Honolulu Wing Chun and Bay Area Wing Chun Hawaii

History

Bay Area Wing Chun Hawaii began as a small, informal group of Wing Chun students led by Wayne Nakamura, a long-time student of San Jose Wing Chun Sifu Ben Der, that met on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus in 1995. Within the following 2 years, the group relocated to the Kapahulu Center at 3410 Campbell Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii and grew into a more formal Wing Chun class. Bay Area Wing Chun Hawaii was established in 1998 with the creation of an official class logo and the first printing of class t-shirts. Mr. Nakamura taught his class until the end of October 2011 when he retired from teaching Wing Chun and turned responsibility for the class over to senior student Mark Leong. Mr. Leong made a request for the class to become an official branch of San Jose Wing Chun and the class was formally accepted by Sifu Ben Der in December 2011. In March 2014, after additional training under Sifu Ben, Mr. Leong was formally recognized by Sifu Ben as Sifu for Bay Area Wing Chun Hawaii.

Specialties

Honolulu Wing Chun and Bay Area Wing Chun Hawaii are the Hawaii branch of San Jose Wing Chun and the Bay Area Wing Chun Association. Our Lineage is: Yip Man - Leung Sheung - Ken Chung - Ben Der - Wayne Nakamura - Mark Leong and continuing Wing Chun training under Sifu Ben Der. We are learning a soft style approach to Wing Chun that emphasizes proper position, structure, relaxation and sensitivity which allows a smaller person to effectively defend against a larger and/or stronger person. In this style, we always assume that our opponent will be bigger, faster and stronger than us. We also spend a lot of time on basics in order to build a strong foundation. We all train together (there are no belts or separate grade classes) and advanced students regularly work out with beginning students. The class is relatively small and taught very casually with the necessary information given freely, but learning this style requires a lot of patience, self discipline and careful thought. Our class has moved from it's original Kapahulu Center location and now meets at the McCully District Park, 831 Pumehana Street, Honolulu, Hawaii from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm on Tuesdays as well as on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month. The first, third and any fifth Thursday classes of the month are held from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at 98-1126 Komo Mai Drive in Pearl City. A Moanalua area class meets on Sundays from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. We do not have class on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year.