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One of the difficulties faced by beginning Gaufqwi players is that some of the equipment needed for the sport can be difficult to find and obtain. I have heard rumors that the National Gaufqwi League is looking for distribution channels for prepackaged kits of everything you need to play Gaufqwi. This is exciting news and will hopefully allow Gaufqwi to reach a much wider audience. Unfortunately, the last I heard was that it was likely going to be at least a year before anything makes it to the shelves of sporting good stores. Until then, Gaufqwi enthusiasts will do what they always have done: scrounge garage sales, search catalogs, and tinker in workshops to obtain their equipment. I have collected the following links to online resources for Gaufqwi paraphernalia. I hope my small efforts make getting started in Gaufqwi just a little bit easier.
The rules of Gaufqwi do not specify any details of snowshoe construction. Therefore, many players who have discovered the game in recent years have chosen to wear modern snowshoes made of synthetics, such as the kind sold by Atlas Snowshoe Company or Elfman Snowshoes. Personally, I do not care care this trend and prefer to use traditional snowshoes. The modern shoes are somewhat is easier to maneuver in, which is probably part of their appeal to the newer players. IMHO, this misses the whole point, as learning to move quickly across the sward without turning dozens of gerbils into little furry waffles is one of the challenges many of us "old-timers" remember most fondly from or days as beginning swardsman. Nonetheless, under current rules, you have both options.
Probably the easiest way to get your spears is to make them. Get a reasonably straight stick or wooden dowel and attach some sort of blade to it: a pocket knife, a pointy rock, maybe something more elaborate that you obtain from a shop like Native Way. If arts and crafts isn't your thing, you CAN buy premade spears. Typically the places that sell them - e.g. Arms & Armor or By The Sword - are targeting collectors and reenactors, but their products are generally appropriate for jigging as well. Examine anything you buy and apply the melon test as given in the rules. You may need to sharpen or dull the point to get it to the desired sharpness.
Paintball guns are actually one of the easier pieces of equipment to find and obtain, since paintball competitions are quite popular these days. Online Paintball is a great site start at if you are looking for paintball equipment and resources, especially the links page and the guns page. Remember you don't necessarily need the best looking or highest powered gun on the market; we've done just fine with some guns we bought at a local toy store. If you do want to spend money here, invest in a good site/scope. There is nothing sadder than having to abandon a game and walk of a sward in which everything except the gerbils is painted yellow because your takers have lousy aim.
Unfortunately, mentioning gerbils brings up kind of a sore spot in the Gaufqwi community. The rules of Gaufqwi require that the rodents used in the game be true gerbils of the genus Tatera. This would be all well and good, except that the animal that is called a gerbil when you go to a pet shop is actually a jird of the genus Meriones, Meriones unguiculatus to be exact. Most folks play with these so-called Mongolian gerbils anyway, even though this means they are not playing according to the rules of the National Gaufqwi League. This would not be a problem except that many swardsman who are considered experts playing with the jirds in their local leagues are confounded when forced to play with the somewhat larger gerbils in NGL sponsored tournaments. It is also somewhat frustrating that Gaufqwi is one of the few sports in which most players simply cannot play by the official rules. Facing much pressure, NGL has said that it is considering changing the rules to allow Mongolian gerbils, but it is concerned that such a change may create a situation much like exists with football; NGL does not want there to be "American-rules Gaufqwi," "Canadian-rules Gaufqwi," etc. While I can appreciate such concerns, I go hope NGL will pass the rules change and officially endorse the play of thousands of Gaufqwi enthusiasts across the nation.
Having said all that, I still haven't told you where you can go to get gerbils. Obviously price is a factor here, since the animals must be bought in volume. I've never even considered attempting to obtain true gerbils; the good old pet shop variety are good enough for me. The best deal I've found on the net is Y'Aal Hamsters. Don't let the name fool you - they sell gerbils too and at great prices. If you are interested in try to breed a better Gaufqwi gerbil, you may want to invest in some good breeding stock from a supplier such as Charles River Laboratories.
Most of the other equipment and supplies you need for Gaufqwi is pretty straightforward to obtain. Listed below are just a few notes and suggestions based on my experiences.
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