Archive for category: Blogs

About a month ago, I announced six new camps for 2018, totaling 9 scheduled camps for the year. Researching and planning the camps is something that I put a lot of work and time into every season. Over the years, more and more people seem to rely on BJJ Globetrotters to plan their holidays, just waiting for the camps to be announced so they know where they’ll be going. This is a responsibility that I don’t take lightly; I am very committed offer the absolute best possible BJJ travel experiences out there for those who choose to participate.

There are a lot of thoughts going into selecting camp locations and themes, but the 2018 season has been dominated by one single goal for me – something that I have been working towards achieving for a long time and finally managed to do.

The Caribbean Island camp has long been the “pirate-themed” camp of BJJ Globetrotters. Later on, we more of less randomly ended up discovering a Japanese village in the middle of a forest in Poland to host the Zen Camp and that’s where the idea started to materialize in my head. The business plan on which I would end up basing the entire season of camps:

• In one year, do camps for all four distant cousins of conquer and pillage: Pirates (Caribbean Island camp), Vikings (Iceland Camp), Samurais (Zen Camp) and Medieval Knights (Castle Camp). Full circle.

I drew this illustration on my white board back when I started working on the camps about six months ago and I’m very satisfied that I actually managed to achieve it. Renting an insanely expensive castle for just 20 people made zero sense from a business perspective but the medieval knights were the last ones I needed, so I was pretty much forced to do it and luckily it worked out.

So there you go, the secret business model that I base all of the BJJ Globetrotters camps on. And maybe even the secret to their success? 

When I came back home to Iceland after my backpacking trip around Central America, I had a lot to think about. I felt like the world was my oyster, I could do anything. I returned to my old job and realized I needed to do something different, tailor my life so I had the freedom to follow my passion. So I decided to go back to school for one year to study Adventure Sports, returning to school was not something I expected to do in the near future. Committing to school for only a year may not sound a lot to most people. For me however, someone who just had a mind blowing experience and the drive to do something different, it was a big deal. In the long run however I believe that these studies will help giving me the freedom I so desperately want.

Now fast forward until December, the holidays are around the corners, I’ve been doing my studies for about four months. I am actually really enjoying the program and it’s pushing my comfort zone and expanding my skill set. However I’m still in Iceland living in my small fishing town, to be honest I was really starting to crave just a change of scenery and meet some new interesting people. So I decided to just get a quick fix for my island fever and grab the cheapest airfare I could get to Denmark. That’s about the only cheap airfare that you can get in Iceland and I knew that one of my closest friend Daníel who just moved there would have a couch waiting for me to crash on.

I flew over there and stayed with him and his girlfriend for 10 days, even spending New Year’s Eve there. It was just what the doctor ordered. Just walking around, travelling with the public transport and talking to some local people, made me feel like I was immersed in a new environment. Giving me a quick glance of how so many of my Icelandic and Danish friends are living.

One of the best things about going to Denmark was to be able to visit CSA, the original Globetrotters gym. I planned to meet up with my friend Jonas during open mat and when I showed up there I’ve never seen as many Globetrotters’ patches outside a camp. I wasn’t even the only foreigner visiting, no one was suprised having some visitors there. I ended up rolling with Jonas most of the time, going back and forth like crazy and both trying to survive. The Christmas break had not been kind to us.

Throughout my stay I managed to train 4 times there, 2 open mats and 2 classes. I recommend anybody who is in Denmark to drop by and check them out. I met bunch of great people there and everybody was super friendly. The gym also has a diverse crowd of practitioners and coaches.

At the end of all this I was able to come back home feeling all refreshed and ready to take on next couple of months. I used the down time for some introspection and working through everything that I’ve had going on in my head. Travelling with no insane schedule, just doing everything at my own speed and only doing the things I wanted.  There isn’t much that tops that.

Greetings from San Diego USA! (9-21 Oct 2017)

I’m detouring from detailing my adventures traveling and training around the world to bring you a special article about my time on a training camp in San Diego with a bunch of crazy Australians. I last left off leaving Russia for Ukraine, and I will get to that shortly, but this camp I went on was a special time and I need to cover before it becomes too late, which is already is.

Open Guard and the Free Rollers

Let’s begin with explaining who set up the camp and how I got involved. Open Guard is a website with the focus on bringing together the BJJ scene in Australia, with a number of writers posting articles on the events taking place there. They feature different competitors and gyms and review BJJ gear from time to time and have some good articles about all sorts of BJJ related topics. Part of Open Guard is the Free Rollers community, the people and gyms who just like to roll with whoever, whenever, without any club drama. The idea is similar to the BJJ Globetrotters community, but centered on the Australian BJJ scene. Open Guard and Free Rollers have been around for a few years now and I’ve had the pleasure of watching them grow from reading the first few articles and seeing the pictures from the very first Free Rollers Outdoor Open Mat. Being a part of the first Free Rollers camp was an honour and a lot of fun, but how did I manage to get involved with them?

