JKA of Northern California: Shotokan Karate
Shotokan Karate for Adults and Kids in San Bruno near San Francisco
Come Train with Sensei Jose Ferrand at JKA NorCal’s beautiful new dojo in San Bruno, CA!
There will be training for all ages and skill levels with one of the best Senseis in the country and Head Coach of the US National Team.
Hello JKA NorCal family and friends – For those we have not seen (in person or virtually), hope you are all keeping well and staying healthy. For those who have hung in there with us since the shut down, training on Zoom, at the various park locations outdoors, “good on you, congratulations! Thank you for persevering!”
THROUGH ADVERSITY, WE BUILD STRENGTH! And we COUNT ALL OUR BLESSINGS …Grateful that we are healthy and still training AND getting to know each other much better (locally and internationally). We are now only a zoom session away from any training worldwide, with our broader JKA family! Closer to home, as we emerge from the many lockdowns and uncertainty, it was the right stimulus for us to look for a permanent solution — so we can get back together and train. We have outgrown PrimeTime (physically and spiritually)…
On Friday, October 1, 2021 we held our dojo soft opening at our new space/location. Thank you to all who helped prepare the dojo for this and to everyone who came to launch this very momentous next step for JKA NorCal. We are so very excited to share the experience and growth of our dojo. It is a beautiful space with so much potential. As you can see, we are still setting up, but plan on having an auspicious GRAND OPENING at a later date when we will invite some of our karate friends and seniors over to formally celebrate the event (pending COVID restrictions) – date TBA.
In the meantime through the end of October while we continue to fix up the space, we will be retaining our restricted schedule of 2 daily classes Mon-Fri (Kids 5-6pm; Adults: 6-7pm) at our new space, and Saturdays by the Bay (Seal Point Park 8:45-10:15am) – training indoors with mask out of precaution for our younger students who are not yet vaccinated. We are also looking into “live-streaming” our classes for those who are yet not comfortable to train indoors.
Stay tuned
A Dedication to Omine Okinawa Karate Kobudo Dojo:
Thank you for the beautiful dojo, we commit to keep the spirit going, with fortitude and hard work!
JKA NorCal
HISTORY OF THIS DOJO LOCATION: Omine Sensei was from Okinawa. In 1973 he immigrated to USA to teach shorin-ryu karate and opened up a dojo with one of his students Susan Borgr (a Nidan at the time). When Sensei Omine died in 1975, Sensei Susan assumed the dojo until 2009. Sensei Pat Mcgale grew up in Okinawa to a Japanese mother and an American father, a sensei in Okinawan JuJitsu who taught until age 90 (and is living in Okinawa today). Sensei Pat has been martial artist since the age of 5. Upon moving to the USA, Sensei Susan often had him teach as a guest instructor, increasingly more so after she fell ill. Upon her passing in 2009, Sensei Pat inherited Omine dojo until it was forced to close its doors early into the pandemic.
An update: Sensei Pat stopped by the dojo last week and was pleased to see JKA NorCal at the dojo — in the same spirit and tradition. Perhaps we will have a chance to get to know him as well.
And of course 🌊 SATURDAY’S BY THE BAY🥋 training with Senpai John and Senpai Harry at Seal Point Park, San Mateo … We are blessed with the beautiful hinterlands afforded to us in the Bay Area. So we will continue our Saturday rigor training at this venue.
Thank you for your donation in time, materials and funds. ❤ So far (as of 10/11), we have raised $4,550 in funds … we will be using it for Rent Deposit and retrofitting the Dojo space.
We hope that this will get us back to a rigor and the discipline we need to grow at our dojo 👊.
SCHEDULE: We’ve put a lot of thought to the new schedule which offers some flexibility for all of you to plan what fits your routine and which classes to take. You may want to discuss with Sensei Wauriman “a development plan” for you/your child and what is needed for the next belt promotion.
See our current Schedule
ATTENDANCE: Therefore, we will start to track attendance which will provide the data to determine qualification for promotion.
WAIVER/INDEMNITY FORM: All students will need to sign and turn in as part of our “start up” in this new location. Appreciate your cooperation as we need all new paperwork. Will try to explore some online solutions to make it less painful for everyone.
