Grandmasters

Mr.DeBuc started training in kyokushin at the Y.M.C.A. in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1970, when he was 13 years old, with now Dr.Frederic Yarid, 10th Dan. 

Mr.DeBuc was involved in a fight at St. George's College that ended in a draw with another student, and Dr.Yarid suggested that they both learn Karate at the YMCA.
This is where both of them started studying the art of Kyokushin.

Mr.DeBuc began training under Master Tony Chisolm in Jamaica in 1971 and then in New York City the next year.
In 1974, Master Chisolm, a direct student of Grandmaster Gojen Yamaguchi, granted Mr.DeBuc his Black Belt in Okinawan Goju-Ryu.

Prior to 1974, Mr.DeBuc began teaching Karate at St. George's College as the head instructor, with Dr. Yarid by his side. 

It is known that when both Mr.DeBuc and Dr.Yarid were doing security for a dance party with their students in Jamaica, a ruffian attacked the bouncer, who was a student of both of them, and hit him in the face with a bear bottle that shattered on impact causing many cuts. The word was sent immediately to Mr.DeBuc and Dr.Yarid, who were in the office in the back. Dr.Yarid ordered the students in the room not to let Mr.DeBuc leave, and they forcibly blocked the door so Mr.DeBuc could not leave. Dr.Yarid went by himself to deal with the violent person at the door, and factual reports say that Dr.Yarid stopped the criminal single-handedly. As the Criminal attacked Dr.Yarid, Dr.Yarid kicked him out of the auditorium and threw the closed glass doors. The Criminal flew out over the stars and into the street with one kick, ending the problem as the Criminal ran for his life. 

Mr.DeBuc and Dr.Yarid rushed Bigger, as he was known, to the hospital. The doctor, who unfortunately had nothing to kill Bigger's pain, stitched up his face as Mr.DeBuc held him down. Dr.Yarid assisted the doctor with the procedure and stopped the bleeding. 

(To make a note, Dr.Yarid is currently a practicing Board Certified Doctor today)

Mr.DeBuc and Dr.Yarid trained under Kyoshi Michael Powell in Jamaica and later in New York, where Mr.DeBuc earned his first Black Belt. Kyoshi Powell was Mr.DeBuc’s cousin, and this relationship made it easy for Mr.DeBuc and Dr.Yarid to study two martial arts without creating a conflict.

They studied under Kyoshi Powell from 1972 to 1974, earning a Black Belt from Kyoshi Powell while practicing in  Jamaica and New York City. This was the first Black Belt given out in JUTOKA in 1974 for them both.

Neither Master Chisolm nor Kyoshi Powell knew Mr.DeBuc was training in two schools simultaneously.

(Master Chisolm almost found out when Mr.DeBuc used an unknown technique in Master Chisolm’s class during a sparring match, and Master Chisolm warned Hanshi never to use a technique he had not been taught in his class again – the technique won the sparing match that day)

Because of a severe injury sustained by Kyoshi Powell and Mr. DeBuc's moving to Miami in 1977, Both friends needed to find a new teacher, and this led to lots of severe fights in many Martial Arts Schools for Mr.DeBuc as he tried to get a new Goju-Ryu teacher.

(The problem was that Master Chisolm was Okinawan Goju-Ryu, and the USA was dominated by USA Goju-Ryu created by Grandmaster Peter Eurban, so every time Mr.DeBuc attempted to join a Goju-Ryu School or, in one case, even invited to teach at another school he was found that the teachers respectfully accepted him, however, the students  were more interested in testing him and pitting their USA Goju-Ryu, etc. against him this resulted in a lot of them getting hurt and Mr.DeBuc leaving the schools time and time again.)

Finally, Mr.DeBuc had to abandon his search to train in Goju-Ryu. Once again, it was Dr.Frederic Yarid who kept Mr. DeBuc looking for a way out. This time, Dr. Yarid suggested that both of them begin to train in Cuong-Nhu under Sensei Mike Arnspiger in his candle factory in Perine, Florida. Mr.DeBuc and Dr.Yarid trained together with Sensei Arnspiger from around 1978 to 1981, during which time, Mr.DeBuc earned a Brown Belt with one black stripe, making Mr.DeBuc eligible to take the Cuong-Nhu black belt test. 

Circumstances with time off and responsibilities stopped Mr.DeBuc from getting to the Black Belt exam several times.

Later that year, Cung-Nhu added another black stripe to their brown belt to extend the time that a student could sit the black belt exam. This was not to Mr. DeBuc's liking, and although it would not affect him, waiting for the test made it impossible for Hanshi to continue. 

Mr.DeBuc could never take the Cuong-Nhu black belt test even though he paid the school dues for an additional two years without training with them.