Luke Docherty

I first met Luke over 3 years ago when I first started posting to the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook group about my eventual plans to travel and train around the world for a year. Luke was one of the first guys to reply to me and invite me out to his place and we’ve been good friends ever since. You may recognize the name if you keep up with the Jiu-Jitsu Times articles as Luke is a usual contributor, including this awesome interview on my milestones we did. Luke and I have a lot in common, Serving in the Navy, being obsessed with BJJ and a healthy sense of inappropriate humour, we have often made jokes about being long lost brothers. He’s also part of the driving force behind Open Guard and was the one who put together the Free Rollers camp. Luke bounced some ideas off me about the camp and would keep me updated on it. I was always planning on making it to Australia to meet Luke and travel around and see the mystical Land Down Under that I’ve only ever learned about from shows like Crocodile Dundee and The Crocodile Hunter (Or Luke’s favourite: Precilla Queen of the Desert). Meeting the guys and hanging out together in San Diego just seemed like a great idea, both as an awesome setting for us to meet before heading back to Australia and an awesome way for me to visit San Diego on this journey. Although adding the Free Rollers camp to the Odyssey timeline meant adding a lot of traveling, and extra expenses, it was also an adventure I didn’t want to miss.

Free Rollers San Diego Camp

Now that I’ve filled you in on the back stories to everyone let’s get to the actual camp! Everyone but me was from the same club back in Perth Australia so I was the outsider at first. Having Jiu-Jitsu traveling and an odd sense of humour (and me enjoying their ability to call everyone ‘Kent’) we all quickly warmed up and become one close group training twice a day, exploring San Diego and generally getting up to no good. From the start I could see guys had a lot of steam to blow off and were really excited about the trip, there may have been a tiny bit more partying than I first expected, but that’s the difference between saving to go on a training vacation and backpacking around the world for a year. All my steam was gone, I am just going with the flow and trying to balance training with exploring so I don’t do too much at once and end up burnt out or injured. These guys could go hard, both on and off the mats, and just rest once they got back to Australia. I had my hands full these 10 days we hung out and trained and partied together. While the nights usually ended with the guys having a few cold ones and getting a little wild (there was a night of midnight ‘No-Gi’ wrestling in their underwear that took place in the front room. Where I sleep. While trying to sleep) we all put in quite a bit of training throughout this camp. As the saying goes, work hard, play hard, or in Australia they say “We’re not here to fuck spiders!” that actually became the camp motto, I’m still waiting for the shirt.

Luke, as the spearhead of Free Rollers, had everything set up for this trip. He found an affordable Airbnb near the gyms, set up all the day and evening’s activities, like going to a college football game or to the USS Midway, and got us a group deal to train the whole time at the University of Jiu-Jitsu with none other than Xande Ribeiro (Saulo was back seeing family in Brazil). I has happy to have a destination that literally all I had to worry about was just getting the ticket there, I didn’t have to worry about sending e-mails or contacting the gyms on Facebook, or finding a place to stay, I just showed up and followed along with the guys. The day we all showed up to San Diego I got in a bit later than they did. They all arrived in LA and drove down while I took the long way with many connections and after a delay managed to visit Kurt Osiander’s gym for my 100th club visit before arriving in San Diego. Once I got into town and we were all settled in we stopped by Uni-JJ to say hi and set up our week long training passes. That’s when we met Gustavo Dias, a Brazilian tank of a black belt and one of the instructors for the day classes at the gym, as well as one of the nicest guys I’ve met. Throughout our stay Gustavo gave us so many tips on places to eat at and sights to see. Basically he gave us the necessary tools for the perfect camp: Jiu-Jitsu, beach and food.

We went out for supper that night at a near by ‘Buffalo Wild Wings’, we would become regulars there during this trip as most our suppers were held there while breakfast was had at the all-day breakfast place just a block away. We were creatures of habit but when you know what you like, why bother spending time looking for new places everyday when we’re on a tight schedule. Quite often we would make plans for the next day’s classes and activities while eating baskets of chicken wings and watching the sports highlights on the TV’s. There was always an over zealous “I’m hitting all the class tomorrow!” usually by Luke, that never panned out, and a comment about checking out other clubs since there are so many high caliber gyms to choose from in San Diego. Although we mostly trained at University of Jiu-Jitsu we did venture out to other clubs during our stay and one day the boys managed to hit up the Atos BJJ HQ for a weekend open mat without me.

During the day in between classes, or when we took some rest and only attended the evening class, we would pile into the SUV and drive around, hitting up a beach or pier to walk along and enjoy the sights.

One day a few of us made it down the Mall of Americas (or ‘Las Americas‘) at the US/Mexico boarder where we spent a bit more money than we all planned, especially at the Under Armor outlet which had pretty much everything at 50% off. I also ended up getting a custom Panda’s Odyssey ball cap while everyone else bought new Vans with the ‘buy one, get 50% off a second pair’ sale (Note to self: Next time buy new Vans!)

Of course we also spent an afternoon touring the USS Midway, and old Aircraft carrier that is now a museum and has all sorts of cool military paraphernalia at their souvenir shop, as well as both the flight deck and hanger bay full of old fighter jets you can climb in and take pics of in and flight sims you can try and fly.

