Looking for advice on training in Santa Barbara, CA

[chillaplata]

I'm from the New York area, but it looks like I'm going to be spending the spring and summer, maybe the rest of the year, in Santa Barbara. I'd appreciate any advice people have on training there.

My background:
I trained for about a year at a JKD Concepts school in New York. For various reasons I haven't been training for the last year and a half, but I like my school very much and plan on resuming my training there if, as I expect, I return to New York in 2009.

My school's curriculum consists of kickboxing (essentially Western boxing and Muay Thai), Jun Fan Gung Fu, and Kali/Escrima, with BJJ classes offered separately. I've done a number of private lessons and attended seminars in BJJ, but I haven't gone to classes or rolled regularly. Even though I haven't been training martial arts in a while, I have been trying to get in somewhat decent shape by going to the gym almost every day (running, working out on arc or elliptical trainers, and lifting). I'm 38, 6'0", 225 (more muscle than fat, but I've still got a bit of a gut to lose).

My training objectives:
I want to become a well-rounded, competent martial artist (i.e., an effective fighter if I need to be) and to get in better shape. I might be interested in amateur competition someday, but I'm very far from that level currently.

My tentative training plans:
There seem to be a couple of good BJJ schools in SB:
http://www.rodrigoclark.com/schedule.htm
http://paragonbjj.net/

Because grappling is probably my biggest weakness at this point, I'm thinking of primarily training BJJ (3-5 times a week if I can) at one of these schools. When I return to NY, I can resume my stand-up training at my current school and contine to train BJJ.

I'm also thinking of cross-training in boxing (1-2 times a week) here:
http://statestreetboxingclub.com/index.html

One other school (http://sbmartialarts.com) seems very cool and interesting, but I'm not sure it's a good fit for me: the primary grappling arts taught there are SAMBO and JJJ, and I want to train BJJ when I am back in NY.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with any of these schools or who can offer other training suggestions. Thanks very much.

[cakegirl]

I've never attended either of those schools (I'm in Australia), but I've competed in CA, and I've seen some really good studends from paragon. The coaches (matside at the comps) seemed very knowledgeable, and also quite friendly and approachable... I was consistently beaten by a woman from Paragon, so they must be good, right?!?!

[chillaplata]

Thanks, Cakegirl -- good to know. I am on the road to California right now, so I may be able to check out the school as early as Monday.

[cakegirl]

Good luck!!!

[chillaplata]

Thanks, Cakegirl. I've tried classes at each school and they are both excellent. I actually ended up going for the Gracie-Barra school, in part because they also offer judo classes and their schedule works out better for me, but I don't think I could have gone wrong either way.