Archive for the ‘Archives’ Category

by Kevin Cody
Hermosa Valley School fifth grader Jean Paul LeBosnoyani readily admitted to having felt nervous on the drive to the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation Pan Kids Championships last month at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
He calmed himself, he said by “taking deep breaths and visualizing coming home with the gold medal.”

Two hours later, when his fight was called, the nervousness was gone, replaced by the centered calm characteristic of gifted athletes. In the moments leading up to the match, while Hermosa Beach Firefighter Captain James Crawford taped a broken big toe on the 11-year-old’s right foot, and a dozen Hermosa View schoolmates cheered him on, LeBosnoyani, as he put it afterwards, “put on my meanest face and stared at my opponent.”

LeBosnoyani’s opponent for the gold in the 11- to 12-year-old, 90 to 95 pound division was Gustavo Vargas from Clan Gracie Barra, Brazil.

Coincidentally, LeBosnoyani’s father Nono was Royce Gracie’s stand-up coach. Royce’s branch of the legendary Gracie family, established mixed martial arts in the United States by founding the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993.

LeBosnoyani began competing in jiu jitsu only last year. But he has been “on the mat” in his dad’s downtown Hermosa Beach gym Beach since he was four, soaking up knowledge not only from professional fighters like Gracie, and public safety officers like Captain Crawford, but also his father’s favorite students – local beach kids.

Physical chess
Like LeBosnoyani, Vargas’ dad was also his coach. Both 11-year-olds looked tall and lean for their age as they stepped on the mat to cheers in English and Portuguese.
LeBosnoyani hopped up and down and then sank to the mat, doing the splits. Vargas stood still, a look of deliberate indifference on his face.

The referee brought the two together for the handshake, and then barely had time to step back before both fighters went on the offensive. LeBosnoyani grabbed Vargas’ gi in an attempt at a cross choke. Vargas wanted a takedown. After the two circled the ring several times, he lifted LeBosnoyani’s left leg and the two dropped to the mat.
Ordinarily, the single leg takedown would have earned Vargas points. But it was difficult to tell who took whom down because by the time they hit the mat, LeBosnoyani had pulled Vargas into the guard, locking his legs around his opponent’s waist.

LeBosnoyani’s dad teaches his students that jiu jitsu is like a chess match. For ever move, there is a countermove. And like chess masters, good fighters think at least three moves ahead.

Vargas regained his feet, lifting LeBosnoyani upside down, in an effort to break free of the guard. LeBosnoyani countered by grabbing Vargas’ gi.

Vargas bit the bait. To block the cross choke, he let lose of LeBosnyoani’s left leg.
“You need to see the submission. It won’t come to you. You have to find it,” LeBosnoyani said after the fight.

What LeBosnoyani saw when Vargas first grabbed his leg to take him down, was the guard, followed by a triangle choke, followed by an arm bar — his favorite submission hold. Chokes are slow to take effect, and physically taxing. Arm bars bring immediate results.

LeBosnoyani is called Monkey at his father’s gym. While still upside down, he whipped his freed left leg around Vargas’ neck and secured it with his right leg for a triangle choke.
The counter to a triangle choke is to walk forward, over your opponent. But because of the limberness LeBosnoyani demonstrated when he did the splits at the start of the match, the more Vargas moved forward, the tighter the choke became.

A lesser opponent would have tapped. But Vargas was also well coach.

“Gira, gira. Pasa, pasa,” his father shouted.
Vargas backed up and dropped on his butt to the mat. As he pushed with his right arm against LeBosnoyani’s left leg to relieve the pressure on his neck, LeBosnoyani pinned the outstretched arm under his left armpit. Then he rolled on top of Vargas, and abandoned the triangle choke for an arm bar.

Vargas refused to tap as his elbow was bent backward. The referee hurriedly ended the match.

The scheduled four minute round went 52 seconds.

The work behind the wins
Last year, LeBosnoyani could have laid claim to being the best 11-year-old jiu jitsu fighter in his weight division in the United States. He won gold in eight of eight matches in competitions that included the Gracie Kids World Championships, the State Jiu Jitsu Championships, and the Abu Dhabi Championships.

With his gold medal victory at the Pan Kids Jiu Jitsu Championships, he can lay claim to being the best in the world in his division. Competitors from eight nations competed for the gold at the Pan Kids Championships.

LeBosnoyani trains three hours a day, five days a week after school. His workouts begin with an hour of self-directed drills, followed by teaching private and group classes to his peers and younger kids. Then he trains with his dad’s teen and adult class.
LeBosnoyani also trains regularly in Hawthorne with kick-boxing coach Steve Fisher, a former national champion whose students include 15 national champions and an Olympic gold medalist.

For boxing instruction, he travels to the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood to work with Freddie Roach, whose other fighters include Manny Pacquiao, holder of seven world titles.
“Coaching Jean Paul is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We butt heads on the mat all the time. It helps to have him hear what dad tells him come from another coach,” his father said.

