And it’s on, like Donkey Kong!

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So, in the unlikely event you’re done reading the first, sort of explanatory blog, well, congrats, you’ve reached boss level. BTW, Jen hates video games, so don’t tell her that I made a video game reference on a blog that is ostensibly about her adventure. Also, her name is Jen, or Jennifer, but for the love of tiny baby jeebus, don’t spell it with two “n”s. I don’t know why this is important, but I have learnend that it is.  Like all good conversations, this one is likely to be steered towards BJJ. Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail is like Jiu Jitsu, honey….It takes a long time, and it can give you a sore neck. And often times you don’t smell so good. 

Speaking of, I sent Jen off yesterday morning, around 9. I can’t say what day, because my sister in law, Janet, is convinced that someone is going to read the blog, or my facebook posts, drive out to the middle of nowhere, hike multiple miles in difficult conditions, and attack my wife. I’d like to point out the number of murders on the PCT are, statistically speaking, lower than the number of alien abductions, also, lower than your chance of winning the Power Ball or having sex with whomever is on your freebie list. Yes, Ross Geller, I’m looking at you. 

Now, you might question my math, but here’s the proof. The number of people who have won the lottery is more than 0. People having sex with hot Italian actresses whom, while past their prime, are still more attractive than anybody reading, or writing, this blog. Or anybody on Friends. Seriously, I used to think Courtney Cox was pretty hot, but the neurosis……

Anyway, I digress, as I am wont to do. Also, then number of reported Alien abductions is also non-zero, and the fact that there is a lingering question of whether they happen or not still makes them more likely than getting murdered on the PCT. Not even crazy people think they got murdered on the PCT. 

So, Jen has a sore neck. I sent her off from the Mexican border wall, which frankly, looks like the Mexicans did pay for it, exactly the amount they think it’s worth. I walked with her for about a mile and a half, during which time she constantly fucked with her umbrella.

We had gotten up really early and driven in from San Diego, and it was hard to see her go, and well, frankly I don’t think I was at my best emotionally. I may have also had one more whiskey than I am accustomed too the night before, and well, the whole thing was stressful and sad, and she kept fucking with this umbrella. Also Bernardo tried to run off and join the fire department, who was a mile down the road carting some poor woman off who hurt her ankle and probably killed six months of planning in the first mile. 

 So I kissed her about an hour in, turned around, and headed back to the border with Mexico, while she began her walk towards the border with Canada. I headed back to San Diego, briefly thought about a nap, and instead opted to hit Jiu Jitsu.

I visited Barum BJJ, which is a stones throw, but a fifteen minute drive, from my Trailer Park Paradise. Seriously California, for a state that worships the car, you sure make it hard to drive one. Anyway, most of the good schools I’ve visited are in tucked away pockets, with no glitz and no glamour.

I’ve trained in a garage with a member of the Dirty Dozen, and in a broken down strip mall with a bunch of amazing Kauai players. My favorite is the BJJ Class taught by Daniel Thomas in a kung fu studio in Monterey. This is one of those places. Guys show up ten minutes late, the place is in an industrial park, nothing fancy. Ah, but the Jiu Jitsu. Solid, fundamentally sound, those little tweaks that you wished you had known five years ago. 

I just got my Purple Belt on Saturday, and this was my first time actually training since then.

I was nervous. Heavy is the waist that wears the purple, and I was visiting a town full of killers. This school is good, but man, they’re also really cool. They work on the theory that you get better if you’re not thinking murder or be murdered all the time. We all need a little mayhem and chaos, but I’m fifty, and well, I like to roll, and as much as I’m filled with thoughts of homicide, it’s nice to have really technical rolls with good people. And that’s what I got. Okay, enough BJJ for today, which is how I felt after rolling for ninety minutes. 

She had planned on a short day, about 5 miles, and I got a text saying that she had reached that point, at 12:30. She set up her tent, a light weight miracle made by Z-packs which cost more than a semester at a State College here, and tucked in. 

That lasted about 60 sweaty, bright minutes. She ate some lunch, packed up, and walked another five. Honestly, although she deviated from the don’t do too much plan, I’m proud of her. I’m also slightly, guiltily, experiencing some schadenfreude. She told me last night that the goddamn umbrella had made her neck hurt. Of course, so did mine, but I didn’t tell her that. 

Stop, Walk, and Roll

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We all have passions, and in life, we often share those passions with the ones we love. Or at least try to. Often with limited success. A great marriage, I believe, is based on the ability to feign just enough interest to keep your spouse feeling loved, without making them believe that you’d actually engage in the activity they suggested on more than a token level.  That way they won’t be surprised when you don’t like their favorite movies (seriously, Raging Bull vs. Pride and Prejudice. Oh, Mr. Darcy, can you imagine?) And so it is with the adventures chronicled in this blog.

Sometime around 2010, my soon to be wife, Super Jen, and I moved to Reno, NV.  I had trained martial arts a little here and there, and wanted Jen to learn some self-defense, since Reno in the 2010 days was sketchy a.f., more like crappy parts of Portland than the hipster paradise it’s becoming today. I found a school that was less Kobra Kai than most, and seemed really woman friendly, and signed us up. Since we were newly wed, she hadn’t learned the proper balance of feigning interest vs. not ever doing that stupid stuff again, and she tried gamely to fake her way all the way to green belt, or mid-beginner. 

I knew it was over when she broke in to tears and refused to try and punch me in the face. I felt that meant she loved me deeply, and also had zero faith in my defensive skills. I was touched, and emasculated. I vowed then to train harder and improve my skills, so that  my dear, sweet wife could try and punch me without fear or regret. I figured it was coming anyway, so I might as well prepare myself. 

After about four years, give or take, I earned a black belt in our schools’ program, which included a pretty tough six month black belt test. Say what you will about traditional martial arts, I say it too, but this school really took their training seriously, without being an MMA factory. Which brings us to the Jiu Jitsu part. This school teaches a balance of TMA with forms, flashy kicking, and other such old school stuff, with self-defense, muay thai combos and padwork, sparring, and BJJ. Along the way, I fell in love with the gentle art of choking, smashing and joint bending, and after I got my black belt, I pretty much quit with the jumping and spinning and the yelling in Korean. 

I never really tried to get Super into Jiu Jitsu, it was much more intense, focused on killing the other guy. In TKD and other arts, you can go, train, jump around in your pajamas, kick pads, whatever, and never touch another human, let alone hear him exhale loudly in pain or make that weird gurgling noise when it’s close but not quite right. BJJ, is by its very essence, practiced on someone who is desperately, and sometimes skillfully, trying not to let you do the very thing you’re trying to learn to do. Slap hands, fist bump, simulate murder. Although I don’t get why, I knew she’d never go for it. 

Of course, this blog won’t be just about my Jiu Jitsu travels and journey, it is also about Jens’ passion, which I show a mild interest in and avoid getting sucked into at the high level she’s involved. Her passion is the reason I’m traveling around the West Coast from California to Canada, rolling, stinking, choking, loving. Jen is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Yeah, like the girl from Wild, but with a much better backpack and fewer emotional issues. Not to say none, but man, that girl was a mess. 

Jen somehow got the bug from a disastrous but eventually triumphant trip up Half Dome, or Half-a-dome as she insists on calling it. 

We got a permit to go with our friend Joe!, who had hiked the PCT back before it was cool. I put a light day pack on Jen, a huge backpack on me, and she cried and hated every minute of the three day trip, except the Half Dome part, which in all fairness, scared the shit out of me. She loved it. Hated backpacking loved hiking. Then Joe told her to get a real backpack, so we did, and started doing over night trips around Tahoe, where we live. 

I don’t think she would’ve ever taken to it but for one thing. Well, maybe a couple or a few, but one 1 thing sealed the deal. Jen is an Idaho girl, so tougher and more used to outdoors stuff than most. River rat, mountain biker, general Idaho tough girl. Jen is also a recovering Mormon, and those people just seem bred to walk. I think they marry each other with an eye towards offspring that can walk long distances in white shirts and black ties, carrying the collected words of Joseph Smith in their knapsacks. She can walk. Most importantly, Marley likes backpacking.

Marley is our blue eyed, twenty pound shih tzu, looks like a stuffed animal made love to a muppet, and he can go like a Jack London wolf-dog in the woods. Jen LOVES Marley. So, once Marley was on-board with the hiking and tenting and camping, I didn’t have much choice. 

I don’t know how the PCT dream really got planted. I remember her asking me if I wanted to go. I told her that I couldn’t wait to hear all about it. The more she talked about it, the clearer it became that 1: I didn’t want to go and 2: I didn’t really want her to go by herself. You see, I love my wife, and I miss her. I’m that one in the relationship for sure. Make of that what you will. It didn’t come from the Cheryl Strayed, and it didn’t come from Reese Witherspoon, I think it came from Joe, but by the summer of 2016, it was cemented in.

And that, is how we got here, me sitting in a trailer in San Diego, two dogs, a half dozen gi’s, and a bunch of dried food, following Super Jen from Mexico to Canada. This blog is called STOP, WALK, And ROLL, and we’ll be doing a lot of all three. 

Training report: Wave BJJ (London)

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Greetings from London England!

looks like a slow day in customs…

I made it! I’m actually in London England! Although I just spent the last 4 months traveling across Canada I really feel like my journey has only now just begun. In a way it has, this is first time being in Europe where I have no old friends or family members to meet up with. This is the land with each city full of history and sights equal to that of all of Canada. This is the start of the European Odyssey!

The sights!

I took some time to see some of the sights in London, seeing Big Ben and Buckingham Palace were an obvious must but I really didn’t know what else I would see.

Buckingham Palace.

Victoria Memorial.

Big Ben.

The Wellington Arch.

Royal Artillery Memorial. There are several memorials around for different units.

