Kherson, Ukraine: Devotion and Hospitality

Greetings From Kherson Ukraine! (26 July - 1 August 2017)

Kherson Ukraine was not a place I would ever figure of visiting before this trip. I've never heard of the small harbour town and it's quite out of the way. When I was asked where else I was visiting when I was in Kiev I told the guys I was heading to Kherson next and they all asked the same thing, why?  Because the BJJ Globetrotter community was asking to come visit, that's why. I forget where I was, somewhere in Germany I think, and the new Globetrotters article came out featuring some new Matsurfing ads. I always read the articles and look at the new Matsurfing ads to see where there's an offer I could maybe take advantage of and plan out the Odyssey to head that way. As it happens I was just working out the details for eastern Europe at the time and I needed to figure out a stop between Kiev and Chisinau Moldova. Kherson was perfect. I sent off a message to Bogdan and we quickly put it together.

I left Kiev in the afternoon on an overnight train. The majority of people, both on the train and as staff in the train station, didn't speak any English so finding the train and my exact room and seat was a bit awkward. I had my ticket printed out at the hostel so I would have a paper copy to show them and help me out, this was very useful especially when I didn't know how long my phone would hold out on this trip. I got to the station, showed the first staff member I saw my paper and asked "Where's the train to Kherson?" he responded with "Ah, Kherson!" and ushered me to the track and handed me off to two other staff members, one brought me to the proper cart and gave me hand signals on how to find my room. I climbed into the train, which was boiling inside as there were no fans, and with my backpack taking up all of the narrow hallway I slowly and awkwardly made me way to find my seat was already taken.

The sleeping car I was supposed to have a bed in was full with a family of very big women that didn't speak any English. I showed them my ticket and they keep making signs to me to go to another room. I didn't understand what they were saying and tried showing them my ticket and pointing to the seat a few times, only to get a bunch of Ukrainian and shooing me away. I, in true Canadian fashion told them "I sorry" but I don't understand. While standing in hall waiting for a staff member to come by and hopefully sort this situation out I stood listening to the women make fun of me and laugh away repeating and mockingly saying "I'm sorry, oh I'm sorry!" I decided to ignore them. As it happens the room next to where I was supposed to be staying had an elderly couple in it and the husband spoke English. He explained to me that the women had their mother with them and she was supposed to be in the room with him but decided they would take over the room and my spot and that I should take her bed instead. In his opinion I was better off in the car with him and his wife rather than be around the, as he put it "special people". I agreed, not because of how they treated me while trying to figure out seating but because they were sweating away in the sweltering train and all smelling really bad, I couldn't imagine sleeping in that room with them.

The rest of the transit to Kherson was actually quite pleasant. I sat with the elderly couple, whose names I forget and I feel really badly about that, and the husband filled me in on all sorts of history facts and the trains and Ukraine and Russia. One interesting thing he was telling me was that certain old tracks in eastern Ukraine require the train to pull into a station, have the cart taken off the frame and attached to a new frame before continuing on. Apparently the train tracks in Russia are a different dimension than the rest of Europe. I found some more information about the different train track widths but I couldn't find any articles on switching the cars on to different frames. During the entire trip the train would stop at each station for a good half hour as we waited the the train coming in the opposite direction the pass since there was only one track. This meant the only cooling breeze to keep the heat down would stop and it would become a sweltering heat box again. Over night the loud speakers of the train stations would wake me up over and over making these stops really annoying. But it also gave time for the husband to tell me the history of the area, what soviet industry or military buildings used to be around back when he was a kid and what the stop used to be for back then instead of just picking up passengers now. It was quite the educational travel.

In the evening it was tea time and although I brought with me some snacks for the trip it was nothing like the rest of passengers, the elderly couple I was sharing the room with in particular. They pulled out all sorts of biscuits and fruits and other food and set themselves up a meal, of which they offered me a piece of every single thing they pulled out. The biscuits I could not escape, they would not have me declining trying them out, which happened to be half a dozen of each type, tea biscuit, wafer, some sort of wheat cracker, etc. There was a story for each of these as well, eating them as kids, or they were a local favourite or only made in Ukraine, it was a great experience taking this night train, meeting this couple and sitting and taking part in them sharing their food and telling their the histories. In the morning the man gave me a piece of newspaper with his name and number on it and told me if I ever needed any help to call him, I wish I had the thought to write it down in my book as I lost it and now I have this wonderful story of him and his wife without their names. What ever your name is, thank you for your help and stories and sharing your biscuits, it made the long uncomfortable train ride a great unforgettable one!       

