Blue Belt

Chapter 13

                                                         XIII.

        Tomas, Ron, Kim, and I had a great time on the bus ride to the tournament.  It was very similar in terms of the route I had taken to come down to Oceanside from L.A.  Memories of my trip down and my first day were in my mind.  Ron brought along a bunch of music for us to listen to via his iPod.  Maybe not my first choice, given his propensity for Pop, but it suited us fine.  Kim brought some snacks along for all of us to share along the way, and then Vargo, who was also on the bus with us, gave us a brochure to share.  It was more than a brochure though, it was more like a traditional media guide in the sense that it was forty some pages, had many pictures of last year's action, listed winners by category from last year, and had some stuff about the history of the event.  So while we were visiting we took glances at that.  I was amazed at some of the pictures of the sparring competition.  While there were pads and head gear I could tell the contact was intense.  The brochure had made me a bit more excited to get there and actually see what this was all about in person.  Sam and Jorge were also coming up to watch me, but would not be up there until later.  I was impressed and surprised when they not only showed interest but also committed to coming.  Even Mr. Benson had wished me good luck.  Jed had said that martial arts tournaments can be consuming in the weeks leading up to them.  For me the weeks part was not so true, but the past few days it was first and foremost on my mind.

            "Okay, this way guys."  Mr. Vargo said as he waved us into the convention center.  It was a large, fairly modern building.  There were quite a few people entering the building with karate uniforms of a variety of different styles on.  Yet there were others like us, who just had our street clothes on at this point, and then many others yet who were there to watch friends and family.  Even Peter was just casual at this point with jeans and a green polo shirt on.  We followed Vargo past ticket lines and such, and then inside to the general area, which was a huge open arena of sorts with the "rings" set up for all the different events took place in.  There were people just standing around in circles visiting as we arrived.  None of the actual events had began as of yet.  I had a good six hours before I would be competing, which gave me time to observe and take it all in.  Ron and Kim wanted us to run over to a mall close by to look at some things, so we'd unfortunately be doing that as well.  We started by going over to a concession area and getting something to eat.

            There were two main "rounds" to the competition.  There was a first round, or what was called qualifiers.  Then there was a medal round, which was the final round.  So when we got our copies of the schedule and ring numbers, we immediately saw that we were each in a different qualifying ring, but Vargo informed us that the final round was the best ten from all the qualifiers in each event.  Once the schedule was posted, we sat down at a small table just outside the main area and used the brochure we had along with the posted schedule to figure out what we wanted to watch.  As it turned out we'd only been there around forty-five minutes and within just a half hour we'd be watching live events.  It was a very cool atmosphere to say the least.  

            Tomas and I passed on the mall, and opted to catch our first live action at a ring with some open seats by it.  It was a weapons form event for brown and black belts.  We waited for about ten minutes for it to actually get going as more people sat down around us.  There were only a couple open seats by the time it was starting.  There were three judges, one of them female.  The first performance was by a younger guy with brown hair wearing a black uniform.  He was a black belt performing a bow form.  Just before he started I could tell many of the other rings around us had started their action as well, in a variety of other events.  But Tomas and I were anxious to watch these weapons forms.  Thoughts of Derek were coming to me as this contestant was about to begin.  He started with his legs straight together, and his arms straight down at his side, and then stepped out with one leg and did a wonderful baton like move with the bow and had it literally twirling around in his hand for like ten seconds.  He then proceeded with some aggressive moves across the ring, jabbing with the bow in a variety of directions.  I knew from my experience last Friday night at the practice I had done just how difficult it was to keep the bow in a smooth motion while moving about with crisp stances as well.  But this guy did not just do wonders with the bow, he had some really cool jump kicks in the mix as well, including one where he spun his entire body, and the bow, around in a 360 while completing a head level kick.  What impressed me the most was the speed at which he went through his form.  He had all the smooth motions that I saw of the red belts back at OKI when doing their bow form, but his tempo was much faster.  He ended his form with a motion along the floor.  It was as if he got knocked down during an attack, and had to manipulate the bow around his back in a series of really interesting motions to hold off his phantom attackers.  Very cool.  There was applause as everyone was really impressed.