Battle Blog - Team Ryouko - Summer 2007

One thing I can’t ever forget was being so excited I could barely sleep the night before it.

Now a days I’m like “ yea yea, another gatherin’, another plane ride, blah blah” it’s kind of lost it’s charm in a way. I mean, of course I’m grateful I get to live the way I always wanted, but there is something very charming and super genuine that has left me which is that same level of excitement that I can’t create. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I would be as happy if I didn’t have something to look forward to in life, and being able to go to gatherings is still something I look forward to .. but even though the Team Ryouko Seminar wasn’t nearly on the level of insanity as even a smaller scale gathering by today’s standards, I hadn’t ever been so eager.

I went with Adam. Was Yusuf there? Maybe Patrick? I’m not sure. Actually, this was so early in my stages of development that it was before a lot of relationships even existed. I feel like probably Yusuf was there… I don’t think Nicco was though. Regardless, it was among the first few chances to see Chris Mark ( who was very rare to pop up at the time ) and I remember they had an OG Vancouver Tricker / Stunt Man there .. someone who stunted for Ninja Turtles .. I forgot his name though. Brian Ho? I don’t know.

I think probably there were seminars. There had to be. Probably I was tryina prove myself way too hard, probably a poor social etiquette version of David from back then. Though the Battles were the main thing, I think. I was kind of just wow’d by the whole experience. Lookin’ back ( 14 years later ) I can’t remember too much other than the battles.

Now, I cannot for the life of me remember, who I battled entirely completely, except I do think I battled Taylor Chung, who was probably the winner of the whole thing.

Taylor Chung was Rank #1 from my generation and a student for a few years of Team Ryouko and star athlete in XSD ( Ryouko’s Martial Arts Program .. Xtreme Skills Development ). He was amazing. By todays standards he wasn’t like that good but by back then’s standards .. he jumped high, kicked clean and had a really well polished repertoire of tricks and combos.

I only have 1 memory of the battles. 1 thing I know I tried to do for sure. This is a shout out to my earliest, biggest trick .. pop 360 gyro ( probably under-rotated ).

I know I used it in that battle. I don’t think I made it past first round, if I did I don’t remember who I even battled or what I did .. but one thing I will always remember was how excited I was to do that 360 gyro and then make up some combo on the spot against Taylor xD

I just remember having a lot of fun, but I don’t think I really cared much about battles or like wanted to battle after that. I didn’t really have much desire for battling in my youth. I think I was still too caught up in other things before my mind settled on it !