I was always an active child and I liked sports. I was thin and energetic and liked to play and run all over the place. I had trained in Badminton in Iceland and Tennis in the USA. I played chess for the school chess team. I trained in Karate also. I never really liked playing on regular sports teams, like football, basketball or handball, and I never knew why. It seems that I am just not a team player, because I liked my independence and I like to be in charge. For this reason the so-called “one on one” sports have always been my thing, Badminton, Tennis, Karate, Chess and Pool. At fifteen I started working out my body to gain muscle and I trained fitness until the beginning of the year 1990, when I saw an advertisement about fencing in Reykjavík, Iceland. Like all boys I loved the idea of fencing, seeing Zorro in the movies and on TV.
I was very interested in this sport and was glad to see that it was finally available to study and train in the sport in Iceland. I went to the exercise hall and it was the oldest exercise hall in Reykjavík, being kept open by a preservation society. It was 1/3 of the size of modern sports halls. This old building has since been moved away to make room for newer things. When I arrived at my first practice session I found out that it was all very basic and primitive in there. The sport was in its infancy in Iceland and I got to be a part of it, which is a cool thing in hindsight.
The first time that went to fencing practice it was at night in winter, and the old building smelled of old wood and it held very old gymnastic equipment from around 1900. It was all very primitive but charming also. The other people training there were not very good and the teachers were not professionals at all. Some had new white gear but most did not. We had to buy it from Europe and go there to fetch it, which was a big hassle in 1990 as you can imagine. I started training but had no white cool gear, but whore black clothes in the beginning, which was fine. The others training there were mostly young people and some teenagers of both sexes. For some reason the young men training there were guys in the science field working at the University of Iceland, a chemist, a physicist and the others something similar. The rest were students of many schools, both boys and girls. I got the hang of it very quickly and it was great fun. We would train on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
In summer we would sometimes go outside on Saturdays and train by the Catholic church next door. It could be a sight to see for the public, when 12-14 people were fencing in pairs around the gothic church in the sun. We felt like the three Musketeers dueling. We would often stop traffic with our outdoor duels. I even competed in fencing and got a medal which I still have. Those were good times. I still have my old “foil” training sword at home. I am just waiting and hoping for a burglar to come into the house in the middle of the night, so that I may fuck him up with my old sword.
