If you ever wondered how the skate outreach started, it was six years ago thanks to @cowboykashi.

In 2015 I found out our city had a sick indoor skatepark. I stopped by one night about an hour before my shift ended and Akash was working there back then. The park was about to close and he invited me to skate. I wanted to but I hadn’t skated in about 25 years, so I knew there would be a lot of rust to shake off, but his #positivity and encouragement changed my mind. I didn’t tell him that I could skate a little and he proceeded to give me a short skate lesson about keeping my feet on the bolts and bending my knees. Great tips! He was nice enough to get this video of me and he made a post about our interaction that made me realize that skating could connect me with so many more people in our #community. The rest is history.

We crossed paths again last year when he and the Guard helped us with security after the rioting downtown.

Lessons learned: A small act of #kindness can significantly impact someone or something, you never know when or how it will manifest. 🙏🏽🇺🇸🤙🏽 #fbf #police #outreach #aloha #skatecreateenjoy #makeadifference #skatelikeacop 📹 @cowboykashi

Aside from punches, encircling the neck in a #headlock is a very common behavior in a fight. I’m fortunate that I have friends and coworkers to let me periodically practice some defenses and counters with the gear (around 20lbs / 9kgs) on a variety of surfaces.

Torso flexion is much more difficult and my mag pouches and sometimes taser holster dig into my thigh and ribs. The grounded headlock counter that requires the leg to go around the head of the other person is really difficult and may not be possible depending on how your equipment is configured. The only way to find out is to grab a friend and try it out. 🤙🏽 #fbf #police #selfdefense #jiujitsu #graciesurvivaltactics #fitness #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #oahugrown #aiea #trainweeklyorfightweakly

This week I’m very fortunate to be attending a Basic Tactical Medical Instructor Training Program in our city taught by instructors from @fletc (Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers). This course exposed how much work I have to do in this area.

The #bodyweight movements in the beginning are from @da_rulk and his #RFT program. I did them to get my heart rate up then tried to incorporate some #dryfire practice with the @dryfire.mag before the #tourniquet applications using only the support hand. I tried to do 10 sets of that. Not easy.

The class taught us two ways to make improvised tourniquets using a triangle bandage and my pocket flashlight and I will share them later. Great class. @northamericanrescue 🙏🏽🇺🇸🤙🏽 #police #fitness #trainweeklyorfightweakly #aiea #oahugrown

I’ve had some awesome supervisors over the past 18 years, but I never had one who skated! Ben asked me to meet him near the @bellevueskatepark and then asked to borrow my board. I was envisioning what I might need from my first aide kit but he sure showed me! 😂

Taking a minute to shake off the rust and get ready for the last skatecamp of the summer, I think he’s ready 🛹. 🤙🏽 #police #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #skatelikeacop #AlwaysCan #aiea #oahugrown #hawaii50 #skatecreateenjoy 📹 @_brendandillon

No weights at mom & dad’s house but there is gravity. 🙏🏽🩴🤙🏽#AlwaysCan #police #oldman #fitness #trainweeklyorfightweakly #RFT #aiea #oahugrown #rubbahslippahs

No, we’re not training for the Olympics, it’s just another week at the @bellevueskatepark #summer skate camp!

Mahalo to Joe, @switchmongopush, @_brendandillon and @raphael__caldas for letting me be a part of the rad experience you guys created for the kids.

This camp was extra epic for me because I got to bring four deserving youth from our #community to participate and we hooked them up with complimentary spots in the camp, brand new @realskateboards completes, helmets and @187killerpads all thanks to a grant from the @wrpatoday! I’m working on bringing 10 more shredders to the next three camps! Stay tuned. 🙏🏽🇺🇸🤙🏽 #police #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #skatecreateenjoy #aiea #oahugrown #skatelikeacop 🎵 #radboys #futureprimitive

@natetrahan helping me pressure test my equipment and competency at our station. I first met Nate when he was helping as a skate coach at one of the @bellevueskatepark camps. He’s headed off to college in a few weeks (on a full academic scholarship! 👏🏽) and I was very lucky to get a super fun training session in before that. Nate always gives me great feedback and he is familiar with how to release the retentions of my holster so it was good to see if the gear and skills held up.

The wrist / biceps control I got at the beginning is a great way to control one arm and it also limits a person’s access to the waistband. Even though Nate is grabbing my taser I knew from previous pressure testing that he could not unholster it by just pulling. I’m very lucky to have the luxury of making mistakes and learning when it doesn’t count for real, and maybe you can learn something by watching this too.

Some people advocate against going to the ground altogether due to the accessibility of the tools from close quarters. The ground however provides the best amount of control you can have over another person. It limits mobility and neutralizes size and strength as much as is realistically possible. At the end of the day, no matter what new technology or tool gets invented to assist with controlling someone, at some point we still have to close the distance and engage.

Becoming more comfortable in uncomfortable positions (especially on the bottom) is important because things can go wrong, and knowing the limitations (while wearing all of the gear) of what can be done and what you can do beforehand will only help. 🙏🏽🤙🏽 #police #jiujitsu #selfdefense #graciesurvivaltactics #outreach #aloha #makeadidderence #recruiting #trainweeklyorfightweakly #aiea #oahugrown

What #lifelessons did Sarael learn while trying to drop in? I’m so hyped right now!👏🏽🛹🚔🤙🏽 #thankyouskateboarding #police #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #skatelikeacop #skatecreateenjoy

When you show up for a tour of our station wearing your gi, you know what’s about to go down!