The football game was an adventure I think anyone visiting USA should go on. The sports culture around American football is unique, with the tailgate parties and BBQ’s throughout the parking lot. The game itself, with all the cheer leading squads all around the field and the marching create a whole show to watch rather than just a sporting match. It’s quite surreal watching everything going on.

University of Jiu-Jitsu

Our first class at University of Jiu-Jitsu was the morning class at 7am, I believe that was the only morning class I made it out to. I don’t remember which class he taught but that day we met Victor Barreto, another tank of a Brazilian, like Gustavo, with the added  feature of towering over everyone. If you’ve watched the ‘BJJ Library Challenge‘ Victor was the winner of that challenge so it was pretty cool to watch that series then actually see him teaching our class. The whole week went on like this, showing up to class and meeting someone we’ve seen before online, or would be seeing a lot more of, like Casey Hellenberg who just competed in the EBI 14 ‘The Absolutes’. For the morning class there were only maybe 3 other people showed up for it and I could see the guys were all pretty nervous about their first time training in Uni-JJ. I guess maybe since I have traveled all this past year and walked onto so many mats it wasn’t as big a deal for me, I was more excited then nervous. Or maybe since the morning class was smaller they were all worried about being in the spotlight under Gustavo and Victor as the new guys, which in that case I was also a bit worried. Our fears were smashed away once we were done the warm up and drilling techniques, all that mattered was training the details. That’s one thing that is consistent through all of the Ribeiro instructors, the attention to detail and the emphasis on control. As in intimidating as Gustavo and Victor were they were great at teaching those points and seeing any adjustments we needed to make throughout our class with them.

The Wednesday night ‘Library’ class is where they film the class to use for instructionals on the BJJ Library, it was taught by Xande Ribeiro who was just coming back from his impressive run at the ADCC Worlds. This class was packed, the evening classes are always busy, with the count somewhere in the 30’s or 40’s, but Wednesday was especially busy and with the camera man there it there was an electric energy in the gym. Xande showed us basic moves all night, nothing special to the unknowing viewer, just basic armbar set ups from the closed guard. The very same moves and details he used to tap out world class competitors at the ADCC’s. Not so basic after all. The details he gave us were stellar, with a big emphasis on control and contact throughout all movement, once you had that arm it was your the entire time. Making the basic technique we all learn in our first days of starting BJJ into a world class, black belt level, competition winning technique. It was amazing being in Xande’s class, it’s like his presence just adds more energy to everyone training. Even during the week in classes he wasn’t teaching, if Xande was in the gym everyone stepped it up a notch. Xande himself was a great guy to talk to, welcoming us into the gym at the start of class and telling everyone to look after us. He was intimidating be around at first though, with his stance of constantly rolled back shoulders and open arms, like he’s ready to shoot for a double leg take down at any second. It made you hesitate walking up and saying hello, but he was always friendly and chill with everyone. Training there all week was absolute blast. While there’s tons of gyms to choose from in San Diego you really must drop by for at least one class.

10th Planet San Diego

One night I got a few of the guys to come along with me to another gym to get a completely different style of rolling in and see grappling from an all new perspective. We piled into the SUV and drove across the city, which in itself is an adventure if you’ve never driven in San Diego before, and ended up at 10th Planet San Diego. Richie ‘Boogeyman’ Martinez runs the classes there and man does he spread the love at that gym, such a warm welcoming place! From mis-reading the schedule we got there just as class was ending and had an hour to wait before the next class started. We sat and watched people train, like Liz Carmouche (the very first female fighter to walk into the UFC cage and Ronda Rousey’s first opponent) hit the pads. As people starting showing up for the next class they would come introduce themselves to us one by one, everyone was really friendly and we felt very welcomed, making this introduction to 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu a lot easier for the guys. Once class started and we got into drilling techniques Richie walked us down a rabbit hole of Rubber Guard set ups and chained it into the ‘Gogo-Clinch’ a move from rubber guard that incorporates the leg over the shoulder and under chin of the Gogoplata with the C-clamped scissoring arms of a No-Gi baseball bat choke to make the most hellish choke I’ve seen and experienced. At first we were all watching and thinking ‘Smoke another one bro, there’s no way I’m getting the rubber guard let alone finishing this technique’ but by the end of the class, with Boogey’s awesome guidance we were all able to drill this technique with only minor difficulties.

The rolling at the end of class was by the far the best part, I had my experience rolling with 10th Planet guys already and knew of the black magic to expect, but the other guys were going in practically blind. After the first roll I remember walking up to them and seeing their eyes the widest they had been this whole trip, just about popping out of their heads “Man, that was amazing! I didn’t know what was going on, I got wrapped all up and twisted and tapped but he didn’t muscle me!” 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu is indeed a different way of moving and manipulating the body, and being at the home of one of the foremost innovators to 10th Planet you can rested assured we were shown some really different shit during those rolls. After class we were all sitting in the SUV in the parking lot trying to figure out how to get back to the house and where to grab food when Richie pulls next to us “Hey guys, you want somewhere good to eat?” he asked, and then proceeded to tell us where to find the coolest Mexican food place in San Diego. “I’d love to come with you guys but I got to cut weight for EBI next week” he adds like it’s just another day at the job. We made our way to the restaurant and we were not let down. They whole place is done up as a tacky flamingo bar inspired Lucha Libre shrine with signed photos of great Lucha wrestlers all over the walls and masks encased in the seats. They even had a ring at the back that was set up with a table for private parties. It was a perfect place to end off our awesome night. We’ll have to go back with everyone next time, and hopefully Boogey can join us this time!

