Los Angeles/SoCal Monthly Meeting
Jon King and I host a monthly lockpicking meeting at Null Space Labs in Los Angeles, CA on the third friday of each month. Started in May 2010, our group has slowly grown for 4-5 members to meetings as big as 50 people! We average 25-30 people per meeting lately. Our group is filled with dedicated people from a variety of backgrounds including locksmiths, security researchers, physical penetration testers, forensic locksmiths, software developers, and hobbyists. Beginners are always welcome!
Meetup page (Sponsored by L.I.): http://www.meetup.com/li-losangeles
NSL Wiki page: http://wiki.032.la/nsl/NSL_lockpicking
We are a joint TOOOL/Locksport International chapter. There are no membership requirements in either organization or at NSL itself to attend meetings, though NSL membership is encouraged to make sure that we can meet every month and have nice things. If you can't afford NSL membership (40$ a month) there's always a donation jar at every meeting you can toss a few bucks in. All the money we get goes to buying more locks and tools for the group.
Each month we have a different topic that ranges from beginner to advanced. Some examples of past topics: basic lockpicking, handcuffs, impressioning, safecracking, picking high security locks, lock disassembly, high security lock research, making your own picks, making your own locks(!), automotive locksmithing, and more! Everyone in the group is encouraged to come up with something they want to talk about.
We also have competitions, both ongoing and one-offs. The 2011 competition was a points comp where you had to pick locks to get points. The 2012 competition is a safecracking competition featuring a dozen Group 2 rotary combination safe locks from various manufacturers! The 2013 competition was an impressioning competition featuring two dozen SC1 keyway cylinders.
Hope to see you there,
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