Rutger Custers came up through martial arts from the age of six, starting in judo — where he earned his black belt at seventeen — before adding BJJ. He received his Frontline Voss black belt in 2024, alongside Marit Tyssedal Gabrielsen in one of the academy's most significant promotion ceremonies to date.
He now leads the children's BJJ programme at Frontline Voss as head instructor and works as assistant instructor for adult classes. The combination — a black-belt-led kids' pipeline plus assistant work in the adult programme — gives the academy a depth of instruction unusual for a small-town Norwegian gym.
His judo black belt at seventeen says something about the work ethic that produced the BJJ black belt years later. For Frontline Voss, the 2024 promotions added two new resident black belts at once, transforming the western Norwegian outpost into a far more substantial operation than it had been the year before.