After my first night to class I met a fellow jiiu-jitsuero, Steve, who happens to work security at the Tower of London and he offered me a pass in to see the sight and get on one of the tours with a Beefeater telling us of the history of the place. I couldn’t pass it up! I made my way to the tower after class one day and got there just in time to jump in on a tour.

Our Beefeater guide. He was really great.

The Crown Jewels, it’s basically a giant vault inside.

The last of the real Tudor Houses, all others have been burned down during different events over the years.

After the tour I walked around and took a bunch of pictures and even got to see the Crown Jewels. I would have loved to take pictures of the vault that they are stored in, because the eight inch thick doors you pass through are both impressive and intimidating, but I doubted that would have looked very good on the security tapes, someone walking around taking pictures of the security measures.

The dungeon. The Rack.

And the Manacles.

The Tower of London or White Tower.

Tower Bridge.

Granted there’s still a lot of sights for me to see in London but the Tower of London is top my of list of places you have to go to when you visit!

 

Steve, my jiu-jitsu friend, thanks for the tour!

Wave BJJ 

During this stay in London I was only able to make it out to one club. I say ‘only’ because I was hoping to make it out to Roger Gracie’s Academy but the weekend schedule didn’t match up with what else what going on. There are a large number of BJJ clubs in London and no matter how many I make it out it will still be saying I ‘only’ made it to these clubs. Anyways, my first night out was to the Wave BJJ’s east location at the Elephant & Castle club. It’s a smaller spot, with them renting out an art exhibit room and throwing down puzzle mats for the class. The whole location has a art vibe, with the building around them being a number of sea containers stacked together and turned into shops. The room they rent out is all windows and being in the location there is a lot of foot traffic, as one of the students said, you feel like you are art of an art display. It’s actually a nice spot and cool little place.

I showed up and introduced myself, asking if Lorenzo, the head coach, was around. I was told he was not but knowing him was good enough to be allowed into to class, I would have to wait for the weekend to meet Lorenzo. In fact none of the people I had talked to online were at this class, which was kind of disappointing as I wanted to meet everyone, but I had a great time all the same and met a wonderful new group of friends. I was feeling a bit rough from the flight over so I skipped on rolling that night. I did not, however, skip on joining the class to the pub afterwards. I grabbed myself a Coke and joined in with the conversations, talking about all things from Jiu-Jitsu and traveling to current politics. It was a great first night out to a club in London!

The Elephant & Castle location, small but a lot going on!

Hanging out at the pub after class!

The next day I would be going to Wave BJJ’s home location, the HQ, in Chiswick. It’s a easy club to miss if you don’t know exactly where it is. You come out of the train station and directly beside the station is a small narrow path that follows along beside the train tracks. I missed this path at first but thanks to Google maps on my phone was able to see that and back track and find it. Then while walking down this path you see different stores under the arches of the train tracks, Wave BJJ doesn’t have a sign in the window, not when I visited them anyways, but I was able to see the mats through the bare windows and someone in a rashguard and gi pants, I correctly guessed this must be the place.

The Chiswick location.

wave bjj

It’s actually a really cool setup WBJJ has. Other than being under the train tracks there are stairs that go up a floor that overlooks the mats and makes for some cool group pictures, it’s also where the guys change. The main floor has a wall that is completely mirrored, as it used to the a dance academy. It’s an open rectangular space that is well suited for the classes they conduct. After warm up we got into drilling some techniques that dealt with using some different grips from what I’m used to that made the technique almost completely new to me again. After drilling we got into some positional rolling, starting in guard and either passing or sweeping. The students were all good people, they were friendly and fun to train with, lots of fun was had. I returned again for an open mat and rolled with all sorts of people. Apparently they get students from all over come in, as I found out after I was schooled by a 10th Planet student “white belt”. I even got invited out to a few gyms, which I’ve have to look up when I’m in London again. The open mat was a of of fun and I could plainly see the philosophy of club: everyone is welcome.

A view from the top!

Jaiveer, met him on BJJ Globetrotters, finally got to train with him!

Prof. Lorenzo Fraquelli

After open mat Prof. Lorenzo and I sat down and did an interview. This is first interview of a black belt who actively is a part of BJJ Globetrotters so I wanted to talk to him about how that influenced his club as well as his own philosophy. We had a fun chat about his Jiu-Jitsu journey and running the club and what BJJ means to him. You can watch the video over on the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel and watch it there. Don’t forget to show some love and like, comment, share and subscribe!

Prof. Lorenzo and I.

That’s it for London for now. I only spent a few days in the city this time around but when I return I’ll be there for a week and hope to get out and check out a lot of more clubs. in the mean time the rest of the UK and Ireland await!

Bags packed and on my way to the next adventure!

OSSS!!Until next time, see you on the mats!

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Birthplace of BJJ

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I am finally back in Rio. It took me a year to come back. I am staying right in the middle of Rio, at the border between Copacabana and Ipanema, because there a range of different Academies to choose, just to name a couple, Felipe Costa’s, Terrere’s, Checkmat and DeLaRiva. For me as a lighter guy I went with Felipe Costa, but planning in dropping in at some other Academies. 
 
Rio is Rio, chaotic but organised in his own way, and such a great place to be with all the good things, like beach, amazing food and much better weather than Europe! 
 
If you choose Airbnb, be prepared that not everything works fine all the time, you have to deal with a 20 year old laundry machine and some Mosquitos. As Jujitsu guy that trains twice a day means a lot of laundry, so I go with hand wash to beat up my hands even more. Sure you can use that later in life!
 
The first Saturday I arrived, I got lucky and had an open mat from all the Brasa-Team of Rio. There were so many higher belts on the mat, it was just amazing! The only down thing is the heat, it takes some time to get used to it and the first day you will be drenched like nothing before. The experience to be able to do something like that is just unbelievable!

San José, Costa Rica. Cans of whoopass on sale!

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I had met Diego when I trained at Santa Teresa and he told me he owned a hostel in San José and invited me to stay there when I would go. So when I show up in San José I go straight to the hostel. The receptionist was already expecting me and told me that he also trained BJJ, apparently more then half the staff members trained at Athletic Advance. My stay there was amazing and I recommend anyone who’s travelling through San José to check out The Garden Guesthouse!

For San José I had nothing planned except at least 2 classes on Monday and Tuesday. I show up at noon for Monday’s gi class with the impression that it would be pretty technical training and the next day would be competition training. We start with drilling 2 short techniques and then, what do you know, it’s 10×6 minute of rolls. Oh boy, after being on the road for so long without consistent training it was hard but I did manage to last all the rounds, got my ass handed to me a few times but I was happy with my rolls.

Tuesday arrives and I decided to rest till 7pm when the training was. I show up and the gym is full of people with all belt colours, laughing and joking in Spanish. I could feel everybody was gearing up mentally for the training, things were gonna get interesting. We did a high pace short warm-up and then 10 rounds of 6 minutes on the clock again. I look across the room and nobody looks back except a familiar face, Kuba who I trained with in Jacó was there. Of course he just sweeps the floor with me, giving this training a great start. For the next rounds I roll with few people, nobody holding anything back, especially against the new gringo. All of those people were good as well, from blue belt to black belts. I was exhausted and not sure I would make it through the training. For the 9th round I give up, I needed a break. For the 10th I gathered everything that I had left and picked a partner to roll with. After that round I was left lying on the mats close to death after 2 taps in that round. Then I hear “UNO MAS!”… they were going one more round. I just couldn’t, knowing that I already past my limits and reminding myself that I wasn’t in as good of a shape as when I trained 2x times a day.

I go back to the hostel exhausted but stuck with a smile on my face. That training was what I needed. I gave it a serious thought to stay for the whole week and training with those beasts for longer but in the end I wasn’t ready to give up the plans I had. The next weeks I would be making my way down south and through Panama, taking a little break from training. I do however plan to visit at least 2 gyms in south of Panama.

Training Report: Yamasaki BJJ Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden

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A little while ago, I traveled to Gothenburg, Sweden on business. Gothenburg is located on the west coast, in southwestern Sweden, about halfway between the capitals Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway. It is the second largest city in Sweden and enjoys a mild climate with quite a bit of rain.

This wasn’t my first time in beautiful Gothenburg, but it was the first time that I brought my training gear with me. Before leaving, I of course consulted with my friends and the internet and found an academy that sounded very open to visitors, had a well known prof and had the right training schedule that fit my timeline. I sent a message to Prof Pilo Stylin at the Yamasaki Academy located here, and asked permission to train on the Wednesday night that I was free. I got a very quick reply back allowing me to train.

As usual, I stayed at the closest Scandic hotel to the academy, which was only about 400 m away. This ended up being very good luck as of course, it was raining cats and dogs that evening!

I arrived to the academy about 30 minutes early so I could work out where to go but there was no need really. The facility was well laid out and everything was quite easy to figure out. I was greeted warmly in the reception when I walked in and that first impression was reflected by everyone that I met that night.

I proceeded to change and make my way to the tatami. It was a really large and impressive hall! There were going to be 2 classes that night running at the same time, beginners and advanced and there was plenty of room for both. I was permitted to train with the advanced group which was great. Some academies are very strict about their advanced classes, not allowing white belts of any rank in.

Prof Pilo started the class and we gathered for what I thought was going to be the warm-up but we all knelt and did some relaxing breathing and yoga style stretching techniques. That was a first for me and I really enjoyed it. We then broke into pairs and Pilo ran off to the side of the room asking us to wait for a second. He came back with a box full of small wooden balls and gave us 2 each…at this point I was perplexed, wondering what the heck they were for.

We were instructed to hold one in each hand and start sparring with our partner. The goal was to get the opponent down without dropping either ball. Well, I tell you, that was HARD! Try fighting in a gi and not being able to use hands or fingers for that matter. I absolutely loved it. What a refreshing, innovative way to warm up.

