#gladiatorgear

[swordskingdom2]

Roman Gladius Sword Replica with Brass & Wooden Handle

[cornholeaddicts]

Gladiator Pro VIII Cornhole Bags

First Impressions of the Pro VIII King Cheetah, Maximus, Empire and Dagger Cornhole Bags made by Gladiator Cornhole Gear.

Pro VIII Series - Out of Box Thoughts:

First thoughts when you take it out of the box For the King Cheetah, I was pleasantly surprised at how the gold logo popped against the blue bag. With the Maximus bag, I went with the red and like that it is a different red then most bags I have seen. The Empire bag I chose the orange color and it makes the Colosseum look like it’s on fire (to me at least) And then there's the Dagger bag. I chose the brown color, because you don’t see many brown bags, and my personal opinion, now I know why. I don’t like the brown bag. The black dagger gets lost on the dark color bag. Overall appearance of the bag, round or square corners, stitching color, logo color, etc? Each series of the Gladiator bags features corners unlike most other bags. They are described by Gladiator as the “Emerald Cut” corners. The purpose of this is to provide a flat edge which is said to be better for pushing bags. Whereas bags with a rounded corners have a tendency to kick the bag out of the way rather than pushing it. The stitching looks great and being that it is black, it blends with the bags rather than standing out. The logos and writing look great on each bag, depending on what color you select. I feel that the brown bag with black logo is not a good color combination, but that is a very opinionated statement. You may like that contrast. Using your thumbs, pull the material apart on each side, is there movement? How about the seams? I did not notice any movement or separation in the material when I pulled it apart. The seams are well stitched. These bags should break in well and last for a long time! How does it feel in your hand, soft/hard, thick/thin, loose/tight, heavy/light, etc Right out of the box feels: The Maximus bag feels “GameChanger” loose. Both sides are made of a slick or fast material. This bag feels ready to play! Only thing I want to note is that there is no way to tell which side is fast and which is faster. (this has already been noted by Gladiator and might already be fixed)  The slow side of the Dagger bag is a material I have not seen on any bags. It’s almost like a corduroy or something. Can’t wait to see the performance of it on the boards. But overall, the bag has that already-broken-in feel. The Empire bag has the same slow side material as the Dagger. And it too, much like the other bags mentioned above, has a nice broken-in feel right out of the box. The King Cheetah bag is different. It has a tighter feel out of the box, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It might just need that break in period like most bags.  Weight consistency? King Cheetah, Maximus, Empire and Dagger series bags all weighed in at a consistent 15.8 oz

Size of bag?  King Cheetah measures approx 5.85” square Maximus measures approx 5.85” square Empire measures approx 5.95” square Dagger measures approx 5.75” square Pro VIII Series - Bag Performance Thoughts: Conditions day of test: Sunny, 74 degrees and zero humidity. Tested on Professional quality boards by BBJ. How does the bag play when it hits the board? ex. Lands flat, any kick, etc Let's talk about the 2 slick and stick bags, Dagger and Empire. During my tests, based on the conditions listed above, both of these bags were fast on the slick side and good movement but not as fast on the stick side. I was able to land a blocker bag in front of the hole and push through it with no problems. The Empire bag is a little more loose and forgiving around the hole than the Dagger. The other 2 bags, King Cheetah and Maximus performed very fast in these conditions and took a couple throws to get used to the speed. In an attempt to not fly off the back of the board, we ended up hitting the front of the board but once we got dialed in, the bags settled down nice. Both bags, but especially the Maximus, felt and performed much like an All-Slide. All the bags feel great in the hand. One flaw which is already being worked on is that it is hard to tell which side is fast/faster on the Maximus and King Cheetah. Gladiator is aware of this design oversight and is working to rectify it ASAP (they probably already figured it out and fixed it) Pro VIII Series - Final Thoughts: After testing all 4 of the Pro VIII Series bags, my personal favorite is the Empire bag. It is a loose bag that sits well, not sloppy, in the hand while throwing. It is forgiving around the hole and with a stick side, allows you to lay up a blocker as needed. The bag had no problem pushing through the blocker and when it did, I did not have an issue with the pushing bag kicking off to the side.  I feel that each bag, when used under the right conditions, will dominate the boards. Very impressed with the bags right out of the box, the material feel, color selections of bags, size and weight of bags and designs.  Ready to get your own set of bags? Purchase them right on our site King Cheetah, Maximus, Empire and Dagger Pro VIII Series cornhole bags Read the full article

