The Very Start

What was my very start in Karate, and why did I take the first step?

Helen and I moved to Ft. St. John, BC, in the summer of 1980 when she landed a teaching job at Charlie Lake School. I landed a salesman job and we settled into a minute apartment into our new lives.

Ft. St. John is pretty far north, and winters there get darn cold. 45 below cold. There is a real danger of cabin fever. Lots of bars. One movie theatre, with the worst sound system ever. Yup, real danger of cabin fever. The first winter, I signed up at the college for an introductory computer course, and I became a life-long geek. Helen joined a bowling team, and helped out at the charity bingo. This kept us busy and entertained, but we were on separate paths.

The next year we looked through all the evening course options together. Our short list became ballroom dancing, or Karate. Karate won, although we did do a short dancing class a few months later.

Showed up at the gym for Karate, and it was packed. White suits all over the place. Killer workout and then lessons in basics. Don't really remember all that much about it, but we were both hooked. Found out later that the style was Kyoskushinkai, which is a particularly brutal form. We did get bruised a fair bit. December was the first exam, and we both got yellow belts. Came back after Christmas break keen to go on....and the instructor vanished.

Various rumours floated around as to reasons, but he was gone in any case. Nobody was higher than green, so we were all pretty screwed. The course was a Northern Lights College offering, so the College staff shifted into overtime trying to dig us up an instructor.

Helen and I tried to train a bit, but we were really know-nuttin beginners. We tried visiting a Chitu Ryu club in the town of Dawson Creek 50 miles away. They were super nice, and most welcoming. Watching them I noticed light years of difference between our club and theirs. The Black Belt instructor moved a million times better than our former instructor. Heck, so did the brown belts. I began to wonder if our missing guy had been a fake.

A bit later the College contacted us that they'd found us an instructor starting in September. We decided to jump at that. Said grateful farewells to the Dawson Creek Karate Club.

September 1982, we became students of Shotokan Karate in Ft. St. John. Our new Sensei, Perry Foster, was enthusiastic, friendly, and definately for real.

I was home. Helen hung retired after getting her yellow belt. But I just kept going....

...and we later got back into Ballroom dancing again, too.