That observation is confirmed by Fisher’s experience with his young student.
“Jean Paul has a very calm demeanor under fire, a quality you see in most great competitors. He stays focused and doesn’t get frustrated. Tell him what to do and he makes it happen. He is very coachable,” Fisher said.

“It helps,” he added, “that he is also quick, very coordinated and hits hard.”
“When I heard he had broken his toe three weeks before the Pan Championships I assumed he wouldn’t compete because it would limit his mobility. But it doesn’t’ shock me that he fought. I had a feeling he’d be okay,” Fisher said.

Despite jiu jitsu’s hundreds of submission holds, LeBosnoyani’s dad attributes his son’s success to his mastery of three basic maneuvers: the arm bar, the triangle choke and the double take-down, which puts the opponent in the guard when the fighters crash to the mat.

I tell him, “Don’t make it complicated. Don’t be a Jack of all trades and master of none.”
Despite appearances, the dad insists jiu jitsu is as safe as other, more popular sport. He attributes concerns about its danger to a lack of understanding.

“It’s all about controlling your opponent. There are no punches or kicks in the kids’ competitions. “But let’s not kid ourselves. Chokeholds and breaks are lethal techniques. I tell the kids that just because police carry pistols doesn’t mean they go around shooting people.”

Jean Paul LeBosnoyani practice hip throws at LeBosnoyani’s father’s Nono Hapkido gym in downtown Hermosa Beach. Photo by Leah Shoemaker

Two golds
“Definitely,” LeBosnoyani said when asked if he is prepared for the inevitable tournament loss. “I’ll learn by losing, the same as I learn when I lose to the students I train with.”
Manhattan Beach resident Scott Rusher, whose 7-year-old son Kalani trains under LeBosnoyani, said that off the mat LeBosnoyani is like any other 11-year-old. He skateboards, surfs, and plays basketball in the Manhattan Beach Youth League.

He also rides a 90 CC Yamaha dirt bike. “I want him to experience everything,” his dad said.

But Rusher noted that LeBosnoyani does have a distinguishing characteristic off the mat.
“He is the most mature 11-year-old you will ever meet,” Rusher said.

On the morning of the Pan Championships, LeBosnoyani went to his sister Bianca’s 9 a.m. MBYB basketball game at American Martyr’s School.

After the game ended at 10:05 a.m., LeBosnoyani told his dad to call Rusher. He wanted to ride to the competition with Kalani, whose match was at noon.

“I told him, ‘No, you haven’t had breakfast. Your call isn’t until 2:30 p.m.’ But Jean Paul insisted. He said, ‘Kalani’s my student. I need to prepare him.’ We argued. I told him to forget Kalani, to focus on himself. He said, ‘I don’t care if I lose. I need to be there for Kalani.’”

“I called Scott and told him, please, get Jean Paul breakfast.”

While leading Kalani through his stretching exercises, LeBosnoyani told his student what his father always told him.

“If you get an arm bar, rip his arm off. If you get a choke, choke him out. Do everything fast. Don’t get pulled into the guard. Don’t get mounted.”

Kalani ended his match in 35 seconds with a rear naked choke. B

by Matt Wachtfogel
In 1962, my parents moved our family into a home near the base of the sand dune in Manhattan Beach. I had just turned four years old. Coincidentally, that’s about the time a child’s memories begin to stick with them for a lifetime. That was almost 50 years ago.
Back then, the sand dune was just that, a sand dune and not Sand Dune Park. The National Guard Armory bordered the dune on the north and Ladera Elementary School on the south. The dune consisted of beautiful beach sand with sparse native vegetation. Bell Avenue, from 29th St. to 33rd St., was a dirt road. There was no fence on the west side of Bell Avenue so vehicular access to the sand dune from the dirt road was uninhibited.

My earliest memories of the dune were of the occasional dune buggy driving down our street and on to Bell Avenue. The buggy would survey the base of the dune, choose a route and attempt to climb to the top. Neighbors hearing the sound of the buggy would walk out to watch. When new park was constructed the streets that led to the dune were closed. I am sure the OHV enthusiasts who used the dune for years were very unhappy. But I’m sure they found other places to recreate, as people do when they are no longer allowed access to public areas.

Visiting the park now a sign can be found stating that the park was “built by the citizens of Manhattan Beach in 1964”. I remember thinking how great it was to build the park as I was helping to dig trenches for the sprinkler lines. I was only six at the time so I probably wasn’t affording much help, but it was exciting nonetheless.

When the park officially opened for business, I was seven years old and entering my prime “outside” playing years. In those days, parents could let their young children play outside unattended for long periods with no concern about being thrown in jail for doing so. There was a maze of sand trails and just a couple of railroad tie paths on the planted area of the dune. There were swings, slides, teeter-totters, jungle gym and a concrete turtle at the base of the park. But the sand dune was the highlight of the park (for us anyway).

