Grandmaster Dave Wheaton is a revered instructor, who has taught and trained in the martial arts for well over 50 years. He was one of the founders of Santa Barbara Dojo (formerly Martial Arts Family Fitness) and is the founder of Hapkido International (1981). Below is a little bit of his story and his martial arts lineage.

Dave Wheaton began his training in 1966 at the age of 16 in the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do. Over the next few years, he studied a little Muay Thai, Aikido, and Judo. In 1970, Dave met his first true martial arts mentor, Grandmaster Yi, Tae Hee. GM Yi had been a Taekwondo Combat instructor in the Vietnam War’s Tiger Division, where he taught soldiers a very intense style of hand-to-hand martial art called Chung Do Kwan.

Dave trained, taught, and opened a few schools for Grandmaster in Connecticut until 1976 when he moved to the island of Oahu and began teaching Taekwondo at the University of Hawaii. While in Honolulu, Dave was invited to train an art called Hapkido under Grandmaster Sung Ok Hong, and found himself enthralled with the art. Grandmaster Hong was also an amazing instructor and gave his excited student as much knowledge as he could take in.

In 1981, Dave moved back to Seymour, Connecticut where he considered getting a “real job” in a chemical factory. However as luck would have it, Dave was offered an amazing opportunity to rent the same building that he once trained in under GM Yi. When he opened the doors, Dave found that the building had not been touched in all the years since he trained there. With GM Hong’s encouragement, Master Dave opened his very first Hapkido studio.