Where are the Kenpo "Hot Spots" in CA?

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

For several different reasons, I'm currently considering moving out to the West Coast in the next few months... with California (and the lower 4-corners states) being a major consideration...

What areas of CA do you (as an individual Kenpoist) consider to be a Kenpo "Hot Spot" in CA?

Specifically, I'm looking to train in EPAK and/or Mr. Speakman's 5.0... and also find the SL-4 stuff very interesting... as I have an EMS background... and really enjoy the breakdowns of what is actually being done in a technique...

Here’s a little about my Martial Arts background and myself. I'll be 40 in February, have trained in Jukido Jujitsu, Tracy Kenpo, Tang Soo Do, and Modern Arnis, and dabbled in a few others. My first training began in JJ at age 14, and I've studied several styles off and on over the past 25-years. My highest rank is that of 2nd Brown (3rd Gup) in TSD under Master John Godwin here in DE... I've also been fortunate to train in Modern Arnis under some of Prof. Remy A. Presas' personal students in Datu Tim Hartman's WMAA organization...

The next few months are going to have a LOT of changes for me... and I plan on making Kenpo the centerpiece of those changes...

So, any CA Kenpoists care to answer up?

If you could be ANYWHERE in CA (North or South) to study Kenpo... where would you go and why?

Just kind of feeling things out for the moment... so, I appreciate any and all feedback regarding training, housing, good areas to live in, etc.

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[Seabrook]

There are many great Kenpoists in California. Check out this site for Larry Tatum in Pasadena:

ltatum.com

[amylong]

Southern CA has Larry Tatum (as Jamie mentioned) in Pasadena.

There is a Speakman 5.0 in both Pasadena and Arrowhead.

There are quite a few EPAK schools in southern CA.

In Northern CA, like, say beautiful Sacramento where I happen to live, there is a great Speakman school that I just happen to own with my dear friend Tara. We would, of course, love to have you. Naturally, I'd recommend US.

I don't know that there's much in-between though.

--Amy

[flying crane]

You will probably find more EPAK lineages in Southern California, LA area, than anywhere else in California.

[amylong]

You will probably find more EPAK lineages in Southern California, LA area, than anywhere else in California.

True, but this area is certainly growing!!

[IWishToLearn]

Dr. Chap'el is in the southern LA area.

Tatum is in Pasadena.

Bob White is in Costa Mesa.


The "Kenpo Mecca" is definitely centered in the greater Los Angeles area, but there are offshoots almost everywhere now.

[Dr. Dave in da house]

The central valley is pretty bare of, well, anything except farms and manure.

So. Cal. / LA Basin -- if you've not been there before, you're a captive without a car. Everything is a commute, including going to the store for bread...even if it's just around the corner. Once you get used to it, though, commuting is no longer a problem for going to good kenpo schools. Doc Chapel is in Torrance/Hawthorne area in a hidden bat-cave, and does some wicked cool kenpo things. Pasadena area (you'll see why I use "area" when you get out there...megablocks where one city bleeds into the next) has Tatum, Chavies, Trejo, lotsa good stuff in a small area. If you get into OC, Bob Whites is in Costa Mesa. OC is a little less congested and hostile than the city, but has it's own pre-fab wierdnesses to adjust to. The chicks are hot, though. And you have the beach.

Nor-Cal: Good kenpoists up here with hearts in the right places; more family oriented than tribal competition. I also like hills in my view that don't have houses, and air I can breathe without seeing it. It's a little more country up here, though...as a So. Cal dude migrating to No. Cal, coming up here without a pick-up truck blaring country music and a ball-cap has left me without many prospects for new friends. Not to mention, I'm a bit of an @$$. Speakman has a few schools up here. Further up and in you might find LaBounty. And if you choose to deviate from AK, Hawaiian Kenpo and Kajukenbo are well-represented up here. Some Tracy schools up here more than in So Cal.

If I could do it again, I'd stay in So. Cal. More income opportunity for a Chiro down there. As an EMT, though, you could probably land anywhere out here and be OK...

L.A. is the mecca for AK, if that's your preference.

Good luck; I'm sure you'll do well.

D

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

Jamie, Amy, Michael, IWishToLearn, and Dr. Dave,

Thank you all very much for the information thus far!

I especially liked the manure comment, Dr. D!

Still a lot of research to do before I commit to the move... and I really don'ty want to do it all "seat of the pants" style...

I look forward to more discussion here regarding training, cost of living, etc!

Thanks again!

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[Dianhsuhe]

Dr Dave and everyone else hit it pretty good...

