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Greetings From Rabat Morocco!

Getting to the hotel was an adventure, I knew it would be so it wasn’t a surprise or unwelcome, just some fun on the way. I arrived at the airport early in the morning as my flight was an early one, so I didn’t get to say goodbye the roommates in Malaga instead just leaving a Panda patch on their bags as I quietly left. When checking in for my flight they demanded I show them my exit ticket, which I had completely forgotten to buy. So with my phone I found a ticket for the right day, although a bit more expensive than I’d like, and bought it on the spot. The funny thing is the flight attendant was pretty strict with me having this ticket, and was generally quite the asshole in general, siting that if I didn’t have an exit ticket I’d have to buy a visa or the customs might kick me out, meanwhile all my interactions with the customs in Morocco were smooth and easy. They just simply read my front page, saw I was a Canadian citizen with a valid passport and stamped it accordingly without any questions. In fact the customs guard when entering Morocco just gave me a big stupid smile the whole time starring at my tattoos. He spent more time checking me out than the passport.

The flight into Morocco was short, I just hoped over from Malaga to Tangier rather than fly all the way to Rabat or Casablanca which would have cost several hundred dollars more for the ticket. From Tangier I took a taxi to the train station, which zig-zagged all through the city instead of just taking the main roads and had me thinking I was going to end up in a back dead-end alley being robbed any minute. I arrived at the train station in one piece but I really don’t think he saved any time at all in his route, quite the opposite I’d say. I then took a train to Rabat, which took about 3 hours but I was in no rush and was armed with a full powered Nintendo 3DS and laptop with downloaded movies. In total, taxi, train and snacks, I spent well under $100 CDN after conversion when it would have cost me over $200 CDN more to fly to Rabat from Malaga. This was a way more fun way, I got to more of the country as well as save a few dollars.

Once I got to Rabat the hotel was just a short 10 minute walk up to the Medina from the train station. The Medina is the marketplace, it’s a huge place full of small shops side by side and booths everywhere, the roads are tight and crammed with people. There’s one in each city and although it may be off in the corner of town it’s the heart of the city for shopping, bargain hunting and haggling. My hotel was a few blocks into the Medina so I was surrounded by the market, which meant cheap food right nearby.

The view landing in Tangier. I wasn’t in a good position to take pics on the train but similar view the whole way.

Staying In The Medina 

Daily I would pass shops and stands selling fruit, meat, nuts, other foods and all kinds of things. I would usually start the day off by walking down the street to the grocery store and picking up a 7L jug of water and some cheese. Passing back through the Medina I would stop off and get some fruit, which usually more fresh and either the same price or cheaper than the grocery store, some nuts, walnuts were everywhere and cheap, and some loafs of this fresh bread that was sold all through the Medina. It was a circle and kinda flat but not a pita, I don’t what it’s called but it was tasty with cheese. I didn’t trust the butchers or vendors enough to try any of the meat being cooked and sold there, fearing it might upset my stomach or I could get food poison, but it smelled very favourful when passing them. Sometimes there would be a vendor selling boiled corn and I’d pick some up as well. This was my diet for my time in Rabat, fruits, nuts, bread and cheese and copious amounts of water. All this was very cheap, I think at most I spent $15 CDN a day in food.

Rabat city square, or a busy city square anyways, I believe this building was a museum of some sort.

The entrance, or one of, to the Medina.

while walking about this daily trek, I didn’t get out to any of the sights because of some negative head space, I took some pictures of the city. There’s not a lot of photos compared to some places I’ve visited but I wasn’t in a picture taking mood. A close friend was supposed to meet me in Morocco and at the last minute everything went to hell and they didn’t make it, making me feel down. I wasn’t really feeling like going sight seeing and on adventures that were supposed to be had together. Then again maybe I was just better off relaxing anyways.  

Inside the Medina.

Art of Submission Morocco

I’ve been planning out Morocco since the start of planning the Odyssey. It was a complicated list of planning, I wanted to go to Russia but I needed to do visa paperwork and could only apply within six months of visiting. When I planned on going to Russia depended on when my time allowed in the European Schegan Zone, as I’m only allowed 90 days within 180 (3 months in, 3 months out) was up. When that time came up depended on if I would be going to Morocco. So basically the starting outline for the Odyssey outside of Canada was London and the UK in March, Morocco in May, and Russia for July and then I started in filling in spots and connect the dots after that.

