Chris is the founder and owner of The Base Jiu Jitsu in Vancouver, Washington.  He is a 2nd degree BJJ black belt under Leo Vieira of CheckMat, and his rank is certified with both IBJJF and USBJJF.  He is an avid competitor including being a 4x gold medalist in the black belt division at IBJJF open events, and recently placing bronze at the 2022 IBJJF European championships.  He is also a 1st grade brown belt in judo under Andy Hung and Roy Kawaji or the former Portland Judo dojo.  In addition to his time on the mats he is a fitness enthusiast and is a Suples Training Systems Level 1 certified trainer.  In addition to being an academy owner for the past 8 years, he is also a husband and father to three boys and two French bulldogs.

Some items we discuss include:

• What training BJJ was like in the "early days" before many people knew what it was
• His journey through the colored belts
• How it feels and what changes once you are promoted to black belt
• The journey of being an academy owner and challenges that come with it
• How he handled the pandemic as a small business owner
• His time spent working security at bars
• His background with the Suples system of fitness training, specifically with the Bulgarian Bag
• What it is like competing as a black belt at an international level, and lessons for aspiring competitors
• Different grappling skills needed in different contexts, such as street self defense, sport BJJ, and judo
• If he were to create a perfect rule set for BJJ / submission grappling what would it be and why