(older pictures of training students)

Want to train at South Surrey Karate Club? Bring a friend or your parent and come to the club just before 5 o’clock on Monday, Wednesday or Friday to Pacific Heights School, 17148 26 Ave, Surrey. Make a resolution to do something positive with your life.  Join South Surrey Karate Club today. email statzandrew8@gmail.com

Wearing some gym strip you can try out karate, you’ll be glad you did.  All training this year will be held at Pacific Heights Elementary School.  The good news is monthly fees will remain at a low rate *see below, however, all classes will be conducted on a pre-pay basis only.

   Fee schedule for Yearly Session 2025

Juniors , Adults, Black Belts: Shisei-Kai Canada / Karate BC

Go online to KarateBC and get your insurance.

*Juniors are under the age of 16 years for Membership fee calculations.

Make cheques payable to South Surrey Karate Club at beginning of the training year.

Club Training Fees (Monthly)

All  Members $120.00 month

Discounted Family Fees

– To encourage family participation we offer the following discount:

Family with two members or more training $10 discount

– All training classes are conducted on a pre-paid basis.

– Please provide a series of post-dated cheques dated for the first of each month or one cheque for the year.

 Location is at Pacific Heights Elementary School 17148-26th ave.

Times

Beginners                                             5-6 pm Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

Adults                                                   6-7 pm Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays 5-6:30pm

Chief Instructor           Andrew Statz is a Rokudan in  Shotokan style karate,  trained with Tak Sameshima for 20 years; with Ron Uyeyama for three years in judo and twenty years with Steve Hiscoe’s jujitsu, Chilliwack.

Instructor                    Jim Hawkins    Yondan Shotokan karate JKA

AW Statz, a certified high school teacher and chief instructor, of South Surrey Club began his martial arts journey with judo training under the critical eye of Nobi Sakiyama and Ron Uyeyama, senior high school teachers and local practicing judo experts. Ron Uyeyama a Canadian judo champion trained Sensei with an old school philosophy of toughness. It was good preparation for the next twenty years of Karate training with another rigorous Sensei, Tak Sameshima, for whom he eventually served as senior instructor before opening his own dojo. After achieving his black belt in Karate, Sensei Statz began balancing Karate with jujitsu training, which he pursued with Steve Hiscoe, an RCMP officer and jujitsu master. This triple-martial-arts background afforded a unique teaching style that reflects his deep appreciation for the depth and breath of both martial arts training and instruction. As a result his dojo attracts people from other styles of martial arts, as well as newcomers to karate.
As a retired secondary school teacher, Sensei Statz background includes a lifetime of activity in many sports, from competitive hockey and competitive swimming to football; he has been a level three certified coach for over twenty years. Karate, however, has been a lifelong passion for him, and he is currently a 6th degree black belt, who enjoys visiting Japan with members of his South Surrey Karate Club.

James Johnson is a member of the Sports Hall of fame for karate fighting or kumite as the Japanese call it.

James Johnson 7th dan was the chief instructor of the Burnaby Dojo with Frank Mostad 6th degree black belt as the senior karate instructor. Frank Mostad now runs the club.
Training in martial arts has many advantages:  increased achievement in school, flexibility, greater self esteem, and increased awareness in terms of self defense. You do yourself and your child a great service to look into karate training.
This is an opportunity to get involved with your son or daughter by coming and training together as many in this club do. You’ll have a reason to be proud of them and they’ll have a reason to be proud of you.
Other blackbelt instructors  who have trained and are training at the school include:   Jim Hawkins, 4th Dan; Lucas Reddy Nidan; Chris Millard ,Cara Statz, Mitch Webb, Adam Reddy, Krystal Millard, Ryan Halladay,  David Rhodes , Josh Halladay, Mutte Chen, Luke Chen, Joseph Khoo, Sakura Ansai… all Shodans. (We do not give out children’s blackbelts as those are not considered legitimate in our system of training.)

Registration

Is karate training for you? Fall karate classes begin September 8th, at Pacific Heights Elementary school.
Come out, try it out, and see for yourself. The first time is free, and you get a feel for how it works for you. Wear gym clothes (track pants and a T shirt are all you’ll need) and enjoy the work out!  It is located at 17148-26th ave. Beginners class is at 5 pm on Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Train once, twice or three times / week. The benefits are well documented for increased flexibility and even academic achievement!  Students will be subject to basic karate training from two highly qualified instructors.

