice facility with lots of overhead room (unusual for a fencing school), if a little bare.
But hey, when you got this, this is the only wall-art you need.
Everyone was pretty tired at the end :D
On Sunday, our man Keith in Hawaii had another successful Lightspeed-saber class. A family has been visiting as of late and seemingly having a great time. Hope that he is really successful! Also, look at that sky!
And finally, on Monday I was back in Los Angeles with Krait Base to teach a Tano-class workshop. I hope to be back here on a regular basis very soon. Was very grateful and honored to have Conrad Cayman and his crew with us, who are accomplished practitioners in FMA. Conrad has been super awesome and helpful and I hope we'll be working together a lot in the future.
Zoe working the camera no matter what else she's up to!
So there's the brief wrap-up! There's always so much going on I can scarcely write about it in a timely manner, or even go into as much detail as I would like. But hey, as long as people get to see this is a great league, it's a great sport, and it's gonna keep getting better. AAAAND not to mention more details about our Vegas tournament! That'll be next time. Seeya then!
Cang Snow