Archive for month: June, 2017

Greetings From Malaga Spain!

I had a quick flight into to Malaga Spain from Lisbon Portugal and found the hostel easy enough. I had arrived pretty early so I took off to walk around the city and get some photos of the sights. Malaga is one beautiful place, to all my friends who love going to Mexico to sit on the beach and drink all day, switch it up and go to the Costa Del Sol for a vacation!

Not a bad view to land down to.

The Costa Del Sol!

While staying in Malaga I walked around to see the place a few times but the most sight seeing I got in was when I first arrived. I saw a big castle on a mountain and headed towards it. It’s actually two places I saw, there’s the Alcazaba, which a sprawling estate, at the base of the hill in with the city and the Castillo Gibralfaro higher up on top the of the hill that overlooks the city. I spent quite the time walking around them.

The strip, it’s basically a garden down the middle of the main road.

Alcazaba.

Yard full of orange trees, you could smell the citrus in the air.

Castillo Gibralfaro, or the road to it. It’s pretty big once up top. I Facebook live video’d it so no photos of it, sorry.

In the middle is the Plaza De Toros De La Malagueta, where they hold bull fights. At first I thought it was a soccer stadium.

View from top of Alcazaba.

I also walked around the beach, Playa La Malagueta, and relaxed in the hot sand and cool sea breeze. In Spain it’s perfectly OK for women to go topless at the beach, and many of them were more than happy to sun tan without worrying about getting tanlines, so I didn’t get too many shots of the beach for fear of being thought some pervert so something. I did get some panoramic views from the point though. (The panoramics won’t load on here so you’ll have to go to Flickr to see them)

man am I ever white..

Of course if you’d like to see the rest of my photos from Malaga head over to Flickr and view them there, thanks!

The Friends You Make In Hostels

When I got in to the hostel they still had to make my bed so all I could do was drop off my bags, charge my phone and take off to wonder the city. When I got back someone had taken my bed, I guess when the staff made the bed my stuff was moved away from the bed I had claimed so when the next person came in it looked open. It was no problem and everything was sorted easy enough but there was a couple hours of waiting for the the guy to come back that I was fearing I’d have the unfortunate luck of having an asshole in the room with me who would want to argue over it. Instead of that happening he ended up being pretty cool, a young kid named Oliver who had decided to move to Malaga from Denmark. He and I and another guy in our room who was an Australian who lives in Germany all went out looking for some food.

As it happens it was Sunday, and Monday was a holiday, so not much was open and the only thing we could find was a restaurant that was a bit more expensive than I’d like. That night we talked about all sorts of things, our different experiences traveling, our own stories of doing stupid shit or whatever. As it ends up even though we were three different people, an Australian chiropractor from Germany, a Danish kid (Oliver is 21 but I called him a kid hahah) who was moving to Spain for a charity telemarketing business, and myself, we all had great stories we could relate to and became pretty good friends. Oliver stayed the whole time I was in Malaga, as he was looking for a place to move into, but the Australian, who’s name I forget, left the next day to head back to Germany. In his place Jasse came in and joined our room.        

Meeting Jasse Junkkari

Jasse is another friend I was connected with through Nathan Hatton while on this journey. He’s from Finland and known Nathan for some time now, talking a lot online about their shared passion of martial arts history. Jasse is a Demian Maia black belt as well as a practitioner of other styles so it was a lot of fun to talk martial arts philosophy with him. He and I were in contact for a week or two before I made it to Malaga and we worked it out to both get a bed at the same hostel and even in the same room. Most the time there it was actually just Oliver, Jasse and myself in the room so it was a pretty cool stay. One day after hanging out and training together we finally decided to sit down and do an interview at the hostel, we talked about all sorts of Jiu-Jitsu and martial arts topics. Since I can’t load videos here you can head over to the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel and watch it there, and show some love, comment, like, share or even subscribe, thanks!

SurUnion

With it being a weekend and the holiday training was limited so I didn’t get to visit some of the clubs I wanted to but I go out to a club I knew nothing about. SurUnion is a club that I totally missed in my search but Jasse is good friends with and since I wanted to train with him I decided to join him in visiting this club for a class.

The gym is out outside the Malaga city center, closer to the airport. We took a train out and walk a bit to get there, it’s down a side in an industrial area so without having the address saved to your phone you will be hard pressed to come upon the place by chance. Once inside it was a big open area with big mat space of old, well used tatami. I met Luis Quiñones, black belt co-founder of SurUnion and the current head instructor there. He was a really nice guy happy to have me there as a guest while he saw his old friend Jasse. SurUnion is a Yan Cabral affiliate so I mentioned I had been by Templum BCN during my travels and Luis told me of the seminars they have with Yan all the time, it sounded like a really good seminar, making me wish I could’ve caught Yan’s class back when I visited Barcelona.    

It wasn’t a big class, but that was OK, we still had fun training together, going over different sweeps and from a guard pull. Of course it was a hot day and I was dying, drinking water in between each technique instruction and after each roll. I had fun training with everyone, we were a bit relaxed with time to work out the techniques and adjust them to make it work for you, or try a different pass from the sweep etc. but when it came to rolling they were all business and I was on the defense. It was still fun though, just a different kind of fun. I managed to survive alright but I was dead tired by the end. I needed water, lots of water!

