BFT 2019 CPC Lowcountry Yellow Pages

258 TOWING–TRACTOR H Celebrating 25 Years H
MURDAUGH
Serving The Lowcountry
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HAMPTON
803-914-0002
843-645-8280
Towing-Automotive (Cont'd)
Jerry’s AAA Wrecker Service
223 Hwy 17-A Ymsse.................................843 589-4355
Kipp’s Towing & Recovery
Blftn............................................................843 757-4244
Little T’s Garage & Wrecker
I-95 & Hwy 17 Exit 22 Rdglnd...................843 726-5207
McClure’s Garage & Wrecker Service
77 McClure Ln Wltrbr.................................843 538-8143
Morris Garage & Towing Inc
1173 May River Rd Blftn............................843 757-3357
National Towing & Auto Repair Inc
58 Schinger Ave Un A Rdglnd....................843 987-0800
Palmetto Towing & Recovery
1321 N Okatie Hwy Rdglnd........................843 645-4565
Reeds Wrecker Service
400 Toomerville Loop Hrdvl.......................843 784-5110
S & S Super Lube
755 Sniders Hwy Wltrbr.............................843 538-5520
Scott’s Automotive & Towing
495 S Green St Ridgeland..........................843 726-6441
Star Garage
494 Industrial Pk Rd Hrdvl.........................843 784-7131
Tommie’s Auto & Diesel LLC
2674 Jefferies Hwy Wltrbr..........................843 538-2128
Tommy’s Towing Blftn.........................843 757-2958
Tow For The Low Paint And Autobody LLC
Beaufort......................................................843 321-6415
Walterboro Ford Mon-Fri 8am-6pm .....843 549-5581
Wood Brothers Wrecker Service
789 Wood Rd GrnPnd................................843 844-8274
Toys-Retail
Monkey’s Uncle 909 Bay St Bft.............843 524-6868
Tractor Dealers
OKATIE
Coastal Carolina Trailers
9809 Speedway Blvd Hrdvl.........................843 338-6775
Flint Equipment
4717 Jefferies Hwy Wltrbr..........................843 539-1420
Herrington Equipment
6327 Hwy 162 Hlywd.................................843 889-2248
Murdaugh Kubota
611 Elm St East Hampton.......................803 914-0002
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LOWCOUNTRY
PROFILE
Chuck Elias has run a karate studio for more
than 30 years, instructed more than 70 black
belts and made friends with America’s most
famous martial artist. At age 65 and with little
remaining to burnish his professional
credentials, Elias could call it a career.
Except …
“I love it. It’s that simple,” said Elias, who
could still pass for a man in his early 50s. “I don’t
want to stop. And why would I? I can’t imagine
doing anything else.”
Ironically, there was a time when the owner
of Club Karate on Lady’s Island couldn’t imagine
himself enjoying martial arts at all.
Elias is a Beaufort native and son of a
longtime Beaufort cop, who gave up law
enforcement to become a long-haul trucker.
Elias’ father often nagged him to join him in the
cab. Finally, one day after a nasty breakup with a
girlfriend, Elias said “yes.” He quit his job as a
carpenter and spent a year driving with his
father.
But Elias returned home when the truck
broke down during a 30-below winter storm in
Michigan. Once back in Beaufort, he discovered
his brother and his best friend had started
taking karate lessons from Larry Rogers, the
14th martial artist ever to earn a black belt in
the Chuck Norris System. With little else to do,
Elias went to watch their lessons.
“They bored me to tears,” Elias confessed.
“Nothing they were doing made me really want
to get out there and do it myself.”
Nonetheless, Rogers vigorously tried to
recruit a new student. Finally, Elias yielded,
much as he had after his father’s relentless
goading. It was 1973, a month shy of Elias’ 20th
birthday.
As it turns out, karate would stick with Elias a
lot longer than he stuck with trucking.
In fact, it wasn’t long before Elias had earned
a green belt and Rogers was paying him to
teach classes.
“I think it’s the teaching aspect that has
really kept me involved,” Elias said. “I love it
when I can instruct someone, and they say, ‘Oh!,
Now I see.’ ”
Elias says many of his students are young
Chuck Elias
Chuck Elias
by Jeff Kidd
people who have not excelled at team sports.
They often lack self-confidence and physical
endurance.
“Molding students is just endlessly satisfying
to me,” Elias said. “I get such joy from seeing kids
grow mentally and physically.”
Pausing only for the births of his daughters
— Mandy, Aaryne and Hayley — Elias has been
involved in karate since first taking the mat in
1973. However, in the late 1970s, he was still far
from his pinnacle as a student and even farther
from teaching martial arts as a full-time
vocation.
In 1983, Elias earned his black belt, testing in
front of Norris himself. He was excelling as a
competitor, but when Rogers’ studio burned
down in the mid-1980s, Elias and his friends
were left without a place to train.
They located a crumbling building near the
end of Paris Avenue in downtown Port Royal.
Elias remodeled and opened Club Karate in
1988, scheduling classes around his work as a
carpenter.
In 1998, he decided to focus full-time on
karate instruction, and in 2007, he moved the
business to its current location on Lady’s Island.
Elias teaches 20 classes in a typical week and
currently has more than 110 students enrolled.
Now an eighth-degree black belt, he frequently
travels with his students to out-of-town
competitions and serves as a tournament
judge.
He typically closes his studio in July — not to
take a break from an unrelenting schedule, but
to serve as tournament director at the UFAF
International Training Conference and World
Championships in Las Vegas. That event is
Chuck Norris’ version of the Super Bowl, and
Elias now counts Norris as a friend.
Elias still competes occasionally. In fact, in
2017 he became the oldest grand champion in
the history of the ITC and World Championships.
Nonetheless, teaching continues to provide
Elias his greatest enjoyment and source of
pride.
A painted board mounted near the entrance
of his studio honors each of the 77 black belts
he has instructed with a gold plate. There are 12
rows of names above a 13th row of UFAF
commemorative patches. The names include
David Spears and his father, Charlie Spears, who
at age 72 became the oldest pupil to earn a
black belt in the Norris System. Also appearing
are Tony Benton, who operated two studios in
Japan for several years; and Lindy Woods, who
still runs schools in Hampton and Ridgeland.
If he conforms to the pattern on his board of
black belts, there is room for just one more gold
plate, but Elias said he won’t stop at 78.
“I’ll just rip off the patches at the bottom and
keep on going.”