Check this web site karatewith.us for information (map, fees, times and family rates) or upcoming news!

New  member? You can register anytime in the first few lessons. Bring a friend for support and someone you can participate with. Your teacher, (Sensei in Japanese) is Andrew Statz. He is a retired school teacher who was a physical education coordinator for an elementary school and a high school teacher and coach for over twenty five years. If you are new to the club and wish to try it out- just wear loose fitting clothing!   The first lesson is Free.

Times
Beginners and families 5-6 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Adults and advanced 6-7 pm Monday, Wednesday and 5-7 pm  Friday

All  karate training is held at Pacific Heights School gymnasium

Fees

Costs for the club not including KarateBC insurance( go online to KarateBC website and pay your insurance fees ShiSeiKai (annual mandatory fee $50)   plus  $120 per monthly training fee.

All training classes will be conducted on a pre-pay basis.(Please provide a series of post-dated cheques dated for the first of each month. Cheques are made payable to the South Surrey Karate Club.)

Times
Beginners 5-6 pm Monday, Wednesday
Adults and advanced 6-7 pm Monday, Wednesday and 5-6:30 Friday
See you there!
Shihan
AW Statz Shihan 6th degree Shotokan karate and master of martial arts (judo and jujitsu)

statzandrew8@gmail.com
semi-retired school teacher, B.A.,B.ED., M.ED.

Sensei Jim Hawkins 4th degree Shotokan karate and local businessman

Sensei Jim says this club is the best and its going to be great!

contacts for information

AW Statz Sensei ( school teacher/ coordinator/ counselor) 604 531 5289

Jim Hawkins (certified karate instructor)

The levels of Karate Black belts 

For over 40 years, South Surrey Karate Club has built a reputation for traditional training, strong values, and community spirit. Rooted in Shisei-Kai Karate Canada and Gima-Ha, the club continues to uphold the teachings passed down through generations of dedicated martial artists.

A Legacy of Leadership

Our lineage connects directly to James Johnson (7th Dan)—a member of the Sports Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievements in kumite (karate fighting). Johnson Sensei, the retired chief instructor of Burnaby Karate Club, remains a guiding influence through his leadership and philosophy.

Today, Sensei Frank Mostad leads Burnaby Dojo, while Ray Wong, former Shisei-Kai technical advisor and examiner, occasionally trains with us—bringing together karate and modern mixed martial arts.

Meet the South Surrey Instructors

At the helm is Sensei Andrew Statz (6th Dan), a retired teacher, high school coach, and lifelong martial artist. His background in judo, karate, and jujitsu gives his instruction both depth and perspective. Sensei Statz trained for over twenty years under Tak Samishima, blending “old school” discipline with a coach’s insight and compassion.

Supporting him is Sensei Jim Hawkins (4th Dan Shotokan), known for his steady guidance, technical precision, and dry humor that keeps classes both challenging and fun. Together, they’ve created a dojo where students of all ages feel welcome, supported, and inspired.

Training That Builds More Than Strength

Karate at South Surrey isn’t just about kicks and punches—it’s about character, focus, and perseverance. Students develop:

• Confidence and discipline that carry into school and life

• Physical coordination, balance, and flexibility

• Awareness and self-defense skills grounded in respect

Many of our families train together—parents and children side by side—building bonds that last a lifetime.

Our Black Belt Lineage

The South Surrey Karate Club is proud to have produced many black belts, including:
Lucas Reddy (Nidan), Ryan Halladay, David Rhodes, Chris Millard, Cara Statz, Mitch Webb, Adam Reddy, James Anderson, Krystal Millard, Luke Chen, and Mutte Chen—all dedicated practitioners who carry forward the dojo spirit.

Our Dojo

Training takes place at Pacific Heights Elementary School (17148–26th Ave), a bright, welcoming gym with a sprung wooden floor—perfect for young knees and old warriors alike.

Ready to Begin Your Journey?

If you’ve ever considered martial arts, there’s no better time—or place—to start.
Join us for a free trial class, bring a friend, and experience why generations of students have called South Surrey Karate Club their second home.

Karate is more than a sport—it’s a way of life.
Come train, grow, and discover your potential.

South Surrey Karate Club
📍 Pacific Heights Elementary School, 17148–26 Ave, Surrey, BC
📧 statzandrew8@gmail.com
👊 “Train hard. Stay humble. Live with purpose.