We sparred like this, changing partners every few minutes until we were all warmed up. It was time to practice drills. There was a tournament coming up and they wanted to drill double leg takedowns and double leg takedown defence. We drilled the double legs first with different variations, then started on the sprawl to counter it. I had no idea just how physically challenging it is to drill this relentlessly for 30 minutes straight…I was shaking after that workout!

We were given a couple of minutes to wipe off and get a drink, then right into 45 minutes of rolling. I was so impressed with the skill level of everyone there, no matter what belt they wore. I can also admit that I have never been “spider guarded” more in my life and I learned a valuable lesson that night…I have NO defence whatsoever against a good spider guard! (something I have been since working on) I left there that evening, purple as a plum but extremely satisfied.

All in all, it was an amazing experience where I met more new friends through BJJ. Pilo has been very active competitively and is a legend in his own right. He was so open and friendly, helpful and skilled in his teaching that I will definitely be back.

If you are ever in Gothenburg, Sweden, I highly recommend visiting the Yamasaki Academy for a great training session.

Stay tuned for my next article where I write about the next academy I visit on my travels!

Osss!

Jacó, Costa Rica. Ice bath for the Icelander!

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When I was making my way to Jacó I decided to stop at Montezuma and see the local waterfall. It was amazing, after an easy but beautiful hike we enter this paradise surrounded by rocks, plants and a waterfall which formed a peaceful little pond where you could swim in and cool down. Me being the adrenaline junkie that I am, climbed on top of some rocks and jumped in, having all the people in the group wanting to do the same after me. 

The next day I take a water taxi to Jacó and see not one, but two whales! They were jumping out of the water and couple of dolphins decided to follow the boat, it was great. When I arrived to Jacó it kind of reminded me of a European city. It was an long walking strip that had all the main international food chains and quite the party town. I met up with Leo at his acai shop, he is one of the trainers at the gym, sadly he couldn’t train with us because of lack of staff but he explained that I would likely have to take a taxi to the gym. 

So the time is about 6:30, the training is at 7 and I order a taxi. I point the taxi at the place where gym is, supposedly. The look that I get from the driver is a look I’ll never forget. He thought he was getting a stupid gringo who wanted to go to middle of nowhere. When I said “BJJ” he suddenly smiled and laughed, then proceeded to drive onwards. He drives out of town and when he gets next to this gas station he drives into a dark alleyway with no lights or anything, except one building in the distance. He drives up to it and I see the Brazilian flag hanging in there and I knew I found the place.

The training starts, Kuba, a black belt from Poland and the owner of Manto, filled in as the coach and showed some really cool stuff. On the mat were 2 purple belts, 1 brown belt and couple of blue belts, I knew I was going to get some real good rolls. After that training and the one next day I can confirm that my suspicion was true. The second day we rolled for 8 rounds of 6 min, that felt so good and I was exhausted. Kuba, who had offered to pick me up, picked up some ice as well and had a tub of ice ready after training. Being an Icelander I jumped in as soon as I could and man was it good! A bit small but good, none the less! 

I knew however that this stop was just a warm up for San José which would be challenging.

St. John’s Newfoundland

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Greetings From St. John’s Newfoundland!

After an early morning check out and taxi ride I was on my way to the last stop in the Canadian Odyssey: St john’s Newfoundland. This stop had several reasons it was special to me, not only was it the last stop in Canada and I’d be seeing friends I haven’t seen in 5 years but also it was the first place I was training at when I got back into martial arts. In a way I had come full circle, back to where I started.

Back on George Street!

‘The Strip’ George Street, every building in this picture has at least 1 bar in it, probably more like 2 or 3 actually.

During my stay in St John’s when I was in college George Street, the world renown street known for having the most bars crammed into a little stretch of road, was a usual hangout spot for the weekends, and sometimes the week nights too (Thursday’s 3 for 5 anyone?). As the partying life is behind me now I didn’t feel the need to spend much time down there, but I couldn’t help but visit it one evening. You see even if you don’t drink, there is something about the street, the young party goers running wild on the streets, the pubs filled with locals singing along to the live bands playing all the hits, that’s fun to at be part of. There’s something there for almost everyone. One pub that a few others from school and I would frequent was Shamrock City. There’s not another bar like it, the people that go there all looking for 2 things, 2 cold drinks and good tunes. The bar has live bands every night and you be can sure at some point most the bar will be singing and dancing along with them. It’s a fun atmosphere and I spent many a weekend there. It was fun to check out whichever local band was playing that night and watch everyone have a great time and reminisce about the old days, but without my usual friends the nostalgia wore off pretty quick.  After walking around the street to see what has changed since I was last there, which wasn’t much, I was done walking down memory lane and called it a night. My priorities have changed since I was last there, I don’t care about drinking and pubs and staying out late watching the college kids get into fights and the end of the night, although part of me does find that hilariously entertaining. I care about training and gyms now, creating memories with conversations fueled by Jiu-Jitsu, not alcohol. It was still fun to check out, I recommend it, especially if you like a pint of 2 and take in the local scene.

Watching the band at Shamrock and the crowd dance and sing along.

Staying With Carla…Kind of…

Carla and I met when I was training in St John’s during college. She was quite shy and timid, intimidated by the nature of the aggressive sport, but still eager to learn. I remember training with her and she barely said a word to me at first, which is funny now considering how much we have kept in contact with one another and become great pen pals. Although I met her from training together Carla doesn’t train Jiu-Jitsu anymore, instead she now has found a love for fitness training and competing in fitness competitions. I applaud her for the dedication she has and the transformation she has had with this new found passion. After I left St John’s and moved to the west coast her and we kept in touch online, following each others passions and transformations, me becoming obsessed with Jiu-Jitsu and planning out the Odyssey and her body building and setting competing goals. One day Carla sent me a message asking if I had a place for St john’s I did not, in fact I had overlooked St John’s while contacting other cities where I knew no one, so I happily accepted her offer to let me stay at her place.

We set up when I’d be flying in to St john’s and Carla was at the airport to pick me up, she even had a stocked the fridge and picked up a brand new air mattress for my stay. I was looking forward to having nightly conversations of my journey or her training regime, catching up on the times, things that go on when staying with a dear friend, but as it happens Carla was hardly ever home, busy with her own career and life I was practically left alone with a house full food. It was both great and disappointing at the same time, haha. Although I had the place to myself for most the stay we did actually hang out at some point and catch up on everything, and it really a great visit, thank you for everything Carla, you went way above and beyond looking after me!    

Thanks again Carla for everything!

Mike Foley’s Academy  

I’ve always known that there are other clubs in St. John’s, all run by brothers, The Foley’s, each having their own place, as far as I know, but I’ve never made it out to any of them or met them before. This time around I decided to change that and drop by one night for a class. It worked perfectly with the schedule, one night there weren’t classes going on with Mike and his club so I made my way over to Mike Foley’s Academy. I got a bit turned around getting there and ended up a few minutes late, which I absolutely hate doing. They were already half way through their warm up when I walked in so I quickly changed and jumped in.

The place is on the second floor of a building and built in a ‘L’ shape with both corridor being long and narrow. The whole class was set up as a chain, starting with one move and adding to it, so that in the end it was a series of counters to each other, all starting with a failed shoot in. The people at Foley’s gym were all friendly, in fact I trained with a blue belt who is a big BJJ Globetrotter fan and so absolutely loved my story of traveling. in between drills he would ask questions about traveling and going to different clubs and how I set it up etc. I was happy to answer him. After class a few other students started asking questions and next I knew we were having a big Jiu-Jitsu philosophy discussion in the parking lot. It’s funny how conversations can break out anywhere. I wish I had more to write but I only stopped by for the one class and wasn’t able to take any pictures. I will say the students and staff were very welcoming and it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re in town.

St John’s BJJ and Judo

I first went to St John’s BJJ and Judo because I saw a poster for them in the school. I figured with me on course for the Canadian Navy I was on a stable schedule that left the evenings open, it was the perfect opportunity to get back into martial arts. I was not wrong. The training helped center me and get me through college. When it was time for me to leave for the West Coast they alerted me to Fierce Studio, where I now call home, and the rest is history. When I returned I was really looking forward to seeing the old friends I had made, Mike, Dave, Jimmy, Blair, Brian, the small group of regulars that made the core club when I trained there. Seeing all them again was like stepping back in time. It was great feeling.

The club had moved a few times since I first met them, now it was out by the mall in a renovated industrial space turned into a martial arts club. The new space is bigger than the old one I remember that was a rented room at a gym. This place is simple, washrooms to the left when you walk in, change rooms to the right, and the rest of the space is covered by a big square mat space on a floating floor. It’s perfect for the Jiu-Jitsu and Judo clubs that train there.  

A shot the mats before class.

The club had expanded since I left. I kept in contact on Facebook and seeing the increasing membership over the years I was eager to meet everyone. It always great to see both old faces you remember and new faces to meet, it shows both the members staying and the club growing. A club that’s been around for a long time but only has white and blue belts raises questions, as does a club with no white belts. Mike and guys are good people, I happy the club is growing and succeeding.

The first night I came back Mike was busy with work, as it’s not his usual night, it was Blair’s night to teach Judo. Blair has been teaching and training Judo for years and years, he’s an older fellow and he’s not up for endless rolling with the young guys, in fact I think I’ve only rolled with him once. I remember it now, we were in class and it was time to roll, everyone else had paired up and Blair looks at me and asks “Robert, would you like to have a match?” I was surprised as this is usually when he would sit back and watch, so I eagerly accepted. We start, on our knees, and Blair instantly grabs traditional Judo grips, gets me off balance and next thing I know I’m in scarf hold, or Kesa-Gatame and I’m being crushed by the pressure and control he has of me. I try fighting to get out but I can’t move and finally I have to verbal tap from the pressure. “Not bad for an Old guy, eh?” he says and goes and sits and watches the rest of the class. The thing took maybe  a minute. So anyways, first night back to St John’s and Blair is teaching his Judo class, showing me all these little details to off balance your opponent and how to better enter the throw, all these little details that make sure a big difference. I watch and listen intently, because it’s those details that so easily humbled me those years ago.