(Hanshi has said his training in Coung-Nhu opened the door for him to take the direction he did with Double Dragon Goju-Ryu and plays a big part in why it works so well.)

By this time, Dr. Yarid was in the Navy and focused on his medical career. He became a student of Mr.DeBuc so he could stay up to date on everything Mr.DeBuc was learning.

Mr.DeBuc decided to try again to get them both back into Goju-Ryu and joined a Goju-Ryu school under Kyoshi Russ Rogg. This was around 1990. The school was located south of Cutler Ridge, Florida, and Mr. DeBuc earned a Purple Belt in Shendo Goju-Ryu. Kyoshi Rogg had started his own Goju-Ryu style and was also at one time the student of Grandmaster Manny Saavedras. Kyoshi Rogg was an independent school from USAGoju-Ryu, and at the time, he was at odds with his teacher. This worked well as Kyoshi Russ Rog understood Mr.DeBuc’s problem and was willing to help him get back into Goju-Ryu and achieve a USA Goju-Ryu recognized Black Belt.

However, Mr.DeBuc's luck ended when one day Kyoshi Russ Rogg and Hanshi DeBuc ended up in a sparing match, Kyoshi Rogg had agreed to test Mr. DeBuc straight to Brown Bent but pressure from his other students made Russ issue Mr. DeBuc a Purple Belt. Kyoshi Rogg's action made the other students think Mr. DeBuc was not good enough to get the Brown Belt and, therefore, could not be a Black Belt. The decision to give Mr. DeBuc the purple belt encouraged one of the Brown Belts in the class, and he insulted Hansh and became physical; this gave Hanshi no choice but to hold the student down and educate him in sound matters, but at the moment, Hanshi started to twist off the little finger of this Brown Belt, who began to scream Kyoshi Rogg intervened. This screening caused Kyoshi Rogg to break up the conflict, and he was put in a bind. Kyoshi Rogg decided to discipline Hanshi and ordered Hanshi to spar against him in front of the class, who were not all shocked at the situation. Mr.DeBuc and Kyoshi Rogg became involved in an all-out fight that did not end well for either of them, and they both got pretty seriously hurt. Mr.DeBuc loved Kyoshi Rogg but informed him after the battle that he was leaving the school, and Kyoshi Rogg said he understood why. Kyoshi Rogg, now a Grandmaster, and Mr.DeBuc remain good friends to this day.

( Unknown to Mr.DeBuc at the time, on that very day, Grandmaster Manny Saavedra was standing at the dojo door and witnessed the entire affair. Mr.DeBuc had seen him clearly but did not know who he was. This later led to Mr.DeBuc one day being introduced to Grandmaster Saavedra who remembered the entire incident. Hanshis was introduced to Grandmaster Saavedra by his close friend from Coung-Nhy, Sensei Estella Atalay. Grandmaster Saavedra accepted Hanshi DeBuc as his student and promised Hanshi DeBuc that this situation would never happen again. Within a short time and severe training from Hanshi Saavedra, Hanshi DeBuc was issued his fourth dan in Sansie Goju-Ryu. This was the single best thing that ever happened to Hanshi and, for many years, ended Hanshi DeBuc and Hanshi Yarid’s struggle to find a teacher and continue training in Goju-Ryu Karate. )

Mr. DeBuc trained under Grandmaster Manny Saavedra in Miami, Florida, from around 1992 to 2009 in Sansei Goju-Ryu.  When Hanshi Saavedra suggested to Hanshi DeBuc that he should create his own style, Hanshi Saavedra made sure Hanshi DeBuc had learned correctly all the Kata forms Sansei Goju-Ryu and commented that Hanshi DeBuc had a good memory. Hanshi DeBuc attended many official functions, gave talks, and assisted Grandmaster Saavedra in many things, which also included teaching schools from Boston to Florida all down the east coast of the USA, creating many Black Belts in Sansie Goju-Ryu of all ranks under Hanshie's new style of Double Dragon Sansie Goju-Ryu using the katas of Sansei Goju-Ryu's.  Finally, Grandmaster Saavedra promoted Hanshi to his 8th dan black belt in 2003, with Hanshi now having twenty-seven Black Belts of his own, Loyal to Grandmaster Manny Saavedra.

In 2004, Hanshi started working again on his dream of combining all his martial arts knowledge into one art. Hanshi had been quietly working on this concept since 1973. Being an Airline Captain, Mr. DeBuc had lots of time to study and read up on many of the books written by the old masters. His thoughts were that all martial arts are somehow connected, and he wanted to put them back together again.

