The nugget., September 14, 2016, Page 5, Image 5

Wednesday, September 14, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
5
Sisters native lives by the lance
By Craig rullman
Correspondent
“There are no ties in joust-
ing,” says Sisters native James
Johnson, who is travelling
to Estes Park, Colorado, for
the Longs Peak Scottish-Irish
Highland Festival, where he
will compete against jousters
from around the world in a full-
contact jousting tournament.
The Estes Park tournament
is considered the premier
jousting tournament in the
United States, hosting jousters
from around the world, and
draws crowds in the tens of
thousands.
The medieval sport of
jousting has experienced a tre-
mendous resurgence in recent
years, and Johnson, who com-
petes under the nom de jouster
“Wild Eagle” while riding with
a group known as the Knights
of Mayhem, has been com-
peting for several years with
some success. He has previ-
ously taken second place over-
all in the light-armor category,
and third overall in the heavy-
armor category at Estes Park.
Johnson says the Knights
of Mayhem group is com-
posed largely of adventure and
adrenaline junkies, including
UFC fighters, bull-riders, and
other Xtreme sport athletes.
“This isn’t a dinner show,”
James says. “It’s a real event,
and it takes a special kind of
person to want to do this.”
In modern jousting, rid-
ers take five passes at each
other down the list. A panel of
judges award points for strikes
to the chest, a broken lance, or
for unhorsing the opponent.
If the score is tied at the end
of the initial passes, the riders
square off again until a winner
is determined.
In a typical tournament
Johnson may joust several
opponents a day, for three
days.
Johnson, a former profes-
sional bull-rider who now
works in the film industry as
an operator of the world’s lon-
gest camera crane — known
as the Strada — says his inter-
est in full-contact jousting
was sparked by a National
Geographic special featuring
Charlie Andrews. Andrews is
considered the world cham-
pion of heavy- and light-
armor jousting, and is widely
regarded as the man respon-
sible for reinvigorating the
joust as a modern professional
sport.
James, who says he
“needed a vent,” contacted
Andrews, and then traveled
to Utah to learn the rules and
techniques of modern jousting.
A jouster’s equipment is
highly specialized, and the
armor Johnson wears is hand-
made. Combined with lay-
ers of chain mail, the armor
adds significant weight and
severe mobility restrictions.
The lance itself is made from
either pine or hemlock, and
capped with copper to help
prevent the lance from split-
ting. The lance is 11 feet long
and weighs up to 25 pounds.
As they charge down the
list at upwards of 30 miles per
hour, jousters are required to
release the reins prior to con-
tact, for the safety of horse and
rider, and they must control
the horse through cues from
their legs.
Johnson is taking three
horses to the Highland Games
in Estes Park — the first tour-
nament for all three horses.
The horses, Johnson says, are
trained using a combination
of dressage and ranch-horse
techniques. He emphasizes
the importance of being calm,
utilizing breathing and medi-
tation techniques, which he
believes translate to the horse.
The horses are gentle
giants, Percheron-Clydesdale-
Belgian and quarter-horse
crosses, large enough to carry
the weight of a modern jouster
in heavy armor. Johnson
stresses that horse-safety is
paramount in jousting, and
that strict adherence to the
rules largely prevents equine
injuries.
The same cannot be said
for the jousters. Johnson’s list
of injuries is as impressive as
it is appalling, including three
surgeries, broken ribs, a bro-
ken scapula, a crushed urethra,
and enough plates and screws
in his body to light up metal
detectors around the nation.
Johnson is dedicating his
performance in this year’s
tournament to his friend James
LaMere, his “best friend and
little brother” who recently
passed away.
Johnson is confident but
photo by Craig rullMan
James Johnson is ready to joust in estes park, Colorado.
circumspect about his chances
at the games this year. “If
you get unhorsed, you get
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unhorsed. But in the end it
isn’t what you have, it’s what
you’ve done.”