By Mike Drake
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Luke Robins prepares for his bout with Pirate Pete during the Joust Battle. – Photo by Chris Urquia
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President Luke Robins prepares for his bout with Pirate Pete during the Joust Battle. – Photo by Judah Breitbach
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Pirate Pete. – Photo by Judah Breitbach
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Luke Robins lands a devastating blow to Pirate Pete during their Main Event Bout at the Inflatable Jousting Battle. – Photo by Judah Breitbach
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Luke Robins testing security. – Photo by Judah Breitbach
Peninsula College President Luke Robin makes his way ringside, adorned in black and gold with a towel draped over his head. As he struts towards the ring, with an entourage of administrative colleagues in tow, the crowd erupts with anticipated excitement. With around 100 students and faculty members in the crowd, the energy level was electric. Like a boxer sizing up his opponent, Robins tosses the towel off his head, grabs his inflatable joust, and at 12:38 p.m. the bell rang.
In the annual Pirate Pete Week, on January 14 scheduled at 12:30 p.m., the Inflatable Joust Battle main event was held in the Pirate Union Building. Robins had challenged Pirate Pete earlier that day.
In what seemed a rivalry of sorts, veiled in good old fashioned fun, Pirate Pete and Robins trash talked each other with the utmost confidence.
Pirate Pete bellowed “Arghh” at the prospect of a victory, while his adversary, Robins, said “I have to win by 1 (p.m.) because I have somewhere to be.”
As the first round started, Pirate Pete advanced on Robins immediately, but Robins must have anticipated this as he scored the first knockdown.
Back and forth they struggled to keep their footing as it was not easy to move freely, for the inflatable jousting ring seemed low on air.
At the end of round one Robins had the lead. In between rounds Robins said that he would knock Pirate Pete out of breath. The crowd reacted with jovial laughter.
The bell for round two rang and although stamina was running low, morale couldn’t have been higher, with the laughs and cheers coming from the crowd as Robins went in for the knock out.
After colliding with the referee, Robins secured the win with a crowd based decision.
At 12:43 p.m., Peninsula College crowned its first champion of Inflatable Jousting. After the match was over, the crowd was invited to joust with each other.