I first met Ajarn Chai at the first Smokey Mountain Camp in July of 1985, hosted by Vic and Ann Payne near Murphy North Carolina. But to tell the story of our meeting I need to back up a few months to February of 1985, when I first hosted Guro Dan Inosanto.
As I sheepishly admitted to Guro many years later, I was ‘that guy,’ probably one of many who contacted him in 1975. Yep, I called LA and asked the operator for the number of Dan Inosanto, and, bingo, there it was. I must have been very lucky to catch Guro at home as he was teaching most every night. His wife answered, and I asked if Mr. Inosanto was in….the conversation was relatively short, and Guro was patient, suggesting I seek out different arts available in my area. The conversation closed with me saying “I hope I can get to LA some day and train with you, my name is Bob Carver.
Well it took another decade, but in the fall of 1984 I contacted Guro to ask if he could come up and do a seminar. At the time he had done one seminar in Toronto, and another in Vancouver some years before. So in mid February of 1985 Guro came and got us started, opening the doors to a wealth of knowledge, and an inspiration that continues to this day. I can honestly say, without bias, that Dan Inosanto is the most knowledgable and skilled martial artist who has ever walked this planet!
While here, he mentioned that there was going to be a camp in North Carolina in July that I should try to make as there would be instruction from Guro, Larry Hartsell, Tim Tackett, and Ajarn Chai.
At that time I had 12 years of training under my belt, and having taken Guro’s advice, had sought out a variety of systems, settling in with a great TaeKwon Do instructor Park Jung Taek. I was running 16-20 miles a week and thought I was in pretty good shape.
Remember, in 1985 Ajarn would have been in his mid-thirties, and, trust me, he was fearsome! However that first year he took it pretty easy on us. The warmup run was only about a mile, then we hit the basics until time ran out. (I never could catch Ajarn Greg on those runs, (but he was 18 or 19 and I was 31!) and it wasn’t until the 4th camp in 1988, when a number of us tested, that he upped the ante. As he said later “I wanted to see who would stay with me.”
Ironically, the year of that test I noticed 4 French guys at camp who kept to themselves that turned out to be GIGN, France’s counter-terrorist unit. I would be fortunate to bring Muay Thai and the Filipino martial arts to the special forces community here in Canada beginning in the fall of 1988; but I digress.
I was approached by Ajarn who said “I want you to test for beginning Instructor” I was surprised, and honoured because I had not seen Aarn since the first camp
in July 1985, but I had worked incessantly on what we had covered, wearing out the first pair of Thai pads to come to Canada in 1985 via Guro…years later Guro would say “Bob, it was really hard to let go of those pads. They were from the first 4 pairs to come into the USA from Thailand”
Those of us to test were taught the Ram Muay by Ajarn. The afternoon before test day, after all the regular sessions, Ajarn told everyone who was going to test
to meet him in the concrete floored hangar training space. While things are a bit of a blur, I remember being the second person that Ajarn held for. I will remember those blue shorts forever! I, along with everyone else, was surgically picked apart by Ajarn. I always was able to see the attack coming, but there was no way to defend, he was so fast, so accurate. For me, he focused on a switch kick to the inner thigh of my left leg, and foot jabs to the stomach, both to the same place over and over again. I have no idea how long the round was, but what felt like hours later, Ajarn let me off the hook; I wai’d, and started to walk it off. The thigh wasn’t so bad, but man, those foot jabs felt like they had touched my spine. I went back to my tent to lay down, but that made it worse. ‘I’m gonna puke’, ‘nope, I’m ok’…’I’m gonna puke, nope, I’m ok’….well you get the theme. Meanwhile the night of screams had continued with everyone taking their lumps; and, we had to test the next day! Looking back, that night was the test. Just the other day when we were chatting on the phone Ajarn said, “the only two people who didn’t complain after were you and Greg Nelson.”
Back to the story: I haul myself up the stairs beside the hangar (Vic had a small plane) where there was a small deck and a few chairs, so I slumped in one, feeling sorry for myself and still riding the vomitron. It must have been an hour or so after the carnage. Ajarn comes up the stairs and sits down beside me. “How are you feeling sir?” My reply “not great sir”. And in what would become an ‘Ajarn teaching moment’, he handed me a piece of chocolate bar and said “here, this will make you feel better”. I got it; stop feeling sorry for yourself….so I sat up straight, ate the lesson and we chatted for a few minutes.
But things weren’t done, I still had to test the next day! Because of the events of the previous day, Ajarn told us that we would do the Ram Muay, but would only have to do 1 round on the Thai pads. I will always remember Ajarn Greg holding for me (many years later Greg told me “you were the first one he told me not to knock out!..Thanks Greg.) But it was no gimme, with one instinctive and life-saving bob and weave against a kick whistling towards my head. “Keep your hands up sir.”
As the first Canadian to test under Ajarn Chai I was able to officially start to share the art. Both Guro and Ajarn had given me permission to ‘share what you have learned’ with my small group before I received instructor credentials.
That September Ajarn came up to Ottawa to teach his first seminar, a yearly tradition that went unbroken up until covid 19 restricted things.
To say that meeting Guro Dan and Ajarn Chai was like winning the lottery is a bit of an under-statement, as I would not trade what I have learned from these two incredible men for any amount of money as it is truly invaluable. I always think of Guro and Ajarn together, because, as I said I probably would never have met Ajarn Chai if not for Guro Dan Inosanto.
Since beginning training in 1985 and testing in 1988 I have, to the best of my ability, quietly helped spread the art, as taught by Ajarn Chai, with close to thirty instructors coming up through me.
Canada is a big country and there may be others out there who were doing Muay Thai back in ‘85, but I can say a couple of things for sure. I was an ‘early adopter’ of Muay Thai (Guro made me blush once by saying “Bob, you know you are the founder of Muay Thai in Canada, right?”) I am not sure about that, but if I was if not the first, I was one of the first to bring the fantastic art of Muay Thai to Canada.
Thanks to Ajarn, I was able to help bring Muay Thai to many Canadian Police and Military covert units, that I was retained by for twenty-five years, including, RCMP Special Emergency Response Team (1988-1993), DND JTFII (1993-2000), RCMP CACPProgram (2002-2013) RCMP ERT (1993- ) as well as several other units that I did seminars for over the years. I could never have accomplished this without Ajarn Chai and Guro Dan!
Ajarn Chai’s dedication to spreading the art of Muay Thai outside of Thailand is unprecedented. Think about it: nobody in the martial arts community outside of Thailand even knew what the art was in 1968! Ajarn Chai’s reputation as being ‘mean’ is legendary, but, his encounters (and countless knockouts) over the years were ALWAYS the result of someone calling him out. He single-handedly defended and spread genuine Muay Thai for years before anyone else. Thanks to Ajarn Chai Muay Thai is thriving in many countries, and while many others have followed, he was the Pioneer!
I love you Pi Pia (big brother) Chai
Bob Carver
Ottawa