The Dojo Photo Gallery consists of pictures generously contributed by our students, their parents and friends of West Island Karate.  One of those West Island Karate students/parents is David Boily, a professional photographer whose work you'll often see in La Presse, Le Journal de Montreal and the Gazette just to name a few.  Fortunately for us, he's been a major contributor to our dojo photo gallery over the years.  For a fun sample of his work, just click on the photo below to view a musical slide show of the 2007 Matsushima Challenge (now known as the Matsushima Canadian Championships).  Then enter our photo gallery to see more of his photos as well as those of our other contributors.  Thanks so much David!

If you have some pictures of our students that you would like to share, please drop us a line and we'd be more than happy to post them in our Dojo Photo Gallery.

Your humble webmaster attended the Monteregie Championship to support and document our team's efforts.  I didn't have a camera handy, so here are some stills from video that I recorded over the course of the day.  The videos will be posted soon (keep an eye on our Videos section), but meanwhile click on the photo above to see some shots of our team competing at the last tournament of this year. 

The tournament season wrapped up in mid-June with the Monteregie Championship in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.  West Island Karate was represented by 12 of our students who all did an amazing job!  Click on the photo above to see a few pictures from the tournament courtesy of Brigitte (shown here at right...thanks so much Brigitte).

Following Kancho's seminar the morning after the 2010 Matsushima Canadian Championships, Kancho Matsushima then conducted a black belt grading that afternoon/evening.  Among the candidates being graded were our own Sempais Alain, Victor, Lia (all being graded for Nidan), and Sempais Annie and Muriel (both being graded for Shodan).  Click on the photo above to see some pictures from the grading courtesy of Sempai Victor (thanks Sempai).  

We were extremely honoured this year to have Kancho Yoshikazu Matsushima (9th Dan and President of I.K.O. Matsushima) make the long trip from Japan with his wife, Mikiko-san, to preside over this year's edition of our annual tournament.  It made the 2010 Matsushima Canadian Championships an extraordinary one.  Fortunately we had our own David Boily present to capture this special event for posterity with 445(!) superb pictures (thanks so much Dave)!  Click on Kancho's photo above to see Dave's incredible shots of the competition.  Enjoy!

Our West Island Karate team competed hard at the Yukan Karate Championship in St-Anne-de-Bellevue and were rewarded with great results.  Click on the above picture to see Anne-Marie's photos of the tournament (thanks so much Anne-Marie). 

Our team gave the thumbs up to the 21st Eastern Quebec Championship in Rimouski. :-)  Click on the above picture to see Sensei's photos of the tournament (thanks Sensei).

As you can plainly see, our team had a great time competing (and hamming it up) at the 21st Eastern Quebec Championship in Rimouski. :-)  Click on the above picture to see Anne-Marie's photo album of the tournament (much appreciated Anne-Marie). 

We ended March by welcoming Sensei Bertrand and Sensei Steve of Seishin Karate to our dojo along with some of their Sempais and students for a training together.  It was a fun evening and excellent exchange of training ideas.  Click the picture above to see our photo album of the training courtesy of Sempai Nancy (thanks Sempai).

It doesn't happen often which is why it's such a special event.  Five karateka from West Island Karate were presented with their black belts and certificates after having passed their Shodan grading with Shihan Roman in December, 2009.  Many congratulations to (bottom row / left to right) Sempais James, Manon, Louise, Alex M., and Kimm (not shown in above photo).  Click on the picture above to see our photo album of the black belt presentations courtesy of Sempai Nancy and Sempai Manon (thank you Sempais).

For one night in February, we converted the dojo into a mini-theatre for West Island Karate's very first "Movie Night".  Besides helping the kids "get" Sensei's in-class jokes based on martial arts movie references :-), Movie Night helped us raise money for West Island Karate's Fighters Fund which is used to support our full-contact/knockdown fighters.  It was a fun, popcorn-munching evening at the dojo.  Click on the photo above to check out David Boily's pics of our inaugural Movie Night (much appreciated Dave!).  Everyone had a terrific time, so we'll definitely be doing it again soon.

