ForLife:APrayerforBubbaSalas

Just Taking a time out to offer some heavy Thanks and a sincere prayer for a heartfelt supporter for Fokai…sinceeversince.
Bubba Salas passed away thank you sir for believing in us…even in hard times, you always made it a point to swing by the shop and support. we felt every bit of it and stoked that youve heard and felt our message of perseverance. And even took it with you to the grave…We will never forget your kindness and humbly will continue efforts to cultivate the atmosphere for a positive life worth living and represent an island worth dying for. We appreciate and will never forget the Bridge you walked on and the bridges you have helped build for us. we will walk this respectfully always.really overwhelmed for all your support. We strive to be worthy of such Respect. As received it should be given tenfold.

 

Rest in Peace Chelu–see you on the other side.

Fireworks on 4th of July

Get your laugh on! DaBig Bang comedy show is on eck for the Cliff Hotel Ballroom.

TheForce is With Them:P.O.W.

A brief clip as Todd Vance break down his therapeutic program for war veterans dealing with PTSD  for HBO Sports as Soledad O’Brien travels to San Diego and meets the men of the POW MMA Fight Club, who have found their own solution to PTSD, one of the military’s biggest problems. Real Sports premieres Tues, June 25 at 10pm ET/PT on HB

What Is Yamato Damashii?:

ENSON INOUE speaks about the evolution of “Yamato Damashii”" and how he has been applying it into his life to help others.

OnDeck:23rdAnnualCocosCrossing

Guam’s premier long distance swim event The 23rdAnnualCocos Crossing is on deck  for May23rd, 2013.

Registration for the 2.5 and 5mile events begin@Hornet Sportin Goods on May 1st.

Revamp:NorthShoreJiujitsu

When Tracey and I came to Hawaii in 2010, our plan was to open a gym and start a life here. Things from the beginning were great. We took on the non profit kids club at first at a local recreation center. The only times available at the center were the kids class times, so we had to look elsewhere for the adults. We live on the countryside so there isn’t many commercial buildings. Everything is residential. A local house with a gym was available to hold classes at and the non profit was extended to cover adults as well and a service was brought to a community that it had been without for so long. The good fortune was short, and because of the landlords drug addiction, we lost the gym. Or it was lost for us. Since we started working the non profit we have had a great response from the community, but the local recreation center where we taught the kids classes would only allow one class per week for the adults.

Now due to the recent Lloyd Irvin situation we lost the non profit for the kids. That was our biggest class and we want to get them back in Asap. Since 2011 we have struggled to find a gym to serve the area where we live, and it is finally coming true. I wasn’t sure about even writing this letter, but I need your help! To keep up with the cost of starting a new non profit, insurance, rent, mats. Whether a donation to the club by monetary means or equipment new/used. Anything to help us reinstate the kids class get us up on our own feet. We only have one month to prepare and the current tenants won’t move out until the day before we move in, so if any questions, message me here or email Northshorebjj@gmail.com Please share!

Thanks for your time
Mike and Tracey Fowler
Head Instructors
North Shore Jiujitsu Club

XVFKI1008:15YearsOfFokaiDistribution

Time flies when you’re having fun–or so they say. But not necessarily.

April 25th,2013…It’s been 15years to the date since fokai first opened for business…or so to speak. April 25th, 1998 marks the fokai’s first day in commerce and fokai logo’s  introduction en masse to professional and competitive no holds barred fighting; in many ways the baptism of the fokai oval. It was Superbrawl 7, with Fokai Industries co-founder John Calvo headlining the main event against the UFC Champion@the time Dan Severn. shirts were being sold out of a backpack during the event and the island of Guam was introduced to what they perceived to be “TeamFokai”, the fighting group. Although this mislabeling created some serious differeing of opinions in the community–the small controversy of the adaptation of “Fokai” , which was often digested as vulgarity, and attaching it to any type of fight oriented setting left .it was very easy to be perceived as a fighting group. The truth was, in fact, that Fokai was started originally to be a surf-brand, it was ultimately the lack of surf that led its original founders to Jiujitsu. And it was through Jiujitsu that it’s originators,  Patrick Fleming and Roman Dela Cruz, would reconnect with an old friend, John Calvo—and where conversations on the porch led to stickers and stickers led to heat transfers and then months later it was April 25th, 1998.

Fokai had  already been years in conversation of starting a surf clothing company and even more years of “fokai” sounding cool and being drawn on bodyboards,surfboards, and skateboard  decks. For surfers in their early , its often harder to imagine anything else even remotely close to giving the enjoyment and stoke of surfing . But retrospectively speaking,  It was the lack of surf, the pursuit of adventure and self-improvement, and the camaraderie of brothers that gave catalyst to the first stock  of tshirts made available for commerce.

