Two Bella Coola jiu-jitsu athletes won gold medals at a competition in Vancouver on March 25.
Devon Girard came home with two golds, a silver and a bronze and Carlos Edgar won two golds.
Girard owns Bella Coola Martial Arts, an open private club, that has no fees and is open for anyone to join.
“When I moved here there was a small judo group and it slowly morphed into a jiu-jitsu club, which is my background,” Girard said. “We primarily do jiu-jitsu, aka grappling.”
About a year-and-a-half ago Edgar showed up at the club and Girard was reminded of his younger self and how thrilled he was to find grappling when he did.
“We started to get this idea that we should go to a competition and let Carlos have this experience and then I got into it.”
At the competition they both had nerves and aches and pains, which Girard said is all part of the fun of it, as well as calming themselves to get into the zone when needed.
“We each in our way did really well. I had my own successes and Carlos was pretty impressive.”
Edgar, who is 22 years old, trained in gi, which means you wear the training uniform - a heavy cotton jacket, reinforced drawstring trousers and a belt.
“If the other guy is wearing this gi, you can grab the fabric anywhere and it’s a handle so it changes the game quite a lot,” Girard explained. “Whereas no gi is more like wrestling. There is no fabric to grab and you can only control with natural body handles like the back of the neck, overhooks and underhooks.”
The two styles of play are quite different, he said.
Edgar dove into the deep end in both divisions, ending up winning the gi division.
While Edgar struggled with the no gi division, Girard said he is hungry and ready to learn even more.
Edgar grew up in Bella Cool and said he remembers Girard coming into his high school when he was in Grade 10.
“He was throwing around a large staff member at the time and caught my attention,” he recalled.
Three years later in 2019, he tried a few classes and then in the spring of 2022 went back and has been committed to learning more ever since.
His golds were in the absolute division which is any weight class and in the heavy weight division.
“Devon won like all four divisions, which is a huge inspiration seeing my teacher completely dominate his divisions,” Edgar said.
Some of the other opponents were asking Edgar where he trains and he told them he was from a small community up north in the mountains.
“Some people had never heard of Bella Coola before. One of my opponents even said ‘if I had to drive 12 hours I would be expecting to win.’ He was so interested he searched Bella Coola up on a map before our match even began,” Edgar said.
While jiu-jitsu has taken over his attention for the most part, Edgar said he plays basketball sometimes and is usually training quite regularly on his conditioning and strength training when he can.
If there is work at the mill in town he does that too.
Girard has been slowly growing the dojo for 10 years after moving to the valley 12 years ago.
“It’s been just been me or two or three other training partners but things started to pick up about four years ago. There were a couple of new guys who came and stuck with it.”
Covid caused a bit of an ebb, but now there are more people getting interested.
“Carlos is maybe bringing a few friends, and a couple of teenagers are getting into it. It feels like there are a couple of new training cohorts starting up,” Girard said.
Local secondary student Morgan Boileau, who recently started wrestling competitively, trains at the dojo with her mom, Girard said.
Adding that jiu jitsu is his old age fitness plan, Girard explained grappling itself is a bit unique in the martial arts world because of how high the intensity can be without much damage.
There is no striking and it is about control and positional competition.
“We don’t have many injuries because the art itself is all about control,” Girard said. “Jiu- jitsu is different. You see 80-year-old guys rolling around. We have a 70-year-old training with us.”
Girard started the sport in 2005 in Vancouver.
He’d been thinking about taking an aikido class and a friend who was doing jiu-jitsu asked if he could show him a few things.
After experiencing a few moves, he was hooked and looking back said it has been a great thing in his life.
“It is very much a mind body integrated form. It’s mentally demanding, physically demanding. I would say my body has responded well over the long-term. Generally it integrates lower and upper body through the core and really supports the spine and creates a lot of supported strength.”
Last month’s competition was the first he’d been to since moving to Bella Coola, but he will probably attend some more.
“Our core group saw our performances and is pretty keen and excited so there is talk about going to one in July and possibly hitting one in the fall. It definitely stirred the pot in a good way.”
When he’s not grappling, Girard does IT, working with the local internet service provider doing everything from installing home equipment to servicing mountaintop repeaters.
monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com
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