Kure Beach Aikido - Pics/Vids

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18° from the Equator

Price Sensei and his wife, Lynne, joined Sato Sensei, DeGraff Sensei, Monell Sensei, Robinson Sensei and some of their students in Puerto Rico on Dec 4^th through the 6^th for an island wide seminar. Each day, the group traveled to a different dojo to train. The Friday night seminar was hosted by Cauguas Dojo in Caguas, PR. The Saturday seminar was hosted by Zanshin Dojo in Arecibo, PR. The Sunday session was hosted by Eishinkan Dojo in Santurce, PR. This dojo hopping allowed for a larger turn out at each site and brought AWA training to a wider group of students. Sixty aikidoka from Puerto Rico and the mainland trained together for the weekend in this lush, tropical paradise.

While the guys trained, Lynne and other wives toured the local sites including the rain forest, caverns, Ponce, and the radio telescope at Arecibo.

Before the Friday session, the group visited the Caguas Botanical Gardens to see Indian ruins and gardens.

After the Sunday session, Sato Sensei and the group visited Old San Juan to enjoy the Christmas lights and festivities Puerto Rican style. The bars and cafes put tables and chairs on streets of Old San Juan. The town square was decorated in colorful, festive Christmas lights with music, food, dance and drink on every corner. The festivities will last until the 6^th of January.

I recommend all aikidoka to put the Puerto Rico seminar on their “to do” list. What a warm, friendly group of people to train and fellowship with. It’s also a wonderful way to charge the batteries and warm your bones before Christmas each year. Remember, next year we can always charter a larger plane.

Yours in Aiki, Richard and Lynne Price

Click on Photo above for an Image Gallery of the Puerto Rico Trip

Jishukan Aikido Dojo Opens in Sanford, NC!

On Wednesday, June 2, 2009, a new dojo addition was added to the AWA family. Tim Smith officially opened Jishukan Aikido Dojo in Sanford, NC. I attended the festivities on behalf of Sato Sensei to present Tim his black belt and welcome the new members into the AWA family. We had 13 people participating with many more watching the first class and inquiring about the art in the busy gymnastics facility. That was quite a good number of people showing up for the first class. Tim had calls during the week from two magistrates, a judge, a physician and several more law enforcement officers interested in starting classes.
I presented Tim a painted Jishukan Aikido scroll for display in the dojo. Lynne Price made a nice floral arrangement for the opening celebration.
Tim has a 50' X 50' mat area with plenty of room for growth. This school will be a real plus for the residents of Sanford, NC and the surrounding area. We wish you the best Tim and stand ready to assist you any way we can.

Yours in Aiki,
Richard Price

Click the Picture to see Opening Day Photos!

Check out Jishukan's Web Site HERE

Props to O'Lando!

Olando Garrett Tested for his 5th Kyu on the last Thursday in April 09... and I forgot to post photos - so here they are in a Handy-Dandy Photo Gallery.....

Click the Picture to see Opening Day Photos!

Laura "Bugsy" Hiles tested for 3rd Kyu on 25 June 09

Just a quick note... Laura is on a two month "Aiki-Trek" around the Mid-West and Western States. I have set up a BLOG for her to post the progress of her travels. I will post the link to her blog when she makes an entry or two.

CLICK THE PHOTO FOR SOME PIX OF BUGSY'S TEST

Before taking off on her "AIKI-TREK"... Laura Hiles tested for 3rd Kyu... and nailed it! She sets the standard for testing! Maybe one day we will be as good as her! Congratulations Laura! -BK

Kure Beach Aikido is a proud member of the A.W.A. Family

K.B.A.'s 2nd Annual Spring Seminar

The Kure Beach Aikido Club and UNC-W Aikido Club hosted Andrew Sato Sensei, Chief Instructor of the AWA here on the Cape Fear March 27th - 29th, for our 2nd Annual Spring Seminar.
And unknown to us, the weather had its 2nd Annual LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM... that brought in Tons of rain for the whole thing, just like the previous year.... but at least it wasn't a Tropical Depression like in 2008. Be that as it may, we had a great time. I think at the After-Party on Saturday Night it was decied that it was the Fault of the Charlotte Dojo.... Tim V. said to blame it on them... so I will!

Sensei went over a lot of tecnique and strained our collective brains yet again.... it is good to push the envelope, and discover new technique, or shown a better way to do what one already knows....

Sensei started, as always, with Taisabaki, and added from there... continually building, and showing variations of technique. It is always amazing to watch and learn from someone with so much knowledge.

The Seminar started promptly at 6:30 pm on Friday the 27th. We had quite a crowd on Friday night. We saw a bunch of old friends, and made a bunch of new ones. It was a pleasant surprise. Sensei gave us a 3 hour training session, and we learned a lot about basic technique. that evening after the Friday Session we all headed to Eddie Romanelli's for dinner and drinks, where we were able to catch up with each other and whats been happeing with everyone.

I was Surprised and Very Happy to see one of our Students from the Kid's Class show up. Harley is the FIRST 6 yr old I have ever seen at a seminar in 20 years of practicing Aikido. The little man did a great job. He held his own and made us ALL very, very proud. He showed up for all three days of the seminar, and did as much as his little frame could handle!

Saturday is always the LONG class... we went over tons and tons of technique and had about 70 people on the mats. Saturday night we had dinner at the Kure Beach Dojo and then went to Richard Price Sensei's house for an after party. Sunday, many people had to hit the road in order to get home, so it was a little thin on the mats. However we did some great weapons work and a "Technique Request" session. Sato Sensei asked what the Kyu ranks would like to see, and he domonstrated everything.... EXCEPT the "NONKYO".. we are still waiting for that one!
I can blather on and on about the seminar, but I will let the photos speak for themselves...

It was good to see everyone... many Aikidoka traveled a long way to come to our seminar and we appreciate all the support.

There are many, many more photos and I will add them to our photo page in the next few days. So stay tuned to this channel! -BK

2009 Seminar Dinner and After Party.

Here are a few images of the Dinner and After-Party on Saturday nite.... after the Saturday Session....

Laura DeGraff is such a Diva - Getting out of the Limo! LOL!

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