Story by: Shifu Neil Ripski

At 5:30 in the morning all is usually quiet at my house – even the sheep don’t want to get out of bed – but that’s when we hit the road to Vancouver for the Tiger Balm International level tournament.

Every year I take my martial arts students to compete at an international-level competition. It’s great to build the confidence and character of my students and a chance to expose them not only to high-level competition but directly to Chinese culture, customs and – when we are lucky – other martial arts masters.

Over the mountain passes and through low clouds we drove to reach Vancouver in a single day and our home away from home, the Hotel Patricia right next to Vancouver’s Chinatown. In the morning we headed down to the New Garden Bakery for traditional Chinese breakfasts.

The smell of steamed buns filled the air behind the fogged windows of the restaurant and the 20 of us settled in for har gau (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (pork dumplings) and my personal favourite, shan ka ya tang mein (barbecued duck noodle soup). Delicious!

Two days of competition followed. Creston was represented by students of mine who have been training from one to five years, accompanied by supportive parents and tai chi (taiji) students from both my Creston and Wynndel clubs.

We competed in continuous sparring (like a kickboxing match) and padded weapons fighting divisions. Our six fighters brought home 13 medals.

Nine-year-old Nick Ebelher fought in both divisions and not only showed great skill in winning his medals but great compassion against the demure little girl he was matched against in one fight.

Our resident monkey kung fu fighter, David Huscroft, fought in the black belt continuous kickboxing division and had to fight three opponents back-to-back on his way to the medals. Not only did he instruct some black belts in monkey style (David is still working toward his black belt) but he showed great control of his emotions when he fought through a bloody nose in his last match to victory.

In the evening we celebrated with a Chinese victory dinner and headed to bed. The next day featured a tour of Chinatown and a visit to the Sun Yat Sen garden to take in traditional architecture and peaceful surroundings. It is amazing that a place can be so calm and serene in the heart of Vancouver.

A visit to my friend Daniel Lui (thechineseteashop.com) for a traditional gong fu cha (Chinese tea ceremony) followed, accompanied as always by great conversation and instruction from Shifu Daniel (who is a traditional master of the Chinese way of making tea) on the various types of black teas and fermented pu erh cha.

This year he honoured us by making green tea, aged 30 years ($1,280 per pound) in his oldest (200 years) teapot. He told us that he only brought it out for his closest friends, which I am proud he considers us at Red Jade to be among.

After a great competition, a showing not only of martial skill but virtue from my students, wonderful tea and training in the Chinese garden, and days of good friends, we came home to our mountains and back to our quiet lives here in beautiful Creston.

Congratulations are in order to Nick Ebelher, Adam Ebelher, Clyde Elvis Robson, Lorna Foot, Austin Agabob and Huscroft for representing Creston to the world.

(Neil Ripski teaches kung fu and tai chi at Red Jade Martial Arts in Creston and also teaches tai chi at the Wynndel Community Hall. He can be reached at 866-5263 or at www.redjademartialarts.com.)