As some of you might know, Alex H. (one of our students) tore a ligament in his knee while fighting in the Kanreikai tournament back in May of this year.  Fortunately his wife Susie informs us that the surgery to repair his knee went very well and he is recovering nicely.  In fact, Alex's recovery has been SO "speedy" that he is actually partaking of his favourite hobby and competing in a car race this weekend (much to Susie's dismay)!  What could possibly possess a man to race cars while dealing with serious post-operative knee pain you ask?  Well I think the photo above (taken at one of his previous races) answers that question.  'Nuff said. :-)  Get well soon Alex!  We miss you at the dojo.  Osu!  (p.s.  Can you get us an autograph from Nicole at your next race?  Thanks...appreciate it big guy!)

The summer of 2008 has been filled with numerous gradings in the kid, teen and adult classes since early May.   As appropriate for each student's level, Sensei John thoroughly tested their grasp of various techniques, knowledge of karate terminology in Japanese, relative mastery of katas, and finally their stamina and spirit via kumite.  Anyone who has been through one of Sensei's gradings knows they have truly earned their next belt level.  Many congratulations to all of the karateka below!  Osu!  Click here to determine the belt colour corresponding to each Kyu (level).

July 10

• Kasper C. (10th Kyu)

July 9

• Marilyn M. (8th Kyu)

July 8

• Rosalie G. (6th Kyu)
• Adele R. (7th Kyu)

June 14

• Logan M. (8th Kyu)

June 11

• Mateusz C. (10th Kyu)

June 7

• Nicholas F. (8th Kyu)
• Ronnie L. (8th Kyu)

May 29

• Susie G. (4th Kyu)
• Michele M. (5th Kyu)
• Serge M. (5th Kyu)
• Suzanne L. (5th Kyu)
• Keiko H. (6th Kyu)
• Lucinda H. (6th Kyu)
• Stephane R. (8th Kyu)
• Muhammed S. (8th Kyu)
• Mike W. (8th Kyu)
• Natasha R. (8th Kyu)
• Steve H. (8th Kyu)
• Gabriella O. (8th Kyu)
• Elvira R. (8th Kyu)
• Thomas R. (8th Kyu)
• Michael V. (8th Kyu)
• Rick K. (8th Kyu)
• John L. (8th Kyu)
• David B. (8th Kyu)
• Gillian S. (8th Kyu)
• Dante M. (8th Kyu)
• Steve R. (9th Kyu)
• Stephanie S. (9th Kyu)
• Anne Marie L. (10th Kyu)

May 28

• Muriel C. (1st Kyu)
• Louise B. (1st Kyu)
• Manon L. (1st Kyu)
• Alexandra K. (1st Kyu)
• Emily W. (1st Kyu)
• Maria C. (2nd Kyu)
• Nathan L. (2nd Kyu)
• Matthew H. (4th Kyu)
• Michael H. (4th Kyu)
• Philippe R. (4th Kyu)
• Alexandre R. (4th Kyu)
• Julien C. (4th Kyu)
• Dominique C. (4th Kyu)
• Marie Claude C. (4th Kyu)
• Dariun Y. (4th Kyu)
• Duncan B. (5th Kyu)
• David G. (5th Kyu)
• Zacharia D. (6th Kyu)
• Matthew T. (7th Kyu)
• Christine S. (9th Kyu)
• Elena C. (9th Kyu)
• Emmet A. (9th Kyu)
• Emily K. (9th Kyu)

May 26

• Evan P. (9th Kyu)
• Kaela O. (9th Kyu)
• Tristan M. (9th Kyu)
• Connor A. (9th Kyu)
• Griffin A. (9th Kyu)

May 24

• Charlotte D. (9th Kyu)
• Tristan S. (9th Kyu)
• Zack B. (9th Kyu)
• Johnathan D. (9th Kyu)
• Daniel F. (9th Kyu)
• Noa B. (9th Kyu)
• Andy T. (9th Kyu)
• Thomas R. (9th Kyu)
• Matthew C. (9th Kyu)
• Wyatt D. (9th Kyu)
• Jenna Z. (9th Kyu)
• Julien C. (9th Kyu)

May 14

• Marie R. (10th Kyu)
• Jociline D. (10th Kyu)
• Liam D. (10th Kyu)
• Lisanne S. (10th Kyu)
• Zoe S. (10th Kyu)

May 10

• Benjamin G. (10th Kyu)

Sempai Patsy (above left) and Sempai Nancy (above right) were awarded their Nidan belts (2nd dan black belts) by Sensei John today.  They were graded by Shihan Roman back in early March and passed what was generally considered one of the toughest and most comprehensive black belt gradings by Shihan to date.  Omedetou gozaimashita (congratulations) Sempai Patsy and Sempai Nancy!  Osu!

