I also got to meet John Kavanaugh at the fights. John traveled to Africa from Ireland to fight in the event. He has an excellent overall game, and I am looking forward to working more with John at his Gym in Ireland in April. Dublin better be prepared for some SBG style party's come april.

The next day Rory, Forest, and myself, where treated to a few days at a resort out of town called Pilansburg, which is a huge wildlife preserve in the bush. We had a buffet that night that was amazing. Meats, fried bananas, deserts, as well as all sorts of other foods. Our rooms where nice by any standard, and overlooked the game reserve. They told me to shut my window at night (large picture window doors that opened on two a second story bamboo deck), as Baboons may wander in. Screw the baboons, I left them open as it was hot, and the wildlife sounds made sleeping wonderful.

Next morning we were cooked a great breakfast, and had a warthog wander past are table as we ate (not something you see often at breakfast in Portland). Then we got in a Leon's rig and headed into the reserve. We were very fortunate in spotting a pride of lions that had just taken down a zebra. They were only about 50 yards away, but busy eating. That's rare, especially in the daytime, when they mostly sleep. Many people think the male lions don't hunt, but they do. It's just that there large body and manes make them easier to see, so they flush the zebra towards the female lionesses that hide, and then take the prey down. That evening we had another feast.

USA clearly dominates at mini golf!

The next day we played mini golf (put put). It was Rory, myself, Rodney and Leon.  So we did USA vs Africa. Even though we tied (water hazards), Rory and I screamed that we won and yelled USA, taking a victory pic on the 18th hole. Hell ya. I have pics to prove it.

That evening we headed out for a night safari. We go with a guide. I spotted a lioness in the grass, whom we watched until the sun went down. She was moaning for her mate, but we couldn't spot the rest of the pride. Later we spotted two brown hyenas. These are very rare, as they are solitary animals. They travel, live, and hunt alone. So when the spotted Hyenas see  them (whom travel in pack), they kill them. As such they are endangered. So it was a rare privilege to see two on the same night. They were both oblivious to us, and didn't seem to care we were there. These Hyenas can take your head off in an instant. Very powerful animals. I have gotten in  with male lions and played, wrestled, and rolled with them before(which was one of the most amazing experiences I have had). . .but I would never do that with a hyena. I have been bitten in the ass by a younger hyena before and it sucks bad. We also saw a group of giraffes; almost so close I could touch them. They eat branches off the thorn trees, often thorns get stuck in their tongues, but that's okay because they shed their tongues and grow new ones every six months. We also saw many wilderbeasts, warthogs, antelope, kudu (a type of antelope that's common in the transvaal), and springbok. As well as a hallucinogenic frog. (Rory and I thought of keeping that.) The locals dry them in the sun and mix them in water for serious trips. They are also somewhat rare. As we headed back we ran into a male bull elephant. He had been brought in from krugar national park to discipline the younger male elephants, who had formed a gang and where causing problems. Including killing a tourist a few Months ago, (friggin tourists!) Now that he has arrived they all mellowed out. He disciplines them through headbutts and pure brute force. He teaches them how to act properly. We also found a dead  Kudo that had just been taken minutes ago by a pack of wild dogs. It was by the fence. The dogs use the fence, chasing the prey to it, where they are cornered, and then taking turns biting it until dead (kind of an extreme version of using the cage to ground and pound). They ate his insides before running as we approached. Our driver had to get out and pull the corpse off the road.

I'd have better pictures, however I had not discovered the zoom in-zoom out button on my camera yet. (For the last two Years I have been wondering why all my pics seemed so far away?

Thanks for fixing that Q! Tech things and I do not mix.)

That evening I slept great, expect for a pack of Monkeys that kept running up and down on my roof. I couldn't see the bastards, but they were very noisy.

Some African country side security.

It took only minutes for the dogs to do this.