Life sized Hulk statue!

During all that planning and talking to countless people I made a few contacts for Morocco, most were in Casablanca and Marrakech, which will be my next article, but I also met Simo through the BJJ Globetrotters matsurfing connection. Simo actually isn’t in Morocco anymore, he’s moved to Amsterdam but still has many contacts in Morocco and helped me out a lot. One of the people Simo connected me with was Mouhcine. Mouhcine trains in a club in Temura, which is a town right next to Rabat. I got in contact with Mouhcine and sorted out the schedule and when would be good to train and set out to meet him and the club. The original plan was to meet Mouhcine at the train station and get a drive to the club, the problem was my SIM card data plan didn’t work in Morocco and there wasn’t any wifi at the train station, so I had no way of being able to contact him once I arrived at the train station. Luckily I had the gym saved to Google Maps and that the map’s GPS works offline. The gym was just up a few blocks from the train station so I was easy enough to make it to and I made it just in time for class. The Jiu-Jitsu club, Art of Submission Morocco which is under Prof. Mehdi Khalil, is located downstairs in the gym Monster Gym which has some cool art around the place, like paintings of Arnold and other body builders, or pictures of old boxers.

Rolling time!

It was a smaller class, there were 4 or 5 of us, and a few of them were very new to Jiu-Jitsu so we went over a lot of the fundamentals for class. everyone was happy to have me visit, I even did an interview with Mouhcine for his YouTube Channel after class (you can watch the video HERE), I don’t think they get too many visitors in Morocco so when a traveler like myself shows up they’re very happy to have you join them. During the class the new guys were open to me helping, I believe we were working guard passing, and everyone was eager to take their turn with me when it came to rolling, in fact I’m pretty sure I rolled with one or two of them more than once. It was a fun time, hardly even noticed the language barrier, although the fence wall with guys working out on the other side watching us roll was a new feeling.

Mouhcine, in the middle, with the AOS class.

After class Mouhcine took me out for some food at a nice Italian place he was friends with. The pizza I had was really good and I think the only meat I had while in Rabat haha. The guy who ran the restaurant was friendly and funny guy and Mouhcine was filming the whole time, making me real welcome and almost like a celebrity. Later I learned it’s part of the culture in Morocco to accept you in and make you feel very at home and taken care of. I definitely felt like that I whole time in Morocco and Mouhcine and his club were a great first stop!    

De La Riva Rabat

Another club I was looking to visit was De La Riva Rabat, or I think it’s a De La Riva club, apparently the clubs have changed affiliations and instructors a few times so names have changed. On Google Maps this place comes up at De La Riva Rabat, but their website link sends them to Mehdi Khalil’s AOS Morocco Facebook page, which leads me to believe Prof. Khalil runs both clubs. Whatever the name they were a very friendly group in that held classes inside a gym, with their own matted room, I think it was originally a judo or wrestling room. The head instructor was away for a seminar so there were only a few students for class and they were all lower ranks, I think all white belts, maybe one blue belt, so they asked me to teach them a technique or two since I was the highest ranking student there. This was an odd feeling. I feel weird when I show up and I’m the highest ranked student next to the teacher, but to suddenly be the guy in charge at a club I’m visiting is something to me, in my limited teaching experience, is very new. So I went back to the basics and showed them a simple guard break I’ve been working on and using with good success.

It’s a really simple seated guard break that I’ve put together from little tips I’ve picked up from traveling around. I actually found a video with a guard break that is very similar but I have a few added things that I think make it better. There’s no standing or doing anything flashy but it works very well, I was going to post the video I found but as it happens I was recorded teaching the technique again at another club so I’ll just post that instead. Here’s the Video from Marrakech Fight Club, which I will post again for that article too.

During rolling time I had my hands full, these guys were full of energy, but I used my time to just keep to working on the very technique I just showed them. What’s funny is they seemed to want to use more energy to get a triangle or maybe a sweep as I used the technique on them, like they were trying to shut down what I taught them, which actually just helped the technique more. It’s not perfect but I’m having fun with it. To top it off I had some of the guys say they used it while rolling and it was working great for them, that’s the best compliment you can get!

My young eager class in Rabat, these guys are going to be killers!

