Melbourne Australia: BJJ Central

Greetings From Melbourne Australia (8-14 Nov 2017)!

Moving from Geelong to Melbourne was the fastest and easiest travel between two stops on the Odyssey, it was literally just an hour or so train ride to downtown Melbourne, Geelong is really just next to Melbourne after all. This stop was my first time staying in a hostel in Australia, which I can say looking back I'm not a fan of them overall, but I'll get into that shortly. I made my to the hostel, checked in and found my room without any problem after getting used to the transit system and finding my bearings. I had to quickly find my way around downtown and the area surrounding the hostel as when I checked in my one and only pair of shorts I've had since Paris decided to blowout and ripped practically in two. I bent over to pick up my bags after checking in and, in front of a packed lobby, my shorts ripped open showing off my ass to everyone, good thing I was wearing underwear that day. Finding my bed I dropped my bags off and changed into something that didn't leave my ass hanging out and headed out to find a clothing store. While searching for a new pair of shorts, which I found easy enough, I was able scout out various interesting places to eat and stores of interest. This ended up actually being a really good turn of events since I later realized there was no way of being able to use the kitchen during my stay if I wanted to also make the class times.

As I mentioned before I did enjoy staying at the hostels in Australia. This stop was one of only two places I stayed at a hostel in Australia but I have heard that what I experienced is similar all or most of the hostels there. I had no problem with the bed or the room itself at this place, I was quite comfortable sleeping there, my problem is more with the kitchen. Not only could I never use the kitchen to cook but there was no space in the fridges to keep any food either. The reason for this is that in Australia getting temporary work visa is apparently easy, or a lot of work places seem to be lax for paperwork. I overheard people talking about spending a weekend to pick up a white card to work general labour but nothing about getting a work visa, in fact a few even said it wasn't needed. So the hostels are packed with people all working, mostly illegally, living and eating in packs together taking over the entire kitchen space as if it's their own place. I was unable to cook or keep food in either hostel and I don't think anyone staying there for a short stay was either. I was forced to eat out the whole time and I went really over budget because of this. At least Australia is beautiful and has awesome Jiu-Jitsu. 

The Sights 

I got shown a lot of Melbourne outside the downtown area one night when I met up with Ian, a purple belt I met on the Globetrotters Facebook group and kept in contact for my visit to Melbourne. We met up to train a few times during my stay and both times Ian told me about the history of Melbourne and the area. My favourite thing about Australia, besides the amazing beaches, is the Australian Football League (AFL) and Melbourne is a big AFL city. Each district of Melbourne has it's own team and they're huge fans, it changes the feeling of each area, especially when one of them won the Championships recently. Think of being in New York and walking through Yankees territory who just won and crossing the street into Mets territory who just lost, and there's six teams in this same city. Driving around with Ian explaining all this to me was awesome, I wish I had pictures of the different team banners and signs in restaurants and bar windows.

Melbourne Old Gaol, where infamous Ned Kelly was hung.

Other than checking out another big botanical garden again I did some walking around to some of the different monuments and historical buildings. Here are some pictures of Melbourne and a video I made. You can also check out all my pictures of this and all my other stops over on my Flickr Account. 

Royal exhibition Building

During my stay in Melbourne Remembrance Day occurred, I almost forgot as there wasn't much posted for it in the city, not like back in Canada where we sell poppies everywhere and have posters for the various services in the cities. In Australia Remembrance Day seems a smaller affair with Anzac Day being the bigger occasion. As it happens the day I was out sight seeing and filming was Remembrance Day, as you saw above I caught a bit of the service at the Shrine of Remembrance which is greatest monument honouring their fallen I've seen so far in my travels.

Clifton Hill BJJ

Melbourne is the Jiu-Jitsu central of Australia, there are many great gyms in the big city and I tried visiting as many as possible. Ian trains at Clifton Hill BJJ which is held in the Collingwood sports center, which closer to the Carlton Football team than Collingwood's but who am I argue names. I arrived by train and with Ian's directions I found the center without problems. I was a bit early so I was confused where the classes were held as there was no signs for it and when I looked inside there were no mats. One by one people showed up, greeted me and then started pulling puzzle mats out of the storage room. In no time the hardwood gym floor was matted and the class was warming up. By the time Ian showed up I had already meet Chris, the black belt and head instructor, who introduced me to everyone else.

