Hayden man wields saber for good causes

Dean Opsal has a bubbly way of raising money for local nonprofits.

The Hayden Lake man, who has spent more than two decades in the wine business, has raised a glass to local charities for the past 10 years, helping bring in roughly $1 million through creative fundraising.

His vice of choice: champagne sabering.

The unusual – and dangerous – feat involves a sword, a bottle of champagne and precise aim, Opsal said.

He discovered the practice at a training seminar for his work that showed a video clip of a master champagne saberer.

“I was absolutely enthralled with it,” said Opsal, 46. “I thought it was the coolest thing.”

For the next two years, he pestered the man to show him the tricks of the trade. But the man declined, saying it was too risky. Finally, he caved and described the process, although he refused to demonstrate the technique, Opsal said.

So through trial and error – and there have been errors, Opsal said – he’s mastered the art and established himself as the top champagne saberer in the world. Six years ago, Opsal set the first world record for the number of bottles sabered in a minute: 20 bottles in 60 seconds. The accomplishment landed him in the 2005 Guinness Book of World Records.

The practice dates back to the French conqueror Napoleon, Opsal said, who only drank champagne from a sabered bottle. After a battle, the officers would celebrate their victory by whacking off the top of a champagne bottle.

“It’s a lost art, but it’s coming back,” said Opsal, who is penning an instructional book about champagne sabering that he hopes will be finished in the next year. “It’s very dangerous, but it’s spectacular when it’s done right.”

Champagne sabering is technique-dependent, Opsal said. The temperature needs to be right; he typically refrigerates a bottle for a few days. It can’t be shaken.

“If it’s been in the trunk of a car rolling around, you have a little hand grenade on your hands,” said Opsal, who works for the Odom Corporation in sales and event coordinating.

He finds the seam of the bottle and rolls back the foil to make a “sight line,” he said. Then it’s all about the force of the saber and “practice, practice, practice,” Opsal said. “Like playing the piano.”

When done right, champagne may squirt 12 feet in the air, shooting out at 60 mph, Opsal said. He also mixes things up with sabering different sizes of bottles and added flair. He’s sabered a 9-liter bottle. He’s also sabered with his sword on fire.

He has had some close calls, Opsal admits. He slashed an artery from a shard of cut glass, burned his fingers using a flaming sword and injured his neck and face from a bad bottle at his wife’s 40th birthday party, Opsal said.

So it’s safety first, Opsal said. He clears a 30-foot perimeter around him when he performs and wears glasses and gloves.

His hobby can get spendy. Whacking a few bottle tops off can cost upward of $10 a pop. But these days, he puts his saber to bottle for good causes, Opsal said.

In the days of Napoleon, the troops celebrated after the victory. But Opsal chooses to hold “pre-victory celebrations” at fundraising events, including ones for the food bank, hospice, Coeur d’Alene’s Festival of Trees and the Humane Society.

“It really gets the party going,” Opsal said.

At last month’s Tails at Twighlight fundraiser for the Humane Society, Opsal sabered champagne bottles and then sold glasses for $100 each.

It’s difficult to resist a sabered bottle, he said.

And there’s always his fallback motto:

“Anytime’s the right time for champagne.”