Bell Avenue was still in use as a dirt road next to the park. There was no “tot lot” at that time so cars could parallel park on the dirt road.

I attended Ladera Elementary School. After school, my friends and I would walk home and stop at the park for a quick swing or a run up the sand hill, which at the time seemed monstrous. The park attendant was a nice woman who worked in the building where the bathrooms are now. She was in charge of keeping order in the park and checking out play equipment. We would stop for an hour or two to play caroms, kick ball or just run around on the dune and act like kids.

The sand dune was a four-season playground. At some point, we realized that after a good rain we could carve “ball tracks” in the wet sand of the dune. We would build 50-foot long tracks similar to a bobsled run with bank turns, jumps and tunnels. One of us would sit at the top of the track and one at the bottom. We would take turns rolling small balls down the tracks. If we had enough kids, we would make multiple tracks and have ball races. Sometimes we would play “last ball down wins” because that meant the slower track was more complex. We would experiment, modify and play until dark even though we were cold from the wet winter sand of the dune.

Ladera School on the south of the park had the younger kids’ classes on the lower levels and the fifth and sixth graders’ on the upper levels. The upper playground was known as the sixth grade playground and you did not go up there before your time. Finally earning access to the upper playground, I would exit my classroom after school, walk down the ramp to the playground, exit the playground on the north side and walk home through the park. It was such a great feeling to cross the boundary from the school to the park and be on a sand trail in a little bit of wilderness for 10 minutes or so until I reached the bottom of my street at the base of the park. A quick stop at the park to play for a bit was usually in order before heading home to argue about the necessity of doing homework with my mom.

As the park increased in popularity and foot traffic increased, the City was forced to control erosion on the planted area of the dune. Many of the sand trails were converted to railroad tie walking paths and fences were installed to keep people on the paths. A fence was installed from the bottom of the sand dune to the top between the dune and the planted area of the park. I am not sure how the local parents felt about the changes, but my friends and I felt like our wild park was changed forever and not for the better. Now our hide and seek and hill wide ball tag games were limited. Of course, we adapted and found ways to work with the new obstacles but at the time, the changes seemed terrible.

One day we realized the prevailing “on shore” wind at the top of the sand dune was perfect for flying kites. We would spend hours at the top of the hill flying kites, talking and gazing down on the neighborhood, searching for friends or landmarks. We would let our kites out so far the weight of the string would pull them down and they would fall far to the east. Interested to see how far our kites had flown we would jump on our bikes and track the string from treetop to treetop through the neighborhood. I remember following strings past Sepulveda Blvd. As our need to fly the kites higher beckoned we did away with the standard kite string spools and used fishing poles with high capacity reels and monofilament line. We would let the kites out so far we couldn’t see them and only knew they were still flying based on the angle of the line. One day we decided to leave a kite flying over night to see if it would be there the next day after school. The night we left a kite flying I could not sleep and the next day at school all I could think about was getting to the top of the hill to see if the kite was still there up in the air. After school, we ran to the top of the hill and the kite was still up. We felt like we learned something about the Jet Stream that day but it was probably just a very windy night. Whichever the case, the experiment was exciting. We tried and tried again but I can’t remember another successful overnight flight.

There used to be a perfect sand volleyball court at the base of the sand dune with City furnished permanent poles and court lines. When my friends and I approached 12 years old, we became interested in playing sand volleyball. We had a great group of kids and adults who would play volleyball in the evenings and on weekends. One of the parents started putting on tournaments and that became an annual thing for quite a few years. My friends and I played volleyball on that court until we were old enough to make the trek to the beach and play at Marine St.

The sand dune portion of the park was beautiful white beach sand — no rocks, just sand. You could run full speed down from the top and didn’t have to worry about anything but sand in your mouth and ears when you exceeded your maximum speed and cart wheeled out of control to a gruesome stop. We would walk up and run down as many times as our legs would allow. I’ll bet between my brother, sister and me we brought home hundreds of pounds of sand in our pockets that ended up in the family washing machine. I vaguely remember my mom asking me to empty my pockets of sand before I left the park but I didn’t have time for that.

We discovered another advantage of the clean sand. We found if we took a varnished piece of wood and rubbed paraffin wax on it we could slide down the hill like nobody’s business, so we did. In 1967 or so, sand boarding was on, big time. The sand had to be dry so summer time was best. We searched for old water and snow skis on trash day or would build sand boards and sand riding vehicles out of anything that would slide down the hill. My father had a well-equipped wood shop and I was allowed access to it if I cleaned up after myself, but that is another story. We made some wild stuff and learned a lot about friction, gravity and bruises. The Parks and Rec. Dept. began putting on annual sand boarding contests. My brother still has his trophy: He could go from the top to bottom on his wooden snow ski, no binding just bare feet on the carpeted ski. The really good boarders could go down the hill and across the volleyball court to the grass before stopping. I probably should not disclose this because my mom will find out and I’ll get in trouble, but once or twice, we loaded four people on a surfboard at the top of the hill, pushed off and let it fly. And I mean fly. We ended up bailing out at the bottom to avoid certain death as we approached Bell Ave. at about 40 mph.

