Christopher J. Hermanstad is one of the senior brown belts on the Novus Academy mat in Oslo, with a teaching role that extends well past instruction. In 2013 he authored the academy's BJJ graduation guidelines — the internal document that codifies what students at Novus need to demonstrate to move up the belt ladder, and which is still the reference point in the room.
He has also worn the referee shirt at the academy's flagship events, including head-referee duties at the Novus Academy Christmas Open 2018 and the Novus Klubbmesterskap 2021. His own competition life sat largely at coloured belt, notably at the 2008 Pan Asian International Grappling Challenge as a brown belt.
At Novus, he is now one of the instructors who actually promotes students through to purple belt — the bottleneck rank where most BJJ careers either tighten up or quietly stop. That work is his lane.