Jasse, Luis and myself went out for food after training, to a restaurant not far from the gym, a popular hangout with the guys after class. There we talked more about training and mart arts philosophy and of course traveling to different clubs. It was cool post class hangout and Jasse told me of some times the restaurant would be half full of just people from the club, like it was there own clubhouse. That’s pretty cool. It’s something I’ve brought up quite a few times in my travels, the importance of extra curricular activities, getting the club to hang out together after training to grab some food or drinks, or on the weekend to watch fights, hit the beach, do whatever really. It grows the bond of the clubs and gets them more involved in helping each other train harder. I think group activities outside normal class times are essential in building a strong club.

jasse, Luis and one handsome Panda.

And with only a little training done but a lot of friend making on this visit, it was time to head on down to Africa. Morocco. Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakech to be more precise. Lots of adventures, and friends to be made, awaited me while plans I had went out the window.  

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

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After coming back to Reno, Jen got a Doctors’ appointment, but it wasn’t of much use. They x-rayed her knee, which seemed kind of pointless, and didn’t tell us anything. She set an appointment for an MRI, and we talked to Thais, our new neighbor who’s a physical therapist, who didn’t think anything was seriously damaged. I returned to Guerilla BJJ, http://www.renojiujitsu.com/about/guerilla-jiu-jitsu/ my home gym, and my second home, Komainu, http://komainuapparel.com/gym-schedule/ for some training. 

The plan was to rest up, get the medical attention needed, and evaluate things. Jen had rescheduled her Sierra outdoor education class with Ned, and we were going to head out in a couple of weeks, knee willing, and take it from there. If she felt comfortable doing the high sierra after a week with Ned, she’d go for it. If she felt it was unsafe, then not so much. 

Reports from the internets were of course all over the place. Some girl made a bad decision on a log and almost died. Others were getting through just fine, mocking the doom sayers for being too cautious. A poor guy lost his footing in a stream crossing, lost his pack, and everything in it. He almost froze trying to get out of the high country with nothing but a wet shirt on his back. Everybody had a different opinion, except Ned, who said he could teach you how to handle the conditions. Until he had to get med-evaced himself. 

Not a big accident or anything, but, funny enough, a bad knee, that left him stranded in the mounting passes. So, no Ned, no class, no go. That was it, a sign from the heavens that this wasn’t the year. 

It’s been almost two months all told. Jen walked 400 miles, from the Mexican Border to Palmdale, more or less. Thousands of feet of elevation, probably a dozen snakes, two pairs of boots, two tents, s couple of snow storms. 

I hit about 15 different BJJ gyms while on the trip. I learned something from everyone in that time, but mostly I learned that everyone does things a little different. Some schools start on time. Well, one of them does. Some are formal, and bow, shake hands, stand in lines. Others start late, are very casual, no pictures of Helio. Some of the best are in tiny spaces with zero amenities and old mats. Some are nicer than a rich mans’ country club. In the end, what happens on the mat is what matters, and the other stuff doesn’t seem to be correlated. 

Not sure what the rest of the summer looks like. Our house is booked by HomeAway (ironic, in that we’re no longer away, but can’t use our home) guests through June and July. Maybe Jen will do the Tahoe Rim Trail, maybe the lost coast. I’m back, more or less, in the office, and I think my brothers are happy about that. I’m hoping to find some good spots, drop in a little more, before coming back full time. And there’s always next year. 

I get requests every week from people who hope we’ll set up a camp some place in the world they like (or live). But USA Camp is really the season for me where I’m answering the same question on an almost daily basis:

“So, when are you doing a camp on the West Coast?”

I understand the thought process of this. There are places in the world that have no BJJ Globetrotters camps but that doesn’t mean there’ll ever be one. In reality, the approach I have to eventually making a camp happen somewhere, is probably different from what you’d expect.

Out in the countryside of Sardinia, Italy

First, I don’t sit and look at a world map on my wall and try to figure out what areas there could be a market for setting up a camp. The way I approach the camps is that I make them for myself, first and foremost. Every single camp is basically just me trying to design the most amazing, dream holiday I can possible imagine for myself and then invite a few hundred friends along to join. Even if no one signed up for a camp, I would still go and probably have a great time on my own. Ok, I’d need one volunteer for the Jiu Jitsu training part of it at least, but you get the point!

I believe that for the camps to really work, I must be 100% passionate about going there myself. Every. Single. Time. For me to sit down and think “ok, what would be the absolutely most amazing trip I can think about for myself here”, I must have a genuine interest in taking part of it.

Deep in the forests of Maine, United States

This is why I have no plans of franchising or outsourcing the camps. I will never do camps every week around the world where I send someone else to run it and just put my BJJ Globetrotters stamp on them. If I’m not a genuine part of the social- and training aspect of a camp, it would not a BJJ Globetrotters camp anymore. It would just be a business. Fair enough, maybe one day, I’ll have enough stripes on my black belt to become old and greedy and just do it for the money, but who knows.

