Director Profiles
Blades of Avalon - Director Profile - Ben Taylor
What is your role on the board, and what drew you to serve in this capacity?
I am the Director-at-Large/Quartermaster/Historian/Instructor for Blades of Avalon Inc. I was drawn to serve these positions by my interest in teaching and wanting to instill knowledge of historical martial arts within the people of Newfoundland.
How did you first become interested in historical martial arts?
I have always been interested in swords and historical martial arts. But it really started after playing through the video game Witcher 3 in 2023 that it piqued my interest. I was told by my father to look into HEMA clubs around St. John's. I joined one, and have loved it ever since.
What traditions, weapons, or periods do you focus on or enjoy most?
I very much enjoy all weapons and periods, but my main focus is in the Germanic art of Langes Messer, or "Long Knife" and its variations (Dussack, Kriegsmesser, Falchion, etc). Particularly, I study the Early Modern European Period (c1450-c1750) Masters Johannes Lecküchner (1478) and Joachim Meyer (1570).
What do you value most about the practice of historical martial arts?
I value the connection with people through historical martial arts. It is not just the connection of friendships and relationships you make at your local club, or tournaments, or across the historical martial art community across the globe, but the ones you make with the masters themselves. Because that is the historical portion of these martial arts; to understand that we are not creating something new, but are a part of a long line of people who have practiced the art of fencing that dates back more than 700 years. Reading, studying, and understanding history and old manuscripts really makes you feel connected to everyone who has studied historical martial arts in the past, present, and future.
What do you hope to help the organization achieve in the next few years?
I hope to help the Blades of Avalon in achieving a permanent stronghold on the Avalon Peninsula. I also hope to see it grow into a large school that fosters proper study of historical weapons and martial arts for any mature, hardworking, and dedicated adult who takes up the sport.
What does a healthy, sustainable martial arts community look like to you?
A healthy, sustainable martial arts community, to me, looks like one where any mature, hardworking, and dedicated adult can learn historical martial arts. It is also one where mistakes may happen, but we all can learn from the mistake in a respectable manner and learn and grow. As Master Johann Andreas Schmidt said in his 1713 manual, "To err is human, and we all fail many times."
What strengths or expertise do you bring to the board?
I bring a wealth of knowledge to the board. I was a Logistics Officer for the Canadian Army, where I served in roles of supply, transportation, food services, finance, human resources, training, safety, event planning, community outreach, and leadership. I was also a Canada Revenue Agency Trust Account Compliance Officer for one and a half years where I learned various business tax responsibilities. I have a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Arts (History) from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and currently working towards my Bachelor of Education, Technology Education Diploma, which further embroiders the 15 years of instructing I did with the Canadian Cadet program, and the Canadian Army.
What principles guide your decision‑making as a board member?
The principles that guide my decision-making as a board member is transparency, accountability, integrity, continuous learning, practicality, and risk-aware judgement.
What do you think is most important for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment?
I think the most important things for maintaining a safe and inclusive training environment are clear, enforced codes of conduct, clear expectations, responsibility in safety (admitting mistakes, protect people against ridicule/retaliation), and inclusive facilitation (neutral language, allow everyone to speak, and understanding biases)
What song would play during your training montage?
Gestral Village - Golgra, by Lorien Testard
What’s a training-related challenge you’re proud of overcoming?
Participating in a 10+ beat exchange. Meaning in a bout, my opponent and I successfully defended each others attacks, and riposte back and forth. In turn, this means understanding, techniques, timing, stepping, distance, and reaction.
What’s something from your childhood or early life that shaped who you are today?
Staying curious, do not be afraid of asking questions.
Blades of Avalon - Director Profile - Brendan Zamojc
What is your role on the board, and what drew you to serve in this capacity?
My official role is simply "Director-At-Large", which kinda means doing whatever needs to be done to advance the goals of the organization. As Blades of Avalon learns to walk, my role has been to guide the newly formed board of directors through the process of establishing governance documentation, registering with a multitude of government bodies and vendors, and making sure that compliance documentation is maintained to keep our non-profit status.
I'm a bit of operations nerd and I was naturally drawn to serve Blades of Avalon in this way. Once the initial set up of the organization is in place I hope to spearhead initiatives for some events, manage registrations and continue to guide the board through compliance process and policy management.
How did you first become interested in historical martial arts?
I moved to St. John's in the winter of 2022, and continued working remotely for an engineering firm in Toronto. Needless to say, my social life here in town was non-existent outside of my kids' birthday party circuits over the course of the year.
I saw an article about a sword school in town and signed up for Irish Stick Fighting. This was my first martial arts class ever, and I immediately fell in love with it.
