South Australian Junior Camp
Pendleton Farm 25th-26th October 2008
Bordertown Club have held another successful Junior camp. Twenty-seven Bordertown students, accompanied by three instructors and four parents, enjoyed an active and exciting weekend. Three students from Adelaide traveled down on Friday night with their parents and stayed in one of the cottages available at the camp, then joined in on Saturday morning for all the camp activities and classes.
First class kicked off with one group out on the grass practicing archery and the other in the dojo with Shihan Terry Hutchings having a nunchuku class. After a quick morning tea, the groups swapped over, then it was time for a lunch of pizza, salad sandwiches and ice-cream.
Tyson Brown, a Bordertown Club student, is also a first dan of Taekwondo and although in Adelaide through work commitments, drove down with an assistant black belt, to give one of his usual exciting classes. Thirty students enjoyed the luxury of an air conditioned dojo on the 36 degree day and worked hard with all those kicks and kia’s for an hour and a half!
A quick drink break, then everyone was up for a stick fighting class with Shihan Peter Richardson. Tyson and his assistant also stayed for this, before driving back to Adelaide in time for a wedding that night. Peter gave a class that all students were keen to learn from, especially in light of the stick fighting tournament coming up the next morning. The younger students bowed out after an hour, then the armour came out and older class members sparred with the sticks for another half hour.
The parents had been busy setting up a giant water slide outside on the grass and after huge platters of rock melon and water melon; gi’s were exchanged for boardies and bathers. Thankfully the afternoon had cooled a little and good cloud cover protected us all from the sun.
Ten of the group at a time drove in the back of Martin Miles’ ute to the canoeing lake, where Sensei Ann-Elisa and Dai Sempai Robyn supervised some fairly interesting paddling and swimming styles. Plenty of mud, laughs and a good cool down were certainly had by all.
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The mother of one of the Bordertown students came to camp on Saturday evening and prepared South Korean sushi, stir-fry noodles and fried rice for us all, which was a treat.
The younger campers then settled down to watch Kung Fu Panda on the big screen, using Shihan Peter’s DVD projector, with popcorn and biscuits at half time. When their movie finished they went off to bed and the rest of the group then watched movies until bed time at 11pm .
Everyone was up bright and early at 7am on Sunday morning, when Sempai Robert Mock arrived to take us all for a bush walk. When we returned, our hot breakfast of bacon and eggs wasn’t quite ready, so a quick trip to see the baby buffalo was squeezed in.
Four competitors from Adelaide and their parents drove in at 9.30 ready for the tournament. Dai Sempai Rohan Clifford and Sempai Rosie also turned up and we were ready to start. Bonnie Howard arrived with her World Title Trophy and fascinated the group by demonstrating her warm-up routine and a few demo strikes with her brother. Once the action began, two rings kept things moving, with plenty of helpers to put armour on and off, to score and with two referee’s, the competition didn’t take too long.
The kids all enjoyed themselves, were good sports and tried hard. Ten division winners and runner’s up were awarded trophies, and three students received referee trophies from Shihan Peter and Shihan Terry.
A bbq lunch was provided for campers, parents and visitors by Bordertown Club; the steak sandwiches were a big hit, as were the ice blocks for the kids. The camp wound up at 2pm with a good time had by all; no dramas, no mishaps, see you next year!
Dai Sempai Robyn Miles