Staying With Bogdan

Bogdan was waiting for me when the train got into the station and after meeting each other we were off to catch a bus back to his place. I was his first guest, after all I did send him a message only 2 days after the Matsurfing post was out, and although they have had other guests to the club I would be the first being hosted by him. Bogdan's English was pretty good and although he's a bit quiet, maybe even shy, he was a great host and we talked about all sorts of things the whole time. He would ask about how I promote my trip online and how to better promote the club since it's still relatively new, or how I was able to sort out being able to travel as I do. As Ukraine was in a heat wave when I showed up we hung out inside quite a bit, both being pale skinned people that burn easily, so we had a lot of time to chat about all sorts of topics. On the few times it was safe enough to go outside and not catch fire he showed me around the town, parks and waterfront. It was a great experience being in Kherson, even on the days we did little else but sit on our computers and talk. I was away from the city, away from all the tourists and tourist hot spots. When we did walk around town is was the real Ukraine I was seeing, with old soviet era buildings, not dressed up to sell to tourists. The people were different too. For one very few of them spoke English so I was grateful to have Bogdan around to help me, and the attitude was different too, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was one of the few spots I've been to that I felt I really got to experience living there.

One day Igor made me homemade Borscht to welcome me to Kherson, just another example of the hospitality.

One day Bogdan and friends of his and I took the train out of town to an area that apparently used to be a desert is is now a huge forest. After walking for half an hour or more we came to these lakes that the locals believe have magically properties. the train ride itself was an interesting adventure. It's an hour or so to get out to this field and throughout the train ride women laden with baskets full of fruits and vegetables and random trinkets they were selling would be walking up and down the train cars. At some point we saw one woman walk by arms full with bushels of vegetables then come back 15 minutes later now with jars of honey she had recently acquired. We could only guessed she traded the vegetables for the honey she was now trying to sell. It was an interesting market culture to see and made the long boring train ride a lot more entertaining. It was a grey day when we got to lakes, with the sun poking out from behind rain clouds all day, but it was nice enough to go have a refreshing swim in the salt lakes and cover ourselves in the mud. The lakes are said to have healing powers and truth be known I had a planters wart starting on my foot that miraculously vanished after this swim!

Left over Varenyky from Granny, I'm pretty sure Bogdan brought 2 plates worth home from her place.  

Another day Bogdan brought me over to 'granny's house' for supper. Supper was, as I was told, going to be Varenyky, Ukrainian dumplings (he Ukrainian version of pirogi) homemade by Granny herself. Supper actually ended up being three courses of so much food I had to bring some back to Bogdan's because I couldn't eat it all. A salad to get things started then fried ground chicken patties and sliced potatoes which in itself was meal, then finally the Verenyky which was piled high on a plate for me. After all this Bogdan asked if I wanted pancakes, pancakes?! It ends up there are many typos of pancakes and in Ukraine they make them as a dessert. I had to pass on them I was so full, which meant he brought a bunch home with us. I like to eat as much as the next Panda but trust me, you will never have an appetite big enough to take on a Ukrainian grandmother's cooking, she will tap you out every time. It was great meeting Bogdan, thank you for taking me in and showing me around and having Granny feed me, until we meet again my friend!

I should also note that all the photos I used of the club training and of us at the lakes were taken by Bodgan who's let me use them for this article, thanks for the awesome pics dude!

The Sights

As I said Kherson is a small town so I have limited pictures but here's some of us walking around through the park and seeing the monuments.

The harbourfront.

In the park they had all kinds of inflatable castles and electric toy cars. They were only for kids though...

An old Soviet communications tower, forget what it's for now, probably cell phones.

Bogdan took shots of his friend and I covered in the miracle mud at the lakes. locals would come put the mud on their joints and other areas that were bugging them convinced it would fix them, they would even fill up jar with the water and bring it home to use.

The magic lakes.

Covering myself in magic mud to make myself stronger!

As always you and can over to see my Flickr Account where I have more photos from this and all my other visits.

Skif BJJ 

The club Bogdan trains at, Skif BJJ, is one of the most devoted clubs I have met, not because they train all the time or are huge competitors, quite the opposite in fact. It's because despite being in such a secluded place without anyone to teach them they decided to start a BJJ club and learn mainly as those back in Canada first started, by watching videos and drilling what they see. The power of YouTube is what created this club and the power of the BJJ Community have helped them continue, but it's their devotion as all white belts to come together and start training and learning the slow and hard way and work together to keep the gym going. One night they asked that I teach them some things, as this was one of my first classes I taught I was still a bit at a lost for putting together a full set of techniques to show them so I was more just winging it and showing how I do certain things that they were asking about, like and Q & A session. We had a great time training together, the club isn't big enough to have separate classes from kids and adults so everyone trains together in the same class which means one minute I'll be manhandled by a huge guy and then next I'll be a climbing toy to one of the kids as he tries to get on my back and attack me with an RNC.