[cornholeaddicts]

Winning The Day While Losing The Battle

It’s a beautiful spring weekend in New Jersey. The perfect weekend to take the family out somewhere fun or spend it in the backyard grilling some food or maybe perhaps playing with the kids. But not for us. You see, we play cornhole, and there's always a tournament on a weekend (if you know how to find them anyway) This particular tournament wasn’t hard to find at all. It was advertised for months. CNJ (Central Jersey Cornhole) managed to secure Resorts Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, 100+ teams with large payouts. Anyone who can throw a bag is going to be there. So many teams, in fact, that pool play would have to be divided into two separate squads (for lack of a better word). The morning squad and the afternoon squad. With over 60 teams in each squad, we knew pool play would take hours to complete. It was, however, necessary for seeding this many teams into the main bracket. So, off we go. Atlantic City or bust. The festivities got started Friday night with a blind draw. My problem was, I got stuck at work and wasn’t gonna be able to get there on time. Oh well, It is what it is. I’ll just get up early and drive the hour and a half Saturday morning. Day of the tournament I arrive at the casino not having a clue on where the actual tournament is.. I can’t find any signs. No indications of anything. Somehow I wound up in the food court of this place. Well, while I'm here I may as well get some coffee. I bumped into a guy from Delaware who tells me the event is in the ballroom upstairs. Ok cool, now where the hell is the ballroom? After wandering around for a bit I spot an escalator. Jackpot! Up I go, into a hallway.. Hmmm. Wtf is this?? Which direction should I go? Ok, left it is. After I walked, what seemed like a mile, there's a door.. Ballroom.. ( I can’t remember the exact name of the  room). I can hear that familiar sound of bags hitting the boards. Yup, this is the pace. I walked in to see Kevin and Mike (the founders of CNJ). I scan the room briefly just to see who's here so early. I can tell you who I didn’t see, Dickey. Where’s my partner?? Oh no, this can’t be good. I know he’s here because he was texting me the night before during the blind draw. Granted, it was 3 am and he probably didn't even know he was texting me, but still. He’s here somewhere. Then I remember the last text I got the night before. It read "Hey, if you can’t find me in the morning, I’m in room xxx". Back out into the mile long hallway I go. Now, where exactly are the rooms in this place? A short 5 mile stroll to the opposite side of the building and several more mile long hallways and boom, I find the room. Knock Knock.. No answer. KNOCK KNOCK…(long silence) door opens. Great, I found him! We made our way back to the ballroom. (Damn, I’m exhausted already from all this walking and I haven’t even touched a bag yet) We find out we are in the afternoon squad for pool play. F**k, we have a few hours to kill now.  Pool play then on to the big show Our time finally comes for pool play. I can’t even tell you who was in our pool. I don’t remember how many games we played. All I know was that Dickey was not throwing well that day. Could he be hungover from the night before? Actually, no, he is not hungover, he’s still drunk! We managed to get through pool play without any major meltdowns. I don’t remember our exact seeding, but we were mid pack. About average for us I guess. Main bracket is about to start. The top players in the country are here. Matt and Bret Guy (Guy Nation), Jordan Camba, James Baldwin, Frank Modlin, Ryan Smith, John Kitchin and Jay Corley among plenty of others. First round, we get called to play against… guys from NJ that we play against every week in league? Good grief, Seriously? We should take these guys. Not saying that they aren’t good players, but hey, we are Dickey and Slim. No problem.. Wrong mindset. It was a battle. Partly because of my partners “impaired” condition. We wound up winning a grinding match 21-17. Whew, that was close. Keep rolling, rolling, rolling We’re moving on in the winners bracket. We go outside to the balcony for a smoke and a beer. After a while I take a peak at the live bracket and see who we will be playing in the second round.  I walk up to Dickey, “Hey you good?” “Yea I’m good” he says.. Ok cool. We got Trevor and Jamie next. For those of you who may not know, That's Trevor Brooks and Jamie Graham (Arguably ,one of the best teams in the country). Well, I can honestly say, in all my years, I’ve never seen someone sober up as fast as I saw Dickey sober up at that moment.. His jaw hit the floor. He went from being completely inebriated to someone who hasn’t had a drink in 10 years. Instantly.  