Enter Rickster's OLD Photo Gallery

Rick Katigbak is a West Island Karate student and avid photographer.  You'll often see him in the dojo or at our events stalking the floor with his trusty camera at his side, taking candid action shots of our students (don't worry...he doesn't bite...not very hard anyway).  One look at his pictures and we're sure you'll agree that Rick is one talented photographer.  In fact, most of the photos on our website were contributed by the "Rickster".  Many thanks for sharing Rick!  May your camera always be steady and your lens free of fog.  Osu!

Despite also helping out at the 2009 Matsushima Canadian Championships as a volunteer, Rick still managed to snap some great shots of the tournament.  This latest gallery predominantly features the action from the full contact/knockdown event which was added to our annual tournament this year.  The level of competition was very high and the event turned out to be extremely popular with the spectators.  Thanks again to Rickster for sharing these with us!  Enjoy.

Click on the picture above to see Rick's photos of the 3rd I.K.O. Matsushima World Open which took place in Japan just this past November, 2008.  Along with a group of us from West Island Karate, Rick went to the tournament to support his daughter, Sempai Alex, who was competing (click here to see a video of her fight).  Besides shots of the fighting action, Rick also captured some wonderful moments during the many martial arts demonstrations and musical entertainment provided between the fights.  It was an unforgettable experience.  Thanks again to Rickster for sharing these awesome photos!

During Sempai Alex's recent trip to Japan to compete at the 3rd I.K.O. Matsushima World Open, her dad (our very own Rickster) went shutter crazy and created a wonderful photo log of their adventure together.  Rick did an awesome job of capturing Japan's unique beauty as they toured many of its most famous sights.  Click on the torii gates above to access his two weeks' worth of photos.  Rick also put together an incredible musical slideshow of the trip which you can access here (you may be prompted to install a plugin which is necessary to watch the 20+ minute slideshow...it's perfectly safe, but it's not Mac-compatible unfortunately).  Thanks for sharing this with us Rick!

Other Rickster Photo Galleries
(not accessible from main links above)

The 2007 Family Christmas Party was a festive celebration of a great year at West Island Karate!  The holiday binging started with a fabulous potluck supper topped off by a "challenging" sweet table.  In between the munching, music, videos, slideshow and dancing, Santa paid a visit to reward our kids for being so good (and training so hard) all year round.  Click on the picture above to see Rick's photos of the party or click here to see his shots of "The Kohais" who provided some live musical entertainment for the evening.  Suffice it to say, a great time was had by all.

In early November of 2007, a small team from West Island Karate competed in the first "Ring Wars:  Xtreme Kyokushin" tournament in Rochester, New York.  Hosted by Sensei Rene Cruz, the tournament featured one full-contact match per competitor in a boxing ring.  Click on the above photo to see Rickster's pics of this tournament. 

Click on the above photo to see a fun, musical slideshow of our 2007 Beach Training.  This one was put together by Rickster using photos shot by Serge Fournier, Sempai Patsy and your humble webmaster.  The first time you play the slideshow, you will be prompted to download and install the Photodex Presenter plug-in (which is free and totally safe).  If for some reason the plug-in does not download automatically, you can get it from here).  Enjoy Rickster's rockin' soundtrack (thanks Rick)!  Osu!

Here are some awesome photos of the full contact competition that was part of the World Kanreikai Tournament back in April of 2007.  Held in the evening on a huge center ring under dramatic stage lighting, the full contact portion of the tournament featured some of the best fighters throughout Quebec and the United States.  Click on the picture above to see Rick's incredible photos of the event or click here to see them presented as a musical slideshow (requires the free QuickTime player).  Thanks for sharing these great photos Rick!

Click on the picture above for photos from the knockdown competition at the AIKK Tournament held in April of 2007.

Click on the picture above for photos from the Gold Cup Tournament held in March of 2007 including the full knockdown fights in the evening.