Victory MMA

Another gym we ended up dropping by for a class was Victory MMA. It wasn’t in the plans at first as it seemed a lot of the head instructors were away, and the guys just wanted to train at Uni JJ, but then we dropped by a cryotherapy place that was just across the street from the gym. As it happens the guys running it, Keeling and Bryan, were both black belts from Victory. We would drop by Chill’N Out quite often, at least one person would be going for cryo each day, and during our time hanging out there they would always mention how they would love to have us over for a class. Finally, after feeling guilty of these guys treating us so well and us not dropping by, we decided to go train with them on the weekend. We were not disappointed. They were just as fun to train with as they were to hang out with while we froze our balls off in their cryo chamber. Bryan ran the class that day and started with working functional movements as as warm up. One person sitting in open guard as you worked your footwork around his legs, triangle footwork drills, zig-zags in and out, hopping over, all sorts of movement. Let me say that Bryan is a spider monkey and makes the movement look way too easy, I was out of breath just watching him demonstrate.

I was teamed with a giant of a white belt and neither of us were in the mood to try and simulate Bryan’s Jack Russel-like movement but we did get along drilling quite well. Keeling and Bryan made sure to split us Free Rollers up so that we were training with guys from the gym so we got meet the club. Even in rolling we weren’t allowed to roll with each other, which was good since we didn’t travel half way around the world just to roll with the same teammates and by this point I had rolled with them all anyways. It was a lot of fun, which Bryan always made a point of telling us is his main goal for each class, training and rolling with the crew there in a relaxed setting. Everyone was pretty laid back and welcoming of visitors and I’m sure the guys each had a few questions asked about their travels and visiting San Diego during class like I did. I’m glad we finally made it over to see the Victory guys before the end of out trip. 

By the end of the 10 days we were tired, bodies beaten and heads full of all sorts of new techniques, and ready to head (back) to Australia. I’ve got to say thank you to Luke for setting this camp up and of course thanks to all the clubs and people who welcomed us during this adventure. It was one of those experiences legends are made of, and I’m pretty sure by the end of the trip we were all legends for one thing or another, weather we want the world to know what that is is another story all together. When it was time to leave we split up on our ways back to Perth Australia. I had a flight out of San Diego and 30+ hours of connections and flights while the guys headed to LA for one last night, where they decided to finally track down Zack’s man-crush he had been Instagram stalking all week, ADCC champ Gordan Ryan. I’m sorry I missed that event and can’t elaborate on it but I heard it ended hilariously. Anyways, I highly recommend joining Luke and guys on the next Free Rollers Camp, which I hear is already being planned and has a lot of interest, both from Australia and the US so keep watch on Open Guard for updates. I know I’ll be watching and hoping to meet with them again, in the meantime my next article will pick up where I last left off on the Odyssey: Kiev Ukraine!

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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We left LA and planned to head up along the coast the whole way to San Francisco over 2 days. We started the drive and headed trough Malibu only to be turned around and had to take the back roads due to an accident on the road. Once back on the Coast road again we made our way to Morro Bay, a small tourist town located next to Morro Rock. We spent the end of the afternoon with a walk around the rock while watching the sunset.

Morro Rock

Morro Rock

The next morning, we continued north and stopped in to check out the elephant seal viewing area, where large amounts of seals congregate. It was impressive to see how big they were and just how many were along this stretch of coast. Some of the coastal views as we came closer to San Francisco were amazing.

Sea Otters hanging out in the bay

Great Views

Arriving downtown, you quickly realize San Francisco isn’t the cleanest of cities, it was quite an experience dodging the human excrement along the sidewalk on some streets. We headed to the Ralph Gracie academy in the city. We had met Kurt Osiander at the Worlds Masters competition earlier in the trip where he had invited us to train with him. The gym is quite large with two mat areas and has a very old school Jiu-Jitsu feel to it, complete with club rules that includes no whining hahaha.

Golden Gate Selfie

Sunday NoGi class was super tough

As we were staying in Berkeley, Oakland we also trained at the Ralph Gracie Berkeley academy ran by Prof Eduardo “Selvagem” Fraga as it was only 5 minutes from where we were staying. Dee and I trained twice a day for the whole week, we would get up at around 5am to make sure we got across the Bay Bridge and through traffic with enough time to make it for the famous 7am class  ran by Kurt. This class has a large attendance for the time that it is ran and if full of a range of different people and ranks. We would then shower at the gym before heading out to explore the city for the day. In the evenings we would train at either the HQ or Berkley depending on where the kids classes where being ran. The one thing that everyone told us about before heading there was the full on warm ups and they were not wrong. Luckily, we were quite jiu-jitsu fit so it we were able to get through, it was definitely more intense than most of the places we had been to.

Ralph Gracie selfie!

