Sorry, Samuel. :new_puppy
He was the most cooperative person in the world. He didn’t even ask me why I was asking him all these questions, or why I cared in the first place. I told him my name, of course, and I have my friendly female charm to go on, but it was a lot easier than I expected. I was, frankly, expecting a cold shoulder.
The other day I posted Ron Lee’s real name as I found it on Robert Ito’s kenpo family tree. For the 3 of you that peeked, you know it’s spelled Loskochik on the site, but Ito says this is simply a phonetic spelling, as he doesn’t know the official one. So, bummer for me, I didn’t get anywhere on the real name thing. It’s been 15 years since they have had any real contact (Ito joined Richard Lee’s school when Ron was a green belt), although about 7 years ago, Ito saw Loskochik at the Castro Valley Jack in the Box.
Ito assures me, despite East West’s claims, that Loskochik did get his black belt under Richard Lee. But that was in the mid 70s. Loskochik began teaching (under Richard Lee?) in 1969, as West Wind says, but it is possible they fudged a bit, and gave his teaching dates under Richard as the West Wind founding dates. There was a bad parting between Richard and Loskochik, for business reasons it seems, but Ito doesn’t care to bring it up, as it is not his place to do so. I understand, so I didn’t push it.
A man named Hubbel was apparently one of the head guys in the West Wind biz up in Napa. I don’t know who this guy is, so I’ll assume he has since left. There is still a man, John Simmons, who trained with Ito and Loskochik, who teaches bok fu out of his garage in Castro Valley. I found his address, but I need to squeeze the phone number out of the phone company. It shouldn’t be too difficult. I plan to contact him next. It’s possible Simmons and Loskochik are still friends. After all, there’s no good reason to visit Castro Valley unless you know someone there, and you really need to talk to them. I hate Castro Valley. Too many cranked out KKK members.
As for Richard Lee’s school, it was called East West Kenpo Karate until 1974/5, when Richard got involved with some kung fu practicioners, added a few Chinese forms, and gave it its Bok Fu Do name. Ito insists, like others from the early days, that BFD is simply kenpo. Just for fun, I asked Ito about Bak Fu Pai and that Lacy guy of dim mak and iron palm fame. He insists Bak Fu Pai is the same exact thing as BFD (although Lacy’s dim mak is different). I told him I thought the supposed grand master, Doo Wai, was a little bit nutty, and he cracked up. Ito actually laughed a number of times, particularly when I told him that West Wind, a kung fu school, runs around with katana and hakama. He said they were “sloppy,” which he has heard from others, as well as “cult-like.” I can’t blame him there. He’s never really been involved with West Wind, but he’s heard things through the grapevine, of course.
He then went on and told me all about kenpo, and who out there knows the TRUTH about kenpo’s history. I was polite and interjected with the typical “yeah… uh huh… i see… right… neato,” but I wasn’t really concerned. I told him that I was looking into West Wind because things didn’t seem right there, and I had known some people who had been burned financially from them. He agreed that the “bad things” that West Wind tarnishes the whole of the martial arts, and that he was glad to help shed light on the truth. Ito seemed pleased that I was doing my research into the school, and he said he’d gladly answer more questions in the future, should I have some.
So of course, the more I find, the more confused I become. I have West Wind dreams on a regular basis. Once I get the proper spelling for Loskochik, I will head down to the court house to pull records.