Sometime in our teens, there was an unfortunate accident and the sand dune began to change. One of the local kids was digging in the hard dirt at the top of the sand dune. The tunnel he was digging collapsed on him trapping him under the dirt. The Fire Department was summoned and luckily, resuscitated him. Following that incident, whenever the hard dirt showed at the top of the hill the City removed sand from the bottom of the hill and dumped it at the top to cover the hazard. Unfortunately, the soil beneath the beach sand topping contained clay and rocks. The monthly movement of sand from the bottom to the top destroyed the clean sand quality of the dune. We realized, clean sand, fast sand boards. Dirty sand, slow sand boards. We were forced to move our sand boarding activities to small paths between the bushes next to the Armory fence since the relocation of the sand did not affect that area. But sand boarding as we knew it was gone.

I attended Aviation High School. I joined the Track and Cross Country teams since they didn’t have horse racing (I was small). Our coach was always searching for new ways to make us hurl. Somehow, coach caught wind that the sand dune was a great place to work out. My friend and I verified his discovery and the rest of the team never spoke to us again. We would load up in a few cars, drive to the dune to work out and the hurling began. I believe the Mira Costa teams did the same, perhaps less the hurling. I guess you could say we were the first teams to use the dune for training, other schools caught on and the rest is history.

My playing career slowly ended at Sand Dune Park. But the things I learned and the friends I made at the park are an important piece of my life. The park and dune were the perfect place to get away from the city for a while and just play.
Think about all the places you have been in this world. Have you seen another park like Sand Dune Park? Sure there are massive sand dunes in remote places and many other great city parks. The “sand dune” is a special place in the middle of busy town. The park and dune will never be the same as it has been, it can’t be. Perhaps if nothing else it can still be something great for children. B

