News and updates

Mark your calendars, Friday October 30th will be the Shinai costume contest! The contest will be at 10:00. Remember that we will be fighting right after the contest, so please either have a costume you can fight in or a change of clothes.

What a great night of fighting! Several of the Thousand Oaks fighters came to play, it was awesome. We are working on a date to go to Thousand Oaks for a day of fighting.

Ok the date has been set. Fighters from Thousand Oaks will be joining us on Friday January 23rd. Spread the word!

For those of us that placed an order for the Ronin products. The order has come in, and Tom from the Battlemens group will be bringing it to us in the next few weeks. I'll spread the word about the date when it is determined.

Seasons Greetings To one and all!

It is that time of year again! The weather is turning colder, and thoughts are turning towards the holidays and family. Christmas lists are started, and gifts are bought with loved ones in mind. It is a time for family and friends to come together and rejoice in each others company. The holidays are upon us once again.

In the tradition of giving I am once again setting up a C.H.O.C. toy drive. This is a toy drive to help out the family's with children in Children's Hospital of Orange County. Every year family's are faced with the tough challenge of budgeting medical expenses with gifts. Many family's simply cannot do both. Toy drives are a welcome relief to parents trying to squeeze just a little more money out of the budget around the holidays. We have all been there to see the face of a child light up when they receive a new toy. Now imagine that look on a child's face that is not able to go outside and play with their friends. It means so much to be able to give a present to a child that would otherwise have to go without. Also think about what it means to the parents, who often just cannot come up with the extra money for a gift. There are thousands of children that need our help this time of year. While you are out shopping this year, please remember to pick up an extra gift or two. Even a simple gift will light up the face of a child. This year C.H.O.C. is asking for help with Infant and Toddler gifts, as well as the often forgotten Teenage gifts. If you are not sure what kind of toy to pick up, I have a list put together to help you select one. Simply click on the link below.

You can bring the gifts to me at Friday practices. I will be collecting the toys until Friday December 19^th .

Contest to be held between 10:30 and 10:45. (To allow for people coming from work)

Shinai's Halloween costume contest will be on Friday October 31st this year. Remember we will be fighting directly after the contest, so either wear something you can fight in or bring a change of clothing.

As most of us know, Terry was recalled to active duty. We will miss his sword on the field, and hope for a safe and fast return. Our thoughts and wishes are with you Terry!

We had about 34 fighters on the field, it was a good day of fighting. We had a couple of different groups there, it is always nice to cross swords with new fighters.

On Saturday March 1st. we are headed to Thousand Oaks for a day of fighting. Spread the word, and remember. Their field their rules, and weapons. Which means bring any and every weapon cause they use them all! Here is the Address, and directions to Thousand Oaks.

What a great night of fighting! We had several fighters from Thousand Oaks come down to join us. We also had a few fighters dust off the cob webs to fight as well. Thanks to Don, Andrew, Cash, Dave, and Anna for joining us on the field. It has been too long, hopefully it will be a trend to see you out fighting on Friday's. There were about 31 fighters on the field for the better part of the night.

Some of the fighters from Thousand Oaks are coming down to play this Friday. Spread the word, as it promises to be a great night of fighting! Looking to start circle by 9:45-10:00, wall shortly after.

Once again we are doing a

For Children's Hospital Of Orange. I will be collecting the toys every Friday until December 14th. So check out the link above, and donate a toy.

Congratulation to our costume winner Sarah! Erin took second place, and Damara took third place. To see the pictures, check out the photo section.

Contest to be held between 10:30 and 10:45. (To allow for people coming from work)

It is that time once again. Shinai's Halloween costume contest. Remember we will be fighting directly after the contest, so either wear something you can fight in or bring a change of clothing.

The date for the next multi group battle has been set. Saturday August 18th we will be headed to Thousand Oaks for a day of fighting. Tell everyone, and remember to bring all weapons! Here is the Address, and directions to Thousand Oaks.

Check here to find out the information on the Tourney on June 9th. Remember to check back often, as this info may change before the tourney. Here is the Address, and directions to Thousand Oaks.

