[Ansteorra] A modest suggestion...

[Steve Scott (Dietrich)]

Those of you that know me know that I am not, and never will be, a  fighter, 
mostly for health reasons.  I am a herald; I get to stay in the shade most of 
the time.  I have no real axe to grind in the matter of whether or not we should 
fight indoors.  Personally, I enjoy getting outside in the fresh air, even if it 
is hot.  I just dress accordingly.  But, at the risk of further irritating those 
who have had their fill of the  discussion about fighting in the heat, I wish to 
offer a modest suggestion. 



 Among our members, we have some very inventive people.  Mundanely, many of you 
work, or have worked at NASA, or one of their contractors.  A few of you may 
actually even be "rocket scientists"!  We have some of the smartest people in 
the Known World living right here in our own kingdom!  I am sure if we put our 
collective minds to it, we could come up with some un-obtrusive and relatively 
inexpensive ways to make armor cooler to wear on hot days.  


As an example, at the 2009 Gulf Wars, a man showed me how he had installed two 
rather small, but very powerful fans into his helmet, powered by a small battery 
pack.  He told me later that it had worked wonderfully, and kept him much 
cooler!  Another device I know of is a vest  that has pockets all over it for 
holding cold packs, worn by people who wear "mascot suits" in hot  weather, 
under their costume.

The point is, we have the technology, we can make it better, without making it 
glaringly modern.  After all, how many times have you heard it said that the SCA 
is about re-creating the Middle Ages, the way it should have been?  Without the 
Plague, for instance.  Well, why not without the heat stroke too?  This is 
Ansteorra; we fight outdoors; but we don't have to kill ourselves doing it!

I can just see it now, a knight in armor, in Ansteorra,  in the middle of July, 
dripping not with sweat, but with condensation from his cooling unit!  ;-)

I'll climb down off of the soap box now.  

Yours in Service,

Herr Dietrich Strobelbart
Who just hates to see people suffer un-necessarily, in service to a wonderful 
dream!

 
Numerus vestri  pluma!
Number your feathers!