wudang summer camp 2025

july 3-7

Naramata, BC

Tai He Fist

Wudang Summer Camp #2: Five Days of Qigong, Taihe, and Daoist Meditation

Last year, we held our first summer camp on our land out here in Naramata, BC. We kept it small, kept it close—mostly local students, friends, a few new faces. My parents traveled up from New Mexico, bringing their warmth and mom’s incredible cooking, turning every meal into a shared feast. Mornings started early, before the heat settled in, moving through the five animals Qigong as the light changed over the hills. Mid morning training was our most intense, going in detail over the movements of the Tai Chi Sword. Then it was lunchtime, followed by a dip in the creek. Afternoon training was slower—down by the banks of the creek practicing sword partner drills, training, resting, talking, and sitting under the trees. Evenings, we gathered on the hill overlooking Okanagan Lake, sitting in quiet meditation, watching the last light fade from the valley. It was a really magical few days

This summer we’re doing it again.

Five days of training, from the evening of Thursday, July 3rd, to the morning of Monday, July 7th. The camp is an immersion—Qigong, Taihe Fist, and meditation woven into the rhythm of the land itself. Immersed like this, the body adjusts to the pace of practice, channels open, the breath slows, awareness spreads into the space around us.

There’s something about practicing this way—away from the distractions of daily life, with a small group, in a place where you have the time, space, and openness to connect with nature. You begin to sense things differently. The idea is to train here the same way we did in Wudang. In our school here it is easy to get lost in all the different forms and techniques, when in reality they were all just small facets in this larger path of cultivation—a way of being and listening, a way of harmonizing the body and the natural world, to the light among the trees, to the silence beneath it all.

Introduction to San Feng Lineage

We’re going to make this thing a little introduction to our lineage in its three aspects 三乘: qigong, martial arts, and meditation.

For the qigong, we’re going with the classic Five Animals Qigong. It’s just the best. Especially for the summer. We will be covering the full qigong in all its glory, including movements 身, breath 口, and visualizations 意.

For the martial arts we have decided to go with the Taihe Fist 太和拳. We will be using it as a gateway to explore how we do martial arts in general in our lineage. We’ll do Taihe basics, and through those the fundamentals of hand technique 手法, eye technique 眼神, body movement 身法, footwork 步法, and partner training 对打, also exploring the internal dimension of the practice 内功.

For meditation we will be teaching the basic method of San Feng meditation, sitting in stillness 静坐 and how that is instrumental to the first stage of inner alchemy, establishing the foundation 筑基. And since it’s a bit of a running theme this year, we’ll also be covering the Wudang sleep meditation, the hibernating dragon method 蛰龙睡法.

schedule

To that end the schedule will look a lot like how our daily training schedule went when we were living in China:

Morning (6:30-7:30 a.m.)

• Five Animals Qigong 五形气功

Breakfast (8:00-9:00)

Mid-Morning Training (10:00-12:00)

• Taihe Fist Basics 太和拳基本功

• Taihe Fist 22 Postures 太和拳二十二式

• Wuji Internal Training 无极内功

Lunch (12:30-1:30)

Afternoon Training (3:30-5:30)

• Push Hands 推手

• Taihe Traditional Partner Drills 太和拳传统散手

Dinner (6:00-7:00)

Meditation (8:00-9:30)

• Sitting in Stillness 静坐

accomodations

This is our second year running the summer camp, and last year was incredible—training in the open air, living simply, and spending five days immersed in practice was obviously amazing. We’re keeping that spirit, but we’re also refining things based on what we learned.

Let’s be real—this is going to be rustic. We’ve built our home here over the last few years—dug a well, put up a yurt, set up an off-grid power system—but we’re still in the early stages of developing our ability to host people. Right now, everyone will be staying in tents, spaced out around the property. We’ll provide the cots, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads, so if you’re coming from out of town, you won’t need to worry about bringing gear.

New this year, we’ll also be using our small cabin as a communal space. It’s air-conditioned, so if the midday heat gets intense, you’ll have a place to cool off, relax, or just hang out between classes.

The property itself is 14 acres, backing directly onto Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park. It’s wild here. We see a lot of bears, the occasional mountain lion, and a fair number of rattlesnakes. The bears are serious business, and the cougars here are huge, so absolutely no food in your tent.

Also, this is the height of summer in the driest region in Canada, and that means serious fire risk. There will be no campfires, no fire-making devices of any kind. This land is too beautiful to risk losing to a single stray spark.

This is an immersion—not just into training, but into the place itself. You’ll wake up with the sun and fall asleep to the sound of our bubbling creek, carrying your dreams toward the Milky Way.

location

Our property is 30 minutes from Penticton and 15 minutes past Naramata. We have the uniquely BC advantage of being in a mountain forest but simultaneously only 15 minutes from a number of beautiful lake beaches. July can be kinda hot in the Okanagan, Canada’s hottest region and its only desert, but it always cools off in the evening up where we live, about 1,000 feet above the lake and halfway up Okanagan Mountain. And we have a three main training spaces on the property: the hill (most exposed), the meadow (mostly shaded), and the creek (fully shaded, right next to our snow-fed creek), so we’ll train wherever the weather pushes us.

If you’re flying in I would advise coming through YLW (Kelowna) or possibly directly into Penticton (YYF), whatever’s clever. In either case if you can make your way to Penticton we can pick you up there and bring you the rest of the way. Our land can be kinda hard to find. Google will lead you on a wild goose chase. We kinda like that though.

catastrophe disclaimer

BC is beautiful but it is treacherous and we’re often visited by forest fires. In the event that something like that happens, we’ll refund your money, but, if you’re flying in, we’d also advise getting a refundable ticket just in case it comes to this. All our training will be outdoors, and you’ll be camping on our land, so it would be super miserable if you were just huffing smoke the whole time. So we won’t hesitate to cancel the thing if the weather takes a turn for the worse. Not super likely, but definitely a possibility. So just a heads up.

price & registration

Early Bird Price: $888 CAD

Register before April 15 to secure the discounted rate of $888 CAD for 5 days and 4 nights of immersive training, accommodations, and meals.

Full Price: $999 CAD

After the early bird period, the full price for the camp will be $999 CAD.

Patron Tier: $1,111 CAD

If you’d like to support our school and help make these camps more sustainable, consider joining at the Patron Tier for $1,111 CAD. This higher-tier option directly contributes to future retreats and the continuation of this training.

Reserve Your Spot

Secure your place with a non-refundable $333 CAD deposit. Spaces are limited!