Mark your calendars! The 2007 summer tourney will be on June 9th! Sign ups start at 11:30, with fighting scheduled to start at 12:00 so get there early to sign up. Here is the Address, and directions to Thousand Oaks. More info to come, so check back often.

A GREAT day of fighting was had!!!!!!!!! We had 56 fighters show up for the multi group battle on the 10th. We fought from 12:30 to 5:00(ish). There were a lot of great battles, a lot of good fun. The weather was sunny, but not too hot. Looking forward to the next multi group battle!

As most everyone knows by now. Kendall (Speedy) will be leaving us in March. So we are going to have another big group battle on March 10th. This will be the last time we will be taking the field of battle with Speedy, so I hope that everyone can make it and send him off with lots of great fighting! Here is the Address, and directions to Thousand Oaks. Remember the fighting starts at noon, so to miss most traffic I advise you to leave around 9:30 or 10:00. Thousand Oaks has a class until 11:30, but we can always play off in a corner until the fighting starts.

We had a day of fighting in the rain, and it was fantastic!! There was a light misty rain falling for most of the day. Which was perfect, because it kept the temp nice for fighting all day. We had a lot of fighters show up to fight in the rain. Looking forward to the next multi group practice!

The next big battle in Thousand Oaks (Address, and directions) is on Saturday, January 27th. We are using the Battlemens rules. Meaning that neck and groin shots do not count. If you hit someone in the head, neck, or groin. Your shot does not count. This includes if your shot bounces or slides there from anywhere else. So if you hit the shoulder, and it bounces into their head or neck. The shot does not count. Fly-fishing is allowed on their field of battle. Bring any and all weapons you want to fight with. Specials are welcomed, and encouraged! They have LOTS of room in which to move, and fight in. Fighting starts at 1:00 pm! See everyone there.

Thank you to everyone that donated a toy! It will mean a lot to a child, and their family to be able to open a present on Christmas.

Once again we are doing a

For Children's Hospital Of Orange. I will be collecting the toys every Friday until December 15th. So check out the link above, and donate a toy.

Don't forget. This Friday the 3rd of November, we will have guests! That's right members of the Battlemens and SAAW will be down for a night of fighting! Everyone come out and have a great night of fighting!!

The costume contest was cool, we had 14 fighters in costume. Brandy won first place, Gabe won second place, Erin won third, and Anna got honorable mention in fourth. Check Friday night practice for the pitures.

Hey everyone. A few members of the Battlemens, and SAAW are planning a visit to fight with us on Friday November 3rd!

Mark your calendars, Friday October 27th will be the Shinai costume contest! The contest will be at 10:00. Remember that we will be fighting right after the contest, so please either have a costume you can fight in or a change of clothes.

This is the average of performance over all events. This average does not determine the tournament winner but is a measure of how consistently someone did overall. That said, the tournament winner has always also had the highest combined average. In the past, people liked to compare their averages over several tournaments to see how they were improving. The minimum score is “1” (meaning you lost in the first round in every event). The maximum possible score is “7” meaning that you won every event and we didn’t even have to hold a final round. The scale is progressive – that is, it is harder to further increase your average the higher your score gets:

2.5 to 2.99 Respectable
3.0 to 3.49 Very Good
3.5 to 3.99 Extremely Good
4.0 to 4.49 Outstanding
4.5 to 4.99 Partial Domination
5.0 or more Total Domination

Weber, Rich (OCS) - 4.875

Tosch, Brandon (BG) - 4.25
Meagher, Jeremy (SAAW) - 4

Molina, Brandon (BG) - 3.875

Lockie, Greg (OCS) - 3.25

Eaton, Jessie (OCS) - 2.875
Swarens, Jeff (BG) - 2.875
Miliam, Todd (BG) - 2.625
Sintic, Tony (BG) - 2.625
Warner, Tom (BG) - 2.625

