0364 – Paul Gomez and Paul-E-Palooza
When you find yourself in the midst of 100+ hot, dirty, tired, sweaty, men and women who have been training hard all day in the sun, and they have smiles on their faces, while they are digging deep into their pockets you know that you have found a special place and a special group of people.
Each year in mid August I find myself in just such a scenario in Garettsville, Ohio at an wonderful event called Paul-E-Palooza.
Today’s Safety Solutions Academy Podcast Episode # 364 we are going to talk about an amazing event for an amazing purpose that brings together an amazing bunch of people. We are going to cover a recap of sorts of Paul-E-Palooza 3.
It is one of my favorite times of year. It’s like Christmas for defensive training junkies and at the same time, it is an opportunity to spend time with a wonderful group of people, whom many of which I am lucky enough to call friends.
I’m going to do my best to try and share with you what Paul-E-Palooza 3 was like. Those of you that were there will probably smile and think back fondly. Those that were at PEP 1 or Paul-E-Palooza 2, Electric Bugaloo and missed PEP3 might feel a tinge of frustration that you missed it but think back fondly to your time in past years.
Those of you that have never been to a PEP hopefully will get some idea of what PEP is all about.
Paul-E-Palooza is a Memorial Fund Raiser
The fact that PEP is a MEMORIAL fund raiser, again, A MEMORIAL means that there are a lot of people that wish that Paul-E-Palooza didn’t exist. You see. It Is because of the death of Paul Gomez that it exists. Those that knew Paul would rather have him than Paul-E-Palooza.
Yet at the same time Paul-E-Palooza is a beautiful thing. The friends and colleagues of Paul Gomez came to gather to support his children in an impressive way.
As a result a training event evolved in a fashion that organizers believed Paul would have a appreciated and it has been an outstanding success.
Each year that PEP has run it has earned mid 5 digits to help provide for Paul’s children the things that all children need like braces, and school tuition.
From that aspect PEP is really a beautiful thing.
Safety Solutions Academy’s flagship course is Critical Defensive Handgun. The course can be taken as a 1/2 day, 1 day and two day course and is one of the most important courses that you can take if you depend on a handgun for defensive use. It will teach you the critical skills that you need to protect your life and the lives of those that you love and the confidence to enjoy your life even if you are never forced to use your skills. Learn more about Critical Defensive handgun by following this link.
PEP an Opportunity to Train for Reality
Realistic training can be invaluable and at the same time difficult to find. Not so at Paul-E-Palooza.
You can see the list of instructors here at the PEP website and also here at an after action report I wrote regarding Paul-E-Palooza 3.
There are few places where you can get so many different genres of personal defense related training. PEP is one of them and this year at Paul-E-Palooza 3 is one of the places.
You can get great medical training, outstanding defensive theory courses, a better understanding of mindset, unarmed combatives training, experience with sharp weapons, weapon retention skills, disarm work and general preparedness information.
I talked about this in a recent blog post I wrote for the Personal Defense Network you can read it here. Take a few minutes to take a look at the blog post.
The idea that we can’t be dependent on the gun and the gun alone. We have to have other skills. Think of the train to Paris and the 3 U.S. service men. There they were with no firearms pitted against a well armed if ill prepared terrorist. They needed a wide variety of skills including medical skills to keep everyone on that train alive.
PEP can help you round out your skills if you are willing to do it.
You might not master those skills, but you at least you can find the instructors that can help you to master the skills in the future.
PEP 3: A nest in a tree of trust and understanding…
PEP is a place where lots of big people come together. I don’t mean big like Paul Sharp, Greg Elifritz big. Instead I mean big as in big time. What is interesting is that although there are lots of egos they don’t seem to bump like we might expect us to do.
It’s pretty awesome when you get lots of alpha dogs together yet they get along better than most regular groups of people.
- Maybe its the idea that an armed society is a polite society
- Or maybe when big people come to gather for big reasons they set the little things aside.
I love it but with very few exceptions, people just aren’t cross at Paul-E-Palooza.
I think we might tear each other apart on social media if it wasn’t for the common ground we have come together to celebrate and that is a very cool aspect of PEP.
If you regularly have issues with your ego bumping into other egos, maybe you should take a look at this link.
If you are motivated to be prepared to protect yourself and your family you might want to take at Paul-E-Palooza. It is more than a training class. Instead it is a top notch and outstanding training event. It’s also a gathering of excellent people for an excellent cause. Finally, Paul-E-Palooza is where you should be come mid August 2016.
Take Advantage of These Important Resources:
•Safety Solutions Academy PEP3 Blog Post here.
•PDN Article on training for reality.
•Safety Solutions Academy Handgun Courses
•Getssagear.com/cantwealljustgetalong
What You Should Do Next:
- Make sure that you take a solid look at the resources above.
- Please visit the Safety Solutions Academy Podcast on the iTunes store and leave a rating and review.
- Think about you training and what you can to to train for your reality! You can take a look at the courses that Safety Solutions Academy offers by following this link.
Thanks for taking the time to consider what I have to say!
-= Paul Carlson =-
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