The shirts, distributed mostly from backpacks and cardboard boxes inched forward and made it into the trunks of cars . For the limited edition shirts they were stored authentically in “the black box”. It was the growing requests for product cooperating with the goodwill of friends and growing faith for the fokai label, movement, and purpose—that the satellilte distribution program was activated.

First stemming out through as VJ Santos distributed to family members down south and Ted Vida distributed to -workers, friends and family in the north, the program also circulated product through others who were there to help. We will always have gratitude for   Kie Susuico,  Shawn Camacho, Joe Nauta, Godwyn Quitugua,Tina Calvo, Pete Ungacta, Joe Mansapit, and Melchor Manibusan, and Justin Guzman  who have all worked earnestly to circulate product distribution. The growing stems of the Satellite distributors made it possible for the product to get to their friends and families and actually made up the majority of product distribution.

TEAM FOKAI: Despite the humble efforts of  the company to campaign fokai as a clothing company with the intention to promotoe perseverance and initation–Controversy continued to loom as the misinterpretation of  “Team Fokai’ continued to resonate throughout the community.  It was in the course of this time that

Saina Ma’ase from fromtheheart.  Everything has been possible from your love and support. 15years and counting. ForLife.Sinceeversince.Fokai

Abs by Friday and Crispy Hundreds

Abs by Friday and Crispy Hundreds

Never underestimate the power of alcohol.
On April 12th after fishing up an old picture on my cellphone.The photo was taken in 2008 during a circuit training session at a friends house which was then the location of the Spike22Academy. Some friends had a look and laughed saying tha the picture was just a thing of the past. i confidently  replied that I could get back to that shape in a week (or so i thought). A friend offered a bet saying otherwise for 100dollars Convinced that I could handle the job I asked them to up the wager to 300dollars. The conversation snowballed and hands were shaken @600dollars. It was a week of real training and good diet. With two 1-hour workouts on Saturday through Monday and then proceeded to Three hard 1hour workouts Tuesday and Wednesday then 4 good workouts on Thursday. Meals were first Granola for breakfast , Bibimbap for Lunch and Granola for dinner with trail mix in between for snacks, from Saturday til Tuesday and then afer that it was nothing but lite tuna straight out of the can for breakfast lunch and dinner the rest of the way staying away from Sodas but with a sugarless coffee in the morning. As the wager was arranged to come correct by high noon, I was only able to get in 40minutes on the Eliptical with a Plyometric Circuit(for the pump) and then a Wrestling, Mitwork and Circuit session before checking in. Arriving just short of the goal from what was a truly difficult endeavor. So leaving with this. Did I just waste 600dollars and hours of hard training? Or rather spend that money well ona slingshot back to fitness…
Regardless it was a good effort and at the very least, proud to have survived those workouts ,surprised to wokthroughassuch accordingly and now eager for a hopefully revamped workout and diet regimen. So the moral of this story is…the best results don’t necessarily come fast and though we should never underestimate the power of alcohol–we can never truly write off the Spirit of Perseverance.

Exhaust the Body. Proceed themind. Culitvate the Spirit.

Attention Poets!: Cultivate the Spirit

In the effort to be a convergence zone for Mariana Poets.ARKiology EDUtainment is hosting an online poetry contest. It’s Open to all residents of the Mariana Islands.No agre restrictions but entries must be from the MarianaIslands

http://www.arkiology.tv/dig-deep/

ElevationIIsla13N144E:Shoyoroll&Jiujitsu

Giving props to a fellow company originated in Guam that is aiming for Guam’s positive landmarking in action sports. Shoyoroll has been around “since the 90′s”. Fokai and Shoyoroll have been on common paths, and shared among a similar circle of friends. Sharing i the path of an already-large-and-growing extended campaign of Hafa Adai–We can identify with the struggles and setbacks in the very competitive clothing and Jiujitsu Industry and are very stoked to see friends making it happen.

Here’s a pretty dope feature copied from www.guampdn.com..Check it out for some insight into the source of one of the Jiujitsu world’s most recognized gi manufacturing and clothing companies. Props.

It wasn’t too long ago when fashion and martial arts mixed as well as oil and water. The fighters’ traditional uniform — the gi — was worn to showcase technique and skill, not to flaunt the latest ensemble. Vince “Bear” Quitugua sought to change that perception more than 10 years ago. He is the founder of Shoyoroll, a company of humble beginnings that recently blew up the martial arts world, growing to global recognition status. Quitugua, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, is also a formidable businessman in the mixed martial arts and BJJ communities. Born in California and raised on Guam, Quitugua founded Shoyoroll, a premium fight wear company specializing in high-quality gis.

The clean designs, contrast stitching and fitted cuts make the brand among the most popular on the market.

Inspired by his love of surfing, skateboarding and grappling, he created the electric yellow Shoyoroll logo prominently visible at major competitions in the United States.