The above pictures were from South Surrey’s last trip with James Anderson(Shodan), Luke Chen (Shodan), and Jordan Creech

The Future and the Fullness of Karate: Rokudan Essay originally published July 11th, 2018

                                                                     By Andrew Statz

The future of Karate is an important subject that deserves consideration from all practitioners of karate. Karate as stated by most traditional martial artists means ‘kara’ (empty) and ‘te’ (hand) as the two Chinese characters, and can accordingly be translated most literally as ‘empty hand’. There exists another interpretation, however, one recently described by Shihan Mitsunori Kobayashi. According to Kobayashi, ‘kun’ the character that forms the first participle, can more accurately be described as ‘fullness’. Fullness, therefore, is the primary meaning of karate-do: it is an all-encompassing way of life, a method of instruction, an embodiment of a principle that is boundless. This might sound like artistic language, but the fullness of karate properly perceived is artistic: its real definition is not beyond expression, other than to say it means everything.

Regrettably, the karate we see in movies barters the metaphysical for the physical. In popular film, karate is a means to an end: a way to end the bad guy, or the form used by the bad guy to hurt the good. In the public imagination, ‘karate’ certainly doesn’t mean the fullness of life; to state this would be a topic met with derision. The multifaceted art that is karate is instead presented as utilitarian, at best. The reasons for the simplistic analysis given to the public is that it is most easily understood as another fighting style. Poor PR, the media’s ‘shock-and-awe’ movie depictions, and the prevalence of clubs that practice nothing other than ‘sport karate’, or kick and punch, are all factors that contribute to a bastardized understanding of what ‘karate’ is. Any proper analysis of karate will refer to something much broader and inclusive: from the ‘kun’, or fullness, one arrives at the suffix ‘do’, yet another reference to a way of life, karatedo. The history, the millions of individuals who presently train, and today’s youth are the future of karatedo.

Before karate appeared in the Okinawan Islands there was a popular theory that Bodiharma had travelled to China and brought with him a form of the martial arts along with Buddhism. The origins of karate in Japan in the Ryukyuan Islands with either Anko Itosu or Gichin Funakoshi, the latter acknowledged for spreading the martial arts in Japanese school system are obscured by time. Master Makoto Gima was the student of Gichin Funakoshi and learned from him his karate skills. He learned his throwing techniques for example and modified them to suit his judo background.  Funakoshi was training secretly in karate because karate was banned on the islands, but after it was legalized, he began teaching in Japan. Funakoshi lived during the Meiji period when major scientific, technological and cultural changes shook the fabric of life throughout Japan. Legalized karate underwent a name change from “Chinese hand” to “empty hand”. The person practising karate not only had no weapons but struggled with a distinctly Zen Buddhist idea of perfecting oneself. Individuals such as Funakoshi put on demonstrations and as popularity grew he became a regular instructor at the university level in Japan. Numbers grew.

The origins of karate in Canada were the same as many other countries around the world. Instructors were either sent out from Japan or originated in Canada like Masami Tsuruoka who was born in Cumberland, British Columbia. The Tsuruoka family was placed in an Internment Camp in Tashimi, BC during World War 2. After the war he moved back to Japan where he studied Chito-ryu karate under Dr. Tsuyoshi Chitose and received his first black belt. When he returned to Canada he helped found the National Karate Association and opened a dojo in Toronto. With over 10,000 members, the NKA has many styles of Karate including Goju-ryu, Shito-ryu, Shotokan, Wado-ryu and Chito-ryu, the founding style in Canada. Shihan Hidetada Narumi moved to Canada and taught karate throughout the lower mainland during the 1980’s. Today many people are looking back and studying karate’s history. Hopefully their studies will go beyond critical analysis of techniques, styles and tournaments to what karatedo really means.

It must be noted that specific individuals, Itosu, Funakoshi, and Master Gima provided both the impetus for the development of karate and for its initial curriculum. Karate was built by the ancient masters to exemplify the “habitual acts for physical violence,” which transformed into the core curriculum of large karate organizations today. But they also realized how one must live one’s daily life. Karate if studied properly will affect everything that one does including what one’s choices are. The recent  Olympics  rejuvenated  “sport karate” and brought many opportunities for individuals and organizations draw on this impetus. What directions that result from this are not known, but it is exciting.

