utah renaissance festival and fantasy faire may 8, 2009 Jousters ready to get all medieval at faire By NANCY VAN VALKENBURG Standard-Examiner staff nvan@standard.net A medieval train wreck. That's how Charlie Andrews describes the full-contact jousting he does, in armor and on horseback, at Renaissance festivals. If you think the image is jarring, wait until you see the actual jousting. "I love it," said Andrews, 38, of Eagle Mountain. "I love the competition, the violence, the hard-hitting nature of the sport. I love that's it's a competition of man against man. I love working with my horse as my teammate. I love that you can't lose because of a judge's bad call. I love walking around a Renaissance festival and feeling really cool, like a rock star at a concert." There are drawbacks. "You do get a lot of injuries," cr, Andrews said. "I almost died there years ago. I broke my ribs and punctured a lung, and I had pulmonary embolisms. You get hurt a little every time you do it, but if you're good, you only get hurt really bad maybe once a year." Andrews founded a jousting group, the Knights of Mayhem, which will perform at the Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire this weekend and next in Marriott-Slaterville. His jousting name is Sir Charles of St. Andrews. "I played rugby when I was younger," Andrews said. "I did rodeoing in high school. I've been in the military. I've done a little bit of ultimate fighting. I've been in combat. The next evolution for me was something like this. It's just so unique. In the year 2009, how many guys wear armor and do full-contact jousting? Not the sissy jousting they do at Medieval Times dinner shows. Nobody does what we do." WENDY ABEL Eagle Mountain resident Charlie Andrews will be jousting at the Utah Renaissance Festival, and Fantasy Faire. Andrews said he jousts full time and owns a California business, Trident Security & Associates, that supplies bodyguards to people around the world. "It's one of those businesses that thrives in bad economic times and post-9/11," he said. Andrews took second place in 2008 and first place in 2007 at the U.S. International Jousting Championships in Estes Park, Colo. Taking first in 2008 was friend Shane Adams, of Toronto, founder of the jousting group Knights of Valour. Adams also will appear at the Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire. "You'll see the top two guys in the world here, and with the other guys, maybe the top 10 guys in the world, competing against each other. You'll get to see the best guys in the world joust." Andrews and his friends have hosted jousting events around the country, and hope to do one RENAISSANCE FAIRE The Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire is 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. today through Sunday, and May 15-17. at 3109 W. Pioneer Road, in Marriott-Slaterville. Adults pay $12. Federal employees, military personnel, senior citizens, anyone in a costume, and children age 5 to 12 pay half-price. Children 4 and younger attend for free. Features include music, magic, comedy, food, animals, art, demonstrations, sword fights, belly dancing, jousting and live musical entertainment. The entertainment schedule can be found online at www. utahrenfest.com. Andrews, who is 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, gets into his custom armor, which weighs about 150 pounds. Suits of armor cost about $6,000 for a plain suit, and as much as $30,000 for those with ornate decorations. Andrews uses a 12-foot lance made of Douglas fir, which screws into his chest plate. He and his opponent run their horses at each other, each going about 20 miles per hour. To score a point, they must use their lance to hit a grid attached to their opponent's breast plate. The loser can get a broken collarbone, a dislocated shoulder, broken ribs and any number of sprains and bruises resulting from the fall from his horse. "It's a medieval train wreck, guaranteed," Andrews said. "It's not like going to a hockey game and waiting for a hit, or going to NASCAR and waiting for a wreck. It's immediate action, every time. Guys do tend to get dinged up." How to get there Standard-Examiner in Utah before too long, perhaps at the Golden Spike Arena. But until he works out the details and sponsorships to do that, he's happy doing jousting demonstrations for schools around Utah, he said. "I talk about the history of medieval times, and they go bananas," he said. "It's a chance to give fifth- and sixth-graders something they will remember for the rest of their lives. I also give them a few words of wisdom, things they can guide themselves by. I tell them to stay in school, don't drink or do drugs, be honest, don't cheat, lie or steal. I tell them to be chivalrous. They are more open to hearing it from a knight than they are from their parents." The Knights of Mayhem will perform horseback jousts at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. each day of the Utah Renaissance Festival and Fantasy Faire. Each day at 11 a.m.. the - group will do a demonstration using objects, rather than each other, as the targets. For more information on the sport, visit www. knightsofmayhem.com or www. fullcontactjousting.com. cz (D QJ _j. 00 00 0> o (0 o> -n << fD 00 OO c+ < ro oj o —i o Z3 00 <&lt