I've been on the road for about a week now - tonight is my last night in Toronto, and tomorrow I head back to NYC. I've got to say this has been an excellent, wrestling-heavy trip.
It's funny that no matter where I am, I think I'm going to take a break later. I'm at home training heavy and working on the video store? I think "Oh, I've got a trip coming up - that will be like a vacation!" I'm on the road driving, wrestling, and meeting with other companies for video shoots? I think "Oh, it will be relaxing when I get home"...but really I know I'm going to jump back into training like a maniac. I do think I'll need to schedule in a couple extra days for sight-seeing on the next trip and also remember (or find time) to prepare more healthy road snacks, but, overall, this trip has been a great success.
The drive out to the first stop in Cleveland was a bit of an adventure. Driving through Pennsylvania, I had an alternating mix of gorgeous weather and sleet -- yes, sleet in the middle of May. I also had a flat tire, and when I called AAA, they basically said "Do you think you can handle it yourself?" Turns out, yes. Put on the temporary spare, drive to the next town, and get fixed up. It did set me way back on time, though, so it was almost good (but not really) that Herbodies had to cancel their shoot with at the last minute for personal reasons. We were both looking forward to working together; I do hope we get to try again in the not-distant future.
OK, so actually there was a slightly rocky start to the trip. But at my next stop, Chicago, where I go more often, I got to reconnect with some of my favorite regular sessioners. Highlights included the sweatiest non-stop endurance match ever (against a really big guy, no submissions, an hour of HARD work just holding each other down and SWEATING); a very fun, challenging match against a former high school wrestler; and some wonderful muscle worship (who doesn't love worship?!).
Next stop: Detroit. Detroit was just INSANE on this trip. If I'd had any idea when I was making bookings, I would have scheduled another day. I was wrestling from the time I arrived until the time I left, and I think I had to turn more people down for lack of time than I ended up seeing. Unbelievable! To everyone I had to miss on this trip, I'm sorry, and I'll be back! It's kind of interesting the trends that come out sometimes -- in Chicago I had almost all competitive matches; in Detroit I had two spandex sessions and two very intricate roleplay sessions (plus competitive, scissors, muscle worship...like I said, this stop was crazy!)
And finally I'm in Toronto. I got in last night and dove right into a shoot with ScissorFoxes. They were a ton of fun to work with. We shot four 10-minute scissors clips. Most were in cute, basic bikinis, but I will reveal there was a Mortal Combat Scissors Death Match in there with me wearing the wildest red bodystocking ever seen. I'll also reveal that Jay CAN take a lot of pain, it's true, but he probably shouldn't have told ME that. Many video victims will ask me to go lighter; if you ask me not to, oh boy...
And right after the ScissorFoxes shoot, I did another with a new company Absolute Mixed Wrestling. This was actually Absolute's very first shoot/match, so good luck to him getting everything rolling! (I'm sure he'll have a full site coming along soon, but for now: Absolute.) We kicked things off with a super-competitive, skillful, mis-match fight -- my opponent was also a BJJ purple belt, but he was 100 lbs. heavier! Body punching, smothering, and mask-grabbing (he was wearing a lucha mask) were all allowed, so things got a bit heated!
Wrestling on and off today, blogging (obviously), looking forward to one more early morning match tomorrow and then a long and hopefully pretty drive home!
It's funny that no matter where I am, I think I'm going to take a break later. I'm at home training heavy and working on the video store? I think "Oh, I've got a trip coming up - that will be like a vacation!" I'm on the road driving, wrestling, and meeting with other companies for video shoots? I think "Oh, it will be relaxing when I get home"...but really I know I'm going to jump back into training like a maniac. I do think I'll need to schedule in a couple extra days for sight-seeing on the next trip and also remember (or find time) to prepare more healthy road snacks, but, overall, this trip has been a great success.
The drive out to the first stop in Cleveland was a bit of an adventure. Driving through Pennsylvania, I had an alternating mix of gorgeous weather and sleet -- yes, sleet in the middle of May. I also had a flat tire, and when I called AAA, they basically said "Do you think you can handle it yourself?" Turns out, yes. Put on the temporary spare, drive to the next town, and get fixed up. It did set me way back on time, though, so it was almost good (but not really) that Herbodies had to cancel their shoot with at the last minute for personal reasons. We were both looking forward to working together; I do hope we get to try again in the not-distant future.
OK, so actually there was a slightly rocky start to the trip. But at my next stop, Chicago, where I go more often, I got to reconnect with some of my favorite regular sessioners. Highlights included the sweatiest non-stop endurance match ever (against a really big guy, no submissions, an hour of HARD work just holding each other down and SWEATING); a very fun, challenging match against a former high school wrestler; and some wonderful muscle worship (who doesn't love worship?!).
Next stop: Detroit. Detroit was just INSANE on this trip. If I'd had any idea when I was making bookings, I would have scheduled another day. I was wrestling from the time I arrived until the time I left, and I think I had to turn more people down for lack of time than I ended up seeing. Unbelievable! To everyone I had to miss on this trip, I'm sorry, and I'll be back! It's kind of interesting the trends that come out sometimes -- in Chicago I had almost all competitive matches; in Detroit I had two spandex sessions and two very intricate roleplay sessions (plus competitive, scissors, muscle worship...like I said, this stop was crazy!)
And finally I'm in Toronto. I got in last night and dove right into a shoot with ScissorFoxes. They were a ton of fun to work with. We shot four 10-minute scissors clips. Most were in cute, basic bikinis, but I will reveal there was a Mortal Combat Scissors Death Match in there with me wearing the wildest red bodystocking ever seen. I'll also reveal that Jay CAN take a lot of pain, it's true, but he probably shouldn't have told ME that. Many video victims will ask me to go lighter; if you ask me not to, oh boy...
And right after the ScissorFoxes shoot, I did another with a new company Absolute Mixed Wrestling. This was actually Absolute's very first shoot/match, so good luck to him getting everything rolling! (I'm sure he'll have a full site coming along soon, but for now: Absolute.) We kicked things off with a super-competitive, skillful, mis-match fight -- my opponent was also a BJJ purple belt, but he was 100 lbs. heavier! Body punching, smothering, and mask-grabbing (he was wearing a lucha mask) were all allowed, so things got a bit heated!
Wrestling on and off today, blogging (obviously), looking forward to one more early morning match tomorrow and then a long and hopefully pretty drive home!
