Let Me Introduce Myself...

My name is Steven Vance and, at this point, I am one-half of the newly formed Golden Flower Warrior Association. I'm entering my mid-forties, have been with my wonderful wife, Gina, for about twenty-five years, and have two daughters, one son, and two grandchildren (with one more on the way). I've worked in a variety of jobs, including nine years of service with the US Army as a combat medic, where I served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom with the infantry (the 101st Airborne Air Assault Division and 2nd Stryker Brigade/25th Infantry Division respectively). At present I work for the Veterans Administration, at the Portland VA Medical Center, in its combined MICU/SICU.

I've been involved with martial arts, off-and-on, since the mid-1980's. I started out with fencing (high school) and a Korean art called Hap Do Sool, then moved on to SCA light weapons fighting ( the shinai, and a little naginata) and a modified form of Muay Thai (Tony Gneck, college), back before it was the "in-thing". Over the years, my training became intermittent, between the demands of military service and employment in corporate America, raising three kids - one with multiple medical issues, and life in general. Nevertheless, I have had exposure of one sort or another to Bujinkan Ninpo Taijutsu, Aikido, Wrestling, and several other arts. I received Level I Army Combatives Training (BJJ for Dummies...lol). It was Silat and Kuntao Silat that really captured my imagination, and I have trained with people from Pendekar William Sanders' organization (Pencak Silat Pukulan Cimande Pusaka) and Guru Jim Ingram's organization (Amerindo Silat), as well as having been involved with the Malabar Kuntao Silat distance training program, while I was deployed in Iraq. I've had at least some exposure to the arts of Al Colangelo, Guy Savelli, Victor de Thouars, Chris Burbeck and Eric Kruk.

Now that my children are grown, I'm seeking a return to much more regular training. I am a distance student of Pendekar William Sanders (Cimande) and Laoshi Yang Yusen (Gao Bagua).

Recent research on the Chinese art of Kunlun Quan, which interests me quite a bit, led me to Shifu Jonty Kershaw. We hit it off, and decided to engage in this joint venture. Both of us are martial arts junkies (obviously), share an interest in Indonesian, Indochinese and Chinese internal arts, and are so tired of the politicking and BS that seem such an ever-present part of the martial art scene. We have decided to start an organization that will foster research into the various aspects of martial culture - the fighting skills (of course), healing arts and herbalism, qigong/neigong and other energetic arts, martial history, philosophy...pretty much anything that constitutes traditional (and emerging) warrior culture.

We love learning. We want to have a good time doing it.

And we are looking for like-minded individuals.