What traditions, weapons, or periods do you focus on or enjoy most?
I have gravitated to single handed weapons for the most part with an interest in Irish Stick, Rapier, Dagger and more recently Scottish Broadsword.
In terms of the historical side of things, I'm still learning a lot and look forward to eventually being able to say I have a favourite.
What do you value most about the practice of historical martial arts?
The physical activity is a big bonus for me, but I think that the part that I enjoy the most is the community. When I square up to spar I trust every member of our community to engage with purpose and composure. We don't tend to attract too many traditional "jock" types, and absolutely now one is ever out for blood. I think that's pretty cool.
What do you hope to help the organization achieve in the next few years?
I'm hoping to get a solid foundation in place for Blades of Avalon over the next few years, including governance, educational and training sessions and events. There's a really solid community here in Newfoundland and Labrador and I want to make sure that the organization can best serve them; and there's a lot that we can facilitate for them.
What does a healthy, sustainable martial arts community look like to you?
To be completely honest, I think that the historical martial arts community here in St. John's is already our model of a healthy and sustainable community. We have a good pool of volunteers interested to grow the community and what it can offer to the broader population of the province. If we can grow this community and maintain the principles that already glue it together we'll be in good shape.
What strengths or expertise do you bring to the board?
I've been a member of many organizations over the course of my adolescent and adult life. Serving within a variety of governance structures from fraternities, club associations and professional associations. I'm familiar with what needs to happen within an organization like this and how to do those things in a way that is compliant with laws and considerate of the community that we serve.
Governance isn't the only strength, operations is something that I'm passionate about in the context of advancing the strategic goals of the organization. We're keeping things as lean as possible to begin with, but structuring our policies and practices to be scalable with both a growing community and a growing organization.
What principles guide your decision‑making as a board member?
Keep who you serve in mind. As a board member for Blades of Avalon, I'm accountable to our members and the historical martial arts community in general. I try to consider as many perspectives from that group as possible in my decisions.
What do you think is most important for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment?
Respect; for your fellow participants, for the instructors, for the policies and practices that the organization has laid out. For participants this breaks down into respect for other's physical bodies, their emotional state, and their intentions to train to a certain level. For instructors this means understanding their direction with an intent to learn and improve, while accepting their constructive criticism and safety commands when issued.
The Blades of Avalon Safety policies are designed and adopted to mitigate training risks and promote a safety mindset in everyone, and this should be respected for the importance that it carries.
What song would play during your training montage?
Rise - Jonas Blue
What’s something from your childhood or early life that shaped who you are today?
When I was in Scouts I used to get the worst jobs around camp (a lot of dishwashing). In highschool Scouts become Venturers, and the lowest level on the executive was the Quartermaster. That's the person in charge of equipment and more importantly is the person who manages who does what at camp. I still did the dishes, but it was always a lot more fair and I tried not to burden any particular camper with all the bad jobs.
Through this experience, I learned that if you don't like where you're at then you better figure out a way to change it. That might be through seeking a specific position within a group, as it was for me. Having both perspectives has been an asset to my outlook and decision making process where those decision effect others.
Blades of Avalon - Director Profile - David Botes
What is your role on the board, and what drew you to serve in this capacity?
Vice-Chair. I mistakenly thought I'd be the Chair in charge of Vice for the organization.
How did you first become interested in historical martial arts?
Over 20 years ago. I'd just moved to a new town and had just finished watching Rurouni Kenshin and I found out that my neighbour was training Japanese swordwork. I became his first student, and that's how I got into the Bujinkan and I've been training in it on and off ever since.
What traditions, weapons, or periods do you focus on or enjoy most?
My experience is obviously mainly in the Japanese martial arts, but my interests tend to be fairly wide-ranging. Right now I'm also researching Indonesian and Burmese martial arts. In terms of weapons, I suppose I enjoy pole arms the most.
What do you value most about the practice of historical martial arts?
I think I'm a bit of an outlier in terms of the attitude with which I approach the "historical" martial arts. For many people within the community... they tend to focus on the sense of distance created by history and therefore see their practice as being largely an act of "re-creation" or establishing a claim to a tradition. For myself, "historical" implies universality. There's a story I like to tell that illustrates this. So there's a medieval weapon called a rondel dagger, which was essentially a sharpened spike held in an "icepick grip" and primarily used for overhand strikes to the head and face. And a lot of HEMA practitioners will demand extremely accurate replica rondel daggers based on known surviving examples in museums or private collections in a quest for perceived authenticity. Meanwhile, back in South Africa I knew a guy who had lost an eye because someone had attacked him with a screwdriver held in an "icepick grip" while striking him overhand to his head and face. So in my life experience, being attacked with a rondel dagger is not something that belongs to a quaint and distant age of knights and chivalry, it's something that happens to you on your way home from work.