West Island Karate would like to extend our best wishes to Elena C. who is leaving us to return to her native homeland of Spain.  Elena is a foreign exchange student who chose to take up karate at our dojo while studying in Canada.  Good luck Elena!  Osu!

West Island Karate has always believed in giving back to the community.  This year we rolled up our dogi sleeves and held a car wash in the dojo parking lot to help Sempai Yve's wife, Linda Bracken, achieve her goal of participating in this year's Weekend to End Breast Cancer Walk.  Together with her own team of volunteers, we raised almost $1100 for breast cancer research (all proceeds will go directly to the Jewish General Hospital here in Montreal).  But as sometimes happens at our car washes, the soaping and rinsing got a little out of hand and the odd skirmish broke out!  Click on the car wash sign above to see what else got washed!  :-)

A week after our tournament, Sensei Paul conducted a grading of his students at the St-Lazare dojo with the help of Sempai Natasha (partially hidden in the back row above...click here for a better picture of Sempai Natasha standing to the right of Sempai Nancy in her very fashionable West Island Karate sweatshirt :-)).  Sempai Victor and some students from the Beaconsfield dojo also came out to lend a hand and support the students being tested.  It was a very demanding grading with equal emphasis placed on physical conditioning, knowledge of katas and spirited sparring.  As expected, all of the students being graded passed with flying colours.  Congratulations to all of them!  Osu!

On this Saturday, we once again held our annual tournament, the Canadian Matsushima Junior Championships (known formerly as the Matsushima Challenge).  The name change reflects the fact that our tournament was the first and remains the premier event of its kind in Canada which is exclusively for junior karate students only (i.e.  kids 4 to 17 years of age).  As always, the skill level of the participants was very high and on obvious display during the kata and kumite portions of the competition.  Since its inception in 2001, we have hosted not only students from numerous Quebec dojos, but from all over Canada and the United States.  This year we were pleased to welcome competitors from as far away as Aruba and Transylvania (Romania)!  We were also honoured to have Shihan Roman Szyrajew and Shihan Réal De Repentigny in attendance.  In particular, Shihan Roman (pictured above shaking hands with Sosai Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin Karate) was presented with a bronze statuette of a bull to recognize his 40 years of study, devotion to, and teaching of Kyokushin Karate (the bull is a reference to Sosai's documented and very dangerous fights with live bulls to demonstrate his incredible karate skill and power).  Sensei John and West Island Karate would like to thank all the competitors, their parents, Shihan Roman, Shihan Réal, all the Senseis and Sempais who gave of their time to assist as judges, and all our volunteers for helping us make the 2008 edition of the Canadian Matsushima Junior Championships another great event which was enjoyed by all.  We look forward to seeing you again next year!  OSU!  Stay tuned to our Videos page for some clips from this year's tournament (coming soon). 

It was a sad week as we were forced to bid farewell to Hilary, her husband Serge, and her two boys Kevin and Alan.  They have been with the dojo for almost 8 years, but have chosen to move on to bigger and better things.  Everyone here at West Island Karate wishes Hilary and her family the very best - you will all be sorely missed!  Here are a few words from Sensei John about them:

Osu,

For those of you who don't know, Hilary, and by extension Kevin and Alan, will be leaving the dojo family.  While the boys are off to the University of Waterloo, Hilary and her husband Serge are moving permanently to their cottage and leaving the city life behind.  Hilary has been with us almost from the very beginning, first as a mom and then eventually as a karate-ka.  Even after moving from Beaconsfield to downtown Montreal five years ago, Hilary has always driven to the dojo at least five times a week to bring in Kevin and Alan, and/or to train for herself.  Hilary has always trained hard, has never been one for excuses, and was always ready to go up against the likes of Sempai Tony.

Many of you know her as the brown belt from the morning class and evening advanced class, but Hilary has always been involved with and played an important part of the dojo's activities...from Halloween and Christmas parties, to garage sales and carwashes, and to our annual tournament where she, along with Serge, have always done a tremendous job in helping to organize and run the tournament.  Even now with all of the chaos of her move at home, she is reminding me and checking that I have done certain things for the tournament.  I have met many people from tournaments and those who have heard of our reputation as a dojo who tell me that I have a great dojo or that I must be doing something really well to have such a good dojo.  The first thing that I tell them is that I am extremely fortunate to have such good people surrounding me - people such as Hilary and her family.  If not for people like her, the dojo and I would not be where we are today.

