When you are hosting a party, it is good to have a lively bunch of guests and a great location. The Golden Gate put it all together with top-notch competitors and a location that was more than convenient. Located in the San Francisco airport Marriott, the event was a mere shuttle away from the airport with ample parking and a spacious lobby for hanging out during and after the event.

Over the two days of the Golden Gate, there were a lot of memorable performances that deserve mention. Richard Cali opened up the festivities with his form in the men’s contemporary weapons division. Local favorite Jerico Catura went second in the division and his scores held up almost to the end when Cali took over the lead. Cali and Catura weren’t the only superstar competitors at the event. Anis Cheurfa from France is known for his insane tricks but his training in the United States has honed his basics resulting in a solid performance in the men’s division. Cheurfa’s training partner, Chris Devera, also performed and was almost disqualified for too many gymnastics techniques. After further review, Devera remained in the game but in the end it was Catura winning the division.

The forms and weapons divisions were exciting but it was the team sparring competition that had people crowding around the ring like a bunch of excited partygoers. When the men lined up for team sparring, it was clear that all the fighters had every expectation of leaving the Golden Gate Mardi Gras with a first place. Looking down the line up of fighters, all seemed normal in size and stature, but everyone did a double-take at the first glimpse of Team JMA. Team JMA’s choice of members was quite intimidating for the rest of the teams since the lightest member of the team was Brandon Bertsch who weighed in at 230 pounds. The team looked more like the San Francisco 49er defensive line than a men’s sparring team. JMA’s Bertsch, Trevyn Jenkins and Justin Lydell did quite well, winning their first match against The Honolulu Sparring Club but then being toppled by Team GQ Sport’s Sean Arceo, Jason Montgomery and Joshua May.

There was tension in the air as the men’s team sparring eliminations came down to Team DDX and Team Bay Area’s Best to determine who would go to the finals to face Team GQ Sport for the divisional title. Kyle Richards and Jack Felton, representing Bay Area’s Best, put their team ahead by 6 points going into the final round where Bryan Young of Bay Area’s Best met up with Tim Gustavson of Team DDX. The veteran Gustavson had his work cut out for him and Young merely had to keep Gustavson from getting more than a seven-point lead on him. The party gods were not in Young’s favor at the Golden Gates as Gustavson went into a frenzy scoring seven points while Young could only manage one during regulation time. This sent the match into overtime where Gustavson was awarded a point for a body punch as he pulled off a huge come-from-behind victory for his team.

Jack Felton made the trip up to the Golden Gate from his hometown of Huntington Beach, California. The trip was a good one as a whole for Felton as he went unscored on in the men’s light middleweight division and only gave up two points in the sparring run offs as he moved to the stage for the men’s sparring finals.

Marielle Elliott and Leanne Dumlao faced each other to determine who would go to stage to face Priscilla Gonzalez for the women’s sparring finals. During the match, Elliott rocked Dumlao with a sidekick to the face with the center referee awarding a penalty point to Dumlao for excessive contact by Elliott. Elliott was visibly upset by the call and was unable to get her focus back during the match. Dumlao, on the other hand, shook off the blow, took the point and went on to win the match 3-1 and win a trip to the finals.

The Golden Gate party theme continued into the finals where Jordan Pallen came to the stage wearing a crown and beautiful white cape while his blushing wife, Felipa, was dragged along wearing her tiara and party dress. The crowd went wild with cheers.

After the fun of the opening demos and the Pallen’s royal appearance, it was time to get down to some serious competition. Age won out over cuteness in the youth contemporary forms grand championships as 17-year-old James Solis defeated 11 and under competitors Mia Caldwell, Justin Runes and Sage Northcutt for the title. In the end, Solis gave his grand championship award to Runes in acknowledgement of the younger competitor’s great performances. Even though the big kid won out in the youth contemporary forms competition, it was little Mia Caldwell bringing home a title for the little kids in the youth contemporary weapons grand championship. Mia defeated Colorado’s Tyler Weaver and New Mexico’s Chris Martin in a battle of the kama.

With California being a haven for kenpo practitioners, the Golden Gate catered to this fact by offering a separate youth kenpo forms grand championship along with awards for youth Korean and Japanese forms. The kenpo competition came down to Sage Northcutt, the 2005 NBL World Champion in 11 and under kenpo forms, and brothers Corey and Ryan Matsumura. The judges had a tough decision but in the end Ryan, the younger Matsumura, went home with the title and family bragging rights.

