Click here to enter the DOJO Photo Gallery
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.
Another incredible year at West Island Karate ended with our annual Dojo Christmas Party for all the students, their families and friends. Packed with awesome food, music, videos, a live band, and a visit from Sempai Santa complete with gifts for the all the kids (including a rather BIG kid :-)), it was another fun, almost-out-of-hand, year end party. Once again, thanks to Anne Marie (much appreciated AM), we have some great pictures to share with you. Enjoy!
In November, Sensei put many of his students through a grading starting with the kids. Thanks to Anne Marie, we have about 70 very nice photos from that grading (including many where she used an interesting black & white plus one colour effect...much appreciated Anne Marie). Click on the picture above to see that album. Congratulations to everyone who earned their next Kyu.
Sensei normally never allows his karateka (let alone his Sempais) to train while out of uniform, but he makes an exception for West Island Karate's annual Halloween Training. This year, Sensei was assisted by four of his female Sempais (although I'm guessing that one of them was a little "ambiguous"...yikes!). :-) Click on the picture above to see some great shots of the Halloween Training courtesy of David Boily (thanks very much Dave!). Trick or treat. Osu!
In late September, a sizeable contingent of students from West Island Karate once again travelled to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, for the 4th Annual Beach Training with Shihan Roman. Once there, they joined their fellow karateka from several other local dojos for a weekend of training on the sand and in the surf. Thanks to Anne Marie (pictured lying in the sand above) and Gillian, we have almost 200 wonderful photos to share with you. Click the picture above to see their photo album of this year's beach training. Arigato gozaimashita ladies!
West Island Karate was honoured to have Hanshi John Taylor make the long trip from Australia to attend the 2009 Matsushima Canadian Championships. Needless to say, he made our annual tournament all the more special this year. The next day, Hanshi gave a series of seminars for students of all ages and levels. It was a very rare opportunity to be taught by one of the few 9th Dan black belts in the world and to learn from someone who actually trained with Sosai as an uchi-deshi. Click the picture above to see some photos from Hanshi's seminars.
Click the photo above to see a few pictures from the Yukan Ultimate Karate Championship courtesy of Sempai Manon (thanks Sempai!).
Once again David Boily has contributed some great pictures to our photo gallery (thanks so much Dave!). Click on the photo above to see his pictures of West Island Karate's demonstration at the Montreal Japanese Language Center's annual Japanese Spring Festival.
Click on the photo above to see David Boily's pictures of the Kanreikai Joliette tournament. The quality of these pictures is all the more amazing when you consider how dimly lit the venue was (the tournament took place on the second floor of a pub...at least the parents were able to get a drink to take the edge off - just kidding :-)). Great job Dave! Thank you.
A team of 28 West Island Karate students made their way to Joliette on Feb. 21st for the first tournament of 2009. It was hosted by Sensei Dominic Morin of Kanreikai Karaté Joliette. Predictably all our students worked hard and did a great job in the kata, weapons kata and semi-contact competitions. Congratulations to all of them! Click on the picture above to see Sempai Manon's photos of the tournament (much appreciated Sempai).
In January of 2009, Sensei held a special tameshiwari (breaking) class for anyone interested. Many of our students signed up because...let's face it...it's fun breaking stuff! :-) Fortunately Sempai Manon had the opportunity to snap a few action shots between her own breaking exploits (thanks Sempai!). Click on the picture of Sensei flying through the air above to see Sempai Manon's photo gallery of this special class. Osu!