PRICING: As expected, in our new setup/location, our dojo fees will need to be adjusted to sustain our dojo/school. We have put a lot of thought into it, recognizing the support from you our “founding members” and part of our karate family. While our new rates go into effect November 1, 2021 for any new and reactivated members, we will NOT be raising rates for active (as of Oct) members until January 1, 2022. Everyone will be on New Pricing next year. Our new rates go into effect November 1, 2021 for any new members and people who reactivate after October. Please feel free to ask Sensei Christina if you need more clarification.
We are grateful to have this new beginning for our dojo and share this experience with you, our karate family. We may not get it all right now, but let’s iterate and aspire for better day by day. Help us, let us know how we can do better.
Sensei Wauriman & Sensei Christina, Senpais John, Mathew & Harry
Senseis Christina and Wauriman, John, Harry and I have been meeting over the past month to discuss how JKA NorCal could start returning to regular indoor classes. Even though we all very much want this to happen soon, given the fluidity of current County and State Covid requirements for a high contact activity such as Karate, we cannot come up with a definitive timeline yet. However, we do have some developments to share:
First, though, I would like to thank Sensei Wauriman for continuing classes and finding places to train outdoors and ways to teach remotely during the Covid pandemic; and to thank parents and students for continuing to train and support the dojo and Sensei Wauriman through these difficulties.
The past year has given us all perspective on the twelve (!) years since the club was founded, and also highlights some possibilities for the future. This dojo was started because we wanted to create a dojo that respected and supported the needs and goals of parents, students and sensei, and involved all of them in major decisions.
In keeping with the spirit of this dojo, we are proposing a meeting at the next belt test to discuss ideas and plans for the future of the club. Because of the restrictions on group gatherings, we will set up a zoom meeting: Sensei Wauriman and Sensei Christina will share more information on the slack channel. If you don’t have access to the slack channel, please contact Sensei Christina.
Osu! and Thank You!
Here are some of the photos posted to the slack channel over the past year (click on any thumbnail to see the large image):
We are not currently training at Primetime due to state and county Covid restrictions to group activities. However, we have been hosting training both in zoom, and very limited outdoor physically distanced classes. We look forward to resuming classes when it is safe to do so and wish you health and wellness in this difficult time. Osu!
We have a slack channel with the latest updates to class times and locations. Contact us to find out more.
A HUGE thank you to all the Judges, Volunteers and Competitors who made this tournament a success. This was the first time JKA NorCal hosted Nationals. There were over 210 competitors from 26 dojos in 63 events. Congratulations to all.
Summary by Dojo: https://jkanorcal.org/archives/8870
Adult Divisions: https://jkanorcal.org/archives/8858
Youth Divisions: https://jkanorcal.org/archives/8840
We were honored to have 26 dojos participate in this year’s JKA American Federation Nationals. Of the participating dojos:
The dojo that traveled the furthest to compete was the JKA Maine dojo.
JKA NorCal took the most medals overall, Tokon took the most Gold medals overall, JKA NorCal took the most Silver and Bronze medals overall.
Lafayette Karate Club took the most medals overall, Miami Shotokan Karate Club took the most Gold and Bronze medals, JKA NorCal took the most Silver medals.
Tokon took the most medals overall, as well as the most Gold and Silver medals, and JKA NorCal took the most bronze medals.
| Adult | Youth | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dojos | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| Full Point Karate | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| JKA American Federation Institute | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| JKA AZ | 3 | 3 | 6 | ||||
| JKA Boston | – | ||||||
| JKA Collierville | 1 | 1 | |||||
| JKA EastBay | 5 | 4 | 9 | ||||
| JKA Maine | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 20 |
| JKA Montville | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| JKA NorCal | 6 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 18 | 47 |
| JKA NY | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| JKA SF | – | ||||||
| Lafayette Karate Club | 8 | 4 | 9 | 21 | |||
| LKA | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| LSU Karate | – | ||||||
| Machida Academy | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||
| Martial Arts Club at UTSA | – | ||||||
| Miyake Karate | – | ||||||
| MSKC | 10 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 26 |
| NOSA | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| Scottsdale Martial Arts | – | ||||||
| Shiroma JKA NY | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| SKI | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 8 | ||
| SV Shotokan Karate | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Tokon | 2 | 3 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 38 | |
| Tulane Karate Club | 3 | 2 | 5 | ||||
| Uconn Karate Club | – | ||||||
Osu!
