Foam weapon
padded mock handheld weapon used for simulated combat
A foam weapon, also known as a boffer, padded weapon, or latex weapon, is a padded mock weapon used for simulated handheld combat. Such weapons are used in simulated battles called battle gaming and in some live action role-playing games (LARPs).
Terminology
In the United States, there are four major types of foam mock weapons used in medieval combat sports, battle gaming, and LARPs. They can be defined as:
boffer weapons: The term "boffer" refers to a particular construction of weapon that involves a single piece of PVC pipe confined by a layer of foam and duct tape. This type of mock weapon, although it has padding, is not suitable for unarmored high impact fighting. It is commonly used in LARPs where participants must perform touch combat by pulling back on their strikes at the last moment.
heavy boffer weapons: These mock weapons are similar to standard boffer weapons, but they are reinforced on the core pipe with strapping tape. They are used in full power combat with the participants wearing a significant amount of safety equipment (armor). This type of mock weapon is primarily used by the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) in their youth combat program.
latex weapons: Throughout Europe, almost all modern sword-fighting games use molded foam swords of latex rubber.
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This entry incorporates text from “Foam weapon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.