Although quite the news is quite late(Aug '06) I stumbled on this
sad news quite unexpededly just the other day at Coach Li's school,
thumbing through a copy of Inside Kungfu magazine Jan '07 issue.
Sonny Umpad was a Filipino style martial artist of exceptional
ability whom I met in the early 80's while stationed in the SanFran
area during my stint in the Navy. The ironic thing was that we knew
each other socially from partying at the dance clubs in the area and
not aware of each other's martial arts expertise. I was a new guy
intown in the military, hanging out near the main dancefloor of one
of the hottest clubs in town at that time, StudioWest. Admiring
Sonny's high level skill as a partner dancer. At that time the 6 Step
Hustle and Calfornia swing were hot and quite the thing to do. Sonny
realised I was quite a dancer myself and invited many of his
entourage of dance partners that accompanyied him to the clubs to
dance with me to share in the fun. I left the bay area at the end of
my enlistment and returned to the eastcoast in '82. By '87 I was
engaged and my then wife who happend to share a love of the Bay area
herself decided to marry in SanFran. While there after 5 years I
wanted to revisit my old haunts. Studio West had long since closed
but another fav spot the Dragon Palace was still open and sure
enough, my old friend Sonny Umpad was still there tearing up the
dance floor. We were very happy to see each other and I introduced
him to Jamie, (My soon to be wife). We talked about old times and he
wished us well. We still did not discover each other's love of
martial arts. Until a year later back on the EastCoast. I was
thumbing though a karate magazine at a 7-11 and came across a huge
feature story on Filipino martial arts with pictures of Sonny allover
it.! My jaw dropped to the floor. My old high school friend Norman
and fellow blackbelt Norman taylor once visitied me after many years
absence. As we caught up he informed me of his new studies in Knife
fighting and the name Sonny Umpad came up. I told Norman how I
personally knew Sonny Umpad and his jaw dropped to the floor as well.
I had been a fond wish to somehow contact Sonny and tell him how I
admired his martial arts journey, how it so paralleled my own. How we
shared so many things incommon. that time has passed sadly. I can now
only hope to draw inspiartion from Sonny's memory to take my own
skills to the next level.

Cheers!

Mel