On our final day there we ventured to Sun City. The Palace resort at Sun City is one of the only six star hotels in the world. Rory, Forest and I had a good time at the water slide park in the 'lost world'. As we drove back to Joberg we passed tons of shanty houses no plumbing, no electricity, poverty that you cannot fathom, or see in the USA. What a contrast, it makes you feel weird to leave one of the most luxurious resorts in the world that we were visiting (the palace at Sun city), and drive by this. We raced passed at about 200km an hour in our nice sedan with Elvis blaring, and I couldn't help but wonder what they thought of the sight of us, as we speed by in  sunglasses.

Matt wrestles Wiukus. If Wiukus gets any stronger Mattis going to need a stunt double to tap him!

Later that week I went to work, and taught my usual series of classes to our African crew. Things went great, and all of Rodney's people are progressing fantastically. The stand up games of Rodney's athletes are always top notch, no surprise there. But, I was very happy to see that everyone's ground game had increased exponentially as well. I was also privileged in handing out about a dozen or so WELL deserved blue belts to the crew.

Teaching at Rodney's Gym.

Always time for Q&A.

I was recently blessed with an invitation to go teach a series of seminars for civilians and security forces in the Seychelles Islands.

The Seychelles beaches, incredible beauty!

For those of you who have not heard of the Seychelles, they are a chain of 103 islands located in the Indian Ocean. Off the East coast of Africa. The Seychelles are known worldwide as being some of the most beautiful, if not THE most beautiful Island paradises in the world! Having traveled there I can honestly say they must be THE most beautiful. I have never seen beaches, or beauty like this before.

My flight left South Africa in the evening. After boarding the plane I kept hearing the creole language behind me on the plane and then the words. . .'Matt Thornton'. . .thinking maybe I was losing my mind (ya never know) I  put on my headphones, turned up my CD player, and tried to ignore it. As I  stood up to get off the plane people behind me stopped me and said "are you  Matt Thornton". and surprised I said. . .ya?, turns out that for three weeks they had been running a TV commercial and news thing about me several times a day on the local TV. Since the Seychelles only has one TV station (unless you have satellite), virtually everyone on the Island knew who I was. So I was happy that I was not losing my mind (yet).

Henry's backyard

As I walked off the plane onto the hot evening tarmac I was approached by my host Henry Naiken. He literally walked me past customs and right out of the airport. Turns out he trains the Seychelles Airport security forces. Henry is a psychologist, and has one of the only private practices on the Seychelles islands. His company is called 'KTS' for 'know thy self'. Talk about synchronicity.

Downtown on Mahe, creole architecture

Our jeep

The Seychelles are one of the worlds smallest independent Nations. The current 'president' took over in 1975 with a military take over using only 25 men. He has survived in power to this day. And since his picture is plastered everywhere it's a hard fact to forget.

From what I saw the Island had almost zero pollution, and maintains a pristine ecological environment. Everyone seems to be well educated, and I  was happily surprised that everyone I met spoke fluent English. This makes teaching a seminar much nicer. Everyone gets my jokes that way. . .and lord knows I can be a funny guy sometimes.

Dennis gets a little SBG hospitality. Dennis is a great guy.

 More of the Seychelles beaches.

The Seychelles are still very superstitious and being a psychologist is next to being a witch doctor of voodoo as far as some people are concerned. So Henry had some hilarious stories to tell of his life on the Islands. Henry is a great guy and was a fantastic host.

I taught a series of seminars for his club. They had Rodney King out a few Months before my visit. Rodney only visited once and taught our curriculum for just a few days. After his visit Henry hosted the first ever NHB competition in the Indian Ocean. He invited all the local Martial Arts clubs, most of them being traditional Kung Fu, Karate, and TKD groups. Henry's students who attended Rodney's seminar entered, and all won. An impressive testament to the toughness of some of Henry's people, Henry's teaching skills, Rodney's coaching, and our curriculum.

The seminar crew

Matt and Chico roll with the students.

