Foam Weapon Sparring at the Beach

Recently, I've been taking advantage of the gorgeous Vancouver summers by going to the beach and sparring with foam-covered weapons. I haven't done much bokken (Japanese sword) or escrima (Filipino stick) training, but when I was in high school and university I did competitive fencing for about 7 years, at one point achieving the rank of 26th in Canada in women's foil and being on University of Ottawa's women's sabre team, which took first place the year I was involved. Lucky for me, much of the skills from fencing translate over to bokken and escrima sparring.

Anyway, without going into a massive amount of technical detail, my sparring partner and I had tons of fun trading blows with these foam bokken and foam escrima I bought from Century. We were able to spar realistically without hurting each other too badly. We did get a few bruises, particularly across the hands and knuckles, but nothing crippling. They're a great way to practice distance and timing and they're waaaaaay more fun than tossing a frisbee or bumping a volleyball, as long as you don't mind the odd slack-jawed gawker. I can't wait for my foam bos to arrive. :)