by Tom Fitt
It’s a wonderful thing when a qualified leader with lofty, yet doable, goals takes the reins of an already successful enterprise. His thoughts and plans to make the institution even better are already swimming through his intelligent, highly educated and experienced brain when he walks through the front door.
That’s exactly what’s happening at LABioMed (adjacent to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance). As of Sept. 1, David I. Meyer, PhD, is the new president and CEO of one of the South Bay’s biggest employers and one of the nation’s most respected science and medicine research firms. LABioMed was founded 56 years ago, employs 150 researchers (known as “investigators” in the science world), and is presently involved in over 1,000 ongoing studies. It is associated with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Meyer replaces Carole Wagner Vallianos, esq., who has been serving for a year as interim president and CEO after the retirement of Ken Trevett.
Members of the selection team who chose Meyer are openly excited about his appointment. Said Rick Higgins, president of LABioMed Foundation:
“We were very fortunate to find and hire David. His background was nearly a perfect fit for the organization. David has both the intelligence and personality to move LABioMed forward as a premier medical research facility.
“With the current economic climate, he is going to be challenged. Under David’s leadership, our goal is to create a more effective and collaborative working environment for our researchers. Fundraising is another aspect of David’s position and, over the next few years, we hope to strengthen our financial position.
“David is a great asset for LABioMed and we are exciting to begin working with him on future challenges.”
Meyer, 61, earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees at UCLA, and this latest move for the Palos Verdes Estates resident brings him full circle. His journey has covered many miles and many research projects around the world. After earning his PhD in Westwood, he moved to Switzerland, then established his own research team in Heidelberg, Germany.
Why such faraway places?
“When you finish your PhD, there’s no way in this day and age – or even in that day and age – that you could just go and get a university position at a top research university without first doing post-doctoral research,” said Meyer. “So, I wrote to four fairly well-known, important people to ask if they would take me into their lab as a trainee, and one who I was most interested in said ‘sure.’ I was halfway out the door to go to Princeton and he wrote me a letter – in those days it was letters – telling me he had just taken a job in Switzerland and would I mind coming with him.
“I’m thinking to myself, hmmmm, New Jersey or Switzerland? There was not a lot of discussion there. So, I had my post-doctoral position and also became an instructor at the University of Basel. I wanted to go for two years, I ended up staying for five, and then I moved to Heidelberg because there was a brand new lab that had opened, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. It’s a state-of-the-art lab funded by 10 European countries at the time – now it’s more – from their federal budgets with the idea of giving young scientists a sort of sandbox to work in for five to 10 years to build up their careers and then go back to their home countries.
“Here I was as an American, and I went there first as a staff scientist and two years later they promoted me to a research group lead, which was most unusual. But they were interested in what I was doing and I would be able to train people there from any of a dozen European countries… Then I decided I wasn’t going to live the rest of my life in Europe, so after eight years in Heidelberg I took a position at UCLA in the medical school.”
Meyer’s graduate studies were in biochemistry. At Heidelberg, his research centered on cell biology. Upon returning to UCLA, he continued his work in cell biology.
At the time of this interview, Meyer had been on the job at LABioMed for one month. He said he faced some surprises in his first days on campus, but was undaunted.
“There are always things that are unexpected,” he said. “These are issues that plague research institutes large and small to lesser or greater extents. I think it’s something my bag of tricks will hopefully enable me to deal with. So, yeah, there were a lot of surprises but none of them are things that are new to me.”
Having been associated with UCLA in various capacities – from student to researcher to teacher – Meyer is most aware of the workings of LABioMed.
“As a faculty member and researcher in the school of medicine, I came down here on occasion to lecture,” he said. “Although, I have to say, even though there’s the name UCLA on the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, and even though most of the investigators at LABioMed have UCLA faculty appointments, the actual connections between UCLA Westwood and LABioMed are not nearly what they could or should be. That’s one of my goals, to strengthen collaborative research relationships between investigators here and in Westwood.
“There are many areas where they excel in Westwood and are clearly better than what we do. But I’m also proud to say there are many areas down here where we actually have greater strength than you would find in Westwood. Therefore, better relationships with Westwood would be a very synergistic and a win-win situation.”
Meyer has specific ideas about how to achieve this and other goals he has set for LABioMed.
“The immediate thing I have to do is create a very communicative and transparent administration,” said Meyer. “Our second major goal is to establish an environment that fosters inter-disciplinary collaboration between some very strong research groups here on campus. I think it’s through collaboration of this nature that the next generation of scientific breakthroughs are going to come.”
LABioMed has an international reputation of entertaining a vast number of research projects underway simultaneously.
“Our research spans the whole spectrum of disciplines — areas of medical study from prenatal to aging and everything in between,” said Meyer. “We investigate all of the various systems; nephrology to cardiology, infectious diseases and just on and on. We include Emergency Medicine, which is not widely studied, and we have ongoing research in just about every department. Every Harbor-UCLA department has a research program…”
Though his background is in research, Meyer’s recent positions – including his latest job as executive vice president of the House Ear Institute in L.A. – have been heavy on the administrative side. Will LABioMed allow the time for personal research projects?
“You know, I gave that up,” said Meyer. “I published my last paper in January of this year and I have no laboratory or employees or research funds. I am purely here to serve the investigators. There’s no conflict of interest.”
Meyer and his wife, Evi, met in Switzerland when he was involved in his post-graduate work. Evi, a native Swiss, is an educator at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium. They moved to PV Estates in 1999. The Meyers have two children, both of whom graduated from PV High and are presently studying at UC Berkeley. Daughter Susana (Susie) is a junior pursuing a double major in American Studies and Media Studies. Son Daniel, a freshman, is interested in exploring the business world.
Does the new job require 14-hour days at the office?
“You know what, it’s so much nicer to be so close to home that I don’t even mind the long days,” said Meyer. “I save all that time when I was sitting in my car driving downtown that I can now spend either at work or at home.” PEN

by Randy Angel
Uphill battles are part of every athlete’s career, no matter how long or short it may be. The mountains the record setters and history makers must conquer loom even larger, but for Eden Serina, it’s the downhill battle that can earn her a place in the record books.

Serina’s passion for snowboarding has led the 34-year-old Rancho Palos Verdes resident away from two lucrative jobs to the slopes, where she is making an attempt to qualify for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to be held Feb. 12-18 in Vancouver, Canada.
But it’s not the race for gold, silver or bronze that drives Serina in competition. It’s HER race. The longtime Peninsula resident is attempting to become the first female athlete to represent the Philippines in any Winter Olympic Games.

Although the Philippines holds the distinction of being the first tropical nation to compete in the Winter Olympics when the country sent skiers Ben Nanasca and Juan Cipriano to Sappora, Japan in 1972 (there since has been a luge racer and an Alpine skier), the country has not had a representative since 1992. Serina is confident she will not only break the drought but make history at the same time.
“I was raised by Filipino parents and under Filipino values and traditions and that’s what I know,” Serina said. “This is a unique opportunity for me to honor my family and ancestry. I’m really proud to be Filipino. Not a lot of people are familiar with the Philippines and its people and this is a good opportunity for me to spread the word of who we are and what we can do.”

The youngest of four children, Serina has a strong family bond – a trait of the Filipino culture, she said. Her parents, Eliseo and Norma, moved to the United States when both were in their 30s. When Eliseo – a doctor in the United States Air Force – was stationed in West Virginia, Eden was born. The family returned to the Philippines when Eden was young and Eliseo was stationed at Clark Air Force Base. When another transfer brought Eliseo to the base in El Segundo, the Serinas settled on the Peninsula.
Eden developed her competitive nature at school, playing varsity basketball and running track for Miraleste High School, specializing in the hurdles along with 440- and 880-meter races. “I wasn’t really competitive with my siblings growing up, but they are all overachievers and we had many of the same teachers in school so, in that aspect, I was expected to make the grades and it was difficult, especially in sciences.”
Expectations for Eden’s success were evident. Along with her father being a Medical Doctor (retired) and mother having a nursing career, her oldest sister, Elaine, has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and lives in San Francisco, close to her brother Eugene, a Director of Research & Development for a medical device company, who resides in Union City. Enna is a Medical Doctor living in Riverside.