I think we trained for 2 hours that night, I know we had a full hour of drilling before rolling and we rolled for a while. The gym really made me feel welcome, they're not a big club but they're all very kind and open people and most of them travel a lot themselves so we had all sorts of stories to share. Chris especially had a lot of stories. I can't remember what exactly we drilled in class but I do remember sharing some little details with Chris who showed me an awesome quick shoulder lock from mount that surprised the hell out of me when he suddenly threw it on. It was great, however brief, meeting the Clifton Hill gym and training with them. Thanks for making me feel welcome, the fun chats and the cool sneaky move you taught me Chris!

Thanks again Ian!

Melbourne Budo Academy/Jean Jacques Machado BJJ Melbourne

I'm glad I was able to meet up with Ian, who not only brought me out to this gym and showed me around but to also brought me another place for open mat, Jean Jacques BJJ Melbourne. The gym is in a dojo, the Melbourne Budo Academy, which holds other classes.  The dojo is a big open square space with tatami mats and classical dojo tapestries and weapon racks on the walls. I got dressed and started warming up as Ian introduced me to everyone, they seemed welcoming enough, if a bit quiet, I figured maybe it was the traditional martial arts influence creeping into the Jiu-Jitsu culture. Either way we had fun rolling with each other.

It was a small group that showed up but everyone was there to drill and roll. The head instructor Jon wasn't at the open mat but Ben was, a very skilled purple belt who I believe recently received his brown belt, and he totally destroyed me. I'm glad he has his brown belt now, I'm sure it won't be long before his black belt either. Ian and I had a good 10-15 minute roll of just flowing back and forth and working on moving and defending, trying new things and seeing where it went. It was lots of fun, Ian isn't just a great host showing me around and bringing me out to the gyms but also a great partner to train with. Thanks Ian for everything, you really made this stop a blast!

Ben the killer

Academy BJJ

Academy BJJ was a last minute addition to this visit. A friend from the UK, Can (Jon) contacted me connected me to a former student of his that is now living and training in Melbourne, small world! I wasn't able to meet up with the student as our schedules didn't match up but I did make it out to class to meet and train with the gym. The gym is was easy to find with it being on the ground floor and big signage, as soon as I walked into the gym I met Prof. Dan the head instructor who greeted me openly and welcomed me into his club. I showed up early so while the white belt class was running I watched and spoke with Prof. Dan about the Odyssey between his teaching points to the class. The night I came out to class isn't a big night for senior belts so most of the class were white belts, which was actually good for me because not only was I tired from the hectic schedule but that meant I can just follow along and work on refining fundamentals without the fear of being tested and crushed by senior belts. In all seriousness it was nice training at Academy BJJ with Prof. Dan's students, we worked guard passing and retention concepts for different open guards I worked with some senior white and blue belts on their game for passing, I think there was a competition coming up. I felt welcomed and comfortable and would love to visit them again one day.

Thanks for having me at your gym Prof. Dan

De Been 100% Jiu-Jitsu

Another gym I checked out while I was in Melbourne was De Been 100% Jiu-Jitsu. I found them on the Free Rollers site list of affiliate gyms that welcome visitors. I was only able to make it out to the noon time class, I think it was the same day I went to the evening class at Academy BJJ, hitting five gyms in one visit while also sight seeing meant some busy days. The gym is in an upstairs space, with the mat area is a long rectangular room, separate from the rest of the gym. The space is really nice, it's too bad I could only make it out to lunch time class where only a few people come out instead the busy evening classes, either way I had a fun time. As there were only four or five of us we just went over one technique, I believe it was working De La Riva guard, or spider guard, retaining and passing drills. After the drilling for a short while we got to rolling round robin, I'm pretty sure I rolled with everyone at least twice before we ended the session. I wish I could say more but I didn't connect with anyone online before dropping by like usual and I have no pics from this visit so I'm pretty empty handed other than my memories of having fun training and chatting with the small group who showed up. I know it doesn't make for a great story to share but it was a good time none the less.

