We can hardly believe 2019 has mere hours left on the clock. It’s been a whirlwind, from the lead-up to our opening on May 1 to the final classes on New Year’s Eve (still coming tonight).
This is more than a jiu-jitsu academy to us. It’s our living room, a place where we get together with our chosen community to train, improve our lives, and have a blast. The great Marcelo Garcia once said that he’d never claim to be the best ever, but he would say that nobody loves jiu-jitsu more than he does.
Nobody loves doing this more than we do, and if you look back on some of these memories, you’ll see why. Let’s start with …
1. Moving Day / Our first classes
Opening the new spot was a scramble, and a bunch of folks pitched in. Better yet, we had people showing up to train before we were open or even had mats taped down. Talk about enthusiastic. The whole process was a labor of love, right up until we did our ceremonial first breakfalls on the new mat cover.
2. First tournament in Canada as a squad
Before we even had the mat cover down, folks wanted to compete. We had competitors do one-off matches, but the first trip we did as a squad was up in fair Canada. We won some, lost some, and most importantly, learned a lot while having a blast.
3. First Intro to BJJ and Women & non-binary self defense classes
Introducing new people to jiu-jitsu is our shared passion, so these first efforts were close to our collective heart. Firsts are always fun, but it’s also cool that the Intro program has become a regular staple. We’ll be offering it monthly starting in March!
4. Felicia Oh visit
BJJ is cool in many respects, and one of those respects is that you can train with your heroes and legends of the art. Being on the mat with Felicia Oh, one of the best competitors ever (and one of the first 12 women outside of Brazil to earn a black belt) was outstanding. Can’t wait for Felicia to come back!
5. Dominyka Obelenyte visit
More than just a seminar, a visit from Dom means great times along with the great techniques. We took a Ghost Tour of downtown with the Good Time Girls, and got a visit from the Unicorn Jiu-Jitsu PDX squad. (By the way, if you’re in Portland, Dom is teaching a seminar at Unicorn with Prof. Hillary and crew … and you shouldn’t miss that in January 2020).
Aside from being a four-time black belt world champion, Dom is also one of the coolest people ever. We try to bring in folks who have amazing jiu-jitsu and are also just generally amazing.
6. Art walk
Speaking of artists, we opened our doors for the Downtown Art Walk! We showed work by some of our in-house artists, including Chris, Clint, Jess and Karen. Many of the visitors who wanted to sip wine while looking at the beautiful drawings, paintings, wood cuts, and photographs were baffled at the humans grappling in pajamas nearby … but that’s just the way we like it.
7. Pete McGregor visit
Pete, like the Wu-Tang Clan, is no one to [mess] with. The mighty Deadweight came out for a teaching trip and a training trip, and several of us are using the Vegan Hook to this day. Pete has some serious goals he’s looking to accomplish in 2020, and we can’t wait to see him again.
8. Jeff Glover
Renowned American jiu-jitsu artist Jeff Glover was our first big seminar!
9. Bill Jones’ visit and workshop
The weekend Bill Jones spent with us was a masters’ class in survival and escapes — as well as witty banter.
10. First belt promotions and trains
Jeff’s instructor, Seth Shamp, visited — and we awarded our first belts in the new location!
11. Radji Bryson-Barrett workshop
One of the smoothest guard games we’ve seen belongs to Radji Bryson-Barrett, and he showed us some wizard tricks with staying power. We always work to bring in good instructors — and good people — that can help us improve.
12. Seph Smith seminar
We got a bonus from Seph Smith when he taught some gi and no-gi classes for us around his seminar — and rolled with a ton of us. Our guard games leveled up for sure.
13. The Super-Soft Birthday Party
Dave and Betsy’s dual July birthdays led to the first of our quarterly academy parties — the Super Soft Birthday party. (Letterkenny viewers understand). Not just grappling, food and drink, we had a super-soft scavenger hunt around Bellingham as well.
14. Cody Maltais guillotine seminar
If you’ve been guillotined lately, this might not be one of your favorite events — because this seminar got a ton of us excited about the guillotine system that Elevate MMA’s Cody Maltais uses.
15. Halloween! Plus fall party
Grappling plus costumes really hits the sweet spot for all of us. Not only did we see some pretty incredible outfits (and backflips), we had a pumpkin-carving fiesta for everyone. Jiu-jitsu, Halloween, costumes, food, and friends — what’s not to like?
16. We win the People’s Choice Scepter Award
This was a major highlight for us, since we’ve always believed that a jiu-jitsu academy could anchor a downtown space. We love being downtown and participating in local life, in supporting other local small businesses, and in being a part of the thriving community. This really cemented that.
17. Proving Grounds
Tournaments are a great way to test your skills and improve your game, and a small but dedicated crew — some of them first time competitors — headed down to Proving Grounds. It’s always exciting to watch folks’ hard work pay off.
18. Our first Street Clothes class
We mentioned earlier that costumes and grappling go together like a collar choke and a scissor sweep: our Friday daytime class runs gi and nogi on alternating weeks, and on the FIFTH week of the month, it’s a street clothes class. Our first street clothes class was a huge hit, and the outfits were great!
19. Winter hiphopluck
Our third seasonal party this year was a Hiphopluck — a potluck with dishes themed around hip hop. We had some incredible, creative efforts and a ton of folks stopped by. We’ll definitely be doing this again … and we’re looking for ideas for our SPRING party.
We were only open for 7 months of 2019, but it was still a memorable and meaningful year. And 2020 is already shaping up to be even better, with guests like Jake Whitfield, Dave Camarillo, Robson Moura and Chris Haueter slated to join us … along with some surprises we can’t wait to share.
Thanks for sharing the year with us. Can’t wait to see y’all in 2020.
Dave,
I miss you brother! Washington DC is less without you. I’m stoked that your team is doing so well! Hit me up.
-Blake