After graduating from New York University, Eden embarked on a career in the world of high finance in New York City – a dream she had envisioned since the age of 5.
“I remember being 5 and falling in love with New York City, seeing pictures of all the tall buildings and thinking I’ve gotta be there,” Serina said. “My parents said that when I was young, I would get all the coupons and add them up on a calculator, so I was already into money, finance and math.”
Serina landed a lucrative job at Solomon Smith Barney at the World Trade Center in New York City. Then came the shocking news. At the young age of 24, Serina informed her family that she was walking away from her 6-figure income and moving to Vail, Colo. Not for a better job, but to become an Olympic snowboarder.
“What?” her father remembers Norma yelling. “We eventually settled down knowing Eden already had an NYU degree and experience to fall back on, so she wouldn’t starve. The whole family supported her 100 percent and personally, I was excited of her trailblazing endeavors, very uncommon to those her siblings had before her.”

Much like her business career, Serina’s drive to fulfill a dream was evident. But this decision raised many eyebrows. After all, she had only been snowboarding for two years.
“In 1997, my family decided to go on a ski trip,” Serina recalled. “We’re not snow people. We’re not winter people. My brother Eugene, who had been snowboarding for about a year, convinced my sister Elaine and me to take a class. The instructor questioned if I belonged in the beginner’s class because I was doing pretty good. That’s when I fell in love with snowboarding.”
After one year of local competition, Serina qualified for the 2000 USA Snowboard Association National Championship and placed second in her division. In less than a year, Serina began competing for the Philippines team on the World Cup circuit. Her father was not surprised.
“When Eden has a mindset to do something, she works hard to master it, and does it as fast and properly as possible,” Eliseo said. “She accepts the challenge to be better not only against anybody but more so against her own limits.”

By the time qualifying began for the 2006 Winter Olympics, Serina had one of two criteria under her belt but narrowly missed the second, a top 25 finish in one of the World Cup Olympic qualifying races. When she achieved the second criteria at a World Cup event shortly after the Olympic Games, it gave her hope for the future.
Serina moved home with her parents but continued to compete, racing in her fourth consecutive Snowboard World Championships in 2007. Utilizing her education, she was employed as a Senior Financial Analyst at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank for two years before leaving – once again – to train for what will be her final chance of becoming an Olympian.
Serina said it was a bitter-sweet decision to leave Disney. “It was easy because I knew I was going back to snowboarding, which I love. It was hard because I had made a lot of really good friends there and re-established a career after 7 years of not working. I’m really thankful to Disney for giving me that opportunity. I felt that I wasn’t done snowboarding and this was my last opportunity and wanted some closure with it.”
The strong support Serina received from her family – emotionally and financially — eased her decision making.
“Eden is not alone in her quest; her entire family is behind her every step of the way,” Elaine Serina said. “Eden qualifying for the Olympics exemplifies the strengths of the Filipino people: hardworking, determined, and persevering. She brings to the forefront the impressiveness of Filipinos, a minority group not often recognized. She will also show by example that one’s dreams can be realized, even for a small country without snow, despite the odds.”
“They’re all amazingly supportive of my goal,” Eden said. “I couldn’t ask for a better family. My mom wasn’t as excited as everyone else but she finally came around. My parents and siblings are professional people but my dad is heavily into sports so I think he likes the idea of having a professional athlete in the family.”
During this past summer, Serina spent five weeks training in New Zealand under the tutelage of Mark Ballard, the highest certified snowboard coach and instructor in Canada. Ballard has coached Serina for two years, becoming her full-time coach in April. Serina, who competes in the parallel giant slalom (the Olympic event) and parallel slalom, is one of 10 riders from Canada, USA, Japan and the Philippines coached by Ballard.
A natural athlete, Serina said she finds the psychological aspect of competition the toughest to overcome and uses a blog as a journal to describe her day, what she’s learned, and what she has to work on, keeping things fresh in her mind the next day.
“The mental and emotional aspects of competitive snowboarding have always been more difficult for me than the physical. You’re really competing against yourself. If you’re not No. 1, you’re losing and it can be difficult to get over each race and mentally refresh yourself for the next race.”
Serina said the book Finding Your Zone: Ten Core Lessons for Achieving Peak Performance in Sports and Life by Michael Lardon, MD, has enlightened her.
“The book has definitely helped me a lot,” Serina said. “I think it’s helpful in life in general. It’s helped me keep more of a mental balance and not over-stress about things. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to have fun and remember why I’m doing the sport.”
Besides family, one of the things Serina misses most when she’s away training or competing is the Pacific Ocean. “When I’m home I try to surf at least five times a week. I would consider myself still a beginner but I just love being out there. The two sports (surfing and snowboarding) are very similar in terms of body positioning, body stance and balance. Paddling is still my biggest challenge. Once I’m on the board, I’m okay.”
In a few weeks, Serina will grab her $1,200 snowboard, snow suit and boots and head off to train at Copper Mountain, Colo., which will host the Snowboarding Grand Prix, one of five qualifying events held from December to February where qualifiers must finish in the top 30 in at least one event. The athletes must also have earned 100 points in the Federation Internationale de Ski’s scoring system. Serina had accrued 56 points at the beginning of September.
When asked of her chances of qualifying for the Olympics, Serina said without a pause, “Very high. I have no doubt.” Her coach wasn’t quite as confident.
“Realistically, with the natural and trained skills and talent she has, it is possible for her to reach the Olympics, but not without her very best,” Ballard said. “While she has had some setbacks with an injury and finances after taking three years off racing, she is very close to hitting her top speed consistently. Her greatest strength would be her positive outlook and athleticism.
“I am excited to be a part of this great journey with Eden, as I love breaking perceptions and barriers. She is an amazing woman and athlete that regardless of outcome is a role model for other woman in her family’s country of origin, the Philippines; USA, the place they call home, and in snowboarding. I am proud to coach Eden in her pursuit to become the first woman from a country that has so many barriers for its citizens reaching excellence attending the winter Olympics. That’s a big part of the beauty of the Olympics to me.”
Serina has more than 130 race starts and appearances in 24 World Cup and 10 World Championship events. She said her best finish was placing 9th in the North American National Championships in 2006.
Her greatest accomplishment she said is being able to represent the Philippines. “Not many people can do that. To have such a passion for a sport that is not anywhere in the culture I think is very rare… and to tolerate the cold, which most Filipinos have an aversion to.”
Whether Serina qualifies or not, she is already an Olympian in the eyes of her family.
“Eden has earned our respect and admiration for the effort and sacrifice she has endured for 10 consecutive years,” Eliseo Serina said. “Qualifying for the 2010 Winter Olympics is icing on the cake that is already on the pedestal of pride of a family and countries, the Philippines and the United States.”
When the Olympic Games are over, Serina plans to return to the world of finance and pay off snowboarding debts before owning her business. She said she will continue to snowboard, surf and run in local 5K races.
Eden added that she has one other dream she’d like to fulfill. “I’d like to climb Mt. Everest with my dad. That’s a really lofty goal, but my dad, who is 70 years old, has been there and climbed past base camp so he has some experience.”
Just one more mountain for the Island Girl to conquer. PEN