I know you are requesting EPAK info. and I am Kara-Ho, but if you ever get to San Diego, please look me up and I would love to work out with you anytime!

I have enjoyed your posts and you clearly have a broad base and MANY years in the MA's.

Best of luck and take care!

James

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

I know you are requesting EPAK info, and I am Kara-Ho, but if you ever get to San Diego, please look me up and I would love to work out with you anytime!

I have enjoyed your posts and you clearly have a broad base and MANY years in the MA's.

Best of luck and take care!

James, my good man... that's a date! If I ever make it down San Diego way... we'll definitely get together! Plus, there's a movie we need to watch together, right?

Kara-Ho, Hawaiian, EPAK... it's all Kenpo in my book... and I can always use something new Martial Arts wise!

Well… I’ve been in the MA long enough to know a few things... nowhere near enough (IMHO)... but, there's a lot of rust on what little I do remember... and I'm looking to knock it off ASAP!

I've been interested in the MA all my life. As a Kid, I was too darn hyperactive to focus on it... if I wasn't like Taz from the cartoons... no one was! I struggled to continue training in one style or another into my 20's... then fell into sporadic training... more like seminar road trips... until the mid 90's when I began training in Korean TSD with my soon to be ex-wife and my two youngest step-daughters.

Ah! Those were the days! A Martial Arts family! <sigh> {waxing nostalgic}

In 2003 I tried to go back to my TSD... but just found it too difficult without the family there as well (they'd all dropped out for one reason or another)... it just wasn’t the same (plus other changes in the school). And going there post-divorce just wouldn't work for me... hence the change back to my "Kenpo roots"...

My ultimate goal would be to be able to make a career out of learning and sharing Kenpo knowledge... in fact, it's been my life-long dream to work and/or own a Martial Arts school... and I've been avoiding that fact all of my life...

With little to hold me in DE, and with an interest in learning quality Kenpo... I'm strongly considering the move West... and want to make a career out of Kempo...

Another area of interest is Traditional Chinese Medicine... and I’d like to attend a quality training program to become certified in the different areas of TCM...

Any Members here also TCM practitioners... or know a fair amount about TCM? Specifically, this would be in CA… But TCM information in general is fine as well!

Also, anyone from CA that might be interested in corresponding with regarding this subject via email... please PM me through KT… I'll reply with my email address...

Thanks again for all the support! This is going to be a HUGE change in everything for me... so I appreciate getting the "heads up" information from everyone!

Best regards...

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[flying crane]

I look forward to more discussion here regarding training, cost of living, etc!

Thanks again!

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

If you end up in the San Francisco Bay area, esp. the City proper, it is WAY expensive. True, salaries and wages tend to be higher as well, but it is not in proper proportion.

You may be a homeowner where you live now. Don't expect that to be the case if you move into that area.

Outside the City, it is a LITTLE more reasonable, but the radius of Realestate Insanity just keeps getting longer and longer.

A broken down piece of crap that should be razed to the ground and completely rebuilt, in a lousy neighborhood with pimps and crack dealers working both corners of your block can literally cost you over $750,000.

Rent on a two bedroom apartment in a relatively decent, but still sort of gritty, neighborhood can cost you between about $1400 and $2200 per month.

Just be prepared...

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

If you end up in the San Francisco Bay area, esp. the City proper, it is WAY expensive. True, salaries and wages tend to be higher as well, but it is not in proper proportion.

You may be a homeowner where you live now. Don't expect that to be the case if you move into that area.

Outside the City, it is a LITTLE more reasonable, but the radius of Realestate Insanity just keeps getting longer and longer.

A broken down piece of crap that should be razed to the ground and completely rebuilt, in a lousy neighborhood with pimps and crack dealers working both corners of your block can literally cost you over $750,000.

Rent on a two bedroom apartment in a relatively decent, but still sort of gritty, neighborhood can cost you between about $1400 and $2200 per month.

Just be prepared...

Hello again, Michael!

Yes, I agree! I spent a few days out in the Oakland/SF Bay area in the mid 90's... in fact, I woke up to the news of the Oklahoma City bombing... so I guess that'd be April 1995...

As I remember, my friend (and later to be my Best Man) and his Fiance (later to be his Wife) were in a shoebox of an apartment, had to pay extra for parking at a place across the street that was access-controlled (after several break ins in their open access garage), and paid an un-godly amount for rent...

If I remember... they also thought that their car insurance was very high... and hated going to the DMV there!

I can remember driving in the bay area as well... nice! No, really!

My initial thoughts are leaning towards starting out in the Northern California area... maybe the Sacramento/Folsom area... maybe between Sacramanto and Santa Rosa... as those are more lateral moves than they are Southern... and I-80 is an easy road back East for visits, etc.!

