----- Original Message -----

From: P B

To: wadokarate@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 6:23 AM

Subject: Re: [Wado Forum] Returning to Wado-Ryu after many years

Mike, The icx email address for Joe appears to be invalid. Any help you can give me in helping to contact and/or locate him would be greatly appreciated. Joel --- On Mon, 6/29/09, Vanatta's Institute of Karate, Inc. <vanattaskarate@comcast.net> wrote: From: Vanatta's Institute of Karate, Inc. <vanattaskarate@comcast.net> Subject: Re: [Wado Forum] Returning to Wado-Ryu after many years To: wadokarate@yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 3:04 PM Joel,  You can find Joe in Knoxville. E-mail is rippy@.... If I can be of further help. contact me.                                                       Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: P B To: wadokarate@yahoogro ups.com Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 2:29 PM Subject: [Wado Forum] Returning to Wado-Ryu after many years Hello, I am new to the forum so I wanted to share a little about my martial arts career. My name is Joel Bain and I live the United States. I tried some other styles of karate and also a little judo before I found out about Wado-Ryu. I loved it from the start. Under the instruction of Sensei Joseph B. Rippy (6th Dan), I earned the rank of 1st Dan in 1988. For personal and career reasons, I stopped practicing karate for several years. Nagging injuries contributed to this as well. In the mid 90's I took up tai chi and continue to practice that on a regular basis. I am now practicing all my karate forms again, and am hoping to locate a sensei for private and/or group instruction. My efforts to locate Sensei Rippy have been unsuccessful. He was, without a doubt, the best instructor that I have ever had. The several posts about Wado-Ryu dvd's caught my attention. I am now looking to order these to help continue in my practice. It does not look like I am going to locate Mr. Rippy, but I am going to continue practicing in Wado-ryu again. I live in the Eastern part of Tennessee and there are no Wado-Ryu instructors that I know of in this area. There are many in West Tennessee. This may be where I will have to travel in order to receive further instruction. The dvd's will help though. Thanks to all of you for the posts about them. Regards, Joel