Story by Tom Fitt, photo by Kevin Schmitz (www.KevinSchmitz.com)

Manhattan Beach bar owner and singer Lou Giovannetti and his 21-piece big band will take to the stage of the Hermosa Beach Playhouse Saturday night to tell people in the South Bay to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas in a Nice ’n’ Easy fashion, to reminisce about The Good Life in A Marshmallow World where you might be Feelin’ Kinda Sunday, perhaps remember family in New York, New York, or Chicago.

The Broadway veteran won’t be singing exclusively Sinatra tunes, but That’s Life.

At the concert, Anything Goes because Lou says Hermosa is “My Kinda Town,” where he promises to go All the Way. He may seem to be Bewitched because this is an area where The Summer Wind keeps blowing As Time Goes By. There will be no Strangers in the Night as the crooner promises that The Best is Yet To Come because It Was a Very Good Year. It’s Almost Like Being in Love as he pauses at the microphone while Learnin’ the Blues. Lou has High Hopes. How About You? Perhaps it’s Witchcraft.

It most probably won’t be a Winter Wonderland in Hermosa, but undoubtedly there will be a few folks Drinking Again down by the Strand in this Sugar Town of Love & Marriage, though It’s Only a Paper Moon that’s Lost in the Stars. Forget the gal at the end of the bar: The Lady is a Tramp. Just pour One For My Baby because You Only Live Twice.

So, Hey! Jealous Lover, “Come Fly With Me,” Lou appeals, because This Town will be hopping Night and Day, especially In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.

Tunes and tribute

Louis Giovannetti, owner and sometimes entertainer at the Side Door in Manhattan Beach (first Sunday of the month), was about three years old when Frank Sinatra began his comeback tour in 1974 at Madison Square Garden. Lucky for me, I caught Frank one night after the Garden show when he opened the Richfield Coliseum near Cleveland.

Lou didn’t know Jilly’s, the Stork Club or El Morocco – all the swing street joints — when he was growing up in New York City. But, he did know the music. “Every Italian restaurant you ever walked into in the Bronx always had Frank Sinatra playing,” said Giovannetti. “It’s really not how I got into Sinatra, it’s more like how Sinatra got into me. It was just something that was always around as an Italian-American growing up… Even in college, I had Sinatra records that were given to me. At the time I thought, ‘Oh, whatever.’ Then I heard ‘This Town’ and I thought that was the coolest, hippest, edgiest tune. When I saw the ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ movie and they used that tune at the end, I thought, that is it!”

