Creepies Crawlies.

And before I forget, here are the marsh/gator pictures I spoke about in my earlier entry.

It was a gorgeous day when we did this in Tampa, the kind of weather that I am so familiar with.

Everything went perfect except that I decided not to put on the head set to muffle the noise from the airboat …. arrrgh… what a big mistake.

But it still cool to be able to get so close to wild gators.

Highly recommended when you’re in Florida and don’t forget the head set.

Excuse me, what is that again? Can you speak up……..

Mile high.

After waiting 4 hrs in Tampa Airport; flight got delayed 2 hrs because of lousy weather, I finally boarded the plane to Denver. So by the time I touched down, it was already past 10pm and Wayne (Hinton) was there waiting.

It’s been about 8 years since I was last in Denver and the first reminder of things to come is the “cruel” cold weather – it’s freezing cold. I think I can forget about my sleeveless tees and bermudas – time to get wrapped up if I wanna to go out.

The hour long ride in Wayne’s truck saw the 2 of us talking about and updating , non-stop – so much have happened these last few years.

Well, I got 3 weeks planned for Colorado and I hope to visit as many old friends as possible and meet new ones.

One thing for certain, there will be much playing – kung fu style.

Got here a photo-slide of downtown Denver and 16th Street mall; the place that I used to hang out quite a bit when I was here last. I ask Wayne about the missing street performers and was told that they will be back when it gets warmer.

The doggie you see is Festis – Wayne’s dog that I am planning to sneak home in my luggage bags, if I can get Customs to look the other way hahahaha..

And the busy looking dude with his ear glued to the mobile is Wayne.

More later…..

Back to Kung Fu.

And before anyone starts thinking it’s all play here in Florida, I just want to (ahem) state that Russ and I have been real busy going through all the plans and projects that we got lined up – these will be updated accordingly through this blog.

Plus any free time we find, we are examining & re-examining the arts in our experience; White Crane, Karate, Taizu, Wuzhu,Saolim etc etc.

Including going through videos; those found on-line and others in Russ’ collection.

Like this one, taken from a documentary about Taiwan masters, another line of White Crane Boxing that I have not personally come across…..

More Sunshine.

Hehehe, got a friendly message from back home; a week in Florida and only 2 pics???

Okay, I am fixing this; pics taken on Easter Sunday, you’ll see more buildings and trees than people……

Miss home ?

Missing Singapore ? No sweat, simply find it on youtube :-

The Sunshine State.

Folks must be thinking that I am spending time soaking in the sun and floating over the everglades …. well nooooo……..

Not that I don’t want to, you understand, but it’s just that besides sleeping off the 12 hours that I’ve gained flying from Singapore to Florida – there’s just so much to discuss with Russ and his guys about future of Fuzhou Cranes in the US.

That and the fact that every time I am in the States, my nose would bleed for a couple of days; must be the dry air or something. This kind of slow me down a little….

Then we were just having so much fun playing; White Crane whipping, Sanchins, Chin Na, Wuzu – hey who got time to sights see?

Yesterday, Easter Sunday, we found ourselves with a little free time to dispose and Russ took me out to the beach after a short tour of a flea market and some Vietnamese chow down.

And this week, I am looking to more sessions of touch hands, White Crane discussions and working together to bring CKF to a bigger audience.

Top pic – me at the beach.

Bottom pic – A gorgeous little house in Zephyrhills Tampa near where Russ live.

From the US…with some jet-lagged ramblings…

After like, how many hours was it? I finally arrived at the land of McDonalds, K-marts and folks driving on the “wrong sides” of the road.

Chicago International Ariport, my point of entry into the US, had me interviewed, thoroughly, by folks from “Homeland Security”.. Well, coming from Singapore where you’ll find special forces personnels prowling popular streets like Orchard Road, with submachine guns in full view, I got no issues with though screening measures.“Better safe than sorry” is the operative idea here, I guess.Then it was a slight delay before I boarded the connecting flight to Tampa, to touch down after midnight.

