The Knight Life

\o7 A knight of the Table Round should be invincible

Succeed where a less fantastic man would fail

Climb a wall no one else can climb

Cleave a dragon in record time

Swim a moat in a coat of heavy iron mail.

\f7 --"C'est Moi" from "Camelot"

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It is a blazing 102 degrees outside. Still, layer by layer on it goes, about 100 pounds of armor and weaponry: shirts, leather vests, chain mail, metal greaves to protect legs, gauntlets over hands, steel helmets. After that, shields and 13-foot lances.

Black haired and black eyed, Sir Patrick Lambke exudes a cultivated smolder. He has donned light armor, also black. A crest of black hair rises from his helm and streams down his back. At the other end of the yard, big, baby-faced Sir Clifford Bassett pulls a helmet over long red locks. Both knights ride giant black steeds--Zeus and King. Shields up, lances down, the horses pound toward one another, hooves tossing clouds of dirt into the air. Through a veil of heat and dust, the knights collide.

Far from kings, queens, goblets overflowing with mead and tables laden with venison haunches, this particular joust is taking place in the realm of Tarzana. On any given Sunday afternoon, these knights can be found hard at work, training for battle in this 1-acre backyard on a quiet suburban street. They tilt at the quintain--a target with a shield on one side and metal weights on the other--jump onto horses and teach novice jousters and squires how to do their jobs.

Fantasy and reality have always been fluid in these parts. So it is only fitting that California is home to an entire community of suburban sword-wielding, neo-medieval athletes. Of the estimated 100 or so people jousting in regular shows and competitions around the world, a handful of locals is among the best. What they are trying to do is restore to glory a sport that peaked about 600 years ago.

This is not the theatrical jousting of choreographed Renaissance fairs, where the knights often pick winners ahead of time and carry lances of balsa--the wood used to make model airplanes--that obligingly explode on impact. This jousting is more like hockey.

"This is the original extreme sport, it was the first pro sport of the world, says Sir Talon McKenna of Calabasas. "And that's what we want to see it become again."