In the amazing Austrian alps

Back to people asking me about doing camps in certain places. There are a lot of factors that play in:

• First and foremost, when I consider it, I must feel excitement. I must get a bit of butterflies in my stomach by the thought of going. I don’t care about how many potential participants we could sell tickets to, how much other people wanna go there or how unexplored the market is for a camp there. I must personally want to do it. Considering that a new camp usually takes 6-10 months of hard work to set up from scratch and I’ve been traveling a bit in my life, I’m getting increasingly more difficult to excite with potential new locations. This is a (beyond luxury) problem I’m struggling with a bit.
• Finding enough matspace for a hundred or more people is extremely difficult. If they’re not there in the first place, I’m already moving on to the next camp idea on the list. It’s most often just way too much work to even try and begin to look for mats of the right quality and quantity – not to mention reliable transportation, insurance, set up and so on.
• There are physical and calendar limits to how many camps I can squeeze into a year and into my life. The puzzle of booking 10 camps this year has been incredibly complex already and often I have to skip great camp ideas because I simply have enough on my plate. It also seems to be the exact amount of camps I can barely do without completely burning out.
• I try to make each camp different. I like the contrast of traveling and I’m sure that if I did 10 surf themed camps a year, I would end up finding it tremendously boring. A new camp must be something that isn’t already on the schedule or I don’t bother doing it. Did anyone say Antarctica?
• I want the camp to be part training and part adventure. Adventure defined by a travel experience that would be very difficult to do on your own. If traveling is easy, it’s usually not memorable for me. It must be a place that’s somewhat challenging to get to. This is why I’ll never do camps in any mainstream travel destinations that you’ll likely visit anyway some day. New York, San Diego, Rio de Janeiro, Ibiza, Amsterdam, Cancun. Any resorts with a buffet and evening entertainment shows. Not happening.
• It has to beat all the other camp ideas that fit the schedule for the season. My checklist for running a camp currently has a whopping 800+ items and there are way more tiny things that has to work than you can probably imagine. Logistics of transportation, accommodation, distances, food delivery, cleaning, shipping etc. is complicated and if any one of these things look like they’re too much work, the camp will be bumped down the list. When I have 50 or more great camp ideas for one season, I’m only gonna invest my time and money in the absolute best ones only.

On the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy

And as for the #1 question in my inbox: Why don’t I do a camp on the west coast of the United States? No one has pointed my attention to any potential camp ideas that fulfill all points above. I’m already going to the U.S. once a year for our camp out in the forest and I’m getting my annual quota of Walmart and beef jerky covered for now. But who knows, maybe I’ll randomly find a place there on day and go for it. Nine out of ten camps have happened because someone at a camp has come up to me and told me about a place they know of, which I always think is interesting to listen to.

In the beautiful medieval town of Leuven, Belgium

Setting up a camp is complicated. It has to be perfect and it has to fit my personal schedule and willingness to risk my money if it fails. With that said, I really love the process of spending months and months grinding through hundreds of logistical details, emails and phone calls for each potential location and finally end up with a full year’s schedule of perfectly planned, exciting adventures for myself and everyone else who decides to join. It’s a lot of work but I do enjoy every minute of it. I often say I’m like the Miyao brothers of Jiu Jitsu camps; I’m on the mats with this more hours than anyone else in the world. I don’t take steroids though (or should I say I’VE NEVER FAILED A TEST). But apart from that, we’re pretty much identical. Ok, I don’t have a twin.

Therefore, if you’re ever at a camp, remember you’re pretty much just crashing my holiday, so if I leave a towel on that beach chair in the morning, that means I have reserved it for the day. Thank you.

Greetings From Porto & Lisbon Portugal!

I left Madrid in a bad mood, I was getting better from the bad cold that knocked me down but I was still dealing with the credit card fraud at the time. Luckily it only took a day or so while in Porto before resolving the issues, letting me get back to focusing on my travels and training. I took a bus to Porto and found my hostel no problem. I guess the hostel owner had text messaged me to tell me to let him know when I’ll be showing up, but I had switched numbers since I reserved the bed so I didn’t get the message. Because of this when I got to the hostel the host wasn’t there and I had to wait a while before I could check in. Once I was checked in and shown a map of all the sights to see of the city, and told of the holiday coming up, I was ready to see Porto!

Showing up in Porto.

Traveling to Lisbon was even easier. I had booked an Air BnB and we were in contact the entire bus ride, with the host tell me the exact route to get to his place. I was staying really close to one of the clubs I was wanting to visit, there were some other clubs in Lisbon as well but ended up passing on them for resting and catching up on some online work. Just gives me an excuse to come back another time!

Things you see on the bus. A giant cross on a hill in the middle of nowhere.

Some cool looking place we passed, I can’t remember if this was on the way to Porto or from Porto to Lisbon, but cool either way.

The Sights!

I will say that both the cities are beautiful, as are pretty much all my destinations on this odyssey, but if I was bringing a significant other with me and could only pick one, it would be Porto. It’s a smaller, more intimate and romantic town than Lisbon, but both are must see destinations as you will see from the photos.

Since there was a holiday going on I spent a day walking around Porto and saw a lot of the sights but didn’t go into any of the places or go on any tours. The Dom Luís I Bridge was my favourite and it’s up there in my list of favourite sights. I walked across the top looking down on the bottom bridge, watching cars and buses drive by, and boats float by below them. It was an amazing view of the ports below and of the city with their red roofed buildings lining the Douro River. There’s also the Porto Cathedral and Clérigos Tower are also worth seeing. Of course If I were to drink I would be definitely trying out all sorts of wines and ports here, since Porto is the home of the fortified wine port after all.

Blue and white ceramic tiled churches.

Dom Louis I Bridge.

Lisbon has some great sights too, the waterfront was pretty cool to walk along and sit on the ledge and watch the wind surfers cross the water in groups. There’s also the Commerce Square along the waterfront and markets selling all kinds of things and all kinds of sights further down and across the water that I didn’t see to see, so lots to see along the Rio Tejo.    

There was a castle up on a hill beside the city too, I didn’t know how to get up there though.

