October Trip Report

Hey everyone. I am super late to post this. I should have done it as soon as I got home back in October but I am a procrastinator. Anyway, I went on a trip around the country back in October and visited as many moons as possible. It was amazing!

Our first stop was 10th Planet Altoona, with Damion Shehan. It's a small gym in a small town and reminds me a lot of home. I picked up a rash guard and a bumper sticker and tapped a few times and we rolled out. Damion taught a slick triangle setup and was super helpful and friendly.

After some tourism, our next 10th Planet stop was 10th Planet Vegas with Casey Halstead. It was an open mat and it fit perfectly into our schedule. I had the best roll of my trip with Andrew Ramm, and honestly this was my favorite stop. The nicest strangers I have ever rolled with. 10/10 would visit again. We left sooner than we would have liked because we had tickets for Tosh.

We stayed with Ben Eddy, Chris Drozd, and Kevin Berbrich in the Vista fighter house. Sunday open mat was our first rolls in California and they were killer. Basically 10th planet Oceanside is all purple belts and up. There are no rest rounds to be had. I find myself constantly wondering if I am being destroyed by white belts or black belts or what is happening, thanks to our wonderful no gi invisible ranking system. Oh Well, ego needs to go away anyway.

Next comes Monday morning. PJ warned me. I didn't listen. I went to the morning class in San Diego. I. Got. Smashed. I did have a fun roll with Shane Krutchen. But my neck was destroyed for the whole week after playing bottom half against Sloan Clymer. I deserved it. I knew I was going to the fighter class. Should have just tapped to shoulder pressure amiright? Anyway i got to take a class from Boogey! And then we Hit the noon class at PJ Barch school in Spring Valley and that was a blast.

Tuesday we made the drive to HQ. We did the morning class with Eddie and then spent the afternoon in Hollywood to return for the night class. I made a few new freinds, learned some top secret techniques from Carlos, and got crushed in all kinds of overtime rounds. I had a vision in my head of Eddie talking a lot. Ha. Ha. Apparently that's the old Eddie.

By the time I go to sleep Tuesday night I am contemplating quitting jiu jitsu forever. The soreness has enveloped my entire body. I cannot imagine following through with the Wednesday plan. We change the Wednesday plan. Instead of 2 classes, we will go to HQ.

Wednesday comes and I feel even worse. We decide to just do Oceanside class that night. Yes. We wanted to go to HQ
and changed our minds and TONY FERGUSON CAME IN THAT NIGHT AND GOT A NEW BELT. Fml. Anyway Chris Drozd taught us some moves that objectively are just not as cool as seeing Tony would have been. They were still cool Chris.

So Thursday we hang out during the day and then travel to HQ for the evening class and bring Ben Eddy with us. It is almost surreal to hear Eddy talking about random stuff and sitting next to Nathan Orchard and watching Ben Eddy who happens to be here WITH ME roll all over everyone's faces...
Michael Plaster hooked us up with tickets to EBI! Thanks again! Also shoutout to Marvin Castille and Carlos Guyton and anyone else I am leaving out.
Friday we visited PJ again and went to Oceanside in the PM. Then Saturday at Oceanside we finally met Geo!

Sunday, our last day in California, we got to witness the magic that was EBI. It really was amazing sitting in the crowd with all my new freinds and watching so many familiar faces rolling on stage. It was really a perfect capstone event for our you jitsu trip.

I have been a 10th Planet Ronin since before I knew the word for it. I finally feel like I have a real connection to the system. This trip was really amazing for me and I am truly grateful to everyone who was part of It, even Sloan. I cannot wait to do it all again. A second trip is inevitable. And I have some big plans coming so I will definitely be more active in these forums.
Holler!
-Albert

Cool!

You forgot about arriving back home with perfect timing for a Renato Laranja seminar :D. Definitely one of the better 10p traincations I've heard. Was nice to have been apart of you and Veronica's 10th Planet traincation trip. It was good timing for one with all that was going on. You two were the exact type of people we were hoping to host. Focused on training and meeting some 10th Planet peeps.

Awesome story brother. Sometimes I spare my students the brutal ear beatings and just do dead zones sorry bout that! :)