What a great time we had on Saturday at the Vermont Nationals in Bellows Falls, Vermont. This was the first tournament we've repeated, thus marking the completion of one year on the tournament circuit! It's been an exciting year, and coming back to this event was a little emotional.
I wish I could say the shirt fell on the floor like this... it wasn't quite this clean, but it did give me the idea for the photo!
The competition was great, attendance was good and the people, as always, were fantastic. Supportive and generous, we had some good sales and met a lot of our long-time fans. Its always nice to see people wearing whistlekick product doing well in their divisions, and there was no shortage of that this weekend!
It's hard getting good photo angles from the booth!
I was also honored to see Sensei Tony Fournier, a man I've respected for over 25 years. I don't remember the last time I saw him, but I was amazed that he recognized me. With a bit less hair on top (okay, a lot less!) and more on face, I certainly don't look like the boy/ teen that he once knew. He's a great man and a great instructor, and I have been pleased to get to know some of his students the last few tournaments.
We also saw some amazing pushups going on, included a record in the woman's division!
Yes, Karin did 85 pushups!
Hopefully everyone that attended had as much fun as I did. Our next appearance will be this evening at Rotta's Blackbelt Academy for an in-house seminar and gear trial / fitting for his students. We'll also be at the Vermont Classic on October 18 in Springfield, VT.
Until next time, have fun and keep training!
~jeremy