How Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was introduced to Hawaii
Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was formerly introduced to Hawaii by Relson Gracie, 8th Degree Red/Black Belt and son of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu innovator Professor Helio Gracie.  Although Relson was not the first Gracie to come to Hawaii, he was the first to settle and start a school.  A Brazilian named Carlos "Cao" Valente arrived on the island of Kauai in 1980 and then moved to Oahu in 1983. Carlos invited Relson to Hawaii in 1986 to put on a seminar and give some private instructional classes. Carlos knew that Relson would love the sun, the surf, and especially the wome.......people.  After the successful seminar, many people kept asking Relson to come back. Relson could not resist the temptations of Hawaii, so he moved to the island of Oahu in 1987 and worked odd jobs along with teaching Jiu-Jitsu, much like his brothers in California, out of Valente's garage for about a year.  The popularity of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu soon increased and he soon started teaching in a studio at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  Carlos assisted Relson until fellow Brazilian, Romolo Barros, a purple belt at the time, now a black belt joined the academy and helped to build Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu into what it is today in Hawaii.

In 1992, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was created and held it's first event.  The UFC featured champions from various marital arts and pitted them against each other in order to educate martial artists on effective techniques of individual realistic combat.  One of the competitors was Royce Gracie, Relson's "little" brother, who went on to win UFC I, UFC II, and UFC IV.  Royce Gracie proved that martial artists, at the time, not only lacked ground fighting techniques, but could not defend themselves against an experienced grappler.  Rickson Gracie, another one of Relson's "little" brothers, contributed to the demand for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu by winning the Vale Tudo Japan Open in 1994 & 1995 (later winning in Pride-1 & Pride-4).  This caused an incredible demand for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (or more commonly called Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) instruction throughout the world.  The studio at the University of Hawaii at Manoa was filled to capacity with beginner classes filling with 80-100 students and intermediate/advanced classes with 40 students.

For information on Relson Gracie's Main Academy on Queen Street in downtown Honolulu, click here.

For information on the O2 Martial Arts Academy (formerly Academia Casca Grossa de Jiu-Jitsu), click here.

Photo taken on 9/16/94 prior to a Professor Helio Gracie seminar.

Egan Inoue Opens Grappling Unlimited
Since then, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu's popularity has declined to reasonable levels and class sizes have returned to normal. Due to personal issues and the desire to enter mixed martial arts events, Egan Inoue, then a blue belt, left the Relson Gracie Academy and started Grappling Unlimited, which taught Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school and MMA. Egan has had a lot of success in both BJJ and MMA. He was among the first Americans to win a World BJJ Championship in 1996 at the first Mundial de Jiu-Jitsu in the blue belt division. Egan returned to Brazil to compete in the Mundial in 1997 and won the Absolute (Open) weight class in the purple belt division. After the '97 Mundial, Egan received his brown belt from the Machados. He left the Machado's and chose to associate Grappling Unlimited with Nova Uniao. John Lewis gave Egan and Enson their black belts.

Romolo Barros Opens Brazilian Free Style Jiu-Jitsu
Romolo Barros went on to open his own school called Brazilian Freestyle Jiu-Jitsu on Oahu and Maui after receiving his black belt from Rickson Gracie. Due to Romolo's personal relationship with a lot of students, many students chose to stay with Romolo when he opened his own school. This turned out to be very good for BJJ in Hawaii as it created one more team to compete against at the state and international tournaments. The more competition, the higher the level of every student.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on Kauai
Bruno Ewald moved back to Kauai and started a BJJ academy. Bruno is a multiple World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu medalist in the brown belt division in his weight class and the Absolute weight class. Carl Rodrigues, who used to train under Bruno, chose to leave and opened up a separate academy. Bruno seemed to take all the tall BJJ students and formed Longman Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy and Carl seemed to take all the average sized or shorter students and formed Ka-mole Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Kendall Goo, after completing college on Oahu at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and training at the Relson Gracie Academy, decided against a career in the NFL and chose to stay in Hawaii. Kendall moved back to Kauai (where he is originally from) and opened the KG Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Kendall is a two time World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Champion, winning the Pessadissimo weight class in the blue belt division (teammate Kelly Matsukawa closed out the other side of the bracket and took 2nd place) in 1997. And in 2000, Kendall won his second championship in the purple belt division.

Nova Uniao Comes to Hawaii
Next to come to Hawaii was Renato "Charuto" Verissimo. Charuto was brought to Hilo, Hawaii by the Penn's (BJ, JD and Regan) when the brothers left Ralph Gracie's school in San Francisco, California to return home. They opened up a Nova Uniao Academy in Hilo, Hawaii. John Lewis, trying to capitalize on the fact that a Nova Uniao black belt was already living in Hawaii, wanted to fulfill a dream of his, to open a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Hawaii. He opened up a Nova Uniao Academy in Honolulu (Kaimuki) and left Charuto as head instructor. The academy was open for a couple of years and was growing but closed due to various reasons. BJ Penn took over the Hilo, Hawaii academy as head instructor shortly after becoming the first non-Brazilian to ever win a World BJJ Championship at the black belt level. BJ brought in Leandro Nyza, another Nova Uniao black belt to help him primarily due to Charuto staying on Oahu. BJ Penn used to travel between Hilo and San Jose, California to train at Javier Mendez' American Kickboxing Academy. He now trains in Hilo and opened up a large academy with his brothers. BJ has experienced tremendous success in his transition into MMA with his dominating performances in the UFC, culminating in beating Matt Hughes to become the UFC Welterweight Champion.

Luis "Limao" Heredia Moves to Maui
After living in California for "too many years," Luis "Limao" Heredia decided that he wanted to improve his quality of life. Luis was Rickson Gracie's right hand man and ran Rickson's Santa Monica academy since it first opened. Luis wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles and move to Maui to relax and enjoy life. Luis opened a school on Maui in January 2003.
 

*due to time constraints, we quickly wrote summaries of these events and will contact each instructor to verify accuracy of the general events. If you are one of the instructors, please email us with any corrections or additional information. We want to be as accurate as possible.

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