Appropriately, he has chosen to revive the memories and the great songs of Old Blue Eyes in a city named Manhattan. True, this Main Event will happen in Hermosa, but that’s just a shoo-be-dooby-doo down the beach. Close enough. Kinda like taking a gig that your agent tells you is just outside the city in a suburb called Poughkeepsie.

 Coming in the Side Door

Giovannetti arrived in L.A. after having worked on Broadway. “I was doing parts on some TV shows out here, but nobody believed I did musicals and things like that,” he said. “A friend of mine had a bar – the Side Door, which I now own – and we picked a slow Sunday night. I called a producer friend of mine in New York and we put some tracks together of some songs I’ve always loved and some of them were Sinatra tunes. There was a lot of Broadway stuff mixed in.

“With the tracks from my friend and some halfway decent ones that were already in the karaoke world, I fashioned a little show for the Side Door. We couldn’t fit any musicians in there, but I did the show for my friends. I discovered the world of karaoke. We started with about 15 people on the first Sunday night; it quickly grew to around 60, many of them sitting on the floor and later asking ‘When is this guy going to do this again?’”

Fortunately for Giovannetti, there will be plenty of space for a busload of musicians when he plays the Playhouse. There will be 21 tuxedoed gents, under the baton of Lou’s musical director, Jeff Jarvis, at the concert on the 19th. But these guys need music to read – not a simple or inexpensive undertaking.

 Black dots on paper

“One of the best kept secrets in the world is that you cannot just go out and get the Nelson Riddle arrangement of, say, ‘The Summer Wind,’” said Giovannetti. “These things are not around. But, there is this underground world of charts out there. When I started, I went online, did searches. You get a band together and you play one of these charts down and it sucks and you throw it out. What eventually happened was, through what I was doing and how I was doing it, some great musicians approached me and asked, ‘What do you want to do?’”

Jarvis saw his karaoke show at the Side Door, encouraged Lou to try for some big band gigs and wrote a few arrangements for him. At the idea of launching a big band, Giovannetti first said, “People can’t keep together a four-person rock band these days, much less 20 guys.”

But the memory of the sound interested Lou. “I built a book (of tunes), built a show – there will be nine new charts in the Hermosa concert – and it’s a challenge. The charts aren’t cheap, but this is truly a labor of love. A lot of the time I end up just doing it for fun because I have to pay the guys (band), the venue, and take care of everything else,” he said.

The Playhouse engagement is just a step in the direction Giovannetti is heading. He just finished a five-song EP that he will be distributing during the show and is currently working on what will be his first CD.

“We want to do it at Capital [Sinatra’s early recording home],” he said. “We want to go there and do it in the same room and capture the vibe.”

 Sax and the city

As rich in musicians as is the L.A. market, where do you find guys to play the dates?

“That’s the great thing that is everything Los Angeles… The word got out that Lou is a lot of fun,” said Giovannetti, “and if you want to play a big band gig, this is it. Jeff and I started getting phone calls and now we never have a problem filling the chairs.”

The band’s calendar is filling out quite nicely, according to Lou.

“In September, we played seven times. It’s really the first project I’ve had that has no agenda,” he said. “It’s simply for the sake of playing. I make a joke to the audience, thanking them for coming. Then I tell them that if we weren’t playing at this place, we’d probably be playing in my garage.

“We do a lot of private parties. There aren’t many venues that can handle this. But, here in the South Bay, we have a great fan base; in Orange County we have a nice fan base. We play out usually a couple times a month and sometimes, in October and November, we’re out every weekend.”

Giovannetti is most pleased with his loyal group of followers. As per audience response to the performances, he said, “I can’t even begin to tell you. I’ve been on Broadway, played roles in major studio films and TV, and I’ve felt it from many different angles. But this is something else! I love the song ‘That’s Life.’ It’s one of our closing numbers. You look out at an audience and say, ‘Yeah, I know times are crazy right now, but just sing with me and listen to the words. If stuff gets a little aggravating and you want to kick the dog, that’s just life.

“The song becomes almost evangelical sometimes. And, people get it. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from or how old you are. What matters is that you have to participate – which is something people don’t do a lot of these days – but, I make an effort to say ‘let’s do this together.’ It makes it special.”

So, if you get caught being special next Friday sailing Over the Rainbow, thank Lou Giovannetti and blame it on that Old Devil Moon.

Lou Giovannetti and band, Saturday, Dec. 19, Hermosa Beach Playhouse, 8 p.m. Organized by Saint Rocke/Union Cattle Co. Call (310) 739-5926 for tickets. $35 to $100. View upcoming Side Door events at www.thesidedoor.biz. B