The training was great, and we loved Kurt’s instruction, he is exactly as you would expect and even funnier in person. Both Lilly and Kobe loved his classes and his big “kid” attitude, as tough as he can come across he really is  a big softy with the kids, but don’t tell him I said that ?. I was lucky enough to get some rolls in with Ralph and Kurt during our time there which was a trip highlight. They are such nice people and have such a tough attitude when it comes to their training which I really admire.

Getting a roll in with Kurt

The training at Berkley was also great, Prof Eduardo who is the head coach welcomed and showed us around. We enjoyed training there and not having to battle the traffic trying to get in and out of the city. Lilly and Kobe made quite a few friends there and at one stage I’m sure there was a line as all the other kids took turns to ask them questions about the trip and Australia.

Kurt playing with Kobe

Lilly training at RGSF

Ralph Gracie Berkeley

In between the hard sessions we did manage to get some sightseeing in, we walked the golden gate bridge which is a must do when visiting San Francisco. We visited Alcatraz and did the audio tour which was pretty amazing, Kobe especially liked it and kept asking a heap of questions throughout the whole tour. We went and checked out the Bison in the Golden gate park and the Sutro Baths at Lands’ End, where an earthquake had collapsed the old bath house.

lands End

Alcatraz

As our time started to come to an end in San Francisco our bodies were starting to feel a little worse for wear. All the early starts and late nights with the hard training had left us feeling a little physically drained. The tape on our fingers and toes seemed to be the latest fashion accessory as there was no point taking it off between sessions and we wore it around while sightseeing, all the while getting strange looks. Dee’s nice black eye would have also contributed to the looks we were getting.

Getting in some great rolls

We spent our last day in San Francisco moving to another hotel closer to the airport, so we didn’t have to deal with the dreaded traffic before we flew out. We had some time to kill so we went to another Zoo!! I think this puts us to around 6 or 7 zoos we have visited this trip. It was a good way to spend our last few free hours before we headed off to the final leg of this adventure to Hawaii.

-Woody

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Greetings From Saint Petersburg, Russia! (10-15 July 2017)

Finally I had made it. Russia was one of the first things on the list of places I want to go to, to see the culture and old Soviet buildings (and much older architectures) and of course learn Sambo from the birthplace of the sport. Although the flight over and navigation to the hostel was simple and easy, even though the bus charged me twice the bus fare because of my backpack, and the customs checkpoint went smooth (which I had been a little anxious over given my past career in the military), the steps taken to make it to Russia were more complex. Russia requires a Visa to visit and it’s quite involved with the amount of paperwork and information they require, with a lot of pre-booking before even acquiring the Visa. This would be the first time I had ever had to apply for a Visa for visiting a country as well so I was a bit unsure of all the necessary steps, and given the personal importance of this stop in the Odyssey, I was nervous to make sure it was all done properly.

When I was first laying out the rough draft of the Odyssey itinerary I had only a few points to go by outside of Canada. I knew I would be flying to London in March, and eventually wanted to make it to Thailand and Japan, but much else between, and the order in which I would visit these spots, was yet to be determined. When I saw on the BJJ Globetrotters map that there were gyms to visit in Russia and Morocco I decided I had to add those places, but I would have to plan out my route carefully so I could get the right paperwork completed and give myself the proper time to visit all the other places in between. With the Russian Visa Canadians, and most other countries, are allowed to apply as much as six months in advance for their trip. I decided Russia would be a great next stop after my maximum time of 3 months in the European Union was up, but when that would be depended on whether or not I made a stop in Morocco, which in turn dictated when I could apply for the Visa before leaving Canada. I could of course apply later but traveling while mailing my passport home and waiting for it to be returned and hoping it doesn’t get lost in the mail was not something I wanted to deal with.

I decided the first step was contacting the BJJ scene in Morocco about visiting and training with them, to which I got a resounding welcome message from everyone I spoke to (read about my adventures in Rabat, Casablanca & Marrakesh). After that I then figured out what time I had left in the European Zone to determine when what dates to look into my visit to Russia. From there I then planned when I could apply for the Visa. As it happened I would be in Ottawa, by the Russian consulate and Visa Services Canada just as the 6 month mark came up so I could apply for the Visa and drop by the office and speak to someone in person rather than just mail the papers in the mail and hope everything needed is included. That was the smart plan as not only did I not notice a small but important term in my flight out of Russia (I was originally going to fly to Belarus and visit there but because of current tensions tourists coming from Russia aren’t allowed to visit.), but also I needed to drop off additional paperwork, including a signed letter informing the Russian consulate as to why I was applying for a visa so much ahead of my visiting dates, apparently “because you allow me to” isn’t a good enough reason.

Once the Visa application was sent in I just had to wait for my passport to come back, I would pick it up at my friend’s house as my last stop in Canada. It was set, I would be flying to London and visiting the UK and Ireland in March, then make my way down to Morocco for May, and then make my way up to Russia in July. The all stops in between, all the adventures you have been reading about up til now, I had a rough idea of where and when I’d be visiting but they were all up in the air and planned on the go while I traveled, and they changed over and over. So all the paperwork was done and I had finally made my way to Russia, in Saint Petersburg, ready to get some first-hand experience of Sambo, and hope I don’t die from it.