Commerce Square.

A war museum.

Cool things on at the waterfront.

Of course I have many more photos I have taken from these visits and if you’re interested on seeing them head on over to my Flickr account and check them out! 

FOCUS Jiu-Jitsu 

During my search I found Pedro and he told about about his club he trains at, FOCUS Jiu-Jitsu, unfortunately we weren’t able to meet up or train together but I did make it out to the gym. FOCUS is in a gym, Academia Workout. The mat space is huge, all white and bright. It’s upstairs and overlooks the free weights area so you can watch all the crazy weight lifters and crossfitters throwing things around, with the lights and all white motive it felt like you were training on clouds, not that the mats were that soft though. I showed up for one day and trained both the noon no gi class and evening gi class but soon into the gi class my left knee felt a little weird so I didn’t roll and was limited with some of my drilling. It ended up being nothing, just a bruise or a maybe a strain either way it was just annoying.

The guys at the clubs were all nice people happy to have a visitor. I enjoyed training and rolling with everyone, they have some real killers on the mats but everyone was fun to roll with, even when I was just being schooled by the top guys. During the evening there was a brown belt who was training for a big tournament, drilling all kind of crazy way, like with a harness holding him back while doing open guard passes. FOCUS was a good club to visit, it’s too bad I couldn’t meet up with my original contact for the place, but there’s always next time!

Prof. Manoel Neto who runs FOCUS Jiu-Jitsu.

Brasa Demian Maia Jiu-Jitsu Portugal 

For Lisbon I had help with the BJJ Globetrotters community again and was connected to Vitalino, a Demian Maia brown belt who runs Brasa Demian Maia Jiu-Jitsu Portugal. Vitalino and I spoke on Facebook and set up to come out one night. The club is in a gym named Get Fit (I couldn’t find a link for it) they set up in a room by putting down tatami mats they have usually stacked I the corner, I think the room is usually used for yoga or something. I showed up the Friday night class, I was feeling a little off during the week and needed to catch up on things online so this was my only time out to train in Lisbon, it’s too bad it was a slow night and I only got to meet a few members of the club. As it was a small class Vitalino decided to make it a relaxed evening and just roll. We started rolling together and probably went on for 10 minutes before switching out to rolling with other people. There was no timer, we just rolled until we were done, so I only rolled with 3 different people but I’m pretty sure I rolled more in an hour with them then I would have with a dozen people doing 5 minute rounds. I always need to take breaks after a couple rounds, people go harder when there’s a timer. No time just lets you flow and work out defending and attacking. And we didn’t just go light and easy, there were some great battles. We ended the night lying on the mats totally exhausted chatting about Jiu-Jitsu and MMA while stretching out and realized we had had gone past the usual time and the gym was waiting to kick us out to close so we had to hurry and leave. Because of that I didn’t get a photo with Vitalino or his club, can’t get them all I guess. It was a fun night with some great rolls, and when Vitalino and I were talking he even knew of my travels plans and where I’d been which was cool to be training at club where the instructor follows me and even knew of and watched videos by my instructor and his black belt. Good times!

The only picture I got of the club, with coach Vitalino beating on one of his students, hahah.

After not near enough training at cool gyms in Portugal It was time to move on. I had one more stop back in Spain before heading to Morocco and meeting some friends I had been talking to for some time. Little did I know of the meet ups and friends I would make coming up. Next up Malaga, the Costa Del Sol!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

Buy Panda’s Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.

Buy the Panda’s Odyssey T-shirt.

Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.

Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.

Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

I turned back around, and headed back to the coast, this time just north of Malibu. There was a little beach break at the campground, with decent waves, and about 20 guys surfing. Every day. Huge crowd. I didn’t see any confrontations, but it reminded me of why I never really took up surfing. That, and an unreasonable fear of sharks. I didn’t see Jaws until I was an adult, but I saw the commercials as a kid, and I was convinced I was going to be eaten. While swimming. In our pool. Plus, I got to drive past my old stomping grounds in the Valley, where I was sure God was trying to kill me. I was there for a really big earthquake, and soon packed up and left for Colorado. Thanks God! So glad I left, especially the Encino area. Ick, it was as gross as I remember. Plus I met my future ex-wife there, so I have lots of baggage surrounding that place. We’re friendish now, but I’m still not a fan of that place. 

It was hot and gross, and towing a trailer through the 405/101 interchange is basically a constant game of chicken, as you signal, merge, and cut off that lowered BMW. You can’t care, because in L.A. freeway driving, most people, especially the douchey kind that drives a lowered BMW, consider a turn signal as either a sign of weakness, or a challenge. Anybody who would use their blinker to change lanes is either a yokel, who is not to be treated with respect, or somebody who is daring you to thread the needle. As my friend Rob says, “it’s the eye of the needle, Gary, we must pass through it together.”

Jen was hiking out of the Lake, and towards that McDonalds. PCT Hikers act like they haven’t had real food in months, when in fact they’re constantly eating better than you and I. Worse, actually, but tastier. Burgers, pie, pizza, cookies, it all goes in the tank at an alarming rate. Jen had just got done eating a bunch of donuts, steak dinner, and then she’s looking all misty about McDonalds. She walked across some hot, dry hills, down to the freeway truck stop, got her McDonalds, and quickly realized why most athletes avoid the stuff. Not good for hiking up some big hills, which she had to do.

