Working on various capoeira websites:

http://www.bantus.asn.au/j
http://jp.bantus.org
https://www.cafepress.com/bantusjp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bantusjp/

Caçapa is the name given to the pocket on a pool/billard/snooker table. It is also a type of fish with a huge mouth, found in Brazil.

When Gringo first saw me singing in the roda, he started laughing out loud. Who is this guy with the huge mouth singing at the top of his lungs?

So Caçapa it was from that day forth.

Before I met Gringo, I was known as Bocão/Boca Grande, meaning big mouth. So I guess Caçapa is quite an apt apelido.

My first contact with capoeira was a little piece on the Childrens TV show Sesame Street set in New York's central park if I remember correctly. Then I saw Only the Strong. Then I noticed a poster advertising Canguru's capoeira class in Perth. I was first attracted by the tough looking Gorilla on that poster.

I had been out of serious exercise since I graduated high school and started university, then a full time job, and started drinking beer.

I emailed Canguru, and joined the class at the Cottesloe Boy Scout's Hall. That place had the most slippery floor ever, but was so close to the beach we could walk there after class and go skinny dipping! LOL

In high school I played Taekwondo and was seriously fit as a race horse. At first I thought capoeira was taekwondo with singing. I remember I wore my TKD pants to class for such a long time. It took me a while to get my first berimbau, and learn Portuguese.

But that didn't stop me from singing the songs at the top of my lungs, and doing my best to kick ass in the roda.

Things have changed a lot since those days. It was only 5 years ago, but it seems like a whole lifetime has passed since my first capoeira class.