Our new dojo is open in San Leandro! This wonderful space would not be possible without every single one of you – all the judoka, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, anyone who’s ever brought a kid to a practice or encouraged a friend to try judo, white belts and black belts and everyone in between. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who’s been a part of this judo adventure with us during the past seven years.
During the past month and a half I’ve had many people volunteer their time and expertise to help with the move, so I want to thank them all individually here – to Jennifer, who loaded up her truck with plywood and drywall, painted and hauled trash. To Jose Miranda, who provided the tools, construction experience and the muscle to help us build the spring floor. To Evan’s dad Justin, who let me borrow his truck and his tools, and came and spent several hours gluing blocks of foam to the plywood. To Julian, who volunteered with just about aspect of the build from cleaning and painting to gluing foam blocks. To my fiancee Emilana, who’s always so supportive of everything I want to do. To Kenny, who let us borrow his paint sprayer, ladder, and sander. To Rod Heisler for his invaluable advice on how to keep the floor anchored in place. To Sensei Ron, who helped unload plywood and let us borrow his chop saw, probably the tool we used the most after the hand drills. To Jorge Guillen, who donated his design expertise, architectural drawings, and some comfy office chairs!
Also I’d like to say thank to Amanda and the whole team at AC Goldt Realty, who made the leasing process a smooth and friendly experience. The owners of the building I think would like to remain in the background, but they are wonderful people who clearly care a lot about the property, the neighborhood and the tenants.
I sincerely hope I didn’t miss anyone! There were also lots of parents who volunteered their time and I just didn’t get around to calling them, thank you for the offer, it is much appreciated. Those of you who have helped build the spring floors at our past two locations know what a job it is – this time it was made a little more complicated because we wanted to make sure the floor wouldn’t migrate away from the wall, so we had to anchor it in place. By the way, both of the floors we built are still in use! At Catch MMA (inside Oakland Strength Factory) and Supreme MMA in the Laurel the floating floors are being used for jiujitsu, kickboxing and mixed martial arts.
Not Done Yet
There are still lots of improvements to come, so thank you for your patience. Everything will get a little more beautiful and comfortable as time goes by. In the mean time please enjoy these photos from the build process.
