Grande Prix - #1 Kish Island, Iran.

WOW, made it back alive!! What a trip...funny how sometimes when you have certain expectations about (in this case) going somewhere, and they turn out to be the opposite of what you imagined....yup, you guessed it, this was one of those times! After 8 hours to Frankfurt with a 6 hour layover and then another 6 hours to Dubai we spent that first night in Dubai at a hotel near the airport. There is no doubt that this is one of the richest city's I've ever been to. The airport was a city in its own...it was just sooooo big it can't be explained. The hub of the middle-east, there are 24hr a day flights to every destination in the world while the biggest luxury chain stores line its 5 terminals. It's a little surprising when you first come out of the gate having to go through a controlled line of Sheik's who all look like their beards are painted on, they're so perfectly groomed. After collecting the baggage our driver was patiently waiting for us among the sea of on-lookers, family and friends...he, like all those we had spoken to thus far, was pleased to see we had made the trip. Canada had been well received!

The next morning we were up fairly early, having to make it back to the airport for our short plane ride over to Kish Island. This was in a seperate off-grounds airport that was run by Kish Airlines. Tickets to Kish were not available to purchase in advance, we could only get them at the airport that day, which wasn't the problem....rather waiting 7 hours for the tickets to be hand written out by two Iranians behind a glass case for over 100 fencers!!! Then finding out they could only be paid for in CASH, Iranian Rials to be exact....so there was a mad scatter of coaches and athletes who all gathered what they had to pay for these so called tickets. Finally making it out to the landing area I was stopped twice trying to take a picture of the plane we were taking. I had to act fast and discreetly...and managed to click it at the very moment the security man wasn't looking!!!

After the 25min flight over the Gulf, and getting off a plane that started to taxi the runway with its passangers still finding their seats (and the door open?) we landed on Kish Island. A holiday get-a-way for the oil-rich of the middle-east, the weather was pleasantly sunny and warm. We were met by a hand full of buses that were to take us to the hotels, but they had miss-calculated how many fencers there were and that each fencer had his own bag...so instead of fitting 12 fencers per bus they fit only 6. Check those pics!

Getting to the hotel ended up being the next disaster to face. The so called reservations that had been made were not listed, or at least not organized properly. So we were told to wait until things could be sorted out. Well after about an hour we, along with the Chinese, Italian and Ukranian teams decided to walk down the street, throught the rubble of rocks and unfinished buildings (as seen on CNN) and look for another hotel. The ANA Hotel was a five star spot and looked great from the outside....perfect we thought, what could possibly go wrong? I think we spoke too soon. Greeting us on the way in, planted right in the middle of the lobby was a Christmas Tree and 'dark' skinned Santa Clause...? (that baffled me the entire time, I just couldn't figure it out).
So here's the low-down on the hotel....passports had to be submitted (for scanning purposes) and not given back until leaving, payment was to be in cash only, (credit card's are not accepted anywhere in Iran), there is no maid-service - so we never had a change of sheets or towels, (even when a light bulb blew in our room they didn't have a spare to replace it), there was no pool, no internet, out of country phone calls took 24hrs to process, the hotel restaurant had two meals on the menu that were identical each day, there was no fruit or juice and the bread was stale. The only good thing was that there was a TV in the room that had one english movie channel, the bad thing though was that the same five movies ran at the the same time every day...!!

Ok, so on to the fencing. Surprisingly enough the Olympic Sport Hall was set up pretty well. I mean it was a Grand Prix event and they had to follow at least some of the rules since the competition was being monitored. I went 3-3 in my pool round, won the first DE round then lost to the World number 4 ranked Alexie Yakimenko from Russia. On the positive side I was hoping to get at least 8 points on him and ended up scoring 9. It was my mistakes that cost me the match, which means he is totally beat-able, so I was happy with the outcome and know what I have to work on. Our first team match was against the Italians, who we beat in Chilli last year, so we were looking for a win. But it was their day...they won by a small margin of 45-41....and then ended up going on to win the team event beating out the likes of France, Germany and Romania. Scoring 40 points is not a hard thing...scoring 45 points is the hardest. You learn as you go and that's what we're doing. The US didn't get past that first round either so nothing has really changed in terms of ranking.

Back to the adventure. On our day off, we took to the beach with our Spanish friends. It wasn't too bad, the water was clear all the way down and seemed pretty fresh. There were some SeaDoo's and boat rentals along the way, so we decided to rent a couple of SeaDoo's and have some fun in the Persian Gulf. 10 euro's each for an hour seemed like a great deal....we paid and were told to wait. A short while later, after some foolish picture taking we were told that our rentals had to be cancelled....and we couldn't get our money back because the boss had left for the day?? What a scam, right from under our noses they smelled tourist! Taking a dip anyway was good enough, I mean how often will you get to swim the Persian Gulf, eh?

Checking out of the hotel was another headache....with only one person working behind the reception, three hotel staff and one chef, who also moonlighted as the waiter....the entire trip was just a big game of "how long can YOU wait?". No one works in Iran, there are no restaurants to eat at, and no stores to go shopping in. You have to call 2 hrs in advance if you want a taxi and have to wake up listening to 30min of prayers that are broadcasted through speakers over the entire city at 6am. Men converse with men and women are hardly seen.