Haro, Jason (BG) - 2.375
Vaughn, Gregg (BG) - 2.375
White, Mike (BG) - 2.375
Ekback, Juston (BG) - 2.25
Goodwin, Brad (BG) - 2.125
Hipple, Jed (VS) - 2.125
Nelson, Joel (BG) - 2.125
Vaughn, Robert 2.125
Carroll, Brandon (BG) - 2
Hipple, Jill (VS) - 2
Parker, Tom (OCS) - 2
Byrne, Josh (BG) - 1.875
Carpenter, Derek (BG) - 1.875
Martinez, Jessica (SAAW) - 1.625
Murphy, Blake (BG) - 1.5
Lombardo, Danny (BG) - 1.375
Westerhoff, Brad "Donut" (OCS) - 1.375
Kyle (OCS) - 1.375
Erin (OCS) 1.375
Hessman, Brett (BG) - 1.25
McIntyre, Cliff (SW) - 1.25
Edwards, Matt 1
Goldberg, David (VS) - 1
Green, Jeff 1

For those of you that missed the general announcement on Friday. Shinai is going to start earlier as of this Friday. Last week we had 10 fighters there by 9:30!! That was awesome! One of the things fighters have been saying is they want more fighting, so here it is. Shinai will start at 8:00pm! That's right, two hours earlier! Start spreading the news.

We are estimating about 58 - 60 fighters showed up through out the day. Some arrived late and some had to leave early, so we did not field all of them at once. Most of the battles had about 45-48 fighters, we had at least three battles in the middle of the day with 50 fighters on the field! Pictures and videos of the day will be up soon, check the events page. Fantastic turn out! The fighting was awesome! It was a great day all around. A big thanks to Battlemens for hosting the day. Cannot wait until the next big multi group practice!

We are estimating some where between 50 and 60 fighters so far are going to be at the big group practice! We will have team battles, Capture the flag, Queens, Small teams, Cards, Resurrection, and the popular War Lord battle! It promises to be a day of great fighting!! Click here for direction to the park.

On Saturday July 8th. All 5 groups will be having a large practice! There will be members From Battlemens, SAAW, Ventura Shinai, Red Wolf, and OC Shinai. It promises to be a fantastic day of fighting! So grab your sticks, pole arms, shields, whatever, and come out and fight!! The fighting will start at noon, and go till we drop!! If you need a ride, start inquiring now. Extra seats fill up fast. Below is the address to the park where all the action will be. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Friday June 2^nd members from the Battlemens Guild, SAAW, and possibly Ventura Shinai, and Red Wolf group will be coming down to our practice! This is a join practice of all the groups, so this is a Friday not to miss!!!!! Get to Shinai early as we expect our guests to arrive about 9:00. We will start fighting as soon as we have enough people, and we will fight till we drop!!!!!!!

Life has occurred. Unfortunately the Tourney on May 6th has been postponed. Check back for updates as to when the date will be set again.

The fighting in Thousand Oaks was awesome! We had about 48 fighters on the field, and fought for the better part of 4 hours. All five groups were present; Battlemens Guild, SAAW, Oak Wolf Brigade, Ventura shinai, and our Friday night group. The weather was perfect for fighting. It was a great day all around!

Rain or shine we are still going to Thousand Oaks to fight tomorrow! Both the Battlemens, and Oak Wolf groups have said they will be there rain or shine. The park has large bathrooms to change into dry cloths for the drive home. So come out and play, it should be a fun day!

April 1st is upon us. This is a reminder, and information for any that might not have heard yet. For the joint practice we are going to on Saturday April 1st in Thousand Oaks (Address, and directions). We are using the Battlemens rules. Meaning that neck and groin shots do not count. If you hit someone in the head, neck, or groin. Your shot does not count. This includes if your shot bounces or slides there from anywhere else. So if you hit the shoulder, and it bounces into their head or neck. The shot does not count. Fly-fishing is allowed on their field of battle. Bring any and all weapons you want to fight with. Specials are welcomed, and encouraged! They have LOTS of room in which to move, and fight in. Fighting starts at 1:00 pm! See everyone there.

Sigh... Thousand Oaks is the causality of heavy rains. So we are going to have to reschedule their trip to our practice. So the Battlemens guild WILL NOT be coming down to fight with us on March 10th.

