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12.2.05 - Honolulu Advertiser, "Sword-fighting fun, but discipline also required" | Additional Photos |
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Honolulu Magazine article on Colin Chock, April 1998:
Na Kamaaina: For Colin Chock, Hawaii's only professional fencer, duels are a way of life. Profile Thomas Kwock
En Guarde!
Colin Chock has never won a maiden's heart with his dazzling swordplay, but he has earned the title of Hawaii's top swordsman. Since 1980, Chock has crossed sabers with thousands of opponents in amateur fencing matches across the country. Now Chock plans to use his blade to earn a living by joining the inaugural Professional Fencing League.
Chock leaped at the chance to become Hawaii's only member of this one-of-a-kind league, which awards cash prizes in its monthly tournaments in New York. Chock offers his theory on why fencing has never caught on here.
“You have to be covered from head to toe and stay indoors,” Chock explains. “In Hawaii, we want to take off our clothes and go outdoors.”
Chock, 34, has willingly donned his Kevlar uniform since his senior year at Hawaii Baptist Academy. He stumbled onto the sport while reading a newspaper article about a local fencing club. After a quick visit to their practice site at Kapiolani Park, Chock was hooked for life.
Chock has won 80 percent of his duels and even tried out for the 1998 Olympic fencing team. He did not make it there, but he's still a cut above most. In the PFL's first tournament this past January, Chock placed ninth in the world in the foil-blade competition.
However, Chock admits his saber has yet to make him rich, nor do women swoon over him as they did Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power. Does that mean these cinematic cavaliers were better swordsmen?
“They were actors and movie stars first,” Chock says. “I could have beaten every single film star in a fencing duel.”
Who'd want to disagree with a man who wears bulletproof clothes and brandishes a 3-foot blade?
Honolulu Magazine, April 1998, page 28
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Honolulu Star-Bulletin article featuring Colin Chock:
"Get the Point", http://starbulletin.com/97/09/16/features/story1.html