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To become immersed in the world of fully competitive women’s submission wrestling is to discover the undiscovered.
Attempting to understand the complex fully competitive women’s submission wrestling from a distance is like trying to truly understand the layered and multi-cultural Latin culture by taking Spanish classes at your local junior college. You can do that for years and only skim the surface with no real clear in depth understanding of anything substantial.
At some point you need to plunge into the culture and travel there. Please relax, bring an appetite, some dancing shoes along with money and stay awhile.
Immerse yourself.
On Saturday July 19, 2014, I would do just that by traveling to San Francisco to pick up Daisy Ducati in front of the Nikko hotel.
As I was driving towards one of the most magnificent cities in the world, the fog hovered over like a moist blanket safely guarding the many secret life stories underneath, past and present.
Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.………Corrie Ten Boom
Hotel Nikko was our annual family destination complete with screaming children playing Marco Polo in Nikko’s spectacular atrium covered pool while my wife and I watched from the Jacuzzi. When we were there, it was like it was going to last forever. Now, it’s like a distance dream that keeps getting reshaped with more soft, loving edges.
Everything ends one day. Everything becomes the past long forgotten by most and smoothly reshaped by those who do remember.
Our favorite hosts for years explains at their site, “Experience the fine art of hospitality and the ultimate in personal service set in the midst of a city world-famous for its charming history and cutting-edge style. Hotel Nikko, just steps from Union Square in the heart of San Francisco, is an ideal destination for business travel or a special getaway. Recommended by Travel Alternatives Group (TAG), Hotel Nikko is noted for its LGBT friendliness.
Hotel Nikko offers 532 elegantly appointed rooms including 22 suites. Guests are pampered by such amenities as Subarashee Yume pillow-top beds, high-speed Internet access, large flat panel televisions, stereos and CD & iPod players. The Imperial Club rooms on the top floors provide commanding views of the city while the exclusive Imperial Club Lounge serves a light breakfast each morning and a wine and beer reception each evening.”
Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.……..Bob Dylan
I would ask Daisy to sit in the back seat. Not because of her, but me. Women are the creator’s greatest master piece.
We would hold a myriad of interesting conversations including her experience as a runway model starting as early as 13. She provided me with some insights into what’s been described as one of the most glamorous professions in the world. To my surprise she was previously a genuine freestyle high school wrestler. I never would have thought.
I’m told Cheyenne Jewel was supposed to be the star of this private shoot but was unable to make it. That still left a rock solid cast which included Evadne from UFG Grappling fame, Minxy Li, a grade a star in the United Kingdom, Isamar the San Jose champion and my beautiful former runway model riding with me.
Daisy and I would grab some breakfast and chat with the YC Café Coffee Shop owner who recognized me since I’ve been covering shoots in San Jose for a few years now.
The matches were exciting, intense and civil. They will appear on https://femcompetitor.com’s website that I’m told are feverishly working to open their download store.
After the matches, as is our custom, FCI takes the competitors out to lunch at a sit down restaurant. We traveled right by San Jose State University (SJSU) to reach our dining experience at La Victoria Taqueria. It was located in a Victorian styled home and had a college atmosphere that permeated.
According to the university’s website, “SJSU has some of the most comprehensive programs in the state, taught by the most talented and dedicated faculty that you will find anywhere. Our innovative curriculum truly prepares students for success in the twenty-first century.
San Jose State is conveniently located on 154 acres in downtown San José, midway between San Francisco and the Monterey/Carmel area at the sunny southern end of San Francisco Bay, and is easily accessible from area freeways.
From its beginnings as a normal school that trained teachers for the developing frontier, SJSU has matured into a metropolitan university offering more than 134 bachelor’s and master’s degrees with 110 concentrations.”
Wikipedia adds, “San Jose State University claims to provide Silicon Valley firms with more engineering, computer science and business graduates than any other college or university, and philanthropic support of SJSU is among the highest in the CSU system. SJSU sports teams are known as the Spartans, and compete in the Mountain West Conference (MWC) in NCAA Division I.
It is the founding school of the 23 campus California State University (CSU) system, and holds the distinction of being the oldest public institution of higher education on the West Coast of the United States.”
I would learn more things that day. I didn’t realize that Daisy had wrestled the supremely touch Gia Primo out of Chicago. Minxy was starting to tire of me name dropping and bragging about my children’s accomplishments which of course made me want to tease her more.
Minxy? Did you know that my son finished as the number one ranked senior in the most populated state in America in 2008 in the brutally competitive men’s 100 meter track and field event?
DID YOU KNOW THAT MINXY?????????
Miny Li was far more fun in person than I ever expected when I previously researched her bio and videos. She surpassed my expectations as a fully competitive wrestler.
Evadne had clearly matured from the days when I first met her in Oakland back in 2012. I had the strange sensation that I was finally meeting who she truly was for the first time. During those days back in the East Bay, it was as though I received small pieces of information about her, formulated the rest and created this fantasy girl that was never real except in the brain matter between my ears.
I really enjoyed hanging out and covering this female wrestling shoot.
It’s important to take life one day at a time and enjoy the moments.
The endings always come too fast.
~ ~ ~
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Sources: Wikipedia, hotelnikkosf.com, brainyquote.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, sjsu.edu, phots thanks to Wikimedia Commons, San Jose State University and Nikko Hotels.