This just in. The Thousand Oaks group just cannot wait until April 1st to fight again, so that are coming down to see us on MARCH 10th! So everyone come out and lets have a big night! Last time we have 57 fighters on the field, lets try for 60! We will start fighting around 9ish. So expect circle up to be about 9:15ish, and battles to start around 9:30-45ish. See everyone there!!

As most of you have heard by now. On Saturday, April 1st we are going to join the Thousand Oaks group for a practice. I'll post more about this in the next few days.

Ok the tourney ROCKED!!!!!! Seriously, there were about 60 or so fighters there. Five different Shinai groups showed up. It was a day of great fighting, and fantastic battles. When the tourney ended, the fighters were not ready to call it a day. So we picked teams, and had a Capture the flag battle rez. game. The red team kick ass! They won twice in a row. We were not quite done yet, so we did a standard battle. Again the red team dominated, way to go RED!

Last Friday was great! We had 12 fighters there by 9:45, and we started fighting by 10:00! So if fighters show up early again we will start fighting early. I for one would not mind Shinai starting at 10:00 every week. Hell starting at 9:00 would be awesome, but I understand that not all fighters are out of work before then. When enough of us are there, we will start fighting. Several other fighters also mentioned that they would love to start fighting early again, so lets see if we can gets things started at 10:00 again.

The fighting last week (the 16th) was awesome! The first battle we had 40 fighters on the field, the second battle we had 42! A big THANK YOU to the fighters that came down from Thousand oaks group! They were awesome, and had good fighters. It was a blast to be able to fight not only against them, but with them as well. We look forward to doing this again! Thank you to all of our fighters that came out of the wood work to make it such a fantastic night!

On Friday December 16h, we will have some guests!! Another group that practices shinai up north will be making the trip down to fight. They will be there Friday the 16th. So far this is the only trip that is planned, so if you want to fight with them. You have to be there that night. We are hoping for a strong turn out. We will talk about it to all this Friday.

We have also lost Casey, he has accepted a promotion at work that will take him away most Fridays. The exception to this is that he will be back when ever it rains. Yes I know that is odd, but then again this is Casey! When it rains, Casey gets a day off.

As most everyone knows. Philip has moved to Colorado. His email address has been updated, and he would love to hear from all of us from time to time. His picture will be moved to the archive section. While I am sad to see him go, as I will miss him as a fighter and as a friend, I wish him well and the best of luck in his new area.!

Roger made it back from overseas unharmed!! His tour of duty lasted just over a year, but he is back now. He stopped by Shinai to say hi, and play a little. He promises to be back as often as he can. Provided work, military, and his wife does not cause him to be else where.

We got the picture taken without too much disruption to Shinai. The only hitch was that the cop was unable to get there for the picture. We had a lot of people show up for the picture. Sadly some of them did not stay and fight, but it was still a good night of fighting. As soon as the pictures are ready I will post them. The movie that was taken of the event did not turn out, so I will not be posting it. Thanks to everyone that made it for the picture!

We are doing a photo for the

web site on FRIDAY JULY 29th. This picture will be take at 10:40 PM on the brick wall with a train behind us. If you want to be in the picture, by there by 10:30pm at the latest. Amtrak has agreed to have a train sitting there for the picture, that is why the picture will be taken at 10:40pm. Bring any and all LIVE STEEL you have for the picture, please note that there will be cops there so don't bring anything illegal as the cops will be in the picture with us. The picture is going to be of Shinai fighters posing with LIVE STEEL to show that we are not afraid of terrorists. Everyone should have at least one piece of steel bared. If you have extra LIVE STEEL bring it, as we cannot have too much for the picture. I hope to see as many of us there as possible to support the group, and the web site, against terrorism.

NOTE: At no time will the LIVE STEEL be allowed on the field during Shinai. The only time the LIVE STEEL will be allowed is during the picture. NO EXCEPTIONS!!

There is a knife and sword fighting tournament run by COLD STEEL. Now while we are not indorsing it, or recommending it in any way. I am providing a link to the web site. So that you can decide for yourselves as to if it is something that you want to do.

