Wow. What a day!
I started the day off with a little detour to Maui's beautiful I`ao Valley just outside of Wailuku. There, in it's serene peaks and crystal-clear rivers, we got our minds and bodies ready for the tournament. After doing some warm-ups, breathing, and a lot of stretching, we got in the river and relaxed (after getting used to the cold temperature). Although, this may not have been a good I idea since I was getting sick and later on that night it turned into a full blown cold.
As we were about to head to the tournament, we accidentally locked the keys in our rental car. Woops. But after asking a few tourists we got a hold of the rental car company and they promptly sent an employee to unlock our doors free of charge. Phew.
As we entered the War Memorial Gymnasium it was the usual tournament seen: crowded, loud, and tense. Unfortunately they were only running four mats, which means a slow tournament. After meeting up with my instructor, I changed into my gi and heard something over the PA system about "blue belts 187." I panicked and thought I was going to fight soon without getting myself settled in; but I wasn't on until about an hour or so later.
Finally I was called to my first match. Our referee was Lius Heredia, the black belt who puts on this tournament every year. He started us off and I ran over and grabbed my opponent's collars. He pulled guard right away: just what I wanted. He immediately started to break my posture and tried to collar choke me. No problem, I did what I usually do: grind my chin into his wrist until he lets go. Eventually I postured up and he opened his guard. While trying to pass his guard, he put me in a triangle clamp because I carelessly wasn't controlling his outside leg. I did, however, manage to have my second arm partially in and was able to get back into his guard. Right after that he attempted a knee bar me which I was expecting the referee to warn him not to do so. Instead, a teammate did and he let go of my leg. To my surprise, the referee said it was okay (apparently this was okay for blue belts in this tournament, I was not there for the rules). I ended up passing to side mount and he started to cross-face me. I then went to an open north-south and grabbed an arm for a relatively easy kimura in which he tapped out.
Next match happened at least an hour later. They decided to run the black belts (my instructor got a match and submitted someone from Brazil via bow-and-arrow choke who is visiting/training at Luis' academy), then the brown belts, then some purple belts, and the heavier blue belts. Hmm.
My second match was with someone taller and stronger (at least his guard was). Same deal as my last match and he ended up pulling guard fast. He first tried to collar choke me but I got out. Then I looked to pass his open guard while he was trying to scissor sweep me hard, so that made me a little wary and off balance. Looking for a fireman sweep, he hooked my leg and tried to dump my over which I would have none off. I backed off and he didn't grab my collar which always registers in my game as: Achilles lock. I grabbed his ankle under my arm and rolled to my stomach while applying the submission. To my surprise, he tapped out fast.
The time to catch our flight back to Kona was approaching and I told Aaron we had to leave soon. He approached the scoring table and explained my predicament. So, my final match happened after another no-gi match (which also had no time and energy for) which was about 6 minutes of rest. Luis was our referee again; he wished us good luck and started the match. My opponent was smaller and probably lighter than me by no more than 10 lbs. Again, same situation, the guy pulled guard and tried to work an open guard pass. I was also trying to break his sleeve grips which wasn't too hard. But I was really getting tired. I almost passed his guard but I was in too much of an awkward position to finish it. Then, about half way through the match, I think the fatigue was getting to me: I tried the most sloppiest knee bar ever which was following by an not so slick ankle lock attempt. Actually, I can't really remember which came first. To make a long story short we kind of exchanged positions with him getting the points, he tried to choke me from guard, then tried to armbar me from mount which I escaped pretty easily, and finally he won by points. I was pretty tired and had zero energy left. My opponent helped me up and we shook hands. I ran over to the table to get my silver medal, said goodbye to everyone, and left to catch my plane.
Our team did really well, 4 golds and a silver medal. Not bad for Kona's Aaron Moeller Jiu-Jitsu!
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