B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 4, 2003

SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN

SKEENA ANGLER -
ROB BROWN

Taimen 8

aan thought about the giant jet: how
its great engines must be devouring a
small sea of fuel to keep the craft
aloft and provide enough thrust to get
passengers and crew to Asia. She knew that an
enormous amount of atmospheric pollution and
ferocious noise were the byproducts of all that
combustion. She marveled at the engineering
miracle that ensured that very little of either
reached her senses,

Like extras in a dream, flight attendants glided
down the aisles, pushing soundiess carts amid
the amorphous sound of gentle conversation, the
drone of soft music and the purr that was re-
mnant engine roar, The jet that miraculously
stayed afloat during the electric storm on their
way to Vancouver was a skiff; this was a luxury
liner.

At times like this Joan thought of Amos, her
great granddad, the man whose spirit, and resi-
lience, according to those who knew them both,
she had inherited.

Amos logged 105 years without the aid of
wheel chairs, drugs, or doctors, then drowned
while fishing a large unpredictable lake when a
short, malevolent, gale appeared from nowhere,
raced across the lake whipping up great, prasp-
ing waves that grabbed his punt and pulled it,
and him, to the bottom then wrapped them both
in weeds.

Amos retained every volt of his mental electri-
city to his last cast, but to do so he had to ratio-

‘nalize technological advancement — miracles
he simply could not deal with and remain sane.
No men had ever walked on lunar landscape, he
maintained. All of that, he swore, was Holly-
woad in the style of Ed Wood, and only a little
more cleverly made.

To cloned sheep, computers and genetic man-
ipulation, Amos was impervious. He mentally
disavowed them all.

Joan had always wanted to drive down the
road with him in her Volvo, changing compact
discs on the five-disc changer — moving from
symphonies in Bayreuth to lounges in Detrait -

inviting the likes of Bernstein and Ellington to
ride with them and make music in the confined
space of her sedan,

She longed to prove to him that modern man is’
swimming in a sea of miracles, and to assure
him they were OK.

The flight to Narita took almost 10 hours. Billy
slept through most of it. Joan could tell he was
off kilter

“So you're disoriented in the Orient,” she said
to him as they waited for their bags.

Later they had dinner in one of those big box
hotels that looked like every other link in the
big box hotel chain, except that the staff was
Japanese.

Joan suggested sushi. Nol a gastronaut at the
best of times, Billy left most of his, giving
queasiness as the reason,

He was becoming more irritable and peevish.
He tossed all night while she tried to sleep.
Usually she could deal with Billy when he was
like this. In fact, she enjoyed coaxing him out of
his moods, relying on the patience and maternal
kindness that was her mother's biological be-
quest to her, but by the morning her maternal
reserves were as exhausted as she was.

The crush of Narita and the hassles finding and
then boarding the Asiana Airliner bound for
Inchon had Joan doubting the wisdom of the en-
tire trip; it seemed that the farther they traveled,
the more crowded, complicated and downright
irritating their lives became.

The flight from Japan to Korea seemed far
shorter than the queuing and waiting in the air-
port. Joan tried to shorten the agony by reading
Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi, the book her dad
and sister had recommended and the only one
she brought along on a trip she wrongly assumed
wouldn't allow much reading time.

As beautiful as they were, in her time-twisting,
mood altering fog of jet travel she simply
couldn't keep focused on passages like: “The
reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biolo-
gical necessily~it’s envy. Life is so beautiful
that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous
possessive love that grabs at what it can. But
life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a
thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but
the passing shadow of a cloud.”

By the time they'd left Inchon by cab, Joan
and Billy were walking on each others exposed
nerve ends. Every comment between them, no
matter how trivial, seemed caustic.

As they neared their hotel the cab was held up
by a massive demonstration - young people,
thousands of them, chanting and shaking pla-
cards as if they were spears. a i

To be continued...

J

“TERRACE STANDARD

£38-7283

He’s got a who
lot of heart |

Mike Turner refuses to let a little thing like a pacemaker hold him back.

By SARAH A.

ZIMMERMAN
EVEN THE pacemaker in Mike
Turner’s chest couldn’t keep his
heart from beating a mile a min-
ute as he was presented with a
hard-earned black belt in Tack-
won-Do.  ~

Turner, 29, achieved the rank
after a vigorous day of testing and
he’s the first student at Terrace’s
Northern Taekwon-Do Academy
to reach that level.

“It was a good accomplish-
ment,” says Turner. “You feel like
you're working toward something
all the time and you finally got
it.”

As his instructor, David Burk,
tied the black belt firmly around
Turner’s waist, his pride was writ-
ten all over his face.

“Tt would say if you look at the
tenants of Taekwon-Do -— courte-
sy, integrity, perseverance, self
control and indomitable spirit -
that’s Mike Turner,” Burk says.

The local man was born with a
hole in his heart which required
open heart surgery when he was a
baby — doctors later found nerves
in his heart were damaged, im-
peding communication between
its upper and lower halves.

“The heart’s not too bad, but
the wiring's shot,” laughs Turner.

By the time he was. four years

‘old he “had” his ‘first’ pacemaker

surgically placed in his body.

