B4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 23, 2000 TERRACE STANDARD KEITH FREEMAN : = : S PORTS 638-7283 | ROB BROWN No man’s island scanned the far side of the river from the railroad. The grays and varied greens congealed and took hape as I slowed the sweep of the field glasses and narrowed in on my target: a distant island fronted by an impressive rockery jutted far out into the Skeena then vanished into the landscape downstream. Where the Skeena rubbed up against it, the bar had tantalizing rif- fles. 1 whistled the dog back. We'll find our way in there, [ promised her as we made our way along the tracks then up a rock bluff to the truck. I'd noticed a derelict road running parallel to the highway on the way in. It pointed the same direction in which the bar lay. I took it. The track softened then tumed lo mud. The grasses, taller now, swished against the truck like brooms. The woods closed in until the diminishing possibility of turning around made me stop and do just that at a wide spat. I took a compass hear- ing and struck out in the direction of the river, hoping that I'd come out someplace close to the head of the island. The woods looked as if they'd been logged long ago. Under the crowded canopy of tall thin trees everything” was brown. The air was musk. In ten minutes I was wel with sweat and standing before a long crescent shaped slough a couple of hundred yards. In the afternoon heat the prospect of wading in water was appealing until I had to struggled out of a couple of mud bottomed pools. It took as long to reach the far side of the slough as it had to traverse the first part of the bush. When ] reached the far side, where the trees were older and the under- story thicker and filled with devil's club there were no visual references to indicate the most expeditious route to the river, With the distinct prospect of a long convo- luted bush whack, I chose to retrace my steps and make my way back to the river bank where the grim and awk- ward trek along the steeply sloped, loosely graveled bank I'd hoped to avoid awaited me. It took almost an hour to make that trip. The island was only ane in high water, I discovered. The back chan- nel separating it from the mainland when the river is up had dried, leaving two beautiful kidney shaped pools filled with blue water. As ] approached the first, two kids waded in and swam toward me like a pair of otters. The girl looked familiar. You're Meadow Richard aren't you? I asked. She said she was. I asked her if there was a road in. She said there was a good one. 1 thanked her, then finished walking the length of what proved to be a large bar, broken up in three distinct sections ideal water lo fish salmon; another structurally complex stretch that holds the promise of fall steelhead; and a slough that will fill up with dog salmon and cut- throat trout late in the year. Pawsome ran furious circles over the sand dunes at greyhound speed, her tongue flapping like pink taffy recently pulled. When we reached wild flower filled meadows, she shifted gears and pounced through them like a mousing, coyote. I made my way to the nearest riffle and began cast- ing into the fish path close by. The first action was a quick on and off affair when my fly ran afoul of a sock- eye. Fishing for moving fish is angling from a stand still. I made a copy cast, made another, and was rewarded with a leaping salmon. A five-pound sockeye, shaped like a torpedo with translucent fins, snow-white belly, and a dun coloured back, is a fine fish to catch on a five- weight trout rod, 1 wrestled it shore, pleased to see the bright green fly pinned securely in its jaw. I killed the fish then took a moment to give thanks to the forces that went into making it. One fish is plenty. The road was not hard to find, unfortunately it led to someone's back yard and a pack of dogs that jumped Pawsome with murderous intent. Don't blame us if our dog kills your dog, yelled a girl's voice fram a window. I waved my wading staff menacingly, The dogs scattered and started to regroup. A woman appeared to shout much the same sentiment as the girl had, a bare chested man came out next and barked something at his hounds that sent them running for cover. Sorry, I said chitching rod, staff and sockeye while attempting to shoo Pawsome off toward the truck, I did- n't know the road led to your property. Covered with dust but otherwise unmarked, Paws was waiting for me when I reached the road to the ferry slip. a . A young man was fishing from the jetty, a hundred yards from my truck, dipping a worm and a Dipsy sinker in the water close to shore, On the bank he had a sock- eye, a char, and two large cutthroat trout. 