What do you hope to help the organization achieve in the next few years?
I would like to see to see a broad-based community of practitioners over time without the organization leaning too much in any one particular direction of practice or attitude, and I think my presence can help establish that.
What does a healthy, sustainable martial arts community look like to you?
That's a difficult question, and I think that the short answer would be any community where the members keep coming back to it year after year. What motivates them to do so will vary from school to school and so it's difficult to make generalisations on that front. Someone who does MMA is probably not going to find aikido rewarding after all. I think on the hand it is the feeling of what the student is getting out of the experience, but at the same time what they feel they and their fellow students are putting in to the community.
What strengths or expertise do you bring to the board?
I have over 20 years' experience in the martial arts across various countries and continents. Aside from that I have taught in middle school classrooms for several years. So at this point in the organization's development I'm probably one of the few people on the board with experience of how traditional martial arts schools are run and how classes are structured and taught.
What principles guide your decision‑making as a board member?
My aim is primarily to facilitate consensus rather than "taking the wheel" of the organization so to speak.
What do you think is most important for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment?
Respect towards one's training partner.
What song would play during your training montage?
Danger 4h30
What’s a training-related challenge you’re proud of overcoming?
When I started training I couldn't touch my toes. I'm a bit more flexible now.
What’s something from your childhood or early life that shaped who you are today?
Growing up in rural South Africa in the 80s and 90s gives me a somewhat different perspective on life compared to the average Canadian.
Blades of Avalon - Director Profile - Edmund Quigley
What is your role on the board, and what drew you to serve in this capacity?
I am the Chair of the board for Blades of Avalon. I believe in the martial artist's path and the benefit it can bring both the individual and a community, and brought the Blades of Avalon together to help others walk that path.
How did you first become interested in historical martial arts?
I have been consistently training martial arts for over 19 years, including Shito Ryu Karate, the Yang and Chen styles of Tai Chi, Yomanni Ryu Kobudo, Buhurt, and Historical European Martial Arts. I joined my first HEMA club in 2019 because only of the quality of coaching that was available to me at the time, but fell in love with the art very quickly.
What traditions, weapons, or periods do you focus on or enjoy most?
I don't think I'll ever grow beyond my love of the Okinawan bo, or quarterstaff. The beauty and elegance emergent in a 16th century Italian sidesword and buckler duel is exceptional. I try to approach life like 14th century German longsword.
What do you value most about the practice of historical martial arts?
Martial arts aid you in understanding yourself and others because they are an examination of conflict resolution methods. Every technique, strategy, and tactic has a philosophical parallel that can help the practitioner approach nonviolent problems with more confidence and a broader understanding of the conflict.
What do you hope to help the organization achieve in the next few years?
As Chair and Instructor, I aim to provide martial instruction and support for students as well as to integrate Blades of Avalon into St. John's and the Avalon peninsula at large.
What does a healthy, sustainable martial arts community look like to you?
A healthy martial arts community begins at the individual level, then the club or school, and then to the marketplace of ideas. A personal grasp of dedication, honor, and humility equips an individual to successfully learn in a group, and groups must also abide by these principals. Ideally, practitioners should be able to train together, exchange knowledge and techniques, respect the variations between different arts, and coordinate to enrich the collective experience.
What strengths or expertise do you bring to the board?
I have management experience leading small teams and worked in the HEMA equipment industry for 3 years, managing imports, digital sales, and brand relations with multiple sword manufacturers.
What principles guide your decision‑making as a board member?
Chivalry is not a trait, it is a series of choices presented to everyone every day.
What do you think is most important for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment?
Open communication is the foundation of a safe and inclusive environment. It leads to clear standards of expected behavior, honest dialogue about issues or personal concerns, and effective resolutions.
What song would play during your training montage?
Zero to Hero from Disney's Hercules
What’s a training-related challenge you’re proud of overcoming?
When I attended the Maritime Sword School Atlantic Regionals in 2024, I underperformed in my preferred longsword but did better than I was expecting with a borrowed sabre. I had a night in between the pools and final matches to get to know a new sword, and drilled it into sufficient familiarity to win gold the next day.
What’s something from your childhood or early life that shaped who you are today?
At fourteen I was informally apprenticed to a local bladesmith, who taught me how to work steel, wood, and leather, as well as how to read animal tracks, light fires, camp in the swamps of Florida, be an effective leader, and to make the hard decisions. He even officiated my wedding. I wouldn't be who I am today without the good examples (and terrible warnings) of Chris Esposito.
