Finding buhurt

I’ve been asked countless times about how I found buhurt. I have usually told people that it’s a long story and that I would come back to it later, someday. Now it’s the day.

A long story short. No, I do not have any combat sports background - and I found buhurt in summer 2014. That’s it. If you wish to know more, read on.

Buhurt had been brought into Finland about half a year earlier by a person now a good friend of mine. This introduction to the sport had gotten the attention of some energetic small group of people who eventually, half a year later, organized the first-ever buhurt start-up camp in Finland. All we buhurtists in Finland owe gratitude to this group of people for launching the first steps of our beloved hobby.

To promote the new sport, and upcoming start-up camp, this group of people organized a demonstration battle in Magic Circle Festival. And guess who participated in the festival? In between the band performances, we had a chance to watch these armored guys beating the crap out of each other. I was mind blown. I could not believe there was a full-contact sport involving medieval armor and weapons. I have been a medieval enthusiast for literally as long as I can remember and I had promised myself that someday, by the latest for my 50th birthday, I would get a full suit of armor. There it would stand, next to the fireplace, and I would stare at it tirelessly. The aesthetics of medieval armor and weaponry are just something. I had already collected several replicas of swords, daggers, war flails, etc. but I did not have any pieces of armor. While the idea of having a beautiful set of armor as decoration had been there for ages, I never had the money to get one yet. Quite an expensive piece of decoration, just an object to look at. But now, what was this, there’s a sport I could actually use the armor with? The armor would not be solely for sake of decoration, but an integral part of my new hobby. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet. Anyway, the buhurt demonstration at the Magic Circle Festival was my first real exposure to the sport. You might want to take a look at the promotion video created from that event, link below.

To be exact, I had seen a couple of years before some video clips from Vyborg castle where big groups of armored people fought against each other. While it looked amazingly cool, I never thought it was anything else than a crazy act by some re-enactment loonies. Only later on did I learn those videos were linked to this sport.

I signed up for the buhurt start-up camp and spent a memorable weekend with total strangers, other people crazy enough to attend an event of beating each other in medieval armor. You might be tempted to have a look at one of my first matches ever, but be warned that it’s awful to watch. Two people in cumbersome unfitting armor totally unaware of any fighting skills, exhausted from two days of training, flailing around aimlessly. Link below. 

An interesting detail I remember from the start-up camp was the two-handed axe on a table. I remember examining it, weighting it, and pondering in disbelief: Are we supposed to hit each other with these?

After the start-up camp, I started collecting my first set of armor, a separate story worth writing someday, a long story to which I will come back to later ;)

Tell me, how did YOU find buhurt?

Magic Circle Festival buhurt video

Video of one of my first fights ever

Battle at Vyborg video