I was supposed to visit a third club, Hicham from Casablanca (there are two Hicham’s in Casablanca this is the ‘other Hicham’ as the Hicham who’s a black belt and runs Equipe Elite says) was going to set me up with a friend that trains there but I ended up having a headache and taking a nap and totally missed it. So after good start to my visit to Morocco I was off to Casablanca to meet the two Hichams and train and get some (too much) sun for my birthday! But that’s another story..  

Until next time,

see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

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Days 2 and 3 — Athens…finally!

We arrived in Athens at 1:30 am. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed up this late (on purpose) before in my life! Our flight to Athens was also delayed and our luggage was lost. So we were super tired, but in good spirits.

Our taxi driver (whose daughter’s name was Agape which I learned means “love”) gave me a bunch of Greek candies. It was the best kind of candy I have ever had. The taxi driver also gave me an extra lollipop — it tasted like peach, orange AND lemon. He also gave me a traditional sesame and honey candy. It was crunchy and tasted really good too.

After a good night’s sleep, I was able to see the Acropolis from our hotel. When I first saw all of the old ruins I was really amazed and couldn’t wait to explore them. But it was a hot day, and we didn’t have a change of clothes so mom decided we should check out Syntagma Square which was a huge garden and park. We saw turtles, ducks, chickens, peacocks and A LOT of pigeons. But I found a bug that looked like a leaf and I let it crawl on my hand. The but was a lot cooler to me than the birds! I also found a really cool tree to climb, but dad was afraid I’d slip. Later, I drew a picture of my favorite things from the park.

It was a really hot day (for us) but as we were eating lunch, it started to rain! We didn’t expect THAT to happen! At lunch, I noticed that most people do not use ice in their drinks, but it was such a hot day that we HAD to ask for some ice in our drinks.

Next we went shopping. I don’t really like shopping so I got a chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream instead.

After an afternoon break, we hopped on a bus to catch a view of the city. It was cloudy out, and it seemed like a good time to see the Acropolis (since it wasn’t the hottest part of the day). We got off the bus and hiked our way to the top of the hill. The stone and rock path was pretty slippery and dad noticed clouds getting darker. Just as we reached the top, it started pouring down rain, with thunder and some lightening too! It NEVER rains like that in Southern California. We all got soaked! I was a little scared, so we got down the hill as fast as we could.

The next morning (Saturday) I got to train at Alliance Athens with Professor David Dimopoulos Said. I had a private lesson and learned the waiter’s sweep with two arm bars that can be done after the sweep. I also learned a cool guard sweep. He was super nice, and really wanted to work on moves that worked for my style. I really think I’ll be able to use the moves I learned in my next competition!

After the lesson, I stayed for their kids class. I had asked Professor if his class ever plays dodgeball, because that’s one of my favorite ways to warm up. He said they did, and we got to play two games, but they used a smaller ball (we use a large exercise ball at Paragon). At my academy, when you get hit and are out of the game, you have to do some push-ups (usually 15 or 20). Alliance Athens doesn’t have to push-up rule. But I didn’t know that, so when I got hit, I started with my usual push-ups. The other kids didn’t know what I was doing. When my parents explained, then the other kids ended up doing push-ups too! I hope they didn’t mind.

We got to do some three minute matches, and I found out that the boys in the class were some real beasts! Check out the bruise I got! Professor said there aren’t a lot of competitions in Greece like at home, but I think those boys will do great in their next one.

The move of the day, that we learned was a triangle, and I figured out that “trigono” means triangle in Greek.

After two hours of training, I was really sweaty. I definitely needed some lunch! After lunch, it was off to port to catch our boat. We start our cruise today!

[Mom’s note: I just want to jump in here and say how impressed I was with Professor Dimopoulos Said. He was so gracious and kind, very welcoming and knowledgeable. I really appreciated that he took care to show Eli moves that suited his style and his body type. He was an excellent teacher, and very well-suited to communicating with children. I am sure Eli will look forward to having the opportunity to train with him again. He is doing wonderful work to help the sport grow in Greece, and we are happy to support his efforts. Thank you so much Professor for a memorable training session!]

My apologies for dropping off the grid this past week! Didn’t realize it’s been a week since I last posted until I sat down in this crowded Malibu, CA Starbucks. Much to talk about! I’ll split these posts up, but this week has been filled with National Parks, Beaches, Jiu Jitsu Mecca, and the like.

New Mexico sunsets were insanely beautiful!