So.. Here we go,  Trevor and Jamie against Dickey and Slim. What an exciting match-up (at least in my head) as no one outside of NJ has a clue who we are. The walk to the boards seems to take forever. Just as I told my partner on the balcony, “F these guys,, We can beat them” ( no I didn't actually say F, I said the word). After all ,we have nothing to lose. But, if they get knocked into the losers bracket by us? That’s an ESPN top 10 play for sure. I’m throwing on the outside against Jamie. Dickey is throwing on the inside against Trevor. It wasn’t planned that way, it just kinda happened. Down and back as you normally do in a tournament. It wasn’t anything great from any of us, just a typical warm up. Our 5 minutes of fame. It's Go Time! Game on! A couple of 8 on 8 washes to start the match. Not sure if they were just feeling us out at this point but it boosted our confidence thinking we can hang with these guys. The scoring starts. Dickey puts up 3. I put up 2. Hey, we’re up 5-0. This is cool. We are both actually throwing well (Trust me, it doesn’t happen that often). A point here and a point there. Now it’s 8-0. There is a crowd beginning to gather around our match now. Oh man, this is awesome. I know it won’t last but it’s a great feeling while I have it. There I go. I give up 2 points.. Collapse time. Or is it? Dickey manages to put up a 5 spot. We are now up big, 13-2 and the crowd is yelling and cheering. They doubled in size. Who are these two guys? Where did they come from? I throw my first bag. It’s a great blocker. (Not what I was intending to do, but I’ll take it) Jamie throws an airmail, of course, and the crowd goes nuts. With my 2nd bag, I attempt a push. Oh no, I over threw it! But the cornhole gods were on my side that day. The bag went in, Airmail. A loud roar from the crowd. So, naturally Jamie throws another airmail. This time, I’m going for it. Boom! Airmail right back at him. Thankfully, for me, the crowd is behind me. They are loud and getting louder with each shot. Jaime goes to throw his 3rd bag, yup you guessed it, another airmail. At this point, I’m literally shaking. My hand is sweating (wish they had Gladiator Gloves a year ago) as I am standing there getting ready to throw my last bag and now my legs are shaking. I have no control over my hand, at all. This bag is gonna go about 15 feet and collapse midway between the boards. I take a deep breath. And let it fly. AIRMAIL!! Holy S**t.. Did that really just happen?? The people are beyond themselves. Some long haired dude from Jersey just threw 3 straight against Jamie Graham.. But wait.. Not so fast.. He still has his 4th bag. Everyone knows what’s coming.. In for 2 points and my shots suddenly never happened. He throws a flat bag, spinning like a helicopter and dead straight at the hole. The bag, almost in slow motion, lips the hole and falls off the back of the board! 1 point for us. Ok, so now, I can’t breathe. My legs are weak. I’m numb. I’m getting high fives from people that I have no idea who they are. WTF just happened? I think that was the first time I ever threw 2 straight airmails. Let alone 3. Anyway, back to the match. We are now up 14-2. Life is good. We are throwing well. Dickey puts up 2 more. 16-2. Is this really about to happen? Are we actually about to beat these guys? Like the pros that they are, they regroup. They start to chip away at our lead. Couple points here and a couple there. We had lost all momentum and suddenly its 16-14. We were still throwing great bags though but at this point, their bags were better. The match continued and the crowd never left. Back and forth it goes. It stayed close. 16-16 and then 18-18. We are all making the shots when we need them. We go up 20-18. 1 point away from the biggest upset in the history of sports. (In my head, anyway) Dickeys last bag of the round kicks to the left of the hole and Trevor misses right. We survive that round with a wash.  In the following round, I give up 2 points and now we are tied at 20. Dickey and Trevor wash again so now it’s back on me to end this thing. First 3 bags for each of us are in. I throw my last bag. I like the way it left my hand and it looks good. Suddenly, the cornhole gods that seemed to be on my side, turned on me. Its short. Short as in, the front of the board short. Well maybe I’ll get lucky and Jamie will miss the board. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding. Being the professional that he is, He just puts the bag in the middle of the board. Game over. The crowd cheers. Handshakes and hugs from our opponents. High fives from the sea of humanity that gathered to watch that match. While we were disappointed in the results, we had nothing to be ashamed of. We played, arguably, the best match of our lives, winning the day. We had people talking. They may not have known who we were before the match, but they sure know now.  Winning the day but losing the tournament Our next match (first in the losers bracket) we faced Harlee and Ronnie Culpepper.  We were still on a high from the previous match. We ended up winning that match. I’m not really sure how it happened, but it did. It didn’t seem as dramatic as the previous match. Probably because I was still numb and shaking.  We ended up losing our next match against a couple guys from Virginia. They were good. But, in true Dickey and Slim fashion, we forgot how to throw in that one. So, there it is, at least for me, my 5 minutes of fame. Going shot for shot with one of the best players in the country. Even though we didn't place in the tournament, the day was a win for us. Read the full article