John Kalaidopoulos, Sensei
West Island Kyokushin Karate

Three of our younger karateka were graded today by Sensei and all three earned their orange belts.  Congratulations to Luke, Anne Margret and Boo (gotta love that name :-))!  Osu...well done!

Congratulations to Julie and Tyler for being graded to 10th Kyu (orange belt) by Sempai Patsy, head instructor of our Pierrefonds dojo.  Sempai Patsy would like to say that she is very proud of both of them and hopes they will continue to be good karateka and follow the Kyokushin spirit!  Osu!

West Island Karate once again supported the annual World Kanreikai Tournament by bringing a large contingent of almost 70 competitors to participate this year!  Consisting primarily of students from our Beaconsfield and Pierrefonds dojos, our team demonstrated the precise katas, spirited kumite and honourable sportsmanship for which West Island Karate is known.  Everyone from our youngest karateka, to our five intrepid "we-might-be-having-our-midlife-crisis" senior fighters :-), to our full knockdown fighters (Sempai Alex, Sempai Jimmy and Yannick) did very well.  Unfortunately we were not able to get a photo of our entire team together, hence the photo of our seniors above (thanks to Sempai Louise for the picture).  Many thanks to Sensei John, Sempai Patsy and all of our other Sempais (in particular to Sempai Alain...the overseer of our notoriously challenging, advanced teen classes) for their time and energy.  They ensure that all our kids are well prepared - not just for this tournament - but for each and every tournament.  Also on behalf of "The Five Samurai" (Sensei's nickname for this year's group of senior fighters :-)), a very special thank you goes out to Sempai Alex who generously gave of her time to train us.  She put us on a 12 week regimen of extra training classes which she euphemistically referred to as "Sunday School" (trust me...they were a LOT tougher than the name implies :-)).  Lastly, congratulations and thank you to Sensei Cordiero of Kanreikai Karate for putting on another well organized event which was memorable for all who attended.  Osu!  Click on the photo above to see Rickster's awesome photos of this year's Kanreikai tournament and keep an eye out for some related videos coming soon.

R-O-A-D-T-R-I-P!  With three large cars packed with a Sensei, two Sempais, kids, parents, dvds, junk food and GPS's (one of which spoke in Japanese...I kid you not), we headed east for the AIKK's annual tournament in Rimouski.  It was a beautiful sunny day which made for a very scenic drive along the St-Lawrence.  We managed to avoid stopping at the dodgy-looking, roadside Monster Truck / Dinosaur museum just after Quebec City :-), so we made it to Rimouski in excellent time.  Arriving on the Friday afternoon at the hotel where the tournament was taking place, we even had time for some last minute, pre-tournament training in the hotel pool and hot tub (because that's just how dedicated our West Island Karate kids and parents are :-)).  After a nice group dinner and a good night's rest, our younger karateka, Duncan, Maria, Em, Niko, Michael, Matthew, Andrew and Rosalie (who had already left when we took the group photo above unfortunately) strutted their stuff for the daytime kata and semi-knockdown competitions.  The evening competition featured Sempai Alex and Kimm in semi-knockdown matches on the big center ring under dramatic lighting.  With some excellent ringside support and coaching from Sensei John and Sempai Nancy (and Sempai Alex during the day), all of our kids did great.  We also took the opportunity to celebrate Sensei's birthday!  Much to his chagrin, he had to weather the onslaught of a rousing version of "Happy Birthday" sung by all the kids and parents in the hotel restaurant (for which he promised to make us pay in class :-)).  Yup, a very fun weekend....can't wait for the next West Island Karate R-O-A-D-T-R-I-P!  Check back soon for videos from the 2008 AIKK Tournament.

We are sad to report that Shihan Sylvain Lessard (6th Dan) of the AIKK passed away last month after a protracted battle with cancer.  He hosted the AIKK tournament in Rimouski that our dojo attended for the very first time last April and to which we will be returning this weekend to compete once more.  West Island Karate would like to extend our sincerest condolences to his family, friends and students.  Osu!