The Many Many Sights

I knew there were a few things to check out in Saint Petersburg from doing a quick check online, and so many people telling how great the city was, but I did not expect to be so enthralled with all the old architecture throughout the city. By this point I was quite used to being around buildings that were everyday common apartment buildings or store fronts to the locals but cool looking to me and older than the formation of Canada itself. The difference with Saint Petersburg is the scale of which all these building are built. It’s like every building, no matter it’s function, was built to outdo Versailles. They were massive, several floor buildings covered with all sorts of ornate designs and pillars. Or the Orthodox church built with millions of multicolored tiles and spires and domes. There was a lot to see and take in for this city, here’s a small sample of the photos I took.

Kazan Cathedral is impressive building, that reminded me of the ship from ‘Prometheus’, with a small but busy park and water fountain in front.

Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood of course reminded me of Tetris, was also very busy and I didnt feel like being in the crowd pushing my through to see inside so I only walked around and admired it from the outside.

Peter & Paul Fortress is a sizable area with all sorts of different buildings and views, like the Peter and Paul churches, prison museum and the harbour dock and fortress wall and look in towards the city.

Historical Military Artillery Museum is across from the fortress and has a huge array of cannons, tanks and other artillery vehicles displayed across it’s lawns.

Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange and Rostral Columns are on the Spit of Vasilievsky Island and look in to the city and fortress view.

The Palace Square speaks for itself. 

I have more photos of my travels and adventures over on my Flickr account, head over there if you want to see more and maybe show some love by liking or commenting on few of them, thanks!

Alexey and The Saint Petersburg National Sambo Team

When looking into the idea of traveling to Russia I asked the BJJ Globetrotters Facebook page for contacts or experiences traveling there. That’s when I met Khaled, a Russian living in USA who apparently knows everyone in Russia. He set me up with Alexey, who runs AP Gym in Saint Petersburg, and also connected me with the Checkmat gym in Moscow and told me some great places to check out and had other contacts if I wanted to venture deeper into Western Russia. So I got a hold of Alexey and we began talking about me coming and visiting. Alexey was more than happy to have a visitor and was even going to set me up with a place to stay, except there was no certainty and with the language barrier I decided to go with a hostel and make sure all my paperwork was in order for the trip.

I contacted Alexey once I was settled into the hostel and we started working out when to meet up and train together. As I mentioned before he owns and runs a series of gyms around Saint Petersburg and I was looking forward to meeting his team and training with them, but then Alexey changed the plans. Apparently he had been invited out to train at the School of Higher Sportmanship, home of the Saint Petersburg National Sambo Team and decided to bring me along with him. Alexey and I met up across town at a train station and then he drove the rest of the way since the sports building was just outside of the city. I followed him through the halls and series of rooms, where I saw Judo classes beginning and ending, until we made it to the Sambo room, a big long room matted with three wrestling circles and huge portraits of Sambo legends hanging from the wall. There a number of student there ranging from big scary looking athletes that would break me without a second thought to young teenagers who could probably runs circles around me. It was an intimidating class to be a part of, but also an honour to be there.

The class goes through a series of warm ups but mostly it’s at your own pace and once you’re done warming up the class is fully on your own with the head coach, Korshunov Alexander Igorevich (A honoured coach of Russia) helping if you had any questions. For the hour that Alexey and I trained it was just us working no-gi, we would roll for a while and Alexey would give me tips for my game and we would drill a technique or I would take a break and grab some water while I watched the rest of the class train. There were a group of men training Combat-Sambo on one mat, a younger group working their take downs with the coach on another, it was amazing to see. As we were training a huge guy walked in and got ready to go a few rounds with his training partner. Alexey saw him and told me he was Denis “The Russian Bogatyr” Goltsov a MMA fighter and heavyweight champ. I watched him and his partner fight round after round beating on each other, impressed and intimidated by his size and skill. Alexey jokingly asked if I wanted to go a round with him, I think-or hoped-he was joking, but I just settled with getting a picture with this giant instead.

After training we went out for food and Alexey brought me a Chinese buffet, we talked more about Saint Petersburg and training and traveling and all sorts of things. Alexey has a few businesses other than his gym, he was a busy man doing the work of 6 men running all his entrepreneur enterprises, making him taking the the time to show me around and train with me all the more impressive. It was a fun night and I wished we were able to train more but that night was the only time I was able to make it out as I got head cold and was out of training for the rest of this visit. Thanks so much Alexey for everything, the hard fought rolls, bringing me to the Sambo training session, showing me your beautiful home town, it was an honour to meet you and hang out together. And thank you Khaled for connecting us.

After a short visit to Saint Petersburg and seeing all the awesome sights, a 5 day visit that went by way too fast, I was on a train to my other Russian stop: Moscow!

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 a shirt at Panda’s Jiu-Jitsu Store.