At many tournaments, the junior fighters only get to see the finals stage from the audience but at the Golden Gate, as with all NBL events, some of the final matches in junior continuous sparring are held on stage to give the kids recognition. Alex Sandoval of Texas took the lead in his featherweight match against Jonathan Rios and held on for a 32-23 victory. In the light middleweight fight, Ashley Grant faced Tyri Ferguson and she was determined to prove that girls can fight with the boys. The match was hard hitting with Ashley up by a mere point after the first round. When Ashley got knocked down in the second round, she got back on her feet looking like she was going to rip Tyri’s head off. Her rage spurred her to a 43-37 victory in the match. Frankie the Manchild&Mac226; Fernandez is only 13 years old but he fights in the heavyweight division in continuous sparring. This means many of his opponents are at least a few years older than him. Frankie faced 17-year-old Matthew Okada on stage in his continuous match at Golden Gates. There was a huge height difference between the two boys and Frankie could not get past Matt’s long legs as Matt dominated the match, winning 50-35. The super heavyweight competition did not last long as Joe Bowman punched Andy Nye in the face and drew blood, resulting in an automatic disqualification and giving Nye the win.

Dipankan Bhattacharya (aka Dippy) of Team Golden State appeared on stage three times and all with great success. His first appearance was to fight in the boys' middleweight continuous sparring finals against Tavaris Sterling. Dippy’s fight against Tavaris was close, almost too close. They were tied at 12 after the first round and Dippy was able to edge Tavaris out by one point to win 25-24 after the second round. Dippy took his second trip to the stage in the youth Japanese forms grand championship. With a 2005 NBL World title in Korean forms under his belt, Dippy was a true contender in this competition against Michelle Sims and his teammate Meile Keck. All three competitors put on great performances but when the dust cleared, there was Dippy with the win and his second title for the evening. Finally, when the youth Korean forms grand championship was called, Dippy was back again for the hat-trick, facing Jonathan Rios and Colbey Northcutt. Once again, Dippy could do no wrong as he earned his third title for the night.

Was Ashley Artese at the event? No, it wasn’t Artese, it was Melissa Terpstra who had an enthusiastic routine that was reminiscent of Artese’s. Terpstra even grabbed her leg, held it in the air and then dropped down to the splits as Artese does. Kim Do Nguyen was also on stage in this division but his musical routine included sound effects in the music. Nguyen’s choice of music ended with the judges disqualifing him as sound effects are a clear violation of NBL rules. In the end, Jerico Catura won the grand championship. Nguyen and Terpstra were back again in the adult contemporary weapons grand championship along with Richard Cali and Roark Hodson. Nguyen whipped out pink kama to try and sway the judges with his performance but Hodson’s soft style straight sword routine was the big winner this evening.

Noticeably absent from the traditional competition in 2005 was the famous Canadian, Keith Weston. He returned for the Golden Gate and found himself on stage competing for the adult traditional forms grand championship. The battle was between a number of NBL world champions including Brandon Bertsch competing with his traditional bo, Melissa Sioson and her Japanese routine and Jerico Catura and his Korean form. The final competitor was Jason Cortez and his kenpo routine (Cortez was almost a world title winner in 2005 and plans to win one in 2006). With the stage set, the judges faced the difficult task of determining a winner out of all these viable candidates. In the end, it would be Weston emerging as the winner.

Men’s team sparring was the match between the executives of Team DDX and the young upstarts making up Team GQ Sport. GQ Sport has not been able to defeat DDX yet and at Golden Gates, it was DDX on the winner’s pedestal again. DDX got ahead by two points on the shoulders of Troy Whaley and Marty Maye in their matches against Sean Arceo and Chris Dasalla. The final round fell to Joshua May of GQ Sport to get his team back in the game as he faced the formidable Tim Gustavson - the comeback king. May kept the match close and was only down by one point with 22 seconds to go. However, Gustavson is always solid under pressure and scored a two point head kick to seal the deal and give DDX the win.

Leanne Dumlao showed how a smart fighter fights as she stayed away from the long legs of Priscilla Gonzalez and won the women’s sparring grand championship with a 3-1 score.

In the men’s sparring semi-finals, Jack Felton won another shut out, defeating Sean Arceo 3-0 to move into the final round. Bryan Young also moved into the finals but his victory was far more difficult to come by as his opponent, Brandon Bertsch, forced the match into overtime after battling back to tie the score. Young and Felton had fought on the same team during the men’s team sparring competition and now faced each other for the coveted men’s sparring grand championship title. Felton was on fire at this event and had no qualms about taking it to Young as he dominated the match with a 7-1 score. This ended the weekend for Felton with the title and cash and a bit of bragging rights. His total score throughout the weekend, including his individual, team and grand championship rounds was 57-10!

The conclusion of the finals didn’t mean the end of the Golden Gate Internationals party. The stage was opened up for the kids to put on a tricks competition, the promoters held a drawing to give away great prizes to the staff at the event and the lobby bar was open for business and mingling. There were even rumors that promoter Jordan Pallen was seen flying around the hotel with that white cape on, but those are just rumors!