Women: Grace Marulanda, MSKC
Men: Wauriman Borges, JKA NorCal
BELT PROMOTION RESULTS:
Congratulations to all who passed their belt promotion – keep up the training!
Primetime:
(1 ) – Adam Zimmer
(1 ) – Jalen Zhu
(1 ) – Ashwin Regarajan
(1 ) – Henry Faillace
(2 ) – Aliyah Zimmer
(2 ) – Maya Dolmage-Heath
(2 ) – Santiago Bravo
(3 ) – Kasen Barrolaza
(3 ) – Bobby Ciardella
(3 ) – Kaitlyn Chow
(3 ) – Oliver Sun
(3 ) – Connor Lai
(3 ) – Skye Cheng
(3 ) – Brandon Collins
(3B) – Santiago Bravo
(3B) – Aliyah Zimmer
(4 ) – Pallas Wu
(4B) – Megan Clendenin
(4B) – Madie Riley
(5 ) – Danyon Mahoney
(5 ) – Alexander Regelmen
(5 ) – Edward Wan-Li
(5 ) – Sam Finkelstein
(5 ) – Amanda Padilla
(5 ) – Valen Yopp
(5 ) – Madeline Ishimoto
(5 ) – Jacqueline Ishimoto
(5 ) – Lucas Cheng
(5 ) – Mateo Ortiz
(5 ) – Marlo Baumgartner
(5 ) – Rafael Bravo
(5B) – Finn Baumgartner
(6 ) – Ekaterina Radev
(6 ) – Jackson Wise
(6 ) – Rafael Bravo
(6B) – Thomas Ciardella
(6B) – James Conway
(6B) – Ryan Kim
(6B) – Peyton McCoy
(6B) – Kaela Lokey
(6B) – Timmy King-Byrnes
(6B) – Ryan King-Byrnes
(6B) – Genevieve Borba
(7 ) – William Kwok
(7 ) – Heidi Liu
(7 ) – Max Albrecht
(7 ) – Lucy Clendenin
(7 ) – Libby Kwok
(7 ) – Lindsey Kwok
(7 ) – Victoria Micallef
(7 ) – Thomas Powers Rogowski
(8 ) – Deryck Chu
(8 ) – Lucas Delahoussaye
(8 ) – Zachery Feldman
(8 ) – Kyle Karbarz
(8 ) – Karin Norris-Chan
(8 ) – Andres Chi
(8 ) – Jeffrey Chan
(8 ) – Tanush Lal
(8 ) – Arabella Hattori
(8 ) – Calvyn Chu
(8B) – Thomas Borba
(8B) – Charlie Powers Rogowski
(8B) – Hunter Rodriguez
(8B) – Zander Shusta
(8B) – Liliana Montgomery-Brown
(8B) – Jonas Chan
JKA NorCal:
(1 ) – Amir Batshon
(2 ) – Zachery Hamden
Prime Time Athletic Club (1730 Rollins Rd, Burlingame, CA 94010)
(10am-8pm): Pre-registered competitors & officials.
No late Registration: Registration closes Nov 1st – but register early to get a discount.
(10am-12:00pm): hosted by Master Isami Shiroma. Registered Tournament judges/officials only – ring assignments will be confirmed. Mandatory for all registered judges.
(10am-11:30am): hosted by Sensei Donnie Abel for all ranks (www.martialartsintelligence.com). Sign-up on-site $25 ($20 with JKA membership).
(1:30pm-3:30pm): hosted by Master Takayuki Mikami and Master Yoshizo Machida for all ranks. Sign-up on-site $60 ($50 with JKA membership).
(4:00pm-6:00pm): Only pre-registered (JKA Shodan to Yondan).