GM Nonong will be returning back to his Filipino home coming this October to take care of some personnel business. Before he returns I brought him out to Phoenix, AZ on September 17th for a short visit. Here are some of the activities I setup for him. Image credits goes to “Kuya Bunal” Wesley Crisostomo, Guro Jay Sowell, and Magdiel Rivera. 1
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On September 18th 2016 MS Russell T Mackler of Viñas Arnis organized a question and answer event with Grandmaster Wilson “Nonong” Viñas at Encanto Park in Phoenix AZ. The event was intended as an open forum for local FMA practitioners to ask any questions they liked regarding Viñas Arnis and knowledge of Grandmaster Nonong before he traveled back to Bacolod Negros Occidental Philippines. Some of the questions asked included subjects on entering, Largo Mano, footwork, timing, distance, Oido, and other topics. The event lasted for two hours and finished up with lunch at a Puerto Rico restaurant. We would like to thank participants from DTE (Direct Torres Martial Arts), Kada Anan Martial Arts, and Pinakatay Arnis for their curiosity and their questions.
GM Nonong and Guro Jay
GM Nonong and Guro Mike
GM Nonong working with Guro Cisco
MS Russell Side session on Oido
Group Image
Lunch
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The following day on September 19th 2016 GM Steve Dough of FMA Informative invited “Kuya Bunal” Wesley Crisostomo, MS Russell T Mackler, and GM Wilson “Nonong” Viñas to his home to enjoy some delicious home cooked Filipino food. We enjoyed the day discussing Filipino Martial Arts and reminiscing on past events associated around FMA activities. Thank you GM Steve and Vicky for the wonderful food and company.
MS Russell, GM Nonong, and GM Steve
“Kuya Bunal” Wesley Crisostomo, GM Steve Dowd, GM Wilson “Nonong” Viñas, and MS Russell T Mackler
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Monday evening September 19th 2016 we were invited over for dinner and discussions on combat oriented swordsmanship with Maestro Greg Hinchcliff of “Loyal Order of the Sword”. GM Nonong and MS Russell sincerely appreciate Greg’s hospitality and knowledge. We had a great evening discussing swordsmanship, thank you Maestro Greg,
GM Nonong, Maestro Greg, and MS Russell
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Tuesday September 29th 2016 GM Nonong spent the day discussing our Instructors manual, Viñas Arnis, our families, and finally signing Instructor Wilson Alvarado’s Certificate. GM Nonong will be hand carrying the certificate to Instructor Wilson, Congratulations!
During the evening GM Nonong and MS Russell went to Maestro Richard Marsden the co-founder of “The Phoenix Society of Historical Swordsmanship”. Maestro Richard was generous in spending time explaining different HEMA, (Historical European Martial Arts), based systems to GM Nonong. We sincerely appreciate everything Maestro Richard. “Kuya Bunal” Wesley Crisostomo also joined us as well which we sincerely appreciate.
“Kuya Bunal” Wesley, Maestro Richard, and GM Nonong
Thank you GM Nonong, see you in the Philippines next year!
1 All images Copyrighted by their perspective owners with verbal or written permission to use the images.