1 comforted myself with the knowledge that he'd missed the hike and adventure and missed out on all that wonderful exercise. When I told the dog this she cocked her head as if to say, oh sure. cy , New school offers modern eastern style of martial arts WHEN YOU think of the Northwest, eastern martial art forms probab- ly don’t come to mind. As long as David Burk’s in town though, that might start changing. The 29 year-old runs the Terrace branch of the Northern TaeKwon-Do Academy, which opened up in the spring, and now caters to 20 students of all ages. The schools are being held — for the time being — in the basement of the Mason’s Hall. But what exactly is TaeKwon-Do? Burk says it’s a combination of an- cient and modern styles of boxing and kicking. “It originated in Korea in 1955, when a man by the name of General Choi Hong Fi, took the ancient, Tae-Kyon art and mixed it with western style boxing.” Burk says that the mo- bile nature of western box-’ ing, combined with the dy- namic kicking style of Tae-Kyon produces a un- ique style of self-defence and exercise. , “Some come for self- defence, some come for the sport,” he said. For Burk, 29, it’s a love DAVID BURK kicks dramatically at one of his students during TaeKwon-Do lessons. Burk started up the school, which is part of the International TaeKwon-Do Federation, in the spring. Next month, his students will be tested for their yellow stripe belts by langtime B.C. TaeKwon-Do tutor Mike Barker, that started when he was a teenager. He can vividly temember the scene when he entered Mike Barker’s innovative, practically un- heard of academy in Kam- loops in 1988. “remember this guy who seemed ten feet tall,” he recalled with nervous- ness. “But now I bet there’s kids at my school who feel the same way.” said. the sport helped him deal with the usual teen- _aged problems of rebel- -tiousness and short atten- tion span. mi ASAE BoE — ae BUAK hopes that Terrace will become a hotbed for TaeKwon-Do in B.C., and plans an opening a storefront school next year. Burk says that he’s also trying to promote other martial arts here, rather than competing with tham. Over the ‘years, Burk | “Twas, long-haired, I. . liked to party,” he said. “But this gave me places to go and self-esteem.” Burk credits instructor, “ Mike Barker for making the experience “fun”, - a word he emphasized throughout the interview — ‘without which he would never have caught on. “It all depends on the instructor,” he said. “The best ones never yell or tell people to do things, they say ‘you can do this.” Burk has done it, and still is. He earned his black belt five years ago, and is going for his second degree black belt soon. There are nine degrees, and only one person — General Choi Hong Fi himself, now 80, possesses the ninth degree, Next month, most of Burk’s students here, both adults and children will be tested by Barker - now a fourth degree -- for their yellow stripe, the second level. After that, it’s green, blue, red and black, a pro- cess which usually takes at least a few years. “T feel that 100 per cent of my students right now have the patential to earn a black belt, but about 60 per cent have the desire,” Burk said. Terrace isn't the first school for Burk. Last year, he was in Sechelt where alher established schools made it a little more diffi- cult to get a solid enroll- ment base. Even with just a handful of students there though, Burk says thal one student has gone on to become a medal winner at the West- em Canadian and National competitions, With a lot of encoura- gement from his sister, - Burk said that the choice to move here became ob- > viuts and he hasn’t regret- ted it so far. , “P put in a lot of foot- “work, a lot of introducing, myself, and i put out a few _flyers, the welcome has been remarkable,” Burk ' said, adding that eight people were signed up in his first week here, Burk prides himself on ‘the fact that not one stu-- dentof the .28 that have | attended his schools has ever quit, or decided that it isn’t for them. Burk hasn’t either, al- though he did take a three year break beginning in 1995 to study other forms like Brazitian Jujitsu to round out his skills. “It was always my in- tention to come back and teach TaeKwon-Do though,” he said. Kickboxing, jujitsu and karate classes are also available here, so Tai- Kwon-Do is by no means the only eastern martial art you can learn in Terrace. Burk says he looks on other schools as allies in promoting this type of sport. “I’m not looking to take their business away, if anything U’m trying to pro- mote them as well,” he said. In a year, Burk says he’s hoping for a store- front school and at least 100 students. {n terms of “It's given me a route where | can po- sitively effect the world” other instructors, Burk says the need could be filled by students of his who, by then, will have moved up to a yellow bell. “As the classes get big- ger, some of them will get teaching experience with the younger students,” he suid. Right now, he holds his classes lwo nights a week, but with a store-front operation drawing hun- dreds of students, that would also have to expand. “ET wouldn’t say it’s taken over my life, it's en- hanced my life, it’s given me a route where | can po- sitively effect the world,” he said. “I could become a cir salesman, but whe are you effecting but yourself that way. Just to have someone come up and siy ‘this really feels good’ - that lets me know I’ve chosen the right thing.”