[cornholeaddicts]

Gladiator Cornhole Gear Glove

First Impression of the glove

I was lucky enough to win a contest and got a free Gladiator Cornhole Gear Glove. First thoughts was great, not only do I have to explain what cornhole is to people but now I have to explain why I’m wearing a glove. The day they chose the winners I received a message asking for my info and then 5 minutes later I got tracking info. Talk about fast service, I was impressed. The glove is delivered in two days to my house. I open the package and my wife proceeds to make fun of me. So right out of the gate, I am skeptical to test it and just put it in my tournament director bag. Saturday rolls around and I’m running an event inside a vacant warehouse where the internal temp is probably 102 degrees and 94% humidity. I can’t for the life of me get the bag off my hand. Left, right, short. But wait, I have the glove to test out. First impression was surprising. My biggest issue with my toss is that I grab the bag at release. The hotter it gets the more grabby I get. I noticed immediately that I was not grabbing the bag and I could get the bag off my hand. I was sold on the glove at that point. Here I am, at a fundraiser, playing against people who can barely get a bag on the board and I’m wearing a glove. From someone who thought they didn’t sweat a lot, the difference is completely noticeable. Maybe that was my issue all along? Probably not but worth a shot.

For $20, shipped to your door, I feel it’s a good investment. I ordered a black one on the 4th of July and got tracking info by 10 am on the 5th. Not only do they sell a glove that could improve your game but they are on the ball getting orders out the door fast! Pros: * Keeps the sweat off your bags * No need to grab the bag harder * Bags don’t “stick” to your hand longer at release * Blisters are reduced on pinky finger. Heard that from Justin Stranger * They are soon to be coming in different colors to match your jersey collection. Cons: * Your wife may make fun of you * People may talk about your glove, but take their money and buy another one. Read the full article

[yohoyohoadisneylifeforme]

Pompeii exhibit was so enriching for someone like me who loves ancient history. Mount Vesuvius wreaked havoc and created an abundance of death among those people in Pompeii. The entire city was lost for 16 centuries! The saddest part about it all was that no one within the city was exempt from such a tragedy. #history #pompeii #gladiatorgear (at California Science Center)