After bailing out of Dallas last week, I drove eight hours to Santa Rosa, New Mexico with the intention of doing something a little out of the ordinary in the New Mexico desert: swimming. On the way, I realized that I’d been driving next to Historic Route 66; a famous American highway that was a staple for Vagabonds throughout the mid-20th century in the US, running from Santa Monica, CA to Chicago, IL. I stumbled upon the famous “Cadillac Ranch” on my travels, which was unexpectedly cool. I’m finding that the coolest things on this trip are the ones I’m stumbling upon by chance. After crossing into New Mexico from Texas, I came around a bend and the Earth opened up. West Texas doesn’t have a lot of topography, so coming around the bend to see the plateaus and ridges of East Arizona open up to me, vibrant and beautiful in the orange sunset, was a spiritual moment. So much so that pulling the car over to take a photo on the side of the highway was absolutely necessary.

This was some nice cryotherapy in a beautiful oasis!

I spent the morning in Santa Rosa at the famous “Blue Hole of Santa Rosa”, which is a natural spring in the middle of the New Mexican desert. I was told by the lifeguards that the water, which maintains a vibrant, deep blue color due to it’s constant underground recharge, stays a constant 61 degrees year-round. In the midst of the 92 degree New Mexican summer, the water was frigid, but refreshing. My body had been aching from the constant onslaught of BJJ, so this was my natural ice bath, so to speak! I’ve never bought into the ice bath trend, but after soaking in the cold water and having my joints rejuvenate, I might be one to reconsider.

My morning in Santa Rosa was followed by a two hour drive through New Mexico to Albuquerque. Nestled at the foot of the Sandia Mountains, this booming city is home to a world of adventures: Breaking Bad tours, Authentic Tex-Mex, and, more importantly, a Gracie Barra stronghold. After getting to the city around 3pm, I met up with some people from a Slackline New Mexico group on Facebook to do some slacklining in a park in the middle of town. I’ve been slacklining for the past year as a way to improve my balance and rehab my torn meniscus, and the results have been abundant! I can tell it’s helped with my hip mobility and passing stability. What’s unfortunate is that I couldn’t snap any photos from this session: I had apparently visited Albuquerque during one of the ten rainy days it receives every year. Adam, my main contact from Facebook, didn’t mind. We hopped up on the longline (150ft) in the pouring rain, letting out primal screams as we tried to balance on the one-inch line as rain and wind battered us form above and to the side. If slacklining has had any effect on my jiu jitsu, it’s in the two areas I’ve needed it badly: my balance and my patience. You can’t rush balance, and you need to be balanced in order to learn patience. 

A quick search on Google brings back four Gracie Barras in ABQ, but I’d come to find out there’s actually SIX in the city limits. I set my sights on training at the main academy on San Pedro NE. Before training, I had a rare hankering for donuts, so I figured I’d treat myself. I stumbled up a place in ABQ near the academy called “Rebel Donuts”. I figured I’d start some writing while working on my blog posts while enjoying a carb-filled breakfast. Turns out Rebel had a bit of a soft spot for Breaking Bad, kinda like myself, so grabbing one of their themed “Blue Sky” donuts was a must! I showed up for class at 11am and was greeted by one of the employees, Mark. Mark is a blue belt at the academy, and informed me that I was actually an hour early for class. Oops. Not a problem; I got a chance to work on my last blog post while waiting! As the mass of people trickled in, I was simply shocked by the range of skill I was about to train with. Six black belts, a number of brown belts and purple belts, and a sea of blue belts and white belts. There must’ve been 30 people on a Thursday afternoon. I simply blended in; no introduction was made to the class that I was there. I liked that.

Class went, er, not as well as I’d have liked. I hadn’t considered the effects of the higher elevation and dry desert air would have on my northeastern blood. I was completely gassed by the end of warm ups. We ran laps around the mats, drilled some armbars from guard, and some light yoga to start. Then came time to roll. I was grabbed by one of the brown belts and started rolling. Their style of jiu jitsu was very traditional compared to mine; mostly closed guard, pressure passing, etc. I’ve been excited to train with some of the more traditional styles on this trip, coming from my own sport jiu jitsu background. I’d play my X-Guard, get a sweep, then get scissor swept and crushed from the top. That’s how most of the day went. I had a blast rolling with some of the brown belts and purple belts there. It felt good to hold my own against these “upperclassmen”; I even managed to sweep a few of them.

