Ski To Sea is cool, but … have you been to GI TO SEA? Of course you haven’t. It’s the first year we’re doing it. But with a lineup like this, it won’t be the last! We’re planning a week-long art festival in just under two weeks, starting March 6, and we’re featuring tons of amazing artists (martial and otherwise)! Since Bellingham BJJ opened downtown in May 2019, we’ve brought nearly 100 amazing guest black belts to town. Now, it’s time to take it to the next level and create an annual, sustainable event that will bring folks from all Read more »

Every so often, it pays off to look up from the grind and see how far you’ve come. This is true of jiujitsu academies, but it’s also true of you on your own personal jiujitsu journey. We’ve all experienced plateaus, since this is a dynamic and challenging art that will never be fully solved. Your plateaus are always higher than your previous personal bests — but it’s hard to see that. We’ve been open five and a half years total, and we’ll celebrate our fifth anniversary downtown this May. Taking a look at some of the numbers we’ve gathered over Read more »

With competition season in full swing, let’s talk a little bit about some recent results we’re excited about, as well as what competition means (and what it doesn’t mean). Competition is very valuable for growing your jiujitsu. We train every day to improve, and if you’re training correctly, you’re testing yourself in the academy against people of all different levels and backgrounds. But going up against people who you don’t know, who do different techniques, and who are trying to earn the same medals you are, is a tremendously valuable experience — it shows you what really works and what Read more »

Great progress! As we move forward with re-opening, we have a ton of exciting things scheduled for this summer that we want to share with you — starting next week. Let’s begin with the return of … Women/NB Self Defense: Starts June 5 For six weeks on Saturdays, beginning this Saturday, we’ll be doing Self Defense Saturdays at 1 p.m. Any women or non-binary folks training at the academy are welcome to come to these classes at no extra charge. (Folks outside the academy are joining the class, too, and if you’re interested, you can sign up here). If it Read more »

On March 1, we’ll do a limited re-opening of the academy. We’re excited about this — we have some new class offerings, too — and we’re going to be extremely careful over the next month to be sure that we do our part to combat coronavirus and stay open. During the month of March, we’re going to be extremely careful — which means we’re not accepting new students at this time, at least until after April 3. We’ve consulted with local health officials to make sure that we’re meeting or exceeding their guidance on best practices. We have a phased Read more »

Folks, exciting news: It seems the sacrifices and efforts people have made to slow the spread of coronavirus are paying dividends.  We’ve been working hard on our re-opening plan — a plan that doesn’t just follow the law, but goes above and beyond what the law requires to prioritize health and safety. We have that plan, and you can read it in full below if you like. I’ll also provide a quick summary. Why are we telling you about this plan now? For the first time, it seems like we have a tentative schedule for re-opening. Currently, our state is Read more »

We’re growing all the time, and always trying to optimize our schedule for student needs. Starting this morning, Jan. 13, we’re training from 6 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays … a class we’re calling Dawn Patrol. Today was amazing! Despite snow preventing several folks from attending, 25 people came to day one. Some had to leave early to get to work, which is fine — we do warmups and technique until 6:45 or 7, then spar until 7:30ish, so come when you can and leave when you need to. I’ve always loved teaching early morning classes. You Read more »

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 Read more »

I first met Scott Hartwich and Mary Burwell in 1993. I had messed up my first run at college, had to drop out, and needed a job. Scott hired me to work at their coffee cart, and I had no idea how at the time how much this — and they — would shape my life. We served a lot of great coffee, saw Scott and Mary launch the coffee roasting arm of their business (which was to become Hammerhead), and even did some construction work. After Scott and Mary got the contract to build the first coffee shop in Read more »