Saturday, October 27, 2007

Tiny Lafite, The Historical Link Between Lima Lama and Splashing Hands

The flowing use of the open hand strikes is characteristic of both Lima Lama and Splashing Hands. The common denominator is the late, Tiny Lafite. Examine these pages in Wikipedia to see the historical record of this martial science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splashing_hands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lima_lama
Below is the description of the formation of Lima Lama as recalled by Sub Level 4 Kenpo Master Ron Cha'pel. It is from the www.martialtalk.com website.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Bishop View Post
Limalama was founded in 1965. The original founding members were:
1. Tino Tuilosega, who was a Parker black belt, boxer, and possibly other arts.
2. Richard Nunez, Dan Guzman black belt (Kajukenbo/kenpo)
3. Saul Esquival, Dan Guzman black belt (Kajukenbo/kenpo)
4. John Morolt, Shotokan black belt
5. Sol Kaihewalu, Lua, Okinawa-te
6. Hamea "Tiny" Lafiti, Ark Y. Wong black belt, and possibly other arts.

I only know 3 of the 6, but I'm sure Doc can expand more on their backgrounds.
As always John Bishop always has his facts straight. I oddly knew/know all but John (I remember him as Louis) who I should know, but can't shake loose in my memory banks. My friend Tu'umanao "Tino" Tuiolosega was a student of Ed Parker as well as a champion boxer in the Marine Corps, studied Sil Lum, and of course "Lua." Sol's background was almost exclusively in Lua, but he also spent time at Ark Wong and was an accomplished boxer. Sal, along with Haumea, Ed Parker and even Dan Inosanto came out of Ark Wong's. The underlying arts of Lua in the isalnds and Ark Wong's teachings in some way touched almost everyone.

Although Lua was a Polynesian Art, it was said to be supplemented in Hawaii by a series of Pacific-rim martial arts brought in by waves of the imported workers starting in the late 1800s. These included Judo and Ju Jutsu from Japan, Karate from Okinawa, Escrima from the Philippines and even Kung Fu from China. So the mixture of the arts was common and the reason why most backgrounds touch each other in cross training. It is said Henry Okazaki put elements of Lua in his DanZan Ryu JuJitsu, so it worked both ways. Clearly when you look at the effective and destructive power of Kajukenbo, you cannot help but speculate on the Lua influence through Sijo Emperado. Limalama contained all of these influences, including Splashing Hands and certainly Parker's early versions of his Chinese Kenpo. Haumea Lefiti ("Tiny"), and Sal Esquivel are no longer with us. "Tino" has retired and passed the art to his son Rudy, while Richard, and Sol are still actively teaching. Sol left Limalama in the seventies, while Sal's son Danny continued to teach. When Haumea passed away Limalama split into two seperate groups with "Tino" continuing as the head of the original, while Richard and Sal formed their own branch and lineage.
__________________

5 comments:

Royce said...

Tom I have never heard of Splashing Hands kung fu. I youtubed and googled it. I have wanted to do a MA for a while now but nothing seemed to fit. I don't want to go to a McDojo and be pumped full of BS then get my ass handed to me when it really really counts.
Do you know of anyone in the phoenix area that teaches it? I haven't found anyone online searching tonight.

Tom Furman said...

http://www.ipdta.com/
That website is owned by a cop who applies Splashing Hands on the street.
For the USA. Call James McNeil in San Diego.

Royce said...

Thank you very much.

Jim said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

In Kung Fu you have Splashing Hands and in Kenpo you have Whipping Hands. In Limalama you have Whipping Hands with breaks to the joints and bones. GM Richard Nunez is one of the original 6 men who founded Limalama in So. California in 1965. You can reach GM Nunez through our web site www.nokaoi-online.com, GM Nunez teaches in Whittier, CA. I started with GM Nunez in 1966 and I remeber Tiny, Tino, John, Sal and Sol. It was a tough time for this new American Martial Art because of the backlash of the Asian styles that didn't accept a new art, not born in Asia.