USA Fencing Equipment Updates

This won’t apply to everyone, but if you own these types of equipment, please be aware:

LEON PAUL MASK STRAP REQUIREMENT

There’s only a few fencers that have the Leon Paul mask at our club. The USA Fencing Board of Directors has ruled that, beginning at Summer Nationals, fencers who wear the LP X-Change Contour Fit Mask must use the LP Contour-Fit Plus mask strap. This requirement applies to all USA Fencing events in the U.S., including international, national, regional and local tournaments.

FOIL LAME REMINDERS

Foil fencers must wear lames with straight, not curved, bottoms. This is merely a reinforcement to an existing rule after a recent increase in nonconforming lames being brought to sanctioned tournaments. We ran into this last year when we went to a tournament and the armorer wouldn’t accept our lames because they were “bikini” lames. To which we responded, “WHAT?” Some of these are floating around, even Duke University ran into this problem.

AMERICAN FLAG MASK UPDATE

Beginning in the 2022-23 season, the FIE (the International Fencing Federation) will only accept American flag masks with the “wavy” design pictured lower down in this article. While fencers can continue using other American flag designs at domestic tournaments, the FIE will no longer accept these masks at international tournaments starting next season.

See full announcement by USA Fencing at https://www.usafencing.org/news_article/show/1229327