Shigong (honourable master) Dave Thew, originally from Geraldine, was inducted into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday and is one of Australasia’s most recognised tai chi masters.
Over the course of his competition career, Mr Thew won a total of 24 gold and seven silver medals in national and international competition.
In 2019, he held the world’s longest tai chi marathon, at 30 hours and 15 minutes, in 2022 he became the first tai chi master to be inducted into the New Zealand Martial Arts Hall of Fame and last year he was inducted into the Australasian Martial Arts Hall of Fame and the World Karate Union Hall of Fame.
Mr Thew said it was an honour to have been inducted into the Timaru Hall of Fame.
"I didn’t know much about it, so I looked at some of the people who had already been inducted and saw the likes of Richard Pearse and Bob Fitzsimmons, the three-time world champion boxer who has a statue in Timaru.
"They called him ‘Rudy Roberts’ so it is quite nice to be up there with someone like him.
"I was born in Geraldine and I’ve been around but then came home. It’s quite a humbling, nice feeling that when I depart from this earth I can leave a mark behind, especially where my roots are.
"It’s quite nice too for the legacy of my late master [Hu Loo Chi] and putting tai chi up there among the other things in New Zealand."
Mr Thew works as an intentional peer support specialist at Kensington Centre and said he was now integrating tai chi into his work.
"I’m part of the clinical team, but it’s on a strength-based relational approach where I journey alongside our clients to help them towards recovery.
"I’ve got a few clients I meet once a week and we have a half-an-hour session in the garden.
"A lot of them have got social anxiety, so I teach them skills to cope with that.
"I hold some sessions in Talbot Park and teach some of the clinicians different calming techniques they can pass over to their clients.
"I’ve also been asked to do tai chi classes with the nursing students over at the hospital and we’ve been out in the garden doing sessions with a group of them as well."
He said combining tai chi and the energy arts with the clinical system was a first for him.
"It’s been a lifelong goal to integrate it, the holistic approach alongside the clinical approach.
"The clients just love it. They’re taking to it because they can feel the benefits straight away, which is really cool."
His main goal with tai chi now was just making it available and accessible for anyone interested.
"I’ve done 10 years of competition, and I’ve sort of been there, done that.
"I’ve gone on to another chapter in my tai chi path, and that’s integrating it into more places in the community where it can be utilised and helped.
"Especially today, because there’s so much anxiety and stress out there, and it’s increasing. So I think it’s even more important to have methods that are accessible for people to practise."