Absolute MMA

The last gym I checked out on this visit I had already been to before, Absolute MMA St Kilda held a seminar the week before and I attended with guys from Geelong. It was an awesome experience and I'm glad I did it as that was the only time I was able to meet Craig Jones, Kit Dale and Lachlan Giles as none of them were around for the only class I attended. Well, Craig Jones was hanging out in class but he wasn't teaching or training as he was taking off right after for his trip to USA to compete in EBI and hold some seminars. Instead another instructor named Lachlan, who is a celebrated competitor, was teaching the morning class. This class was the only one I was able to show up to, I had plans to return for the evening classes but ended up oversleeping on a badly planned afternoon nap. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body and go with the flow and rest.

Anyways, I showed to Absolute MMA for the morning class, it's an impressive space with two sizable mat spaces, one with heavy bags, and a weights area for conditioning. The BJJ classes are held in the larger back mat space. I got changed and, with permission of the instructor, set up my GoPro before class to capture the training session. During class we focused on guard breaking and passing then added more details and more moves to the sequence. After drilling we got into positional rolling in a 'King of the Mat' format. Pass or sweep, winner stays on the mat and loser goes back in line. A universal favourite drill among Jiu-Jitsu gyms. Of course positional rolling then turned to free rolling rounds that went pretty much until no one could roll anymore. It was a great time, I had some good matches and fun conversations along the sidelines. I wish I could have come back for more but there's always next time.

This is actually from the seminar the week before but I figured I'd re-post it here.

Here's a video of my time training at Absolute MMA below, if it doesn't load or if you want to see all my other videos head over to the Panda's Odyssey YouTube channel, while you're there please show some love, like, share, comment and subscribe!

After a really busy and way too short visit I was off to my next visit where I got to see more sun, beach and of course Jiu-Jitsu, Sydney!

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

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
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

Adelaide & Geelong Australia: BJJ &...Gardens?

Greetings From Adelaide and Geelong Australia (Oct 28- Nov 8 2017)!

I left Perth and flew to Adelaide quite uneventfully. The directions I had to get to where I was staying in Adelaide were quite concise and easy to follow. I was on my own in Adelaide, having picked up a room with AirBnB. I had credit to use up that I had been saving ever since the problem in Heidelberg/Mannheim where AirBnB froze my account inexplicably and took their time to unfreeze it, causing me to miss out on the perfect place and costing me a lot more for the visit. I had been holding on to it for Australia, I heard places aren't cheap so having credit for a free stay I might as well use it here. I rented a room from a quiet Asian couple who were very kind but with our different schedules we didn't see much of each other. The place was in a quiet neighborhood away from downtown but close enough to make it easy to get around, finally having my own room in a quiet setting was bliss and I managed to finally catch up on some much needed rest from the past crazy weeks.

Geelong was a different story. The flight into Melbourne and bus out to Geelong was easy enough, well actually getting to Geelong was a bit tricky but luckily I had help. Instead of a hostel or AirBnB this time around I was staying with Globetrotters who were fans of my stories, Jeremy and Annie. I although I had some time to myself to wander and see the city I was mostly just following Jeremy on his plans to visit different nearby gyms with me. It was an awesome time being taken care of so well by them and having a blast sharing stories and training together. While I was visiting Geelong Jeremy and I and a bunch of guys from another gym all piled into a van and heading into Melbourne for a seminar at Absolute MMA, but I'll get into that story later.

The Sights & The Gardens

One thing that I noticed most all the cities in Australia has is a botanical garden, which kind of stand out given the beach setting on the coast or desert like scenery outside the city. In places like Adelaide and Geelong where there's not a lot of tourism set up in terms of tours or attractions spending my time walking around these gardens seemed the best way to get out and relax. I guess you could say these stops really put the use the whole warrior and gardener mindset into action. I had some great meditative days. In a park in Adelaide there was a Japanese Zen garden, The Himeji Gardens, that was gifted by Adelaide's sister city Himeji. I spent the afternoon slowly walking around this place enjoying the pond and different plant arrangements and the perfectly raked rock gardens.

Geelong's larger Botanical Gardens in Eastern Park was quite the walk with all sorts of trees, plants and flowers displayed from from all over the world. One minute you're walking through a miniature desert looking at cacti and the next you're in a flower bed of roses and other exotic colourful flowers. It's one of the oldest botanical gardens in Australia and is really interesting to walk around, I'm glad I made it out.