A reminder to all at Friday nights. Shinai is only concerned, and can do anything about what happens at Shinai. If it is on the docks, fighting field, training field, or around some ones car from Shinai then let someone know about it. If it is at the cafe, or across the bridge, or anywhere else not specified above, then let the authorities know. It is nice to know that people at Shinai care about what is going on around Shinai. We are not there to deal with a drunk guy at the cafe, that is for the management of the cafe, or the authorities. We do not deal with a group of kids messing around on the other side of the cafe, that is again up to the authorities. We only deal with what is happening at Shinai, and those there for Shinai. If we were to walk over and deal with something not pertaining to Shinai, then we would not be there to deal with something that is actually happening at Shinai. Along those lines remember if you bring someone to Shinai, you are responsible for them. If they are doing something not allowed at Shinai, we will look to you first to put a stop to it. If you do not then we will, but you will also be addressed.

Shinai collected a total of 57 toys for the toy drive. Thank you to everyone that donated a toy!!

Remember that this Friday the 17th will be the last day I am collecting for the toy drive. So anyone that has not dropped off a toy yet. You have one more chance to do so.

Anyone that wishes to update their picture, let me know. I will be bringing the camera to Fridays for a while. I will be taking more fighting, and sparring, and new fighter pictures.

Once again we are doing a

For Children's Hospital Of Orange. I will be collecting the toys every Friday until December 17th. So check out the link above, and donate a toy.

Well kiddies, all the extra fun stuff planned for the month of October for Friday night Shinai has been cancelled. So there will be no haunted house, no big crowds. Just our regular fun time at Shinai!

Hey everyone, just a reminder. The 'docks' at Friday Shinai will be off limits from Friday October 1st through Friday November 5th. SIX whole weeks! So for those 6 weeks, all you side liners will be sitting in the area normally used for training. For anyone that is in training, you need to show up earlier. Say about 9:00ish. Training will be on the field before battle starts. So training will end around 11:00ish. ALSO! October 15 through the 29th we will be having larger bands at the cafe, and larger crowds. So there will be barricades up to keep the crowds out of our area. These barricades will separate the cafe from the sideliner area, which is in the middle of the brick area.

Friday we had a little excitement. For the most part we are a fun loving easy going group, but on Friday a stranger overstayed his welcome as a sideliner. So much so that the authorities were called. The guy knowing he was not welcome any more figured to run and avoid the cops. But as he found out with 20 fighters working together after you. There is no getting away, he was caught and left Shinai in a cop car. It was a great display of everyone coming together to deal with an unfortunate problem, especially since it was the first time we have ever had a problem like this before. Way to go everyone!

We really need to make sure that we keep people away from the tracks on Friday. We were warned that if we do not, we may lose the site. Johnny, Groovy, and Dan are taking up a collection to get some orange cones to help keep people back. If you wish to contribute, see one of them.

Wednesday night Shinai is moving back to out favorite location! Yes Toy’s R us! For everyone that remembers this spot, it is one of the best sites we have ever fought at. It has lights, room for fighting, room for training, room for sideliners, plenty of parking, and drinks/restrooms nearby. It is on Edinger, between Golden West, and Gothard. Directly across from Golden West collage. So on Wednesday February 11^th at 9:00 we will be at the old site. Tell everyone about it, the more people show up, the larger the battles!! This field of battle can handle 50 fighters easily! For anyone that does not know where it is, both Greg and myself will have maps to the location on this Wednesday, and Friday. On Wednesday I will drive anyone over that wants to see it. Anyone remember specials battles? You know, any weapon that is not a standard shinai. Well drag them out of the closet, dust them off. Make sure they are ready for combat, and bring them along! So come one, come all! Lets have a great night of fighting!!

The other e-group for local fighters is Shinai. Join and keep in touch with everyone.

Well I am not sure if you all know but we have created a new e-group called World_wide_Shinai it is set up so that if you are from anywhere in the world it is available to help you find groups in your area. So if you are not a member join today, anyone can. Gregor

Ok, the news and updates has been recreated, for some odd reason it disappeared from our server, but it is back and better than ever!! Gregor