Mike teaching no gi class.

The rest of the week the classes were BJJ, with my last class with them being no gi. It was great seeing and training with everyone. One class a few of us went out for food afterwards and caught up on life. Another day Mike and I grabbed coffee and talked Jiu-Jitsu philosophy for what was probably an hour or 2 before he had to get back to work. The small things like that, the off the mats times, make all the on the mat times more fun. You’re not just training with a club, you’re training with a group of friends. It felt like I had been away for so long yet only yesterday with them. Thanks Mike and all the rest of the club, it was a lot of fun seeing you all again and training together, the perfect last stop in Canada.

Interview With Mike Samson 

After one of the classes Mike and I sat down and did an interview. Talked about all sorts of things and it wasn’t until after I had uploaded the video to edit it that I realized we had spent an hour talking away! It was some good conversation going on, talking about Mike’s martial arts journey and coming to the point of running his own club. We also covered the work that has gone into keeping the club going, changing places and finding a black belt to be training under. It’s a great insight into the steps and trials involved in going from student to coach.

If the video doesn’t load you can watch it by heading over to the Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel and watching it there. Make sure to show some love and like, share, comment and subscribe please!

That’s it for St. John’s Newfoundland, and Canada in general! Before I knew it I was on a plane for London and Finally get to see Europe and start the European Odyssey!

I’m on my way to the UK!

Until next time, see you on the mats!

OSSS!!

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA’S ODYSSEY!

Sign up to the Panda’s Odyssey Patreon Account.

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Amsterdam

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The capital of legal weed! Well at least that is what i call Amsterdam. I only spent about 2 days here so there is not much to write about except training and weed. So let’s talk about training first. Here i met up with Chris from Stafford(if you read my post about UK it is the same Chris) and we trained at Carlson Gracie Amsterdam. Nothing much to talk about except that i got owned by multiple purple belts. It was also the first time i had 3 black belts on the same mat for a class(other than open mats).

This photo was taken BEFORE training.

Alright, now that training part is over let’s talk about the important stuff.Weed. It was my first time trying so i did not know what to expect. I actually ordered a rather mild one and was a bit disappointed because i didn’t feel high or anything. I felt absolutely nothing! Must be something i did wrong. As for Chris, after we separated he went to a coffee shop and laughed hysterically for an hour before crashing on his bed. Damn i should have ordered his space cake instead of playing it safe!

Well, i guess that is all for Amsterdam. Next stop Deutschland!

 

Edge of Africa

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Dakar doesn’t sleep. 

At least that’s what I’m told as I pull my first all nighter of training after jumping off the plane in Dakar, Senegal. After arriving on my short 8 hour flight from N’Djamena I quickly meet AK and D’juan Owens who have spent the last 4 days teaching MMA seminars, preparing for the Unity in Dakar ’17 project, and going full throttle on the nightlife. In a couple short hours we’re in a sandy park area meeting the Laamb wrestlers of the Senegalese national sport. I’m pretty shocked to hear that a form of wrestling is bigger than futbol here. Laamb is a pretty wild sport which is done on sand and is won when one man’s back or front lands flat. Even crazier is that closed fist striking is allowed and there’s no weight classes. Really wild stuff. D’juan with his extensive background in MMA isn’t shy to jump in and start introducing the Laamb team to new techniques. Within a couple minutes this energetic foreigner is absolutely surrounded by Senegalese debating the effectiveness of what he’s teaching as the translator/cameraman tries to keep up. The scene is an absolute commotion and finally ends as a few grasp the technique and we’re running behind on schedule.

Next stop is the KOA house. Man oh man. We will definitely not be roughing it this trip. This massive brick mansion is 3 stories and 6 bedrooms complete with a pool. There’s a small glassed in bird tunnel in the middle of the building running from the roof to the first floor. I didn’t even know that existed. KOA Team is scheduled to arrive the next morning from Virginia so I’ll be moving into the bird tunnel mansion when they arrive. 

Let’s get to some training! I’m really just going along to assist D’juan in his MMA seminar now. We arrive at a surprisingly nice facility called Olympic training center, There’s a huge turnout and I’m quickly realizing how large this project is going to be this week that I’m in Dakar. D’juan teaches some grappling for MMA. Simple but effective BJJ techniques that work when strikes are involved. The tripod sweep goes over well and everyone picks it up very fast. We arrived at for the seminar at about 8 (5 hours after I get off the plane) and it goes until after 11! People are just so excited to learn here in Africa that if you never stopped teaching they would roll all night. It’s Amazing. 



We get cleaned up for drinks after midnight and manage a couple hours of rest before going to pick up KOA Team from the airport at 4am

Halifax & Sydney Nova Scotia Canada

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This is my second last Canadian post.  A lot went on and there’s a lot of pictures and a few videos in this post, so it might long.

 

Greetings From Halifax and Sydney Nova Scotia Canada!

Wow, what a whirlwind of a week that was! After dealing with the snow in Fredericton and Moncton things really picked up in Halifax and Sydney. The post is going to be a bit long but putting these two cities together was the best way to do it. My bus trips to both Halifax and Sydney went off without any problems, although there’s not much to see between the cities this time of year but snow.

I know I said this last time I this pic reminds me of Empire Strikes Back. But when I first took it the view was more mist of fog like and reminded me of Stranger Things…I watch too much sci-fi.

Halifax Chilling With a Good Friend

During my way too short stay in Halifax I crashed at my friend Mike and his girlfriend Amanda’s place, thanks again guys for letting me stay! Mike and I met 6 years ago when we both went to the Marine Institute for different programs for the Canadian Navy and we quickly become good friends. It was actually Mike’s friendship, and all the good times we had partying, that got me through being there. We hadn’t seen each other since my graduation, I graduated first and was sent to the west coast of Canada and Mike stayed on the East. This visit was a great reason to catch up with him and hang out like old times, well, without the obscene drunkenness and dancing to folk songs with random ladies..I’ve said too much..

It was good to see Michael again, we caught up on the last 4 or so years since we last hung out, and one night, with the snow and slush making it a particularly taxing day to be traveling, I decided to skip training and hang out with him and Amanda. We didn’t do anything special, played some video games and broke out the Magic the Gathering (MtG) cards and got my butt kicked, but it was a good day of relaxing and hanging out with friends. I wasn’t in town for long and I hadn’t them in a while, and although I would love to get out and train with and meet as many clubs as I can across the world, there are days you need to rest, and more so, you can’t ignore your friends. Who knows when we’ll see each other next so I’m glad I made that decision, the club will be there another day. Thanks Micheal and Amanda for having me, it was great to catch up and hang out. Until next time my friends!

Good times with my brother from another mother Michael McCoag.

Bushido-Kai Martial Art Academy 


When I was first planning out visiting Halifax I had only know of one club in the area, Titan’s MMA. I had friends who had trained there and I was looking forward to going. Closer to arriving to Halifax I did an search to see what other clubs were about and found Bushido-Kai Martial Arts Academy, and even heard some words about them when training in Fredericton (I was told both them and Titan’s were great choices) So when I got into Halifax and looked at the schedules and locations of the two, Bushido-Kai would be one day and Titan’s the next, however I ended up staying in visiting my friend and Bushido-Kai ended up being my only stop in Halifax. But man was it a good one!

Pretty full class for snow day!

I knew really nothing of Bushido-Kai before showing up, I contacted them on Facebook and asked to come by and that’s about it. But that’s all you need to go on an adventure. I showed up to the club, which didn’t look like much from outside, I actually thought it was a community center at first. Once inside I saw how wrong I was, with posters and articles and the big open mat space with a mirrored wall one side having different flags (the provincial flag of Nova Scotia, the Canadian, Brazilian and Japanese flags to represent the home country of each art they train as well as national pride) on the wall as well a suit of Samurai armor. At first only a few of us showed up and I thought it would be a small class, but as I stretched out on the mats more and more people slowly poured in, with some late for class, on account of the roads and weather, in the end there must have been over 30 people on the mats.

Repping and rolling.

Class was fun, we drilled a lot of sweeps and there was a few movements using grips that were a bit new to me so I was having a hard time wrapping my head around it, but Courtney, a brown belt who was teaching the class, and my training partner were really helpful in troubleshooting it. Everyone was helpful and welcoming and really interested in my journey, it was a great atmosphere training with them. After class was time for rolling and decided to try out my arm, being that elbow was feeling better with the time I had off lately. The class had some really diverse body sizes, ranging from small, quick little guys to giants and dwarfed me in size, and the experience level matched it, from white belts up to competition level purple and brown belts. I only was able to roll with a few people but it was a lot of fun, no one seemed out to smash the new guy or be the ‘gym champ’ it was even fun watching everyone roll when I was on the sidelines, the group really seemed to be a tight knit and friendly club. After class I chatted with a bunch of them, about my journey and plans and experiences so far, they asked how many clubs I had been too and after a quick count, they were my 40th club I’ve visited across Canada while on the Odyssey! Thanks guys for the great class!

Thanks for the good class!