Trinity MMA

As I said earlier I was enjoying the rest at my nice and quiet AirBnB in Adelaide and actually end up skipping a few training sessions. One place I did make it out to though was Trinity MMA to finally meet up with Dan Dwyer. I met Dan in the Globetrotters group, connected by my good man Luke, and we kept in contact while I planned out my visit, helping me look for a place to stay and figuring out the gym schedules. Making my way out for the open mat to meet a few of the gym members and finally meet Dan was a great time, if a short lived one. Looking back I wish I was able to make it out to a full class or visit the other gyms Dan gave me information on but having some down time to rest was probably the better decision in the long run. Anyways, I took the Adelaide city buses across town to where Trinity MMA is set up, the gym space was upstairs, an all matted floor with an MMA cage off to the side.

There were a few people already around training, being 'a friend of Dan's' was good enough for them and I started to get changed and warm up. Dan hadn't shown up yet so I made friends with the guys while waiting. Amongst the cool people I met there was Brodie, who at the time was a keen white belt, now a blue belt, who also liked to travel. Brodie gave me some great tips for Japan and it's been fun watching his updates on competing this past year. It's too bad we couldn't meet up in Japan but we had fun training and chatting when I visited. Dan finally showed up on the mats and we had some good rolls, he helped introduce me to everyone I hadn't meet yet and tell them about my travels. The group were very welcoming, every Australian I've met loves to travel so sharing stories of backpacking is was a good time and the easy going attitude of Australia makes you feel at home both on and off the mats. Training with the gym was a good time, we had some good hard rolls and some great knowledge shared on the mats as well. Like I said, I wish I was able to come out to a full class another night to meet more of the gym. Thanks Dan for inviting me out!

DC Jiu-Jitsu

In Geelong Jeremy brought me out to the gym he trains at, DC Jiu-Jitsu where I met Prof. Dan Cherubin, a big guy who has been training in BJJ for a long time, one of the first Black Belts in Australia and the highest ranked Australian under Master Ricardo De La Riva. It was a blast talking to him and hearing all the knowledge and history of the art. Training there for one day wasn't enough but it was unfortunately all we could fit in with the seminar and visiting other gyms in my short stay. The gym is a big square space with the mat space in the middle and there being a low wall around it. Change rooms were in the the back and there was another small space for warming up or other classes back there too.

The class was big and I didn't have much time introducing myself to them, talking a lot with Prof. Dan and Jeremy. The few I did talk to while training were nice enough to me visiting and I had a good time training and rolling. There was a portion of the class where we fought from positions, getting out of side control, that my partner and I probably were rolling a little more stiff than we were supposed to, but all in good fun, beating each other up is how you make friends. Prof. Dan taught a class that was all about the crucifix and all the small details for keeping control from each option the opponent has for defense. I never knew how technical the crucifix actually was, I mean I knew how deadly a position it is especially for MMA but all the fine details for controlling your opponent, particularly the arm you catch with your legs, was eye opening. I've forgotten a lot of the details Prof. Dan taught that night but any time I'm in a potential crucifix position, like from turtle, I always have a few of the things he taught that day flash through my head. I'd like to think it's helped with defending being in a crucifix but that would be a lie, it would be better described as knowing exactly what I'm caught in and when to tap.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it back to Dc Jiu-Jitsu for another class, I had hoped to do an video with Prof. Dan but with all the over things going on and places to see it never happened. I did thoroughly enjoy myself training there however and hope to make it back one day, thank you Prof. Dan for having me!

Sub MMA

Jeremy also brought me out to Sub MMA, a gym that was working on their new space when I visited them. There was no sign up yet and the front still under renovations but the mats were all down and on the walls so the important part was ready. I met Jamie there, the gym owner and coach, hes' a great guy and very friendly, just a few words to tell him who I am and next I knew I was family. The training area was a square space with blue and black mats with the walls matted as well, the guys were already training in there when we got there, doing kickboxing or MMA, so the place was already hot and sweaty. Warm up and training only make it worse, these guys really put in the work. The gym is entirely no gi, more set up for MMA or submission wrestling, I imagine with all the news Craig Jones was making at the time no gi was getting incredibly popular across Australia. We had some good training with lots of drilling, I can't remember the exact details of what we were drilling but I do remember having a lot of trouble shooting to try and catch up to them. I also had some good matches with a few of the guys, even got to roll with Jeremy one last time, there were some killers that could easily run circles around me and a their leg lock game was definitely more extensive. I'd like to think I did well defending.