There is a famous BJJ guy, kind of a BJJ coach to the stars I guess, in Malibu. He charges $150 for a drop in, according to his website. Maybe he’s trying to discourage people from star chasing at this gym. Jen asked if I would pay $150 to train with anybody famous. Not even Anthony Bourdain, and he’s kind of a hero of mine. Former Chef, late years BJJ aficionado, curses like the drunker sailor he is. Married a woman who could kick his ass, and although it didn’t work out in the end, that’s Hespect worthy.  

That left me with a drive over the Santa Monica Mountains, or down the coast to Santa Monica, or up to Oxnard. Since I’ll be heading north soon, I opted up and over. Plus, I got to drive the Big Girl over these tight curvy road, so sure, that sounds fun. I stopped in at Paragon in Agoura Hills. Totally unexpected treat.

http://paragonbjjacademy.com/instructors/

Rodrigo Antunes, a black belt since 1999, runs the show there, and it was great. I was talking earlier about gyms and coaches who make you fell comfortable, and places that push you, and then there’s places like this, where you feel like family right away, and he treats his family right. Adding to the vibe was the fact that there were two other bald, stocky guys with grey in their beards, both of whom work in the kitchen world. I felt like I saw myself had I stayed in the business and found BJJ. It was fun, and we had some great rolls. Professor Rodrigo was showing a slick turtle attack, and really took the time to shake out the kinks and smooth out the technique. I love it when you learn something new, get a chance to work it, get the corrections you need, and feel like it’s going to be part of your game.

BJJ learning is often like trying to drink from a firehose or read a book as you drive past it at sixty miles per hour. Cool stuff goes flying out of my head at an alarming rate. I’m trying to write down the things I learn, and whom I learned it from, but there’s so much, and I’m not good at remembering things. I’ve always believed that my excellent problem solving skills are due to my extremely poor memory. I can’t remember anything, from grade school math, to your name (sorry, I already forgot it), to jiu jitsu techniques. Occasionally, something sticks, and it works, and then I try it out every chance I get. I think this turtle attack might be one.

Jen was hiking towards the Angeles Crest Highway zone, and feeling, aside from the donut and McDonalds poisoning, pretty solid. I was going to meet her in Acton, about 100 miles down the road. She hiked past a couple of ski “resorts”, including Wrightwood, and Mt. Baldy, all the way up to a spot where the trail is closed, this time for frogs. There’s a rare frog that lives in the area of Williamson Rock, and Jen asked me to come get here where they got kicked off the trail. I drove up there, and it looked familiar. 

funny thing is, I had my first bachelor party here! My brothers, my friend Dan, and I all spent a long weekend at Williamson Rock, back when I was young, like 30. We did a bunch of rock climbing, and beer drinking, and manly stuff, before my afore mentioned ill-fated first go at being married. Much better memories here than in the Valley, for sure, like totally. 

On the way in, I also notice a ski “resort” that was pretty vintage even before I was. This is one of the first places my Dad ever took us to see snow, and later on I skied it when I was in my twenties. It’s still there, still the same, although it looks like they put new covers on the chairs, which were wood slats if I remember correctly. 

Good Old Mt. Waterman!

Note the incredible variety of runs! Nice and Easy to Advanced! I think it cost $25. Me and the boys took a few more shots and headed towards mile 386. 

Oh, btw, while driving up here, I blew a tire. On the trailer. Changing a tire on a loaded trailer sucks. Just saying. 

I picked Jen up at the frog detour, and headed down the hill to Acton, where the trailer had found itself. Acton is kind of a cute little town, touristy, with a lot of “movie ranches” available to film T.V. westerns and such. They also had a hairstylist available, and Jen decided to ditch the corn rows, and just cut the damn stuff off. Good choice. Her new hair is very cute, and much easier to manage. 

Unfortunately, not all things are as easy to manage, and this time it was Jens’ knee. Neither of us thought much about it, but I dropped her off to continue on her hike, not expecting to see her for another 75 miles or so. I had already found a BJJ school in nearby-ish Palmdale, and had plans to go visit on a Friday. 

http://www.thelab-bjj.com/

This is one of those pleasant surprises that I discover. Jerry Montes is a brown belt, and runs the place with another Brown belt, a very tough guy I guessed was Russian, maybe Brazilian. Keep in mind neither of these guys could weigh over 160 lbs. When people talk about smaller guys crushing bigger guys using BJJ, this is what they’re talking about.  I don’t know if they always run their classes this way, but we did some take down drilling, a little technique, and then it was Friday night round robin. Wow, talk about tired. Coach Montes sat out most of it, but his partner was right in there, and since he was killing everyone, he was doing 3 or 4 rounds to my 1. Started off by doing take down competition, along with two huge guys, one white, one blue. Get the takedown, stay in. Then to 1st points, which started on the feet, then on to first subs. For about 90 minutes. 

Definitely got the work in. Ouch. 

Jen came along and had a movie date in Palmdale while I rolled. Sadly, I had intended on seeing her later, but her knee did something weird, and I had to pick her up unexpectedly. We both thought it was probably fine, and she had hit a milestone, 400 miles, and figured that it was time to leapfrog up to Kennedy Meadows, the start of the Sierra. She had a class to attend, where she would learn by doing with Ned, a local snow travel expert. 

We hung out a little, got her hair done, and  headed to our next stop, up above Santa Barbara, to rest the knee, see her sister, and do some BJJ. 