I debated not putting this in my post, but I figured it’d be a good thing to mention. For the first time on this trip, I ran into someone who clearly did not want to train with me, and was intentionally putting on undue pressure. My second round was with one of the blue belts. I played my usual game: I started in butterfly and transitioned to X-Guard, then swept. As soon as I completed the sweep, I felt him tense and saw a flash of anger in his eyes. He gripped my sleeves and spider guard swept me. He got into knee on belly, and then drove every ounce of his weight into my sternum, grunting and pulling on my collar the entire time. I moved to escape by stuffing his leg into half guard, which was met by him driving his head into my chin and aggressively knee cutting. I didn’t make a big deal about it at the time, but I nearly walked out of the gym right then and there. I’ve never felt like someone was trying to intentionally harm me on the mats until training with this guy. I understand that you’re not always going to run into the nicest people on the road, but I’ve never trained with someone so seemingly intent on hurting me. Definitely but a damper on the whole day. 

Through my huffing and puffing, I noticed the instructor, Wesley, gesturing over to me. Wes was incredibly intimidating; his stern look, bald head and beard screamed “I don’t f*** around.” I was hesitant, as my body was aching and I didn’t want to risk an injury, but I slapped hands and bumped fists. I’ve noticed throughout this trip that my mental toughness is getting a workout in ways it hasn’t before. In trying to get the most out of training at all of these gyms, I’ve started pushing past my old “point of no return” more and more. Wes had been eyeing me the entire class, and was wise to my game at this point. I was totally shut down the entire round, but I had fun regardless. After a quick photo, I changed, grabbed my stuff, and went to explore ABQ! The city was beautiful. I ended sleeping in a Planet Fitness parking lot for the night. Finally started getting used to Jeep Sleep!

Thanks to Gracie Barra New Mexico for letting me train!

I woke the next morning ready to head west and give training a break for a few days while I explored the National Parks, but not before hitting up one last Breaking Bad attraction! I ended up grabbing lunch at the location where they filmed their Los Pollos Hermanos scenes; turns out it’s actually a local burrito and burger chain called “Twisters”. The manager, Juan, was shocked how far I’d been traveling, but was very interested in hearing about my journey!

Some “Blue Sky” breakfasting before class!

Had to geek out about Breaking Bad on my travels!

After my Twisters Burrito, I headed west. Along the way, I stopped at Barringer Meteor Crater, a perfectly preserved impact crater in Western New Mexico. Being a geology nerd, stopping there was a must! Worth the $18 entry fee. I spent the morning there before heading to yet another stop on my journey, and one that was highly anticipated: the Grand Canyon. I reached the giant hole in the ground right about 4pm. To be brief, I was speechless. I talked about the correlations between geology and BJJ in my Memphis post, and the Grand Canyon reaffirmed this. I was blown away by the sheer size of the canyon itself; it seemed to go along forever. Standing on the edge, you can look almost straight down to the canyon floor a mile below; a canyon that was carved by a relatively small trickle of unrelenting water over the past millennia. You can see for literally 100 miles in most directions on a clear day; I was fortunate enough to have visited on one. I hung around the South Rim for a few hours before heading north to Horseshoe Bend, which turned out to be one of the most picturesque locations I’ve ever been to. I caught the bend after spending the night in another Walmart parking lot, and got there shortly after sunrise came over the desert. The blueish-green water illuminated below the glowing red sandstone was incredible. I recommend everyone to go there if you have the opportunity. Don’t look down, though!

Little panoramica action at Barringer Crater

Geology is no doubt the study of pressure and time, but so is Jiu Jitsu. Like the Colorado River carves against the canyon, our techniques chip away at, and put pressure on, our opponents.

As I was leaving Horseshoe, I stopped briefly to talk with a park ranger, also named Mike. I asked him if there was any way to get down to the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. Mike informed me of a boat launch about 40 miles west named Lee’s Ferry where I could meet the river. Well, it was early enough in the day. I figured why not! I drove the 90 minutes through the blazing heat to Lees. I managed to get pulled over on the way, but got out of the citation. Be respectful to Park Rangers, my friends. I got to Lees in the middle of the day, so the heat was at it’s height. I was informed by the ranger that pulled me over that I’d come to the canyon on “Free Fishing Day”, so I was overjoyed to find that I could fish the river without the usual license necessary! So there I stayed for a few hours; I stood waist-deep in the frigid Colorado River, fishing pole in hand, and I was at peace. It was experiences like these that I was looking for on my travels, and to find them was emotional, to say the least. 