With the arrival of spring (yay!) came more gradings by Sensei today.  Perhaps because of spring fever, everyone seemed to be feeling their oats on this evening (in particular Sempai Yves :-)), so the kumite portion of the grading was especially "spirited".  Through it all, the three adult white belts who were tested hung tough.  Congratulations to Melanie, Vince and James for earning their 10th Kyu.  Just prior to that, in the beginner kids class, little Marley was promoted to 10th Kyu as well.  Well done Marley!  Finally a few weeks earlier, Sensei also graded Kevin G and Averie T to 7th Kyu.  Congratulations to all of you.  Osu!

On this beautiful sunny Saturday, signs of spring were finally beginning to emerge!  And as has been the case for the past few years around this time, West Island Karate brought a team to the annual IFK tournament in Laval.  It came as no surprise that our team as a whole did very well.  Sensei John along with Sempais Patsy, Nancy, Alain and Alex seemed very gratified with the fruits of their students' hard work and training.  The detailed technique, focus and limitless heart which are the hallmarks of West Island Karate were clearly in evidence in all of our students' katas and kumite matches, and the results spoke for themselves.  A hearty congratulations to our entire team!  We would also like to thank Shihan Daniel Gauthier for once again welcoming us to his tournament.  Osu!  Stay tuned to our videos section for footage from the tournament (coming soon).

This year's Ring Warriors tournament in Moncton, New Brunswick, featured a full-contact knockdown event in the evening as usual.  What wasn't "usual" was that our own intrepid Rickster (pictured above with his youngest daughter Kelly) decided to compete in his first full-contact tournament ever!  As many of you already know, Rickster is a very talented photographer in his spare time and has contributed many of the photos you see on our website.  Despite being only a 9th Kyu in rank, Rick decided to step in relatively late to substitute for one of our fighters who could not compete due to injury.  The event was a "Ring Wars" style competition in which each participant fought one match consisting of three 2 minute rounds in a boxing ring...a very challenging format even for the most experienced of Kyokushin fighters.  Given the short time in which he had to prepare, Rick did extremely well and fought valiantly until the middle of the second round when he was forced to concede the match.  His oldest daughter, Sempai Alex, also competed but lost to a very experienced fighter who had competed at the World Cup in Maine back in 2002.  This was only Sempai Alex's second full knockdown competition (she won her first one) and she is gaining valuable experience with each competition.  It goes without saying that everyone at West Island Karate is very proud of both Rick and Sempai Alex for their courage and indomitable spirit!  OSU!

West Island Karate is honoured once again to welcome Shihan Marc Van Welleghem (Rokudan) for a visit!  Shihan Marc generally makes the trip from Belgium to Montreal only once a year, so training with him is a rare privilege.  Shihan's knowledge of Kyokushin karate is vast and stems from 35+ years of studying this martial art.  As anyone who has taken a class with Shihan Marc will attest, his lessons are fast-paced and challenging to say the least!  It's always a humbling experience, but with a little concentration and perseverance (ok...a LOT of concentration and perseverance :-)), the dividends to your karate training can be very significant.  On this Easter Sunday, Shihan Marc along with Shihan Roman (Nanadan) held a 5-hour seminar for a small but keen group of "brave souls" from our dojo (not pictured above is Sempai Lia who was in attendance for the morning portion of the seminar).  The experience was demanding, fun and very rewarding.  West Island Karate would like to thank both Shihan Marc and Shihan Roman for being so generous with their time, humour and knowledge.  Osu!

Congratulations to Harrison for earning his 5th Kyu!  As expected, Sensei demanded a lot of him during the grading and Harrison was equal to the task.  Wear that green bar with pride Harrison.  Osu!

Yannick J., who was a member of our Ring Wars team in November of 2007, was promoted to 6th Kyu tonight.  According to Sensei, Yannick fought practically everyone in the entire class on this evening and did a great job!  Congratulations Yannick!  Osu!

As per tradition at West Island Karate, Sensei John opened 2008 with our annual New Year's Training at the Kirkland Arena.  Sensei is nothing if not courteous, so upon noticing that all his karateka had donned freshly laundered dogis for the training, he decided not to sully them with unsightly sweat stains.  Consequently he took us through some very light stretching followed by a spirited Japanese sing-along for the remainder of the two hours so we wouldn't strain ourselves....N-O-T (just kidding Sensei :-))!!!  In actuality, Sensei John, Sensei Steve and all the Sempais took us through an extremely challenging and grueling (with a capital "G") training to ring in the New Year with an eye-opening and jarring reality check!  THAT'S the West Island Karate New Year's tradition!  Oh well, the holidays were nice while they lasted (sigh).  Happy New Year and all the best for 2008!  Osu!

Click here to read what happened at West Island Karate in 2007