Canadian National Pro - Montreal
Sunday, February 26, was supposed to have been the UAEJJF Canadian National Pro...However it didn't quite turn out how anyone (including the organizers) had planned. We had driven up early on Saturday with the intention of visiting the Biodome and Insectarium in the Olympic Park before heading to the weigh-in, which was just around the corner.
The Biodome is the re-purposed Velodrome from the 1976 Olympic Games. The re-purposing comes in the form of installing exhibits of the four distinct ecosystems that are found in North America. Within these ecosystems, they have living plants, animals and fish roaming freely (mostly) in their respective ecosystems. It really is a sight to see. The Insectarium is a natural history museum containing exhibits of both live and preserved insects from all over the world. If you get creeped out by bugs, this is not a place for you. There were easily some of the strangest and disgusting looking bugs I had ever seen on display there. Both the Biodome and Insectarium were really interesting and worth a trip up to visit.
The weigh-in itself was well organized and the line of competitors moved rapidly. I easily made weight at 76.2 kilos, but I was pretty hungry. After weighing in, we went to check into our hotel which was located downtown, right in the Chinatown district of Montreal. I would definitely stay in that hotel again, hands down. A Holiday Inn, it was Asian themed, complete with a pagoda and a large Koi pond dividing the lobby from the bar/restaurant area. From here, we braved an icy rain and headed out to Chinatown to get dinner, which for me consisted of a sizzling platter of seafood and chicken served with steamed rice. It was pretty tasty, especially after two weeks of watching what I was eating and cutting weight. We then headed back to the hotel to go to bed so we could get up refreshed and ready to compete. Except the SPVM (Montreal Police) had other ideas.
When I awoke the next day, I did my usual scan of social media and saw a twitter post saying the SPVM had shut down the tournament with less then 24 hours notice. My initial thought was "that's a bullshit story", but once I checked my email and the Canadian National Pro Facebook page and saw that it was true, I was pissed. I will spare you my interpretation of the details, and post some links below to some news stories which do a much better job then I ever could in explaining the situation.
All the competitors had put in a ton of work, paid money and sweat to prepare themselves and travel to the tournament, just to have a misinterpretation of a law prevent the event from actually happening. I contacted the event organizers who said they were trying to reschedule the event for this coming Sunday (03/05), which unfortunately won't help me since I have to work, and it would be hard to drive and spend money on another hotel two weekends in a row. I explained my situation to them and they said they would refund my entry fee, which would be appreciated, however I won't hold my breath. I'll shoot them another email about the refund later in the week and post here once I hear from them.
I don't consider the whole experience a waste of time though. I put in some work while preparing for this tournament and I won't let this setback slow me down or waste good training. There will be other tournaments soon enough and I will be just as prepared for them as I was for this one…And I did get to see some cool animals and insects at the Biodome and Insectarium!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/jiu-jitsu-cancelled-1.4002070
And they did reschedule the tournament for March 5, but it's going to be in Ottawa...5 hours away. Even if I didn't have to work, it'd be a struggle to get there.