Roughly every eight years he
has to go under the knife to have
the unit replaced and every year
he makes a trip to Vancouver to
make sure its batteries are still
working.

Standing five-foot-six-inches
tall, Turner is not a big guy, Three
years ago he weighed in at 165
pounds and his doctor told him he
needed to watch his weigh! and
start exercising.

That’s when he took up Taek-
won-Do and he’s never looked
back,

“Now it’s three years later, I’m
20 pounds lighter and in way bet-
ter shape,” says Turner.

Burk admires the man’s tena-

MIKE TURNER holds his black belt high. He earned it despite the
pacemaker in his chest. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

beats,” he explains.

city and drive.

“It’s a physical adversity and
for him to say, ‘I’m not going to
let this get me down,’ with a pas-

flected by the colour of their belts.

Adjudicated by Kelowna-based
fifth degree black belt Michael
Barker, the students and their fa-

“If you look at the tenants of Taekwon-Do —
courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self control and
indomitable spirit — that’s Mike Turner.”

sion, is remarkable,” Burk says.
All of the students at the aca-
demy went through rigorous test-
ing May 3 in a collective effort to
earn a higher rank in the sport re-

milies gathered for eight hours
watching one another go under the
microscope.

They were graded on patterns,
self defence, kicking, theory and

Hi Good sports

OLGA Doane, 14, (left) and Jessica Chobotar, 12, (right) earned several
ribbons at Cassie Hall’s sports day recently. The students competed in
track and fleld events such as sprinting, middle distance running, ball
throw and high jump. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO

punching, And every student at a
green belt or higher and aged 13
years old and more also had to
break boards as part of the testing.

But Turner’s test was perhaps _
the most demanding of all.

“The kicks he had to do were
phenomenal — he had three tech-
niques he knew he had to do and
the rest were just thrown at him,”
says Burk.

“His test was about. an hour
and a half long and it was not
easy, he was put through the
gears,” ,

Because pacemakers are de-
signed to control heart rates, when
Turner’s heart starts beating too
fast the unit kicks in to drop his
heart rate and fast.

“It'll drop down 30 or 40
*You feel
pretty dizzy, it’s like when you
stand up too fast.”

Since getting into better shape
he says that only happens occa-
sionally and usually only when
he’s testing — which happens
about every three months.

“Mike Barker knows my condi-
tion and he sort of lets me gauge
it,” Turner says, adding if he gets
too dizzy he just takes a quick
break,

In the end, Turner passed the
black belt test with flying colours.

“Tt was an emotional day,
you’re all jacked up on adrenaline
and you've got everyone
watching,” he recalls.

While the physical demands of
Taekwon-Do entice him, he is
drawn to the sport for other rea-
soins tad,

“Tve never seen more sports-
manship in a sport,” he says, add-
ing the theory, history and struc-
ture of the sport alsa keep him
coming back.

The black belt, he says, is de-
finitely an accomplishment, but in
a way it’s like starting at a white
belt all over again.

There are nine levels of black
belt and Turner says he under-
stands the journey ahead is just as
important as his accomplishment
so far. .

Sports Scope

‘Terrace covering more

By SARAH A.
ZIMMERMAN
A SOLID showing of Ter-
race runners are hitting the
pavement this weekend for
the second annual Skeena
River Relay.

The June 7 relay race
sees runners passing the
baton throtigh 10 stages
between Prince Rupert atid

top

than 145 km,

Terrace
Simpson is taking on the
challenge for a second
year in a row along with
nine other women from
Terrace.

The group, who called
themselves Swamer run-
ners, Some Are Not, took
spot
women’s teams last year.

“Tt was just a lot of fun
cheering..on your team

Road runners revved up
for Skeena River Relay

tunner Sue rmembers,”

out of the

says Simpson,

Simpson ran the longest
leg of the relay in last
year’s event — 2! kilomtres
— and is planning on doing
the same leg this year,

“Nabody seems to want
to fight me for that one,”
she says laughing.

“It's the third stage,
which is good for me be-’
cause I like to run early.”

Cont'd Page B10

MAXINE Smallwood and Donna Grat at Glory Days.

Running strong

MAXINE Smallwood and her daughter Donna Graf recent-
ly competed in Prince Rupert’s Glory Days Skm road race -
‘May 10, The duo ran in the event in preparation for the up-
coming B.C, Senior Games in Chilliwack in August.
“She inspires me and I inspire her,” Graf says, “It’s pret-
ty nice to be able to run together.”

Date mistake

_ THE MAY 28 issue of the Terrace Standard mistakenly
indicated that the Eight Hours of Onion Lake endurance
biking event is scheduled for Aug. 4, That race, which is
also the last event of the 2003 Terrace Standard Adventure
Challenge, is in fact scheduled for August 3.

For more information about the Adventure Challenge or
the endurance biking event cal] Sarah at 638-7283.

Pupils compete at meet
MARK YOUR calendats for June 7.
That’s when students from throughout the region gather

at Caledonia Senior Secondary for the Terrace Elementary
School Sports Asscciation’s annual track meet.

Students compete | in everything from long jump to dis-
cus, The action gets under way at 10 a.m,