While training at the gym we went over a little of what was covered at the seminar a few of use were lucky enough to attend in Melbourne on the weekend before. This is how I first met with Jamie and few guys from his gym. One morning Jeremy and I drove out to Jamie's and piled into a van with everyone to head to St Kilda on the far side of Melbourne. The Absolute MMA HQ was holding a seminar to collect money for Craig Jones' brother who had just injured himself. The whole day was an awesome experience, hanging out with fun people, having a road trip to Melbourne, and meeting the likes of Craig Jones, Kit Dale, Lachlan Giles and Livia Guchowska, not to mention learning awesome Jiu-Jitsu, all in one day. We left Geelong pretty early so we would be sure to have time for finding parking and get to the gym without missing anything. I think maybe we gave ourselves too much time as the gym wasn't even open when we shown up, people were waiting actually outside.

We were one of the first few people inside once the gym opened but it got busy quickly and in no time we were sitting along the wall stretching watching the instructors hang out in the middle of the mats. I have followed Kit Dale for a long time now and I've been a fan of Craig Jones since I first saw his highlights, and I had talked to Lachlan and Liv a bit online when Luke connected me to them for my visit, to meet them all in person at the same time was awesome. The seminar had six instructors each teach a short session and I loved everything they taught, even Craig Jones' crazy Z-guard to heel hook that a lot of us couldn't get. One thing I noticed about the seminar was the open camaraderie among everyone there, I know a lot of them were Absolute teammates but there was a lot of joking going on and no one there seemed too serious. It was a great first impression and I looked forward to returning during my visit to Melbourne.

Once the seminar was over we all piled back into the van and headed home, not before stopping for some KFC which is like 1000x better in Australia then back home, and all we talked about the entire time was the awesome seminar we were just a part of. Even during class a few days later we couldn't stop bringing it up. That's what going to a good seminar feels like, it's the Jiu-Jitsu equivalent of being the first in your bunch of friends that sees the newest blockbuster movie out. If there's one way to describe the guys at Sub MMA other than a friendly bunch is passionate, Jamie and his gym loves training and learning, thanks for having me guys!

Thanks again Jeremy and Annie, it was a blast hanging out with you and I'm grateful you let me come crash at your place with nothing more than a few lines in Facebook, the power of the internet and Jiu-Jitsu bringing people together. And after an all too short and busy stop meeting and making all sorts of cool friends I was off for my next adventures in Melbourne.

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

WAYS TO SUPPORT PANDA'S ODYSSEY!
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

Return to the Odyssey: Perth Australia

Greetings From Perth Australia ( 23- 28 Oct 2017)

After a lengthy detour I'm back to telling my adventures of traveling the world once again. When I last left off, before the BJJ Globetrotters camp reviews, I had met up with the Free Rollers in San Diego for a week of training and shenanigans. I followed them back to Perth Australia and we all met up at the airport. The coincidental timing that everyone got in at was uncanny, Andy got in during the day and had enough time to get home and shower and rest up before coming back and picking up Luke and myself who got in at roughly the same time but on different flights. I was tired from the long flight over but excited to finally be here in 'The Land Down Under' and I was really looking forward to training at the home gym to all the guys I just hung with in San Diego.

The guys from left to right, Zack, Reece, Charlie, Luke, Andy and myself. Xande in the middle of course. 

Originally I was supposed to stay with Luke, who runs Free Rollers and put together the whole trip to San Diego (Which he's doing it again next year in March!), but he suddenly got called into work while we were flying to Perth so I was left still trying to plan out where I'd be staying on the way there. Andy, being a stand up guy despite what all the others say, offered me a room to crash in at his place until he had to take off for work in a few days. That was awesome, a few days was all I needed to sort out things out. As it happens it ended up being a bit of bad time for everyone so I was only staying a night or two at each place. Andy's for a few, Reece and Sharaine's for a few, then Christy's, who I had just met, but more on that later. The important part is I was finally in Australia and ready to fight a kangaroo (Didn't happen and no kangaroos were harmed in the making of these adventures).

