October 2011

Summer Camp 9-11 July

Submitted by Mike Maxwell

This years Summer Camp, hosted by the CFB Esquimalt Karate Club in Victoria, was a huge success with 70 karateka from BC, the Yukon and Marc Ward's ShotoCanada Karate Calgary dojo participating.

On Friday prior to camp Sensei Rob Ingram put senior and club instructors through their paces going through Shotokan katas to ensure standardization. These were recorded to form part of our instructor reference library.

We were fortunate to have Sensei's Mike Scales, Rob Ingram, Elizabeth Wijinstra and Nairn Sample rotating through the Instructor, Black, Brown, Green-Purple belt sessions.
Club Instructors Guido, Mike, Jessica, Mark and Jean led the white-orange belt sessions.
This wealth and diversity of experience and expertise made the camp an excellent learning opportunity for all participants.

Late Saturday afternoon Dan exams up to including Yondan were conducted. The following individuals were successful and are congratulated for all their hard work in achieving these significant milestones.
Shodan:
Winston Chan - Riverside Martial Arts (Port Coquitlam)
Rick Purling - Calgary ShotoCanada
Bogdan Rozmarin - Calgary ShotoCanada
Jeffrey A. Savoy - UVIC Shotokan
Munir Shah - CFB Esquimalt

Nidan:
Marc Trudel - Nanaimo Shotokan
(Dayna Goldsmith - Calgary ShotoCanada - Retest Kata Only)

Yondan:
Doug Rathy - Nanaimo Shotokan

The Summer Camp social dinner was held at the Royal Palace Restaurant in Esquimalt. Nothing like a full stomach to take your focus away from the bumps and bruises!

Sensei Scale's Bo and Sensei Ingram Tonfa sessions reintroduced weapons into ShotoCanada as an important aspect of our karate body of knowledge. Thankfully no one was video taping these sessions as I am sure most of us didn't look very well coordinated.

During the camp Guido was presented his Yondan certificate and Sensei Rob Ingram was presented his Rokudan – Congratulations Guido and Sensei Ingram.

The CFB Esquimalt Karate Club would like to thank all those that stepped forward and volunteered. Your efforts were critical in making our Summer Camp such a huge success.

Kobudo News

At summer camp, we reaped the benefits of Senseis Scales and Ingram's kobudo training. In September, they went to get their own instruction. Once every two to three years, Tamayose Sensei, head of the Tesshinkan Ryu Kyo Kobudo organization, comes to Canada to put on a set of seminars. This year, the first was held in Chilliwack at Don Shapland Sensei's dojo. The event began Friday night and went to Sunday. It was attended by about 40 kobudoka of all skill levels. A great deal of time was spent on bo kihon as Tamayose Sensei feels this is the foundation of the style. Sensei Holmes and three members of the Coquitlam dojo also attended. After the Saturday night grading, there was a pig BBQ under the full moon at Shapland Sensei's home. Very cool!

The following weekend, a second seminar was held in Qualicum hosted by Rainer Todsen Sensei. This was also attended by about 40 people. Sensei Ingram successfully graded for nidan at this camp.

 

 

Go here to see the album!

Sensei Guido Arnaud instructs the "littlies"

Doug Rathy concentrating like crazy while practicing for his yondan exam

Senseis Scales, Holmes and Ingram with Tamayose Sensei ath the Chilliwack seminar