Rain today, and some wind. First I’ve seen the inlet disturbed. The water has been so still and smooth since we got here. It was humid last night, in advance of the weather coming in, and today I’ve felt the moisture in my left knee and ankle, reminders of injuries that refuse to entirely heal.
The ankle has been years, but the knee is fresh. I bouldered a lot before the pandemic, but that stopped when quarantine came, that and physical activity in general. Unemployment and then work from home does that to you. When numbers finally declined in the region and restrictions on gyms lifted, I decided I’d try something I’d always been interested in, and signed up for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the Gracie Barra in town. Good covid safety policies and a positive gym culture made for a pleasant experience. It was a lot of fun, with a lot of good, kind people. When I received my third stripe I jumped right into GB2, and promptly got dropped on my knee, hard. Loss of mobility, major swelling, and a nasty purple bruise that leaked out from under my knee cap. I rested it, tried to rehab it as best I could, but then a few weeks later I did the same again. It’s aching a lot today.
There’s no Gracie Barra on the Sunshine Coast, though there are some other gyms not far from here. I’m nervous about the culture at a new gym, and I’m nervous about my knee, but I do miss it, the mechanics of rolling, the way your body learns to inhabit form. There’s a bouldering gym very close by, so maybe it’s time to grab my shoes and chalk bag once again. There’s a formalistic quality that bouldering and jiu jitsu share, something that both my brain and my body appreciate.