We stayed at this gorgeous setting at Rancho Oso, which had mountains, and a cool campsite, and almost no internet. We can only disconnect so much. We drove in to Santa Barbara, and Jen went to meet her sister, Fanny, who just so happens to be an almost masseuse. Or so I’m told. By Jen. We hung around town, and I hit open mat at Paragon BJJ. I was, frankly, a little scared. 

http://www.paragonbjj.com/

Tons of high belt people hanging around, very muscular looking lower belts, and a reputation as a top competition school. 

http://www.paragonbjj.com/jiu-jitsu/instructors.cfm

Look at these guys. If you’re not a little scared, you’re not thinking right. 

No need, however. As I’ve discovered, there are bad people who do BJJ, but they are few and far between. Friendly, technical, nobody acting like every roll was for the belt, just welcoming, solid fun. I came back for a class the next day, and in spite of it being NoGi, I stuck around, and learned some things. Started off with a bunch of wrestling style take down work, which made me feel like a total white belt. This isn’t something I do regularly, but everybody was patient, and it started to feel like I might be able to take someone down some day.

http://Adam benShea  was the coach, and while he looks terrifying, he was quite nice. He’s also got a PhD, so he’s doubly a professor. I hope those undergrads understand who they’re dealing with when they go in  and complain about their grades.

Santa Barbara was fun, but it was time for us to head to the Sierra, and see if Jens’ knee would hold up and get her through the record setting snowpack. Spoiler alert, it wouldn’t. 

She was all smiles to start, but it wouldn’t last. The knee was acting up within the first few miles, and we had a hard discussion. We ended up packing it in, and heading back to Reno to see the knee doctor. We don’t know when, if at all, we’ll be able to get back on the trail. We’re back home now, hoping for the best, and still planning on getting back to it. 

Greetings From Barcelona and Madrid Spain!

I left Paris for Barcelona, and after a debacle of trying to find where my flight was leaving from it was a quick and smooth trip to my Barcelona hostel. The Paris airport has zero signs to where the different flight companies are and has two different terminals for departures. Luckily I had shown up very early so after walking around terminal 1 for over half an hour and not finding any sign of the airline I was flying with I asked the information desk. It turned out that the airline was in terminal 2, across the airport from where I was in terminal 1. I had to the shuttle across the parking lot, which was a surprisingly long time before making it to terminal 2, I’m pretty sure the shuttle was going in the opposite direction I needed to go and really I was only one stop away. Once I was at the right terminal it was all smooth sailing, or flying.

Ariel view of the coast while flying in from Paris.

For going to Madrid it was an easy bus trip, the only thing was I was really doped up in the morning so catching the city bus to make it to the bus to Madrid I was seriously scared I was going to fall asleep and miss my ride. After an awesome day out in the sun and sleeping in a cool night breeze I woke up sick beyond belief. Cool nights always mess with my respiratory system with hot days but this was worse than I’ve got from too much sun and a cold night ever. After going to a pharmacy and being told only to take 1 a day and before bed because it makes you sleepy I consulted my friends on Facebook to find out exactly what it was I bought I decided since I was really sick I’d take 2 before bed. The thing is I had to get up pretty early to get ready for my morning bus to Madrid. I had not slept the medication off yet. It did however make for an interesting trek to the bus station and a very sound sleep during the bus ride to Madrid. I wish I could say I woke up feeling great and ready to train, and for the most part I was better, but my respiratory system was still wrecked and I couldn’t roll during Madrid, but I get manage to get out and train, until another hiccup got my held up with issues to deal with.

I woke up at pit stop on the way to Madrid and thought I was about to be in Spaghetti Western.

The Sights!

I spent a day running around seeing the sights in both Barcelona and Madrid each. In fact in Barcelona I spent a walked around a few days just to get the views in, Barcelona is a beautiful city to walk around and downtown is big enough that it’ll take you a while to but not too big that you’d need to actually take the tour bus to see the sights or jump around from stop to stop on the subway.

Catedral de Barcelona

Fira Barcelona Montjuïc

In the evening one night I went down and watched the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. It’s pretty cool, watching the light show with the changing water fountain patterns all to music. It’s quite popular as the place was packed, I stayed back and watched and took photos from a distance, not wanting to get into a packed crowd at night, prime place pick pocketers (They’re bad in Barcelona, long story short a pair tried to make me a mark on the subway down to the fountain, my Spidey senses kicked in and I noticed them before anything could happen, I stared them down until they left.)

Madrid is the same thing, you can walk around and see a lot of the sights in the city without hoping around taking the transit, I didn’t do as much sight seeing for Madrid as I was recovering form the cold and then dealing with credit card fraud as it seems my card got swiped in Barcelona.

Royal Palace of Madrid

Plaza Santa Ana

Every tourist takes photos of this building. I would pass it every day and there was always someone taking a picture, so I did too.

Dealing with Credit Card Fraud

I watch my expenses quite closely, I have for some time now, years even. There are several reasons for this, like making sure my bills are paid, that I know how much I have free to spend and keep track of my budget, and that I don’t get screwed over with fraudulent charges. Credit card fraud is something I figured would happen on this journey, one of the several travel fears that are bound to happen eventually that no one wants to deal with. This happened on one of the last days I was in Barcelona , I caught it mid way through my stay in Madrid, and by the end of my stay in Porto it was resolved, so I was lucky to catch it early and get things settled and it really wasn’t so bad looking bad, but during the whole event it was a bit stressful. When I first found out I wanted to get to bottom of it instantly it and skipped on training one day. I saw extra charges from Air BnB and Expedia. I went to both those sites and punched in the reference numbers for the charges, for both sites they came up as not from my account so I couldn’t cancel them but I did change my password for the accounts.