Blades of Avalon - Director Profile - Isabel De Aguiar
What is your role on the board, and what drew you to serve in this capacity?
My official role is Secretary, which means I organize information, take notes, and schedule meetings, but I also help out with any other task that is needed of me!
How did you first become interested in historical martial arts?
I learned about HEMA through my husband in 2019, and trained for several years with the local school where we lived in Florida. When we moved up to Newfoundland, it was a no brainer to seek out the local school and join the community here.
What traditions, weapons, or periods do you focus on or enjoy most?
I have trained German longsword (taught from Joachim Meyer's Art of Combat), arming sword and buckler (taught from Manuscript 1.33), and sidesword and buckler (taught from Manciolino's Bolognese School of fencing). Out of those, my favorite is longsword, followed closely by arming sword.
What do you value most about the practice of historical martial arts?
The community is definitely what I value the most about this practice. I've met so many wonderful, dedicated martial artists in the HEMA community, many of which have become my close friends. I also highly value the athleticism and commitment that I've seen from my fellow fencers, and I think it is important to foster such arts here in St. John's.
What do you hope to help the organization achieve in the next few years?
I hope to see the Blades of Avalon cement itself as a member of the community. I hope to see our students flourish into well-versed and well-rounded martial artists, and I think that BoA, with its wide array of different historical martial arts will help that happen.
What does a healthy, sustainable martial arts community look like to you?
I think a healthy, sustainable martial arts community is one where its members are dedicated and enthusiastic about martial arts, and are willing to put in effort and come back year after year. I think we have a pretty good thing going here in St. John's and I know the Blades of Avalon will be able to take it to the next level.
What strengths or expertise do you bring to the board?
I bring thorough knowledge of event planning and management, experience with bookeeping and record keeping, as well as community outreach.
What principles guide your decision‑making as a board member?
I think that making sure that all decisions are made for the benefit of the community and its members is integral to my decision-making as a board member.
What do you think is most important for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment?
The most important thing for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment is making sure there is at clear code of conduct, and also that we are fostering an environment where members trust and respect one another.
What song would play during your training montage?
Hold Back the Night by the Protomen
Blades of Avalon - Director Profile - Sarah Kerner
What is your role on the board, and what drew you to serve in this capacity?
My role on the board is Treasurer. I was drawn to serve in this capacity by the desire to see the Blades of Avalon establish strong and sustainable financial roots, so that it may succeed in fulfilling its purpose and vision for its community for many years to come. It is my hope that BoA will reach a greater community and teach with greater impact than we can even imagine, and do more good than ever dreamed.
How did you first become interested in historical martial arts?
I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in swords! As a child I was quite taken with heroes wielding blades in fantasy media. Years later as an adult when I learned about HEMA, I knew it was something I must do, and I made plans to relocate in order to join a school.
What traditions, weapons, or periods do you focus on or enjoy most?
I most enjoy training German longsword and Leckuchner messer!
What do you value most about the practice of historical martial arts?
Historical martial arts demands total presence and integration of the body, mind, and spirit. What I value most is how dedication to the art expands and deepens my awareness of all three facets, both within myself and of Another.
What do you hope to help the organization achieve in the next few years?
In the next few years I hope to help the organization establish a solid financial foundation upon which there is room to reach more, teach more, and do more good for the community than previously thought possible!
What does a healthy, sustainable martial arts community look like to you?
To me, a healthy and sustainable martial arts community is one where members grow together in skill, respect, sportsmanship, and camaraderie. Progress is made together through continual effort towards the worthy ideal of martial art excellence, which hones the body, mind, and spirit of the collective.
What strengths or expertise do you bring to the board?
Working in both healthcare and financial services, I have experience with documentation, record keeping, and compliance with industry standards.
What principles guide your decision‑making as a board member?
The principles that guide my decision-making as a board member are keeping true to the purpose and vision of the Blades of Avalon, and the joy of dreaming bigger and better than the best we know.
What do you think is most important for maintaining a safe, inclusive training environment?
In order to maintain a safe and inclusive training environment, it is most important that both positive feedback and critique are given as clearly as possible and in a timely manner during classes and events. This will communicate and demonstrate an environment where successes are celebrated and mistakes are opportunities for improvement as we humbly strive for excellence.
What song would play during your training montage?
Change the World - MAN WITH A MISSION
What’s a training-related challenge you’re proud of overcoming?
I had never considered myself an athlete before starting HEMA. Somewhere along the line during my training, my self-concept changed so completely that I found myself participating at a ranked tournament in Ontario! Without a doubt, overcoming my old identity is my greatest training success so far.
