K. Pattabhi Jois 'Authorized Level 2' teachers are able to teach up to where they learned in intermediate series. Certified teachers have learned the third series and beyond and are able to teach accordingly. His first trip to the West was in 1974 to South America, to deliver a lecture in Sanskrit at an international yoga conference. In 1975 he stayed for four months in Encinitas, California, marking the beginning of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in the US. He had said on many occasions that only twenty or thirty students practiced Ashtanga Yoga in America then, but, 'gradually, gradually, in twenty years, it will
Ashtanga vinyasa yoga more breaths in difficult postures. Various influential figures have discussed the specific process of breath in ashtanga. Pattabhi Jois recommends breathing fully and deeply with the mouth closed, although does not specifically refer to Ujjayi breathing. However, Manju Jois does and refers to breathing called "‘dirgha rechaka puraka’, meaning long, deep, slow exhalations and inhalations. It should be dirgha... long, and like music. The sound is very important. You have to do the Ujjayi pranayama". In late 2011, Sharath Jois, the grandson of Pattabhi Jois, declared his feelings on the issue, stating that Ujjayi breathing was not done in the