Biography: Kung-Fu & Kick Boxing
Master Nigel Scantlebury moved to Montreal, Canada at the age of 14 to reunite with his mother where he continued to study martial arts. He took up Taekwondo because there was no Shotokan or Judo schools nearby, furthering his knowledge and obtaining a 2nd degree black belt by the age of 16.
"I remember in high school I met this Chinese fellow by the name of Tze Kin who practiced Wing Chun Kung Fu. Tze Kin had just arrived from Hong Kong, barely speaking any English and absolutely no French, which as you may or may not know, French is a must in Montreal."
"In high school everyone knew of me practicing martial arts. At lunch break a lot of the guys would go out on the field and play touch football or Frisbee and I would join them. One day out near the end of the field we saw Tze Kin. I ran over to ask if he wanted to join us and he did. As time passed many of the guys and I would show him around and so fourth. Tze Kin, a very quiet and reserved character, never mentioned anything about his Wing Chun. On the other hand everybody somehow always talked about me doing martial arts, wanting me to jump and kick this or jump and kick that. Of course, I being a sucker for attention would do it. Every time that Tze Kin happened to be around and I was asked to do this or that and I could see a look of disapproval on his face. I recognized that look, being that I hung around Chinatown a lot and most of my friends were Chinese. One day a Chinese friend of mine came to the school. Her name was Sarah, one of the gang member's girlfriend, from Chinatown and said she would be registering for this high school."
"When I introduced her to Tze Kin, they started blabbering in Cantonese. I could understand a few words here and there, a few good ones and a whole lot of bad ones. After Sarah finished talking to Tze Kin, I noticed a big change in him. He became friendlier towards me. I later found out that a lot of the guys in Chinatown thought that I was cool and this seemed to be ok with him. The guys in Chinatown now knowing that Sarah and I went to the same school wanted me to look after their little sister. One day I noticed Sarah was crying. I asked her what happened but she didn't want to tell me. By insisting she finally told me, but asked me not to tell any of the guys in Chinatown. She had been to the park with a bunch of guys and girls from high school who had been drinking beer. The guys held her down, took off her clothes and took pictures of her. I wanted her to point them out to me but she didn't want to. Using a little persuasive bribery I told her that I would tell her friends in Chinatown if she didn't tell me who they were. Eventually she did."
"Earlier that day a close friend of mine Shawn had had an altercation with a guy and wouldn't you know it, he happened to be the same !#?>!*! that had taken the pictures of Sarah. Shawn had mentioned he wanted to fix this guy and I told him I wanted to also. There were nine guys involved in Sarah's situation and I was determined to get them all after school. Out on the field Shawn and I saw a few of the guys including the picture-taker. We caught up to them and we both went after that same guy. Out of the blue Tze Kin came running to help us. That was the first time he demonstrated his martial arts skills. I was beating the living crap out of the guy who took the pictures and told him that if he didn't bring me the pictures and negatives he would get the very same thing again the next day. I guess realizing the trashing that he had just received and knowing that I was serious, the following day he brought the pictures and negatives."
"I asked Tze Kin about his martial art skills and he finally told me that he had practiced Wing Chun Kung Fu which is a system that predominantly uses hand techniques. Tze Kin was rather proficient with his hands but lacked on his kicking ability in which he wanted to improve upon. So we made an exchange, I taught him Taekwondo and he taught me Wing Chun. Later I found out that there was a Wing Chun school in Chinatown but they didn't accept foreigners, but because of my Chinese connections, I was accepted. I stayed for two years and then went into wrestling for four years, boxing two years and then kickboxing for four years. During that time I became a member of the National Canadian Kickboxing team traveling all over the world, participating in several kickboxing events."