“Seven years ago we would only see a few of the gis being worn at competition, and it was just fighters we knew and gave the gis to. Then the next year we saw a few more, and realized it wasn’t just people we gave the gis to,” Quitigua says. “That was super cool to see.”

The million-dollar company appears to be an overnight success, but the brand’s roots originate on a tiny island in the Pacific. Bear started with a handful of hats and T-shirts, created inside a little garage on Guam.

“I was just a creative kid trying to do something that I thought would be cool,” Quitugua says.
Shoyoroll frenzy

Here’s a scene from the World Jiu Jitsu No Gi Championship held in Long Beach, Ca. just four months ago. A crowd waited in the cold air for the gate to open, eager to watch the battles of the premiere submission-grappling tournament of the year.

But instead of filling the stands surrounding the arena at the Walter Pyramid, more than a hundred people swarmed the Budo Videos retail booth. Each one hoped to buy the collectable Shoyoroll gi named the “Charles Lew,” but only 50 were for sale.
Budo Videos, a top martial arts online retailer, first carried Shoyoroll gis in 2009 after agreeing to be the exclusive retailer for North America. President Dave Contreras clearly remembers the initial public response:

“They just sat in our warehouse. No one was really buying them,” he says.

Now, they sell out within minutes. Thousands of people around the world wait anxiously for the moment the limited-edition gis go on sale. Once the site opens, only a small percentage of buyers get lucky, surviving site crashes and thousands of other online buyers all wanting the same thing at the exact same time.

“They brought something really unique to the market by changing the look at the time. The other gi brands had been making the same gis for years,” says Budo Videos CEO Jake McKee.

Quitugua always sets a few aside for his Guam distributor and friend, Wayne Matanane, but still — not everyone gets one.

“When you look good you feel good, and when you feel good you roll good,” says jiu jitsu black belt “Big” John Calvo, who supported the brand in its early days. “That’s what wearing a Shoyoroll gi will do for you.”

Ultimate Fighters Jon Cruz Tuck, BJ Penn and Benson Henderson wear the brand with pride too.

Founder of top clothing brand RVCA Pat Tenore says simply: “Shoyoroll rules.”

All the success Quitugua enjoys didn’t come without sacrifice.

“People think the brand all of a sudden became popular. They don’t know the back story, all the work that took place and all the struggles we went through,” he says.

The founder of a million-dollar company today talks about his childhood home in Ordot, made with wooden walls and a leaky tarp for a roof. Rainy day puddles were normal, and typhoon warnings sent his family packing to a safer structure.

His family didn’t have much, so they safeguarded what they had.

“Our house wasn’t concrete like the other homes, so if a typhoon hit we’d lose everything,” he says.

Those days left him yearning for a better life and hungry for a solution.

“I told myself I wanted to me a millionaire by the time I was 30. When I was 5 I told my dad I wanted to be an engineer,” he says. “He told me, ‘Good, they make a lot of money.’”

He fell into a rut along the way, caught up in an aimless lifestyle. He said far too many of Guam’s youth also get snagged and unfortunately, a few will never get out.

“Depending on your circle of friends, you can get stuck, using the wrong people as role models, getting in trouble and dropping out of school,” he says.

His only secret to success was no secret at all: hard work.

“If there is anything I can tell the young kids on Guam today, the freshmen in high school, is, to stay in school. Expand your circle of friends. Hang out with people that want to go to college,” he says. “When I hung out with my boys, that’s all I knew. Having fun and partying. But when I networked myself with different friends, I realized I had to change my mindset to pursue bigger things.”

But he doesn’t believe an aimless detour should stop anyone from reaching goals. Continually striving for a goal can make changes and create outlets even where there are seemingly none.

“I was really discouraged just a few years ago. I was losing money with the brand. It wasn’t popular. Yeah, people thought it was cool, but after awhile you just think, ‘is it worth my time?’ But I kept at it,” Quitugua says.

The company grew slowly.

His wife Melissa gave up her position in human recourses to focus on the brand.

Bear Quitugua left a successful position in sales a year and a half ago, and hasn’t looked back since.

“It was a huge leap. This started out as a hobby, and we have kids to take care of. With our jobs we had benefits, insurance and income we relied on. My wife was super scared, but it’s probably the best decision I’ve made in my life,” Quitugua says.

He’s happy to say he hired two others from Guam, Natasha Barsana and Georgianna Castro. The warehouse manager Juan “Roach” Rodriquez is from Mexico, but already he’s been given “honorary Chamorro” status.

“Everyone says I act like you guys,” he says.

Quitugua also changed his goals, and not all revolve around business.

He realized working hard just for money doesn’t necessarily create happiness and success. Melissa keeps him balanced at home and at work and together, they raise two children — Bear’s absolute pride and joy.

“In that regard, I would say I’ve made it.”

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