My trusty steed carrying me through the snow-capped mountains of southern Utah.

I left Lee’s in the early afternoon and started up to Zion National Park. I was eager to get to Zion, and managed to reach it just before sundown. The drive through Kaibab National Forest on the way to Zion was surreal. I drove through a prescribed forest fire, which was interesting! As cool as the Grand Canyon is, Zion is something even more special. Something about the 3,000 foot cliffs that surround you on both sides… it was personal. It put you in your place. It put you in perspective. I was shocked to find a booming little town in the depths of the canyon as well! I stayed the night on the side of the road in the canyon, but only after a small hike up a cliff face near Checkerboard Mesa. I awoke the next morning ready to conquer the most popular hike in ZNP: Angel’s Landing. The hike itself called for 1,500 feet of vertical gain in 2.7 miles. The 5.4 mile hike took me just under four hours, and was easily the most beautiful hike I’ve been on. The steepest portion of the hike doesn’t occur until the last half mile, where the trail narrows to less than a meter wide at some points; 1,500 ft. drops to the valley surround you as the trail narrows. Don’t worry: there were chains to grab onto to steady yourself! I met a woman named Rachel at the start of this last steep section; she was from Georgia and was in town on business. Her husband had hurt his ankle the day before on another hike so she was going solo. That view was something. I feel bad sometimes; my photos will never do these places justice! After hanging out at the summit for a half hour, I made the two hour descent to the valley. Before catching the trolley to my car, I needed to stop and rest my feet in the Virgin River. Note to Self: Break new hiking boots in BEFORE a five mile hike. 

Note to Self: Rash Guards make great hiking shirts.

I slept again in the canyon, and made my way the next morning to my next destination, the city of sins: Las Vegas, NV. My experience in Vegas can be summed up in one word: disappointing. I won’t do much writing on the city itself, mostly because I simply didn’t enjoy myself. I can see the city being fun with a crew of friends and $600 in your pockets to throw to the casinos, but for a solo traveller on a budget? Not so much. 

The jiu jitsu and the climbing were the highlights of the city, however. I ended up dropping in to train at a Cobrinha affiliate in the heart of Vegas. This was also right after Cobrinha’s displays at Worlds this year, so I came at a good time. I walked into the academy and was greeted by the main instructor, Hector Vasquez. He was incredibly welcoming and was very excited that I was visiting his school! I didn’t get a chance to call ahead, so I surprised them, but they didn’t mind in the slightest. I attended the noon Gi class. For a noon on a Monday, I was surprised to see that most of the class was younger kids. Teens. We started class with a guard recovery drill; I’ve been trying to work on my recovery explosiveness, so this was a welcomed drill. They introduced me to a staple of Cobrinha’s game as of late: it’s a RDLR/Half Guard-like position that was incredibly hard to pass. My mind was blown with how little you needed to move your hips to prevent the knee cut form this position. I took notes viciously during this class. We used this position to transition to X-Guard, which played towards my game very well. 

I managed to roll with most of the students that day, as well as Hector himself. I first rolled with Giovanna, a 15 year old orange belt. Her open guard was absolutely vicious. I’ve rolled with purple belts who didn’t know spider guard as well as this girl. I followed this up with rolling with Jackson, one of the brown belts. He picked me apart piece by piece, which was expected. I rolled with one of the white belts, and even he gave me trouble with his open guard. Hector grabbed me for a roll, which was a fun five minutes exchanging x-guard sequences. I could feel the respect from everyone, which was a breath of fresh air after my experience in Albuquerque. My last of the seven rolls was with Michael, a 17 year old blue belt out of the academy. Although he was young, I was told he had just taken gold at Worlds not two days earlier. I was excited to roll with I world-class blue belt. We went back and forth, exchanging sweeps and positional advantages, but he definitely controlled the pace. His passing was fluid, his transitions were spot on, and his jiu jitsu was just overall pretty. If something was consistent across every skill level I trained with at Cobrinha BJJ and Fitness, it’s that everyone’s jiu jitsu was fluid. I’d HIGHLY recommend training here if you’re ever in Vegas. 

The Las Vegas Cobrinha crew. Thanks again fellas!

After Leaving Las Vegas (heh, movie puns), I made a BeeLine to the coast, but more on that in my next post! I’d spend the following days training in the Jiu Jitsu meccas of San Diego and Los Angeles. Tune in until next time!

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!!

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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!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

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