The Submission Series Pro and The Finishers Ball

As the Canadian Odyssey was underway I realized that there was a big weekend going in Nova Scotia when I would be there. Not only was there a UFC event taking place in Halifax that featured the first ever signed Newfoundlander, Gavin Tucker, but also Cat Clark, a promoter and event coordinator, was putting on a weekend open competition under his promotions brand, Submission Series Pro, and and evening 16 man tournament called The Finishers Ball. I realized this would all be going on as I was in the area, or rather the same weekend I was leaving Halifax and going up to Sydney, which would mean missing the Halifax UFC and making it difficult to make it to the tournaments. I was perfectly OK with missing the events as I was focusing on training with local gyms and not hitting up competitions and the UFC event was way out of my budget. Then I started talking to Cat, who had invited to his event to watch, and even jump into the open tournament if I wanted to. As it happens, ZombieProof BJJ, my next stop, would be closed that weekend for the tournaments anyways, and Kent Peters was driving down with his team and would be refereeing the evening tournament. After talking to Cat about it I sent Kent a message and it was settled, I would spent the day making it to Sydney up from Halifax one day and then get up really early to spend the next morning making it half way back down to Truro for the competitions. It was totally worth it.

Meeting with Kent at the crack of dawn for a 4 hour car drive back the way I came the day before was an usual way to meet but it was also a perfect way to have that introductory conversation, since we literally had 4 hours to kill. Once we got to the tournament the group basically spit up, the teammates off to warm up, Kent off to coach his students whole competing, the children’s divisions were already starting, and me off to take pics and watch the event. It was cool walking around and running into every club I had been in to in the past few weeks, it was basically an East Coast Jiu-Jitsu re-union for me, and it was cool to see them all in action competing in the tournament. The East Coast Jiu-Jitsu community is a very close knit, as I saw at this event, and they all seemed to understand that it’s the community that’s more important than any one club, and Cat Clark’s event showed this. Sure Cat puts on the event, and does an amazing job of planing it all out, but it’s all the clubs helping him out and participating, like Dana Dickeson and his club Synergy BJJ making it all the way from Fredericton, and Kent coming from Sydney, each driving 4 hours one way, that make it a success. As I walked around, taking pictures of the matches and talking to everyone I realized how much they’re all friends working together for the sport, and who cool it was to be a part of that atmosphere. I had the idea of taking short 2 minute interviews with people from different perspectives and put them together for a introspective of the tournament, but there was so much going on that I quickly realized how hard that would be to get done. So I just sat back and took it all in instead.

Caught up with Dana from Fredericton, Synergy BJJ.

Found Melyssa as well! 

After the first day of the Submission Series Pro, Saturday was no gi divisions and Sunday was gi, but we weren’t around for Sunday, there was a quick break before the evening’s event, The Finishers Ball, a 16 man tournament that is streamed live online in front of an audience of most the people from the day’s event. The competitors ranged from purple belts to black belts, with local competitors as well as competitors from as far as Toronto and even one from the USA somewhere. In between each round of the tournament (preliminary, quarter-final, semi-final) there were super fights between local talent. All the matches are 10 minutes long, anything goes, submission only, with the judge deciding if the match goes the limit. The talent pool for this event was tremendous and only a few came down to a judges decision. I will say Kent Peters did his job quite well and the crowd seemed to agree with his decision making.

I liked that there’s a screen that showed promos between rounds. And this logo is pretty cool too.

The mats for the night’s event.

In between matches Cat Clarke came up to me and asked if I were open to doing an impromptu interview after the next match, I was totally surprised and honoured by the invitation and accepted. After the next match was over I was called up to talk about Panda’s Odyssey in the biggest Panda Sighting so far! I think it went well and am deeply honoured for Cat to give me this chance to boost the Odyssey. Below is the video, check it out!

If the video doesn’t load you can watch it here on the Panda’s Odyssey Youtube Channel.

After the event was done and everyone was finished talking about how good both events were, which really could have gone on all night, given the techniques that were displayed that night, it was time to head back up to Sydney. We didn’t make it make until almost 2am I believe, given how early we left in the morning that was almost a full 24 hrs of Jiu-Jitsu that day. It was worth it. such a great time, seeing all the clubs come together and complete like that as well help Cat put on such an amazing feature. Thank you East Coast Jiu-Jitsu community for an awesome day and thank you Cat Clarke for put it all on and getting me out to see it!

Kent getting videos of cool techniques he saw while referring for his YouTube channel. 

The host for the night’s event, coach at Titan’s MMA and snazzy dresser, Craig Ferguson.

The man himself who pout it all together, Cat Clarke. Thanks for everything Cat!

ZombieProof BJJ

The Zombie proof mats.


After recovering from the weekend it was time to finally train at ZombieProof BJJ. Ever since my friend Mike Bramwell had introduce me to Kent online I have been a fan of his videos and after hanging out all Saturday I was really looking forward to class, not only to meet his club and see how it’s ran but also to see what cool techniques he had picked from the tournament to go over in the class. I got to say I really love the club, Kent has spent all his time making the club a home, with the full feel of place that deserves the name ZombieProof. Every wall is covered in posters and Halloween decorations and graffiti, there’s a atmosphere that rides the fine cheesy but also cool, and it totally works. It’s fun without being too cheesy to not be taken seriously but also not too serious to not be fun. I might not make sense reading this, but once you meet Kent and see the club you understand completely, ever inch of every wall has his attitude displayed.

So much personality.

Kent himself is a funny guy that likes to kid around but is also serious when it comes to training. The club has a lot of younger members, and Kent keeps them all enticed and involved by being really interactive with them. If you were to walk in without knowing anyone you might as first glance mistake Kent’s rapport with his students as bullying, picking on them and name calling, but in actual fact it’s show of camaraderie and caring, playing to their young ego’s and guilt them to be better, not to sit out and chat or skip class and get caught up with all the distractions that younger students seem to always have. It’s actually the same kind of relationship I have with my favourite training partner, Geoff, who constantly trash talks and pokes me into going that extra step to get to class and drill and try harder, (because I want to destroy him! hahah). to me is shows a close club with a coach to really cares about his students.

Wrestling class for takedowns.

Interview with Kent Peters

After my last class with Kent and ZombieProof we sat down and have an interview. We talked about running the club, what ZombieProof is to him and it’s aim and goals for his students, and all the online antics of posting his videos. It was a great end to my visit with Kent and his club, enjoy!

If the video doesn’t load you can view it here at Panda’s Odyssey YouTube Channel. Make sure and show some love, like, comment and share away, and maybe even subscribe to my channel too!

And with Sydney done I had one more stop for Canada, back to where I first started training when I got back into martial arts, St. John’s Newfoundland at Mike Samson’s club, St John’s Judo and BJJ!

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.
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BJJ leads to change.

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Hello, friends. Today I would like to write about the journey. But not about the usual route to any country. Not about a specific gym. And about traveling to BJJ itself. Maybe this post does not correspond to the blog topics a little. But I would like to share my story, how I came to BJJ, how I made the most important journey in my life. And if at least one person will help change his way of life, then all this will be written knowingly.
I will not paint how I was born, made pi-pi in panties and ate porridge from a bottle with a pacifier.) How he studied at school, how he was a difficult child and had problems with the police. Life was beating with a key and more often, on the head.)) It’s good that I met my love early and married at age 19. After a year and a half, I had a son. Lived a quiet family life, went to work, raised his son. He is already 23 years old.) He opened a small business for clearing private ponds. In general, I led a quiet life, and gradually began to turn into a small but very thick boar.)) With the growth of 168 cm, I began to weigh 85 kg. He drank a lot of beer and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. Very much began to disturb health. Obesity and sedentary lifestyle began to give negative results. Constantly worried about the pressure, headaches and it was bad with the stomach. The tablets drank with handfuls and gradually began to turn into a ruin. Or rather, I became a wreck. I even could not tie my shoelaces on my shoes, my wife did it and was like a nanny to me.) And the worst thing, life has become gray. There were almost no emotions. Monotony, dullness and everyday life. I had never, at all, any relation to sports. Generally full of darkness. My perspective was a heart attack at a fairly young age. So I lived until I was 42 years old. My only achievement was, I was 40 years old, quit smoking. It became a little easier to breathe, but due to the fact that I was very fat, very little changed in my health.
And then I decided to try running in the morning in the nearest park. The first jog turned into hell. His eyes darkened, he sweated with a stream, his lungs burned, and his heart flew from his chest. It was difficult, I thought I would die, but I could not see in the next world, I still did not need anyone, and God decided that it was too early for me to die and directed me to run further.)) In short, after the first run I survived. So the week went on. I gradually got used to it, although I did not run long distances. And then on business, I was in Kiev, in the capital. I myself live in Kherson. I went there for a couple of days. Near the place where I stopped, there was nowhere to run. And I did not want to interrupt the runs and again lead an immobile lifestyle and return to the past. After all, it was so difficult to take the first step, and if I stopped, the second I probably would not have done.

