meet the instructors
Phil Swift
Phil Swift has studied Martial Arts since the age of 8, and has been studying the art of the sword since 2015.
His first sword mentor Aaron Miedema taught him the art of Giganti's Italian rapier and as a young SCAdian Phil expanded his fencing technique under the guidance of Master Lucien Featherstone (Jason Ealy).
However, Phil quickly learned that his passion lay in Spanish rapier, La Verdadera Destreza and he continued his education by studying with leaders of the Destreza community including Jim Lai, Doug Kozlowski, and Sebastian Romagnan.
In 2018, Phil became certified in the world HEMA alliance as an instructor with specialization in Destreza. While in Michigan, he founded the Lansing Community College HEMA Fencing club and taught young aspiring martial artists Spanish True School rapier.
Since his move to Newfoundland in September 2018, he has reignited the local SCA community and established the Terra Nova School of Swords, joining the MSS family of clubs. Phil is passionate about expanding his teachings to the younger up and coming fencers of Newfoundland.
Neville pawson
Neville’s fascination with fencing was sparked during his childhood days in England, where he and his mates play-fenced using home made swords fashioned from wood, and shields made from tin.
In the 1970’s while Neville was in senior high school in Chilliwack, BC, he joined their fencing club where he learned Olympic-style fencing. He competed throughout BC, winning numerous medals in foil and sabre. In 1975, Neville competed with the BC Fencing Team at the Canada Winter Games in Lethbridge, Alberta. He also competed at the Canadian National Fencing Competition in Toronto.
During his college years at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Neville started a fencing club with a colleague. They were delighted to have one of their students place first in a novice tournament. During his college years, Neville also competed and placed in a Nova Scotia provincial tournament (2nd in foil and 3rd in sabre).
Upon his retirement from the Coast Guard, Neville resumed fencing in 2015 when he joined the Comox Recreation Centre fencing program. He was asked to become an instructor, teaching foil, epee, and sabre.
Neville has been dividing his time between Vancouver Island and Newfoundland, and was happy to meet Phil Swift in 2020. He has enjoyed assisting him with instruction at the Terra Nova School of Swords, where it has been very rewarding to help others learn and experience the joy of fencing
hayden spence
Hayden has been studying Italian Longsword at Terra Nova School of Swords since 2021, and has been interested in fencing ever since taking part in a modern sport fencing and archery camp at age 13 back home in Mississauga, Ontario. Hayden is a regular participant in local tournaments hosted by Terra Nova, and travelled with the TNSS team to Montreal Sword Meisters in May 2023, recording a perfect 4-0 score in the initial pools and performing admirably against experienced instructors from elsewhere in Canada in the elimination rounds.
Since moving to St. John’s in 2019, Hayden has completed a master’s degree in music, and is now a pre-service music teacher looking forward to working for the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District in January. At Terra Nova, Hayden’s longsword curriculum will combine the standard Italian techniques drawn from Fiore dei Liberi’s treatises with the less well-known work of Philippo Vadi, published some 80 years later.
Hayden is also excited to be developing a new intermediate Italian longsword curriculum set to debut in January 2024, featuring interesting and complex plays from both Fiore and Vadi, as well as some of the assalti taught by Achille Marozzo another 50 years after Vadi’s treatise was published.
spencer scott
Spencer was a gymnast for 9 years and a proud nerd his whole life. He has always been interested in medieval history, fantasy, re-enactment, and essentially anything that had a sword. He always saw everything about the sword as an art, from its creation to its use.
Technically Spencer's sword training started when he was small with fighting anyone he could with a stick, especially his unwilling brother, though his first formal sword training started much later with Japanese kendo for around a year before he found HEMA in 2020. He started trying out multiple weapons, favouring longsword due to its similarity to kendo, as well as broadsword due to both his Scottish heritage and it simply feeling right.
It wasn't long before Spencer started doing his own research and fell in love with the art of polish sabre. He always believed in the idea that fencing could both be effective and pretty, and the flowy nature of that style inspired him to really study sword sources and even caused him to branch out to other styles.
Now Spencer teaches a number of one-handed styles, including polish sabre and Scottish broadsword, as well as curved sword for youths and LED saber for kids. His other styles of interest include airish shillelagh, spanish sabre, Bolognese side sword, and Ethiopian shotel.
Spencer still studies as a student at the school and is very interested in competing in as many tournaments as he can manage, wishing to prove that sword fighting can both be beautiful as well as deadly. Besides that, he's still very much a proud nerd, regularly LARPing and playing table top roleplaying games, as well as doing circus and fire performances on the side, in particular being a specialist with the fire sword.
Spencer simply loves the art of the sword, and couldn't be more excited to share that with as many people as he can.
Edmund Quigley
Edmund began training martial arts at 8 with Olympic fencing, and began training with commitment in Hayashi-ha Shito Ryu karate at 12.
In the ten years it took him to achieve his first black belt, he worked with Yummani Ryu Kobudo, an Okinawan weapon style, as well as the Yang and Chen styles of Tai Chi and a long apprenticeship as a bladesmith.
In 2017 he began training in Historical European Martial Arts, with a focus on the German longsword of Leichtenauer and Meyer and the sword and buckler of the I.33 manuscript and Manciolino.
Edmund relocated from the United States to Canada in 2023, and has led multiple workshops and talks across the province as well as taking Gold in Sabre at the 2024 Maritime Sword School Canadian Atlantic Regional tournament in Moncton, New Brunswick.