October 2005

I was very happy to have a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Rounthwaite late last month. Mr. Rounthwaite is a 6th degree ITF instructor that teaches classes in Chiangmai with his wife who is a 4th degree instructor. They visited the Little Gym branch and taught the adult class, it was good to expose the students to such a high ranking instructor, this is the first time they’ve ever met someone with that much experience. I hope they can come visit us again, in fact in December we will be having a tournament in Bangkok with Mr. Rounthwaites school and Mr. Gillies school.

Mr. Rounthwaites visit

Kingmaker is out in theatres right now (Thailand) and that was the first movie I ever worked on. I was only an extra but I’m in many scenes and you can clearly see my face. I was in the credits twice too which was nice. I was in the soldier scenes, dancing scenes and dock loading scenes (I’m the guy with no shirt on). Go check it out if you want to see your instructor look foolish dancing in a circle! I was very disappointed that my fight scene in Tom Yum Goong was so short… it seemed bigger when we shot it and they also edited it and shaved it right down to a few seconds, unless you’re really looking for me you won’t see my face. If you see the movie look for me when the baby elephant charges the press at the press conference in Australia. Tony Jaa beats me up right after that. Even though I’m disappointed, this was still the realization of a long time dream, to kick and be kicked by an action star in a movie, I’m happy. This was one of the reasons I moved to Thailand, and it is gratifying to pursue a dream and accomplish your goals regardless of fear and obstacles. I owe Tae Kwon Do for my success at achieving my dreams (even the small ones), it gave me the courage and belief that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. I hope TKD will do the same for my students.

I got some good news from Canada, one of my oldest students (not in age, just in training years) recently tested and passed her 3rd degree black belt test. Congratulations to Tammy Lepage in Ottawa for attaining her 3rd degree! She is the first of my students to get that high in rank and I’m very proud.

Tammy Lepage, 3rd degree

Damian Mavis
Head Instructor, Honour TKD