Bullwhips by the Bay was birthed in San Francisco in 1997. As far as anyone can tell, it’s the longest continually held whips workshop in California, even though it’s had several owners and gone through various transformations.
It began in 1997 in Glen Park in San Francisco, and eventually moved to the San Francisco Circus School, undergoing an uneasy partnership with juggling classes. By the early 2000s, after two prior owners, it eventually was its own entity as a regularly scheduled whips class on the roster of class offerings at the Circus School with Grizzly as the listed instructor. It went through various changes and names until the growing success of the Circus School and a doubling of the circus program classes to be held ended their ability to continue offering classroom options.
Although it felt like a tragedy at the time in early 2008, lacking an indoor location alternative, Grizzly moved Bullwhips by the Bay to its current outdoors location, which was an unexpected but very happy choice, as it turned out.
UPDATE: Grizzly (Jonathon Brown Eros) passed away in June 2019.