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Woo hoo!!! This past weekend I had the most
memorable seminar experience of my life (and
that's saying something).
I arrived in Wichita Falls on Friday morning
and went to Guro Harley Elmore's school
there. We chatted for a bit and then he
headed off to drive to Dallas (about 2.5
hours ... not counting traffic) to pick
Tuhon Chris Sayoc and his son, Jimmy, up at
the airport. Guro Harley asked me to teach
his morning class and we did some Silat.
That was all fun.
Saturday, we started the seminar at 10 AM.
Everyone "died" so many times that it ceased
to be embarrassing. We covered quite a bit
of ground doing the 3 of 9 template and
knife tapping on 3 of 9. After lunch we did
some interesting technical work and some
other drills. Honestly, though, a lot of
that is a blur in my memory.
Saturday evening we went to Golden Corral
for dinner then a bunch (somewhere between
10 and 15 ... not sure exactly how many) of
us went back to Guro Harley's and hung out.
We got to spend quite a bit of time with
Tuhon Chris and Jimmy. Then the wind picked
up outside and it started raining pretty
hard. They announced on the radio that there
was a tornado a few miles north of us. The
tornado alarm went off and we all headed for
a tornado shelter near Guro Harley's school.
We ran to the shelter ... all of us wound up
with wind-blown grit in our mouths and eyes.
The shelter was built to hold about 5
people. I'm not a small guy. There was also
Tuhon Chris and another guy in there who
were bigger than me. But we managed to fit
most of our group in that little shelter (I
think a couple of people wound up going to
another nearby shelter ... I'm not sure ...
I was in a hole in the ground getting
sardine-type cozy with a bunch of people,
though).
Where we were, there wasn't actually a
tornado ... but there were straight winds
from 80 MPH - 90 MPH.
The tornado alarm went silent and things,
while still windy, seemed to have died down
some. We headed back into Harley's school.
Later, we heard some very loud noises out
back, then a loud "thud" as something
slammed into the back of the school ... then
another loud noise out in front of the
school.
We later determined that a shed (made of
sheet metal) behind the school had been
uprooted by the wind. It slammed into the
wood privacy fence between it and the school
and knocked a section of the fence askew.
Then the shed slammed into the back of the
school. A piece of sheet metal broke loose
and flew over the school where it landed on
Eric's truck out front. It scratched the
paint at the back of his cab down to the
metal then it tore a hole down the length of
the bed cover. Also, when the shad slammed
into the back of the school, about 1/4 of it
folded around the side of the school
building and wrapped around Guro Harley's
car ... totalling the car.
Sunday, we went through some more incredible
knife training with Tuhon Sayoc and, after
the seminar, we took a group photo by the
wreckage of the shed and Harley's car.
As I say, the most memorable seminar I've
ever attended ... Guro Harley and Tuhon
Sayoc know how to make a seminar
interesting ;-)
Mike
memorable seminar experience of my life (and
that's saying something).
I arrived in Wichita Falls on Friday morning
and went to Guro Harley Elmore's school
there. We chatted for a bit and then he
headed off to drive to Dallas (about 2.5
hours ... not counting traffic) to pick
Tuhon Chris Sayoc and his son, Jimmy, up at
the airport. Guro Harley asked me to teach
his morning class and we did some Silat.
That was all fun.
Saturday, we started the seminar at 10 AM.
Everyone "died" so many times that it ceased
to be embarrassing. We covered quite a bit
of ground doing the 3 of 9 template and
knife tapping on 3 of 9. After lunch we did
some interesting technical work and some
other drills. Honestly, though, a lot of
that is a blur in my memory.
Saturday evening we went to Golden Corral
for dinner then a bunch (somewhere between
10 and 15 ... not sure exactly how many) of
us went back to Guro Harley's and hung out.
We got to spend quite a bit of time with
Tuhon Chris and Jimmy. Then the wind picked
up outside and it started raining pretty
hard. They announced on the radio that there
was a tornado a few miles north of us. The
tornado alarm went off and we all headed for
a tornado shelter near Guro Harley's school.
We ran to the shelter ... all of us wound up
with wind-blown grit in our mouths and eyes.
The shelter was built to hold about 5
people. I'm not a small guy. There was also
Tuhon Chris and another guy in there who
were bigger than me. But we managed to fit
most of our group in that little shelter (I
think a couple of people wound up going to
another nearby shelter ... I'm not sure ...
I was in a hole in the ground getting
sardine-type cozy with a bunch of people,
though).
Where we were, there wasn't actually a
tornado ... but there were straight winds
from 80 MPH - 90 MPH.
The tornado alarm went silent and things,
while still windy, seemed to have died down
some. We headed back into Harley's school.
Later, we heard some very loud noises out
back, then a loud "thud" as something
slammed into the back of the school ... then
another loud noise out in front of the
school.
We later determined that a shed (made of
sheet metal) behind the school had been
uprooted by the wind. It slammed into the
wood privacy fence between it and the school
and knocked a section of the fence askew.
Then the shed slammed into the back of the
school. A piece of sheet metal broke loose
and flew over the school where it landed on
Eric's truck out front. It scratched the
paint at the back of his cab down to the
metal then it tore a hole down the length of
the bed cover. Also, when the shad slammed
into the back of the school, about 1/4 of it
folded around the side of the school
building and wrapped around Guro Harley's
car ... totalling the car.
Sunday, we went through some more incredible
knife training with Tuhon Sayoc and, after
the seminar, we took a group photo by the
wreckage of the shed and Harley's car.
As I say, the most memorable seminar I've
ever attended ... Guro Harley and Tuhon
Sayoc know how to make a seminar
interesting ;-)
Mike