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

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Arriving back in San Diego was almost like coming home, as we had been here almost 5 months ago. I was very excited to be back as the last time we were here I was nursing a serious rib injury that prevented me from really training the way I wanted to here. The whole focus this time was definitely the Jiu-Jitsu, we had already done all the tourist stuff the last time.

back again with this crew

We wasted no time in heading back to Gracie South Bay, this is Leticia Ribeiro’s Academy and was where Dee and the kids has spent most of their time training on our first visit. We were warmly welcomed back with hugs and questions on what has been happening while we have been travelling. We jumped straight back into training and Lilly and Kobe couldn’t have been happier! It was their favourite place so far on the trip. The kids program that Letica runs there is one of the best if not the best we have encountered on our journey. The next generation is something they put a lot of time into there and it shows with their results and the attitudes of the students.

Lilly and Kobe with Leticia

They have such a strong female presence there that Dee also loved the place and took part in the boot camps and ladies classes. I was just happy to be able to finally get on the mats and have some great rolls there. We really felt at home and could of just spent all of our time there but we wanted to check out some of the other academies that San Diego has to offer.

Kobe’s class

Lilly and her class

We headed to the University of Jiu-Jitsu, Saulo and Xande Ribeiro’s Academy. Unfortunate they were both away with Xande in Brazil and Saulo recovering from Knee surgery. We took the NoGi lunch class with Casey Hellenberg which was great as we focused a lot on the stand-up positional wrestling and transitions which both Dee and I got a lot out of. We returned later that day where the kids took part in classes and we again trained another NoGi session that night with Victor Barreto. We really enjoyed getting on the mats there and did some great training with them. It was no surprise that intensity of the NoGi was increasing with the IBJJF NoGi world only a month away. It was good to get some hard rounds in with these guys!

Us with Casey

Evening class at UOJJ

The Weekends in San Diego are packed with training options as a lot of the academies run open mats. Saturday, we headed to Gracie South Bay for their open mat and got some fun rolls in and shared some techniques back and forth. Sunday, we headed to Barum Jiu-Jitsu for open mat, we had been told by a few people and multiple places that this is the place to be on a Sunday. The mat was full of people from different academies all over San Diego, we even ran into a few of the guys from University of Jiu-Jitsu that we had trained with earlier in the week. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and we has some cool, fun rolls with everyone.

Barum – Jiu JItsu

Monday, we headed to THE ARENA, we wanted to see if we could get a class in with Baret Yoshida at lunch time. We headed over there and barely made it on the mats in time for class. Baret taught a cool arm/collar drag setup from seated guard that has some awesome little tweaks in it. Rolling with Baret was very cool experience, he is such a nice guy but moves like a monster, I found myself trapped at every turn…. In a good way of course.

Dee and I with Baret after class

We decided to make head up to Atos for the kids and Adults classes in the evening. To be honest I was a little intimidated heading in there, it’s known for being a high-level academy with a strong focus on competition. Walking in there we were greeted well and got the kids sorted for class, something to note if visiting is they have a strict dress code of white Gi’s with no affiliation patches and an all-black rash guard underneath. We managed to meet the code with the kids gear but Dee and I had to “Hire” rash guards. We didn’t really mind as we were well aware this would be the case before arriving.

Kids at Atos

Dee and I at Atos

Dee with Angelica

They had a lot of kids on the mat and the classes split into two groups with Lilly and Kobe on separate mats, Lilly’s class was run by Josh Hinger which was cool to see. Dee got a chance to have a roll with Angelica Galvao which she was pretty stoked about!

We headed back to Gracie South Bay for the next couple of days, we were able to be present of their grading which was a very cool experience seeing some of our friend’s level up in their belts! We had planned to leave on Wednesday to head to Los Angeles, but we were having such a great time in San Diego and training that we decided to stay until Saturday.

Dee with the Womens class

Taking a break between rounds

Gracie South bay Grading

Thanksgiving is something we don’t celebrate in Australia but it’s a very big and important holiday here. We spent the start of the day at an open mat at South Bay, that morning we had received a text message from Eric Bydairk inviting us around for thanksgiving. Eric is a fellow BJJ Globetrotter and was Lilly’s wrestling coach while at Letica’s at South bay. We spent the afternoon with Eric, his wife Lisa and his parents. We did a lot of eating and sharing stories, it really was an amazing experience and one of the kindest gestures from someone of our trip. He also gifted us some new flash “Takedown Nation” rash guards, which was great as all this training is starting to take its toll on our gear.

Was amazing spending thanksgiving with Eric and his family

We said our goodbyes and left San Diego for a second time headed back up to Los Angeles. San Diego is without a doubt our favourite city and we will be back again in the future for another trip. (Lilly and Kobe made us promise that we will bring them back.)

-Woody

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Greetings From Berlin Germany! (5-10 July 2017)

After a fun and eventful time in Hamburg it was time for my last stop in Germany, a city on my list of top cites I’d like to visit, Berlin! The train ride in was pretty quick and easy as was finding the gym, Hilti BJJ as Frank, who I had been talking to about visiting and training, gave me directions to find my way. I’ll speak more on my time there later but now I’d like to cover a different adventure that was going on at this time. The adventures of the care package my Mom sent me.

