I love rashies. For no-gi grappling, shirtless does not appeal to me, and loose t-shirts get in the way. For gi grappling, my experience is that most gis don’t feel good on bare skin. I wear rash guards when I work out, too; they have this magical effect of making me look and feel more buff than I actually am.

As much as I’m pro-rash guard, it’s surprising that I’ve never stepped outside of the Under Armour / generic brand arena. I own a couple of rash guards from our club (just OK) and the rash guard that came with the first-generation Origin Genesis (also just OK), but never made an effort to acquire a rashie specifically engineered for the sport.

When I got the Luta rash guard from Aaron at MartialArtsSupplies.com, I doubted that there could really be anything all that different about it. Turns out, there is. And now that I know what else is out there, I’ll not likely be going back.

I liked the Luta so much that it accompanied me on a journey around the Caribbean earlier this month. The stylish black and yellow added to my already considerable sexiness as I zip-lined and cave-tubed through the jungles of Belize in January.

(Click on any photo to view the photos as a slideshow.)

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To some people, a jiu-jitsu gi is just a tool to be worn out, used and replaced. To them, any scrap of cloth shaped like a gi will do. But some of us choose our gis with about as much discretion as we would a brain surgeon (or collect them like some women collect shoes). And for us, this survey is just too cool to ignore. Check out this article.

Aesopian has spent a TON of time on this survey and it shows. Big props to him for putting his time and effort into this – I think it’s a huge service to the BJJ community at large.

I reviewed 5 or 7 gis for this survey (I honestly can’t remember) and am pleased to note that the gis I prefer to wear training ranked highly in the results. Whether or not you participated, this survey is a great starting point to buying a new gi.

Most interesting to me is that apparently in the top 33 brands of gi, there is no significant variance in quality (Black Eagle is not on the top 20, for example, and I consider their product to be better than some of the other top 20). There are really hundreds of factors that influence results, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Aesopian breaks it down and interprets the data.

I for one am thrilled that many of the top brands are under $130 retail.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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I’m late for the bus. Not the first time this has happened to me, but the sinking feeling of panic never goes away. I abandon my breakfast on the countertop, fling my books over my shoulder and run down the driveway. Just as the bus begins to pull a way, I pound frantically on the door. Breathless as I run up the stairs, I stomp the snow off my shows and turn to face the bus full of my classmates. Then it happens. A cold draft of air wafts up my leg. From the back of the bus, someone yells “Hey, he’s not wearing any pants!”

http://usa.venumfight.com/

For any of you who still have dreams like this, where you’re the victim of some humiliating situation, buy some Venum Ultimate Vale Tudo shorts and wear them to bed. These babies keep you so secure that there won’t be any room for paranoia.

First questions first: what is the difference between a vale tudo short and a traditional fight short?

The biggest difference it is that vale tudo shorts are form-fitting. They hug your body and flex with you. They do not hide bulges and curves, like looser fight shorts would. In other words, they cover your butt, but they don’t hide it!

Venum Shines Through

My biggest question when Aaron from BJJHQ sent me these was how to accurately review a product meant for cage fighting. I was definitely not going into the octagon just to test these babies out.

Aaron saved me on this one: “Many people wear them under their gi pants. You need big…wait…you need a lot of body confidence to rock them alone.”

Well, I have only moderate…uh…body confidence. So that solved it. I would wear and test them under my gi pants.
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Apparently I’m like the 4938′th blogger to review the Black Eagle Raptor.

Well, that just means there are 4937 other lucky grapplers out there who get to wear one of these to training every day. Black Eagle really outdid themselves with the Raptor.

Lest I sound like a gawking fanboy, you should know I found a few problems with this model that I’ll be exposing in my review; and one flaw in particular would really make think twice about buying it unless they fix it for the production model.

If you want the short version, here’s the video. For you die-hards, continue on after the video for specifics in measurements, weight, and to find out whether or not I got made fun of for wearing a gi with purple flowing letters on it.

Video Review

360-degree Photos

(click to view in slideshow)

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No use sugar-coating it. My Macbook Pro died last week. Or, at least the hard drive did…right in the middle of a backup.

I was hoping that it would be fixed by now so I could finish up some of the crucial parts of my Submission Light gi review and post them this evening. Unfortunately, it’s still out of commission and an important segment of the review is not completed as a result.

Today I got another computer with the right software that I’ll be using to finish the job. Sorry about the delay, especially to Shakib at Submission Fight Co., who sent me the gi quite a while ago and has been waiting patiently.

Keep checking back!

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