And then I was advised to go to the gym BJJ, that would replace the jogging, while I’m in Kiev. They said that there are also good loads, that you can come at any age and it’s very cool. About such combat, I had never heard before, and all my knowledge of Brazil was reduced to carnivals and capoeira. BJJ, I represented something the same, a mixture of samba and waving my feet.))) But I decided to go.
Guys, it was love at first sight !!! I got to training for Valentin Varenikov, a purple belt. It was cool!!! It was super!!! It was the cosmos !!! They accepted me very warmly and friendly. The training is very interesting, everyone laughs and smiles. Physically it was hard, but it was worth it !!! And while I was in Kiev, I went there.
Returned to Kherson and it turned out that in my city, there is no gym, where they teach BJJ. Disappointment was not the limit. And I decided to rent a small room. Persuaded his son who also did not go in for sports at that time. We shot a very small room, that would be together with my son, after work, in the evening to study for myself. They began to look at the techniques on the Internet and, to the best of their ability and understanding, began to study them. Everything was very clumsy in our performance. But it was! Little by little it began to work out. And we
There was a goal, interest and first emotions. Then, slowly, people began to join us, who were also interested in BJJ. I somehow unexpectedly turned into a coach.))) We decided to play with my son at the tournament. We lost. But, we got excited! I dropped out of business. For the family, it was a shock. Nobody thought that my morning runs would lead so far.))) And I concentrated on BJJ.
Our hall now, there is not yet two years. We are all white belts. They themselves developed a strategy for training and chose the style in which we will fight. And I’m proud of it. Children began to lead us to trainings. Even the girls came to us.) And we to the surprise of many, even began to give results !!! My son is already a champion of Ukraine and winner of many regional tournaments, all children and girls are winners of different tournaments. And I’m in my old age, I already have a dozen medals.))
At the moment, I’m 44 years old. Having dropped out of business, I lost money. But!!! I bought much more !!! I became a coach, I got health and forgot what a hospital is. I was 85 kg with a height of 168 cm. And now my weight is 57 kg. And I feel fine. And most importantly, what I purchased. This is EMOTION !!! Life was filled with colors. I got a lot of friends. And when your pupil wins the tournament, it’s impossible to convey in words.
Not everything is measured in money. There are things that can not be bought, for any money. This is HEALTH, FRIENDSHIP, EMOTION !!!
I am grateful to ju-jitsu that it has changed my life so abruptly. Do not be afraid of change. It’s never too late to start. Discard all doubts and go to the gym. Do Jiu-Jitsu. And believe me, your life will change for the better.
P.S. Running in the morning, I did not quit. Now, every morning, I run 7 km.
Everyone has a lot of happiness! And more BJJ.)

I’m up to BJJ’s classes and now.

Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. The definition of Pura Vida!

/in /by

Travelling between Tamarindo and Santa Teresa turned out to be much more complicated then I thought, it seemed so close on the map. So I booked a shuttle which went through all kinds of bad roads and over a few rivers. I had been talking with Carl, a fellow Globetrotter from Norway who was currently living in Santa Teresa, he had offered me to stay at his place just outside of town. I show up in Santa Teresa after a long day of bumpy roads and I don’t really know how I can find his house. I spend about 2 or 3 hours in the smoking heat without internet trying to find him but in the end give up and decided to stay at a hostel closer to the town center. The hassle of taking a bus couple of times a day would not be worth it. Rather me and Carl plan to meet up Monday morning for a surf session. 

I loved the layout of Santa Teresa, it was a true surf town, scattered along the beach. I enjoyed four really good days there, I spent the weekend relaxing and trying to surf as much as I could… keyword here being “trying”.

I was so ready, being blinded by the sun.

 

Oh god this is hard, why did I do this?

On Monday sadly Carl had a job that popped up so we didn’t managed to meet up even ones while I was there. He was such a great help, willing to answer all of my questions. For the afternoon I show up to a class at Santa Teresa BJJ. They had a nice group, around 10 people, the instructor being a really good purple belt. We do really cool techniques which he explains really specifically, I’m guessing, it was all in Spanish. I just did my best and mimicked all the movements he did, which worked out quite well. In the end of the class we rolled and I got some decent rolls, especially on the second day where I was able to really push myself and get some good personal training. 

The gym was located on the 2nd floor.

Overall Santa Teresa was one of my favorite places so far but it was not really eventful. It was the most basic Pura Vida lifestyle you can find. Surf and BJJ.

Refreshing walk back to the hostel after training.

Santa Teresa had one of best and juiciest Vegeterian meals.

 

 

Tamarindo, Costa Rica. The party town where I slept.

/in /by

While staying at Coco beach I asked about Tamarindo and I got the feeling it was kind of touristy town where people go to party, something that doesn’t really intrigue me for this trip. I decided to go there anyway because supposedly there were 3 or 4 BJJ clubs there.

When I arrived my thoughts were confirmed. There wasn’t much to do, the beach wasn’t very nice but lots of tourist and my hostel had lots of party kids who were on their last days of spring break. Thanks to Ron Jarman, who was a huge help, I managed to find 3 gyms in the area with morning, noon and evening classes! I would be able to train more then I could handle. 

So I show up to the first class, no one is there. I go to the second class at another gym, the trainer was out of town. Finally the 3rd try of the day I show up to Tamarindo Fitness and there is a class of 5 people. I got right into it with them and got good rolls and drills, just happy I got to finally train. The next day I was gonna wake up early for a 7 o’clock class so I went early to sleep, of course the only person who wasn’t partying. At 5 o’clock I wake up to the rest of the room arriving from partying and thought to myself how differnet experience I was having from them. 

So I show up at 7 in front of a gym called Hero Academy, my little nerd heart was exploding from happiness being able to train at a gym with that name. The trainer, Rome Za, shows up and the class starts. The training was really good, the atmosphere was so relaxed and good wipes. Afterwards we get talking about movement training, techniques and everything else which was off topic. In the end I realized I had met a really interesting person who is trying spread as much positivity in the world which I can’t help but respect from the bottom of my heart. Here is their website and Facebook for anybody who is interested in dropping by. 

For the evening I decided to do one more class but ended up showing up to another gym with another no show. At the end I spent 3 days in Tamarindo lying around the hostel waiting for training which did not go as planned. It did however force me to embrace the Pura Vida lifestyle which I’m starting to get the hang of.

On my way to Sunshine coast, Australia

/in /by

Port Douglas is a little town at the top of the east coast in Australia. Where the rain forest meet the ocean. A beautiful place and so hot and humid. I worked 2 months there and unfortunately I didn’t find a BJJ gym in this area. 2 months without training… It’s hard to be regular on the mat when you travel for a long period. Working make it difficult sometimes.

 

 

I bought a car and built a bed inside so I can be free and travel the east coast at my own pace.

The idea was to stop along the way at BJJ gym.

First stop was in Cairns at Fusion fight and fitness for a afternoon session.

Second stop

Sunshine coast here I am.

I asked on the BJJ Globetrotters FB page if anyone can recommand me a gym near the Sunshine coast area.

Chad invited me at his gym the Infinity Martial Arts in Kawana Waters.

 

I just drop in for a Monday night class.

It was awesome.

Everyone welcomed me and I felt like a member of the family already.

I was ready to sleep in my van somewhere that night but they offered me to stay at the gym.

A real bed and a shower!!

I’m in paradise now!!

 

I became comfortable there and stayed days after days.

I went at pretty much every class during 2 weeks.

Gi, No Gi I was there.

I was tanning at the beach after the morning session and waiting for the next class at night.

I was naked, my body was hurting but I didn’t know when next stop will be so enjoyed the time I had there.

 

BJJ . Beach. BJJ. Eat. Sleep . Repeat

I’m love with this lifestyle.

Just to put the word beach in this sentence make me happy.

Great Australia temperature. Love it!!

I washed my GI at the laundromat and hanging at the back of my van at the beach.

BJJ beach bum girl!

 

 

I had my first stripe at the Infinity martial arts and it mean a lot for me.

I trained hard and learned a lot in these 2 weeks and met awesomes coachs and partners.

As a traveller I had to continue my journey and hit the road with Jade (my little van)

 

I keep in touch with some guys there and I actually bump into one at a comp in Sydney.

What a nice feeling to recognize someone you know.

BJJ create awesome connexion everywhere around the world.

 

Had a blast in Sunshine coast

Might go back there one day!

 

Thanks to you badass Infinity family!!!

 

OUSSS

Karine

 

 

 

Bunker Cuzco

/in /by

It’s been five days having URI symptoms. I don’t feel like doing shit. I just want to stay in bed until I leave. I’ve been a connoisseur of tea and soup.  I really enjoy Cuzco though. It’s just a shame I can’t shake this cold.


I got back from Machu Picchu and I went searching for Bunker Cuzco.  I ran into Diego Yule. He runs Bunker with Nico Culrich.  It was good to exchange Jiu Jitsu stories and have a local show me around.  He showed me the Mercado de San Blas.  Little things like showing a traveler a local market means a lot.

I trained three times. I’m proud of myself for training but feeling of being sick when I’m not training isn’t good.  Some techniques Nico and Diego went over were an omoplata from spider and half guard/ knee shield. When I went to open mat we exchanged GI and NO GI. Diego was preparing for a No Gi tournament in May. We discussed how leg locks is now a system everybody needs to study. If not you will be behind the curve, especially as purple belts.


I met a Helene at the Open Mat on Saturday, a fellow BJJ Globetrotter. You can follow her blog. She has over 400 days on the road. She gave me some advice on traveling. She is truly an inspiration.

@helenebjj. Follow her on instagram @helenebjj and her blog

As a former US Navy Hospital Corpsman, I self diagnosed myself with acute URI (upper respiratory infection). (Note: self diagnosing yourself is a running joke in the medical field. Why? Nearly all patients google their symptoms and think they know what they have.)  I have decided its viral and that I will just ride out the symptoms.

I fly to Lima then to Cuzco in a few hours. I hope the weather will be better for my symptoms.

Coco beach, Costa Rica. Joining the Coco crew.

/in /by

When I crossed over the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica it was like stepping into a new world. A gate to another dimension filled with long lines, paperwork and more lines. I went from running after way too crowded chicken busess who are just reused american looking schoolbuses, to stepping into an air conditioned bus with way too many seats and drivers who actually speak English! Well I take the bus and head to my first location in Costa Rica, Coco beach. It was the longest I stayed in one place so this blog could be longer then usual.

When I arrive me and Jimmy, a brown belt in town who had invited me to come and train, decided to meet up at his family restraunt, Jimmy’s Burger. Offered me any burger on the menu and of course I went for the juiciest one! So good. He showed me the town and told me the history of the BJJ in the town, how trainers and affiliations had come and left. Now they had a decent setup in a new gym with a Brazilian black belt driving from Liberia to teach few times a week.