Fun is looked on as a negative thing, at least the fun I'm used to and alcohol is the devil. Can't remember when I went more than five days without a couple 'pops'...?

Our flight back out of Kish was on the sunday night. We spent the six hours in the First Class Lounge in Dubai waiting for the 3am flight to Frankfurt. I never thought I would say this but thank god for the internet....!!! Once again, our Spanish buddies kept the travel fun, as we ended up sneaking their entire seven man team (plus coach) into the Lounge! Then with another 7 hrs layover in Frankfurt I made it back to 'civilization' last night...MINUS my fencing bag. Supposedly it never left Dubai....???? Next trip is a double competition ten days to Athens and Budapest in the first week of Feb.....finally some good 'ol Euro-dishes like souvlaki, baklava and goulash to fill my hungry tummy. Rumours have it that those Hungarian girls are to die for....we'll see!!!

Richmond, Virginia - USA

So Wess and I decided to take a road trip down to Richmond, Virginia this past weekend to compete in a NAC - North American Cup which is basically the elite circut for the USA. I met up with him in Brockville then from there we took the long 10 hour drive due south. As per usual, the USFA (and their multi-million dollar business) rents out the most lavish of Convention Centres to host the tournament. This place was huge...with 40 plus strips in a room about the size of a football field!!! You can see it in the first photo. With a field of about 140 fencers, (in my weapon) the US is reaching a world class level when it comes to skill and winning. But like everything else they think they are the best. I sailed through my pool round and first elimination round until I was cheated out in the round of 32's. YES, thats right..there is cheating in this sport. When a referee is friends with your opponent and his coach, there is nothing you can do except pray for 'one light hits'. If 'two lights' appear on the scoring box, he will always give the point to the fencing he wants to win. Still, my concentration was missing that day...and still I'm struggling with sorting it out. The most challenging thing, I guess in any individual sport, is the constant focus that you need. Making sure that for everypoint whether you're winning or losing, you are working at 100% and not letting anything distract you from the task at hand. That is what seperates good athletes from great athletes. On the bright side of things, this tournament is not on our required list, it was just meant for practice. Once again, we left as soon as the finals were over....that 10 hour drive back now seemed longer then ever! We actually took a wrong turn on the I-95 North and ended up in Washington D.C. - yes, the Nation's capital. Took some pictures of The Pentagon, The Washington Memorial and Wess and I trying to look for directions....?? Unfortunately, George Bush was busy practicing his golf swing so he didn't have time see us...the nerve!!!! Well, driving through the US for me has always been tough on the ol' stomach. As pretty as Virginia is, and most other States, you just can't find a decent meal anywhere? Nothing but fast-food and burger joints...oh ya, and a Coke with that? So luckily packing a few lunches, courtesy of Mother-Peros was the way to go!!!! Thanks Mom!! Didn't get back to Brockville until 3am monday morning but still managed to crack a smile.

Vancouver Nationals - 2006

Probably one of the shortest trips I've ever taken, to a destination inside of Canada was last weekend. Vancouver was the host site for this years Senior National Championships. Usually held in June, they made the switch this year so that there wouldn't be any comflicting international tournaments - alas...finally some decent planning by the federation!!!
The venue was one of the coldest I've been in. Just an old sports warehouse without any heat to keep out little fingers warm....damn it, forgot my gloves! You can see in the first picture how busy it gets. I took it through a screen on the second floor where the bar is....of course...that's where we hung out during breaks...!! Tarsh Bakos, a good buddy of mine from Saskatoon won that day in the Men's Epee class - NOT my event. He's quite the dude, a part time kendergarden teacher during the winter and a tree planter in the summer and finishes every sentence with..."ya know"....love it, Tarsh!! As for me, I lost in the Quarter finals to Philip Beaudry, the yongest on the Canadian Team. At only 20 years old, he is the future of fencing in Canada, by that I mean a true talent. I have beaten him before, but that day was his. There was no doubt he was in the 'zone' all day and deserved to win. I've been having some concentration problems the last couple of weeks and couldn't put it together in time. No worries though, we were told beforehand that results at national competitions are not very important at this stage, its how we place internationally that counts. The picture is of Wess Ross, trying to gather up his things in a sea of fencing bags. You really have to watch your stuff carefully at these places because things can go missing like that!!SNAP!!! Anyways, they had called for so much snow in Vancouver that week, that many of us were worried about the travel. But when we got there, all I could do was laugh!!! Six inches of snow to them is a blizzard....and still the city can't handle it?? Sally, Sally..tehe, tehe! We only needed a hotel room for one night, since the return flight was leaving only six hours after the last match. So what did we do for those six hours you ask?...well, lets just say that whatever it was helped me pass out on the plane like a baby after its done sucking on a warm bottle of milk!!! I had to add this one photo of the dude 'working' outside the grocery store. Santa Clause to some kids.....but a hilarious, bored and not so cheery man to us!! Awesome. Sorry about the blury photograph, we did a drive by camera shoot...so he wouldn't run after us!