Visitors to Ramla Bay on Sunday morning, were treated to a really extraordinary and very spectacular show, when Martin Bonnici, Australian Maltese international photographer/photojournalist and Nick Thorn, Australian Graphic Designer and publisher, spent some time training with Longsword simulators.Martin, who lives in Gozo, and Nick said that they are using a combination of Western Martial Arts, Italian and German Longsword for their training. Martin has been training for 13 years and Nick has been training for 5 years, they are both experienced tournament fighters in the western fighting arts.

The western fighting arts are making a very strong resurgence around the world as an alternative to the Asian Martial Arts. In Malta, the Malta Historical Fencing Association under the guidance of Andrei Xuereb are doing a great job fostering the fighting arts from Malta’s past.

Martin and Nick said that there is enormous amounts of research and discipline that goes into these fighting arts.

Photographs – Alain Salvary.

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