Russ, my good friend, was there waiting and it was past 1 in the morning when we got to his house.

Still, instead of going to sleep – Russ got to work the next day, we spent another 2 hours talking about martial arts and going through his impressive gigantic collection of books and videos.

Well, well, well, guess I finally found my match in term of martial arts related materials.

Got up early this morning and walked aound this lovely neighbourhood and out came my faithful go-everywhere digital camera.

Now, all I got to do is figure how to work some of Russ’ softwares and I’ll start posting pics and videos.

Time to answer some emails and read some Singapore/Malaysia papers on-line.

Arrr…the wonder of the internet……..

Planet of the Apes ?

Another view of “Yuan Gung Quan” – Art of Ape Power.

The ground sliding kick is something that you see a lot in Singapore/Malaysia Zhou Jia also; avoiding a high gate attack and sliding into opponent’s legs.

We call it “sheen tui” – eeerh spelling it the way I pronounce in my pathetic Cantonese.

Don’t shoot me! Me not Cantonese!!!

 

 

 

 

SaoLim Lotus Form.

Folks, a short glimpse of Ven. Sek’s SaoLim Lotus or “Lien Huay” in Fukien.

 Sorry, the owner only gave permission to present partial view of this form …..

And for good reason too; SaoLim is one of the arts that I do since way back and over the years, there has been just too many perversions of Ven. Sek’s legacy.

Don’t know much about Medan, Indonesia but in Penang and my hometown, Singapore – all sorts of forms have been put forth as “SaoLim”. 

What I do know and this is confirmed by SaoLim elders, direct disciples of Ven. Sek, is that there are only 3 “mother” empty-hand forms :- 

1. Yi Ki Muay or 1 stalk Plum flower.
2. Lien Huay or Lotus
3. Lohan

There are many other forms transmitted by Ven. Sek but these are the seed forms and every SaoLim student must learn/master at least one. 

Ven. Sek is known to have passed dissimilar forms to different disciples but these 3 are more or less elemental. Simply put, if you’re Saolim, you must be able to do at least one of the 3.

With the passing of many of Ven. Sek hand picked disciples, the race is on to document and archive as many of the skill sets as possible before it mutates to something else altogether…

 

 

 

 

Mixed Martial Arts in Asia.

No not talking about the latest fads in “MMA”, this idea of mixing has been around for a while.

Some 30 plus years I would say all over Asia.

I’ve read about fusion of various CKFs, CKFs and Muay Thai, Judo, karate and TKD in various forms and shapes. Hey, they are even mixing Silat and other art forms and teaching them all over Singapore and Malaysia.

I do Taizu (Grand Ancestor) under the banner of “San Cheen Do” which is a blend of Taizu, Wuzu, Karate, Judo and Muay Thai in Singapore at a time when you also find other hybrids like Chap Koon Do (CLF and Karate), Nam Wah Pai (mixture of several Northern/Southern CKFs), Khong Chang (Fong Yang and Karate/Judo), Hong Quan Dao, Quan Chi Dao etc etc…

Even the authorities got into the act.

In an effort, personally I think ill-advised; the Singapore Wushu Federation rounded up some traditional teachers and assembled a form called “Zhong He Quan – Combined Fists”.

This later became a compulsory form for anyone testing to be a traditional Wushu instructor.

Nothing wrong with the concept; putting out a form to “bond” the various major styles active in Singapore but it’s the cut & patch job jerky flow that raised quite a few eyebrows.

Mainland did something similar but in this case, they concentrated on southern styles that gel almost seamlessly.

In Singapore’s case, we got Fukien Soalim one minute, then Chin Woo’s stuff and then Hakka …….. aaarrrgggghhhhhhh!!!

Rojak – Singapore style fruit salad is what it is.

Frankly, I hated the form but because it was compulsory….like I have no choice…..

But folks this story has a happy ending … it’s no longer in circulation, they abolished that testing system and I am sure few, if any at all, do it anymore.

RIP……