Presented in Auckland,14 May 2005
Gary Trail was born in 1945 and grew up in North Auckland. However, it was in Auckland City in 1966 that he first came in contact with the martial arts.
Gary’s initial experience was with the NZ Judo College in central Auckland in 1966. His first instructor was Henk Broewer, a Dutch judo, ju jitsu and karate exponent teaching judo under Hans van Ess. Although he had wanted to learn ju jitsu it wasn’t until six months later that Gary discovered that the College also offered ju jitsu classes, taught by Hans, but he had to wait a further six months before he could begin the class.
In March 1971 Gary successfully sat his sho-dan grading and became the fifth black belt to come out of the College. He took over the running of the College’s ju jitsu classes and when the club shifted from the corner of Albert and Victoria Streets to the corner of Hobson and Victoria Streets in 1972, Gary took over the full management of the College.
During the period 1968-1969 when the New Zealand Jiu Jitsu Association was formed and then fragmented, Gary was an ik-kyu (brown belt) and wanted nothing to do with the politics of the organisation. However in late 1972, Gary was approached by Steve Heremaia of the Rongo School of Jiu Jitsu to reunite Auckland ju jitsu. Steve added his club to Gary’s and Ivan Gale’s two NZJJA clubs and Gary took over as the NZJJA’s chairmanship.
Early the following year a self defense demonstration competition was arranged between the three NZJJA clubs but the event was unsatisfactory as a ju jitsu promotion. The group decided to return to tournaments - as had been instigated by Laurie Olliver in 1969 - and these were later combined with a ju jitsu camp towards the end of each year.
The rules of the first tournaments were very judo oriented but light-contact strikes were allowed. Refereeing was inconsistent and had become worse whenever the Judo College met the SPJJS. Sportsmanship was particularly lacking and often matches were continued in the pub after the tournament had finished. Despite this, Gary managed to win three gold medals during these early years, but the experience gave him reservations about the benefit of inter-club competitions.
In 1976 Gary left Auckland for Ruakaka (south of Whangarei). A run of poor health caused him to lay off training for a year but in 1977 he opened the Bream Bay Jiu Jitsu Kai under the NZJJA banner. He was graded to san-dan (3rd degree) that same year. In 1986 Gary, then a go-dan (5th degree) shifted further north to Houhora where he trained in a number of different venues before setting up a dojo on his property.
In 1990 Gary took leave from the NZJJA but returned in 1993 when the Association began to lose direction. Hans retired as chairman of the Black Belt Technical Council in 1995 and Gary took the chair until late 1997 when he allowed himself to fade from the NZJJA scene and began to focus more on his own club which he renamed the Southern Cross Jiu Jitsu Society. In total Gary spent thirteen years as a committee member of the NZJJA and was chairman for eleven of those years.
Throughout his time with NZJJA Gary had a major influence on the syllabus, not making changes but keeping it true to the Kawaishi method as taught by Hans van Ess and is still this country’s foremost expert in the Kawaishi method as first introduced to New Zealand. He is greatly advanced as a ju jitsu technician, has a great memory for detail and a clear, concise teaching manner. He was made a life member of the NZJJA in 1985, is currently a roku-dan (6th degree) and continues to teach in Houhora. He is a fine historian and his “The History of Jiu Jitsu and its Counterparts” is a sound and interesting book
Subsequent Achievements
2002 Inducted into the New Zealand Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
2006 Inducted into the Australasian Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
2006 Inducted into the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.
2008 Awarded 8th degree black belt by the NZJJA.
2020 Awarded 9th degree black belt by a New Zealand Ju Jitsu Federation convened Technical Panel.
2023 Awarded lifetime membership of the New Zealand Ju Jitsu Federation.
2025 Awarded Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Ju-Jitsu