So back in May I was supposed to have a friend meet up with me in Morocco, those plans fell through at the very last minute, but not before already setting up having my Mom send a package to them to bring over to me. Once the package then made it’s way back to my parents place it was a while before figuring out when, or where, she could finally send it to me. Since I had my stops in Germany set up well in advance I figured I would have her send it to me when I was visiting Hilti BJJ so that there would be enough time to send the parcel from Canada. It was all planned out and set, I would be finally getting a parcel, that had some important items, I’d been waiting months to get. Of course there was problems as nothing ever works out perfectly and I wouldn’t be writing about it if it did.

As it ends up the parcel was held for an extra day or two in customs, and then there was a government holiday, so by the time it was released and dropped off to the gym I was already gone. Missed me by one day. In fact as I was flying to my next stop Frank sent me a photo of the parcel now in his possession to which I could only laugh and reply “go figure”. I would have to wait a bit longer to pick up this package now but at least it was in Europe. I would be going back to Germany in about 6 weeks for the BJJ Globetrotters Fall Camp and having just been there I now had some new friends to help me out. After some messaging back and forth I had Ruadhan’s (the Globetrotter I met and who helped me set up my visit to Heidelberg) mailing address sent to Frank so he could send the parcel along and Ruadhan would have it ready for me once I got in for the camp. This time the plan actually worked and I finally received the care package, a package that was originally sent to me in May, and that traveled through Canada and USA probably most of Europe, that I finally got at the end of August. The care package probably almost did as much traveling as I did before getting to me.

So at this point there was a lot of waiting and back and forth with my Mom to figure if and when the parcel was showing up. I started and ended everyday off with checking out the online tracking and asking the guys at the security office if any parcel had been delivered. It didn’t interfere with my visiting too much but it did weigh on my mind most the time as I traveled around the city seeing the many sights. 

Seeing The Historical Sights of Berlin

There’s lots to see in Berlin, the whole city is full of historical sights from WWII, some that are memorials and others that are old buildings now modified for modern use or kept as museum now, as well as newer buildings like the TV Tower, or Fernsehturm, or the Mall of Berlin. I took photos of as much as I could but clearly needed another week or more to really explore this city.

Parts of the Berlin Wall has been turned into an art gallery, called the East Side Gallery sections of the wall are graffiti’d and periodically they re-paint them all white and have local artist do all new murals again. 

There’s also still parts of the wall kept to see and read about the history of the Nazi era around a museum called the Topography of Terror.

Checkpoint Charlie, the (in)famous security point between West Berlin and the Soviet occupied East Berlin. It’s now a famous tourist sight complete with people dressed up as guards to take pictures with and all sorts of souvenir shops and ‘checkpoint’ theme restaurants, such as ‘Checkpoint Curry’.

I have more photos of my travels an adventures over on my Flickr account, head over there if you want to see more and maybe show some love by liking or commenting on few of them, thanks!

Hilti BJJ & Frank

When I was first looking at places to train at in Germany Hilti BJJ Berlin and Frank Burczynski’s name came up to the top, along with Ana and Nexus Fighter Academy, who I had just visited in Hamburg. I contacted him through e-mail and he responded back pretty quickly letting me know I was welcome to stay at his gym and train with the club. Frank is a well known and respected black belt in the Germany BJJ scene and I would have loved to do an interview with him but he was busy with a million things and actually was off at a tournament coaching his team and refereeing for most the time I spent at Hilti BJJ. Frank also had a seminar set up before the weekend with Nicolas Gregoriades of Jiu-Jitsu Brotherhood, which I covered in my ‘Camps & Seminars’ article.

Hilti BJJ is part of IMAG JKD Berlin, sharing a big space with two different mat areas and a big kickboxing area with pads and heavy bags and mirrors and thick crash mats off in the corner for throws. There’s also big change rooms, where I stored my bags, with showers. With the exception of a kitchen I had everything I needed, I slept on a crash mat in a dark corner of the gym and it was probably one of the most comfortable sleeps I had in Europe. More gyms should get crash mats.   

The club was full of different people and skill levels, everyone was generally friendly and I got along with everyone during my stay there. I had some great rolls and everyone was really helpful telling which clubs are good to check out on what nights or where’s good to eat around the gym. I didn’t get to train with everyone too much, I strained my groin after the seminar with Nic Gregoriades so I wasn’t able to train there or the other clubs I was looking to visit like BJJ Akademie, Ringside Gym, or Ralf Warneking Jiu-Jitsu, who I had been talking to about visiting for a while. I was bummed out for not being able to train much while at such a great city for training but it did give me  chance to get out and see much of the sights there. I will say this, from what I saw of the Berling Jiu-Jitsu scene it is amazing, friendly and definitely worth checking out. Thank you Frank for everything, I hope we cross paths again in the future and get to spend more than a few classes hanging out!

This was my last stop in Germany and with that the end of my 3 months I was allowed to stay in the European Zone. If you don’t know most non-European countries are only allowed 90 days out of 180 in the European Zone, or Schengen Area. I had come to the end of that time and I didn’t want to risk going over and being kicked out if caught while crossing a border down the line. I have yet to return to Europe as I’ve headed East toward South East Asia, I’m looking to return early next year (2018).

The first stop heading East after Germany was one of the first spots I planned out before leaving Canada, and I had been waiting excitedly for this, St. Petersburg Russia: Home of Sambo!

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 a shirt at Panda’s Jiu-Jitsu Store.

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