Mahalo to @davidchristiano85 for being such an awesome dad to Arihanna and Jordan and for allowing them an opportunity to get to know us.

#jiujitsu is an incredible martial art and a great sport. My favorite thing about the art however, is using it to connect with people (figuratively and literally) from all segments of our population. I will use it in that way for as long as my body will let me.🥋🇺🇸🤙🏽 #police #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #trainweeklyorfightweakly #aiea #oahugrown

I first met @natetrahan when he was helping as a skate coach at one of the @bellevueskatepark camps. He’s headed off to college in a few weeks (on a full scholarship! 👏🏽) so we sent him off with a super fun training session. Nate always gives me great feedback in training. He is familiar with how to release the retentions of my holster and you can see that he was able to successfully unholster. I am very grateful that I have the luxury of learning why / how that happened in training. 🙏🏽🤙🏽 #police #jiujitsu #selfdefense #graciesurvivaltactics #outreach #aloha #makeadidderence #recruiting #trainweeklyorfightweakly #aiea #oahugrown

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. 🙏🏽🤙🏽 #edwardeveretthale #police #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #oahugrown #aiea

We recently had the honor of having @christiansailerofficial stop by our station for a tour. Christian is one of the best competitive pistol shooters in the world. A few years ago he became the youngest person to ever win the US Nationals and the first to win all eight of the @theuspsa area matches and US Nationals in a single season. All of this before his 21st birthday!

While at our station I had the pleasure of introducing Christian to #jiujitsu. We covered distance management principles from the #graciesurvivaltactics course and some gun out #weaponretention principles from standing and the ground. Not surprisingly, Christian has a fantastic attitude towards learning and he picked stuff up super fast. I’m looking forward to when he comes back and helps us at our range. Mahalo to @buliwyf_actual for linking us up! 🙏🏽🤙🏽 #police #jiujitsu #selfdefense #trainweeklyorfightweakly #uspsa #prodigy #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #bellevue #aiea

Feeling the inevitable aches and pains that come with being 46 made me reevaluate a lot of things in my #training routine. I was having really bad shoulder impingement (thanks #jiujitsu) and thought I would have to take some time off on a recent trip home. My parent’s place doesn’t have any weights so I was planning on just resting and hoping my shoulder healed up.

Being in the backyard I started to mess around with some of the movements from @da_rulk’s #RFTlevel1 course, something I was lucky enough to attend a few months ago. Rulk has an obvious passion for helping people, and it was cool that he started his journey by working to improve the fitness of police officers.

I was pleasantly surprised that my shoulder impingement didn’t affect my ability to do the 9 movements. Prior to the course I never gave much thought to doing a #workout without additional weight because I thought it would be too easy, especially since I’m so light. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong! 😂 Additional benefits are not needing any equipment, the minimal space needed and the ability to scale and modify for physical limitations or injury.

The #sitthrough is probably the most known of the movements, and I think also looks the coolest. 😎 It is a wrestling based movement that Rulk modified slightly to mitigate stress to the shoulder joint. The knee is one of the primary reference points and it moves to where the opposite hand is before returning and alternating sides. The movement can be done stationary or while moving. I was surprised by how much it worked my core and quads.

I’m still old, not flexible and uncoordinated, but definitely feel like I can move around a little more comfortably. My shoulder could heal and I kept my conditioning up too. The reward afterwards was getting to eat one of the pomegranates behind me. 🤙🏽 #police #fitness #oldman #trainweeklyorfightweakly #aiea #oahugrown

To make connections and build positive relationships I have always preferred activities over dialogue. There is definitely value in things like meetings, talking circles, and other similar verbal discussions, but to break down barriers, I’d rather skate, do #jiujitsu, throw a ball, play HORSE, have a #pushup contest, run a race, hold mits, etc. I think I learn just as much about a person through those things as I can through a conversation, plus it’s way more fun! Some of those activities can be done organically, like at a park, or in a neighborhood. But it definitely helps when they occur at a centralized location where the activity is already taking place with structure and guidance. We are lucky to have several organizations and businesses in our #community that take on this important role and who support our presence to build those relationships. One of those place is the #eastsidepugs at @ring_sports_united. The ESP is a #boxing program under @usaboxing and led by Coach @oathermark and his selected coaches. It allows youth a chance to learn the sweet science and earn their membership at the gym through discipline and hard work.

The pandemic struck hard and the gym got a standing 8 count while they relocate and prepare to reopen. Just don’t call it a comeback! These young people definitely inspired me to do more and be better myself. #police #outreach #aloha #makeadifference #fitness #trainweeklyorfightweakly #aiea #oahugrown

I am not affiliated with the Eastside Pugs or the gym in any way and I am definitely not a boxer! However, I have seen firsthand the potentially life saving ways thIs program has positively impacted so many of our youth. If you are interested in supporting their cause and some of the youth in our community, a link that Coach Mark created is in my bio. 👊🏽🇺🇸🤙🏽