'Being Australian'

I got out to see a lot of Perth and the surrounding area, thanks Andy and Sharaine for the drives and pointing out different areas, I got no photos of these trips and actually I'm lacking pics for a lot of this visit.  One thing I do have pics of is the food I ate. During my short stay with Reece and Sharaine it was decided that since Reece was out at work Sharaine was going to show me around and have me try all the quintessential 'Australian Things' or Australian foods anyways, I had already mastered the art of wearing no socks at any time and scandals, or 'pluggers', whenever I could so I was only a mullet short of being an honorary Perthian. During my time living in Toronto I played in an AFL league and so was introduced to the greatness that is Tim Tams and salted licorice, separate of course not together, but there's tons of other candies and foods in Australia that I had never heard of before and still I haven't tried even after this trip (Fairy Bread, seriously 'straya WTF?!').

With Sharaine's help I tried out whatever I could, I had the Rocky Road Bark and Australian Licorice Allsorts, which were quite big compared to what I was used to, and she introduced me to the Golden Gaytime, which was Ok but no ice cream sandwich in my opinion. One day I tried Vegemite, did not enjoy it one bit. I also went to Hungry Jacks, the Australian Burger King which was much better than that shit toast spread but just not as good as the original back home. The all time most Australian thing I did was get sausages, or snags as they call them, at Bunning's Warehouse where every weekend they sell their 'Bunning's Snags' for charity, called a Sausage Sizzle. All in all I'd say trying these foods was a cracka of a time! (did I say that right?)

Nope!

Call it what you want, I'm always down for BBQ!

Gemina MMA

After training with the lads in San Diego for a week it was time to meet the rest of their club, and watch them try some of the techniques we picked up, and fail. As it happens all the real Alphas stayed back and waited for us at their home gym of Gemina MMA (inside joke from the trip). The gym, one of a few locations under the Gemina and Legion XIII banner, is in a warehouse space with room for a big matted space in red and black mats and a kickboxing ring in the front. First night of classes I showed up with Andy and met up with Charlie but Reece and Luke were away with work and Zack was apparently out injured from San Diego but still around to teach the kids. I can't remember the order the classes I attended while training there but one night I met both Aaron, who's the owner, BJJ black belt and Muay Thai coach, and Josephine, also a black belt and I believe the head BJJ instructor. They were both really friendly and helpful and happy to have me visiting, I felt very welcome there despite most the guys I knew not being there.

I remember having a gi class where we worked attacks from different positions. I had a smaller partner and I tried going really light with the attacks from top position and not crushing them but half the movements were new to me so it just ended up being kind of awkward for most the class. I also remember a no gi class where I just couldn't get the movement from guard pass to hip control down and Josephine was really patient trying to help me get the concept and technique working. To be honest after the week in San Diego and the long flight to Perth I was quite tired and jet lagged and learning just wasn't working for me that week. I'm thankful everyone was helpful as I fumbled through classes. At least the rolls were fun. I guess that's part of traveling, sometimes you just have off days. I know I've had many, in fact since being back home now there's been weeks where I just rest and don't bother training at all. I didn't really have that luxury moving around at the pace I was so I just had to try and work through it and get back into the swing of things on the mats. I think I did quite well all things considered. 

There was a guy whose name I forget, a blue belt, who was an absolute beast. I watched him destroy everyone before having a roll with him. I met the same fate as everyone else but the funny part was afterwards when he was very humble and shy asking me, with my traveling experience seeing world class athletes, asking me how he did and if he were to compete in a larger platform like the Australian Open or Worlds how do I think he would do. I have never met such a humble person with so much gifted ability, I'l have to check in on him once in a while because I'm sure he'll go far. I had a blast training with everyone in both the gi and no gi classes, I'll definitely have to come back and next time do it while Luke is actually home to visit. Thanks again guys for having me!

Wilkes Martial Arts

There are several BJJ clubs across Perth and the surrounding area and it seems a lot of the people there like to cross train and hit up open mats at different gyms. One day Charlie and Christy brought me to Wilkes Martial Arts in the city, until now I was mostly around the Rockingham area which is south of Perth where everyone lived so so technically this was my first and only actual time training in Perth. The gym they brought me to was a matted rectangular space which I think other martial arts also used the space for. It was no-gi and the class was very casual and relaxed, everyone seemed like good friends just meeting up to drill and roll rather than a real structured class, which seems to be the way of more modern no-gi gyms from what I've gathered lately. Anyways it was some good fun rolling with everyone and meeting some new people at another gym. It's too bad that it was a small showing so I didn't get the chance to meet and see more of the team structure to tell you about. It was still fun all the same and I greatly enjoyed training and rolling with those who did come out.

