Dick Benbow "The Koi Coach"

[Danjols]

KB lurkers,

For those of you that might be wondering, Dick has nicknamed himself "The Koi Coach", something to do in his spare time.

If you go to our NIKK web site, North Idaho Koi Keepers and bring up the October 2007 meeting on the left hand side of the introduction page, you will see Dick holding court. This past weekend our club, NIKK (North Idaho Koi Keepers) held another one our workshop meetings. Subject matter at this meeting was our on-going study of three levels of Sanke and Showa imported in May of 2006. Dick had a lot of fun and enjoyed explaining and "Coaching" members and visitors at our workshop.

Hey Dick, if you can take a minute explain this last workshop from your point of view.

Dan

[dick benbow]

The koi that Dan mentions have been in his care since tosai. Unlike many club projects where tosai go home to all different ponds, we wanted to have
all things equal. This element alone has created some interesting results for consistency in development. What we are seeing is not based on varying factors. All study koi have be given the same everything......
The fish were hand selected by Toshio Sakai, the breeder in what could be
classified as single,double and triple A grades. We have watched their development and photoed and measured in spring and fall for two years now.
The first winter we took the AAA sanke and showa and a special tategoi Showa and put them inside for winter, heated and fed. The other 2 grades we left outside in controlled heat but no food. This last weekend it became obvious to both Dan and I that those that experienced winter had practically caught up with those that we had selected to give a headstart. I think this
will be a non issue be the end of the study.
From my decades of studying this man's matsunosuke "brand" koi, I also noted that these sumimono gosanke developed a much higher rate of development of black in Dan's cement pond. To my eye and experience we're about year 4 with that element over what we could have expected in the mud.
Many at the study were surprised to see that a "A" sanke which looked all the part of a "AAA" had been ranked so low by the master. It was an outside koi that caught up in length with the pampered and it's finish is almost ready now to go to the show and certainly will be next year. It's counterpart in the showa, a totally different body shape is also appearing to be close to finish by next spring.
All of these koi are of the new marusome color, meaninmg that the red and
black scalation finish by filling the entire scale. On the higher grades this is not as apparent as with the lower and middle.
I could ramble on but don't want to take anything away from a future article to be printed by Dan to share our 3 year effort to learn.
I certainly want to encourage other individuals and clubs to do something similar as it has been a wonderful opportunity by NIKK to advance the knowledge of it's members.
For fun, Dan is also spearheading an effort to get Nisei koi farm kohaku and showa this fall from Mat, Ross and company to do a similar study on domestic
(but thankfully for me, Matsunosuke Bloodline koi ) for the next "event".

[dinh]

Quote: Originally Posted by Danjols KB lurkers, For those of you that might be wondering, Dick has nicknamed himself "The Koi Coach", something to do in his spare time. If you go to our NIKK web site, North Idaho Koi Keepers and bring up the October 2007 meeting on the left hand side of the introduction page, you will see Dick holding court. This past weekend our club, NIKK (North Idaho Koi Keepers) held another one our workshop meetings. Subject matter at this meeting was our on-going study of three levels of Sanke and Showa imported in May of 2006. Dick had a lot of fun and enjoyed explaining and "Coaching" members and visitors at our workshop. Hey Dick, if you can take a minute explain this last workshop from your point of view. Dan

Your club and you guys are so lucky to have Dick B. to hang around with and to learn from....

--D

[Danjols]

Dinh,

From what I understand, Dick is making himself available to most all Koi Clubs and and other organizations interested in learning more about koi. He has a suit case full of information at his fingertips and yes NIKK is fortunate to have Dick as one of our founding members.

Dan

[Russell Peters]

Quote: Originally Posted by dinh Your club and you guys are so lucky to have Dick B. to hang around with and to learn from.... --D

Dinh, you need to spearhead an effort to capture Dick, alive, and bring him to the Bay Area.LOL

[dinh]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell Peters Dinh, you need to spearhead an effort to capture Dick, alive, and bring him to the Bay Area.LOL

Dick will be here for the next "Master" event...................
Hope that I can make all annoucements soon ;-))

[dick benbow]

Dan is a real asset for NIKK. His hard work and devotion to advancing the hobby makes him an unsung hero. besides caring for all these koi and putting the program of sharing knowledge together, Dan was up at the crack of dawn, Rounding up the koi, photoing them and then putting together a progression of spring and fall shots of growth and development to allow attendees to see from wence they came.

[dick benbow]

as you are in making it! This will be again, a wonderful opportunity to learn from someone who has established the bar on providing new heights for developing koi for both coloration and body growth.

[Danjols]

Quote: Originally Posted by dick benbow Dan is a real asset for NIKK. His hard work and devotion to advancing the hobby makes him an unsung hero. besides caring for all these koi and putting the program of sharing knowledge together, Dan was up at the crack of dawn, Rounding up the koi, photoing them and then putting together a progression of spring and fall shots of growth and development to allow attendees to see from wence they came.

Dick

Koi Kichi about says it all.

We all contribute at NIKK during and through the year so I would say I am just one of the sum of the parts. Thank you for mentioning the effort but as Gene Anderson of our NIKK club says, "All for the love of Koi".

The way we figure it, the learning curve with koi just keeps on keeping with new a different twists along the way. The generosity of Toshio Sakai allowing us to do this study along with your participation has made it somewhat of a success in advancing our aggregate knowledge base. As you have said many times, the rules have changed and what was once the rule is no longer with breeding, bloodlines and advancement of our hobby.

I'm hoping to put together another study koi group similar to what we have done with this group of koi from Japan but this time a domestic breeder. There are many unanswered questions that a group ofstudy koi would go a long way to answer.

So my hats off to all koi kichi types that pursue education and share their knowledge along the way.

Dan

[cindy]

Equal time for the east coast