The club trains out of an old community center that they have a room in the top floor of, it's an old building and when I was there there were a lot of renovations being done but the club had to fix up the room they use themselves. Although I have been in more dive clubs than Skif BJJ they are far from the mural painted flashy gyms you see in the big cities boasting their affiliations or black belt professors, they are a humble club with a humble beginning. They are a group not about flash but technique and although I'm sure they will one day have their gym complete with all new mats and equipment they don't show up to take selfies and look good, they show up to train Jiu-Jitsu. Added to the fact they accept all visitors and are eager to learn from everyone they are a great place to visit for no nonsense, no ego training. Thank you guys for letting me come train with you, I look forward to watching the club evolve.

Igor and Bogdan

After class one day I managed to make an interview with Bogdan and Igor, talking about how the club got started, how long they've been training together and how they keep it going. Igor does everything he can to make ends meet and keep the club open, and it's the dedication of the rest of the club helping out that makes this club so special and able to run without any senior belts around. Bogdan is new to the sport, only a few months of training and already hooked on Jiu-Jitsu. As he says in the interview, he was a shy person until he got into BJJ and now he's offering strangers like me to come stay at his place to train with the club. It's amazing what Jiu-Jitsu has done to these guys in Kherson and a prime example of the interesting people I meet on this amazing odyssey. Thank you both for having me over into your house, gym and Jiu-Jitsu family.

If the video doesn't load for some reason you can view it on Panda's Odyssey YouTube Channel. While you're there show some love and please like, comment, share and subscribe, thanks!

After an awesome time seeing 'true' Ukraine in Kherson away from the big city of Kiev it was time to take a bus off to Moldova where I would be visiting the city of Chisinau.

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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Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
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Kiev Ukraine: Training, Sights & Food

Greetings From Kiev Ukraine! (20-26 July 2017)

My flight to Kiev from Moscow was interesting. As I mentioned in a previous post I had originally planned to visit Belarus for a few days (Canadians are included in the group eligible for the new tourist tourist Visa where you don’t need a Visa for stays less than a week in Belarus) but later saw that anyone flying from Russia, no matter their nationality would require a Visa to visit. So with that I changed my plans and headed to Kiev Ukraine instead. Here’s the thing, I had to land and catch my connecting flight in Minsk anyways, I pretty much cancelled my ticket only to re-buy it with the added connection to Kiev on it, and with landing there I had to go through their customs security check. As I get to the front of the line the officer asked me “How long are you staying here?” to which I told l her I am only connecting to a flight to Kiev. She then asks me “How much money do you have on you? Do you have enough to Stay in Minsk?” I try explaining to her that I’m not staying in Belarus, I’m not visiting Minsk, I’m connecting to another flight. This then brings up the question of a Visa, and for a second I thought she was not going to allow me to connect to my flight all because of a problem with the language barrier. She talked to another security officer and then uneasily and looking confused let me through to my connecting flight. It was a very bizarre transaction, luckily I caught my last flight without problem.

Once I landed in Kiev, or Kyiv as it’s properly spelled, I had to make my way to the hostel, this was easy enough although I did take the long way as I later found out. There is a subway system in Kyiv that works rather well, and it must be new, or at least the stop at the airport must be, as it didn’t come up on Google Maps when mapping my way from to the airport to the hostel. Instead a bus route came up that I would catch done the road from the airport. The buses in Ukraine, and a lot of the world as I have discovered on this Odyssey, aren’t as professional looking as back in Canada. Most the buses are at least painted the same but figuring out the number it is to find out where it’s going is different matter, some had it on a piece of paper taped to the upper corner of the windshield, some on a side window, some had different numbers in different colours, which I believe each meant something else. It was a bit of a learning curve but I had half an hour to wait for my bus and figured out the code looking at passing buses in time to find my route. Paying the driver was another different ordeal. There was no pay stand like in North America or Europe, with the fare written on the side and you insert the proper change and on you went, and there was no attendant walking around selling tickets like in Russia. Instead you just gave the driver a bill, I had given him too large a bill at first and he asked for a smaller one, tell him how many fares and he would count out your change and give it back to you. While driving the bus and navigating through traffic. Depending on the traffic depended on how fast or long it would take to get your fare back. I somehow managed to make it into town and got off at the proper stop, just a block away from the hostel. Once I found out about the subway train system I decided not to use the buses again during this visit though.

The Sights

There is a lot to see in Kyiv and with the hostel near central city I mostly just walked around to see everything instead of using any transit, picking different areas of the city to explore each day. Usually I would see a place on Google Maps that I wanted to go photograph, like a park or monument, and end up finding other interesting buildings on the way or around the area while exploring

The is a walkway worth finding and checking out called Landscape Alley where they have built all sorts of weird and wonderful sculptures, playground equipment and benches into all sorts of fairy-tale-like animals.

One day I ventured out to see the statue, The Motherland Monument, and surrounding park. Little did I know about The Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War, a war museum which includes a huge area of military vehicles laid out around the park, was there as well and a quick walk to the park turned into an entire afternoon and exploring and taking photos.