Then, maybe head down for the warmer waters of the O.C. after I have a good, firm understanding of the basics... and I mean good and firm. Who knows? Maybe at the 50-year mark... after a good 10-years of Kenpo training... I should have the basics down good enough by then to really absorb what I experience while training down in Southern California...

Hey! Wherever my Kenpo takes me...

Just some first thoughts...

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[flying crane]

Hey! Wherever my Kenpo takes me...

Andrew

Yeah, ya gotta find where is best for your.

Personally, I think San Francisco is a great city, huge opportunities for all kinds of martial arts, esp. Chinese martial arts, but admittedly not much kenpo. I just started driving down to San Jose once a week, about an hour and a half or so, to train Tracy Kenpo with Ted Sumner. Otherwise, in Santa Clara, John Sepulveda had a school for EPAK. Santa Clara is near San Jose, just a little closer to San Francisco. I guess he has moved away, but left some good people in charge of the training there. I don't know them, but this is what I have heard.

Other than the Real Estate/Rental insanity, I really do love San Francisco. It's a really great city, with lots of other stuff going on.

[amylong]

Otherwise, in Santa Clara, John Sepulveda had a school for EPAK. Santa Clara is near San Jose, just a little closer to San Francisco. I guess he has moved away, but left some good people in charge of the training there. I don't know them, but this is what I have heard.

Other than the Real Estate/Rental insanity, I really do love San Francisco. It's a really great city, with lots of other stuff going on.

San Francisco is beautiful. I used to work in the city. The air quality kinda stinks though. But it's beautiful. There's a great kenpo school in San Rafael. It's sort of Tracy-ish. It's under LaBounty, I think. I went there years ago.

Good training either way.

I didn't know John Sepulveda had moved, but yes, I hear that's a good place to train in Santa Clara.

--Amy

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

My friend and I spent a whole day in SF... and had a rockin' lunch in China Town!

I really enjoyed the scenery there... but I think it's kinda out of my budget to live there...

All still formative of course... as I'd like to see where this thread goes...

But, I'm grateful for the input from my KT family thus far!

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[Dr. Dave in da house]

Two decent Acu-punk schools in So. Cal. I know of are South Baylo in Garden Grove, and the Acu-punk wing of Southern California University of Health Sciences in Whittier. I used to sell TCM meds to practitioners in the area; you get to know who has a good rep, and who not-so-much. Both of these mentioned schools have good rep dudes as profs.

D.

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

Dr. D,

Do you know anything about Sensei Cynthia Frueh of Makoto Kai Healing Arts in Woodland, CA? She teaches an Okazaki Restorative Massage training course...

Thank you in advance!

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[Dianhsuhe]

Andrew-San,

There is a very well respected Kenpo teacher (One of the EPAK split-offs) in Poway, CA. He is a super nice guy and comes from Bryan Adams and Jim Mitchell lineage if that hepls ya... His profile lists:

7th Degree Black Belt

Began Training 1973

1998 Instructor of the Year – Golden Global Martial Arts Hall of Fame
2000 School of the Year – Masters Hall of Fame

Holistic Health Practitioner (HHP)

Intern Level Acupuncture Practitioner

Here is the link to his site if you would like to start a dialogue with him> http://www.powaykenpo.com/

Cheers!

[LngDrnkOfSilence]

Thanks for the additional information, James!

Poway is probably more South than I will start out... but, I'll stash that info away for if/when I make it down that way!

After reading the "Kenpo Healing" thread... I've researched Seifukujutsu some... and have even located a school in the area I'm currently investigating... so, that might be a good way to start...

Heck! If I do the full-blown course... the "final" includes a 10-day intensive workshop... on MAUI!

HECK YEAH!

The site for Makoto Kai Healing Arts is located HERE. Check it out!

Thanks again for all the help, Gang!

KENPO TALK ROCKS!

Your Brother in the arts,

Andrew

[Dionysianexile]

If you make it out to the central San Juaqin Valley area, you can find Graham Lelliott in Fresno. Hes only been out here a few years, but is well known in Europe, as he is from the Rainer Schulte line. You can find his website at www.glkenpo.com.

Graham is also hosting a 4 day, 3 night camp this may. During this camp there will be 8 seminars from 8 notable kenpo people: Master Lee Wedlake, Ed Parker Jr., Graham Lelliott, Steve White, Marty Zaninovich, Brian Hawkins, Diane Tanaka, and Ingmar Johansson. More information Re the camp can also be found at the website, under "events."

-Dionysianexile