That night I go and roll with them but there wasn’t an official class so we were only 4 guys. Me, Jimmy, Thomas who would be so helpful and nice for the next days and then Yann the gym owner, super fit guy who had only been training 5 months but was so pumbed to learn as much as he could and was already starting to show serious progress. That session they wanted to see some judo stuff so I tried to cram as much information and moves at them as I could, hoping something would stick.

The next day I went to an official class, I met Jean the coach who did not speak a single word in English so I had to have everything translated for me. I was really excited to meet an legit Brazilian black belt and he was everything I expected him to be. He asked if I could teach an 1 and a half hour class and I was honoured! He did ask me if I had my black belt so I wasn’t teaching wearing my blue belt… sadly no. For the first 30 minutes I felt his eyes on my the back of my head and I thought he was judging my teaching, it wasn’t until he gave me a big compliment that he liked everything that I was showing that I was able to relax a little. My favourite part was after the 1 and a half hour he says “We did judo, now we do Jitsu” with this notion that he was gonna show me how it’s done. He proceeds to show the class one move and then points me to the corner which got me kind of confused. He wanted to have a private lesson with me. Awkwardly I step out of the group into the corner and wait for him. He then comes over rolls with me and shows me some really cool moves that I’m not sure I’m ever gonna use but still I’m never going to forget that experience. 

On my last day I join the crew to drive to Liberia and train with an larger group there. When we arrived the power went out and it wasn’t until after 30 or 40 minutes of sitting around that the lights come back on. We rushed to the mats ready for action and then I hear Jean talking to the class and notion in my direction saying “Gringo” and then Jimmy said that he told the class I would show two throws. I planned on just joining the group for a normal class but I showed the two throws, easy ones for most of the people didn’t even know how to breakfall. The rolling starts and two pairs go the mats, of course me being one of them. Then Jean keeps sending more guys to roll with me and I end up staying on the mats almost the entire time. Memorably rolling with both Jimmy and Thomas and they making me work for it. Thomas was so enthusiastic and I could see that he had so much potential, being a really good blue belt. I did enjoy Jimmy’s style as well, a brown belt who had nothing too prove to anybody else and just rolled for the enjoyment of it.

In the end I want to thank all the guys at Coco beach for making me feel so welcome and it was seriously hard to leave that town. I stayed there for almost a whole week and I already felt like an part of their gang. 

Got my open water diving certificate while I was there

Apparently gringos can’t be trusted with a plate for grownups

Ofcourse we went out and got green beers on St Patrick’s day

Fredericton and Moncton New Brunswick Canada

/in /by

Greetings from Fredericton New Brunswick Canada…kind of…

I made it to Fredericton easy enough, there were a few bus transfers over the night and I didn’t get much sleep but I still made it to the destination on time and without any real problems, which is the important part. Originally when I booked the tickets I didn’t look at the map that closely and booked the bus from Montreal. I then booked a train from Quebec City back to Montreal to catch the bus, with a 4 hour layover, even though the two stations are side by side. Also, the bus goes up to Ste Foy on it’s way to Fredericton, which is just outside Quecbec City, and 10-15 minute drive from my friend’s place. So rather than spend the whole day backtracking, I threw out the train ticket to Montreal and the bus ticket to Ste Foy, they were non-refundable, and caught the bus that night, saving me half the total time on a bus and/or train. I’ve been looking closer now with my planning transit routes.

On the road again.

Catching up with Friends

It has been 15 years since I last saw Aaron and Danielle, who I stayed with while in Fredericton, I was still in highs school and they had joined the military and been posted out. With social media so common place in our lives now a days we met up on Facebook and when I started planning out where to go and stay I sent Aaron a message. Next you know we’re sitting in a car with his family reminiscing about the good ole good in high school and talking about where everyone is now a days. They had set me my very own room in the basement, well almost, I shared it with the cat, who had decided I’m her new best friend. I spent a good deal of my time sitting in the front room working on blogs and planning things for the UK, when they were home we talked about all sorts of things, like my journey and life leading up to it or what they had been up to in the past 15 years, at one point Aaron brought the fact he and Danielle had a discussion of what we’d talk about, being that we hadn’t seen, or spoke much, in 15 years. Aaron had made the comment that it’d be just like picking up where we left off, like it was yesterday. He was right. It’s something we’ve noted about the people we grew up with back home, we can not see or speak or one another for years on end, show up one night and continue on like those years a part never happened. A true sign of real friendship, although it did make me miss a few old friends I haven’t talked to in years.

Leila sent me some American Girl Guide Cookies! They were so good!

Another friend I hadn’t seen since high school was Greg, he and I were in the same classes for the first half or so of school, and had met up a few times during the Christmas get-together at the bar back home. We had kept in contact online and he had even offered me a place to stay, but I had already made plans with Aaron. we met up for lunch one day and grabbed some food at a local diner. Since I last saw Greg he had released from the military and was now sporting a huge red beard, suitable enough to have a spot on the TV show ‘Mountain Men’ and shaved, or lost, the curly hair I remembered him having in highschool. As we talked caught up on life and talked about all sorts of things he brought up something that is dear to him, volunteer work he does with an organization set to help soldiers with PTSD with medicinal cannabis, called Marijuana For Trauma. It’s something I also believe in and think should be more widely accepted to help out our men and women that serve us. I in turn told him about al the accounts of those who have done Jiu-Jitsu helping them deal with PTSD and the different programs I’ve seen out there for teaching soldiers to cope through Jiu-Jitsu. We both agreed, if more people did Jiu-Jitsu and smoked weed there’d be a lot less problems, and a lot more happy people in the world. Seriously though, I believe both medicinal cannabis and Jiu-Jitsu therapy can help cure, or deal with, a lot of problems we are facing today.

It was great to stay with and hang out with Aaron and Danielle, thanks to much for taking care of me, feeding and even giving me drives around town! Also, thanks Greg for the pizza, it was great to catch up with you, too. Until next time guys!    


The Snow Storm..

the snow storm. I tried going for pizza. I make it to the corner store. what you don’t see is the tractor clearing out the intersection of snow 30 feet away from me. The lights were green, but no one could see, luckily no one was driving either.

As I was staying in Fredericton at Aaron and Danielle’s word that a huge snow storm was coming in was going around, and each day was dumping a lot of snow, but intermittently, and it wasn’t quite enough to stop me from training (Thanks Aaron for the rides!), or my bus to Moncton, although we were an hour late. But once I got to Moncton the snow came down hard! I believe it was a total of more than 8 feet of snow that dropped in a period of 24 hours. The entire east coast of Canada was shut down, businesses were closed, and I was trapped in the hostel I was staying in. With the weather as bad as it was I was unable to train at all, in fact this section will cover my stay in Moncton, which is why I grouped it in with Fredericton. Other than a run through the blizzard to the corner store I only made it out once while visiting the town, I walked to the movie theater and watched Lego Batman and John Wick 2, both were great movies and well worth the long walk, but it would have been nice to train as well.  

Chocolate river. It’s level with the top during high tide, right now it just looks like a icy muddy pit.

The hostel I was staying in was pretty nice and cozy, feeling more like a bed and breakfast. It was a big house turned into a hostel, with one co-ed room of 8 bunks. There were 2 guys who were staying long term, paying rent, and an Vietnamese woman, Mary, who was from Vancouver and had a boyfriend who trained BJJ, we talked on Skype once for a few minutes once to see which friends we had in common, showing that the world is indeed a small one. Mary was only staying a short while and was on her way to Vietnam to see her parents, and her flight left just before the blizzard hit us, lucky for her. She had a book, like a diary, but filled with all the places she’d been to, travel brochures and local currency taped to the pages and notes about getting around or ways to save money or sights to see for each place. It was a pretty awesome book to look through. She had been to Tokyo before and we talked about how great it was and what sights we each had seen. It was a fun time of conversing with other hostelers and and backpackers.

The hostel staff having fun with the weather. 

Through this conversation I told the guys of my blog and my journey so far and intentions for Europe and Asia. I guess there is a journalist for a local paper that likes to come by and cover stories of the interesting people that stop by at the hostel, one of the guys had told her about me and my journey, she wanted to do an article on me and interview me for the paper. I never heard from her again before I left, I figured the storm put a stop to our intended interview, oh well, it would have been cool but I guess it’ll have to wait for another time. Luckily the roads were cleared in time for my bus to Halifax, and only one destination was ruined.

The snowbank behind me is actually over 7 feet tall. When I got into the town in Moncton it was barely up to me knees. That’s a lot of snow in 3 days!

Synergy BJJ

Back when I was training in Quebec while I was on course for work for a month last year I posted about my experiences training at BJJ Quebec with Prof. Louis Berube. I got some responses on Reddit telling to check out some other BTT clubs in Canada and Synergy BJJ in Fredericton New Brunswick was one of them. Another one was Victory BJJ in Moncton but the snow storm cancelled that visit. I e-mailed the club soon after getting the referral on Reddit and talked to Melyssa about dropping by, which was no problem, and we kept in contact as I planned out the Canadian Odyssey.

The brave few that made it out to class on a snowy night. 

The first night I made it out to the club neither Melyssa or Dana, the head instructor, were in for class but I did get to meet a few members of the club, who were all welcoming, during the no gi class. The next night both Dana and Melyssa were there and I was able to introduce myself and thank them for welcoming me. Dana seemed genuinely interested in my blog and journey and had even been reading it before class, unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time to talk about it and never found time to set up an interview. The club is in a gym, but it’s not your usual gym, it’s a dynamic conditioning center, or cross fit gym if you will, what ever you call it it was a great training atmosphere. There was a stretch of fake grass for pulling sleds and flipping tires, squat racks and other equipment on either side, with the mat space being in the back corner. Each time I showed up to class there would be music blaring and people working away at all the stations of the gym, they had a good set of dedicated gym rats, but every night, at 8pm I think it was, everyone would suddenly be done working out and leave, with the Jiu-Jitsu club being the only ones left in the gym.

