Our story began on Black Friday 2011. David's long time friend Ivan invited he and his dad to attend a Jiu Jitsu open mat at Gracie Barra in Corona (which is Nicole's home BJJ school). Nicole, as per usual, showed up late to the open mat due to sales that were too good to pass up. Once she arrived her instructor Tom directed her to roll (train) with this new black belt guy and told her "we're rolling until the tap". Usually this process takes two minutes, especially since David was a black belt at the time and Nicole was a blue belt, but for some reason it ended up taking twenty minutes to finish the match. David kept trying to armbar Nicole but she was being stubborn and refused to tap, and then finally she caught him (he may have let her) in a choke. After that encounter there was something telling Nicole that she really needed to know this guy that she just met. So she did what any reasonable person would do... She resorted to FaceBook and found him. They chatted for about a month until David worked up the courage to ask her out. On Christmas Day they had their first official date, where they went to the movies, walked around the Mission Inn in Riverside, and split a red velvet cupcake (by way of a pocket knife that Nicole had in her purse), and chatted until 2:00 AM. On New Years Eve, when the clock struck 12:00 they had their first kiss, and so started their crazy adventure of commuting, Jiu Jitsu, beer/wine making, surfing and more.