Eiichi Miyazato once suggested that the concept of karate styles was silly and should be abandoned in favor of the old, pre-war system when all Karate was simply tode.

After many years of training under Grandmaster Manny Saavedra, Grandmaster DeBuc started to put the final touches on his system and named it Double Dragon Goju-Ryu Karate-do.

With a problem created by Master Edward Koschmider that created distrust between Hanshi and Grandmaster Saavedra for Koschmider's personal gains and desire to be promoted quicker appeared to succeed, Hanshi DeBuc broke off from Sansei Goju-Ryu. Hanshi DeBuc believed there was a problem that had made his beloved teacher, Grandmaster Saavedra, angry with him, so Mr. DeBuc moved out to continue on his own and further develop Double Dragon Goju-Ryu.

Several years later, Grandmaster Saavedra corrected the rift between them, but the damage was already done, and the relationship shattered at a tournament when Mr. DeBuc thought Hanshi Saavedra was angry with him again and walked out.

It was not until years later that Grandmaster Saavedra told Grandmaster DeBuc that he had done these things to get him out of the way so he could protect him from issues he had to deal with that are once again arising today as the underground power struggle persists and Grandmaster Saavedra and his vision for Grandmaster DeBuc was not in line. It served Grandmaster Saavedra well to get Grandmaster DeBuc out of the way and protect the work Hanshi was doing, and the vision Grandmaster Savedra had for his style.

Mr.DeBuc left Grandmaster Saavedras's side and expanded the number of black belts in his organization, now pushing his school as far south as Puerto Rico.

Hanshi DeBuc always maintains that he has a broken heart over losing this relationship and will probably go to his grave with it during these years without direct contact with Grandmaster Saavedra. 

Hanshi DeBuc became a 9th dan in January 2014 when he officially left Sansei Goju-Ryu and decided to teach his style of Double Dragon Goju-Ryu Karate. 

In 2024, Grandmaster DeBuc met a student of Grandmaster Saavedra named Rocky. This Student was instrumental in a meeting that would change the direction of Double Dragon Goju-Ryu Karate forever. The meeting between Hanshi Saavedra and Hanshi DeBuc occurred at 11 am on 5/26/2024.

This meeting was observed by Shihan Rocky, 6th dan, Renshi Luis, 5th dan, and Hanshi’s son Anthony DeBuc, a Shodan-ho. The meeting went extremely well and culminated in the reconciliation of the two masters. The highlight was Grandmaster Manny Saavedra's promotion of Hanshi DeBuc to 10th Dan and the ensuing calls to notify several other Grandmasters of this promotion.

The meeting discussed many things and cleared many matters. Along with the added agreement that Grandmaster Fredrick Yarid would also be promoted to 10th Dan for a host of reasons, bringing the world of Sansai Goju-Ryu and the Double Dragon Institute back together again.

But the top subject that was discussed came afterward when Grandmaster Saavedra explained why he had sent, now, Grandmaster DeBuc off on his own. The information given to Grandmaster was shocking, as he found out that he had been removed from the organization to protect himself from the actions of other Masters in the organization. But God was not going to make things easy for now both Grandmasters, as Grandmaster Saavedra took sick that night with a stomach ailment that made them both end up in the emergency room because  Grandmaster Saavedra had taken too much Excedrin for his pain. The medicine had torn up the lining of his stomach. They were both in the hospital emergency room until 2 am. Grandmaster DeBuc took Grandmaster Saavedra home after his discharge.

The following morning, Grandmaster Saavedra was rushed to the hospital again, this time admitted. 

What was interesting was that Grandmaster Saavedra was correct about what he had told Grandmaster DeBuc because before a week had passed, people were questioning his authority. 

Grandmaster DeBuc has been given an assignment by Grandmaster Saavedra and is currently working on this vision. Grandmaster Saavedra has gained strength, remains in physical therapy, and is preparing to hold a high-level meeting of the Sansie family.

Grandmaster Arthur DeBuc and Grandmaster Frederic Yarid. Both achieved their 10th Degree Black Belts on June 25th, 2024, at ages 66 and 65, respectively.

They are loyal to Grandmaster Saavedra and have over forty-five black belts in the Double Dragon Sansie Goju-Ryu Karate-do Organization. The High-level meeting of the Sansie family never happened with Grandmaster Manny Saavedra present.

Grandmaster Manny Saavedra, founder of the World Sansie Goju-Ryu Karate-do Organization Passed away on  September 27, 2024, May he rest in peace.

Hanshi DeBuc currently resides in Pembroke Pines, Florida, where he continues to instruct and run his organization with the help of Hanshi Yarid, teaching their students the art of
Double Dragon Sansie Goju-Ryu Karate-do