No gi class getting some rolls in.

Classes were welcoming and casual at Synergy, we started with some warm up drills then moved into techniques, adding to a chain of moves as the night went on. I wasn’t able to do everything as I had hurt my elbow when in Quebec, so using my one arm was quite restricted for most my time there, I only rolled one night and quickly regretted it the next day, remembering to let me body rest and heal and take days off is going to be the biggest and hardest thing for me to deal with while on this Odyssey. One the bright side I for the first time ever was able to do a set of berimbolos between a standing partner’s legs, it was during warm up one night, they took to time to get me to learn the proper movements and get them down right. Now you can be thinking “That’s not a big deal” or “Who can’t do berimbolos at 4 strip blue belt?!” or even “Who cares about berimbolos?!” I could go on about not caring for them because it doesn’t fit into my game style or what ever but really I’ve always had problems with them because of my shape, apparently being round makes rolling upside down harder, and so I never really cared for them. I will say though, weather for the use of berimbolos or not, they are great for drilling to really get to learn body movement, and because that class I feel I have a higher sense of my body movement, or lack of in some cases.

Dana Teaching class.

One class Dana decided to put us on Facebook live and gave me a mini interview so I could make a shout out for the blog and the journey, It was a fun ‘Panda Sighting’ to make on the spot, which is what I’ve been calling any pictures or videos of me showing up on other club’s or people’s social media accounts while on the Odyssey. I have the feeling there are going to be a lot more ‘Panda Sightings’ in the future. In fact if you have videos or pictures of me visiting your club let me know, I have a Dropbox folder to collect all the ‘Panda Sightings’ once I get a bunch I’ll see about putting together a photo album on the site.

After having fun hanging out with old friends and making new ones at Synergy BJJ…and then get stuck in a blizzard in Moncton…it was time to Head to Hailifax Nova Scotia and meet up with another old friend of mine Michael McCoag, who I met when I first joined the Canadian Navy and hadn’t seen in 5 yrs.

It’s either an At-St walker and the rebel base on Hoth is being attacked by the Empire, or it’s a wind mill and I’m on my way to the east coast on a snowy day. 

Until next time, see you on the mats!

OSSS!!!

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Heart of N’djamena

/in /by

 Part Two: N’djamena Has Heart

Meet Basile. Basile is an approximately 6’2″/ 188cm tall 220lb / 100kg Judo black belt with 1o years of combined Judo and Wrestling experience. I stand at a staggering 5’8″ / 172 cm and 170lb / 77kg after leaving a buffet and I’m about to introduce Basile to BJJ. I haven’t trained or competed in several months so admittedly I’m a tad intimidated. If Basile is able to just rag-doll me then myself and BJJ might lose our credibility. In most of the world these days it’s universally accepted that BJJ is a highly effective martial art. However, In many place of Africa it’s a different story. Without practitioners and limited media this is much of a ‘that won’t work on me’ mentality that existed when people first saw Brazilians turning people into pretzels. Just two days after finding INJS I was meeting Basile accompanied again by Doug and Zabra. We’re meeting at the modest gym that he does fitness personal training and I’m hoping we’re able to do some training there. The small gym is near what could be considered downtown just off a bumpy dirt road. It even has a bayside view of a well littered river. The gym itself is clean with realistic paintings of fitness specimen on the walls. Basile’s English is good and he invites me into his training room which is scattered with workout equipment. Much to my surprise there is a hefty stack of worn mats in the corner. The Judo Federation has done well for Tchad. Basile agrees to do some training and I set out mats as he finished with a client. Zabra joins in and we do a introductory no gi class. Basile has an idea of what BJJ is but this is Zabras first time with grappling. I teach seminar style showing what makes BJJ different from Judo and other martial arts emphasizing the guard and submissions. We successfully do some live guard passing / retention drills and finish with a few rolls. Basile and I had some great rolls! My previous worries were unwarranted as I was able to submit him several times using efficient technique over strength. He was intrigued and both Basile and Zabra were on board to continue learning. We scheduled a time to begin N’djamena’s first BJJ class within a couple days


(post training pic taken with my phone that has the same camera quality as a toaster) 

I arrive at INJS ready to teach. I have a pretty solid idea to run through warm ups, basic fundamentals of an armbar from guard and passing the closed guard, live drills, and finish with a couple rolls. Unfortunately, INJS had other plans. I come in to see the familiar boxing and TKD classes going on and find Basile is there with bad news. The Chadian national Judo team is scheduled to train at the same time we had planned. Fortunately, the coaches agreed to allow us a shorter time to use the mats before they kick us off. I meet and greet everyone the has come to see what this weird new martial art in Tchad is. Thanks to Zabra’s social media skills, there is a pretty good turn out of 6 Africans that have come to join. Once the mats are ours I quickly get started to begin the condensed version of my lesson plan. Warm ups are simple with the added confused faces at the sight of a ‘shrimp’ movement. I explain in as few words as possible and demonstrate the techniques. Having Basile help translate is invaluable although I’m still not sure how much is lost in translation. I enjoy watching everyone smiling and struggling to get the moves down. I found that it’s almost impossible to correct mistakes without physically moving their bodies into the right spot and saying “Ici” here in French. Then, “Ceva” good. That’s about the extent of my French but it works and eventually everyone is armbarring or tapping. We’re able to just get a few minutes of live drilling before our time is up. The group is very physically strong and it’s difficult to explain how they need to use 50% of their energy or strength to properly learn so most of the drill is a lot of flopping around. The young Judo team trickle in and gaze at the fiasco as if there were gazelles playing soccer in the room. After we finish, I consider it a success and thank everyone for coming and set up the next training date. While packing to leave Basile informs me that the Judo professor would like to invite me to teach ‘newaza’ or Judo ground game to the Chadian National Judo Team. I’m thrilled to accept! 

I arrive again at INJS with Gi in bag and mind racing with info from all the youtube vids I used to try to figure out what works in Judo. When the class is ready to begin I Gi up and feel awkward in my BJJ blue belt at a Judo class. Basile eases my suffering by explaining to the team who I am and why I’m there and letting me know that after warm ups I’ll lead the class. I’m going to show some submissions and details of kesa-gatame  I work through the techniques with Basile on the side so he has an understanding of how to translate. The class is about 14 students from varying ages from about 10 to 17. As I teach the class is very respectful and responsive. We go through the series slowly to emphasize the importance of the small details. There are several very experienced students and I move around the room working with everyone a bit. Some of the students had good English and many questions. After we finish the successful instruction the Judo professor Najitan Koumninga takes back control of the class for a cool down and the bow out. I stand on the side with Basile and participate in the ending respects which are much longer than any I’ve had in all the BJJ schools I’ve trained at. It really hits me as this is going on how much discipline these kids are learning here and what that kind of structure will do for their future. I feel very proud at this moment to be a part of this Lionheart Initiative project to help spread these kind of qualities to Africa. I’m given a chance to speak to the class and I keep it short just saying how honored I am to be invited to teach them and I really hope that my BJJ will be able to help their Judo. 

As this has been happening I’ve also been preparing for a trip to Dakar, Senegal to meet my KOA Team coming all the way from Virgina, USA to teach BJJ in seminars and run the Dakar open tournament for the competitors there as they’ve been doing every year since 2013. My next story will be of that amazing adventure!

Nicaragua, The hidden sensei in San Juan del Sur

/in /by

After my incredible week in El Salvador I flew over to Nicaragua to truly start my backpacking experience. No safety net from a pre-paid organized camp where I don’t have to think about anything except enjoy. I had already did some research online about BJJ in Nicaragua and found out that there wasn’t much of it. I do admit that I did not ask anybody in the Globetrotters community for tips on it and I kinda decided that my Nicaragua trip was gonna be mainly touristy. While staying my one night in Managua, not really an interesting city I did see 2 MMA gyms with probably some BJJ but didn’t have time to investigate further.

Met some great people along the way.

Did a photoshoot in a middle of a lake.

So I spent about 2 weeks in Nicaragua, I enjoyed my stay there to the fullest, touristing around and travelling with other backpackers and for my last weekend I had worked my way down south to a town called San Juan del Sur, close to the border of Costa Rica. I planned to stay there only 2 nights.

So now I was already missing BJJ so much that I wanted to head straight into Costa Rica and train. One night while planning there was someone who commented on my status in the Globetrotters Facebook group talking about BJJ in Nicaragua and that there was this guy called Jacked Jitsu on Fb coaching in San Juan. I was leaving the next day and already planned everything from that, checked out his Fb but left it at that.

San Juan del Sur, surfing and party town.

That day I go surfing, saw this guy with a Yin&yang tattoo that looks so familiar. Came back to the hostel looked up Jacked Jitsu and what do you know that was him! Now I’m too curious and I have to stay one more night and check out his training. Shot him a pm and got an open invitation.

So next day I show up there and this super buff guy, the trainer, real name Eric, that greats me and we talk for a bit and I realise that this guy knows his stuff. The training confirmed that, he was one of the best guys I’ve seen! We rolled, he stayed passive until he apparently got bored and submitted me. These two other people join late in the training and are both black belts staying at Eric house and helping him train for the worlds. I roll with the woman, Cindy, Gracie black belt if I understood it correctly. She had such an unique style to her and it was an awesome roll. Showed me her signature sweep that I already started using in my game.

To make this long story short, that surprise training was one of the best ones I’ve done and I’m so happy that I decided to go for it! Really teaches you to grap the opportunities that come your way and don’t be to fixed in what you are doing.

ps. My phone/camera was out of battery and I was without a charger for 2 days. So I completely failed on pictures from that gym.