Although I don't have much for notes for this visit I will say though that it was great getting out and training no-gi with another gym. With the exception of visiting 10th Planet it was all gi training in San Diego. I am more of a gi person for training and competing and was almost completely just gi when I first started traveling. In fact any time I hit a no-gi class while traveling across Canada I would usually get the comment of "you train mostly gi, right?" after a roll because of how I moved and reacted, and usually paused and thought 'no grips now what?' I wasn't horrible in no-gi but definitely wasn't very comfortable and actually probably wouldn't have agreed to coming to this class if this was two years ago, or at least feel very anxious about it. As the Odyssey has gone on I have trained more and more in no-gi and maybe even have trained more in no-gi overall, given all the other grappling styles I've tried don't wear a gi. Anyways, being able to roll with the killers that were at Wilkes and be able at least hold my own and defend or understand where I'm getting caught was a moment of clarity in seeing the progression I at times thought maybe I wasn't making while traveling. Progression while traveling, that is another topic to cover another time.

Australian Hospitality and a Small World

Luke has been one of if not the first person to reach out to me when I first started posting about my plans to travel the world. Since then we've pretty much become brothers online and had a great time hanging out together in San Diego. I was a real shame he suddenly got called into work and wasn't around while I visited. Of course with previous plans to stay at his place it now meant I needed to find a new place to stay during the visit. As mentioned before this ended up being a bit of trouble as it seemed to be bad timing for everyone all around. Most other places I would have ended up staying at a last minute and overpriced hostel or hotel and going way over my budget for it. That doesn't seem to be the Australian way to let that happen to a guest like me. Instead the guys who I had just met a week ago were there to help me out without any hesitation.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of hanging out with the gym guys or the party at Chirsty's, so here more training pics.

I met Christy while training at Gemina, a very deadly student and good friends with the guys from the San Diego trip. She was awesome to train with and I was pretty much on the defense most the time rolling with her. After class one night a few of us went out for food, Josephine and Christy joined us and Charlie, Andy and I told them all sorts of stories about San Diego, I had a few from my own travels as well. As I mentioned I could only stay at Andy's for two nights before he had to take off for work, and with Charlie already busy working and Luke away that left Reece and Sharaine who gracefully left me stay for another few days at their place. The problem was I had one more day I needed a place to stay at before my flight to Adelaide and I was running out of options. We had only just met a few nights before but when she overheard the problem Christy offered me her spare room no problem. Christy is a hell of a good person, it saved me from looking for a last minute, and really expensive, room downtown and also meant I would be at her birthday party.

The birthday party, I knew about it and was ready for it even though I had an early morning the next day to catch my flight off to the next destination, any chance to socialize is worth taking after all. I got to Christy's early before the party started and hung out while she put the final things into place and got ready for her guests. As the night went on more and more people showed up and I tried to talk with everyone to introduce myself and meet them. I found out that not only is Christy in the Navy but the majority of their guests were too, being former Navy myself that gave me a great ice breaker with everyone. As we were talking I noticed the popular drink with everyone was the Canadian Club and Ginger Ale pre-mixed drinks, as we call them 'C.C & Ginger' back home. That somehow moved the conversation of them talking about drinking these drinks with a Canadian Navy ship while it was in town, and not just any ship but my old ship, the HMCS Ottawa! Imagine my surprise learning these newly made friends had partied with my old shipmates, and my jealously when reminded that I missed that amazing sail because I was on course that summer. Such a small world, always running into people and connections where I least expect it. Anyways, it was an awesome last night in Perth, Christy threw a great party, had a wonderful birthday and I was off early the next morning. I totally owe her, and the rest of the guys, one for helping me out at such a last minute problem.

And while everyone slept off their hangovers or were away working I quietly left Perth and headed for the next destination in Australia: Adelaide, or as the locals in Perth say 'Why the hell are you going there?!'

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

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