The history of karate as it appeared on the Okinawan Island gives a glimpse at the development of a philosophy. In order for karate to survive, something of the all-encompassing ‘fullness’ that is the ‘kun’ will need to be revitalized. Youth in clubs are eager to learn: perhaps they sense the deficit of value that is presented to them today in culture. There is a thirst to know something of an art that can inform and shape an individual and place him as a participant in a rich history. Accordingly, senseis increasingly have to grapple with a culture that privileges quick fixes and flashy sensationalism in sport – but this, undeniably, is not sustainable. Those individuals that are lost in a club to such siren calls inevitably do return, seeking the fullness that karate-do implicitly promises. One way of fostering that connection to the immortality of karate-do is to impart the value in teaching. Whether it’s a green belt who you ask to help teach the whole class, a small group or partner one on one, all senior belts should be asked to teach. Teaching promotes learning, develops self-esteem and enables senior belts the opportunity verbalize the technical abilities they know to be true and have worked for them. As all Karate instructors will know well, teaching may seem to ostensibly be to help the student, but it is the teacher who is taught as well: even inferior ability practitioners can make the best teachers, even if they cannot model the technique as well as others. Indeed, handicaps and deficiency can teach students how to make the best of what they are born with. Provided that real attempts at exercise are made, and the student is not simply lazy, the less able-bodied student can become confident in the abilities they do have. Nor is this simply a legacy of the young: the old can equally find karate a teacher, as the kicks that once came easily will have to be substituted for other strengths. Karate training requires acceptance, as much as it pushes you to survive and adapt. Harnessing one’s strengths, as all karate teachers will understand, is a developing skill and it is a good idea for the chief instructor to relinquish control so he can supervise others in various teaching situations. Over time when tasked with instruction senior belts will develop communication skill confidence and be able to not only help the less capable but improve themselves.

The easy counterargument, one heard too often perhaps, is the lament that things were simpler once. There is a danger of romanticizing the past of karate, where the ‘fullness’ of the art could be witnessed by those even who did not practice it. While it is undeniably the case that a homogenous island hundreds of years ago experienced the ‘way’ of karate in a manner that would be foreign to us, it is crucial to establish that karate never ends. In the modern world, clubs come and clubs fold, but there is always someone who wants to keep the mantle burning. If even the relatively few clubs that practice traditional karate exist, there will be those who appreciate it and see it for the art that is worth preserving. The challenge of keeping this legacy open for the modern world bears its own challenges. How does one maintain the ‘kun’, an all-compassing club in a twenty-first century world that highlights distractions and juggling multiple jobs at once? Financing is another burden facing small clubs. Spending money is easy. Where to spend money is harder. How does one get back any returns for what is being spent? Are marketing and advertising necessary for the club to grow or does word of mouth, emails, texting and making good use of the internet important. Questions such as these threaten to dilute the philosophy that is behind karate – clearly, money cannot be the only criterion for running a club. Where does one acquire the expertise to not only run a club, but teach, collect fees, set up tournaments, follow the prescribed curriculum and creatively develop new curriculum, counsel students and adults? And how is all that to be accomplished by one person, two, three or more when the pay is low or non-existent and the people training need to be helped to reach their potential. This requires commitment. It demands a lot of thought and work. What sort of fullness can be gleaned when karate is treated as an hour long session, ending when one leaves the dojo? The future of karate can rectify some of these problems by emphasizing teaching. As stated previously, the lineage of passing on to a junior member or members the responsibility of continuing to teach karate is vital. Not only must they teach karate they must pass on the karatedo, the way of life. Teaching techniques is the easy part. Having karate be part of your life and life’s work is a step few people make or even understand because it requires commitment. Today it seems that commitment to anything is unusual. Commitment to sending emails out prior to a grading, a Shiai or a special event is always a challenge, but often there are few that can do this with a minimum of expertise.

Ultimately, a club survives from the students attending and immersing themselves in the fullness of karate. Many parents, sitting behind and observing or participating themselves, recognize the dynamic changes that can occur when karate is integrated in their children’s lives. The diversity of interests that are available to students can be a challenge: other sports, work and most importantly schooling act as both a deterrent and an aid to a young karateka’s progress in karate. It is my experience that these interests come and go: I have seen many karateka return to karate training. This is the surest proof that karate offers something more, something akin to a lifeblood that sustains the participant. As stated before, karate can be translated as an empty hand – but as I have been attempting to describe, the fullness is the gift that it offers all of us – if we are only willing to engage with it.