The next thing to do was call my credit card and flag the charges to get them reversed. The problem is I didn’t have the ability to make long distance calls on my phone and you can only make international calls on certain phones in Spain. After asking the hostel and going to the Police station I found out that these international phones are only at post offices and chat cafes. I wasn’t about to go to place and get charged per minute to call an international long distance call that’s supposed to be toll free. The charges would be way too much for that. So I started looking for other ways to contact the credit card company. I saw that I could put flags on the charges and online, and get that, but wanted to speak to the person and see what my full options were and how I could resolve this easiest.

After speaking to friends on Facebook and getting some ideas to try out I found out that I can call toll free numbers using Skype and it would just use data. So while using the hostel wifi I made the call and talked to a representative. By this time I was in Porto and it took a few calls, and talking to people online and sort everything out but eventually I had it all planned out. Unfortunately I would have to get the current card cancelled but a new card would be soon on it way to me and the fraudulent charges would be investigated and reversed as soon as possible. In the end the card never made it’s way to me, that’s a completely different story for another time, but the charges were all reversed within a week and I was back to normal on my way, just with no back up credit card now.    

Templum BCN

When I first started planning out my visit to Spain and Portugal Shannon’s name came up on the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group and the gym he trains at, Templum BCN as a place to visit. I contacted him to get the information for the gym and we planned to meet up, unfortunately our meet up never worked out but I did get to make it out to the gym. Templum is in an MMA gym and the Jiu-Jitsu club had a fair sized mat space, next to the cage where kickboxing was going on. There were some weights in the front and from what I could see there was a yoga or aerobic room in the back a level above that overlooked the front of the gym.

It was a nice place to train at and there were some monsters on the mats, as would expected with Yan Cabral training everyone. Yan was there that night too, he was teaching a kids class when I showed up but then went off to do his own training and then run a MMA class.  I would have loved to be a class with him or at least get a photo with him but I also didn’t want to bother him and he seemed pretty busy. A brown belt, who’s name I forget but he was a super nice guy and a spider monkey when we rolled, took over class and taught us some cool attack from the opponent being turtled up, some of which I’ve added to my game and have been working on ever since. The class was cool to train with, everyone gave me a lot of help if I needed it and we made all the techniques shown work. Sometimes I take a few extra minutes to get the technique working for me, I drill it a slowly a few times to figure out all the body movements, sometimes I need to look at the positions I end up in and need to change some things so I don’t end up putting myself in a bad position. Long story short I like to troubleshoot new techniques when I’m learning them. I had no problem doing that and got all the help I needed when drilling with this class. When it came to rolling time they weren’t so nice, maybe it was me still not used to the heat, or just not being as athletic as these guys, but I got steamed rolled by everyone there except the brown belt who just toyed with me and floated on me the whole time. It was a good night and I definitely earned those new moves after those rolls. Thanks guys!  

Gracie Barcelona 

I originally didn’t know about Robin Gracie being in Barcelona, I somehow missed that place when looking. When I put another post on the Globetrotters group listing all my stops in Spain and Portugal several people told me to check out Robin Gracie’s, so I look them up and went. At this point Paul from Paris was also visiting Barcelona and decided to meet up with me and check out the Gracie Academy Barcelona with me. It was a little hard to find the place, there was no sign out front, and with construction on the road it was really hard to look for the address. Luckily as I was walking down the street looking around another student saw my Jiu-Jitsu bag and offered to show me where it was. I would have never the guessed from the outside it was a Jiu-Jitsu gym inside, it looked like another apartment building like the rest on the street. Once I made it in and changed I made sure to contact Paul and wait out at the front door to wave him down on the street. Apparently he passed the place a few times having no clue it the gym was inside. That being said it’s a nice gym, nice size clean mat space with showers in the change rooms, and not sharing space with loud cross-fitters, it was a good hidden place for Jiu-Jitsu.

Robin Gracie himself was away doing a seminar somewhere so the class was more a study group with us going over some different areas to work on that people were wanting to train. It was a fun class, really chill with everyone seemed to really be into learning and working on different things. I showed Paul a technique I learned the other night that I figured he would really like and he showed the guys there a cool technique that worked with what we were covering. Rolling with everyone was another fun experience, some seemed to roll a bit harder with me, Paul and I made the joke later that it’s the curse of being a big guy, people just want to take it to the big guy, but seriously it was a fun time, too Robin Gracie wasn’t in town for us to meet though, maybe next time!

After class Paul and I hung out at a cafe, where was ate some cheesy covered hotdog that we were way too happy to try after a good Jiu-jitsu class, they were not near as good as the pictured showed, but still good enough to devour, although again that could of been the post Jiu-Jitsu class appetite, hahah. We hung out and chatted for a long time, a few hours anyways, it was a great time, I would have loved to film it as a video for the blog but I didn’t having my camera on me at the time and going to get it would have been a bit out of the way. Anyways, we must have talked about everything possible for traveling, training at visiting gyms, and Jiu-Jitsu in general. It was a great afternoon after a good class but I think I caught too much sun and got sick, a heavy price to pay for good conversation, but still a great time hanging out with Paul, until we meet again buddy!