With the help of Rodney, and his assistant 'Q' (our tech guy), we taught a series of classes, and rolled and sparred with everyone. Later in the week I taught a class for the Seychelles airport security. They wanted to learn effective and safe ways to extract and escort someone off a plane. We worked a few hours on how to safely approach someone, size up a threat, and "escort" them off an aircraft. It was fun, and the Q&A session that followed proved to be even more productive.

Chico gets choked by the Sey Champion!

Q suffers the same fate.

Some people have the completely wrong idea that the SBG is a 'sports' orientated Gym. The reality is that people who need real world self defense skills the most, people who don't have time for B.S., Law Enforcement, Military, Security, etc, are all coming to the SBG for state of the art training.

Boarding the small plane for island hoping.

Later that day Rodney, Q, and myself drove to a gorgeous beach on the other side of the isle. As I swam in the warm and crystal clear water a group of dolphins swam near us. Swimming in the ocean with four dolphins was again an amazing experience that I cannot do justice to in words. We laid on the beach for hours.

A cat that was in my room.

View out my bedroom door.

Jules resort where we stayed. Thanks Jules!

A few days later Henry took us off Mahe (the main Island) and to Pryland. Pryland ranks as probably the most beautiful location I have ever stayed at  in my life. We stayed in a very luxurious resort owned by Henry's friend Jules. Jules turned out to be a great host and we had a blast. Jules owns a yacht company and has ten yachts. We took one out all day and drove around all the islands. He would pull up next to a beach and I would jump off the top of the boat and swim to a deserted shore on a tiny, deserted island. One more gorgeous then the next. I am not exaggerating when I say I have never seen beauty like this before. We raced by flying fish. Watched manta rays swim underneath us, listened to some American rock, and drank Sey brew.

Later that week I went SCUBA diving for the first time. It was a crash course. . .don't hold your breath when your coming up or lungs will burst, don't swim up to fast or you will have to much nitrogen in your blood and get the benz, don't panic, etc. Basically they took us out in a boat, my South African friend (Q) told me all this, and then we fell backwards into the water. Just jump and go. We went down to about 70 ft, which is pretty deep, and swam around. It was truly astonishing. I saw a large parrotfish, and swam with him for awhile, and a big sea bass. The divers next to us saw  two sharks and gave us the hand signal to indicate such, but I didn't see  them. Then as my tank got down on air it was time to come up slowly. As I  was coming up Jules decided to have me use his oxygen breather as mine was low, as I switched my mouth filled with water. The breather didn't work, and when I looked up I was still about 30 feet under the water, so I rushed to the surface. I was ok. . .no Benz. It was a blast. Considering I have never done it before I felt pretty good with my performance. Next time I will be better.

Matt and Chico prepare to board the Yacht.

A day of boating in paradise

As we swam on the surface near the dive boat I took of my tank and fins and passed it up. Then Q challenged me to see how deep I could go without a  tank. So I dove down and went under the boat, and then back to the other  side. As I was coming up for air I saw him pointing excitedly and I realized I had forgotten to take off my weight belt! I wasn't even wearing fins, but  I managed to come up to the surface and float without a problem. Everyone in the group was bitten multiple times by jellyfish, but nothing bit me. It was  a good day.

*Note: Do not drink and drive million dollar boats. Kids don't try this at home.

Matt and Q prepare to go scuba diving.

Matt scuba'd out.

It was hard leaving the Seychelles. But I am happy to report that we now  have an official training group there under the direction of Mr.. Henry Naiken. I know Henry will do a good job, and I look forward to coming back to the Sey's sometime soon. Special thanks to all the guys of Henry's club, and Jules, for a great time!

Thanks to everyone in the Seys 'I shall return! - Matt (wanna be a beachbum) Thornton

The lost roll of film!

Here is some pics from the lost roll, including the Georgia seminar.

The Georgia Gym crew. Thanks to Trey and the Alabama guys who also drove down to attend. As well as Myatovich, and the new SBG VP in charge of entertainment(you know who you are. . .always three!) Also thanks to Aaron and the Kentucky guys, and Chris,(the comic). And anyone else I may have forgoten.

'Adam demo's his new conditioning program'