I arrived in Dublin in February 2010 to a familiar friend’s face, namely Vivion Spain, greeting me at the airport and then it was off to the Green Isle hotel to meet Dr Chapel and Ryan Angell, who I had last seen a few months earlier in LA, before the first of the two seminars planned for the weekend.My arrival at the hotel found them both in fine form having flown in from the USA a couple of days earlier.
We arrived at the seminar venue on Friday evening to find everyone there and ready to go.Doc opened with his usual seminar speech, “I will continue to teach until they throw us out”.There were some new faces in amongst the crowd this time along with a few of the old faces and friends from previous seminars. Jimmy and Mary Poland had brought a few students along, it was good to see John Ward again and to meet Darren Magee and Shay McNamee who had brought a few of his students along.There was also a good splattering of Viv’s students around, what a change to see so many SL4 Gis in one place outside of Doc’s studio in LA! - sorry if I missed mentioning anyone.Doc was soon into the flow of the seminar and everyone was enjoying his material but before long, as usual they were waiting outside the doors to kick us out!
Saturday’s seminar saw another 45 to 50 people in attendance and we were soon into the run of things again.Ryan was suffering from a decision to take the hotel room’s key card out of the wall socket early that morning, as Doc took great pleasure in constantly reminding him!!!! I had nothing to do with it I might add.During the seminar Peter Coyle came in and unbeknown to us had a surprise planned later for Doc.Soon everyone was moving well and working on AOD techniques, which everyone seemed to enjoy and get a great deal out of.Time went quickly with all the material being taught and practiced, as is usually the case with Doc’s Seminars and before we knew it, the hall caretaker was around to close the place.Before everyone departed Peter Coyle stood up and presented Dr Chapel with a lifetime membership of Kenpo Ireland on behalf of the Committee, which Doc was honoured to accept.A fitting end to a successful weekend of SL4 Seminars in Ireland.
Sunday was a day to chill out before the flight home, but as usual when you are around Doc it did not take long before we were into an impromptu lesson with him in Viv’s front room! Never a dull moment and the discussions centered on the science of the martial arts and Kenpo. While this was going on Ryan was out in the back studio taking another class with some of Viv’s die-hard students, Robbie, Mick and a few others and so the day went on.Finally it was time for me to leave for my flight home after a great weekend of SL4 in Ireland.My thanks to Brendon for taking me to the airport in plenty of time for my flight.
I’m now looking forward to seeing Doc and Ryan again in July here in the UK when they will be teaching at the BKKU International Summer Camp and I hope to see everyone there again to continue to cement SL4 in Europe.