Ricardo Oliveira Jiu-Jitsu

Now I was at Madrid, fighting off the cold but not yet dealing with credit card fraud. I had been referred to Ricardo and we had been talking a short while online. He was a really nice guy from our messages and I was looking forward to meeting him and his school. I only managed to make it out once, dealing with everything else held me back from training much, but it was a great time. The Jiu-Jitsu club, Ricardo Oliveira Jiu-Jitsu (ROJJ), is in a gym Athlos Training Center. The gym is pretty small, I would say half the space or more is mat space for Jiu-Jitsu and other martial arts classes with a small area for working out in the front. The whole place seemed very new, like it had just opened recently, if not they’ve kept it very well and clean. 

The class was small and everyone there was very happy to have a visitor, I got asked quite a few questions about traveling and visiting clubs. Ricardo himself was a very nice guy and made me very comfortable to be visiting his club. Class was relaxed, drilling on things at our own pace and working on getting the mechanics of the technique. This is good for me because I was still dealing with my respiratory system, my sinuses and throat felt like they had been burned out so it was hard to breath while doing anything too active. I couldn’t roll that night because of this but sat back and watched, they were a very technical group of people so it was very interesting watching them. It’s too bad my trip to Madrid was plagued with problems but I very much enjoyed meeting and training with Ricardo’s club, thanks guys!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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I’ve spent the past four months meandering around Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It was a mix of constantly chaotic cities, serene countryside escapes, amazing food and tons of BJJ training. The next four months of my year-long adventure will be spent in Europe (starting in Belgrade, Serbia) but, before I get wrapped up in my future exploits, I want to reflect a little on the first leg of my trip.

Here’s a quick rundown of the cities I spent most of my time, my overall impressions of them and where I trained:

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia (29 January – 4 March)

Hanging out in a KL rooftop infinite pool with some ladies.

(This one is a little longer since I started blogging after I already left this country.)

The most diverse city in Asia by far. On my daily walk to work I passed multiple Indian, Vietnamese, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Western and Malay restaurants. Not to mention Jalan Alor! It’s a whole street, just a few blocks away from my hotel, completely packed with street food vendors serving the most exotic and delicious meals. About half the time I didn’t know what I was ordering; I just pointed to something on the menu and most of the time it was amazing.

With all the feasting I was doing, I knew I would have to work hard to stay in fighting shape. That wasn’t a problem at Monarchy MMA. This was my first time training internationally and I didn’t know what to expect at all. All the guys, especially the instructor Bruno, were super cool but I was not ready to intensely train in 80°F (27°C) heat with what felt like 80% humidity. The first night at Monarchy felt like my first time ever rolling. I wanted to hide my purple belt as white belts (literally) mopped the floor with my energy-depleted body. It was an extremely humbling week.

I spent that month working on my cardio and acclimating to the Southeast Asian climate. By the end of February, I was finally able to hold my own and I earned the ability to proudly wear my purple belt again.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (4 March – 1 April)

Side trip to Halong Bay… the most beautiful and mystifying places I have ever been.

This city had the Southeast Asian chaos I was anticipating. Crossing the street meant walking calming through a stream of oncoming scooters and cars that would move just barely not enough to hit you. Backpacker street was an instance party filled with expats buying NO2 balloons directly from bars. Instead of calling a cab, you hopped on the back of someone’s scooter. The city was crazy fun and I managed to squeeze a side trip in to Hanoi and Halong Bay.

Unfortunately, I was only able to train once at Saigon Jiu Jitsu. After just a few days in the country, I contracted a bad cough that persisted for four weeks. Two days before leaving I finally broke down and saw a doctor, who diagnosed me with “walking pneumonia.” After a handful of pills and a few days rest I was finally done coughing!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (1 April – 29 April)

Exploring ancient temples in Angkor.

Cambodia was the most difficult and most rewarding country to visit in Asia, at least for me. The first few days were amazing. The bar scene was wild, the food was tasty and cheap, the people were insanely welcoming and the temples scattered everywhere were beautiful. However, the country is still overcoming side effects from its lamentable recent history. Being surrounded by intense poverty and poor infrastructure for a month starting to emotionally drain me.

I trained at H/Art Academy, the cities only BJJ dedicated gym. This was probably my favorite gym and group of people to train with in Southeast Asia. Plus, they have the freshest gym shirts I have ever seen! It took me awhile to get back into my groove after just getting over pneumonia, but toward the end of the month I was having amazing rolls and even learned some cool tricks.

Check out my earlier posts Weekend Trip to the Ancient Temples of Angkor and My Month Training in Cambodia if you want to know more about why you need to check this country out for yourself.

Bangkok, Thailand (29 April – 27 May)

Motorcycle road trip in Chiang Mai.

I loved just about every part of Thailand. Spicy, delicious street food literally everywhere, awesomely sketchy bars and clubs, inspiring cultural pride and tons of new friends. Thailand is the country I am most likely to come back and explore more as soon as I can. My two other blog posts will give you a better picture of my time there: Thailand Week 1: Going Hard and Adventure Week in Thailand.

This was also the first country I truly embraced the BJJ Globetrotters community. It blew my mind with how welcoming other BJJ enthusiast were.  I was constantly going to meals or grabbing drinks with people I met on the mat. I also felt like this was the best rolling I had since starting my journey. Things were finally starting to make sense and flow again. I trained at three gyms while I was there: EMAC, Bangkok Fight Lab and Chiang Mai Fight Fit.

I’ve created more memories just in the past four months than I had for years before. I’m sad that I’m no longer in Southeast Asia, but now it’s time to explore my new home – Belgrade Serbia.