Hilary Dawson Sensei, 6th dan, began her aikido journey at the Halifax YMCA in 1977 and continued her training at Victoria Aikikai later that year under the guidance of Kawahara Shihan. She has been the chief instructor at UVIC, a satellite dojo, since 1987 and was designated as a shidoin in 2010. Over the past 40 years she has taught adult and children’s classes for both beginners and senior students as well as special programs for women and practitioners with physical challenges or limitations

Hilary Sensei continues to develop her own practice through seminars and summer camps across Canada and the US and in recent years has also been invited to teach at a number of seminars and workshops.

Aikido has been a constant, on and off the mats, since that first seminar with Kawahara Shihan and continues to feed her body and spirit and fills her soul with joy. “ You meet the neatest people at the dojo”.

Ramin Arvin Sensei, 5th dan, started Aikido at the Central YMCA (Shugyo Dojo) in Toronto with Fran Turner Sensei. Later he became a live-in student (uchideshi) with Donavan Waite Sensei. Ramin Sensei co-founded Naka Ima Aikikai in Toronto. Currently he trains at Vancouver West Aikikai (VWA) under Ishiyama Shihan, and is the VWA-dispatched instructor for the New Westminster dojo (VWA’s branch dojo).

Ramin Sensei enjoys teaching and practicing in the BCAF community, pursuing similar goals in practice with same-minded people. For him, Aikido is about contact, continuous growth, and learning. In aikido, we fall down and get up again, make mistakes and adjust. The dojo is a laboratory space to explore how to use the body efficiently, with minimal effort, to establish awareness in the body and mind.

Credit the photo to Russ Gorman (c) 2022

Grant Babin Sensei, 4th dan, In 1997 officially began training at the Gathering Place Aikikai in Vancouver under the direction of Michael Saint Germain Sensei. In addition, he began training with Tony Hind Shihan from 2003 and continues to train with him regularly to this day.

Babin Sensei opened his first dojo in 2005 on Thetis Island, BC and began overseeing the direction of the Saltspring Aikido club in 2008.

In 2010 he first moved to Japan to train at the Aikikai world headquarters and teach children’s classes at multiple locations in and around Tokyo.  Over the following 6 years, he spent 4 and a half years teaching and training intensively in Japan while offering direction to the Thetis Island club. At the world headquarters, he received daily instruction from some of the leading instructors of the world including Hayato Osawa Shihan, the technical director of the Canadian Aikido Federation and is still a close student of Takeshi Kanazawa Shihan.

In 2016 he returned to Canada permanently and opened Aikidaily International Academy in Squamish, BC. To this day he still travels to teach and train and offers guidance to the Saltspring Island Aikido club. He continues to grow in his understanding of aikido and all of its principles.

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