The Great Ocean Aikido Community is a formalisation of collaborative efforts and collegiate learning between senior Aikido practitioners that began in the early 2000s.

Great Ocean Aikido is a non-traditional organisation dedicated to the study of Aikido. We provide no promotion or hierarchy (this is the responsibility of individual dojos). Members are esteemed based on the contribution they make to the body of knowledge and their ability to collaborate and share.

“One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train”
Morehei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido (from The Art of Peace, J. Stevens)

The founding members bring a diversity of experiences and approaches to create something greater than the parts.

Jim Nicholls (Alstonville Aikido)

Our leader in building open and inclusive communities that work for the benefit and empowerment of others, Jim holds dan grades from three styles of Aikido and has organised numerous seminars for the last 20 years and was the outgoing head instructor for Goshinkan in Byron Bay.

Andrew Sunter (Aikido in Sydney)

Andrew has extensive traditional practice through several schools in aikido and related arts, together with western gendai budo. He was a  live-in student in one school for several years and has lived in Japan. His dojo was opened in 1999 at the request of the late Iwao Tamura Sensei

Daniel James

Danny brings insights from modern science of physics and biomechanics to the understanding of traditional practice. He has operated several dojos in Brisbane and practiced extensively within the wider aikido community in Australia and abroad.

John Ward (at large)

John brings the experience of open hand arts and the sword arts (in which he holds dan grades) as a tool to understanding our Aiki arts. He brought Aikido Yuishinkai to Brisbane and now resides between Byron and Laos, under the occasional tutelage of a Daito Ryu practitioner.