The Motherland Monument.

 

As I have some Ukrainian friends, and friends who just love Ukrainian food, I took photos of almost every meal I had to update my friends interested in seeing the real thing. So here’s some of the awesome Ukrainian food I had.

Varenyky - The Ukrainian version of perogies.

Chicken Kiev, seemed only I have while actually visiting Kiev.

Medovik - honey cake with expresso and sour cream sauce.

The Lion's Club

The Lion's Club Kyiv was another club I was alerted to when looking into possible destinations and asking around in the BJJ Globetrotter community. After talking online with Rashid, the head of the club and purple belt (just got his brown now, congrats!) we set up a time for me to make it out for a class. As it happens we could only meet up the one time, as seems to be the case with a lot places I visit. I took the train to the other side of town and used the directions Rashid gave me to find the club, which was in the basement of a building with a mural of Bruce Lee by the door. The club wasn’t very big, it was almost a full class with the half dozen of us on the mats. We had a good warm up and then Rashid started working sweeps with us, from De La Riva. The students, all white belts, seemed shy to open up to me but Rashid kept coming over and asking all sorts of questions about traveling and places I’ve been to, like his home of Morocco, or places I plan to visit. He is a big fan of meeting travelers as it’s really difficult to get out from Ukraine and travel right now, and with the issue with Russia it doesn’t make Ukraine for a desired place for a lot of tourists (I don’t know why the place is beautiful, the people are welcoming, food the is amazing and it’s cheap!). Rashid is a great coach as he makes sure everyone has a handle of the the technique and made sure to even help me adjust a few things for my own body size, since I don’t have the required long legs to pull off an awesome open guard game. After drilling we had some rolls, the big strong quiet white belt I had been drilling with at this point became another man once we pumped fists and grabbed me in a headlock, threw me down into scarf and put me in a muscled armbar. In maybe 30 seconds from start to end and I tapped. “Well that just happened “ I thought to myself as we re-started, I was a bit more cautious of his grip and bit more aggressive with him the second time around.

Thanks for everything Rachid!

After class we were taking pictures together and one of the guys, Yuriy, comes up asks for a photo with me. “I never thought I would meet you” he says during the photo, as it happens he had been reading about my adventures on Reddit all this time. It was pretty cool and meet up with a fan of my blog and I hope he’s still reading, thanks for following me Yuriy!` After class, Rachid and a few of the guys brought me out for food. We talked all about Jiu-Jitsu and traveling and I was asked a million questions about how I liked Ukraine and Kyiv or how it compared to the rest of Europe. I was also given a few dishes of Ukrainian food to eat, but I passed up on the Salo, or cured pig fat.

Yuriy the fan, thanks for following my adventures man!

It was a great hang out and I wish I had more time to hang with everyone but before I knew it my time had come to head off to Kherson, a small city in Ukraine with a very devoted BJJ club.

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

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
Sign up to the Panda's Odyssey Patreon Account.
Buy Panda's Odyssey Patches at The Gi Hive.
Buy a shirt at Panda's Jiu-Jitsu Store.
Follow me and other traveling Jiu-Jitsueros at the BJJ Globetrotters blog section.
Subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Check out my full photo albums for each article at my Flickr account.
Add me and follow along on most social media @pandasodyssey

The Free Rollers San Diego Camp!

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

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

Open Guard and the Free Rollers

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

Luke Docherty

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

Luke and I were happy to be on a ship again.

Free Rollers San Diego Camp

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

Andy, on the right, ended up with cauliflower ear the size of Zack's (center) little fist. I was the only one with experience draining them.

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

My 100th club, with Kurt Osiander.

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

Buffalo Wild Wings had a hot wings challenge that Charlie valiantly attempted.

Lunch at the Guahan Grill, tasty Chamorro food! That reminds me, awesome food and awesome Jiu-Jitsu, I must make it to Guam!

The ocean Cafe, amazing Acai bowls, sandwiches and protein shakes. Also the usual hang out spot for a lot of the Ribeiro guys.

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

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

The new Panda hat! 

Trump's wall, making America 'great' again...

Spent too much money, celebrating by eating too much food.

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

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

University of Jiu-Jitsu

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

Group photo with Victor, towering over us.

Finally got a picture with Gustavo on the last day. 

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

The Free Rollers and Xande.

10th Planet San Diego

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

Just so happened to have UFC fighter Jesse Taylor in class with us as well.

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

Richie is the niceist guy, totally not the scary Boogeyman we all watched on EBI.

Lucha Libre Taco shop, I would try to come here at once a month if I lived in San Diego. And I know a few people who would love to have a birthday party there.

Victory MMA

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

Getting our freeze on at Chill'N Out.

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

Fun class, Thanks Bryan and Keeling and the rest of the Victory MMA guys!

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

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

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